Reviews
Souvenir review – Huppert does deadpan like Buster Keaton
Saturday, 24 June 2017
Isabelle Huppert isn’t just here for the nasty things in life. Her rape non-victim in Elle was one of the most iconoclastic performances even she’s given, enigmatic yet emotionally rich, rooted and moving.
Gloria, Hampstead Theatre review – pretty glorious
Friday, 23 June 2017
As with life, so it is in art: in the same way that one can't predict the curve balls that get thrown our way, the American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins defies categorisation. On the basis of barely a handful of plays, two of which happen now to be running concurrently in London, this 32-year-old Pulitzer prize finalist seems to embark upon a fresh path with each new venture.
The Book of Henry review - staggeringly awful
Friday, 23 June 2017
It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a movie as staggeringly awful as The Book of Henry. If it was just a touch more shrill it could have...
Terror, Lyric Hammersmith review – more gimmick...
Friday, 23 June 2017
Can the theatre be a courtroom? A good public place to debate morality and to arrive at profound decisions? You could answer this with a history...
Who Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First...
Friday, 23 June 2017
Immigration…immigration… immigration… that’s what we need! Not the words of record-breaking, tap-dancing trumpeter Roy Castle, rather it’s the gist...
Otello, Royal Opera review — Kaufmann makes a pretty Moor
New production of Verdi's tragedy is a trial to look at - and heaven to listen to |
Hampstead review - Diane Keaton deserves better and so does London
Wince-making romcom is pretty but preposterous |
National Gallery of Ireland review - bigger and better
Dublin celebrates the reopening of its refurbished art gallery with Vermeer |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 29: The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Sikth, ESG, Alice Coltrane and more
The most wide-ranging record reviews out there |
Bat Out of Hell, Coliseum review - Jim Steinman's rockin' dystopia hits the stage
It's opera, but not as we know it |
Chance, Universal review – Hugh Laurie is reborn as a film-noir shrink
Dr House finds a new home in San Francisco |
Ensemble InterContemporain, Wigmore Hall
Eccentricity inspires colour, nuance and slapstick from young composer Matteo Franceschini |
Hir, Bush Theatre review – transgender home is sub-prime
New American satire about families only occasionally hits the mark |
Ripper Street, BBC Two, Series 5 review – apocalypse looms in Victorian Whitechapel
Not so much a police series as a laboratory of lost souls |
The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger review - voyages round a giant
Four very different films create an intimate portrait of an influential man |
Kiss Me, Trafalgar Studios review - Richard Bean two-hander is affecting if slight
Onetime National Theatre hit-maker offers a decided change-of-pace |
Supersonic Festival 2017, Birmingham
From meditative to psychotic and back again on the hottest weekend of the year |
Murdered For Being Different, BBC Three review - unbearable but unmissable
Sophie Lancaster, killed for being a goth, is at the heart of the online channel's latest real-life dramatisation |
David Sedaris: Theft By Finding review - comic literary talent of historic value
Humorist shares the first draft of his autobiographical experiences |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Lynn Castle
Previously unheard Sixties recordings by goth-tinged singer-songwriter reveal a one-off talent |
Andrew O'Hagan: The Secret Life review – troubling tales from the online underground
Shifting selves in the internet's twilight zone |
Guns N' Roses, London Stadium review - venue almost ruins night of glory
The Not in This Lifetime reunion tour rolls into town |
Hamlet, Harold Pinter Theatre review - dislocatingly fresh makeover
Robert Icke finds new truths in old words in this captivating production starring Andrew Scott |
Pelléas et Mélisande, Garsington Opera review - brilliant but frustrating
Masterpiece of communication failure beautifully played and designed but impassively staged |
Tristan & Yseult, Shakespeare's Globe review - terrific visual and musical élan
Emma Rice bows out in riotous style - Shakespeare would have cheered her |
Gifted review - genius in the family genes
'Captain America' Chris Evans flexes some different muscles in an atypical family drama |
Fahrelnissa Zeid, Tate Modern review - rediscovering a forgotten genius
How a major 20th century painter was erased from history |
Churchill review - Winston has smallness thrust upon him
Brian Cox is the latest to play the Great Briton in a chamber piece set in the days before D-Day |
Riviera, Sky Atlantic review - codswallop on the Côte d'Azur
Sun, sex, sleaze and Eurotrash |
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latest in today
Souvenir review – Huppert does deadpan like Buster Keaton
Isabelle Huppert isn’t just here for the nasty things in life. Her rape non-victim in Elle was one of the...
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Friday 23 June
Versailles, BBC Two – final...
Gloria, Hampstead Theatre review – pretty glorious
As with life, so it is in art: in the same way that one can't predict the curve balls that get thrown our way, the American playwright Branden...
The Book of Henry review - staggeringly awful
It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a movie as staggeringly awful as The Book of Henry. If it was just a touch more shrill it could...
Terror, Lyric Hammersmith review – more gimmick than drama
Can the theatre be a courtroom? A good public place to debate morality and to arrive at profound decisions? You could answer this with a history...
Who Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First Great Immigrat...
Immigration…immigration… immigration… that’s what we need! Not the words of record-breaking, tap-dancing trumpeter Roy Castle, rather it’s the...
The Best Plays in London
London is the theatre capital of the world, with more than 50 playhouses offering theatrical entertainment. From the mighty National Theatre to...
