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Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Rachel Halliburton
Thursday, 20 February 2025
Over the last few months, celebrity-driven West End productions have suffered some inglorious crashes. So there was a certain degree of trepidation at the opening night for this...
Sarah Kent
Thursday, 20 February 2025
In 2013 the American artist, Noah Davis used a legacy left him by his father to create a museum of contemporary art in Arlington Heights, an area of Los Angeles populated largely...
Gary Naylor
Thursday, 20 February 2025
The date, projected behind the stage before a word is spoken, is a clue - 14th April 1912. “Why so specific?” was my first thought. My second was, “Ah, yes”.Sure enough, Akhila...
Tom Carr
Thursday, 20 February 2025
While discourse on many topics grows toxic and polarised, it’s the voices who speak plainly about the reality of everyday lives that provide some sanity and make us feel heard....
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 19 February 2025
The return of Mike White’s hit series can be celebrated for one major reason: its extraordinary music. That may sound like a minor reason, but this third iteration of the show...
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Our humanity is defined not only by our use of language, but also by our sense of the spiritual. Whether you are a believer...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Dying is easy, comedy is hard, according to the Georgian actor Edmund Kean. Luckily, everybody involved with the much-...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Canadian singer Basia Bulat has tried on various musical hats during her career but is most associated with singer-...
Tim Cumming
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
On the first date of a 17-concert tour that had its preview at Celtic Connections in January, Across the Evening Sky begins...
India Lewis
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
As Valentine’s Day crests around us, and lonely hearts come out of their winter hibernation, what better time to publish...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
In Jewish folklore, a golem is an inanimate clay figure, brought to life when a magic word is placed inside its mouth. Piotr...
Mary, Queen of Scots, English National Opera review - heroic effort for an overcooked history lesson
David Nice
Monday, 17 February 2025
Genius doesn't always tally with equal opportunities, to paraphrase Doris Lessing. Opera houses have a duty to put on new...
Aleks Sierz
Monday, 17 February 2025
Since when has new writing become so passionless? Mike Bartlett is one of the country’s premiere playwrights and his new...
Florence Roberts
Monday, 17 February 2025
Imagine: you take your seat at the best restaurant in town, the waiter arrives with a flourish to fill your water glass, you...
Mark Kidel
Monday, 17 February 2025
There is an atmosphere of otherworldly stillness within the stony womb of a large dilapidated church in Bristol, at the...
Joe Muggs
Monday, 17 February 2025
The question of personality in abstract and ambient music has always been a fascinating one. Without conventional signifiers...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 16 February 2025
Sharks were formed in 1972 by bassist Andy Fraser after he left Free. There were two albums, line-up changes and ripples...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 15 February 2025
Ro first saw Fat Dog, before anyone had heard of them, at the Windmill in Brixton in front of a crowd of about 25 people....
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disc of the day
Album: Sam Fender - People Watching
The North Shields indie star's third album is a solid, sincere evolution
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tv
The White Lotus, Series 3, Sky Atlantic review - hit formula with few surprises but a new bewitching soundtrack
Thailand hosts the latest bout of Mike White's satirical takedown of the rich and privileged
Hacks, Season 3, NOW review - acerbic showbiz comedy keeps up the good work
Jean Smart's portrayal of Deborah Vance is an all-time classic
Surviving Black Hawk Down, Netflix review - the real story behind Ridley Scott's Oscar-winner
Documentary series looks at the 1993 'Battle of Mogadishu' from both sides
film
Captain America: Brave New World review - talking loud, saying nothing
Muddled filler between Avengers films which hardly deserves Harrison Ford
Memoir of a Snail review - deliciously offbeat Australian animation
A darkly whimsical stop-motion masterpiece examining the shells we create for ourselves
new music
Album: Sam Fender - People Watching
The North Shields indie star's third album is a solid, sincere evolution
Album: Basia Bulat - Basia's Palace
Canadian singer's seventh album musters dreamy pop that simultaneously arrives and floats away
Josienne Clarke, Across the Evening Sky, Kings Place review - celebrating Sandy Denny
The contemporary singer-songwriter holds a torch for the late, great Sandy Denny
classical
Sidorova, Philharmonia, Alsop, Royal Festival Hall review - ladies of the dance
Vitality, virtuosity and sensuality on a pan-American trip
MacMillan's Ordo Virtutum, BBC Singers, Jeannin, Milton Court review - dramatic journey of a medieval soul
Choral music's finest advocate runs the gamut in an epic battle of heaven and hell
Gilliver, Liverman, Rangwanasha, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - a rainbow of British music
Poetic Maconchy and Walton, surging Vaughan Williams bursting its confines
opera
Mary, Queen of Scots, English National Opera review - heroic effort for an overcooked history lesson
Heidi Stober delivers as beleaguered regent, but Thea Musgrave's opera is limiting
Festen, Royal Opera review - firing on every front
No slack in Mark-Anthony Turnage's operatic treatment of the visceral first Dogme film
theatre
Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Theatre - Luke Thallon triumphs as the state succumbs to storms
The iceberg cometh
East Is South, Hampstead Theatre review - bewildering and unconvincing
House of Cards writer tackles AI and religion, but without the necessary clarity
Unicorn, Garrick Theatre review - wordy and emotionless desire
New West End drama about spicing up marriage is oddly lacking in passion
dance
Vollmond, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch + Terrain Boris Charmatz, Sadler's Wells review - clunkily-named company shows its lighter side
A new generation of dancers brings zest, humour and playfulness to late Bausch
Phaedra + Minotaur, Royal Ballet and Opera, Linbury Theatre review - a double dose of Greek myth
Opera and dance companies share a theme in this terse but affecting double bill
comedy
Nina Conti: Whose Face Is It Anyway?, Brighton Dome review - a melee of jubilant spontaneity
The ventriloquist-comedian's improvised hour-long outing is skilful and fabulously entertaining
Amy Gledhill, Soho Theatre review - delightfully bawdy take on serious subjects
Best show winner at the Edinburgh Fringe
Books
Shon Faye: Love in Exile review - the greatest feeling
Love comes under the microscope in this heartfelt analysis of the personal and political
Philip Marsden: Under a Metal Sky review - rock and awe
Myths, mines, and mankind combine in this wide-eyed reading of the earth beneath our feet
latest comments
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counterpoint: nobody cares what you think.
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This review is at odds with most of the excellent...