Five of the best ... films
Early Man(PG)
(Nick Park, 2018, UK/Fra) 89 mins
Like its stone-age subjects, Aardman’s homely claymation formula hasn’t particularly evolved, nor does it need to. This is another witty, gag-stuffed, agreeably hand-crafted family treat, which is essentially a prehistoric sports movie. Eddie Redmayne voices the sharpest of an insular and dimwitted tribe who must beat their European invaders on the football pitch.
Coco (PG)
(Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina, 2017, US) 105 mins
This vibrant and culturally respectful Pixar outing seamlessly combines family drama with accessible comedy and colourful fantasy. The plot follows a musically inclined Mexican kid who becomes stranded in the land of the dead. There’s rarely a dull moment with his bickering skeleton ancestors, who reveal a hidden family history.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (15)
(Martin McDonagh, 2017, UK/US) 115 mins
This small-town drama’s flaws are outweighed by its strengths, not least the switches of plot, tone and its assortment of characters – played by the likes of Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage and, most of all, Frances McDormand. Her no-nonsense single mother wages war against the police over their handling of her child’s killer, but things don’t pan out as intended.
Darkest Hour (PG)
(Joe Wright, 2017, UK) 125 mins
Gary Oldman is scooping up the awards for his portrayal of Winston Churchill, a wide-ranging take on a figure who is often reduced to a caricature. This handsome drama works hard to tell an old story in new ways, rendering Churchill’s early prime ministerial career as a minefield of political peril, and considering the women in his life, particularly his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) and secretary (Lily James).
The Cinema Travellers (tbc)
(Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya, 2016, Ind) 96 mins
Here’s one for the cineastes: a charming documentary following some of India’s very last travelling cinema shows, whose old-school technology has brought joy to many but whose days are numbered in the digital era. There is no attempt to force a storyline; we’re happy to just sit back and watch these lovable characters go about their business.
SR
Five of the best ... pop and rock gigs
Lady Gaga
After delaying the European leg of her tour in support of her country-hued album Joanne due to an ongoing hip issue, Lady Gaga gets back in the pop saddle this week. While the record smoothed off some of her more outre edges, the tour – which has already made its way around the United States – ramps up the spectacle, bringing back the ludicrous outfits, inflatable stage props and eyebrow-singeing pyrotechnics.
Birmingham Wednesday 31 January & Thursday 1 February; touring to 8 February
Jeff Tweedy
Wilco founder Jeff Tweedy shuffles into the UK and Ireland for his first solo shows since 2010. In support of last year’s critically lauded Together at Last album, expect songs from Wilco’s extensive back catalogue as well as some proper fans-only deep cuts from his side projects Loose Fur and Golden Smog.
Dublin, Tuesday 30 January; Edinburgh, Wednesday 31 January; Manchester, Thursday 1 February; touring to 3 February
Sofi Tukker
Even if you don’t know their name you will likely recognise the music of Sofi Tukker, AKA lead vocalist Sophie Hawley-Weld and DJ-producer Tucker Halpern (did you see what they did there?). Last year, their elasticated electropop soundtracked the iPhone X ad, while that song, Best Friend, also appeared in Fifa 18. Watch them do it live in the UK and Ireland this week.
Dublin, Saturday 27 January; Glasgow, Sunday 28 January; London, Wednesday 31 January
KPop Knight
While a full K-pop crossover hit has yet to materialise in the UK, there is enough of an appetite for it to warrant this all-day celebration of all things tightly choreographed and eye-wateringly DayGlo. Acts on offer include seven-headed boyband Monsta X, Korean great Se7en, rising boyband 7 O’Clock and girlband Tahiti, who were formed via their own sitcom-style reality TV show called Ta-Dah! It’s Tahiti.
The SSE Arena, Wembley, Saturday 27 January
MC
Christine Tobin
Christine Tobin (pictured) is not only an imaginative genre-bridging singer-songwriter, she’s a gifted interpreter of others’ lyrics (notably Leonard Cohen, Dylan and Carole King) and literary giants including WB Yeats. On this tour, Tobin illuminates the Pulitzer-prize-winning poetry of Paul Muldoon,
her guest for the trip’s Exeter show.
Torrington, Saturday 27 January; Exeter, Sunday 28 January; Southampton, Thursday 1 February; Derby, Friday 2 February; touring to 8 February
JF
Four of the best ... classical concerts
The Threepenny Opera
Northern Ireland Opera’s recently installed artistic director, Walter Sutcliffe, makes his debut with the company directing a staging of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s ground-breaking music-theatre piece. It’s sung in Marc Blitzstein’s English version, with Mark Dugdale as Macheath and Jayne Wisener as Polly Peachum; Sinead Hayes conducts.
Lyric Theatre, Belfast Saturday 27 January to 10 February
Das Rheingold
Vladimir Jurowski marks his 10th anniversary as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic with a semi-staging of the first part of Wagner’s Ring cycle. The cast is led by Matthias Goerne, singing Wotan in London for the first time, with Robert Hayward as Alberich, Adrian Thompson as Mime and Michelle DeYoung as Fricka.
