4 hours ago
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Going out: Cinema
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy
Out now
You probably know what The Mummy is, but do you know what a Lee Cronin is? Allow us to assist: he’s the Irish director responsible for effective indie horror The Hole in the Ground and the highest grossing entry in the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Rises. His version of this classic horror sees a journalist (Jack Reynor) and his wife (Laia Costa) reunited with their child who went missing in the desert eight years ago, with nightmarish consequences.
The Wizard of the Kremlin
Out now
Jude Law is, wait for it, Vladimir Putin, with Paul Dano as fictional spin doctor Vadim Baranov in a new thriller from Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper). Based on the l’Académie française prize-winning debut novel from Giuliano da Empoli.
Miroirs No 3
Out now
German director Christian Petzold returns with a new film (the title refers to the piano solo by Ravel) starring his regular collaborator Paula Beer as a classical piano student recuperating in rural idyll afrer a dramatic car crash.
Glenrothan
Out now
Brian Cox (the Succession one, not the physics one) steps into the role of director for the first time to helm this comic tale of an estranged brother (Alan Cumming) returning to Scotland after 30 years away in order to make amends with his elder sibling (Cox). Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
Amaarae
Roundhouse, London, 23 April
This one-off UK date from the American-Ghanaian singer promises a thoroughly immersive journey through Afrobeats, alt-pop and techno. Also worth noting before you leave the house: there’s a strict all-black dress code. Michael Cragg
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 22 April
A programme of English early-20th-century classical hits by Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Peter Warlock as you’ve never heard them before. In collaboration with purveyors of immersive experiences Squidsoup, the leading period-instrument ensemble perform with a custom-built Concrete Voids 3D sound system, transforming the venue itself into another instrument. Flora Willson
Dry Cleaning
Touring to 25 April; tour starts Dublin
Released in January, Secret Love continued Dry Cleaning’s love affair with gloriously off-kilter art-rock, fusing post-punk’s passion for noise with singer Florence Shaw’s hypnotic spoken-word storytelling. This UK tour should also see them debut jagged recent single Sliced By a Fingernail. MC
Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin
Kings Place, London, 23 April; Turner Sims, Southampton, 24 April
The Swiss pianist-composer’s unique genre-fluid band has spent 25 years practising what he has dubbed “Zen funk” – Steve Reichian minimalism, Japanese ritual music, prog, jazz, electric-Miles and beyond. They’re touring ninth album Spin, and a pleasing mix of experimentation and accessibility. John Fordham
Going out: Art
Michaela Yearwood-Dan
The Whitworth, Manchester, to 18 October
It’s all mashed together in Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s art: painting, ceramics, sound, poetry, diaristic writing. For this, her first institutional exhibition in the UK, she creates a painting-focused and totally immersive, dizzying installation about colonial history, religious institutions and the process of collective and personal liberation.
Katharina Grosse
White Cube Bermondsey, London, 22 April to 31 May
For her first show at White Cube in almost 25 years, Germany’s Grosse has taken inspiration from a quote in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, seeing in it a sense of urgency and intensity that echoes her approach to art. This show will focus on sculpture and immersive works sprayed in situ all over the gallery’s walls.
The Music is Black: A British Story
V&A East, London, 18 April to 3 January
The impact of Black music on wider British culture is immense. This exhibition – the first at the V&A’s new museum in Stratford’s Olympic park – will be a joyful celebration of Black British music and the people who made it, combining archive material, photography, multimedia installations and musical instruments.
Shaqúelle Whyte
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, to 31 August
Young Wolverhampton-born artist Shaqúelle Whyte’s Blackbirds Singing in the Dead of Night is a dark, atmospheric painting – and it has just been bought by Wolverhampton Art Gallery for its permanent collection. Now they’re putting it on display alongside a handful of other recent paintings in a homecoming celebration for the 26-year-old painter. Eddy Frankel
Going out: Stage
Joe Tracini
20 April to 1 July; tour starts Norwich
He may have followed his dad, Joe Pasquale, on to the panto circuit, but Tracini’s standup is miles from his father’s frothy light entertainment fare. The 37-year-old’s new show is the starkly candid 10 Things I Hate About Me, which details his experiences of borderline personality disorder, drug addiction and debilitating panic attacks. Rachel Aroesti
I Saw Satan at the 7-Eleven
Soho theatre, London, Tuesday 21 April to 2 May
Christopher Brett Bailey can turn a theatrical monologue into an out-of-body experience. Now he has adapted his own novella into a screwball solo show about a chance encounter with the devil (in a 7-Eleven). Miriam Gillinson
Driftwood
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 30 May
Martina Laird’s debut play is about self-determination and the search for family – set in 1950s Caribbean. Trinidad is on the brink of political independence and a new arrival in a downtown gentlemen’s club is about to blow everything apart. MG
Leap dance festival
Various venues, Liverpool, 24 April to 9 May
Liverpool’s annual dance fest opens with Cathy Waller Dance, featuring an inclusive cast of disabled and non-disabled dancers and a score by Mobo-winning jazz musician Lewis Wright. There’s also youth and community dance, cabaret, workshops, a competition for emerging dance artists plus performances from Phoenix Dance and Akeim Toussaint Buck. Lyndsey Winship
Staying in: Streaming
Half Man
BBC iPlayer, 24 April
Baby Reindeer may be an impossible act to follow but Richard Gadd is trying with another pitch-black drama. Half Man is a decades-spanning study of masculinity that chronicles the intense bond between non-biological brothers Ruben and Niall (Jamie Bell and Gadd) and the violent act that transforms their relationship.
