Reviews
This England, Sky Atlantic review - how Boris's No 10 got Covid wrong
Wednesday, 28 September 2022
From underneath the messy ash-white thatch of hair, a strange mooing suddenly issues: Sir Kenneth Branagh is wrestling with Boris Johnson’s odd way of saying the “oo” sound. It’s a brave attempt but ultimately a bit wayward, rather like the drama series Branagh is starring in, This England, Michael Winterbottom’s six-part reconstruction of Boris’s early days as PM, Covid, lockdown and all.
Kim Noble, Soho Theatre review - final part of trilogy about loneliness
Wednesday, 28 September 2022
A dead pigeon. A dead squirrel. A dead fox. Lots of maggots – very much alive. I might be describing your worst nightmare (throw in a rat or two and it would be very close to mine) but this array of wildlife forms an important part in Kim Noble's latest show, Lullaby for Scavengers. I warn you, it takes a strong stomach to sit through it – and I have to confess I had to shield my eyes at several points. The show comes with a content warning for a reason.
Savala Nolan: Don't Let It Get You Down...
Wednesday, 28 September 2022
Liminal: a word that conjures thresholds and between states. Caught between three languages – the adjective is a borrowing from the Latin that enters...
In Front of Your Face review - a day in the life
Wednesday, 28 September 2022
Twenty-four hours in the life of a Korean woman, Sangok (Lee Hyeyoung), are caught in scenes which feel like real time in Hong Sangsoo’s latest....
Purcell's Playhouse, Bevan, Barokksolistene...
Tuesday, 27 September 2022
“What about the communication with the audience?” asked violinist and impresario Bjarte Eike in his First Person piece for theartsdesk. “How can a '...
Hallyu! The Korean Wave, V&A review - frenetic but fun
Learn how to succeed, South Korean style, right across the cultural board |
Bronwyn Adcock: Currowan review - a fire foretold, a warning delivered
Stories of surviving Australia’s worst bushfire |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review - titanic talent shows his lighter side
Dazzling range in mastery of tone and technique |
Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals, Modern Art Oxford and Pitt Rivers Museum review - transcendence lite
The grandmother of performance art induces deep breathing and a slow heartbeat |
Aida, Royal Opera review - dour but disciplined
Uniformly good cast, idiomatic conducting, production rigidly consistent in khaki |
The Big Moon, Oran Mor, Glasgow review - partying prevails despite band's bad luck
The quartet's pop and indie blend was in fine fettle |
Gurrelieder, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - everything in place, but still something’s missing
Schoenberg's epic of love, death, afterlife and earthly regeneration sold a bit short |
Music Reissues Weekly: Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Art / Empire / Industry - The Complete Red Noise
After putting Be-Bop Deluxe to bed, the Yorkshire maverick moves forward |
Am I Being Unreasonable?, BBC One review - comedy thriller delivers the gags
Daisy May Cooper's new show is promising, looking set to get darker |
The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Theatre Royal Stratford East review - wild trip gets a welcome revival
A woman confronts her neuroses in a phantasmagorical world full of fun and fear |
Juniper review - a classic role for Charlotte Rampling
A grandmother in New Zealand faces up to death, a grandson to life |
Don’t Worry Darling review - dystopian thriller dries up in the desert
The fabulous Florence Pugh can't rescue Olivia Wilde's disappointing sophomore effort |
Silent Land review - an inconvenient death mars their holiday
Tense drama about Polish vacationers who forgot to pack moral responsibility |
Clutch, Bush Theatre review - new comedy-drama passes its test
After a strong start, newly commissioned play takes a wrong exit from the roundabout |
Crossfire, BBC One review - pacy and nail-biting, the holiday from hell
Keeley Hawes gets caught up in a tense but heartless thriller |
Leonskaja, Staatskapelle Streichquartett, Wigmore Hall review - Brahms the chameleon
Every quick-change nuance in the first two Piano Quartets transcendentally realised |
Winslow Homer: Force of Nature, National Gallery review - dump the symbolism and enjoy the drama
Hot topics like slavery and colonialism given the ambiguous treatment |
Bloody Oranges review - a gruesome and gruelling French social satire
Jean-Christophe Meurisse's grisly comedy overplays its hand |
Dunedin Consort, Butt, Lammermuir Festival review - majestic Mozart at St Mary’s Haddington
Star sopranos steal the show in a C Minor Mass of magisterial power |
Bright Half Life, Kings Head Theatre review - ups and downs of a tender lesbian love affair
Tanya Barfield reconstructs a simple plot as an absorbing puzzle |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Best of Roxy Music
What was on CD two decades ago reappears on vinyl |
Funny Pages review - comic-book confidential
Safdies associate's queasily comic study of a teenage cartoonist |
The Makropulos Affair, Welsh National Opera review - complexity realised brilliantly on the stage
Janáček’s collisions spark an evening of powerful conflict |
Handbagged, Kiln Theatre review - triumphant revival of Moira Buffini's comedy
Mrs Thatcher and Elizabeth II slug it out again in this 2013 classic |
latest in today
This England, Sky Atlantic review - how Boris's No 10 g...
From underneath the messy ash-white thatch of hair, a strange mooing suddenly issues: Sir Kenneth Branagh is wrestling with Boris Johnson’s odd...
Kim Noble, Soho Theatre review - final part of trilogy about...
A dead pigeon. A dead squirrel. A dead fox. Lots of maggots – very much alive. I might be describing your worst nightmare (throw in a rat or two...
Savala Nolan: Don't Let It Get You Down review - findin...
Liminal: a word that conjures thresholds and between states. Caught between three languages – the adjective is a borrowing from the Latin...
In Front of Your Face review - a day in the life
Twenty-four hours in the life of a Korean woman, Sangok (Lee Hyeyoung), are caught in scenes which feel like real time in Hong Sangsoo’s latest....
Purcell's Playhouse, Bevan, Barokksolistene, Eike, Purc...
“What about the communication with the audience?” asked violinist and impresario Bjarte Eike in his First Person piece for theartsdesk...
Hallyu! The Korean Wave, V&A review - frenetic but fun
Remember Gangnam Style, the music video that went viral in 2012? PSY’s cheeky lyrics and daft moves attracted 1.6 billion hits on YouTube...
Bronwyn Adcock: Currowan review - a fire foretold, a warning...
In 2019 Australia endured the hottest, driest year since records began and their bushfire season escalated with unprecedented intensity. The fires...
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review - titanic talent shows his l...
It probably tells you all you need to know about Igor Levit that when a mobile phone pinged just before his encore, he neither ignored it, nor...
Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals, Modern Art Oxford and P...
I have powerful memories of performances by Marina Abramović. Back in 1977 at Documenta in Kassel,...