wed 19/06/2013

First with arts reviews, news & interviews

Three Church Parables, Aurora Orchestra, Aldeburgh Festival

Roderic Dunnett

In Britten’s centenary the Aldeburgh Festival has come up with two mesmerising opera happenings. The innovation is to stage Peter Grimes on the town’s beach, a few hundred...

The Cripple of Inishmaan, Noël Coward Theatre

Veronica Lee

Martin McDonagh's play, which premiered in 1997, here receives its first major revival as part of Michael Grandage's star-studded first season at the Noël Coward Theatre. It's a...

Reggie Watts/Mac Lethal, Royal Festival Hall

James Williams

The Meltdown Festival has always been a fascinating proposition, getting a living legend in their field to curate their own personal festival line-up, and present all of their...

The Route Masters: Running London's Roads/Airport Live, BBC Two

Adam Sweeting

I bought a new car recently, but by the end of The Route Masters (***) I was feeling a powerful inclination to sell it. The film would have rung a masochistic bell with anybody...

Peter Grimes, Aldeburgh Beach

Kimon Daltas

First things first. There are limited tickets still available for this run of Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach but there won’t be for long, so move fast....

Casualties: the theatre of war

Ross Ericson

A few days ago I found myself sat in a Finsbury Park pub talking to a man who dismantled bombs for a living, who had completed two tours in Afghanistan fighting the unending war...

Neil Young and Crazy Horse, O2 Arena

Adam Sweeting

"Don't say it's over," wailed Neil Young at the end of "Hey Hey, My My", his raging anthem against the dying of the light...

Hard Feelings, Finborough Theatre

Matt Wolf

Doug Lucie's signature spikiness remains intact, and then some, in the Defibrillator production of Hard Feelings, which is...

A Crisis of Brilliance, Dulwich Picture Gallery

Marina Vaizey

The very tall, skeletal and formidable Henry Tonks (1862-1937), surgeon and anatomist, became one of the most decisive,...

The White Queen, BBC One/Agatha Christie's Marple: Caribbean Mystery, ITV

Jasper Rees

In recent times, the Middle Ages have been ghettoised on those channels you watch in pubs. Game of Thrones, and anything by...

Bracken Moor, Tricycle Theatre

Heather Neill

In Bracken Moor Alexi Kaye Campbell inhabits similar territory to J B Priestley, whose work he admires. Like his predecessor...

10 Questions for Musician & Comedian Reggie Watts

James Williams

Equal parts prodigiously talented musician, consistently funny comedian, auteur, theatre performer, free thinker and writer...

Before Midnight

Emma Simmonds

Before Midnight is the third part in Richard Linklater's romantic series starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as star-...

War Requiem, Berlin Philharmoniker, Rattle, Philharmonie Berlin

David Nice

How often should a music-lover go to hear Britten’s most layered masterpiece? From personal experience, I’d say not more...

Afghan Army Girls, More 4

Tom Birchenough

Being a woman soldier in the Afghan army must rate among the world’s “least wanted” jobs, if only 14 applicants came forward...

Mayerling, Royal Ballet

Judith Flanders

My great-grandmother used to say, "In the fall, leaves fall," meaning that as the weather gets colder, people die. The Royal...

Siegfried, Opera North

Graham Rickson

Newcomers to this ongoing Ring cycle would be wrong to imagine that a series of semi-staged concert performances represent a...

Death in Venice, English National Opera

Ismene Brown

Austere, beautiful, heartbreaking, streaked with genius - that goes for both Benjamin Britten’s last opera Death in Venice...

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THEARTSDESK Q&A: SONGWRITERS MARC SHAIMAN AND SCOTT WITTMAN They wrote the songs for Hairspray. Can they help turn Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into a hit?

WAR REQUIEM, BERLIN PHILHARMONIKER, RATTLE, PHILHARMONIE BERLIN Britten's fusion of war poetry and Latin mass shouldn't be the everyday occasion it was here

BEFORE MIDNIGHT We're counting down to the witching hour in the magnificent third instalment of Richard Linklater's international love story

THE WHITE QUEEN, BBC ONE / AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MARPLE, ITV Philippa Gregory gives you medievals. Agatha Christie gives you wood

A CRISIS OF BRILLIANCE, DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY A rich anthology of experimental British art in the years leading up to and during the First World War