Unchosen
Netflix, 21 April
There is no shortage of shows about cults, but this thriller set in a Christian sect looks more hair-raising than most. Trapped in a controlling marriage with Adam (Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield), a young woman called Rosie finds a friend in a charismatic stranger. Christopher Eccleston and Siobhan Finneran co-star.
Mint
iPlayer & BBC One, 20 April, 9pm
A gangland drama with a difference from Charlotte Regan, director of the acclaimed social-realist indie Scrapper. Emma Laird stars as Shannon, the cosseted daughter of a local crime lord (Sam Riley) who is desperate to carve out her own path – starting with a romance with Arran, played by rapper Loyle Carner.
This Is a Gardening Show
Netflix, 22 April
Having made waves early on in his career with satirical interview series Between Two Ferns, it seems only fitting that Zach Galifianakis should branch out into gardening content. Here the comedian guides us in the art of growing plants, something he deems a “remedy to the human condition”. RA
Staying in: Games
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
Switch 2, out now
This endearingly bizarre game has you creating a bunch of tiny people and observing their antics as they live on an island together. Think Sims-lite with a lot of quasi-accidental comedy.
MOUSE PI for Hire
PC, Xbox, PS5, Switch 2, out now
A hand-animated black-and-white shooter about a cartoon mouse detective, this eye-catching game looks like what would happen if 1930s cartooning geniuses made Doom. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Albums
Jessie Ware – Superbloom
Out now
On this sixth album, Jessie Ware leans further into decadent, plush pop, as showcased on lead single I Could Get Used to This and the recent Automatic. The pulsating Ride, meanwhile, is a full-on sticky dancefloor banger, fusing featherlight house with an Ennio Morricone sample.
Zayn – Konnakol
Out now
Following the country-tinged singer-songwriter vibes of 2024’s Room Under the Stairs, the erstwhile One Directioner returns to the lovelorn R&B of his 2016 debut on this fifth album. Die for Me is very much Zayn does the Weeknd circa 2015, while the more tactile Sideways is the perfect vehicle for his versatile vocal.
Dorian Electra – Dorian Electra
Out 22 April
Texas-born experimental pop specialist Dorian Electra tackles a suite of cover versions on this follow-up to 2023’s Fanfare. Across 10 tracks Electra sinks their teeth into the likes of Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man, Gorillaz’ Feel Good Inc and Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie, with entertainingly surreal results.
Honey Dijon – Nightlife
Out now
Fresh from collaborations with Beyoncé and Jamie xx, American producer and DJ Honey Dijon unleashes her bejewelled third album. Honouring classic house, soul and disco, all with a future-facing twist, Nightlife features guest spots from Greentea Peng, Rochelle Jordan and Chlöe. MC
Staying in: Brain food
50 Weeks That Shaped America
Podcast
Marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, this fascinating series from reporter Jody Avirgan examines key periods that shaped the country’s history, from the US’s entrance into the first world war to Obama’s clinching of the Democratic nomination in 2008.
YaleCourses: Capital
YouTube
Yale professor Paul North’s comprehensive lecture series delivers a read-along analysis of Karl Max’s Das Kapital, chapter by chapter. Applying Marx’s economic theory to today’s world, North argues for the text’s continued relevance in understanding capitalism.
The Book of George
Vimeo
Beautifully shot and artfully told, this award-winning short film follows wildlife photographer George McKenzie Jr in his work advocating for young people to engage with the natural world, rather than be drawn into violence. Ammar Kalia
