Pop
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Monday

Understated. Warmly-received. Critically acclaimed. All at one time or another epithets applied to the excellent Welsh medieval rock'n'roll troupe that is Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Gorky's have been buffeted many times on the high seas of the music business, but their greatest achievement may well prove to be their enduring grace in the thick of it all. The odder turns that befall their career, the more refreshingly pure and melodic their music becomes. Lovely.

The Scala, Pentonville Rd, N1 (020-7833 2022) 7.30pm, £10.

Tuesday Mo' Solid Gold

Rock music - they gave it the best years of their lives. This is very much the story of Mo' Solid Gold, comprising for the most part members of two bands, S*M*A*S*H and These Animal Men, who spearheaded the slightly doomed New Wave Of New Wave in 1993. There was always an element of MC5 in their style. Mo' Solid Gold makes the move more explicit, and an impassioned, if random clatter is theirs.

100 Club, Oxford St, W1 (020-7636 0933) 7.30pm, £7.50.

Wednesday Six By Seven

More Mantra records birthday celebrations. A strange concept all told when thinking about Six By Seven - their music, like the group itself, is irretrievably tense and black clad, and it's difficult to see where celebration might get a look in, in all that. Whatever, the Nottingham group have so far run to two LPs of highly structured noise, and their brooding intensity still allows for surprising variation - within, of course, their designated black.

The Scala, Pentonville Road, N1 (020-7833 2022) 8pm, £10.

Thursday Mercury Rev

Dreams? Nightmares? It's often very hard to distinguish between them in the almost entirely curious world of Mercury Rev. Their last LP Deserter's Songs established them as purveyors of huge and cosmic American music in the eyes of the public (rather than just their staunch supporter, the record critic), and now with their latest, All Is Dream, they look set to capitalise on that pleasing leap of faith. It's cobwebs and dark trees, witches and toads. And this, consequently, looks to be scarily unmissable.

Electric Ballroom, Camden High Street, NW1 (020-7485 9006) 8pm, £9.

John Robinson

Classical
Monday Man-o'-War

Composer Ian Wilson says that the title of his new piece "leapt out at him one day, with its different connotations - an old word for a warship, also a very poisonous sea creature, and even a village not far from Dublin." It is performed tonight by the Ulster Orchestra at the beginning of a programme that also includes Mozart, Part, and Shostakovich's first symphony.

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 (020-7589 8212) 7pm, £3-£21.50.

Tuesday The Last Supper

This Last Supper may not be the last. After its premiere in Berlin in April 2000, Harrison Birtwistle's operatic Millennium meditation enjoyed a spell with Glyndebourne Touring Opera before returning last weekend with the same cast to the main Glyndebourne stage. Birtwistle's "rumbling, turbulent, eerily lyrical music" always provokes comment, although at least one critic remains mystified why music that is no more "difficult" than Bartok should have such a fearsome reputation. For others, the triumph of an austere, elegant and deeply moving production was undermined by the unexpected use of surtitles, despite the fact that the libretto is in English. Bear in mind that these performances start later than usual for Glyndebourne and do not have a picnic interval.

Glyndebourne Opera House, Ringmer, Lewes (01273-813813) 7.30pm, £10-£137.

Thursday Peer Gynt

Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites are firmly established at the top of the orchestral pops, while Ibsen's eponymous play remains, in this country at least, practically unknown. This Prom performance by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck aims to put the complete incidental music into its original dramatic context. Some scenes in the play will be read in English with musical "bookends", while others will be acted out with the music in the background.

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 (020-7589 8212) 7pm, £3-£27.

Christopher Lambton

Theatre
All My Sons

Howard Davies' super production of Arthur Miller's post-war play transfers to the larger Lyttelton. One of those plays that you think you know well, but which still has the power to shock you with its truths about families, guilt and greed.

RNT, South Bank SE1 (020-7452 3000) 7.30pm, Thu and Sat mat 2.15pm, £10-£32.

Blue/Orange

West End transfer for Joe Penhall's award-winning National Theatre drama set in a psychiatric hospital. The original cast reprise their roles in a seriously provoking piece of theatre.

