Reviews
Paul Lewis, Wigmore Hall review - Schubert sonatas revisited
Wednesday, 06 December 2023
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
Wednesday, 06 December 2023
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-...
Tuesday, 05 December 2023
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,...
Tuesday, 05 December 2023
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...
Tuesday, 05 December 2023
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
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
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
Seldom does one see a writer's vision so perfectly realised on stage |
Music Reissues Weekly: Myriam Gendron - Not So Deep As A Well
The surprise reappearance of the Canadian stylist’s interpretations of Dorothy Parker’s poems |
Eileen review - a dank fairytale film noir
A naive prison worker crushes on a chic colleague in William Oldroyd's disturbing thriller |
A Sherlock Carol, Marylebone Theatre review - merry, but mirthless
Seasonal Eng Lit mash-up returns with its festive message of forgiveness |
Fallen Leaves review - deliciously dry Finnish romcom
Aki Kaurismaki returns to the cinema with a touching tale of love |
Album: Shirley Hurt - Shirley Hurt
Canadian singer-songwriter’s enigmatic debut |
Macbeth, The Depot, Liverpool review - Ralph Fiennes leads a conventional production in an unconventional space
Touring show lands first in Liverpool with a terrifying relevance |
Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Lyric Theatre review - adult panto delivered as jolly chaos
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
Startlingly beautiful costumes designed to challenge the authorities |
The House of Bernarda Alba, Lyttleton Theatre review - dazzling darkness
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
Five heroic women and two instrumentalists go Hellenic, with panache |
Grosvenor, Park, Ridout, Soltani, Wigmore Hall review - chamber music supergroup in perfect accord
Thoughtful programming puts quirky novelty alongside big beasts |
A Christmas Carol, The Old Vic review - older, wiser, and yet more moving
Christopher Eccleston is a Scrooge for the ages |
Boat Story, BBC One review - once upon a time in Yorkshire
New Williams brothers thriller is violent, far-fetched and extremely watchable |
Dariescu, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - sounds of unquenchable optimism
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
Abstraction with emotion and soul in a landmark retrospective |
The Witches, National Theatre review - fun and lively but where's the heart?
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
Hell and Purgatory get vivid if diffuse music from Thomas Adès, but Heaven is pallid |
CMAT, Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow review - an evening of exuberance
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
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
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
Levitational joy in an all-French programme, with modified rapture over two arrangements |
latest in today
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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...
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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...
Dreaming and Drowning, Bush Theatre - dense and intense mono...
Kwame Owusu’s 55-minute one-hander does...
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...