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Theartsdesk
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...
Heather Neill
Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Terence Rattigan's rehabilitation - some might almost say deification - as a leading Twentieth Century playwright is complete. As well as academic studies, biographies and...
Helen Hawkins
Tuesday, 03 June 2025
In 2012, the award-winning American writer Sarah Ruhl met a Yale playwriting student who became a special part of her life. Out of their friendship she created Letters from Max, a...
Mark Sheerin
Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Botanical forms, lurid and bright, now tower above a footpath on a moor otherwise famed for darkness and frankly terrible weather. But the trio of 5m-high contemporary sculptures...
Thomas H Green
Tuesday, 03 June 2025
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away called the late 1990s, there was a scene known as “big beat”. It consisted of club culture sorts making music closer in flavour to rock...
David Nice
Monday, 02 June 2025
Chelsea Opera Group has made its own luck in winning the devotion of two great bel canto exponents: Nelly Miricioiu between 1998 and 2010, Helena Dix over the past 10 years. Last...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 02 June 2025
Netflix’s new detective-noir is a somewhat cosmopolitan beast. It’s written and directed by an American, Scott Frank,...
David Nice
Monday, 02 June 2025
Recent events have prompted the assertion – understandable in Ukraine – that the idea of the Russian soul is a nationalist...
John Carvill
Monday, 02 June 2025
What constitutes a “lost classic”? I guess we can’t say it’s an oxymoron, since we readily accept the concept of “instant...
Anthony Cecil
Sunday, 01 June 2025
I think The Ballad of Wallis Island is the best British romcom since I Know Where I’m Going! (1945), which it closely...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 01 June 2025
Pete Shelley’s departure from Buzzcocks felt abrupt. When he left the Manchester band which had been integral to British...
Markie Robson-Scott
Saturday, 31 May 2025
“I can’t move my arms or legs, but apart from that I’m good to go.” Moth (Jason Isaacs) has to be pulled out of the tent in...
Rachel Halliburton
Saturday, 31 May 2025
This charmingly eloquent semi-autobiographical show – which first played at the Bush Theatre in 2022 – tells the story of a...
Sarah Kent
Saturday, 31 May 2025
Director Ben Rivers is primarily an artist, and it shows. Every frame of Bogancloch is treated as a work of art and the...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 31 May 2025
Nick Mulvey’s first two albums, First Mind in 2014 and Wake Up Now in 2017, are among the loveliest singer-songwriter fare...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 30 May 2025
MOR. Twee. Unashamedly crowdpleasing. Are such descriptors indicative of a tedious night in the stalls? For your reviewer,...
Kieron Tyler
Friday, 30 May 2025
For the first half-hour of this show – on the day before the release of his new album Alan Sparhawk With Trampled by Turtles...
Guy Oddy
Friday, 30 May 2025
Michael Gira (born 19/2/54) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, author and artist. He founded Swans, a band in which...
Joe Muggs
Friday, 30 May 2025
A couple of months ago, I wrote here that Lady Gaga was the godmother of the new generation of ostentatiously “theatre kid”...
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Electronic music perennial returns with an hour of deep techno illbience
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
Dept. Q, Netflix review - Danish crime thriller finds a new home in Edinburgh
Matthew Goode stars as antisocial detective Carl Morck
The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone, BBC Two - boom and bust in the lingerie trade
Life in the fast lane with David Cameron's entrepreneurship tsar
Code of Silence, ITVX review - inventively presented reality of deaf people's experience
Rose Ayling-Ellis maps out her muffled world in a so-so heist caper
film
Blu-ray: Eclipse
The BFI has unearthed an unsettling 1977 thriller starring Tom Conti and Gay Hamilton
The Ballad of Wallis Island review - the healing power of the old songs
Estranged folk duo reunites in a classy British comedy drama
The Salt Path review - the transformative power of nature
Marianne Elliott brings Raynor Winn's memoir to the big screen
new music
Album: Death In Vegas - Death Mask
Electronic music perennial returns with an hour of deep techno illbience
Music Reissues Weekly: Pete Shelley - Homosapien, XL-1
What happened after the heart of Buzzcocks struck out on his own
Album: Nick Mulvey - Dark Harvest Pt.1
Fourth album from unique singer-songwriter is patchy but contains gold
classical
Marwood, Crabb, Wigmore Hall review - tangos, laments and an ascending lark
Accordion virtuoso’s brilliant arrangements showcase the possibilities of the instrument
Dennis, RSNO, Dunedin Consort, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - potted Ring and deep dive into history
Ancient Scottish musical traditions explored through the lens of today, and a short teaser for some of opera's greatest moments
Batiashvili, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - French and Polish narcotics
Szymanowski’s fantasy more vague than Berlioz’s, but both light up the hall
opera
La Straniera, Chelsea Opera Group, Barlow, Cadogan Hall review - diva power saves minor Bellini
Australian soprano Helena Dix is honoured by fine fellow singers, but not her conductor
The Queen of Spades, Garsington Opera review - sonorous gliding over a heart of darkness
Striking design and clear concept, but the intensity within comes and goes
theatre
In Praise of Love, Orange Tree Theatre review - Rattigan's study of loving concealment
Unspoken emotion flows through this late work
Letters from Max, Hampstead Theatre review - inventively staged tale of two friends fighting loss with poetry
Sarah Ruhl turns her bond with a student into a lesson in how to love
Elephant, Menier Chocolate Factory review - subtle, humorous exploration of racial identity and music
Story of self-discovery through playing the piano resounds in Anoushka Lucas's solo show
dance
Ballet to Broadway: Wheeldon Works, Royal Ballet review - the impressive range and reach of Christopher Wheeldon's craft
The title says it: as dancemaker, as creative magnet, the man clearly works his socks off
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
comedy
Dara Ó Briain, Soho Theatre Walthamstow review - master storyteller spins a family yarn
Search for his birth father takes a few turns
Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic tricks and mayhem
Nick Mohammed gives his creation's origin story
Books
Zsuzsanna Gahse: Mountainish review - seeking refuge
Notes on danger and dialogue in the shadow of the Swiss Alps
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
visual arts
Bradford City of Culture 2025 review - new magic conjured from past glories
City, mill and moor inspire the city's visual arts offering
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