reviews
Adam Sweeting |

The man who made Interstellar, Tenet and Oppenheimer can hardly be accused of not thinking big. Now, with The Odyssey, he’s thinking epic. Clocking in at a whisker under three hours and peppered with bankable stars, Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s imperishable poem is a bold attempt to recreate the ancient world of the 12th Century BC, with its gods, monsters and all.

Robert Beale |

Buxton’s summer jamboree for opera lovers this year offers a brace of baroque works, written 90 years apart, with the character of sorceress as their common feature.

Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula was one of the string of Italian operas created by him for London shortly after his arrival in Britain. First seen in 1715, it has four soloists only and the conventional unities of time and place – though early performances were apparently given with spectacular stage effects.

Helen Hawkins
Dismemberment is a key motif in the writer-director Simon Stone’s The Oresteia. It reflects the treatment of two of the piece’s several dead bodies,…
Sarah Kent
Ana Mendieta’s work gives me the creeps. This is a deeply unfashionable view, so much so that I may well be cancelled for it. Mendieta is so highly…
Jonathan Geddes
It is never a great sign when a local authority is forced to comment on a music festival. The opening night of the In The Park series of shows at…

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Robert Beale
Quality take on Verdi and a pure comedy re-imagining of Léhar
Kieron Tyler
A partial account of how Brit-punk absorbed an aspect of reggae
Gary Naylor
Lots of innovative ideas, but we need to hear the line readings clearly
Helen Hawkins
A Bellocchio classic is retooled as a stifllng rich-brats' revenge story
Guy Oddy
A new album is unveiled and old tunes are played for the last time
Helen Hawkins
Aakash Odedra is superb as a tortured creature seeking freedom and transcendence
Rachel Halliburton
Eurovision star Sam Ryder is made for the title role, while Drew McOnie’s choreography makes us feel the delirium
Sarah Kent
Darkness reigns in powerful but competing installations
Veronica Lee
Dolls, heroes and changing therapists
Helen Hawkins
Olivia Wilde's snappy comedy on the perennial subject of reviving a failing marriage
Kieron Tyler
First-rate salute to a creative colossus
David Nice
Latest in a line of great Irish mezzos shows her versatility, and the strings swoon
Aleks Sierz
Chloë Moss’s new drama is a nerve-fraying example of telephonic tension
Adam Sweeting
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time...
James Saynor
Kiss kiss, bang bang in a moving Middle East documentary
Guy Oddy
An eardrum damaging evening spent with Birmingham’s Sunn O))) worshippers
Sebastian Scotney
Trio with Gene Calderazzo and Alec Dankworth is a jewel of British jazz
Demetrios Matheou
Carrie Cracknell’s splendid revival of Stoppard’s masterwork transfers with its magic intact
Saskia Baron
David Vann's acclaimed novella transposed to the screen with mixed results
Rachel Halliburton
Transatlantic tensions are diffused through alcohol, sex, and the etiquette of hot dogs
Sarah Kent
The most important 'how-to video' you are ever likely to see
David Nice
Turbocharged orchestra, sometimes too much so, various approaches from the singers
Gary Naylor
Bad husband, bad dad, great singer

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