theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 21 March 2019
While Oasis have so far resisted the temptation of the big pay-off that a Gallagher family reunion would ensure, plenty of other Britpoppers have been considerably less coy about...
Jasper Rees
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
In the 1970s, the Mancunian stand-up Colin Crompton had a famous routine about Morecambe. He characterised Morecambe as “a sort of cemetery with lights” where “they don't bury...
Matt Wolf
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
David Hare knows a thing or two about sustaining an onstage face-off. Skylight and The Breath of Life consist tantalisingly of little else and so, for the most part, does his 1986...
Gavin Dixon
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
William Christie kicked off Passion season in London this year with a particularly sombre reading of the St John. The veteran conductor brought his French choir and orchestra, Les...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
Thing is, a lot of this unpleasantness could have been avoided if DI Jimmy Perez had just watched the second series of The Missing. From this he could have deduced that there was...
Laura De Lisle
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
It's an ideal time to revive James Phillips's debut The Rubenstein Kiss. Since it won the John Whiting Award for new writing in 2005 its story, of ideological differences tearing...
Joe Muggs
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
Everything about this mixtape oozes confidence. It crams 12 tracks plus interludes – all produced by Andre “Shy FX”...
Boyd Tonkin
Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Standing next to the warm brown beast of a piano built by Blüthner in Leipzig in 1867, Sir András Schiff advised his...
Marina Vaizey
Tuesday, 19 March 2019
The Magnum photographer Martin Parr has spent decades observing contemporary human activity world-wide as – perhaps – a...
Mark Kidel
Tuesday, 19 March 2019
1957 was a busy year for a very busy director: Ingmar Bergman made two of his most famous films – The Seventh Seal and Wild...
Rachel Halliburton
Monday, 18 March 2019
Richard II has become the drama of our times, as it walks us through the impotent convulsions of a weak and vain leader...
Sarah Kent
Monday, 18 March 2019
In The Thread Russell Maliphant attempts what, at first sight, appears a foolhardy project – the juxtaposition of...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
Monday, 18 March 2019
Every so often, an album reminds you that, done properly, the art form is more than just a collection of songs. Barely 35...
Liz Thomson
Sunday, 17 March 2019
Record Store Day is now a fixture on the calendar, a key element in “the vinyl revival”, and this year – 13 April – it’s...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 17 March 2019
The US music trade weekly Cashbox chose a picture of the then-hot Diana Ross & the Supremes and Temptations joint...
Boyd Tonkin
Saturday, 16 March 2019
Vary the stale format of the vocal recital and all sorts of new doors open for performers and listeners alike. The only...
Katherine Waters
Saturday, 16 March 2019
There’s a wolf howl and Yxng Bane (pronounced Young Bane) jumps off a block on stage and his furry hooded coat flies open...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 16 March 2019
Mahler: Symphony No 3 Düsseldorfer Symphoniker/Adam Fischer, with Anna Larsson (alto) (Tonhalle Düsseldorf)Mahler's...
Veronica Lee
Saturday, 16 March 2019
Ask most people what a showband is and they’ll give you a blank look. But ask any Irish person (or those born in the Irish...
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tv
The Bay, ITV review - Broadchurch goes north
Morven Christie plays a detective with a naughty secret in a Morecambe murder case
Shetland, Series 5 Finale, BBC One review - Sicario-on-Sea?
Unflappable Jimmy Perez solves murderous North Sea crime wave
Showbands, BBC Four review - an Irish cultural phenomenon explained
Ardal O'Hanlon plays the genial host of this illuminating archive documentary
film
Girl review - Belgian art-house portrait of a teenage ballerina
Danse macabre? Cannes festival favourite runs into flak on its wider release
Triple Frontier, Netflix review - war-on-drugs thriller suffers identity crisis
Oscar Isaac and Ben Affleck can't say no to one last big score
new music
CD: Shy FX - Raggamuffin SoundTape
Staggeringly assured survey of decades of soundsystem culture in a tidy package
classical
Bach St John Passion, Les Arts Florissants, Christie, Barbican review – sombre but engaging
An atmospheric but unfocused reading, elevated by a fine Evangelist
Schiff, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, RFH review – antique kit, modern sounds
Instrumental time-travels rejuvenate a Romantic trio
Connolly, Drake, Berrington, Wigmore Hall review – between the acts
Virginia Woolf inspires a rich if distracting mix of words and music
opera
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Birmingham Opera Company review - searing music-theatre for all
Bloodied brides and rat-heads run amok in visceral ballroom Shostakovich
Idomeneo, English Touring Opera review – honest excellence
Strong singing and fuss-free direction do justice to Mozart's dark masterpiece
Robin Hood, The Opera Story, CLF Café review - folk hero re-imagined as Tory villain
The plot is over-stuffed, but this new opera has some riveting moments
theatre
The Bay at Nice, Menier Chocolate Factory review - David Hare talkfest takes intermittent wing
Penelope Wilton and Ophelia Lovibond face off in revival of little-known 1986 play
The Rubenstein Kiss, Southwark Playhouse review - slick spy drama doesn't quite come together
Excellent performances aren't enough to cover the holes in this fictionalised account of the Rosenbergs
Richard II, Sam Wanamaker Theatre review - electrifying mixed-race all-female production
Adjoa Andoh is a magnetic Richard with her hawk-like glare and vigorous swagger
dance
The Thread, Russell Maliphant & Vangelis, Sadler’s Wells review – an inspiring marriage of old and new
Divergent worlds made to co-exist with apparent ease
Bon Voyage, Bob, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells review - interminable ennui
At three and a half wearisome hours, this feels like a marathon
The Rite of Spring/Gianni Schicchi, Opera North review - unlikely but musically satisfying pairing
Odd-couple double bill of Stravinsky and Puccini with plenty to delight ear and eye
comedy
Ed Gamble, The Stand review - amiable hour touching on personal issues
Opening show of 2019 Glasgow Comedy Festival
Sheeps, Soho Theatre review - sketch comedy with a touch of the surreal
Friendship, fake gurus and fun
gaming
The Lego Movie 2 Videogame review - everything is not awesome
Few fresh ideas means this movie adaptation treads the same old ground
Anthem review - singing praises? More like a cautious nod
A rocky start for a new franchise that offers potential and problems in equal measure
Crackdown 3 review - spectacular super-powered action that was great fun many years ago
Nearly a decade has passed since the last incarnation but little has changed in this stagnant shooter
visual arts
The Best Exhibitions in London
From the Turner Prize shortlist to the future of gaming: our guide to what to see in the city
An encounter with John Richardson, Picasso's biographer who has died at 95
Picasso's definitive biographer recalls the artist he knew
Kader Attia / Diane Arbus, Hayward Gallery review - views from the margins
Two photographers explore colliding worlds
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