Interviews with leading figures from the arts
RIP dancer and photographer Colin Jones - obituary
Friday, 01 October 2021
In the ballet world, Colin Jones, who died on 22 September aged 85, was famous for being married, for a while, to the great Royal Ballet ballerina Lynn Seymour, during his brief career as a dancer with the company. In the wider world, however, Jones was renowned as a photographer of unusual empathy and social conscience, as well as a striking eye. A Sunday Times critic once described him as "the George Orwell of photojournalism".
10 Questions for writer Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Anyone familiar with psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk’s bestseller The Body Keeps the Score (2014) will recognise the ghost of his title in Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s My Body Keeps Your Secrets. His book is an essential text for understanding the physiological changes wrought by trauma and the techniques that work to recalibrate body, mind and brain in its aftermath.
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Marco...
Monday, 06 September 2021
In 2011, Ferdinand von Schirach’s novel Der Fall Collini (The Collini Case) was published, its narrative of crime and punishment inspired by a law...
theartsdesk Q&A: writer and comedian Tom Davis
Friday, 13 August 2021
After leaving school at 14, Tom Davis spent 10 years working as a scaffolder on building sites, while always harbouring what he thought was the...
10 Questions for novelist Mieko Kawakami
Tuesday, 27 July 2021
Mieko Kawakami sits firmly amongst the Japanese literati for her sharp and pensive depictions of life in contemporary Japan. Since the translation of...
10 Questions for Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream
The singer talks concept albums, Mary Chain days, and his new music with singer Jehnny Beth |
theartsdesk Q&A: choreographer Christopher Scott
The creator of the sizzling dance scenes for 'In The Heights' on how they came about |
theartsdesk Q&A: composer and conductor Carl Davis
The silent film specialist on shot lists, bass drums and the perils of projection speeds |
Singer-songwriter Peggy Seeger: still in the vanguard of her musical dynasty
A member of America's great musical clan, Peggy Seeger has been a fixture on the British folk scene for more than 60 years |
Filmmaker Darius Marder: 'Deafness is a culture. That's not being PC'
Writer and director on Sound of Metal's long journey from concept to award nominations |
theartsdesk Q&A: Author Sam Mills on the phenomenon of the 'chauvo-feminist'
The novelist and non-fiction writer discusses #MeToo and her latest long-form essay |
theartsdesk Q&A: conductor Klaus Mäkelä
Balancing freedom and control in Oslo and Paris |
10 Questions for Vocalist-Lyricist Georgia Mancio
Portraying beauty, dignity and hope - and love, joy and sadness - in song |
theartsdesk Q&A: Daryl Hall
Legendary singer-songwriter talks recording, vaccines and reaching a billion streams |
theartsdesk Q&A: actor and comedian Andi Osho on her debut novel 'Asking For A Friend'
The multi-tasking artist talks social media, 'Line of Duty', and learning how to not act |
theartsdesk Q&A: Amina Cain on her first novel and her eternal fascination with suggestion
The American writer discusses 'Indelicacy' and characters who are flawed and unfixed |
theartsdesk Q&A: Isabella Pappas on how 'Finding Alice' is a blueprint for bereavement
Youngest star of the ITV drama discusses grief, teenage girls, and getting into character |
theartsdesk Q&A: actor Polly Walker on 'Bridgerton' and the new breed of period drama
Talking wigs, women, and her (brief) experience of coronavirus |
10 Questions for Musician and Broadcaster Cerys Matthews
Thoughts on an album which places poets centre-stage |
theartsdesk Q&A: poet laureate Simon Armitage on landscapes, libraries, home and edgelands
Interview with the Yorkshire-born poet ahead of his appearance on The South Bank Show |
Filmmaker Frank Marshall: 'People don’t understand what geniuses The Bee Gees were'
Director of the new Bee Gees documentary discusses the brothers' legacy in music |
10 Questions for Singer/Pianist Joe Stilgoe
Joe Stilgoe learned 250 new songs for the 67 episodes of "Stilgoe in the Shed" |
theartsdesk Q&A: Mick Talbot of The Style Council
The keyboard don discusses the very Eighties ups and downs of life in The Style Council |
Filmmaker Bassam Tariq: 'Great cinema doesn't need to be perfect - embrace the imperfections'
Director of 'Mogul Mowgli' discusses taking risks, and the differences between the British- and American-Asian experience |
10 Questions for Poet and Critic Rebecca Tamás
On 'Strangers' and the urgent interconnectedness of the human and non-human |
theartsdesk Q&A: Sally Anne Gross and Dr George Musgrave, authors of 'Can Music Make You Sick?'
On World Mental Health Day we meet the authors of an incisive new study of music and musicians |
theartsdesk Q&A: musician Kevin Rowland - 'it was painful to be misunderstood and misinterpreted'
To coincide with its reissue, the Dexys Midnight Runners lynchpin considers his solo album ‘My Beauty’ |
'I loved being a dresser': Sir Ronald Harwood, Oscar-winning writer, dies at 85
A memorial interview with the playwright and scriptwriter who enjoyed a remarkable Indian summer |
theartsdesk Q&A: author Katharina Volckmer
Interview with the first-time novelist on her deeply funny, subversive new novel |
latest in today
Macbeth, Almeida Theatre review – vivid, but much too long
Remembering the months of lockdown, I can’t be the only person to thrill to this play’s opening lines, “When shall we three meet again?”, a phrase...
Manic Street Preachers, Brighton Dome review - solid gig occ...
There is a three song segment midway through Manic Street Preachers’ set which suddenly ramps everything up. For this brief while, the performance...
Tamestit, LSO, Ticciati, LSO St Luke's review - viola a...
Returning to LSO St Luke’s, formerly a beacon in the darkness of...
White Noise, Bridge Theatre review - provocative if not alwa...
"I can't sleep": So goes the fateful opening line of White Noise, the Suzan-Lori Parks play disturbing enough to spark many a restless...
Album: Coldplay - Music Of The Spheres
Chris Martin has talked, not for the first time, of this finally being the Coldplay era of “no rules or fear”. Swedish...
Album: Finneas - Optimist
This record is a heck of a metatextual experience to listen to. In releasing his debut album, 24 year old Finneas O’Connell is attempting to step...
Romeo and Juliet, Birmingham Royal Ballet & Royal Ballet...
Two households, both alike in dignity … and both launching their respective seasons with a production of...
Maximo Park, Saint Luke's and the Winged Ox, Glasgow -...
Time waits for no band, as Maximo Park’s lively singer Paul Smith opined early into his band’s set. “I am young and I am lost” he declared during...
Karine Polwart, Birmingham Town Hall Review: Expertly crafte...
With a few extra dates to her rescheduled UK tour, Scottish folk legend Karine Polwart returned to Birmingham Town Hall with some tunes from her...
Mary Wellesley: Hidden Hands review - passion in the parchme...
Outside Wales – even, perhaps, within it – few students will have...