Duchess, Catherine St WC2 (020-7494 5075) 8pm, Thu mat 2.30pm, Sat mat 4pm, £15-£35.

Feelgood

Alistair Beaton's insider satire on a party in power that is more obsessed with image than content is very, very sharp and funny. Henry Goodman stars.

Garrick, Charing Cross Road, WC2 (020-7494 5085) 8pm, Sat mat 4pm, £15-£35.

The Gondoliers

Those who go expecting one of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas may be mildly bemused. Anyone who goes expecting fun will be more than satisfied. John Doyle gives The Gondoliers a complete makeover.

Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1 (020-7494 5070) Mon-Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm & 8.15pm, Wed mat 3pm.

Humble Boy

Charlotte Jones's Cotswoldian comedy about astrophysics, beekeeeping and suicide. Simon Russell Beale plays Felix, a man who returns for his father's funeral to find his mother Flora (Diana Rigg) in the arms of another. Shades of Hamlet or what?

RNT, South Bank, SE1 (020-7452 3000) 7.30pm, Thu only 7pm, £10-£32.

Lyn Gardner

Exhibitions
Ed van der Elsken

Ed van der Elsken's most famous work, Love On The Left Bank, provides an account of life amongst Parisian bohemians in the mid 1950s, a group of dissolute outsiders who were subject to inertia, doubt and melancholy.

Photographers' Gallery, Great Newport Street, WC2 (020-7831 1772) until Sep 23, free.

The Beautiful And The Dammed

A compelling show featuring mug shots of murderers and their mutilated victims, faces distorted by electric shock treatment, and family line-ups. The 19th-century fascination with heredity in the medical profession was perpetuated by the belief that any mental illness would express itself physically, and these portraits are an insight into some of their more freakish experiments.

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, WC2 (020-7306 0055) until Oct 2, free.

Andy Warhol

Some of the dissolute waifs and strays that found refuge in Andy Warhold's silver kingdom were captured in these 15-minute silent shorts.

ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020-7930 3647) until Sep 2, £1.50.

City

From the scruffy urban waste gaps forgotten and ignored by city planners to the glistening steel and glass constructions of successful corporate giants, these photographers and artists capture the architectural diversities of city life.

Eyestorm, Maddox Street, W1 (020-7439 988) until Sep 2, free.

Jessica Lack

Cinema
Amores Perros

The opening car-chase sequence of this Mexico City-set movie delivers the kind of unapologetic rocket-fuelled rush of excitement not experienced since the days of Tarantino in the early 90s. A crackingly powerful picture.

(18) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000, Mexico) Emilio Echevarria, Gael García Bernal. 165 mins ****

Before Night Falls

Bardem has received golden reviews for his portrayal of exiled Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas in Schnabel's lavish and generous biopic. And he is indeed excellent. (15) (Julian Schnabel, 2000, US) Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez. 134 mins ***

Shrek

Shrek is the name of a big green cantankerous ogre voiced by Myers. Adamson and Jenson's film contains some breathtaking computer animation, and not a minute goes by without a happy invention or a laugh line. (U) (Andrew Adamson/ Vicky Jenson, 2001, US) The voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz. 90 mins ****

Solas

Zambrano's debut is a deeply moving study of anger, regret, love and dignity. It is also one of the very rare films that show old people at the dramatic centre of events. There are lovely performances from the leads - and this is an outstanding film. (15) (Benito Zambrano, 1999, Spa) Ana Fernández, María Galiana, Carlos Alvarez-Novoa. 98 mins ****

Together

Moodysson's new feature is an almost perfect light comedy. Together is about a commune in Sweden in 1975, called "Tillsammans" or "Together", occupied by a bunch of hippies who give their children names like Tet, after the Tet Offensive. It's not about the wacky music or clothes, but about the more depressing real life of the 70s - from which Moodysson conjures gentle and compassionate humour.

(15) (Lukas Moodysson, 2000, Swe) Lisa Lindgren, Michael Nyqvist, Gustav Hammersten. 106 mins ****

Peter Bradshaw