Reviews
Bellringers, Hampstead Theatre review - mordant comedy about the end of the worldWednesday, 09 October 2024
As hurricanes rip into the American Gulf states with increasing ferocity, Eastern Europe disappears underwater and even the gentle British rain becomes a deluge, the arrival of Daisy Hall’s debut play Bellringers at Hampstead Theatre’s Downstairs... Read more... |
Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit, Tate Modern review - adolescent angst indefinitely extendedWednesday, 09 October 2024
Like an angry teenager rejecting everything his parents stand for, American artist Mike Kelley embraced everything most despised by the art world – from popular culture to crafts, and occultism to catholicism – to create what he ironically called “... Read more... |
French Toast, Riverside Studios review - Racine-inspired satire finds its laughs once up-and-runningWednesday, 09 October 2024
It’s always fun jabbing at the permanently open wound that is Anglo-French relations, now with added snap post-Brexit, its fading, but still frothing, humourless defenders clogging up Twitter and radio phone-ins even today. So it’s probably timely... Read more... |
Ludwig, BBC One review - entertaining spin on the brainy detective formulaTuesday, 08 October 2024
The latest incarnation of David Mitchell, TV actor, looks at first sight much like the familar one from Peep Show and Back. Not a pufflepant in sight. His only costume change for Ludwig is a pair of wire-frame spectacles. HIs role is... Read more... |
Ellen DeGeneres, Netflix Special review - no mea culpa and few jokesTuesday, 08 October 2024
Hard to imagine it now, but just a few years ago Ellen DeGeneres was one of America’s biggest daytime TV stars; her chatshow The Ellen DeGeneres Show attracted Hollywood stars and politicians and she was paid millions for it. But then, in 2022, it... Read more... |
The Hardacres, Channel 5 review - a fishy tale of upward mobilityTuesday, 08 October 2024
Set in Yorkshire in the 1890s, and based on the novels by CL Skelton, The Hardacres is the story of the titular family who, it seems, were pioneers of takeaway fish, although not accompanied by chips. It’s their stall selling fried herring fresh... Read more... |
Juno and the Paycock, Gielgud Theatre review - a shockingly original centenary revival of O'Casey's tragi-comedyMonday, 07 October 2024
"Captain" Jack Boyle is a fantasist, a mythmaker, a storyteller. He relishes an audience – usually his sidekick, Joxer. There is a theatricality in his part as written by O'Casey, but in Matthew Warchus's hands this is made an explicit element of... Read more... |
Hardenberger, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - splendour and a trumpeter's voluntaryMonday, 07 October 2024
Two splendid pieces of orchestral virtuosity began and finished the second Saturday concert by the BBC Philharmonic under John Storgårds at the Bridgewater Hall. It was given the title of “Mischief and Magic”, an apt summary.For mischief we had... Read more... |
Angry and Young, Almeida Theatre review - vigorous and illuminating double billMonday, 07 October 2024
Why should we not look back in anger? With the Oasis reunion tour in the news recently, the title of John Osborne’s seminal kitchen-sink drama – which kicked off the whole cultural phenomenon of the Angry Young Men on its first staging in 1956 – has... Read more... |
Blond Eckbert, English Touring Opera review - dark deeds afoot in the woodsMonday, 07 October 2024
Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert, presented by English Touring Opera at the Hackney Empire, at the beginning of its tour (paired with The Snowmaiden, reviewed on theartsdesk last week) has all the biggest virtues of her work in spades: it is narratively... Read more... |
Songs We Carry, Ana Silvera and Saied Silbak, Kings Place review - harmony between Arab and JewMonday, 07 October 2024
As the Middle East continues to fragment in hate and horror, a tragic unfolding of events with roots reaching back to the middle of the last century, any sign of love and deeply felt collaboration provides a welcome beacon, and signals the... Read more... |
The Marrriage of Figaro, Opera Project, Tobacco Factory, Bristol review - small is beautiful indeedMonday, 07 October 2024
The Marriage of Figaro is undoubtedly one of the greatest operas ever written. Mozart’s masterpiece is a display of musical perfection that never ceases to touch the heart and stimulate the musical mind.This gripping and enormously entertaining tale... Read more... |
