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Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 12 May 2025
Zoe Lyons knows her audience; as a few shoutouts confirmed, many of them are long-time fans, and have had lives with similar highs and lows along the way, and she delivers stories...
Giulio Cesare, The English Concert, Bicket, Barbican review - 10s across the board in perfect Handel
David Nice
Monday, 12 May 2025
Is Giulio Cesare in Egitto, to give the full title, Handel’s best and shapeliest opera? Glyndebourne’s revival of the legendary David McVicar production last year made it seem so...
Robert Beale
Monday, 12 May 2025
Huw Watkins’ Concerto for Orchestra, the fourth new work of his to be commissioned and premiered by the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, is another beautifully crafted and highly...
Tim Cumming
Monday, 12 May 2025
Over the years Slade in Flame has been hailed as one of the greatest rock movies (albeit rarely seen or screened), up there with That’ll Be The Day or Performance.Like those films...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 11 May 2025
“Soul Scene,” by Echoes Limited, is built from elements of the James Brown sound. But it’s put together in such a way that the result is unfamiliar. The angular drum groove edges...
Jonathan Geddes
Saturday, 10 May 2025
It is a family affair at Supergrass shows these days. There were plenty of parents and offspring filing onto the Barrowland’...
Peter Quinn
Saturday, 10 May 2025
London's iconic Roundhouse, packed to the rafters, provided the perfect setting for the UK premiere of Louis Cole's...
Tim Cumming
Saturday, 10 May 2025
Following on from an impressive set with the Libertines – last year’s No 1 album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – Peter...
Matt Wolf
Friday, 09 May 2025
You don't have to be greeting the modern day with a smile unsupported by events in the wider world to have a field day at...
Saskia Baron
Friday, 09 May 2025
There used to be an unwritten rule among BBC commissioners about how long an interval had to pass before greenlighting a new...
Helen Hawkins
Friday, 09 May 2025
When Mark Rosenblatt was preparing his debut play, the miseries of the assault on Gaza were still over the horizon. Now they...
Graham Fuller
Friday, 09 May 2025
Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, the ineffable progressive rock epic that occupies side two of 1971’s Meddle, is having a moment. Nick...
Markie Robson-Scott
Friday, 09 May 2025
“Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” is the menacing motto (sounds more scary with an Australian accent) of the tanned,...
David Nice
Friday, 09 May 2025
Watching the stricken faces on the split screen, I felt at times like callow Farfrae in Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge:...
Sebastian Scotney
Friday, 09 May 2025
Carl Craig (b.1969) is a leading Detroit electronic music producer and DJ whose Planet E Communications label has existed...
Tom Carr
Friday, 09 May 2025
It has never been an exact science understanding when something will capture lightning in a bottle and go viral. Even less...
Helen Hawkins
Thursday, 08 May 2025
The trunk in the title is a luxury item, worth 50 million won – just north of £27,000 – shown sinking in deep water in the...
Gary Naylor
Thursday, 08 May 2025
There was a time when the only daytime TV (ex-weekends and ex-Wimbledon fortnight) comprised the annual party conferences...
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
The Trunk, Netflix review - stylish, noir-ish Korean drama wrapped around a beguiling love story
Unusual psychological study of a stranger paid to save a toxic marriage
Malpractice, ITV1, Series 2 review - fear and loathing in the psychiatric unit
Powerful return of Grace Ofori-Attah's scathing medical drama
Fake, ITV1 review - be careful what you wish for
Australian drama probes the terrors of middle-aged matchmaking
film
Riefenstahl review - fascinating fascism? Portrait of the Nazis' favourite film-maker
A new documentary unlocks the archive of the woman who directed 'Triumph of the Will'
The Surfer review - Nicolas Cage is relentlessly down and out in western Australia
Irish director Lorcan Finnegan's manic take on macho surfer culture
new music
Supergrass, Barrowland, Glasgow review - nostalgia played with youthful energy
The Oxford group's revival of their debut album fizzed with excitement
Louis Cole, Roundhouse review - nothing is everything
Telepathic grooves and Mahlerian beauty collide in Camden
classical
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - premiere of new Huw Watkins work
Craftsmanship and appeal in this 'Concerto for Orchestra' - and game-playing with genre
First Person: young cellist Zlatomir Fung on operatic fantasies old and new
Fresh takes on Janáček's 'Jenůfa' and Bizet's 'Carmen' are on the menu
Classical CDs: Chinese poetry, rollercoasters and old bookshops
Swiss contemporary music, plus two cello albums and a versatile clarinettist remembered
opera
Giulio Cesare, The English Concert, Bicket, Barbican review - 10s across the board in perfect Handel
When you get total musicality from everyone involved, there’s nothing better
The Excursions of Mr Brouček, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - sensuousness, fire and comedy in perfect balance
Janáček’s wacky space-and-time-travel opera glows and grips in every bar
theatre
Here We Are, National Theatre review - Sondheim's sensational swan song
The late composer bids farewell with a show made-to-order for now
Giant, Harold Pinter Theatre review - incendiary Roald Dahl drama with topical bite
John Lithgow gives a masterclass in delivering a 'human booby trap'
Einkvan, Det Norske Teatret, The Coronet Theatre review - alienation times six
Estranged father, mother and son each doubled in Jon Fosse’s mesmerising meditation
dance
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show, and the many ways we deal with sadness
A book about navigating grief feeds into unusual and compelling dance theatre
comedy
Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes
Taskmaster's first tour in seven years is a joy
Books
Zsuzsanna Gahse: Mountainish review - seeking refuge
Notes on danger and dialogue in the shadow of the Swiss Alps
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
visual arts
Do Ho Suh: Walk the House, Tate Modern review - memories are made of this
Home sweet home preserved as exquisite replicas
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
latest comments
And with their best song 'How Does It Feel?'. x
Thanks so much for this review of Shack at Union...
A heavier touch wouldn't have worked (though the...
"Vespetta has her way, of course, but in these...
Seen it last night in NYC, was a bit of a let...
I think the series portrays a parallel vision...
Corrected, with thanks.
Yep. It's an incredible album.