Boyd Tonkin
Articles By Boyd Tonkin
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
theartsdesk Q&A: director François Ozon on 'When Au...
François Ozon is France’s master of sly secrets, burying hard truths in often dazzling surfaces, from Swimming Pool’s erotic mystery of...
The Alto Knights review - double dose of De Niro doesn'...
The power struggle between New York crime bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello is one of the foundational stories of the American Mafia, though...
Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Irish Baroque Orchest...
Imagine if Bach had set Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili’s allegory of Beauty breaking free from Pleasure with the guidance of Time and Enlightenment:...
Mercury Rev, Islington Assembly Hall review - the august US...
The body language fascinates. Mercury Rev’s frontman Jonathan Donahue could be playing a theramin. The arm movements fit the bill, yet the...
Santosh review - powerful study of prejudice and police corr...
Held up by the censors in India though screened at Cannes and nominated for an International Oscar, Sandhya Suri’s 2024 film ...
Romeo and Juliet, Royal Ballet review - Shakespeare without...
1965 was a year of change in Britain. It saw the abolition of the death penalty and the arrival of the Race Relations Act. It was the year of the...
Lizz Wright, Barbican review - sweet inspiration
Lizz Wright’s exquisite singing breaks all boundaries between soul, gospel and jazz. In so doing she channels many interwoven strands of the...
Wardruna, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - Einar Selvik...
Wardruna are something of a modern musical phenomenon. Part Scandinavian folk revival, part prog rock epic and part pagan ritual, their wide-...
Album: Billy Hart Quartet - Just
There was a telling remark in Wynton Marsalis’s recent interview with Katty Kay for the BBC show “Influential”. Talking about how jazz functions...