Going Out : Cinema
ear for eye
Writer-director debbie tucker green brings her affecting play to the big screen at the London film festival. The BBC are premiering it simultaneously on BBC Two and iPlayer.
The Last Duel
Out now
Ridley Scott marches back into the swords and vengeance territory with the story of the last officially sanctioned trial by combat in 14th-century France. Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer (above) star.
The Beta Test
Out now
Cult favourite Jim Cummings directs and stars in a thriller that satirises pre #MeToo Hollywood. He plays Jordan, a sleazy Hollywood agent on the receiving end of an indecent proposal.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Out now
With a “story by” credit for star Tom Hardy, this sequel to 2018’s Venom leans hard into the sillier side of symbiotes, with Hardy’s journalist Eddie Brock attempting to come to terms with the alien personality sharing his body. Catherine Bray
* * *
Going Out: Gigs
JLS
Touring Wed to 27 Nov
The X Factor boyband JLS have dusted off the navel-grazing V-necks for a month-long reunion tour. Expect all the hits, arena-sized spectacle, and new material from the forthcoming album 2.0.
Caribou
Touring Wed to 27 Oct
Fresh from co-headlining London’s All Points East festival, Canadian dance pioneer Dan Snaith returns for a longer jaunt around the UK. Keep an ear out for anything from last year’s excellent Suddenly album, plus late-2021 pep talk, You Can Do It. Michael Cragg
Traveler’s Prayer
Royal Festival Hall, SE1, Tue
The Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals mark Steve Reich’s 85th birthday with a concert devoted to the great minimalist pioneer. It ranges from the 1980s to the UK premiere of his latest work, composed last year during lockdown. Andrew Clements
Herts jazz festival
South Mill Arts, Bishop’s Stortford, Sat & Sun
The 10th Herts jazz festival returns with a bang after last year’s cancellation, including Liane Carroll, former Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge and a rousing Sunday finale from Simon Spillett’s Big Band.
John Fordham
* * *
Going Out: Stage
What’s New Pussycat?
Birmingham Rep, to 14 Nov
Here’s a humdinger of a concept: Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, transposed to 1960s Soho (below), with songs by the other Tom Jones and choreography by Arlene Phillips.
The Shark Is Broken
The Ambassadors Theatre, WC2, to 15 Jan
If Jaws put you off the seaside, spare a thought for the actors wrestling with the mechanical shark. Actor-writer Ian Shaw retells the experience of his father, Robert, in this making-of drama. Chris Wiegand
Sharon Eyal Live
Selfridges Loading Bay, W1, Thur to 23 Oct
From producers Bold Tendencies, who brought you classical music in a Peckham car park, comes contemporary dance in Selfridges’ loading bay. It’s a suitably subterranean stage for club-influenced choreographer Eyal.
Lyndsey Winship
Jayde Adams
Glee Club, Cardiff, Sun; Cambridge Junction, Wed; touring to 27 Nov
The Bristolian standup delights in bursting celebrity culture’s bubble while poking fun at her own working-class roots. Rachel Aroesti
* * *
Going Out: Art
George Condo
Hauser and Wirth, W1S, to 23 Dec
One of today’s most joyously chaotic artists shows paintings that look as if Picasso has been reborn as a graffitist. Condo combines the jagged complexity of cubism with a slapdash energy that makes a mockery of all seriousness. It’s painting but not as we know it.
Spanish Gallery
Bishop Auckland Market Place, to 18 Dec
This bold new collection of Spanish art has been created a long way from Spain. Auckland Castle already owned masterpieces by 17th-century master Zurbarán. Now it adds both originals by his contemporaries and hi-tech facsimiles of Velázquez paintings to reveal what may be the future of museums.
Sutapa Biswas
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, to 30 Jan
In her 1984 painting Kali, Biswas reincarnates India’s violent, multi-armed Tantric deity as a modern woman with machete in hand. This memorable image appears in a survey of her career showcasing a four-decade investigation of race and gender from a British Indian perspective.
