Reviews
A Raisin in the Sun, Lyric Hammersmith review - of race and men
Sunday, 13 October 2024
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is not only the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway, back in 1959, but it’s also a cultural goldmine. So powerful is its depiction of the postwar African-American experience that it has inspired at least two other recent dramatic responses: Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park (2010) and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Beneatha’s Place (2013).
Salem’s Lot review - listless King remake
Sunday, 13 October 2024
A boy’s dead friend scratching at his first-floor window, Nosferatu-like vampire Barlow rearing up with heart attack shock…The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper’s 1979 TV take on Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot scared a teen generation out of their skins.
Disclaimer, Apple TV+ review - a misfiring...
Sunday, 13 October 2024
It seems to be silly season for big-name directors. First, Coppola’s Megalopolis and Steve McQueen’s Blitz: why? Now Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer:...
Music Reissues Weekly: Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa
Sunday, 13 October 2024
In 2022, Spritualized’s Jason Pierce described his musical goal as "trying to find somewhere between Arvo Pärt and The Stooges.” Amongst the most...
The Turn of the Screw, English National Opera...
Saturday, 12 October 2024
At first, you wonder if the peculiar voice of Henry James’s maybe unreliable narrator can be preserved in this production. Surely the outcome is...
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London Film Festival 2024 - the Vatican, the Blitz, a trip to Poland and a surfin' nightmare
Another cinematic feast as LFF '24 gets underway |
The Last of the Sea Women review - a moving tale of feisty traditional divers
Eye-opening Korean doc about intrepid harvesters of the deep |
Trouble in Tahiti/A Quiet Place, Linbury Theatre review - top cast plays unhappy families
Mini-masterpiece and splashy sequel carried off with as much conviction as they can take |
Timestalker review – she's lost control again
Alice Lowe directs herself as a woman pursuing the wrong dude, century after century |
Kanga, Manchester Collective, Singh, RNCM Manchester review - string ensemble playing at its most rewarding
New classics introduced and a world premiere with a dark story |
The Lehman Trilogy, Gillian Lynne Theatre review - three brothers, two crashes, one American Dream
Sensational stagecraft elevates familiar tale of immigrant success in the USA |
Filumena, Theatre Royal Windsor review - Mozartian marriage comedy with pasta sauce
Dazzling Felicity Kendal conquers time in a tour de force of comedic playing |
Brace Brace, Royal Court review - too slender to satisfy
New play about the consequences of a plane hijack is energetic but unconvincing |
Lygia Clark: The I and the You, Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation, Whitechapel Gallery review - breaking boundaries
Two artists, 50 years apart, invite audience participation |
Gigi and Dar, Arcola Theatre review - a war-game of two halves
Josh Azouz and Kathryn Hunter concoct an uneasy mix of comedy and tragedy |
Portraits of Dangerous Women review - quirky indie comedy
Pascal Bergamin explores unlikely friendships in the English countryside |
Album: The Offspring - Supercharged
Another successful Pop Punk celebration |
The Other Place, National Theatre review - searing family tragedy
Emma D’Arcy and Tobias Menzies lock horns in twisted and triumphant take on ‘Antigone’ |
Bellringers, Hampstead Theatre review - mordant comedy about the end of the world
Daisy Hall's astonishing debut is both darkly funny and deadly serious |
Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit, Tate Modern review - adolescent angst indefinitely extended
The artist who refused to grow up |
French Toast, Riverside Studios review - Racine-inspired satire finds its laughs once up-and-running
Comedy gains momentum when characters are rounded out |
Ludwig, BBC One review - entertaining spin on the brainy detective formula
David Mitchell is a perfect fit for this super-sleuth |
Ellen DeGeneres, Netflix Special review - no mea culpa and few jokes
Former chatshow host’s bizarre take on cancellation |
The Hardacres, Channel 5 review - a fishy tale of upward mobility
Will everyday saga of Yorkshire folk strike a popular note? |
Juno and the Paycock, Gielgud Theatre review - a shockingly original centenary revival of O'Casey's tragi-comedy
J Smith-Cameron and Mark Rylance bring the classic characters to life |
Hardenberger, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - splendour and a trumpeter's voluntary
Individuality and discipline in Strauss, Stravinsky, Haydn… and more |
Angry and Young, Almeida Theatre review - vigorous and illuminating double bill
Two all-time 1950s classics, 'Look Back in Anger' and 'Roots', get super revivals by young directors |
Blond Eckbert, English Touring Opera review - dark deeds afoot in the woods
Judith Weir’s chamber opera explores Freudian themes through a modern lens |
Songs We Carry, Ana Silvera and Saied Silbak, Kings Place review - harmony between Arab and Jew
Witnesses to the possibility of reconciliation and love |
latest in today
A Raisin in the Sun, Lyric Hammersmith review - of race and...
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is not only the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway, back in 1959, but it’s also...
Salem’s Lot review - listless King remake
A boy’s dead friend scratching at his first-floor window, Nosferatu-like vampire Barlow rearing up with heart attack shock…The Texas Chain Saw...
Disclaimer, Apple TV+ review - a misfiring revenge saga from...
It seems to be silly season for big-name directors...
Music Reissues Weekly: Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa
In 2022, Spritualized’s Jason Pierce described his musical goal as "trying to find somewhere between Arvo Pärt and The Stooges.” Amongst the most...
The Turn of the Screw, English National Opera review - James...
At first, you wonder if the peculiar voice of Henry James’s maybe unreliable narrator can be preserved in this production. Surely the outcome is...
London Film Festival 2024 - the Vatican, the Blitz, a trip t...
Conclave
Director Edward Berger won an...
The Last of the Sea Women review - a moving tale of feisty t...
“The ocean is our home… Even in my next life I will dive again,” says Geum Ok, one of a band of female divers from Jeju, a volcanic island 60...
Trouble in Tahiti/A Quiet Place, Linbury Theatre review - to...
Most of us have been there: an impasse in a marriage, a bereavement in a dysfunctional family. Leonard Bernstein certainly had when he composed...
Album: Justin Adams & Mauro Durante - Sweet Release
Sweet Release opens up a landscape of redemption by riding the rails of a classic ...