thu 07/12/2023

Reviews

Paul Lewis, Wigmore Hall review - Schubert sonatas revisited

Ed Vulliamy

A decade has passed since Paul Lewis concluded an endeavour of a kind never previously undertaken: to perform, over two and a half years and across four continents, every work Schubert wrote for piano between 1822, the year he was diagnosed with syphilis – ergo, knew he was dying – and his death in 1828.

The Homecoming, Young Vic Theatre review - Pinter's disturbing masterpiece is given a low-key revival

Heather Neill

As the audience enters, thick mist envelopes the thrust stage and jazz music fills the theatre. The set, designed by Moi Tran, consists of a sparsely furnished but spacious room, backed by a staircase. It is a place in the past but also anywhere and any time, both naturalistic and imaginary.

Kin, BBC One review - in Dublin's not-so-...

Adam Sweeting

Folklore tends to depict Dublin as a convivial and picturesque city, with a bar on every corner full of revellers on wild stag weekends, but that’s...

Voces8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra, Smith,...

Bernard Hughes

There’s a game called Whamageddon, where people see how deep into December they can go without hearing “Last Christmas”. I’m like that, but with the...

Dreaming and Drowning, Bush Theatre - dense and...

Helen Hawkins

Kwame Owusu’s 55-minute one-hander does just what it says on the tin: it features a young student who dreams he is drowning. But its brevity is no...

Infinite Life, National Theatre review - beguiling new comedy about a world of pain

Helen Hawkins

Annie Baker delivers a richly satisfying piece about hungry women

Rodelinda, The English Concert, Bicket, Saffron Hall review - perfect team helps us stay the long Handel course

David Nice

Saffron Hall celebrates its 10th anniversary in the greatest possible style

£1 Thursdays, Finborough Theatre review - dazzling new play is as funny and smart as its two heroines

Gary Naylor

Seldom does one see a writer's vision so perfectly realised on stage

Music Reissues Weekly: Myriam Gendron - Not So Deep As A Well

Kieron Tyler

The surprise reappearance of the Canadian stylist’s interpretations of Dorothy Parker’s poems

Eileen review - a dank fairytale film noir

Graham Fuller

A naive prison worker crushes on a chic colleague in William Oldroyd's disturbing thriller

A Sherlock Carol, Marylebone Theatre review - merry, but mirthless

Aleks Sierz

Seasonal Eng Lit mash-up returns with its festive message of forgiveness

Fallen Leaves review - deliciously dry Finnish romcom

Saskia Baron

Aki Kaurismaki returns to the cinema with a touching tale of love

Album: Shirley Hurt - Shirley Hurt

Kieron Tyler

Canadian singer-songwriter’s enigmatic debut

Macbeth, The Depot, Liverpool review - Ralph Fiennes leads a conventional production in an unconventional space

Gary Naylor

Touring show lands first in Liverpool with a terrifying relevance

Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Lyric Theatre review - adult panto delivered as jolly chaos

Helen Hawkins

Mischief Theatre’s sight gags are faultlessly timed, though the verbals need a trim

Queendom review - an LGBTQ+ performance artist takes to the streets of Moscow in protest

Sarah Kent

Startlingly beautiful costumes designed to challenge the authorities

The House of Bernarda Alba, Lyttleton Theatre review - dazzling darkness

Demetrios Matheou

Harriet Walter is a toweringly monstrous matriarch in Lorca’s tale of cruelty and repression

Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime, Charles Court Opera, Jermyn Street Theatre review - topsy-turvy Homer

David Nice

Five heroic women and two instrumentalists go Hellenic, with panache

Grosvenor, Park, Ridout, Soltani, Wigmore Hall review - chamber music supergroup in perfect accord

Bernard Hughes

Thoughtful programming puts quirky novelty alongside big beasts

A Christmas Carol, The Old Vic review - older, wiser, and yet more moving

Matt Wolf

Christopher Eccleston is a Scrooge for the ages

Boat Story, BBC One review - once upon a time in Yorkshire

Adam Sweeting

New Williams brothers thriller is violent, far-fetched and extremely watchable

Dariescu, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - sounds of unquenchable optimism

Robert Beale

Conductor is his own violin soloist in one of two UK premieres

Mark Rothko, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris review - a show well worth the trip across the Channel

Mark Kidel

Abstraction with emotion and soul in a landmark retrospective

The Witches, National Theatre review - fun and lively but where's the heart?

Matt Wolf

Roald Dahl adaptation is busy to a fault but lacks emotion

The Dante Project, Royal Ballet review - brave but flawed take on the Divine Comedy returns

David Nice

Hell and Purgatory get vivid if diffuse music from Thomas Adès, but Heaven is pallid

CMAT, Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow review - an evening of exuberance

Jonathan Geddes

The Dublin singer's tales of a toxic relationship were transformed into a party

MacMillan's Christmas Oratorio, Lois, Williams, RSNO, MacMillan, Usher Hall, Edinburgh – a great composer at the top of his game

Christopher Lambton

Scottish premiere of a recent masterwork

Oh What A Lovely War, Southwark Playhouse review - 60 years on, the old warhorse can still bare its teeth

Gary Naylor

Blackeyed Theatre's touring production has its pros and cons, but is never less than entertaining

Louise Alder & Friends, Wigmore Hall review - magic carpet rides with soprano, strings and woodwind

David Nice

Levitational joy in an all-French programme, with modified rapture over two arrangements

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters

latest in today

Album: Gregory Porter - Christmas Wish

The cat in the hat with the mellifluous voice delivers his Christmas Wish for the festive season, his first Christmas album, and it...

Paul Lewis, Wigmore Hall review - Schubert sonatas revisited...

A decade has passed since Paul Lewis concluded an endeavour of a kind never previously undertaken: to perform, over two and a half years and...

The Homecoming, Young Vic Theatre review - Pinter's dis...

As the audience enters, thick mist envelopes the thrust stage and jazz music fills the...

Blu-ray: Blackhat

The Boxing Day release of Michael Mann’s first feature in eight years, Ferrari, finally follows up Blackhat, a Chris Hemsworth-...

Kin, BBC One review - in Dublin's not-so-fair city

Folklore tends to depict Dublin as a convivial and picturesque city, with a bar on every corner full of revellers on wild stag weekends, but that’...

Voces8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra, Smith, Voces8 Centre...

There’s a game called Whamageddon, where people see how deep into December they can go without hearing “Last Christmas”. I’m like that, but with...

Infinite Life, National Theatre review - beguiling new comed...

A sun deck with seven pale-green padded loungers is the latest setting for the latest...

Rodelinda, The English Concert, Bicket, Saffron Hall review...

If ever a marriage was made in heaven, it would have to be the one between Lucy Crowe’s beleaguered Queen Rodelinda and Iestyn Davies’ King...

£1 Thursdays, Finborough Theatre review - dazzling new play...

It’s 2012 and the London Olympics might as well be happening on the Moon for Jen and Stacey. In fact, you could say the same for...