fri 04/04/2025

theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews

Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 04 April 2025
A year ago Guy Ritchie brought us the Netflix series The Gentlemen, and now here he is on Paramount+ with his latest romp through the verdant pastures of criminal low-lifery. It...
Sarah Kent
Friday, 04 April 2025
The best way to experience Ed Atkins’ exhibition at Tate Britain is to start at the end by watching Nurses Come and Go, But None For Me, a film he has just completed. It lasts...
Tim Cumming
Friday, 04 April 2025
I saw the Miki Berenyi Trio play a warmly received sold out set at the Lexington last autumn, at which many of the songs now coming out on Tripla ("three" in Hungarian) had their...
Gary Naylor
Thursday, 03 April 2025
It’s a greater accolade than a Nobel Prize for Literature – one’s very own adjective. There’s a select few: Shakespearean; Dickensian and Pinteresque. Add to that list, Wildean....
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 03 April 2025
Pigsx7 have hardly got a reputation for penning tender and soulful ballads, but Death Hilarious is a particularly aggressive and punishing album even by their standards. Taking...
Gary Naylor
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
That friend you have who hates musicals – probably male, probably straight, probably not seen one since The Sound of Music...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
“Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” The Aesop-ian maxim roughly applies to Jérémie Pastor (Félix Kysyl) in...
Robert Beale
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
It’s quite ironic that the Royal Northern College of Music should have invited, as director of this, Britten’s avowedly...
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Motherhood is a high stress job. Ask any woman and they will tell you the same: sleepless nights, feeding problems and worry...
Liz Thomson
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Spring may have sprung, but there’s little in life to truly raise the sprits, so this week’s release of Who Believes in...
Helen Hawkins
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Is the Royal Ballet a “Balanchine company”? The question was posed at a recent Insight evening to Patricia Neary, the...
Pamela Jahn
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Joshua Oppenheimer made his name directing two disturbing documentaries, The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (...
India Lewis
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruin of Empire, the journalist Howard Amos’ first book, is a prescient and fascinating...
Markie Robson-Scott
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
“I knew I wanted all the effects practical and made for real. The movie is about flesh and bones, about women’s bodies.”...
Justine Elias
Monday, 31 March 2025
The typical Jason Statham movie character – muscular, resourceful, drily humorous – could probably carve an army into...
Robert Beale
Monday, 31 March 2025
The BBC Philharmonic took its Saturday night audience on a journey into French sonic luxuriance – in reverse order of...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 31 March 2025
The dramatic allure of families neck-deep in organised crime never seems to falter, and Stephen Butchard’s new series...
Rachel Halliburton
Monday, 31 March 2025
Over the last three years of the London Handel Festival, two experimental productions have proved to be highlights – not...

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★★★★★ BALANCHINE: THREE SIGNATURE WORKS Exuberant, joyful, exhilarating

★★★★ VERDI REQUIEM, PHILHARMONIA, MUTI, RFH New sparks from an old flame

Q&A JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER On his ominous first feature and why its characters break into song

★★★★ LA FINTA GIARDINIERA, THE MOZARTISTS, CADOGAN HALL Blooms in the wild garden

★★★★ THIS CITY IS OURS, BBC ONE Civil war rocks family cocaine racket

★★★★★ ELTON JOHN & BRANDI CARLILE - WHO BELIEVES IN ANGELS? Stepping out in style

★★★ ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: THE MUSICAL, BATH Not a screaming success

★★★★ THE END Unsettling musical shows the lengths we go to avoid the truth

★★ TALES OF APOLLO AND HERCULES Compelling elements, but a failed experiment

disc of the day

Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla

Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio

The future of Arts Journalism

 

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Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

tv

MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie

High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty

This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket

Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga

The Potato Lab, Netflix review - a K-drama with heart and wit

Love among Korean potato-researchers is surprisingly funny and ideal for Janeites

film

Misericordia review - mushroom-gathering and murder in rural France

A deadpan comedy-thriller from the director of ‘Stranger by the Lake’

theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer on his apocalyptic musical 'The End'

The documentary director talks about his ominous first fiction film and why its characters break into song

new music

Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla

Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio

Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious

Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows

Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?

Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style

opera

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Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist

Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war

theatre

The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Wilde, still burning bright
Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful performance
Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical excess
Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many
Apex Predator, Hampstead Theatre review - poor writing turns horror into silliness
New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent

comedy

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Matt Forde, Touring review - politics, poo and Viagra

The personal and political collide

Harry Hill, Wilton's Music Hall review - madcap comic on terrific form

Utterly daft mix of new material and favourite old characters

Books

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Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region

A journalist looks beyond borders in this searching account of the Russian mind

latest comments

One of the greatest experiences of my life. Muti...

Finally, someone with some taste. This movie was...

Thank you for this fantastic review. While I...

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