Royal Festival Hall, SE1, Saturday 27 January
Celebrating Carter
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for the first time in a programme devoted to late pieces by Elliott Carter. It includes his very last work, Epigrams for piano trio from 2012, played by the musicians who gave its premiere: Alexandra Wood, Ulrich Heinen and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
Birmingham Town Hall, Sunday 28 January
Michael Tippett premiere
As an appendix to his cycle of Tippett’s numbered symphonies with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins unearths the early Symphony in B Flat. It was completed in 1934, but rejected by the composer as “too Sibelian” after a handful of performances; this will be the first chance in 80 years to hear the score.
City Halls, Glasgow, Thursday 1 February
AC
Five of the best ... exhibitions
Charles I: King and Collector
The Stuart king who got his head chopped off in 1649, after fighting a civil war against his own parliament, also happened to be Britain’s greatest royal art collector. His treasures were sold after his death, but this show brings many back together – including masterpieces by Titian, Rubens and Van Dyck – to reveal the glory of baroque Britain.
Royal Academy of Arts, W1 Saturday 27 January to 15 April
The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind
This homage to the rural has works ranging from Californian reprobate Paul McCarthy and slide-making provocateur Carsten Höller to the beloved illustrations of Beatrix Potter and the radical crafts of Edward Carpenter. And no morris dancers at all.
Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, to 7 May
Tara Donovan
Banal things that we never give a thought to, such as paper cups and sticky tape, are mutated by Donovan into cosmic and microcosmic expanses of magical stuff. She creates sprawling evocations of molecules and cells, the tiny invisible structures of things, spinning spectacular galaxies from bits of rubbish. In this show, the artist uses framed works to explore stratification.
Pace Gallery, W1, to 9 March
Pots With Attitude
Would you piss on a picture of Nigel Farage? I pluck that name out of the air at random but, in the Georgian age, satirical art really did include images on the inside of chamber pots. Pioneering transfer techniques allowed caricatures to be reproduced on jugs, bowls and other ceramics, piss pots included, taking the scabrous art of Gillray and his contemporaries to a popular audience in alehouses and inns. It’s like Grayson Perry on snuff.
British Museum, WC1, to 11 March
Transvangarde
In our age of biennials and art fairs, art has never been more cosmopolitan. Say what you like about the art market, it provides a stage for art in which there are no borders. The flourishing state of global art is surveyed in this exhibition, with work by celebrated Ghanaian redeemer of found stuff El Anatsui, China-born painter Tian Wei, and Beninois mask-maker Romuald Hazoumè.
October Gallery, WC1, Thursday 1 February to 3 March
JJ
Five of the best ... theatre shows
Out of Love
The achievements of the past can all too quickly be swept away, particularly when it comes to women, feminism and opportunity. It is the latter that separates Lorna and Grace, who become firm friends despite very different backgrounds. Elinor Cook’s play is a warm celebration of female friendship but also a beady-eyed look at social mobility.
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond Saturday 27 January to 3 March
Guys and Dolls
It is your last chance this week for Michael Buffong’s all-black staging of one of the 20th century’s greatest musicals. This exuberant evening, featuring Ashley Zhangazha as Sky Masterson, successfully relocates the action from Broadway to Harlem and is stuffed full of Frank Loesser’s showstoppers and psychological acuity.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, to 3 February
Imperium: The Cicero Plays
You need to get your skates on for Mike Poulton’s seven-hour, two-part version of Robert Harris’s trilogy about the rise and fall of Cicero, the Roman lawyer and politician (Harris described it as “like the West Wing in togas”). There is a mighty central performance from Richard McCabe, who captures the charisma and flaws of Cicero in an experience that is big in every way but never bloated.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre: Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 10 February
Things I Know to Be True
All parents have dreams and expectations for their children and want the best for them. But what happens when, despite the sacrifices made by the parents, their grownup children’s lives don’t turn out quite as planned? Frantic Assembly offers a physical dimension to emotional inarticulacy in Andrew Bovell’s poignant, tender play about one unhappy family trying to forge new futures for themselves.
Lyric Hammersmith, W6, to 3 February
Brief Encounter
A production to make you long to swing from the chandeliers, director Emma Rice’s staging of the famous love story for Kneehigh and Birmingham Rep playfully and wittily negotiates the boundaries between theatre and film. Noël Coward’s story is best known for the 1945 movie with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard as the stiff-upper-lip marrieds who fall for each other, and Rice’s staging is suffused in achingly suppressed passion.
Birmingham Rep, Friday 2 to 17 February
LG
Three of the best ... dance shows
Sampled
The Wells’s annual taster programme is always a classy showcase of different dancers and different styles. This year’s lineup includes virtuoso flamenco star Jesús Carmona, street dancer Jodelle Douglas, Zenaida Yanowsky – former ballerina with the Royal – performing the Dying Swan, and a duet from Alexander Whitley’s ballet Kin.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1 Friday 2 & Saturday 3 February
Mark Bruce Company: Macbeth
Mark Bruce moves on from his coruscating reinventions of Dracula and The Odyssey to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set in a world of supernatural and psychological menace. The excellent Jonathan Goddard takes the title role, and Bruce’s own music is featured.
Frome, Saturday 27 January; Winchester, Wednesday 31 January & Thursday 1 February; touring to 18 May
Birmingham Royal Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty
Peter Wright’s enduring production of the Petipa-Tchaikovsky classic goes out on its spring tour, with Wright’s meticulous staging for BRB given magnificence and drama by Philip Prowse’s designs.
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, Wednesday 31 January to 3 February; touring to 24 March
JM
