theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Helen Hawkins
Friday, 19 April 2024
Richard Gadd won an Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2016 with material about being sexually abused by a man, in a set called Monkey See, Monkey Do that he performed on a treadmill with...
Sarah Kent
Friday, 19 April 2024
The first photograph was taken nearly 200 years ago in France by Joseph Niépce, and the first picture of a person was taken in Paris by Louis Daguerre in 1838 (main picture)....
Robert Beale
Friday, 19 April 2024
If ever more evidence were needed of Sir Mark Elder’s untiring zest for exploration and love of the thrill of live opera performance, it was this ground-breaking collaborative...
Justine Elias
Friday, 19 April 2024
Music, when the singer’s voice dies away, vibrates in the memory. In the hypnotic new Irish horror film All You Need Is Death, those who search for long-unheard songs crave a...
Veronica Lee
Friday, 19 April 2024
If you don't like sweary comics – Jonathan Pie uses the c-word liberally – then this may not be the show for you. In fact if you're a Tory, ditto, because it is 70 minutes of...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 19 April 2024
Record Store Day is tomorrow! At theartsdesk on Vinyl we’ve been sent a selection of exclusive RSD goodies. Check out the reviews, then check out your local record shop! See you...
Markie Robson-Scott
Thursday, 18 April 2024
Teenage Ulzii (Battsooj Uurtsaikh in an elegantly restrained performance) is looking after his little sister and brother in...
Helen Hawkins
Thursday, 18 April 2024
The Book of Clarence comes lumbered with the charge of being the new Life of Brian, an irreverent spoof of the life of...
Jon Turney
Thursday, 18 April 2024
Our home planet orbits the medium-size star we call the Sun. There are unfathomably many more stars out there. We accepted...
Tom Carr
Thursday, 18 April 2024
Thirty years, and over 75 million copies sold. It’s been a long journey from Nineties Seattle for Pearl Jam, the grunge...
David Nice
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
All three works in the second of this week’s Neville Marriner centenary concerts from the ensemble he founded vindicated...
An Actor Convalescing in Devon, Hampstead Theatre review - old school actor tells old school stories
Gary Naylor
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
One can often be made to feel old in the theatre. A hot take in a snappy 90 minutes (with video!) on the latest Gen Z...
Colin Alexander And Héloïse Werner
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
For tonight’s performance at Milton Court, the nuanced and delicate tones of strings, voices, harmonium and chamber organ...
Sarah Kent
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Yinka Shonibare’s Serpentine Gallery exhibition opens with a piece of cloth twirling in the breeze; except that it’s a...
Kieron Tyler
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Death Songbook is, says Charles Hazlewood, founder, artistic director and conductor of Paraorchestra, an album of “music...
Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Ludicrous plotting and a tangled skein of coincidences hold no terrors for the makers of this frequently baffling French...
Aleks Sierz
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
I’ve never been one for school reunions, but even if I had kept in touch with former classmates I think that American...
India Lewis
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Artist and writer, Heather McCalden, has produced her first book-length work. The Observable Universe examines, variously,...
Thomas H Green
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
VINYL OF THE MONTHLondon Afrobeat Collective Esengo (Canopy)The weather has not been kind to the UK lately, pelting it daily...
disc of the day
Album: Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Enduring grunge icons return full of energy, arguably their most empowered yet
tv
Baby Reindeer, Netflix review - a misery memoir disturbingly presented
Richard Gadd's double traumas are a difficult watch but ultimately inspiring
Anthracite, Netflix review - murderous mysteries in the French Alps
Who can unravel the ghastly secrets of the town of Lévionna?
Ripley, Netflix review - Highsmith's horribly fascinating sociopath adrift in a sea of noir
Its black and white cinematography is striking, but eventually wearying
film
If Only I Could Hibernate review - kids in grinding poverty in Ulaanbaatar
Mongolian director Zoljargal Purevdash's compelling debut
The Book of Clarence review - larky jaunt through biblical epic territory
LaKeith Stanfield is impressively watchable as the Messiah's near-neighbour
new music
theartsdesk on Vinyl: Record Store Day Special 2024
Annual edition checking out records exclusively available on this year's Record Store Day
Album: Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Enduring grunge icons return full of energy, arguably their most empowered yet
Album: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood - Death Songbook
An uneven voyage into darkness
classical
Bell, Perahia, ASMF Chamber Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - joy in teamwork
A great pianist re-emerges in Schumann, but Beamish and Mendelssohn take the palm
First Persons: composers Colin Alexander and Héloïse Werner on fantasy in guided improvisation
On five new works allowing an element of freedom in the performance
First Person: Leeds Lieder Festival director and pianist Joseph Middleton on a beloved organisation back from the brink
Arts Council funding restored after the blow of 2023, new paths are being forged
opera
Simon Boccanegra, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - thrilling, magnificent exploration
Verdi’s original version of the opera brought to exciting life
Aci by the River, London Handel Festival, Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse review - myths for the #MeToo age
Star singers shine in a Handel rarity
Carmen, Royal Opera review - strong women, no sexual chemistry and little stage focus
Damiano Michieletto's new production of Bizet’s masterpiece is surprisingly invertebrate
theatre
An Actor Convalescing in Devon, Hampstead Theatre review - old school actor tells old school stories
Fact emerges skilfully repackaged as fiction in an affecting solo show by Richard Nelson
The Comeuppance, Almeida Theatre review - remembering high-school high jinks
Latest from American penman Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is less than the sum of its parts
Richard, My Richard, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmund's review - too much history, not enough drama
Philippa Gregory’s first play tries to exonerate Richard III, with mixed results
dance
All You Need Is Death review - a future folk horror classic
Irish folkies seek a cursed ancient song in Paul Duane's impressive fiction debut
MacMillan Celebrated, Royal Ballet review - out of mothballs, three vintage works to marvel at
Less-known pieces spanning the career of a great choreographer underline his greatness
Carmen, English National Ballet review - lots of energy, even violence, but nothing new to say
Johan Inger's take on Carmen tries but fails to make a point about male violence
comedy
Jonathan Pie, Duke of York's Theatre review - spoof political reporter takes no prisoners
Tom Walker in a bravura display
Spencer Jones: Making Friends, Soho Theatre review - award-winning comedian mines his post-lockdown escape to the country
If big chickens scare you, this is your thing!
Six Chick Flicks, Leicester Square Theatre review - funny, frenetic and feminist spoof
Whip-smart parody of the genre
Books
Lisa Kaltenegger: Alien Earths review - a whole new world
Kaltenegger's traverses space in her thoughtful exploration of the search for life among the stars
Heather McCalden: The Observable Universe review - reflections from a damaged life
An artist pens a genre-spanning work of tender inconclusiveness
Dorian Lynskey: Everything Must Go review - it's the end of the world as we know it
Authoritative account of how the apocalypse has always been just around the corner
visual arts
Yinka Shonibare: Suspended States, Serpentine Gallery review - pure delight
Weighty subject matter treated with the lightest of touch
Jane Harris: Ellipse, Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux review - ovals to the fore
Persistence and conviction in the works of the late English painter
Sargent and Fashion, Tate Britain review - portraiture as a performance
London’s elite posing dressed up to the nines
latest comments
Couldn't agree more. THIS is the one to see to...
I watched it yesterday and it made feel like "Oh...
I saw this today at The Curve, why any theatre...
Y'all be giving out 100's like hotcakes, do y'all...
Seen in Oxford 9th April. I agree entirely...
Gee thanks, Richard... but the truth is, only...
I tried to warn you...
The Talented Ms Hawkins. You were 'wasted' all...