Film: literary adaptations
You know Oscar season is approaching when the weather gets chillier and the options at the cinema get a little more literary – and so autumn duly brings two star-laden adaptations of major modern American novels.
First comes The Goldfinch on 27 September: Donna Tartt’s epic Pulitzer prize-winner sprawls in a way some pundits thought more suited to a TV miniseries, but building on the Oscar-nominated success of Brooklyn, director John Crowley is tackling it for the big screen, with Ansel Elgort heading the cast as semi-orphaned wanderer Theo Decker, and Nicole Kidman ideally cast as Mrs Barbour.
On 30 November, Jonathan Lethem’s celebrated detective odyssey Motherless Brooklyn hits cinemas courtesy of director and star Edward Norton – venturing behind the camera for the first time in 19 years.
Both are challenging projects: will they do their source material justice? Meanwhile, you have some catch-up time if you haven’t read either novel – otherwise how can you say “the book was better” with any kind of airy authority? Guy Lodge
Music: pop overdrive
Any UK tour by Ariana Grande will always be emotional. Fresh off a run of August London dates and a special performance in Manchester for Pride, the singer now takes her huge album of last year, Sweetener, around the rest of the UK; she’s recently added a further two London dates at the end of October.
Our own Charli XCX, meanwhile, wondered whether she would ever release another album proper. But after five years of innovative mixtapes and arresting standalone singles comes a full-on studio effort – Charli – on 13 September, studded with guests as diverse as Christine and the Queens, bedroom pop auteur Clairo and self-styled queen of New Orleans “bounce”, Big Freedia.
Charli’s former tour mate, candid US singer Halsey, has hinted – in a mocked-up mugshot in the video for her track Nightmare in May – at an October release date for her own “loud” third album, widely expected to be called Manic. Halsey has described the writing process as one of “learning to forgive myself”. Kitty Empire
TV: Westeros-induced fantasy
Since Game of Thrones slayed the world – let’s forget that damp squib of a final series – the fantasy genre is back in televisual vogue. Screenwriters have been raiding the bookshelves for similar sagas to adapt and the first wave of Westeros-influenced series arrive this autumn.
Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne star in neo-noir romance Carnival Row, arriving on Amazon Prime Video this week, and set in a Victorian city where humans and mythical creatures live side by side. Netflix has The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a 10-part prequel to Jim Henson’s beloved 1982 fantasy film with the likes of Mark Hamill, Helena Bonham-Carter, Toby Jones, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Eddie Izzard voicing characters.
Most promising, though, is the BBC and HBO’s ambitious adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. With a cast led by James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda and, of course, an armoured CGI polar bear, confidence in its success is so high that a second series is already commissioned. George RR who? Michael Hogan
Theatre: political poison
After her triumphs with Enron and The Effect, dramatist Lucy Prebble turns her unswerving gaze on the death of Alexander Litvinenko. Based on the book by the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Luke Harding, A Very Expensive Poison considers how in 2006 the Russian spy, MI6 informant and Putin critic died of radiation poisoning after drinking a cup of green tea in a central London hotel. The play is at the Old Vic until 5 October: John Crowley directs; Tom Brooke and MyAnna Buring play the Litvinenkos, Reece Shearsmith is Putin. Susannah Clapp
Film: Ken Loach takes on the gig economy
Ken Loach brings the same scalding anger to the gig economy in Sorry We Missed You as he did to the benefits system with I, Daniel Blake. And, in Newcastle upon Tyne, the films also share the same location. This portrait of a family strained to breaking point by a treadmill of hard graft and mounting debt is superbly acted and unwavering in its focus. The deliberate pacing and edgy, restless camera give the story a cruel momentum and sense of the walls closing in on a hapless delivery driver who just wants to do well by his kids. Wendy Ide
Art: Troy: Myth and Reality at the British Museum
Did Helen really exist? Did the most beautiful woman in the world actually provoke the destruction of one of the greatest cities of all time? And why are there so many different versions of the story, from Homer to Shakespeare to Hollywood? This magnificent show plunges us deep into the myth and the reality, bringing alive the captivating characters of this ancient civilisation through sculptures, paintings, vases and fragments of literature, proving that there was a real Troy, and revealing its fate. From 21 November to 8 March. Laura Cumming
Music: live UK grime and hip-hop
