Reviews - The Arts Desk
WEBSep 28, 2024 · 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.
Best of 2021: Visual Arts - The Arts Desk
WEBDec 28, 2021 · Despite its much delayed start, 2021 was a great year for the visual arts, and institutions and artists alike showed their resilience in agile and sensitive responses to unprecedented conditions. The plastic arts took on a new significance as people adjusted to life without human touch; equally, the experience of viewing art online revealed the extent to which tactile qualities are experienced ...
Visual Arts Reviews | The Arts Desk
WEBGavin Jantjes: To Be Free, Whitechapel Gallery review - a sweet and sour response to horrific circumstances. Sarah Kent Wednesday, 19 June 2024. Born in Cape Town in 1948, Gavin Jantjes grew up under apartheid. He openly criticised the regime in his work and, forced into exile, was granted political asylum in Germany in 1973.
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 Arts Desk | Page 2
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.
Lear, Barbican Theatre review - a very stormy saga, Korean-style
WEB2 days ago · Korean opera traditionally tells its stories via a hybrid blend of singing, speech and movement (Pansori), and it’s unlike anything most Western audiences have heard before.The vocals are projected with intense passion, though have various kinds of ornamentation that sound, to the uninitiated (including me), like catches in the voice, exaggerated rubato or a subdued kind of yodelling.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Royal Ballet review - big, bold …
WEB4 days ago · Dramaturg Nicholas Wright’s dramatic framing of the story – proposing real-life 1862 models for the characters in Wonderland – is a major strength. It’s really rather brilliant to have imagined the Knave of Hearts as the dishy under-gardener, sacked unfairly by Alice’s disapproving mother, who herself reappears as the vindictive Queen.