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Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Gary Naylor
Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Fragile egos abound. An older person (usually a man) has to bring the best out of the stars, but mustn’t neglect the team ethic. Picking the right players is critical. There’s...
Leila Greening
Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Mountainish by Zsuzsanna Gahse is a collection of 515 notes, each contributing to an expansive kaleidoscope of mountain encounters. Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 29 April 2025
All We Imagine as Light focuses on the lives of three women in contemporary Mumbai; as shown by director Payal Kapadia, the city is arguably the film’s fourth major character....
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 28 April 2025
I came to Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s Wigmore Hall recital on Saturday armed with a certain degree of scepticism. Not about the siblings’ stupendous talent and technique –...
Robert Beale
Monday, 28 April 2025
Opera North have recently pioneered a way of presenting some big works which they call “dramatic concert stagings”, performing in concert halls as well as theatres, with the...
David Nice
Monday, 28 April 2025
Transcendence is everywhere in Mahler’s most ambitious symphony, from the flaming opening hymn to the upper reaches in the...
Mark Kidel
Monday, 28 April 2025
Following a tradition that reaches back to the The Who’s Tommy, bands and musicians with serious artistic ambition have...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 27 April 2025
The blurb on the front of the double-CD set The Hamburg Repertoire says it collects “The original recordings of songs...
David Nice
Saturday, 26 April 2025
“Let the music guide your imagination” was never going to be the slogan of the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes festival. Its...
David Nice
Saturday, 26 April 2025
Back in 2009, there were Ben and Wystan on stage (Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art). Last year came Ben and Master David...
Rachel Halliburton
Saturday, 26 April 2025
In 2012, an eight-hour long version of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby arrived in London at the Noel Coward...
Hugh Barnes
Saturday, 26 April 2025
The English title of a new film about the legendary singer-guitarist Stelios Kazantzidis, who popularised rebetiko, which is...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 26 April 2025
There’s this mod milieu, harking back to the Eighties. Weller at the forefront; Dr Robert and his Blow Monkeys; all...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 25 April 2025
It’s been nine years since Ben Affleck’s original portrayal of Christian Wolff in The Accountant, who’s not only an...
Helen Hawkins
Friday, 25 April 2025
The Finborough has once again performed the miracle of creating a whole world in its intimate space: this time, inter-war...
James Saynor
Friday, 25 April 2025
Although both of the Brothers Grimm died around 1860, they still insist on getting dozens of film and TV credits in each...
Kathryn Reilly
Friday, 25 April 2025
Given that Prioritise Pleasure was Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s (RLT) Back to Black, and that there’s been a lengthy...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 24 April 2025
Documentaries about sports stars are now a dime a dozen, but you can only be as good as your subject matter. We know Andrew...
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
Flintoff, Disney+ review - tumultuous life and times of the great all-rounder
John Dower's documentary is gritty, gruelling and uplifting
Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review - in every dream home a heartache
Jon Hamm finds his best role since 'Mad Men'
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty
film
DVD/Blu-ray: All We Imagine is Light
Epic but intimate Cannes prize-winner, ripe for repeated viewings
Stelios review - Athenian rhapsody in blues
Big fat Greek biopic hits the high notes but lacks punk spirit
The Accountant 2 review - belated return of Ben Affleck's lethal bean-counter
Horror, humour and mind games combine in Gavin O'Connor's sequel
new music
Music Reissues Weekly: The Hamburg Repertoire
Perplexing compendium of songs The Beatles covered while playing the German port city
Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The Instant Garden
A couple of old mods waft into delightfully Seventies hippy territory
classical
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Wigmore Hall review - family fun, fire and finesse
Intimacy and empathy in a varied mixture from the star siblings
Mahler 8, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - lights on high
Perfect pacing allows climaxes to make their mark – and the visuals aren’t bad, either
Philharmonia, Alsop, RFH / Levit, Abramović, QEH review - misalliance and magical marathon
Kentridge’s film for Shostakovich 10 goes its own way, but a master compels in his 13th hour of Satie
opera
Simon Boccanegra, Opera North review - ‘dramatic staging’ proves its worth
Verdi’s political tragedy - and plea for peace - has impact in a grand Yorkshire setting
theatre
Much Ado About Nothing, RSC, Stratford - Messina FC scores on the bardic football field
Garish and gossipy, this new production packs a punch between the laughs
Ben and Imo, Orange Tree Theatre review - vibrant, strongly acted fiction about Britten and Imogen Holst
Let’s make a coronation opera, with bags of dramatic licence
The Great Gatsby, London Coliseum review - lavish and lively production fails to capture the novel's tortured soul
The production gets stronger in the second half as the shadows of tragedy begin to loom
dance
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show, and the many ways we deal with sadness
A book about navigating grief feeds into unusual and compelling dance theatre
comedy
Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes
Taskmaster's first tour in seven years is a joy
Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare
Observations on what it is to be a bloke today
Books
Zsuzsanna Gahse: Mountainish review - seeking refuge
Notes on danger and dialogue in the shadow of the Swiss Alps
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
visual arts
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Visitor Centre review - young photographers explore ancient resonances
The ancient monument opens its first exhibition of new photography
latest comments
Seen it last night in NYC, was a bit of a let...
I think the series portrays a parallel vision...
Corrected, with thanks.
Yep. It's an incredible album.
Hi Robert,If I may make a correction to your...
the review doesn't match the score. you only have...
This rock solid testimony from his other son...
Tripla means Treble in hungarian, Three is Három...