fri 22/08/2025

Reviews

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support

Tom Birchenough

We are bowled over! 

Houghton / We Out Here festivals review - an ultra-marathon of community vibes

Joe Muggs

The long, hot summer of 2025 has been something else, right? Hate rallies, creeping authoritarianism, a weird reluctance to discuss the extremity of the weather even as everyone scrambles to buy air conditioners...

Faustus in Africa!, Edinburgh International...

David Kettle

What new light can the age-old legend of Faust selling his soul to the devil shed on colonialism in Africa, slavery, the rape and destruction of the...

Sorry, Baby review - the healing power of...

Markie Robson-Scott

“I have a baby in me,” says Lydie (Naomi Ackie; Mickey 17). “What? Right now?” says her friend Agnes (Eva Victor), who may not be entirely thrilled...

BBC Proms: Liu, Philharmonia, Rouvali review -...

David Nice

Pianist Bruce Liu wasn’t the only star soloist last night, though he certainly had the most notes to play. Attention was riveted by at least five...

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Imprints / Courier

David Kettle

A slippery show about memory and a rug-pulling Deliveroo comedy in the latest from the Edinburgh Fringe

BBC Proms: Suor Angelica, LSO, Pappano review - earthly passion, heavenly grief

Boyd Tonkin

A Sister to remember blesses Puccini's convent tragedy

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Ode Islands / Delusions and Grandeur / Shame Show

David Kettle

Experimental digital performance art, classical insights and gay shame in three strong Fringe shows

Album: Eve Adams - American Dust

Kieron Tyler

Taking inspiration from the Californian desert

BBC Proms: A Mass of Life, BBCSO, Elder review - a subtle guide to Delius's Nietzschean masterpiece

Rachel Halliburton

Mark Elder held back from blasting the audience with a wall of sound

BBC Proms: Le Concert Spirituel, Niquet review - super-sized polyphonic rarities

Alexandra Coghlan

Monumental works don't quite make for monumental sounds in the Royal Albert Hall

In Flight, Channel 4 review - drugs, thugs and Bulgarian gangsters

Adam Sweeting

Katherine Kelly's flight attendant is battling a sea of troubles

Gibby Haynes, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham review - ex-Butthole Surfer goes School of Rock

Guy Oddy

Butthole Surfers’ frontman is still flying his freak flag but in a slightly more restrained manner

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Cat Cohen / Lachlan Werner / KC Shornima

Veronica Lee

Defying a health scare; a surreal invention & a distinctive new voice

Oslo Stories Trilogy: Love review - freed love

Nick Hasted

Gay cruising offers straight female lessons in a heady ode to urban connection

Music Reissues Weekly: The Residents - American Composer's Series

Kieron Tyler

James Brown, George Gershwin, John Philip Sousa and Hank Williams as seen through an eyeball-headed lens

Frang, Romaniw, Liverman, LSO, Pappano, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - sunlight, salt spray, Sea Symphony

Simon Thompson

Full force of the midday sea in the Usher Hall, thanks to the best captain at the helm

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Ordinary Decent Criminal / Insiders

David Kettle

Two dramas on prison life offer contrasting perspectives but a similar sense of compassion

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Emmanuel Sonubi / Joz Norris

Veronica Lee

A second chance at life & a fantastical tale about artistic endeavour

Alien: Earth, Disney+ review - was this interstellar journey really necessary?

Adam Sweeting

Noah Hawley's lavish sci-fi series brings Ridley Scott's monster back home

Unmoored review - atmospheric Swedish noir set on Exmoor

Markie Robson-Scott

Something nasty in the bunker: Caroline Ingvarsson's debut feature leaves us guessing

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Kinder / Shunga Alert / Clean Your Plate!

David Kettle

From drag to Japanese erotica via a French cookery show, three of the Fringe's more unusual offerings

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, RSC, Stratford review - not quite the intended gateway drug to Shakespeare

Gary Naylor

Shakespeare trying out lots of ideas that were to bear fruit in the future

Orpheus and Eurydice, Opera Queensland/SCO, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - dazzling, but distracting

Simon Thompson

Eye-popping acrobatics don’t always assist in Gluck’s quest for operatic truth

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Eric Rushton / Bella Hull

Veronica Lee

Depression laid bare & a relationship decoded

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Horse of Jenin / Nowhere

David Kettle

Two powerful shows consider the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with mixed results

Beating Hearts review - kiss kiss, slam slam

James Saynor

Romance and clobberings in a so-so French melodrama

BBC Proms: Anoushka Shankar 'Chapters' review - somehow, it worked

Sebastian Scotney

Shankar's starry presence brings focus to this orchestral version

Elschenbroich, Grynyuk / Fibonacci Quartet, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - mahogany Brahms and explosive Janáček

Simon Thompson

String partnerships demonstrate brilliant listening as well as first rate playing

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latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Houghton / We Out Here festivals review - an ultra-marathon...

The long, hot summer of 2025 has been something else, right? Hate rallies, creeping authoritarianism, a weird reluctance to discuss the extremity...

Faustus in Africa!, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 re...

What new light can the age-old legend of Faust selling his soul to the devil shed on colonialism in Africa, slavery, the rape and destruction of...

Sorry, Baby review - the healing power of friendship in the...

“I have a baby in me,” says Lydie (Naomi Ackie; Mickey 17). “What? Right now?” says her friend Agnes (Eva Victor), who may not be...

Album: Wolf Alice - Clearing

Wolf Alice are a band who consistently over-deliver. Their presentation is so staid, their cited influences so safe (The Beatles! Blur!), their...

BBC Proms: Liu, Philharmonia, Rouvali review - fine-tuned Tc...

Pianist Bruce Liu wasn’t the only star soloist last night, though he certainly had the most notes to play. Attention was riveted by at least five...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Imprints / Courier

Imprints, Summerhall ...

Album: Deftones - Private Music

Deftones’ Private Music arrives as the band’s long-awaited tenth studio album, carrying with it the weight of expectation built from...

BBC Proms: Suor Angelica, LSO, Pappano review - earthly pass...

At first, I had my doubts about Puccini’s Suor Angelica...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Ode Islands / Delusions a...

The Ode Islands, Pleasance at EICC ...