Reviews
Helen Hawkins
Two couples meet up for an apparently convivial meal, except that there’s a minefield under their feet. And when they trigger an explosion, one of the couples will be left trying to pick up the pieces. Oddly, this isn’t a synopsis of Kristoffer Borgli’s recent The Drama, though it could be. It’s for the latest project from the actor-director Olivia Wilde, The Invite. In both films, middle-class urbanites have their lives upended and are threatened with being left that way. Wilde’s film is a chamber piece, beginning with the sounds of two people trying to play a piano duet, then Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Rimbaud, I guess. W.C. Fields. The family, you know, the trapeze family in the circus. Smokey Robinson. Allen Ginsberg. Charlie Rich, he's a good poet.”It’s 3 December 1965. Bob Dylan is in San Francisco to play the city’s Masonic Auditorium before setting off on other dates around California. He’s sitting down in front of journalists and TV cameras for a press conference. The response above was prompted by being asked “What poets do you dig?”
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What he’s just said is not followed up. Instead, the next question is about the nature of Read more ...
O'Sullivan, Fantasia Orchestra, Fetherstonhaugh, Smith Square Hall review - the sassy airs of summer
David Nice
Despite Proms appearances, I'm still not sure that Tom Fetherstonhaugh, mover and shaker of the young Fantasia Orchestra, has yet had quite the limelight he deserves for original programming that reaches out, not to mention for the sleek and romantic sound he got from a relatively small body of strings in this lovely sequence (portamentos as apt for Gershwin as for Mahler). Harry Baker also deserves full credit for a chain of wondrous arrangements. But the star, of course, without upstaging her colleagues, was young Irish mezzo Niamh O'Sullivan, fresh from her triumph as the classiest of Read more ...
Aleks Sierz
The best thrillers have not one, but two twists. Often, there’s a predictable twist, and an unpredictable one. So it is with The Guilty, Chloë Moss’s adaptation for the stage of the 2021 film of the same name by Antoine Fuqua, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which is itself an English version of the 2018 Danish original, Den Skyldige, by Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen. Currently playing at the Donmar Warehouse, it’s a 60-minute monologue performed with compelling intensity by Russell Tovey. As with all the finest thrillers, it constantly keeps us guessing, asking what’s next?The set up is Read more ...
James Saynor
For factual footage from battle zones, we once used to rely on people toting heavy cameras who went in and out of the fields of war. The successors to news camera legends like Mohamed Amin and Rory Peck are still with us, but the most immersive, longitudinal studies are now in the hands of citizen journalists with iPhones and Sony Alphas. They patch together Oscar-winning gonzo docs from terabytes of footage kept under the bed.The tortuous civil war in Syria has produced a gaggle of such movies, and Birds of War is the conflict’s latest big-screen eye-catcher. It tracks a love story leading Read more ...
Guy Oddy
To experience a performance by Seattle’s ambient metal kings, Sunn O))) is not like attending a conventional rock’n’roll gig, by any means. For a start, there are no drums, no bass and these days, no vocals. All the music comes from just two guitars, wielded by Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, and an awful lot of amplifiers, speakers and sustain pedals.It isn’t just in their instrumentation that Sunn O))) defy standard rock’n’roll lore either. Dressed in monks’ habits, they move slowly around the stage, as if in choreographed half-speed, for a show that might be characterised as being part Read more ...
Demetrios Matheou
Hot from its successful run at the Old Vic, Carrie Cracknell’s Olivier-nominated revival of Tom Stoppard’s 1993 masterpiece has made a particularly sweet landing in the West End. For opening night was accompanied by the news that the play’s venue, the Duke of York’s, is to be renamed the Tom Stoppard Theatre. The honour is well-deserved. Stoppard, who died last November, is one of the true greats of British theatre; and it’s well-timed with this play, which has its second revival here, 17 years after the first, and is one of his very best. Arcadia contains everything that made Read more ...
theartsdesk
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the response to our appeal to help us relaunch and reboot has been something else.Our fundraiser is rolling towards hitting the halfway mark, and it’s already raised enough to repair our ageing site and ensure its survival. But just as important to all of us have been the messages of love and support from our readership. It’s not just the morale boost of being praised either – though let’s be honest, the warm glow is pretty Read more ...
Rachel Halliburton
A febrile energy powers Timothy Sheader’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar, which arrives in the West End with an edgy vibe that powerfully conveys the idea of Jesus as a dangerous revolutionary. At the age of 56, the musical isn’t showing its age remotely, with its vigorous, unashamedly complex rhythms and persuasive interrogation of the Bible marking it as a resounding classic even for Lloyd Webber agnostics like this critic.You could argue that Eurovision star Sam Ryder was made for the role, a former carpenter with an impressive beard and a lion’s mane of hair, who after years of Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The most up-front factor defining the 10 tracks of Sweet Thief’s 26 minutes is Zoë Randell’s voice. Figuratively, she does not – vocally, that is – break a sweat or get agitated. On “Wanna Get Free,” she sings “put down your weapon.” Yet there is no sense of experiencing imminent danger. The lyrics of “A Better Truth.” which musically evokes Leonard Cohen's "Susanne”, tell of “troubled men… anger, shame, building to cycles of misery and strife.” Again, there’s that distance, a cool, the sense that Randell is a detached though acutely aware observer.Luluc are the duo of Zoë Randell and Steve Read more ...
Sarah Kent
The Aviva studios in Manchester consist of an open plan warehouse with black walls and no windows. The space is vast, dark and difficult to occupy, but since Ai Weiwei’s work tends to be large, gloomy and uncompromising, this, in a way, is a perfect marriage. Don’t expect a bundle of laughs, though.The first thing you see is a huge chandelier made of Murano glass. Traditionally these flamboyant lights are a riot of baroque shapes and gaudy colours. But Ai’s three-tiered monster consists of three tonnes of black skeletons (main picture). Called La Commedia Umana (The Human Comedy), it hangs Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Ania Magliano has built a solid body of work over the past few years with her thoughtful, self-reflective shows (gaining an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination on the way), and a following boosted by her appearances on Taskmaster and SNL UK.After her television sojourn she’s back to stand-up with Peach Fuzz (which I saw at Soho Theatre), another walk through her life, this time her relationship with her body.Before she dives into that, though, there’s some “heat admin” in the very hot room during this blessedly warm summer many of us are having. She has even brought along some ice lollies for Read more ...