Reviews
Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals, Modern Art Oxford and Pitt Rivers Museum review - transcendence lite
Monday, 26 September 2022
I have powerful memories of performances by Marina Abramović. Back in 1977 at Documenta in Kassel, Germany, she and her then partner Ulay stood either side of a doorway, facing one another. There was only enough room to squeeze through sideways and, since both were naked, choosing whom to face was an interesting challenge.
The Big Moon, Oran Mor, Glasgow review - partying prevails despite band's bad luck
Monday, 26 September 2022
Presumably before setting out on their current tour the Big Moon smashed a few mirrors, walked under some ladders and crossed the paths of numerous black cats. Not only is this jaunt over two years in the making, endlessly postponed for the usual coronavirus reasons, but the foursome also lost most of their equipment in Spain just prior to hitting the road.
Gurrelieder, LPO, Gardner, RFH review -...
Sunday, 25 September 2022
Schoenberg’s “Song of the Wood Dove” takes up a mere 11 of the 100 minutes of his epic Gurrelieder, though it’s a crucial narrative of how King...
Music Reissues Weekly: Bill Nelson's Red...
Sunday, 25 September 2022
The British music weeklies were clear about where the Sound-On-Sound LP and its singles fitted into the current musical topography when they were...
Am I Being Unreasonable?, BBC One review - comedy...
Saturday, 24 September 2022
In case you're not au fait with Mumsnet, the title of Daisy May Cooper's follow-up creation to the stupendous This Country is a nod to the parenting...
The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Theatre Royal Stratford East review - wild trip gets a welcome revival
A woman confronts her neuroses in a phantasmagorical world full of fun and fear |
Juniper review - a classic role for Charlotte Rampling
A grandmother in New Zealand faces up to death, a grandson to life |
Don’t Worry Darling review - dystopian thriller dries up in the desert
The fabulous Florence Pugh can't rescue Olivia Wilde's disappointing sophomore effort |
Silent Land review - an inconvenient death mars their holiday
Tense drama about Polish vacationers who forgot to pack moral responsibility |
Clutch, Bush Theatre review - new comedy-drama passes its test
After a strong start, newly commissioned play takes a wrong exit from the roundabout |
Crossfire, BBC One review - pacy and nail-biting, the holiday from hell
Keeley Hawes gets caught up in a tense but heartless thriller |
Leonskaja, Staatskapelle Streichquartett, Wigmore Hall review - Brahms the chameleon
Every quick-change nuance in the first two Piano Quartets transcendentally realised |
Winslow Homer: Force of Nature, National Gallery review - dump the symbolism and enjoy the drama
Hot topics like slavery and colonialism given the ambiguous treatment |
Bloody Oranges review - a gruesome and gruelling French social satire
Jean-Christophe Meurisse's grisly comedy overplays its hand |
Dunedin Consort, Butt, Lammermuir Festival review - majestic Mozart at St Mary’s Haddington
Star sopranos steal the show in a C Minor Mass of magisterial power |
Bright Half Life, Kings Head Theatre review - ups and downs of a tender lesbian love affair
Tanya Barfield reconstructs a simple plot as an absorbing puzzle |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Best of Roxy Music
What was on CD two decades ago reappears on vinyl |
Funny Pages review - comic-book confidential
Safdies associate's queasily comic study of a teenage cartoonist |
The Makropulos Affair, Welsh National Opera review - complexity realised brilliantly on the stage
Janáček’s collisions spark an evening of powerful conflict |
Handbagged, Kiln Theatre review - triumphant revival of Moira Buffini's comedy
Mrs Thatcher and Elizabeth II slug it out again in this 2013 classic |
The P Word, Bush Theatre review - persecution and pride
Two-hander about a contrasting pair of gay Pakistanis is beautifully wrought |
The Snail House, Hampstead Theatre - perplexing new drama that lacks bite
The central character is put in the dock but has ample evidence to get out |
Rob Rouse, Rewind the Fringe review - unstructured but gleeful fun
From fart gags to gendered language |
The Two Popes, Rose Theatre review - sparkling with wit and pathos
Funny, poignant and stimulating, a delightfully welcome piece of intellectual escapism |
Carolee Schneeman: Body Politics, Barbican review - challenging, in-your-face and messy
By putting herself in the picture, especially nude, Schneeman upset almost everyone |
Antigone, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - Sophocles rewritten with purpose and panache
Inua Ellams adds contemporary political thrust to a well-loved classic |
Crimes of the Future review - Cronenberg looks back
A return to body horror basics gives grisly déjà-vu, but few shocks |
The Clinic, Almeida Theatre review - race and the status quo
Dipo Baruwa-Etti pits a fiery outsider activist against the British-Nigerian middle-class |
The Capture, Series 2 finale, BBC One review - gripping ride to a barnstorming conclusion
But could the AI drama have been more chilling if less intent on being thrilling? |
latest in today
Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals, Modern Art Oxford and P...
I have powerful memories of performances by Marina Abramović. Back in 1977 at Documenta in Kassel,...
The Big Moon, Oran Mor, Glasgow review - partying prevails d...
Presumably before setting out on their current tour the Big Moon smashed a few mirrors, walked under some ladders and crossed the paths of...
Gurrelieder, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - everything in place,...
Schoenberg’s “Song of the Wood Dove” takes up a mere 11 of the 100 minutes of his epic Gurrelieder, though it’s a crucial narrative of...
Music Reissues Weekly: Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Art /...
The British music weeklies were clear about where the Sound-On-Sound LP and its singles fitted into the current musical topography when...
theartsdesk at Musikfest Berlin - orchestral and choral rain...
In its three weeks of world-class events, Muskfest Berlin has...
Am I Being Unreasonable?, BBC One review - comedy thriller d...
In case you're not au fait with Mumsnet, the title of Daisy May Cooper's follow-up...
The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Theatre Royal Stratford Eas...
Lisa has lost an hour in a (somewhat contrived) temporal glitch. As a consequence, her world is always sliding off-kilter, not quite...
Juniper review - a classic role for Charlotte Rampling
Juniper provides, above all, an absolutely unforgettable role for Charlotte Rampling....
Album: Gabriels - Angels & Queens, Part I
Lauded by Elton John (who called their 2020 debut EP Love and Hate in a Different Time “probably one of the most seminal records I've...