Reviews
The Gathered Leaves, Park TheatreSaturday, 18 July 2015
Families. Whether it's the House of Atreus, the court at Elsinore or the Archers, they tend to be of compelling interest. For most of us, loyalties, guilty secrets, truths that will out, petty jealousies and sentimentality tend to be the order of... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Kit Downes, The Nash Ensemble, John PotterSaturday, 18 July 2015
Kit Downes: Tricko Kit Downes (piano, organ), Lucy Railton (cello) (Coup Perdu)No sleeve notes here; just a few oblique words from polymath pianist Kit Downes on the sleeve of this engaging release – which seem to say that the very act of recording... Read more... |
What's It All About?, Menier Chocolate FactoryFriday, 17 July 2015
Burt Bacharach, existentialist? That's among the surprising thoughts prompted by the searchingly titled What's It All About?, the altogether delightful but also touching musical revue that trawls Bacharach's back catalogue – and that on opening... Read more... |
Ant-ManFriday, 17 July 2015
With its teeny tiny protagonist Ant-Man joins a movie tradition that includes The Incredible Shrinking Man, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Innerspace. And yet the 12th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feels like a fresh perspective on the modern... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Garsington OperaFriday, 17 July 2015
We’re so used these days to theatre music as aural torture – blasts of pop music on the tannoy, assorted electronics or, if you’re (moderately) lucky, a snatch of too-loud Chopin or Grieg before the lights come up on the Ibsen drawing-room – that it... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl: Volume 7 - Northern Soul, The Fall and moreFriday, 17 July 2015
One of vinyl’s more controversial corners is the postal subscription club. Sign up to one of these and, for a fee, a number of records are sent to your home. The draw is supposed to be exclusivity of content or simply trusting the taste of a... Read more... |
Her StoryFriday, 17 July 2015
If the interface is simple, the story it gradually reveals is anything but. Her Story is an absolutely stunning piece of interactive storytelling, taking in murder, identity, history, yet driven simply by you typing a word or two into a search bar.... Read more... |
Dispatches: Escape from Isis, Channel 4Thursday, 16 July 2015
“Say your last words before you leave this life.” Somewhere in the so-called Islamic State, a woman was accused of adultery. Her father joined her accusers, then, as her shrouded body was lowered into a pit, picked up a rock and hurled it at her. We... Read more... |
Out of Chaos: Ben Uri - 100 Years in London, Somerset HouseThursday, 16 July 2015
The exhibition Out of Chaos is a powerful dose of specific human experience, here presented almost exclusively in the form of portraits and group scenes. The selection comes almost entirely from the more than 1,300 works of art owned by Ben Uri... Read more... |
Veep, Series Four, Sky AtlanticThursday, 16 July 2015
When Jim Hacker MP was unexpectedly promoted to the position of PM, the classic sitcom Yes, Minister required just a small tweak in title and it was pretty much business as usual, albeit with a grander sense of potential impact. When the shit hit... Read more... |
True StoryThursday, 16 July 2015
Truth isn't so much stranger than fiction as it is duller. That, at least, is the abiding impression left by True Story, the debut film from the adventuresome theatre director Rupert Goold that by rights ought to be considerably more exciting than... Read more... |
Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners, BBC TwoThursday, 16 July 2015
If Britain has created a national myth about slavery, it’s surely been centred on the pioneering abolitionists whose actions in the early 19th century led first to the ending of the slave trade across the British Empire in 1807, later to the... Read more... |
