Catholicism
theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - religion, passion and Nordic fakeryTuesday, 31 July 2018Not to be outdone by the Proms, the 2018 Three Choirs Festival in Hereford burst into action on Saturday with a major choral work, the Mass in D, by music’s most famous suffragette, the majestic figure of Dame Ethel Smyth. Dame Ethel embodies... Read more... |
Apostasy review - trouble in the Jehovah's Witnesses' KingdomSaturday, 28 July 2018Religion’s desire to fulfil humanity too often denies it instead. The cruelty of inflexible faith which breaks fallible adherents on its iron rules is at the core of this family drama, written and directed by former Jehovah’s Witness Daniel... Read more... |
Derry Girls, Channel 4 review – bring on series two!Friday, 09 February 2018When first announced, Derry Girls seemed a strange prospect. Derry during The Troubles wasn’t an obvious choice for a sitcom; neither was writer Lisa McGee, whose only previous comedy outing London Irish was slammed for negative... Read more... |
La forza del destino, Welsh National Opera review - rambling drama, fine musicSaturday, 03 February 2018David Pountney’s tenure at WNO has been an almost unqualified success, despite some eccentricities of repertoire and a certain obstinacy in the matter of new commissions. His own productions have included at least three of unforgettable quality. He... Read more... |
Gunpowder, BBC One review – death, horror, treason and a hint of farceSunday, 22 October 2017Much is being made of the fact that Kit Harington is not only playing the Gunpowder Plot mastermind Robert Catesby, but is genuinely descended from him (and his middle name is Catesby). However, despite its factual underpinnings and screenwriter... Read more... |
Broken, BBC One series finale review - Seán Bean's quiet immensityWednesday, 05 July 2017The Catholic Church hasn’t enjoyed a good press on screen lately. Nuns punished Irishwomen for their pregnancies in Philomena. Priests interfered with altar boys in Spotlight. And in The Young Pope a Vatican fixated on conservatism and casuistry... Read more... |
Broken, BBC One review - things look bleak in McGovernvilleWednesday, 31 May 2017This is Jimmy McGovern, so it’s no surprise to find ourselves up north and feeling grim. The prolific screenwriter’s latest drama series is located in what is described only as “a northern city” (though apparently it’s 60 miles from Sheffield, which... Read more... |
Mary Magdalene: Art's Scarlet Woman, review - 'lugubrious'Friday, 07 April 2017Mary Magdalene: Art's Scarlet Woman (BBC Four) is, says art critic Waldemar Januszczak, a film about a woman who probably never existed. "So why,” he asks, “are we so obsessed with her?” He delivers the answer in breathy, lugubrious tones as if... Read more... |
SilenceSaturday, 31 December 2016Audiences cannot fail to register the enormity of Martin Scorsese’s achievement in Silence. At 160 minutes, it hangs heavy over the film: adapted from the 1966 novel by Japanese writer Shusaku Endo, Silence has been close on three decades in... Read more... |
Swan Lake/Loch na hEala, Sadler’s WellsMonday, 28 November 2016Booking a ticket for a show devised by Michael Keegan-Dolan has always required an act of faith, and this is no exception. ‘If I say this is a house, it’s a house,” says the evening’s laconic compere, Mikel Murfi, gesturing with his cigarette to... Read more... |
The Young Pope, Sky AtlanticFriday, 28 October 2016Having survived what you might call his boy-band years, Jude Law has emerged as a truly substantial actor, and his role here as Lenny Belardo, the newly-elected Pope Pius XIII, may prove to be a defining moment. Created by a multinational consortium... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Dekalog and Other TV WorksFriday, 14 October 2016“Existential realism” is a term, contradictory though it might sound, that comes to mind when describing the work of the great Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. The films he made in the last five years of his life – The Double Life of Veronique... Read more... |