theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Helen Hawkins |
E Jean Carroll is the all-American modern woman: Miss Cheerleader USA 1964, gonzo journalist, TV counsellor, glossy magazine agony aunt and, latterly, the victor in two civil…
Helen Hawkins |
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film was a surprise hit at Cannes last year, winning the Critics’ Week Grand Prize. It’s a ghost story that wears its genre trappings lightly, because…
David Nice |
"It was insanely excellent," enthused one of the Järvi Academy Symphony Orchestra's young musicians about the Estonian Festival Orchestra's performance of Nielsen's Third Symphony…
Liz Thomson |
London was where James Taylor got his big break when, after a rocky, drug-strewn apprenticeship in New York City, he reinvented himself as a solo performer and managed to get a…
Adam Sweeting |
If a week is a long time in politics, 30 years is an aeon in popular culture. It was in 1996 that Danny Boyle’s film of Irvine Welsh’s novel, Trainspotting, exploded over Britpop…
Ibi Keita |
Fans have been waiting for a new Strokes album for six years, and after a few listens, Reality Awaits left me feeling more disappointed than excited. There are moments where the…
David Nice
Can the 1916 Prologue of Strauss and Hofmannsthal added to a revised version of a 1912 opera-within-a-play setting the backstage shenanigans to music ever fail? Yes, alas. It fell…
Adam Sweeting
Based on the novel by Marissa Stapley and telly-ised by screenwriter/creator Jonathan Tropper, Lucky is a rip-roaring tale of dysfunctional criminal families, enlivened by a batch…
Gary Naylor
If the secret of comedy is timing and location, location, location determines a property’s success, then the producers of Here Comes J. Edgar! are batting on a sticky wicket. How…
Mark Kidel
It’s always a pleasure to meet again with Charles Lloyd, whose sweet and expressive tone first enchanted me as a teenager in 1963, when he graced the Chico Hamilton Quartet, along…
David Nice
You don't have to be mad to enjoy Gerald Barry's methodically berserk approach to Wilde, but your wits might have begun to turn by the interval and you'll question your sanity by…
Nick Hasted
Mass shootings and social media combine to fry the humanity of rich New York kid Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) and poor Southern kid Solomon (Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield) in…
Aleks Sierz
Queerness is subversive – it dissolves gender binaries. You know the kind of thing: male/female, straight/gay, married/single, fixed/fluid. Likewise, queer theatre typically calls…
Kieron Tyler
The key track gives the album its title. “Where the Fades Meet” opens with swelling strings, which are swiftly underpinned by groovy, shuffling, percussion. The lyrics are carried…
David Nice
Noble intentions and two talented true individuals faced a few obstacles in this admirably-planned Prom. Gianandrea Noseda looked set to reduce the Behemoth aspect of Beethoven's…
Graham Rickson
The completion of the Berlin Wall in 1961 severely damaged the East German industrial economy, the fallout soon affecting the GDR’s film industry. December 1965 saw the 11th…
Gary Naylor
Social engineering gets a bad press. The whiff of creating a eugenics-inspired master race by other means clings to it, so too agitprop induced brainwashing, the Republic of…
Thomas H. Green
I didn’t want to review Shania Twain. My sense of her is of ancient mega-selling hits I can’t stand. I didn’t even go to her Sunday afternoon set at Glastonbury 2024. But it’s…
Kieron Tyler
The title “Tone Phase 1 for 2 Guitars & 4 Oscillators” is a giveaway, clearly indicating what’s going to be heard once the LP has landed on the record player. And, indeed, the…
disc of the day
The garage rockers don't do themselves justice on new album
tv
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time...
Harlan Coben thriller does what it says on the tin
film
The pioneering journalist E Jean Carroll's story is heartening, funny and troubling
A surprise Thai hit combines deadpan-dry humour with sharp-toothed social commentary
School shootings and social media alienation queasily satirised
new music
The garage rockers don't do themselves justice on new album
Vibrant sounds from jazz and Indian masters
classical
The Estonian Festival Orchestra rules supreme, but other aspects just got even better
A rapid Beethoven 9 and a showcase for the phenomenal Abel Selaocoe
An intriguing musical exploration of shifting power dynamics in the 20th century
opera
Laurent Pelly's production proves you can have a great cast yet fail them as characters
A magnificent cast manages to master Gerald Barry's Wilde and act their crazy socks off
Two tales of magic and mystery - as TV reality show and environmental parable
theatre
You saw the movie and you read the book...
Curious show struggles to find the right tone
New play about love and loneliness in London has terrific gender and genre fluidity
dance
Aakash Odedra is superb as a tortured creature seeking freedom and transcendence
A company that is alive and kicking - literally
Double bill takes the Royal Ballet dancers to unusual new heights
comedy
Comic looks back on his life and career
Comic revisits her alma mater to talk politics
books
As her collection of music by goth divas appears, the writer reveals the appeal of the dark side
Joyce lurks in the margins of his own biography in a detailed history of Irish politics
An enjoyable look at 'missingness' and how it affects the way we experience the world
visual arts
Ritualistic performances and evocations of fertility goddesses
Darkness reigns in powerful but competing installations
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