Sudhir Hazareesingh: Black Spartacus review – the life, and thought, of the first black super-hero Boyd Tonkin Monday, 28 September 2020 The former slave, and coachman on a sugar plantation, began one of his early public proclamations in a typically defiant...

Ian Williams: Reproduction review - a dazzling kaleidoscope of life's tragicomedy Daniel Lewis Monday, 28 September 2020 Ian Williams’s writing is always in motion. For his 2012 poetry collection Personals, and since, he has composed little...

Academy of St Martin in the Fields review - from solo meditations to collective celebrations David Nice Monday, 28 September 2020 Clearly it takes peculiar circumstances for some of us to hear the Academy of St Martin in the Fields within its eponymous...

Emma Cline: Daddy review - scintillating short stories by the author of The Girls Markie Robson-Scott Monday, 28 September 2020 The Girls, Emma Cline’s acclaimed debut novel of 2016, was billed as a story based on the Manson murders. But in fact, like...

Album: Groove Armada - Edge of the Horizon Thomas H Green Monday, 28 September 2020 Alongside Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada were one of the last big acts to blossom from the 1990s boom in clubland and DJ...

Bernard Haitink: The Enigmatic Maestro, BBC Two review - saying goodbye with Bruckner Peter Quantrill Sunday, 27 September 2020 Before his retirement last summer at the age of 90, Bernard Haitink worked magic on the podium, no one is in any doubt about...

Reissue CDs Weekly: Helen Shapiro - Face The Music The Complete Singles 1967-1984 Kieron Tyler Sunday, 27 September 2020 What happens when the hits dry up? And what happens a little further down the line, as the years of being on the charts...

Sunnymead Court, Tristan Bates Theatre review - a lovely lockdown romance Laura De Lisle Saturday, 26 September 2020 The first words of Sunnymead Court, a new play at the Tristan Bates Theatre, are ominous. “We are transitioning from human...

theartsdesk in Hamburg: Ghost Light - a ballet in the time of corona Jenny Gilbert Saturday, 26 September 2020 So the Royal Ballet is to make a live comeback, for one night only, on 9 October. Fielding the entire company of 100 dancers...

First Person: pianist Danny Driver on teaching online and the importance of music education Danny Driver Saturday, 26 September 2020 There’s an old saying that goes: if life deals you lemons, make lemonade. To say that the COVID-19 pandemic is a lemon would...

Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Shostakovich, Chris Watson and Georgia Rodgers Graham Rickson Saturday, 26 September 2020 Mahler: Symphony No. 7 Orchestre National de Lille/Alexandre Bloch (Alpha Classics)Mahler 5’s five movements trace a...

An Evening with an Immigrant, Bridge Theatre review – poetic and engaging Aleks Sierz Friday, 25 September 2020 When the history of British theatre’s response to COVID-19 comes to be written, the names of two men will feature...