wed 30/10/2024

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Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
All three seasons of Industry are now on iPlayer, and after watching the most recent one and then backtracking for another look at the other two, I am still in two minds about it...
Rachel Halliburton
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Even by Stanley Kubrick’s standards, Dr Strangelove went through an extraordinary evolutionary process. After starting it off as a serious film about nuclear war based on the 1958...
Rachel Halliburton
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Last time I saw the lovelorn Cyclops from Handel’s richly turbulent cantata, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, he was in a warehouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf earlier this year, posturing...
Guy Oddy
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
That Peter Perrett is still alive after the decades of bad habits that he inflicted on himself must be something of a surprise to those who’ve followed his career since the mid-...
Bernard Hughes
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Anyone who has been on a British train in the last ten years will have been irritated to distraction by the inane and ubiquitous “See it, say it, sorted” announcement that...
Hugh Barnes
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Towards the end of the last century, the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar made a run of screwball comedies, starting with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and...
Jim Bob
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
For a few months a couple of years ago, when you googled the name Jim Bob, although you’d get a lot of information about me...
Nick Hasted
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
This other major work by the writer of the English folk horror landmark The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), Robert Wynne-...
Robert Beale
Monday, 28 October 2024
Kahchun Wong’s third Bridgewater Hall concert with the Hallé in his inaugural season as principal conductor consisted of...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 28 October 2024
Kiri Pritchard-McLean has spoken on stage before about her interest in helping young people – including in her...
Aleks Sierz
Monday, 28 October 2024
“Don’t take a piss in the house of a woman you have made a widow.” The mixture of earthy comedy and tragic pain in this...
Ellie Roberts
Monday, 28 October 2024
The ongoing trickle of quirky rock by Pixies reassuringly continues with 2024’s offering, The Night The Zombies Came. The...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 27 October 2024
The name is so familiar it inhibits analysis. Gerry and the Pacemakers – Gerry Marsden and his band, a group with a...
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 26 October 2024
RaMell Ross’s feature debut follows his poetic documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018) in again observing...
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 26 October 2024
Justin Kurzel’s Australian film subjects are out on the malign edge, from Snowtown’s suburban serial killer and Nitram’s...
Bernard Hughes
Saturday, 26 October 2024
What’s it like to be in the middle of an orchestra, hugger-mugger with the violas, looking directly over the flautist’s...
Saskia Baron
Saturday, 26 October 2024
One of the many pleasures of the London Film Festival is the chance to see high-quality documentaries on the big screen. If...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 26 October 2024
 Schubert: Sonata in G major D. 894, Moments Musicaux D. 780, Fantasy in F minor D. 940 Maurizio Pollini, Daniele...
Gary Naylor
Saturday, 26 October 2024
The misadventures and misbehaviours of the English upper-middle class is catnip for TV executives. All those posh types on...

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★★★★ THE ORCHESTRAL FOREST, SMITH SQUARE HALL The orchestra from the inside

★★★★ VANESSA BELL, MK GALLERY The Bloomsbury artist breaks free from Victorian mores

★★★★ THE FORSYTE SAGA 1 & 2, PARK THEATRE Epic adaptation still packs a punch

CLASSICAL CDS A great pianist bows out, plus two cello discs and a new organ's first outing

GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS I Like It! Anthology 1963-1966

LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2024 Insightful new non-fiction films about single motherhood, visionary photographers, scam artists, legacies of colonialism, and more