HARD FEELINGS, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Doug Lucie's snarky comedy-drama brings Thatcher-era Britain to the boil

disc of the day

CD: Lloyd Cole - Standards

The spirit of the Commotions is evoked as Eighties survivor ends a long silence

film

DVD: To The Wonder

Terence Malick’s latest film is almost too gorgeous for its own good

Before Midnight

We're counting down to the witching hour in the magnificent third instalment of Richard Linklater's international love story

Man of Steel

Henry Cavill looks the part, but is Superman 2013 just too Super?

tv

The Route Masters: Running London's Roads/Airport Live, BBC Two

It's transport week on the BBC, with wildly mixed consequences

The White Queen, BBC One/Agatha Christie's Marple: Caribbean Mystery, ITV

Philippa Gregory gives you medievals. Agatha Christie gives you wood

Afghan Army Girls, More 4

Army training doc sheds stark light on the position of Afghan women

new music

Reggie Watts/Mac Lethal, Royal Festival Hall

Quick-witted musical improv with a surreal twist and viral video rap join forces at Meltdown

CD: Lloyd Cole - Standards

The spirit of the Commotions is evoked as Eighties survivor ends a long silence

Neil Young and Crazy Horse, O2 Arena

Veteran campaigner still ready to run heavy metal marathons

six of the best

Six of the best: Art

theartsdesk recommends the half-dozen top exhibitions

Six of the best: Film

theartsdesk recommends the half-dozen top movies out now

Six of the best: Theatre

Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams and Mormons: a bit of everything in theartsdesk's tips

Radio Show

The Seckerson Tapes: Lucy Schaufer

A versatile American mezzo in London tells of her female-friendly debut album

The Seckerson Tapes: Ian Bostridge

The tenor on Britten 100 and the long legacy of Peter Pears

The Seckerson Tapes: Colin Currie

The Scottish musician on the logistics of being a percussionist

classical

War Requiem, Berlin Philharmoniker, Rattle, Philharmonie Berlin

Britten's fusion of war poetry and Latin mass shouldn't be the everyday occasion it was here

Classical CDs Weekly: Britten, Poulenc, Rameau

Weighty English song, Parisian froth and French baroque music from Caracas

Ma, LSO, Tilson Thomas, Barbican Hall

A blistering finale to the LSO's triptych of 20th-century music

opera

Three Church Parables, Aurora Orchestra, Aldeburgh Festival

Another mesmerising Britten production in Suffolk for the composer's centenary

Peter Grimes, Aldeburgh Beach

Britten's greatest opera gets a staging to remember from Tim Albery

Siegfried, Opera North

Semi-staged Wagner hits the mark for a third time

theatre

The Cripple of Inishmaan, Noël Coward Theatre

Daniel Radcliffe stars in an underpowered revival of Martin McDonagh's modern classic

Casualties: the theatre of war

Playwright Ross Ericson introduces his new play about defusing IEDs in Afghanistan

Hard Feelings, Finborough Theatre

Doug Lucie's snarky comedy-drama brings Thatcher-era Britain to the boil

visual arts

A Crisis of Brilliance, Dulwich Picture Gallery

A rich anthology of experimental British art in the years leading up to and during the First World War, plus gallery

Six of the best: Art

theartsdesk recommends the half-dozen top exhibitions

theartsdesk in Istanbul: Art pours out of Gezi Park

Protests in Turkey have fuelled artists, musicians, bloggers and satirists

dance

Mayerling, Royal Ballet

One of the Royal's most beautiful dancers retires

theartsdesk Q&A: Ballerina Leanne Benjamin

Feisty, evergreen Royal Ballet star sums up as she prepares to retire tomorrow

Swan Lake, English National Ballet, Royal Albert Hall

In-the-round means grids and drills: only superhuman performances can rescue the maths

comedy

Reggie Watts/Mac Lethal, Royal Festival Hall

Quick-witted musical improv with a surreal twist and viral video rap join forces at Meltdown

10 Questions for Musician & Comedian Reggie Watts

The acclaimed American polymath plays Meltdown this week; first, he talks to theartsdesk

What Would Beyoncé Do?!, Soho Theatre

Luisa Omielan channels her inner bootylicious diva to sort through some relationship issues

gaming

The Last Of Us

The Road less travelled? Post-apocalyptic horror gaming has rarely been this bleak

Remember Me

Can't remember the past? You'll repeat its errors in this sci-fi action game

Don't Starve

Potentially a feast, but you may prefer a nibble

latest comments

"Ends a long silence" is a bit of a stretch. He...

let's hope there's never a fire in there - no one...

I am sure that there are plenty of people who are...

I agree with the 95% above that this BBC...

Expected a few more episodes...led me to find...