Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over!
Harvest review - blood, barley and adaptation
Friday, 18 July 2025
Lovers of a particular novel, when it’s adapted as a movie, often want book and movie to fit together as a hand in a glove. You want it to be like sheet music transfigured into the sound of an orchestra. Too often, though, the resulting film can resemble the sound of the orchestra trying to play in boxing gloves.
Poor Clare, Orange Tree Theatre review - saints...
Friday, 18 July 2025
What am I, a philosophical if not political Marxist whose hero is Antonio Gramsci, doing in Harvey Nichols buying Comme des Garçons linen jackets,...
That Bastard, Puccini!, Park Theatre review -...
Thursday, 17 July 2025
Before Luigi Illica wrote the libretti for Puccini’s Tosca and Madama Butterfly, he had joined the composer as the librettist in a race to stage the...
Hamlet, Buxton International Festival review -...
Thursday, 17 July 2025
Ambroise Thomas’s version of Hamlet is the flagship production of this year’s Buxton International Festival and was always going to be a considerable...
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Friendship review - toxic buddy alert
Dark comedy stars Tim Robinson as a social misfit with cringe benefits |
S/HE IS STILL HER/E - The Official Genesis P-Orridge Documentary review - a shapeshifting open window onto a counter-cultural radical
Intimate portrait of the Throbbing Gristle & Psychic TV antagonist |
Billie Eilish, O2 review - power, authenticity and deep connection
A stripped back, intimate and emotionally charged gig |
Falstaff, Glyndebourne review - knockabout and nostalgia in postwar Windsor
A fat knight to remember, and snappy stagecraft, overcome some tedious waits |
Superman review - America's ultimate immigrant
James Gunn's over-stuffed reboot stutters towards wonder |
Salome, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - a partnership in a million
Asmik Grigorian is vocal perfection in league with a great conductor and orchestra |
Till the Stars Come Down, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - a family hilariously and tragically at war
Beth Steel makes a stirring West End debut with her poignant play for today |
Too Much, Netflix - a romcom that's oversexed, and over here
Lena Dunham's new series presents an England it's often hard to recognise |
Music Reissues Weekly: Beggars Arkive - Gary Numan's 1979 John Peel session
Saying goodbye to Tubeway Army |
The Other Way Around review - teasing Spanish study of a breakup with unexpected depth
Jonás Trueba's film holds the romcom up to the light for playful scrutiny |
Nye, National Theatre review - Michael Sheen's full-blooded Bevan returns to the Olivier
Revisiting Tim Price's dream-set account of the founder of the health service |
Emily Kam Kngwarray, Tate Modern review - glimpses of another world
Pictures that are an affirmation of belonging |
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2025 - Cervantes, Beethoven and Byron transfigured
Muti revitalised by young musicians, and a three-year theatre project reaches completion |
Girl From The North Country, Old Vic review - Dylan's songs fail to lift the mood
Fragmented, cliched story rescued by tremendous acting, singing and music |
The Estonian Song and Dance Celebration 2025 review - the mass expression of freedom
Communion, ecstasy, rain and traditional clothing |
Insomnia, Channel 5 review - a chronicle of deaths foretold
Sarah Pinborough's psychological thriller is cluttered but compelling |
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare's Globe review - hedonistic fizz for a summer's evening
Emma Pallant and Katherine Pearce are formidable opponents to Falstaff's buffoonery |
Run Sister Run, Arcola Theatre review - emphatic emotions, overwrought production
Chloë Moss’s latest play about the different lives of two sisters is deeply felt |
Album: Gwenno - Utopia
The Welsh musical explorer surveys her life |
Live Aid at 40: When Rock'n'Roll Took on the World, BBC Two review - how Bob Geldof led pop's battle against Ethiopian famine
When wackily-dressed pop stars banded together to give a little help to the helpless |
Sabrina Carpenter, Hyde Park BST review - a sexy, sparkly, summer phenomenon
The Summer of Sabrina continues to shine bright |
Music Reissues Weekly: Motörhead - The Manticore Tapes
Snapshot of Lemmy and co in August 1976 proves fascinating |
Kiefer / Van Gogh, Royal Academy review - a pairing of opposites
Small scale intensity meets large scale melodrama |
Siglo de Oro, Wigmore Hall review - electronic Lamentations and Trojan tragedy
Committed and intense performance of a newly-commissioned oratorio |
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