★★★★ RIVALS, DISNEY+ Adultery, skulduggery and political incorrectness

Q&A: ANNA BOGUTSKAYA On her new book about the past decade of horror cinema

disc of the day

Album: Peter Perrett - The Cleansing

Depth, humour and bucket loads of cool from the former Only One

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

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.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

tv

Industry, BBC One review - bold, addictive saga about corporate culture now

Third season of the tale of investment bankers reaches a satisfying climax

Rivals, Disney+ review - adultery, skulduggery and political incorrectness

Back to the Eighties with Jilly Cooper's tales of the rich and infamous

Disclaimer, Apple TV+ review - a misfiring revenge saga from Alfonso Cuarón

Odd casting and weak scripting aren't a temptation to keep watching

film

The Room Next Door review - Almodóvar out of his comfort zone

The Spanish director's meditation on mortality is a beautiful misfire

Blu-ray: The Outcasts

A forgotten Irish folk horror is eerily magical and earthed in the soil

Documentary highlights from the 2024 London Film Festival

A close look at insightful new non-fiction films about single motherhood, visionary photographers, scam artists, legacies of colonialism, and more

new music

Album: Peter Perrett - The Cleansing

Depth, humour and bucket loads of cool from the former Only One

Book Extract: Where Songs Come From - The Lyrics and Origin Stories of 150 Solo and Carter USM Songs by Jim Bob

Jim Bob introduces a chapter from his new book, a combined autobiography, lyrical overview and love letter to London

Album: Pixies - The Night The Zombies Came

Quirky indie with a Halloween twist from legends of the genre Pixies

classical

La Nuova Musica, Crowe, Barron, De Donato, Wigmore Hall review - thrilling Handel at full throttle

This vibrant staging of Handel's 1708 "Aci, Galatea e Polifemo" was filled with passion and delight

Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - Bruckner’s Ninth completed

Kahchun Wong takes Manchester audience on an epic journey

The Orchestral Forest, Smith Square Hall review - living the orchestra from the inside

Immersive concert explores the plight of the British rainforest through music

opera

Albert Herring, Scottish Opera review - fun, frivolity, and fine music-making

A witty production of Britten's clever comedy that's bound to leave you smiling

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opera North review - one of the best and funniest

Perspex and bubblewrap for a Sixties take on Britten's Shakespeare

theatre

Dr Strangelove, Noël Coward Theatre review - an evening of different parts
Kubrick’s humour doesn't always detonate as it should in Armando Iannucci's version
Reykjavik, Hampstead Theatre review - drama frozen by waves of detail
Richard Bean’s new play revisits the Hull fishing industry of the 1970s
The Forsyte Saga Parts 1 and 2, Park Theatre review - if Chekhov did soap operas
Joseph Millson leads a super cast in a classy production from Troupe Theatre Company

dance

Encounters, Royal Ballet review - exciting mixed bill with a gem of a premiere

Pam Tanowitz's latest piece is a stunner that larkily subverts the rules

National Ballet of Canada, Sadler's Wells review - see this, and know what dance can do

Yet again, Crystal Pite proves herself a ferocious creative force, alongside fellow Canadian exports James Kudelka and Emma Portner

Nobodaddy, Teaċ Daṁsa, Dublin Theatre Festival review - supernatural song and dance odyssey

Michael Keegan-Dolan’s genius guides us through death, separation and loss

comedy

Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Brighton Dome review - a foster carer's tale

Comic skilfully melds a personal story with sharp social commentary

Rose Matafeo, Arcola Theatre review - Starstruck star muses on love

Kiwi comic on dating, phone apps and Taylor Swift

Ellen DeGeneres, Netflix Special review - no mea culpa and few jokes

Former chatshow host’s bizarre take on cancellation

Books

Jonathan Coe: The Proof of My Innocence review - a whodunnit with a difference

Political satire, social observation and literary artifice elevate this ostensibly 'cosy crime' caper

theartsdesk Q&A: Anna Bogutskaya on her new book about the past decade of horror cinema

In time for Halloween, the author discusses 'Feeding the Monster' - and why she thinks horror cinema has entered a new phase

Olga Tokarczuk: The Empusium review - paranoid prose

Antonia Lloyd-Jones translates a contagious work from a Nobel Prize winner

latest comments

I loved his 'Mandrake' precisely because it was...

Are the recent plot developments and murder...

Watching it for the first time in 2024. I've...

If Nathan killed his wife, how does he get a...

This is October 2024. Zen should have returned...

Have to disagree with the sentiment on the...

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