tue 21/05/2013

Interviews with leading figures from the arts

10 Questions for Ballerina Alina Cojocaru

Ismene Brown

For the Royal Ballet's exquisite star Alina Cojocaru her dream is performing some of the most physically demanding movements ever devised for a human being - for a paralysed 52-year-old man in Romania, the dream is to go to the park and look at the sky. Cojocaru's dream is realisable; Marius's is not. Romania is not a country where you would want to be ill, says the ballerina of her native land.This Sunday Cojocaru returns some of the value of her talent and position in the world to her...

Read more...

The Resurrection of Conor McPherson

Jasper Rees

The revival this week at the Donmar Warehouse of The Weir has reminded theatre-goers of Conor McPherson’s hypnotic powers as a dramatist. Sitting in the theatre on the first night as, on a windy evening in a rural Irish pub, character after character unburdens himself - and finally herself - of a supernatural tale, you could palpably feel the playwright’s storytelling magic casting its spell all over again.In a way, The Weir - written when he was only 26 - is itself a ghost haunting the...

Read more...

10 Questions for Alexander McCall Smith

Jasper Rees

Alexander McCall Smith is Scottish, and writes fiction, but he doesn’t write “Scottish fiction” as most of us understand the term. In his world view...

Read more...

10 Questions for Internet Broadcaster Jamal...

Joe Muggs

In six and a half years of existence, SBTV has redefined what youth culture broadcasting can be. It began as nothing more than a YouTube channel...

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Steve Earle

Adam Sweeting

A renaissance man from Texas? Hell yeah. Loosely pegged as "country singer" when he struck out for Nashville in the late Seventies, where he survived...

Read more...

Interview: Hariharan

Peter Culshaw

The Indian star singer on how to stay innovative, the genius of AR Rahman and the satanic nature of the internet

Read more...

10 Questions for Writer David Mitchell

Jasper Rees

The author of 'Cloud Atlas' has turned to modern opera

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Alexandra Coghlan

On the eve of his 70th birthday the conductor talks Bach and taking concerts back to basics

Read more...

10 Questions for François Ozon

Demetrios Matheou

The French director reflects on 'my most Hitchcockian film'

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Nick Rhodes

Thomas H Green

Duran Duran's synth maestro talks about his life, his music, James Bond, Facebook, Kajagoogoo and much more

Read more...

10 Questions for Actor James McAvoy

Jasper Rees

The Scottish actor on playing the Scottish king in the West End

Read more...

Interview: Film Director Matteo Garrone

Nick Hasted

The director of Gomorrah discusses his new Cannes-winning film Reality, which counts the cost of reality TV

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson

Jasper Rees

Fifty years on, the creators of Steptoe and Son explain its enduring appeal as the classic sitcom is revived onstage

Read more...

10 Questions for Playwright James Graham

Jasper Rees

The author of the National's hit This House on the arcane world of Parliamentary whips

Read more...

10 Questions for Musician John Fullbright

Adam Sweeting

Oklahoma singer-songwriter wins friends and influences people with masterly debut album

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Producer/DJ Coki (from Digital Mystikz)

Joe Muggs

The most mysterious Mystik speaks at last

Read more...

10 Questions for Choreographer Bob Avian

Jasper Rees

The last survivor of the team which created 'A Chorus Line' recalls its impact as it returns to London

Read more...

Rock and Pop: Raw Power at 40

theartsdesk

Limited edition prints by the court photographer of glam Mick Rock mark the anniversary of Iggy Pop's iconic album

Read more...

10 Questions for Musician Soweto Kinch

Peter Quinn

The alto saxist and rapper on melding forms, scoring films and social ire

Read more...

Q&A Special: The Making of Local Hero

Jasper Rees

Writer-director Bill Forsyth and stars Denis Lawson and Peter Riegert recall a great film's birth 30 years ago

Read more...

Interview: Artist Richard Wentworth

Mark Hudson

The perpetually youthful sculptor talks about building a temporary village hall in King's Cross

Read more...

10 Questions for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo's leader Tory Dobrin

Ismene Brown

In their 40th year, the hairy ballerinas have laughed through a traumatic social history

Read more...

10 Questions for Musician Richard Thompson

Graeme Thomson

The folk-rock pioneer talks about his new album, his No Twang rule, and the 'inner landscape' of songwriting

Read more...

Q&A Special: Conductor Sir Simon Rattle

Jasper Rees

The conductor on his long-running association with period specialists the OAE

Read more...

10 Questions for Amateur Musician Alan Rusbridger

Jasper Rees

The Guardian editor's book about performing on the piano explores the missing link between Assange and Chopin

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Comedian Rowan Atkinson

Jasper Rees

The face of Blackadder and Bean on a life spent entertaining, and taking on a tragicomedy

Read more...

10 Questions for Musician Peter Jobson

Russ Coffey

I Am Kloot's laconic bass player on poetry, punks, Elbow and the new album

Read more...

10 Questions for James Marsh

Jasper Rees

The director of Shadow Dancer on walking the high wire between fact and fiction

Read more...

10 Questions for Director Bernard Rose

Tom Birchenough

The British filmmaker, working in the best American indie tradition, on bringing Tolstoy to California

Read more...

Free Newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday - free!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters

latest in today

CD: StooShe - London With The Lights On

Mouthy London trio's debut is loaded with enjoyable bawdiness and atti...

Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground

The pioneer of continuous music astonishes while Bon Iver’s preferred artis...

Helen Chadwick, Richard Saltoun, London

Her obsession with death and decay was leavened by a wicked sense of humour

10 Questions for Artist Michael Landy

On the eve of a new exhibition of his kinetic saints, the artist talks abou...

Case Histories, BBC One

The brooding private detective is back

Falstaff, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Comedy is king in a Falstaff revival which is consistently enjoyable but co...

The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four

The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld

DVD: Chronicle of a Summer

BFI reissue of the mother of all vérité docs

Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Strauss's opera reluctantly enters the Battle of Britain courtesy of a...

theartsdesk in Warsaw: A New Jewish Museum

Although only 7,500 Jews live in Poland, a space dedicated to their history...