We are quite possibly in UK rap’s golden age, and autumn’s live shows epitomise that. Two of this year’s Mercury prize nominees, the powerful Little Simz and raucous Slowthai, are both touring the country, as is one of Afroswing’s finest, MoStack, riding high off his debut LP. Ladbroke Grove star AJ Tracey will be playing Ally Pally, while Charlie Sloth’s infamous Fire in the Booth show will be getting a September live edition with a first-time festival in Sheffield (with the somewhat dubious title of Fire in the Park), featuring the likes of Giggs and Yxng Bane. Grime don Skepta is heading up a phenomenal Warehouse Project line-up in November (rising stars Octavian and Flohio are among others playing that day). Finally, the release of Kano’s Class of Deja has arguably been the biggest grime moment of the year (second only to Stormzy at Glastonbury) – accordingly, Kano’s tour this October is a must, culminating in a show at the Royal Albert Hall. Tara Joshi
Books: the most anticipated
Ben Lerner’s third novel, The Topeka School (3 October), is an education in the sympathetic imagination, a deep and bracing intellectual challenge, a powerful political statement. As usual, Lerner plays winningly in the fertile ground between fiction and memoir, as usual he is often hilarious and occasionally infuriating. Wider-reaching, subtler and kinder than his earlier works, this is a novel to cherish.
We return to Gilead in another Booker-longlisted novel, Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments (10 September) which carries powerful messages for the #MeToo generation. It’s striking that this novel is published just before another highly anticipated book, She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Both should be required reading.
Zadie Smith’s short stories are predictably luminous, insightful and full of glorious prose. It’s hard to believe that Grand Union (3 October) is her first collection, drawing as it does on more than a decade of writing for the New Yorker. She’s already one of our best novelists and essayists; this reminds us that her short stories are right up there too.
Jonathan Safran Foer is always fascinating on the subject of vegetarianism – his Eating Animals persuaded me to (almost) give up meat. We Are the Weather (10 October) shows the clear link between industrialised animal farming and climate breakdown in a book of scintillating relevance and authority.
In these times of political turbulence and an increasingly rabid and scrofulous commentariat, the sanity, wisdom and clarity of Rebecca Solnit’s writing is a forceful corrective. Whose Story Is This? (5 September) is a scorchingly intelligent collection about the struggle to control narratives in the internet age. Alex Preston
Film: Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci go their own ways
Two of the UK’s most accomplished satirists, Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci, both launch films this autumn. But the pair, who previously collaborated on the TV series The Day Today, take markedly diverging approaches with their respective projects. Morris, who skewered Islamist terrorism in Four Lions, turns his focus on the US law enforcement agencies that manufacture threats in order to justify department funding. The anger in The Day Shall Come is to be expected; the stab of poignancy comes as a surprise. Iannucci, meanwhile, has left his habitual political arena (Veep, In the Loop, The Death of Stalin) and adapted Dickens’s David Copperfield. The Personal History of David Copperfield stars Dev Patel in the title role and opens the London film festival. WI
Art: Margate festival
Margate expanded as a centre for art with the opening of the Carl Freedman Gallery in the old Thanet Press building, next to Tracey Emin’s studio, in May. Its second exhibition, Gossamer, curated by Zoe Bedeaux, brings together 22 artists – including Ulay, Louise Bourgeois and Sarah Lucas – who work with tights or stockings, and will open on 28 September. Also from 28 September, actor and art collector Russell Tovey curates Margate NOW, a town-wide festival of music, art and drama, including events in unexpected places from the railway station to the shore. And all of this accompanies the opening of the Turner prize show at Turner Margate (28 September) with one of the strongest shortlists in many years, bringing together Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Tai Shani and Oscar Murillo. LC
Film: Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman
Anticipation around Martin Scorsese’s plan to dramatise the real-life story of mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, who was involved in the notorious disappearance of labour union leader Jimmy Hoffa in 1975, has been cranking up for years. Now it’s finally hitting cinemas on 8 November, with Robert De Niro as Sheeran and Al Pacino as Hoffa – but with only a brief window before it streams on Netflix on 27 November. This is familiar ground for Scorsese but the pedigree is high: Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) wrote the script and Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Anna Paquin co-star. Killian Fox
Dance: high-profile debuts
British ballet promises some intriguing major debuts by dancers. The Royal Ballet’s Marcelino Sambé marks his recent promotion to principal dancer by reprising his raffish Lescaut for Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, opening at Covent Garden in October, before taking a lead role as Franz in Coppélia on 28 December. Expect buoyant technique and giddy charisma from this young ace.
