theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Gift Horse, Fourth Plinth
Friday, 06 March 2015
The unveiling of the Fourth Plinth has, since his election to office, been an opportunity for Mayor Boris Johnson to work the press pen with a comic turn. So, the commission,...
OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood
Friday, 06 March 2015
Skateboarding, in games and movies, has always been presented as quite a laidback sport. This couldn't be further from that idea – it's a "twitch" arcade stick-and-button mangler...
Chappie
Friday, 06 March 2015
An innocent is corrupted in South African director Neill's Blomkamp's third feature (co-written with his wife Terri Tatchell), but the kid in question is far from what you'd...
White Bird in a Blizzard
Friday, 06 March 2015
Adolescence, youth culture and rebellion – often luridly and violently expressed – are the stocks in trade of American director Gregg Araki, who has one of the most distinctive...
First Person: The Meaning of Mermaids
Friday, 06 March 2015
As a child I was bewitched by the tale of The Little Mermaid. I had it on a record and would play it and sit and sob on the settee, much to the bewilderment of my brothers. It...
Banished, BBC Two
Thursday, 05 March 2015
Another tough night in with Jimmy McGovern. Banished may have taken ship to 18th-century New South Wales, whither the first British convicts have been expelled to a penal colony...
Dreamcatcher
Thursday, 05 March 2015
We get the big city views of Chicago, the bright lights and the skyscrapers, a few times in Kim Longinotto’s Dreamcatcher,...
Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Kings Place
Thursday, 05 March 2015
Mari Kvien Brunvoll - Norwegian improviser, singer and composer - enters the Kings Place stage more like a pianist's page-...
Game, Almeida Theatre
Thursday, 05 March 2015
This venue is one of the coolest in London — and its regular audience is both trendy and well-heeled. In the foyer, you get...
Spectres, The Lexington
Thursday, 05 March 2015
I first saw Spectres last October at the 10th birthday celebrations for their label, Sonic Cathedral. That night, they...
Inventing Impressionism, National Gallery
Wednesday, 04 March 2015
Here is an exhibition that tells us how something we now take totally for granted actually came about: how our love affair...
Still Alice
Wednesday, 04 March 2015
Oscar winner Julianne Moore: the phrase has been a long time coming but it finally came true 10 days ago when the actress,...
Super-Powered Owls: Natural World, BBC Two
Tuesday, 03 March 2015
The owl – symbol of wisdom, harbinger of death – is a powerful if disparate symbol in human mythology worldwide. But...
Rattle for the LSO: great or just good news?
Tuesday, 03 March 2015
Having manoeuvred to get a new concert hall for London earmarked in principle, Simon Rattle has finally agreed, as we...
Arthur and George, ITV
Tuesday, 03 March 2015
“Something strident and stirring – play to us now, please!” demands Martin Clunes’ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the piano-...
Ruddigore, Charles Court Opera, King's Head Theatre
Tuesday, 03 March 2015
How can a feisty village dame duetting “lackaday”s with the mounted head of a long-lost, nay, long-dead love be so deuced...
10 Questions for Filmmaker Desiree Akhavan
Tuesday, 03 March 2015
New filmmakers often suffer an unhelpful onslaught of comparisons and labels. Yet Desiree Akhavan offers so many options as...
The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco, Gate Theatre
Monday, 02 March 2015
The quest for liberation is popular dramatic terrain, but the Gate Theatre’s "Freedom Burning" season shifts focus to the...
We Made It: Fashion Designer Anna Skodbo
Monday, 02 March 2015
Anna Skodbo's route to designing her ethical, environmental and "crosstown" fashion brand Phannatiq has hardly been ordinary...
theartsdesk Q&A: Actress MyAnna Buring
Monday, 02 March 2015
There came a moment, around three years ago, when MyAnna Buring suddenly seemed to be in everything. "I'm so sorry!" she...
Le Roi de Lahore, Chelsea Opera Group, QEH
Monday, 02 March 2015
Now that opera houses mostly lack either the will or the funds to stage the more fantastical/exotic pageants among 19th...
Nómada, Compañía Manuel Liñán, Sadler's Wells
Monday, 02 March 2015
"Sprung from pure flamenco, Manuel Liñán exudes purity from himself and his dance - he is life, freshness and passion."...
Pompidou, BBC Two
Monday, 02 March 2015
Judging by its early-evening slot and diddly-dee theme tune, Matt Lucas's latest project is aimed at family audiences – far...
Appropriate Behaviour
Monday, 02 March 2015
There’s an engaging, indie sense of emotional flux in writer-director Desiree Akhavan’s feature debut Appropriate Behaviour...
disc of the day
CD: Fairport Convention - Myths & Heroes
Old school folk-rockers prove they can withstand the test of time
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We Made It
We Made It: Fashion Designer Anna Skodbo
The east London fashion designer on crowd-sourcing, sustainable fabrics and dressing MPs
We Made It: Furniture Designer & Maker Laszlo Beckett
The South London furniture maker talks lasers, skate-ramps and Coltrane
We Made It: Set and Costume Designer Lise Marker
A multidisciplinary artist and Matthew Barney collaborator explains her craft
tv
Arthur and George, ITV
Conan Doyle is a bluff, romantic Holmes in ITV's splendidly thrilling three-parter
film
White Bird in a Blizzard
Rising star Shailene Woodley is at the centre of a disappointing teen drama
new music
Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Kings Place
Norwegian improvising vocalist travels through hit songs via the subconscious
CD: Fairport Convention - Myths & Heroes
Old school folk-rockers prove they can withstand the test of time
classical
BBCSO, Segerstam, Barbican
Stonehenge in sound: conductor-composer of 285 symphonies tackles Bruckner's Eighth
Benedetti, La Cetra, Saffron Hall
The violinist's Vivaldi charms an appreciative audience in a bold new hall
opera
Ruddigore, Charles Court Opera, King's Head Theatre
They can sing, dance and make you laugh until you cry: portmanteau G&S at its very best
Le Roi de Lahore, Chelsea Opera Group, QEH
Top quality operatic voices in first London performance of Massenet exotica since 1880
Die Zauberflöte, Royal Opera
Young lovers, a comic turn and paternal priest triumphant in Covent Garden staple
theatre
First Person: The Meaning of Mermaids
The Shared Experience director discovers a fresh path into the underwater world of Hans Christian Andersen
Ruddigore, Charles Court Opera, King's Head Theatre
They can sing, dance and make you laugh until you cry: portmanteau G&S at its very best
visual arts
Gift Horse, Fourth Plinth
An equine skeleton with connections to the City takes up residence in Trafalgar Square
Inventing Impressionism, National Gallery
A fresh take: the commercial story behind the success of an avant-garde movement
theartsdesk in Calais: Simon Faithfull – To the Bottom of the World and Back
Online messages sent from elsewhere by an artist who loves the sea
dance
Nómada, Compañía Manuel Liñán, Sadler's Wells
Style and showmanship aplenty from one of flamenco's innovators
Eva Yerbabuena/Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, Sadler's Wells
Grimly majestic femininity steals the show at annual Spanish showcase
Swan Lake, Royal Ballet
Marianela Nuñez's dream Odette/Odile distracts from hideous designs and score butchery
comedy
Dracula! (Mr Swallow - the Musical), Soho Theatre
Nick Mohammed's daft but entertaining spoof musical
gaming
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 – Episode 1
Action-oriented horror series gets snipped into formulaic episodes
Listed
Listed: The Very Best of 2015
theartsdesk's writers recommend the one thing above all to look forward to in each art form
Listed: The Facts about Factual TV in 2014
This year's documentaries climbed high and swung low on Britain's social ladder
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