TV
Miranda Sings
YouTube sensation Miranda Sings (AKA Colleen Ballinger) has landed her own Netflix series, expanding the hopeless-singer premise to incorporate the family dynamics of her creation. Its one of the strangest/funniest commissions for the streaming service since Kimmy Schmidt, and one which draws on a rich tradition of oddball fam-coms a la Arrested Development.
Available now on Netflix
Performance
Séance
A little premature for Halloween, perhaps, but this immersive piece of theatre performed in a shipping container in Birmingham’s Centenary Square should still be full of scares. Set in a darkened room, it uses 3D stereo sound movement to summon up the spirit realm. Spooooooky.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 18 to 29 October
Vogue Ball
A merging of club culture and future fashion, Liverpool’s Vogue Ball has become something of an institution in the city. It sees various houses do battle with each other in a dance contest that is as much about ambitious costumes as the moves you do them in. After hosting Gods And Monsters and Sugar And Spice themes in previous years, tonight’s ball’s topic is Iconic. Dip and spin the night away at Invisible Wind Factory.
Saturday, Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool
Billy Budd
Opera North, in a co-production with Nederlandse Reisopera, tackles Britten’s bruising opera about a sailor’s descent to the gallows. It’s staged at Leeds’ Grand Theatre from Tuesday.
Grand Theatre & Opera House, Leeds, 18 to 29 October; touring to 3 December
Clubbing
Save Fabric parties
Perhaps the silver lining to UK clubland being in crisis is that, while councils will try (and succeed) at closing spaces, evidently you can’t keep a good raver down. After having their licence revoked, London’s Fabric are putting on a series of pop-up parties to raise money for their appeal, with a host of events starting from today, in London and Manchester.
Exhibitions
Feminist Avant-Garde Of The 1970s
Martha Rosler brandishing knives. Nil Yalter’s poetry written on a belly dancer’s stomach. Birgit Jürgenssen’s bird’s nest. The feminist artists of the 1970s were raging and rebellious, and a collection of their works is on show at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. For more feminista firebrands, head east to the Whitechapel Gallery, where the infamous Guerrilla Girls are exploring (the lack of) diversity in European arts organisations.
Photographers’ Gallery, London, to 15 January
Books
OMG Posters: A Decade Of Rock Art
The gig poster has had a resurgence in recent times, fuelled by creative types on the internet. This lovely looking book documents some of the best work displayed on art blog OMG Posters, featuring Oz rockers Tame Impala, QOTSA and beyond. OMG indeed.
Talks
London Literature festival
Eerie coincidence: just as we at the Guide are embarking upon our own journey to the future, the LLF is staging a Living In Future Times theme for this year’s event. This is the final weekend of the festival and features talks on future cities, Chinese and Iraqi sci-fi, and a reading by Naomi Alderman from her new feminist superhero novel The Power.
Southbank Centre. London, to 16 October
Cambridge festival Of Ideas
There’s a feast of thoughtfulness at this annual festival, which begins its latest iteration this Monday and features a fortnight of talks, debates and performances. Highlights include a conversation on the ethics of using police body cameras; a live recording of a BBC World Service special on the rise of anti-establishment politics; and World Factory, an immersive theatre piece on the global textile industry. And that just stratches the surface: there are also talks on Facebook, breast-feeding and the science of the colour red.
Film
Black Star
A much-needed corrective in the year of #Oscarssowhite, this major BFI season celebrates “the range, versatility and power of black actors” in film and TV. Taking place at over 90 locations across the UK, with a BBC2 season to follow, it features screenings of notable black performances past and present, from Sidney Poitier in The Heat Of The Night to Will Smith in Ali.