Northern Ballet’s Antoinette Brooks-Daw is moving into the company’s top rank following rich turns in Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre and Victoria. Catch her displaying her narrative chops in Morgann Runacre-Temple’s Kingdom of Back – part of a new mixed bill along with David Nixon’s Dracula (Leeds, Doncaster and Canterbury, September/October).
And then there’s former Washington Ballet star Brooklyn Mack who joins English National Ballet as a guest artist. Fresh from a well-received stint at American Ballet Theatre, he has roles in Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella (Manchester, Southampton, October) and Anna‑Marie Holmes’s Le Corsaire (Milton Keynes, November). Sara Veale
TV: contrasting London dramas on Netflix
Two starkly different views of the capital arrive on the streaming service this autumn. In a period of flux for the real royal family, it seems timely for sumptuous biopic The Crown to return with a fresh cast. Oscar-winner Olivia Colman succeeds Claire Foy as the Queen, with Tobias Menzies as Prince Phillip and, deliciously, Helen Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret. Covering the period from 1964 to 1976, it glides majestically on to Netflix on 17 November.
The other comeback is more surprising but entirely welcome. Top Boy, writer Ronan Bennett’s down-and-dirty thriller about Hackney drug gangs, was bafflingly axed by Channel 4 six years ago. Now it’s been revived on Netflix with the backing of Canadian superstar Drake. The reboot, which drops on 13 September, sees Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kane “Kano” Robinson) return from exile to reclaim their territory, only to find an ambitious new generation are now running things. Rappers Little Simz and Dave join the cast, alongside exciting new discovery Micheal Ward. (See feature on page 20.) MH
Film: prestige sci-fi
Away from the superhero glut of summer, autumn has become the new season for more grown-up sci-fi escapism: recently Interstellar, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 all opted for the cooler months. The biggest-budget project yet from American auteur James Gray (revered in France, underrated everywhere else), Ad Astra stars Brad Pitt as an astronaut venturing deep into the solar system in search of his father; it premieres in competition at the Venice film festival and opens shortly after, on 18 September.
Unpredictable as ever, two-time Oscar-winner Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi) returns with Gemini Man (in cinemas 11 October), a high-concept, hi-tech thriller with Will Smith as a hitman pursuing his younger self – it sounds a bit derivative of Rian Johnson’s Looper, but in Lee we trust.
If Hollywood fantasy doesn’t do it for you, seek out Aniara (out now, reviewed page 32), a fascinating, meditative Swedish mission to Mars. In this version of space, no one can hear you scream, but at least you can hear yourself think. GL
Music: the return of thoughtful indie
A decade on since landfill indie seemed to consign guitar music to the dustbin of history, a new wave of innovative, boundary-pushing releases is on its way to expand the genre’s horizons. Erstwhile Sexwitch vocalist Bat for Lashes embraces a dreamy 80s vibe on her forthcoming album Lost Girls (AWAL, 6 September): saxophone solos, arpeggiated synths and lyrics about female vampire biker gangs feature.
Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard releases her debut solo album, Jaime (Columbia, 20 September). Dedicated to her sister, who died of cancer when they were teens, it has a tender, expansive sound, encompassing soulful ruminations on love, spirituality, and growing up as a mixed-race child in the deep south.
Angel Olsen follows up 2016’s excellent My Woman with the magisterial yet delicate All Mirrors (Jagjaguwar, 4 October), preceded by a mesmerising new single of the same name with a cinematic black-and-white video.
Finally, Michael Kiwanuka’s meditative, assured third album Kiwanuka (Polydor, 25 October) spans psych-gospel, politics and self-acceptance, as well as nodding to his Ugandan heritage. Kathryn Bromwich
Art: Tate Britain is having a moment
Tate Britain is gathering new momentum this year, after the success of Van Gogh and Britain and Mike Nelson’s elegiac Duveen Commission. Huge crowds are anticipated for its autumn exhibitions. These include William Blake, from 11 September, which doesn’t focus on one particular area so much as the all-embracing originality of his vision, entering his mind through the works, and recreating the tiny room where they were made. Two Turner prizewinners follow: Mark Leckey (from 24 September) builds a life-size replica of a motorway bridge on the Wirral, where he grew up, as the scene for new video and audio works. And Steve McQueen brings his mass portrait of 70,000 primary school children to the museum: the nation’s future, from 12 November. LC
Classical: Agrippina at Royal Opera House
Written for the Venice carnival season, Handel’s early-career gem Agrippina, about one woman’s lust for power, and rivalry in love, is staged for the Royal Opera House by the director of the moment, Barrie Kosky, with a glittering lineup led by American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, British countertenor Iestyn Davies and British soprano Lucy Crowe. Packed with explosive music and showpiece arias, this is a story for our times, of leadership and failed diplomacy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and cast are conducted by the Handel specialist and harpsichordist Maxim Emelyanychev. Fiona Maddocks
Theatre: four new Caryl Churchill plays
Not one, not two, but four short new works by our greatest living dramatist have landed, fully formed, in the Royal Court’s lap, and are being staged in one quadruple bill. Which is basically Christmas come early for theatre fans. As usual with the publicity-averse Churchill, there’s not much known about them yet, but Glass is reportedly about a girl made of glass, Kill deals with gods and murderers, Bluebeard tackles a serial killer’s friends, and Imp concerns a secret in a bottle. James Macdonald, with whom Churchill worked on Escaped Alone, directs the lot for a limited three-week run (18 September to 12 October). Holly Williams
Music: Richard Dawson’s state-of-the-nation masterpiece
On his 2017 album Peasant, Richard Dawson harked back to early medieval England to chronicle a nation at war with itself. No need for distant historical allegories on his latest record 2020 (Weird World, 11 October), which is less a snapshot of contemporary Britain than a full-scale narrative immersion. The Newcastle folk-rocker, whose interests extend to Sufi devotional music and beyond, tells first-person stories of ordinary Englanders trapped in an increasingly cruel system, which sucks their souls dry for profit. Listening to civil servants unravelling at the thought of depriving yet another poor soul of their disability living allowance may sound like hard going, but 2020 is funny, freaky and unexpectedly melodic as well as desperately moving – you won’t hear a better song about the hell of working in Amazon-style distribution warehouses than Dawson’s 10-minute Fulfilment Centre. KF
Theatre: shows with pop star scores
It’s farewell to Sarah Frankcom, who’s been a brilliant head of the Manchester Royal Exchange – but she should go out with a bang with Light Falls (from 24 October). A new play by Simon Stephens is always an event, but even more exciting is the man doing the music: one Jarvis Cocker. Light Falls connects five relatives living in cities across the north, and looks at how they’re drawn together after a devastating event. More cheerful, perhaps, will be The Boy in the Dress – the RSC’s new musical version of David Walliams’s children’s book, with songs by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers. The story of Dennis, a 12-year-old who likes football and dresses, is adapted by Mark Ravenhill, and opens 8 November. HW
