theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Kieron Tyler |
Cadogan Hall – audience capacity 953 – is probably the smallest venue Todd Rundgren has ever played in London. It’s not about a star which is fading. Last year, he sold out The…
Helen Hawkins |
First performed by its author, Ntozake Shange, and four female friends in a Californian bar in 1974, this piece moved on to more mainstream theatreland and played over 740…
Guy Oddy |
To plug into Chat Pile’s new album is to latch onto a wormhole that reaches back to the mid 1980s to sample a scene that was post-post-punk and pre-grunge. Guitar-driven noise…
Gary Naylor |
"Iconic" must be the most used and abused word in the reviewer’s lexicon - a single in the Top Ten and a slot down the bill at a wannabee Glastonbury festival is enough to secure…
Sebastian Scotney |
Andy Sheppard, like other artists who record frequently for ECM, has built a substantial oeuvre in the label’s mighty catalogue, and in the process has also built his own specific…
Boyd Tonkin |
After the mighty artillery of the Berliner Philharmoniker, here was a German-themed and German-delivered Prom full of subtle, even heart-warming, surprises. The Freiburg Baroque…
johncarvill
Bogart’s 1950s filmography reads like an X-ray of Golden Age Hollywood’s bipolar soul. That uneasy marriage of art and commerce delivered wildly varying results. Nobody could…
Adam Sweeting
Bomb disposal clearly isn’t a job for the faint-hearted, but Vicky McLure’s Lana Washington, who heads the specialist Metropolitan Police bomb squad known as SO15, continues to…
Mark Kidel
It’s hardly surprising that director Grant Gee, one of the most outstanding documentarians around – with acclaimed films about Joy Division and Radiohead, as well as inventive…
Mark Kidel
Simon Green, aka Bonobo, has been gently gliding through a kind of soft electronica, music whose warm embrace, has for some years explored the ways in which elements of music from…
Kieron Tyler
The name was an explicit signpost. Maryland’s Velocity Girl named themselves after the B-side of Primal Scream’s May 1986 second single “Crystal Crescent.” At this point, Bobby…
Bernard Hughes
This was not a Prom with a light and breezy tone. Vaughan Williams’s craggy Ninth Symphony and Britten’s intense pre-war Violin Concerto were coupled with a new commission that…
Gary Naylor
With more than a touch of Alan Bennett writing Talking Heads monologues for Thora Hird, 44 years ago Arnold Wesker wrote Annie Wobbler for Nichola McAuliffe (pictured below). A…
Ralph Moore
It would be wrong to describe this insanely enjoyable operatic, theatrical show as being strictly Pumpkins. Despite its visionary leader Billy Corgan making one-off…
Miranda Heggie
Kicking off the final leg of Icelandic rock giants Sigur Rós’s world tour, the Edinburgh Playhouse had been sold out months in advance for what promised to be an epic concert.…
Saskia Baron
When Terminator 2: Judgement Day was released in 1991, it was the first film to have exceeded a $100m budget. The opening nuclear holocaust scene cost more to put on screen than…
Ibi Keita
Ezra Collective have a talent that’s rarely found in jazz music, the ability to sound and feel like far more than session musicians put in a room to play music. The London born…
Boyd Tonkin
GOAT claims leave me cold, whether applied to athletes or orchestras. Nonetheless, it seems to matter to many people that the Berliner Philharmoniker be discussed as if they are,…
Erin Lewis
In 2023, the reality competition show Dream Academy documented the formation of the girl group Katseye and the intensive training process around it. One of the shows…
disc of the day
US noise merchants travel back to the mid 1980s
tv
Vicky McClure returns as bomb disposal expert Lana Washington
Can detectives Silva and Longacre catch the killer and avoid triggering Armageddon?
Philippa Northeast stars as Miles Franklin's girl-power heroine
film
Hidden gem in Bogie's 50s filmography offers excitement plus psychological depth
Grant Gee's first feature refuses to play by biopic rules
Thirty-five years after its original release, a timely revival of James Cameron's blockbuster
new music
The London stop on the ‘Damned If I Do’ tour is an absolute joy
US noise merchants travel back to the mid 1980s
A trio which can be and is much more exuberant live
classical
Schumann's dark nights of the soul made radiant
Vaughan Williams and Britten provide intensity, while Carmel Smickersgill’s premiere avoids the promised angst
Safe beauties, and bombastic thrills, from a magisterial ensemble
opera
Zurich Opera production has some good singing, but its mood is monochrome
Singers, and players, rise above some clunky moments in Strauss's meta-opera
Missy Mazzoli’s impressive new opera follows Wynton Marsalis' jazz symphony opening night
theatre
Fine cast shows Ntozake Shange's groundbreaking piece still has teeth and dynamism
The lovers' chemistry is electrifying
Arnold Wesker's Anna, Annabella and Annie are still with us 43 years on
dance
Matthew Bourne’s 2000 hit revs up again with impressive dancers and a witty score
Marianela Nuñez celebrates 28 years at the company
A test of stamina for the audience as well as the dancers
comedy
Larky cabaret; smart musical comedy; and a blast of a debut
books
The debut author discusses the value of emotional labour, the modern feminist, and why pain remains vital for a flourishing life
This wide-ranging miscellany combines urban history and geography to nerdily entertaining effect
David Thomson explores the dark side of cinema, but still offers a flicker of hope
visual arts
The Edinburgh Festival may be over for another year, but there is plenty of art still to see
Great American photographers all in one place
Four artists' films and a computer game speculate on societal collapse
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