Lucy McKenzie
Tate Liverpool, Wed to 13 Mar
Eye-fooling paintings that look like parts of houses or shop window displays demonstrate the technical skill of this Glasgow-born painter, conceptual artist and fashion provocateur. The show includes her collaboration with Scottish designer Beca Lipscombe as alternative fashion house Atelier EB.
Jonathan Jones
Staying In: Streaming
Succession series 3
Episodes available Mondays, SkyGo/Now TV
It may concern the uber-rich, but there is nothing aspirational about Jesse Armstrong’s pitch black comedy-drama about a media dynasty in crisis. There is, however, much that is grimly fascinating and spikily funny when it comes to the Roy family, back for a long-awaited third series.
Impeachment: American Crime Story
Tue, 9.15pm, BBC Two; series available on iPlayer from Tue
After dramatising the OJ Simpson trial and Gianni Versace’s murder, the true-crime anthology returns to the mid-90s to renact the Lewinsky-Clinton affair and its political fallout.
Four Hours at the Capitol
Wed, 9pm, BBC Two
Digesting the meaning of Donald Trump’s presidency will be a decades-long ordeal, but the attack on the United States Capitol is an event that deserves swift and serious scrutiny. This documentary relives one of the most disturbing events of Trump’s tenure.
Invasion
New episodes Friday, Apple TV+
Streaming means a TV show can become a sensation in a matter of hours – and this drama starring Sam Neill is machine-tooled for such global success. The sci-fi series surveys the impact of an alien attack from multiple geographical perspectives, with storylines in Japan, Afghanistan, the US and the UK. Rachel Aroesti
* * *
Staying In: Games
Last Call
Out now
A very personal game about the creator’s experiences after an abusive relationship, Last Call uses the language of games and unusual voice control to connect you with the protagonist and pull you through an emotionally challenging story.
* * *
Staying In: Albums
Elton John – The Lockdown Sessions
Out on Fri
As that title suggests, Sir Elton Hercules John’s 32nd album was created over the past 18 months of relative stasis. Keen to keep his creative juices flowing, John rifled through his Rolodex of famous contacts and created this 16-track collaborative opus featuring Dua Lipa, Stevie Wonder and Lil Nas X.
Lana Del Rey – Blue Banisters
Out on Fri
Originally titled Rock Candy Sweet and pencilled in for a 4 July release, this is Del Rey’s eighth album and her second of 2021. Promotion has so far included four languorous, piano-led singles and the increasingly newsworthy Del Rey deactivating all her social media.
My Morning Jacket – My Morning Jacket
Out on Fri
After 2015’s mid-career highlight The Waterfall earned them a Grammy nomination, Kentucky’s hirsute exponents of cosmic Americana took what looked like a permanent hiatus. Now they’re back with their ninth album, led by anti-social media anthem Regularly Scheduled Programming and the more noodling Love Love Love.Love Love.
Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure
Out on Fri
Former Slow Club member Rebecca Lucy Taylor returns with more maximalist pop via her second album as Self Esteem. Musically it’s somewhere between Kanye’s Yeezus, 90s trip-hop and West End musicals, while lyrically it rails against toxic masculinity, societal expectations on women and long-form text replies. Michael Cragg
* * *
Staying In : Brain food
Nature and Us: A History Through Art
Mon, 9pm, BBC Four
This engaging three-part series from art historian James Fox illustrates our fluctuating relationship to nature through key artworks. His gaze moves from cave paintings and the landscapes of medieval China to examining the contributions of technology.
Invisibilia
Podcast
Taking its name from the Latin term for “invisible things”, this long-running NPR podcast investigates the unseen forces that shape human behaviour. The latest series focuses on friendship, from ghosted relationships to making your friends without choosing them.
Dust-to-Digital
Online
A record label, archive and publisher, Dust-to-Digital is a herculean effort in rescuing musical oddities from obscurity. A recent newsletter highlights latest releases, while their Instagram features clips of everything from lithophone performances to Philippine dancers. Ammar Kalia