Classical: Orpheus in the Coliseum
ENO’s ambitious season explores the Orpheus myth – the grief-stricken hero tries to rescue his lover from the Underworld – with four operas from the 18th century to the present. Directed by the choreographer Wayne McGregor in his ENO directorial debut, Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice stars Alice Coote and Sarah Tynan; Harry Bicket conducts. Offenbach’s comic Orpheus in the Underworld is one long, naughty, can-can dancing party. Ed Lyon and Mary Bevan head the cast. Sian Edwards conducts, Emma Rice directs. The unmissable rarities are Harrison Birtwistle’s ritualistic masterpiece The Mask of Orpheus, director Daniel Kramer, conductor Martyn Brabbins; and Philip Glass’s Orphée, inspired by Cocteau; director Netia Jones, conductor Geoffrey Paterson. Discounts if you book the series. FM
Theatre: Ibsen gets a makeover
You might think we’ve no shortage of Ibsen – but two new productions look to be bold, essential reimaginings. Hedda Tesman is by Cordelia Lynn (whose Three Sisters has recently been at the Almeida), and promises to breathe new life into Ibsen’s classic, Hedda Gabler, for touring company Headlong. Haydn Gwynne stars in the title role (Chichester Festival theatre, 30 August-28 September; the Lowry, Salford 3-19 October). A new version of A Doll’s House, written by Tanika Gupta – who moves the action to Calcutta and invites us to look at the play’s gender politics through the lens of British colonialism – opens at the Lyric Hammersmith on 6 September. It’s the first production by the west London theatre’s new artistic director, Rachel O’Riordan, and stars the captivating Anjana Vasan. HW
TV: RuPaul’s Drag Race comes to the UK
Gentlemen, start your engines because Mama Ru is strutting, sashaying and shantaying our way. After becoming a global phenomenon over the past decade, the long-awaited UK edition of RuPaul’s Drag Race launches on BBC Three in October, with 10 home-grown acts competing to be crowned “the Queen of Great Britain”. Guest judges include Graham Norton, Maisie Williams, Cheryl, Alan Carr, Stacey Dooley, Andrew Garfield, Michaela Coel, Lorraine Kelly and Twiggy, alongside stalwart Michelle Visage. Self-empowering positivity and upbeat bubblegum camp have rarely been more needed. They better werk. MH
Architecture: Open House weekend
London’s annual Open House weekend (21-22 September) always delivers an embarrassment of architectural riches, providing free access to more than 800 buildings usually off limits to the public, accompanied by a programme of tours and talks. Where else can you take in Lambeth Palace and the Marx Memorial Library in a single weekend? Marking the centenary of the Addison Act, which made “housing for all” a government policy, some of London’s key postwar housing schemes will also open their doors for the first time. They include Alexandra Road in Camden, the Golden Lane Estate and Ernö Goldfinger’s twin monuments to brutalism, Trellick Tower and Balfron Tower. Other London landmarks, such as the BT Tower and 10 Downing Street, will be available to visit by online ballot. Catherine Slessor
Theatre: tasty American imports
Branden Jacob-Jenkins – who has had hits here with An Octoroon and Gloria – brings his 2014 play Appropriate to the Donmar until 5 October (see review, page 40). The Lafayette family return to their late father’s house, a former plantation in Arkansas – and this, being a Jacob-Jenkins play, is a slanted, subversive take on the classic American family drama. It’s directed by Ola Ince (The Convert), and stars Monica Dolan.
There’s more family feuding in Fairview – which won Jackie Sibblies Drury this year’s Pulitzer prize for drama, and which promises to rip the genre to shreds. At London’s Young Vic from 28 November, directed by Nadia Latif, this race drama should provoke, unsettle and dazzle audiences here too.
Annie Baker is back at the National Theatre – which staged her hugely acclaimed plays John and The Flick – with The Antipodes, in which people sit around a table, telling, examining, and categorising stories. Intriguingly, Baker herself co-directs with Chloe Lamford, who is also designing the show (21 October-23 November). HW
