Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over!
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, RSC, Stratford review - not quite the intended gateway drug to Shakespeare
Thursday, 14 August 2025
I have two guilty secrets about the theatre – okay, two I’m prepared to own up to right here, right now. I quite enjoy some jukebox musicals and I often prefer schools-oriented, pared back, slightly simplified Shakespeare to the full-scale Folio versions. There – I’ve outed myself!
Orpheus and Eurydice, Opera Queensland/SCO,...
Thursday, 14 August 2025
There’s a lot to shout about in this Orpheus, especially the way it looks. In a thin year for staged opera at the Edinburgh International Festival,...
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Eric Rushton /...
Thursday, 14 August 2025
Eric Rushton, Monkey Barrel ★★★★ Everything about Eric Rushton is lo-fi. His delivery, his movement about the stage, his interactions with...
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Horse of Jenin...
Thursday, 14 August 2025
The Horse of Jenin, Pleasance Dome ★★★★★ Alaa Shehada bounds onto the stage, all muscular energy and swaggering self-confidence, for what’s...
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?
Beating Hearts review - kiss kiss, slam slam
Romance and clobberings in a so-so French melodrama |
BBC Proms: Anoushka Shankar 'Chapters' review - somehow, it worked
Shankar's starry presence brings focus to this orchestral version |
Elschenbroich, Grynyuk / Fibonacci Quartet, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - mahogany Brahms and explosive Janáček
String partnerships demonstrate brilliant listening as well as first rate playing |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Fit Prince / Undersigned
A joyful gay romance and an intimate one-to-one encounter in two strong Fringe shows |
Materialists review - a misfiring romcom or an undercooked satire?
Writer-director Celine Song's latest can't decide what kind of film it is |
Album: Marissa Nadler - New Radiations
The Nashville-based singer-songwriter explores disconnection |
BBC Proms: Akhmetshina, LPO, Gardner review - liquid luxuries
First-class service on an ocean-going programme |
Freakier Friday review - body-swapping gone ballistic
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis's comedy sequel jumbles up more than their daughter-mother duo |
theartsdesk in Kovachevitsa - top Bulgarians and friends make peerless music in a remote village
Four big concerts of hugely varied chamber works in the Rhodope mountains |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Lily Blumkin / Shamik Chakrabarti
A life in several characters & a Mumbai shaggy-dog story |
Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - mania and menuets
The Hungarians bring dance music to Edinburgh, but Fischer’s pastiche falls flat |
Tom at the Farm, Edinburgh Fringe 2025 review - desire and disgust
A visually stunning stage re-adaptation of a recent gay classic plunges the audience into blood and earth |
MARS, Irish National Opera review - silly space oddity with fun stretches
Cast, orchestra and production give Jennifer Walshe’s bold collage their all |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Desiree Burch / Andy Parsons
The delights of perimenopause & pertinent political comedy |
Works and Days, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - jaw-dropping theatrical ambition
Nothing less than the history of human civilisation is the theme of FC Bergman's visually stunning show |
Eight Postcards from Utopia review - ads from the era when 1990s Romania embraced capitalism
Radu Jude's documentary is a mad montage of cheesy TV commercials |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Final Solution - Just Like Gold
Despite their idiotic name, these San Francisco psychedelic pioneers sounded astonishing |
Every Brilliant Thing, @sohoplace review - return of the comedy about suicide that lifts the spirits
Lenny Henry is the ideal ringmaster for this exercise in audience participation |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Lily Phillips / Ayoade Bamgboye
Giving birth laid bare & a memorable debut |
The Kingdom review - coming of age as the body count rises
A teen belatedly bonds with her mysterious dad in an unflinching Corsican mob drama |
Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby, Rambert, Sadler's Wells review - exciting dancing, if you can see it
Six TV series reduced to 100 minutes' dance time doesn't quite compute |
Mogwai / Lankum, South Facing Festival review - rich atmospheres in a south London field
Two polished performances and an embarrassment of instruments |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Beautiful Future is Coming / She's Behind You
A deft, epoch-straddling climate six-hander and a celebration (and take-down) of the pantomime dame at the Traverse Theatre |
Weapons review - suffer the children
'Barbarian' follow-up hiply riffs on ancient fears |
latest in today
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages...
