theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Tom Birchenough
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the...
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 12 July 2025
Can a romcom be intellectually challenging while hitting all the sweet spots of the genre? Jonás Trueba, the director of the award-winning Spanish film The Other Way Around (...
Kathryn Reilly
Saturday, 12 July 2025
War, pestilence, famine, death. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my fill of them all. So what better time to visit the genuinely sunny uplands – the long-anticipated second...
Heather Neill
Friday, 11 July 2025
The National Health Service was established 77 years ago this month. Resident doctors are about to strike for more pay, long waiting lists for hospital treatment and the scarcity...
Sarah Kent
Friday, 11 July 2025
It took until the last room of her exhibition for me to gain any real understanding of the work of Australian Aboriginal artist Emily Kam Kngwarray. Given that Tate Modern’s ...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 11 July 2025
Tami Neilson’s career is long and storied. The short version is that she began with a 1990s Canadian family band (opening for Kitty Wells, aged 10!), moved to New Zealand and...
David Nice
Thursday, 10 July 2025
Anyone seeking local genius in an international festival should look no further than the annual Ravenna concerts from...
Gary Naylor
Thursday, 10 July 2025
Well, I wasn’t expecting a Dylanesque take on "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" as an opening number and I was right. But The...
Kieron Tyler
Thursday, 10 July 2025
The branch of the fast-food chain Hesburger in downtown Tallinn shopping centre Solaris is busy. Nothing unusual as it’s...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 10 July 2025
A mixture of legal drama, medical mystery and psychological thriller with creepy supernatural overtones, Insomnia sometimes...
Rachel Halliburton
Thursday, 10 July 2025
Shakespeare’s Prince Hal may have rejected Sir John Falstaff as a symbol of his misspent youth, but the real-life monarch...
Hugh Barnes
Thursday, 10 July 2025
The journey not the destination matters in The Road to Patagonia, an epic pilgrimage of 30,000 miles that, unexpectedly,...
Joe Muggs
Thursday, 10 July 2025
I met Mark Stewart once. It was on a platform at Clapham Junction, I wouldn’t normally approach a famous person like that,...
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Near the start of Chloë Moss’s latest play, Run Sister Run, one character tells his wife to “Calm your nerves”. A classic...
Tami Neilson
Wednesday, 09 July 2025
I was born Tamara Lee Neilson. I had an Uncle Kenny and an Aunt Dolly (who played guitar and banjo, respectively). I mean,...
Kieron Tyler
Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Stylistically, Utopia wears multiple faces. Opening cut “London 1757” drifts by like a twig floating upon an unhurried...
Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 08 July 2025
“Bob’s not the kind of guy you can say no to,” said Sting, reminiscing about the origins of 1984’s Band Aid charity single “...
Pamela Jahn
Tuesday, 08 July 2025
Emma Mackey might have had her breakthrough role as a teenage tough cookie in Netflix's hit Series Sex Education (2019-20223...
John Carvill
Tuesday, 08 July 2025
Andrew Sarris, doyen of auteurist film critics, dubbed A Hard Day’s Night “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals”. Wild over-...
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tv
Insomnia, Channel 5 review - a chronicle of deaths foretold
Sarah Pinborough's psychological thriller is cluttered but compelling
Live Aid at 40: When Rock'n'Roll Took on the World, BBC Two review - how Bob Geldof led pop's battle against Ethiopian famine
When wackily-dressed pop stars banded together to give a little help to the helpless
Hill, Sky Documentaries review - how Damon Hill battled his demons
Alex Holmes's film is both documentary and psychological portrait
film
The Other Way Around review - teasing Spanish study of a breakup with unexpected depth
Jonás Trueba's film holds the romcom up to the light for playful scrutiny
The Road to Patagonia review - journey to the end of the world
In search of love and the meaning of life on the boho surf trail
theartsdesk Q&A: actor Emma Mackey on 'Hot Milk' and life education
The Anglo-French star of 'Sex Education' talks about her new film’s turbulent mother-daughter bind
new music
Album: Wet Leg - moisturizer
A perfectly formed classic that will definitely be on those album of the year lists
Album: Tami Neilson - Neon Cowgirl
New Zealand country queen's latest chimes with America's heartland bars and highways
The Estonian Song and Dance Celebration 2025 review - the mass expression of freedom
Communion, ecstasy, rain and traditional clothing
classical
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2025 - Cervantes, Beethoven and Byron transfigured
Muti revitalised by young musicians, and a three-year theatre project reaches completion
Classical CDs: Bells, birdsong and braggadocio
British contemporary music, percussive piano concertos and a talented baritone sings Mozart
Siglo de Oro, Wigmore Hall review - electronic Lamentations and Trojan tragedy
Committed and intense performance of a newly-commissioned oratorio
opera
Semele, Royal Opera review - unholy smoke
Style comes and goes in a justifiably dark treatment of Handelian myth
Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne review - perceptive humanity in period setting
Mostly glorious cast, sharp ideas, fussy conducting
Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - a battle of sunshine and shadows
Intimacy yields to spectacle as Beethoven's light of freedom triumphs
theatre
Nye, National Theatre review - Michael Sheen's full-blooded Bevan returns to the Olivier
Revisiting Tim Price's dream-set account of the founder of the health service
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2025 - Cervantes, Beethoven and Byron transfigured
Muti revitalised by young musicians, and a three-year theatre project reaches completion
Girl From The North Country, Old Vic review - Dylan's songs fail to lift the mood
Fragmented, cliched story rescued by tremendous acting, singing and music
dance
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Quadrophenia, Sadler's Wells review - missed opportunity to give new stage life to a Who classic
The brilliant cast need a tighter score and a stronger narrative
The Midnight Bell, Sadler's Wells review - a first reprise for one of Matthew Bourne's most compelling shows to date
The after-hours lives of the sad and lonely are drawn with compassion, originality and skill
comedy
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Kieran Hodgson, Soho Theatre review - a love affair soured by Trump
Can America be great again for the comic?
Books
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Tom Raworth: Cancer review - truthfulness
A 'lost' book reconfirms Raworth’s legacy as one of the great lyric poets
Ian Leslie: John and Paul - A Love Story in Songs review - help!
Ian Leslie loses himself in amateur psychology, and fatally misreads The Beatles
visual arts
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Emily Kam Kngwarray, Tate Modern review - glimpses of another world
Pictures that are an affirmation of belonging
Kiefer / Van Gogh, Royal Academy review - a pairing of opposites
Small scale intensity meets large scale melodrama
latest comments
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Why is the opening song "infamous"?
The Beach Boys finally retired from touring as it...
Just saw this yesterday. A very gripping and...