theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
“Welcome to motherhood, bitch!” By the time a character delivers this reality check, there have been plenty of laughs, and some much more awkward moments, in Richard Molloy’s The...
Aleks Sierz
Tuesday, 28 May 2024
When does creativity become mannered? When it’s based on repetition, and repetition without development. About halfway through star director Katie Mitchell’s staging of Margaret...
David Nice
Tuesday, 28 May 2024
“Saint-Saëns: The Renaissance Man” proclaimed the big screen at the first remarkable programme I attended within the 2024 Sheffield Chamber Music Festival. The same epithet could...
Sarah Kent
Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Tate Britain’s Now You See Us could be the most important exhibition you’ll ever see. Spanning 400 hundred years, this overview of women artists in Britain destroys the myth that...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 28 May 2024
It’s interesting to discover that sound wasn’t the norm in Japanese cinema until the mid-1930s: the huge cost of investing in pricey new studio technology and equipping scores of...
Bernard Hughes
Monday, 27 May 2024
Kudos to the Wigmore Hall for continuing to make efforts to diversify its roster of performers and repertoire. Last year I reviewed the Kaleidoscope Collective, and noted how the...
India Lewis
Monday, 27 May 2024
Last night’s Travels Over Feeling: The Music of Arthur Russell (a concert in part accompanying the recent publication of a...
Tim Cumming
Monday, 27 May 2024
Any Richard Thompson appearance comes with a hallmark guaranteeing quality produce – be that an album or a stage show. ...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 26 May 2024
Jon Savage's The Secret Public How The LGBTQ+ Aesthetic Shaped Pop Culture 1955-1979 accompanies the titular author/...
David Nice
Saturday, 25 May 2024
Catchy even when the lyrics are at their cheesiest, the Jerry Herman Songbook serves up a string of memorable tunes: you’ll...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 25 May 2024
Britten: Spring Symphony, Sinfonia da Requiem, Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra/Sir...
Veronica Lee
Saturday, 25 May 2024
Ten years after their last tour Steve Punt and High Dennis are back on the road with We Are Not a Robot. It comes after...
Sebastian Scotney
Saturday, 25 May 2024
Brooklyn-based composer and bandleader Jihye Lee’s story really does take quite some telling. Having been an indie pop...
Demetrios Matheou
Friday, 24 May 2024
In the way of Batman being overshadowed by his villains, in his last outing, Mad Max: Fury Road, the erstwhile hero of...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 24 May 2024
It was – let’s see – 63 years ago today that Brian Wilson taught the band to play. Fabled for their resplendent harmonies...
Tom Carr
Friday, 24 May 2024
If there is one positive of the past decade, it must be the growing openness with mental health and wellbeing. Whether in...
Tom Birchenough
Thursday, 23 May 2024
There’s a fierce, dark energy to the Globe’s new Richard III that I don’t recall at that venue for a fair while. The drilled...
Bernard Hughes
Thursday, 23 May 2024
Like his baggy white suit, pitched somewhere between Liberace and Colonel Sanders, Pavel Kolesnikov’s playing was spotless...
Aleks Sierz
Thursday, 23 May 2024
It’s often said that contemporary American playwrights are too polite, too afraid of giving offence. But this accusation can...
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disc of the day
Blu-ray: Two Films by Yasujirō Ozu
Father/son relationships seen through the eyes of a master filmmaker
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tv
The Beach Boys, Disney+ review - heroes and villains and good vibrations
Stylish retelling of the Beach Boys saga could use sharper teeth
theartsdesk Q&A: Eddie Marsan and the American Revolution, posh boys and East End gangsters
Versatile actor on playing John Adams opposite Michael Douglas in Apple TV+’s ‘Franklin'
Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottish 'tec hits the jackpot
Richard Rankin makes a compelling debut as the unorthodox Edinburgh cop
film
Blu-ray: Two Films by Yasujirō Ozu
Father/son relationships seen through the eyes of a master filmmaker
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review - just as mad without Max
George Miller’s latest dystopian dust-up in the desert
The Beach Boys, Disney+ review - heroes and villains and good vibrations
Stylish retelling of the Beach Boys saga could use sharper teeth
new music
Album: Richard Thompson - Ship to Shore
The master and commander of misery and despair casts off into the deep once more
Travels Over Feeling: The Music of Arthur Russell, Barbican review - a sublime evening undercut by tonal shifts
Tribute to Russell brings together contemporary talent in an emotional concert
classical
Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2024 review - curator Steven Isserlis spotlights masterly Fauré and Saint-Saëns
More delights in the round as Ensemble 360 is joined by very special guests
Sphinx Organization, Wigmore Hall review - black performers and composers take centre stage
A welcome spotlight on diversified repertoire, played with sincerity and humour
Classical CDs: Cowhorns, gloves and marching drums
Contemporary sounds from Norway, plus rediscovered American and a brass dectet
opera
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne review - cornucopia of visual inventiveness eclipses everything else
An operatic feast for the eyes doesn't translate into conceptual satisfaction
Carmen, Glyndebourne review - total musical fusion
Production tells the story, mostly, but it’s the lead and the conductor who electrify
L'Olimpiade, Irish National Opera review - Vivaldi's long-distance run sustained by perfect teamwork
Sporting confusions and star-crossed lovers clarified by vivacious singing and playing
theatre
The Harmony Test, Hampstead Theatre review - pregnancy and parenthood
Taboo-tickling comedy about both conceiving a baby and life as empty nesters
Bluets, Royal Court review - more grey than ultramarine
Katie Mitchell’s staging of Maggie Nelson’s bestseller is neither original nor beautiful
Jerry’s Girls, Menier Chocolate Factory review - just a parade that passes by
Three talented performers in a revue that doesn’t add up to much
dance
The Winter's Tale, Royal Ballet review - what a story, and what a way to tell it!
A compelling case for ROH's ballet-friendly rebrand
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
comedy
Punt and Dennis, The Marlowe, Canterbury review - satire and sketches
Double act back on the road after a decade
DVD/Blu-ray: Billy Connolly - Big Banana Feet
The comic caught on the cusp of his fame as he tours Ireland in 1975
Clinton Baptiste, Touring review - spoof clairvoyant on great form
Character has life beyond 'Phoenix Nights'
Books
Extract: Pariah Genius by Iain Sinclair
A form-defying writer explores the troubled mindscape of a Soho photographer
Jonn Elledge: A History of the World in 47 Borders review - a view from the boundaries
Enjoyable journey through the byways of how lines on maps have shaped the modern world
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
visual arts
Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920, Tate Britain review - a triumph
Rescued from obscurity, 100 women artists prove just how good they can be
Brancusi, Pompidou Centre, Paris review - a sculptor's spiritual quest for form and essence
The Paris landmark signs off with a historic survey
Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider, Tate Modern review - a missed opportunity
Wonderful paintings, but only half the story
latest comments
A remarkable series. With two episodes to watch,...
I made an error when first publishing this text,...
This really was a piano recital delivered as...
Enjoyable machvellian series well cast and like...
Season 8? Just horrible. I blame the writers...
Thank you David, this is very helpful. From where...
Michael Rebus lived in Fife , not Edinburgh.That...
Hello! I enjoyed the production although it...