Theatre Features
Sondheim at 90: adults will listenSunday, 22 March 2020
Here's an irony worthy of the work of Stephen Sondheim, an artist who clearly knows a thing or two about the multiple manifestations of that word. Read more... |
First Person: Hassan Abdulrazzak on the real-life drama behind American deportation to the UKWednesday, 26 February 2020
You are at a party having a good time when someone gives you a glass of champagne. You take one and then another and soon the party is over. You get in the car to go home and are driving along when you see a police car in the rearview mirror: how annoying! Now you are regretting that indulgent second glass but what’s done is done. The cop gives you a breathalyzer test and you are exactly at the legal limit. Read more... |
Celebrating the musicals of Jerry Herman (1931-2019)Friday, 03 January 2020
How is it that, in the nearly 900 pages of Sondheim's collected lyrics with extensive comments Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat, with numerous special boxes celebrating other composers and lyricists, he managed to mention Jerry Herman only once, and in passing? Read more... |
First Person: Simon Stephens - the contemplation of kindnessTuesday, 29 October 2019
Light Falls is the sixth play that I have written for the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester and the fourth that its outgoing Artistic Director, Sarah Frankcom, will direct. Read more... |
First Person: Hannah Khalil on museum as metaphor in her new play for the RSCTuesday, 22 October 2019
It all started in 2009 in the National Portrait Gallery. I’d had a meeting nearby so popped in to get a cuppa and stare at the beautiful rooftop view of London from their top-floor café, but a picture caught my eye. It was part of an exhibition of Victorian Women Explorers, a photograph of a woman with a rather severe face. The label said something like: "Gertrude Bell – Mountaineer, Explorer, Diplomat and Spy. Read more... |
First Person: Matthew Xia on why his production of 'Amsterdam' feels especially pertinent and vital nowMonday, 09 September 2019
I’m currently opening Amsterdam, my first production for Actors Touring Company since being appointed Artistic Director last year, at the Orange Tree theatre in Richmond and then in Plymouth early in 2020. And what better time to premiere a play for the Europe of the present, triggered by the Europe of the past. Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2019 - in heaven with Dante's Purgatorio and Estonian ritesFriday, 12 July 2019
Two years ago Ermanna Montanari and Marco Martinelli, the visionary partners who have powered Ravenna's revolutionary Teatro delle Albe since 1986, led local people and international visitors down through the circles of Dante's Inferno. In 2021, the 700th anniversary of the greatest Italian poet's birth, they will take us into the presence of God. Read more... |
First Person: Damian Cruden on reinvigorating the Bard away from London with Shakespeare's RoseTuesday, 02 July 2019
How we deliver culture in the modern day is complex. There are many misconceptions about where and who is capable of leading the nation’s cultural charge. The accepted conceit is that if culture doesn’t emanate from certain places, like London or Stratford, then it couldn’t possibly be of value. Read more... |
Franco Zeffirelli: 'I had this feeling that I was special'Saturday, 15 June 2019
"I am amazed to be still alive. Two hours of medieval torment.” Franco Zeffirelli - who has died at the age of 96 - had spent the day having a lumbar injection to treat a sciatic nerve. You could hear the bafflement in his heavily accented English. Read more... |
First Person: Matt Henry on fulfilling 'a dream come true' to play the legendary singer Sam CookeTuesday, 11 June 2019
When I first read One Night in Miami, I instantly felt a strong connection to the piece and its story. Read more... |
Pages
Advertising feature
★★★★★
‘A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.’
The Observer, Kate Kellaway
Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.
★★★★★
‘This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.’
The Times, Ann Treneman
Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.
Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
The Trunk, Netflix review - stylish, noir-ish Korean drama w...
The trunk in the title is a luxury item, worth 50 million won – just north of £27,000 – shown sinking in deep water in the opening...
The Gang of Three, King's Head Theatre - three old Labo...
There was a time when the only daytime TV (ex-weekends and ex-Wimbledon fortnight) comprised the annual party conferences and the...
Words of War review - truth and other casualties of war
The reporting of Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building in 2006 – on Vladimir Putin’s birthday, a...
theartsdesk Q&A: Gary Oldman on playing John Cheever in...
Gary Oldman has always lived life to the fullest, on screen and off. Maybe that's why he is often at his best in his pitch-perfect portraits of...
Album: Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - Tall Tales
I’ve got an admission: I never really got Radiohead, in no small part because of Thom Yorke’s singing. I appreciate his technical abilities and...
The Excursions of Mr Brouček, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review -...
Who doesn’t love the quirky, passionate and humanitarian genius of Leoš Janáček? All of it, these days. Since Charles...
Conversations After Sex, Park Theatre review - pillow talk p...
In Dublin, a city that has changed more than most in the last 30 years, a young woman, with an English accent that is expensive to...
Album: PinkPantheress - Fancy That
There’s plenty of noise out there about 24-year-old Kentish musician Victoria Walker, AKA PinkPantheress. Since being acclaimed BBC Sound of 2022...
Malpractice, ITV1, Series 2 review - fear and loathing in th...
Following on from the first series of Malpractice in 2023, this second season again probes into issues of medical malfeasance and...