Reviews - The Arts Desk
WEB6 days ago · A Face in the Crowd, Young Vic review - lame rehash of a 1950s film satire. Helen Hawkins Monday, 30 September 2024. It’s hard to work out why Kwame-Kwei Armah chose to end his tenure at the Young Vic by directing this soggy musical by Elvis Costello (songs/lyrics) and the American playwright Sarah Ruhl (book).
Film reviews, news & interviews | The Arts Desk
WEBHugh Barnes Saturday, 28 September 2024. It’s hard not to review the Israeli occupation of Palestine when writing about The Teacher. The political context of this first feature by British-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi, who also wrote the screenplay, is so thoroughly appalling that it sometimes overshadows the TV-style melodrama onscreen.
theatre reviews, news & interviews - The Arts Desk
WEBThe Lightest Element, Hampstead Theatre review - engrossing, but fragmentary. British theatre has a proud heritage of science plays. From 1990s classics such as Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (1993) and Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen (1998) to more recent examples such as Lucy Kirkwood’s Mosquitoes (2017) and Marek Horn’s Octopolis (2023), the ...
Visual Arts reviews, news & interviews - The Arts Desk
WEBSarah Kent Wednesday, 25 September 2024. Michael Craig-Martin was the most playful and provocative of the conceptual artists. His early sculptures are like visual puns, a play on the laws of nature. On the Table, 1970 (pictured below right), for instance, appears to defy gravity. Four buckets filled with water stand on a table; so far so ordinary.
A Tupperware of Ashes, National Theatre review - family and food, …
WEB13 hours ago · As the play’s title, A Tupperware of Ashes, indicates, there can only be one conclusion, yet much can happen on the journey. And it does. Starting in 2019, and set in London, where Queenie is a Michelin-starred chef running an Indian restaurant while bringing up three children, this is a family drama about love and loss.
Film Reviews - The Arts Desk
WEBThe Critic review - beware the acid-tipped pen. The setting is the lively 1930s London theatre world, but any sense that The Critic will be a lighthearted thriller should soon be dispelled by a soundtrack featuring “Midnight and the Stars and You,” the song that Stanley Kubrick used to ominous effect in The Shining.
Opera reviews, news and interviews - The Arts Desk
WEBLa traviata, Royal Opera review - a charismatic soprano in a serviceable revival. Alexandra Coghlan Tuesday, 10 September 2024. Later this autumn Richard Eyre’s La Traviata celebrates its 30th birthday. Not bad going for the director’s first ever foray into opera – a genre he admitted holding an “unreasonable prejudice against”.
The Snowmaiden, English Touring Opera review – a rich harvest …
WEB4 days ago · Yet its mythic, and exotic, aspects make The Snowmaiden (Snegurochka in the original Russian) a tricky proposition for a touring company on a modest budget who must run a tight, mobile ship with a pretty minimal crew. Occasionally, the demands of the piece do stretch the resources director Olivia Fuchs has at her disposal.
Here in America, Orange Tree Theatre review - Elia Kazan and …
WEBSep 25, 2024 · Pre-Trump 2.0, David Edgar’s new play tells us (at least twice, Edgar not shy of driving home a point) that we can learn from past trauma in order to guide current behaviour. So, 300 million+ Americans are to draw on Stanislavski's Method in the polling booths come November? The memories Edgar conjures are from the 1950s, when the House Un-American Activities Committee went after Hollywood ...
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WEBSep 20, 2024 · The Arts Desk’s team of professional critics offer unrivalled review coverage, in-depth interviews and features on popular music, classical, art, theatre, comedy, opera, comedy and dance. Dedicated art form pages, readers’ comments, What’s On and our user-friendly theatre and film recommendations