Music
The Great Escape
A one-stop shop for bleeding-edge music, this Brighton festival features the likes of Girli, the Rhythm Method and Pixx. There are also a series of shows from more-established acts Rag’n’Bone Man, post-ironic punks Slaves and grime luminary Kano.
Various venues, Brighton, 18-20 May
Peckham Rye music festival
The south London enclave gets its own answer to The Great Escape with this multi-venue fest, featuring ace DJ sets from Octo Octa, Cooly G, Kode9 and more over this weekend and next.
Various venues, SE15, to 21 May
Philip Glass & Laurie Anderson: American Style
Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson are two of the most dynamic avant-garde New Yorkers still working today. On 17 May at the Barbican Hall, the composers present the British premiere of American Style, a piece that blends Glass’s minimalist style and the poetry of Anderson, along with spoken-word excerpts of illustrious friends and partners such as Allen Ginsberg, Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen.
Barbican Hall, EC2, 17 May; Royal Festival Hall, SE1, 18 May; Norwich Theatre Royal, 19 May
Yasmine Hamdan
She’s a cult musician across the Arab world. She’s collaborated with CocoRosie and appeared in a Jim Jarmusch film. But this Paris-based Lebanese artist’s unusual take on electronic pop is just starting to get noticed in the UK. The combination of Arabic dialect and hyper-modern beats and textures is a languid treat.
Scala, N1, 15 May
Film
Seret London: The Israeli film and television festival
The sixth festival promises a stronger presence from female and Palestinian film-makers, with the debut film from Maha Haj, Personal Affairs, comedy-drama The Women’s Balcony and documentary Who’s Gonna Love Me Now, about an ex-Israeli army paratrooper who finds out he is HIV positive, among the highlights.
JW3, NW3, to 17 May
Alien: Covenant
Picking up after the events of 2012’s Prometheus, a film as handsome as it was a bit stupid, Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he created back in 1979. Depending on which interview with Scott you read, this is either the first in a trilogy that will bookend with Alien, or the second in a series of six. Michael Fassbender returns, as a new crew of explorers, including Danny McBride and Katherine Waterston, offer themselves up as xenomorph aperitifs. Much better than its predecessor, if doing little original with the space-horror genre.
Alien: Covenant is released in Australia on 11 May, the UK on 12 May and the US on 19 May
Theatre
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
“Raucously rude.” “Contains singing, hilarity, Sambuca and strong language.” It’s no wonder this play from the creator of Billy Elliot has already won awards and had a sold-out UK tour. The story of six Catholic choir girls let loose in Edinburgh for 24 hours transfers to the West End’s Duke Of York’s Theatre for an unholy four-month run: a chaotic coming-of-age tale to the songs of ELO.
Duke Of York’s Theatre, WC2, to 2 September
The Addams Family
The long, strange trip that has been Les Dennis’s career takes another left turn. This time, he’s cast as Uncle Fester in this musical rendering of the family of proto-goth oddballs. Look out for chirpy EastEnder Samantha Womack, too – almost unrecognisable as matriarch Morticia.
Northampton Royal & Derngate to 13 May; New Wimbledon Theatre, 16-20 May; touring to 4 November
Exhibitions
Mat Collishaw
The macabre YBA-er restages one of the earliest exhibitions of photography in 1839 through VR wizardry at his show Thresholds.
Somerset House, WC2, 18 May to 11 June
The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains
From 13 May, the V&A is hosting a very physical journey through the life and times of some of Britain’s most enduring rock dinosaurs. Visitors will gain entry through a recreation of the Floyd’s original touring Bedford van before strolling through their dreamy 60s, angry 70s and bloated 80s.
V&A Museum, SW7, 13 May to 1 October
