Interviews with leading figures from the arts
Q&A special: The making of Local Hero
Thursday, 21 March 2019
Local Hero, released in 1983, has been adapted into a musical, with a book by playwright David Greig and more songs from the soundtrack's original composer Mark Knopfler. After its premiere at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, it will arrive at the Old Vic in 2020. No British film from the Eighties can lay claim to quite such lasting and deep-seated affection as Bill Forsyth’s modest masterpiece – not even Chariots of Fire, which was David Puttnam’s previous triumph as a producer. Though not a...
An encounter with John Richardson, Picasso's biographer who has died at 95
Thursday, 14 March 2019
When I interviewed John Richardson, who has died at the age of 95, he was edging through his definitive four-tome life of the minuscule giant of Cubism. Of the various breaks he took from the business of research and writing, one yielded The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a gossipy, elegant account of his own friendship with Picasso in the 1950s, when he lived in Provençal splendour with Douglas Cooper, then the owner of the finest collection of Cubist art in the world.
10 Questions for Candice Edmunds of Theatre...
Thursday, 14 March 2019
“When we graduated we were seeing lot of theatre as a literary form,” explains Candice Edmunds of the theatre company Vox Motus, “But we were really...
Director Toby Macdonald: 'Comedy is...
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
A British boys boarding school in the 1980s. Not the most obvious setting for a romantic comedy, especially one based on the most famous romcom of...
Q&A Special: Actor Bruno Ganz on playing...
Saturday, 16 February 2019
There is nothing quite like the Iffland-Ring in this country. The property of the Austrian state, for two centuries it has been awarded to the most...
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician, writer and performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti
The “Wrecker of Civilisation” on artistic independence, magick and motherhood |
theartsdesk Q&A: Robert MacFarlane's Spell Songs
The nature writer discusses a stage version of The Lost Words, featuring musicians including Julie Fowlis and Seckou Keita |
theartsdesk Q&A: Matthew Heineman on directing 'A Private War'
Getting inside the mind of Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin |
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Michel Legrand
He worked with everyone: the veteran composer tells his life story |
Screenwriter Adam Price on 'Ride Upon the Storm' - 'If we discuss faith, we will possibly not kill each other'
Lars Mikkelsen stars in new Channel 4 drama Ride Upon the Storm about a flawed priest battling his many demons |
'I'll show the lot of you!' Richard E Grant's Oscar nomination
The Withnail star celebrates his Academy Award nod for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' |
Director Alexandria Bombach: 'I feel like a completely different person'
Director of On Her Shoulders on filming Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad |
theartsdesk Q&A: Hedvig Mollestad, Norway's bridge between heavy metal and jazz
The genre-busting guitarist talks about new album 'Smells Funny', a rotting eyeball and more |
theartsdesk Q&A: concert pianist Lucy Parham
Sixth Composer Portrait marks the Clara Schumann bicentenary |
Tim Wardle: 'A documentary director has huge power over the interview subject'
Director of Three Identical Strangers on the most successful UK-made documentary in American box office history |
Laurent Cantet: 'Young people have different preoccupations nowadays' – interview
The award-winning director discusses his new film, The Workshop, in which some newbie writers get in a tizz over the fine line between fact and fiction |
Robert Hastie: 'a seam of love runs through the play' - interview
The director talks about Macbeth in the candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, cross-gender casting and the director's role |
theartsdesk Q&A: Theatre Producer Elyse Dodgson
Remembering the unsung heroine of new theatre in translation, who has died aged 73 |
Erik Poppe and Andrea Berntzen: 'When white young men do stuff like this, we just shake our heads'
Director and lead actor of Utoya: July 22 on working with survivors to recreate the Norwegian terror attack |
Matthew Holness: 'I wanted to make a modern silent horror film'
Footlights alumnus leaves comedy behind in disturbing debut feature Possum |
theartsdesk Q&A: guitarist Sean Shibe
A wise head on young shoulders questions the nature of expression and programming |
theartsdesk Q&A: Soft Cell
Prior to their O2 show the Eighties synth-pop icons talk new music, old music, 'Top of the Pops', 'Sex Dwarf', drugs, and Dennis Waterman |
theartsdesk Q&A: Chas and Dave
A memorial interview with the lovable rockney duo following the death of Chas Hodges |
Agnès Varda: 'You think I'm finished?!' - interview
Oscar-nominated at 89, the French filmmaking legend talks about her new film |
'It’s more fun to dance in a tutu': Tory Dobrin of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
The artistic director of the Trocks explains how he keeps his ballet parodists on their toes |
Ryuichi Sakamoto: 'Ideally I'm recording all the time, 24 hours a day' - interview
From Xenakis to Oneohtrix Point Never via Bowie and Bootsy, Sakamoto recalls an extraordinary life in music |
Ian Rickson: 'I'm an introvert, I want to stop talking about myself' - interview
The director staging Brian Friel's Translations at the National talks about Ireland, England and the changing face of theatre |
Michel Hazanavicius: 'Losing himself is how he found himself'
The Oscar-winning director's new film, 'Redoubtable', charts the turning point in the life and career of the legendary Jean-Luc Godard |
10 Questions for Artist David Shrigley
The provocative artist talks festivals, moshpits, Google and much more |
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