theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
I live in Brixton, south London. A few days ago, the borough’s aptly named Windrush Square hosted events which celebrated the contribution of the Windrush Generation and their...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
It takes some confidence for a first-time feature director to interrupt her essentially realistic first feature with a splash of psychedelic abstraction, but Jacqueline Lentzou...
Hugh Barnes
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
Stanislav Aseyev is a Ukrainian writer who came in from the cold. Until the spring of 2014, he was an aspiring poet and novelist based in the eastern Donbas region: when, however...
Sarah Kent
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Director Alice Diop read an article by Pierre Bergounioux in which he described how he began writing to draw attention to his overlooked neck of the woods – Correze, in central...
David Nice
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Could this be the summer Bayreuth finally sees a new Ring production that comes anywhere near its last great epic success, Harry Kupfer’s, which ran from 1988-92? If so, it’s been...
David Nice
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
He’s the most haunting, at times terrifying Wozzeck I’ve seen, in Richard Jones's Welsh National Opera baked-bean-factory production, and the funniest Falstaff. When we met in his...
Guy Oddy
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
The last time that Paolo Nutini was on the public stage, he was knocking out fine blue-eyed soul and having substantial hits...
Tim Cumming
Monday, 27 June 2022
A few spots of rain greeted the arrival of the Rolling Stones on BST Hyde Park’s stage on Saturday night, and after “Street...
Tom Birchenough
Monday, 27 June 2022
For sheer extremes of family dysfunction Theresa Rebeck’s Mad House must be aiming to set new records in American drama. The...
Saskia Baron
Monday, 27 June 2022
There’s a sharp observation, delivered in Alan Bennett’s soft tones, that sums up the reputation of the painter Eric...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 27 June 2022
American singer-songwriter Damien Jurado is both prolific and enigmatic. His latest album follows too many to count (OK, not...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 26 June 2022
In 1965, Bob Crewe was living alongside Central Park in New York’s Dakota building. At various times, the block’s other...
David Nice
Saturday, 25 June 2022
Semi-standing ovation at a lunchtime concert in a London church? Predictable, perhaps, from the first recital I heard George...
Izzy Smith
Saturday, 25 June 2022
Mieko Kawakami is the champion of the loner. Since achieving immense success in the UK with her translated works, she has...
Peter Quinn
Saturday, 25 June 2022
An artist with a myriad of strings to his bow – gifted wordsmith, multi-instrumentalist, captivating storyteller – what...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 24 June 2022
Strictly Ballroom aside, I’ve never been entirely persuaded by Baz Luhrmann. Once you rip open the plush packaging of his...
David Nice
Friday, 24 June 2022
Best new opera in years, they said – don’t ask who – after the Aldeburgh Festival premiere of Tom Coult’s Violet. I’d have...
Valeriy Sokolov
Friday, 24 June 2022
A fortnight ago I performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Aurora Orchestra, joining them and their Principal...
Sebastian Scotney
Friday, 24 June 2022
High culture...low life. Emmanuel Courcol’s film The Big Hit (Un Triomphe in France) is a 105-minute experiment in what...
tv
Suspect, Channel 4 review - a stylised remake of a Danish psychological drama
James Nesbitt returns as another troubled policeman with a dark back-story (and matching eyebrows)
Sherwood, BBC One review - a traumatic journey through a painful past
James Graham's drama exposes wounds that never healed from the 1980s miners' strike
Borgen: Power and Glory, Netflix review - Birgitte Nyborg is back, more fascinating than ever
The Danish series about a top woman politician is still smarter than 'The West Wing'
film
Moon, 66 Questions review - captivating daughter-father drama
An outstanding debut by the Greek New Wave director Jacqueline Lentzou
We (Nous) review - a low-key look at life in the suburbs of Paris
Nothing much happens in Alice Diop's documentary portrait of the periphery
Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War review - a lovingly crafted documentary portrait
In love and war: one of England's great watercolourists reappraised
new music
The Rolling Stones, BST Hyde Park review - let it rock!
Who can match The Rolling Stones firing on all cylinders? No one, that’s who
Album: Damien Jurado - Reggae Film Star
US artist's latest is singular to the point of opaque, but also often intriguing
classical
George Fu, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - high intellect and visceral shocks
Chopin the modernist, Rzewski the electric in totally satisfying recital
First person: Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov on performing while his homeland is destroyed
His home city of Kharkiv in ruins, a great musician plays on
Hughes, Manchester Collective, Hallé St Peter’s, Manchester review - new work and stunning singing
Edmund Finnis song cycle gets its launch with passion, anguish and consolation
opera
theartsdesk in Zurich - forging a brilliant new Ring
Gianandrea Noseda, Andreas Homoki and top cast dazzle in an unforgettable 'Rheingold'
theartsdesk Q&A: bass-baritone Christopher Purves on communicating everything from Handel to George Benjamin
The great singing actor on his best experiences - including Zurich Opera's new Ring
Violet, Music Theatre Wales/Britten-Pears Arts review - well sung and played, but to what end?
Anna Dennis shines, but composer Tom Coult and librettist Alice Birch play at anti-opera
theatre
The Fellowship, Hampstead Theatre review - strong clashes, too little drama
Roy Williams’s latest is a tribute to the children of the Windrush generation
Mad House, Ambassadors Theatre review - David Harbour is magnificent in Theresa Rebeck's family drama
Bravado support from a cantankerous Bill Pullman practically steals the show
A Doll's House, Part 2, Donmar Warehouse review - Noma Dumezweni nails it
Broadway entry from 2017 is the rare sequel that richly delivers
dance
The Rite of Spring, Pina Bausch/École des Sables, Sadler's Wells review - explosive and disturbing
At last, the pan-African production of Bausch's landmark choreography arrives on the London stage
The Car Man, Royal Albert Hall review - grand scale drama and decadence
An explosive restaging of the original dance drama
Like Water for Chocolate, Royal Ballet review - confusing and ill-conceived
Christopher Wheeldon's usual flair deserts him in his latest three-act story ballet
comedy
Ricky Gervais, SuperNature, Netflix review - a provocateur at work
An equal opportunities offender delivers a masterclass in meta comedy
Andy Zaltzman, Soho Theatre review - satire on the hoof
Setting the world to rights, one joke at a time
Books
Stanislav Aseyev: In Isolation - Dispatches from Occupied Donbas review - journeys through space and time in Ukraine
How the separatist republic became lost in its nostalgia for a largely imaginary past
Mieko Kawakami: All the Lovers in the Night review - the raw relatability of loneliness
A sumptuous, subtle novel on darkness and hope
Philip Ball: The Book of Minds review - thinking about the box
Mapping the mindspace of all beings great and small
visual arts
Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War review - a lovingly crafted documentary portrait
In love and war: one of England's great watercolourists reappraised
Vivian Maier: Anthology, MK Gallery review - what an amazing eye!
The brilliance of an amateur photographer who was almost lost to the world
Venice Biennale 2022 review - The Milk of Dreams Part 2: The Arsenale
This wildly ambitious mega-exhibition unravels in spectacular style
latest comments
Thanks for calling out the implausibility. By the...
Writing for the show was inconsistent throughout...
I think William Hurt was a fabulously talented...
I attended the performance on 17 June and found...
stunning performance from Sidse and script from...
The “Palestinians” as you know them are a 1960’s...
THE MILK OF NIGHTMARES... or so it seems Having...
Aaron you are right to ask the question about Pat...