Reviews
Linck & Mülhahn, Hampstead Theatre review - problems as well as pleasures
Wednesday, 08 February 2023
With the total loss of its Arts Council funding, Hampstead Theatre’s future as a specialist new writing venue is in doubt. But before anything drastically changes, the playwrights and plays developed by Roxanna Silbert, who was edged out as artistic director in December last year, are still coming through.
Eliza Carthy and The Restitution, Barbican review - folk at its finest
Tuesday, 07 February 2023
Eliza Carthy has been busy, as she always has. Recording various albums with various artists during the pandemic, her show with her band, The Restitution (and many others), at the Barbican on Saturday, was well stuffed with music, musicians, laughter, familial connections and celebrations.
Fabienne Verdier, The Song of the Stars (Le chant...
Tuesday, 07 February 2023
I have wanted to visit the Musée Unterlinden in Colmar for many years: the home of Matthias Grünewald’s masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-...
The Damnation of Faust, LPO, Gardner, RFH review...
Monday, 06 February 2023
No work gives its listeners such pleasure on the way to hell (and back) as Berlioz’s rule-busting “dramatic legend”, The Damnation of Faust. It...
Saint Omer review - exile and erasure
Monday, 06 February 2023
Saint Omer is a psychological and sociological mystery, unpicking the enigma of Laurence (Guslagie Malanda), a French Senegalese woman who drowned...
The Cunning Little Vixen, Opera North review - magic of a classic staging
A real ensemble effort in Janáček’s cartoon-based tale of nature and human nature |
Smoke, Southwark Playhouse review - dazzling Strindberg update
The perils of navigating power relations when sexual tension is all but tangible |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Senders - All Killer No Filler
A gap in the story of punk-era New York is plugged |
Fauda, Season 4, Netflix review - Israeli terrorism thriller gets darker and dirtier
Fourth time around, the human cost is becoming too much to bear |
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish review - thrilling adventure with Antonio Banderas
Computer-animated fun |
Titus Andronicus, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - notorious play hits and misses
Tricksy staging distracts and disappoints |
The Whale review - Brendan Fraser stars in a fat suit
Darren Aronofsky's stagey, sentimental portrait of a dying, obese man |
Philharmonia, Hrůša, RFH review - total brilliance in Bartók, Dvořák and Strauss
No singing Salome, but this was still a firebrand of a concert |
2:22 A Ghost Story, Lyric Theatre review - Cheryl makes an impressive stage debut
Danny Robins' clever play gains a creditable star turn in its fifth run |
EO review - lyrical tale of a donkey's odyssey
Jerzy Skolimowski takes the audience on an incredible journey |
Tannhäuser, Royal Opera review - true goodness triumphs in the end
Lise Davidsen's fully-realised Elisabeth is no pallid virgin in this mixed revival |
Northern Winter Beat 2023 review - Panda Bear, Sonic Boom and Širom amongst the highlights in Denmark’s north
Agreeable Aalborg accommodates a festival integral to its environment |
You Resemble Me review - complex portrait of a troubled young woman
Egyptian-American journalist Dina Amer's directorial debut, drawn from life |
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, Harold Pinter Theatre review - cool cast chills the drama
West End transfer for Sam Steiner’s fringe classic does the play no favours |
Two Billion Beats, Orange Tree Theatre review - lively, but overly idealistic
Sonali Bhattacharyya’s coming-of-age drama returns with a new cast |
January review - the end is nigh in vampirised Bulgaria
A chilling post-Soviet folk horror allegory set in bleak midwinter |
Leonskaja, Staatskapelle Streichquartett, Wigmore Hall / Secret Byrd, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - genuine versus theatrical
Brahms illuminated, Byrd rather more obliquely showcased |
Othello, Lyric Hammersmith review - Frantic Assembly's high-energy take on the Moor
Shakespeare's tragedy as a tight thriller, with its racist elements fully exposed |
Ólafsson, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - spirit of delight
A curate's-egg turn from the Icelandic pianist in Schumann followed by magisterial Elgar |
Sound of the Underground, Royal Court review - loud and triumphantly proud
New play about the queer club scene is a fabulous extravaganza |
Gerhardt, BBC Philharmonic, Gernon, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - calm and clear conducting
Maybe not perfect, but when things worked, they worked beautifully |
Album: Robert Forster - The Candle and the Flame
At an uncertain time, the former Go-Between takes stock |
Music Reissues Weekly: Padang Moonrise - The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording Industry
Eye-opening compilation where knowing the context is essential |
The Fabelmans review - Spielberg remembers with wit and wonder
The director's early life examined with understated, almost unconscious need |
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Linck & Mülhahn, Hampstead Theatre review - problems as...
With the total loss of its Arts Council funding,...
Eliza Carthy and The Restitution, Barbican review - folk at...
Eliza Carthy has been busy, as she always has. Recording various albums with various artists during the pandemic, her show with her band, The...
Fabienne Verdier, The Song of the Stars (Le chant des étoile...
I have wanted to visit the Musée Unterlinden in Colmar for many years: the home of Matthias Grünewald’s masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512...
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No work gives its listeners such pleasure on the way to hell (and back) as...
Saint Omer review - exile and erasure
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