Arts Ahead 5-12 November

By Zoe Craig Last edited 184 months ago
Arts Ahead 5-12 November
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Arts Ahead, Londonist's sporadic(!) weekly guide to getting you cultured is back this week, with exciting events breaking out all over the city.

Openings in London this week:

We've seen a few happy endings over the last couple of days (Lewis, Barack, Steven).

Why not make a fourth with Mark Morris Dance Group's Romeo and Juliet which opens today at the Barbican? It's being performed as the composer, Sergey Prokofiev, originally intended complete with a happy ending where Juliet wakes up. Hurrah.

This week sees a chunk of diverse theatre shows raising their curtains. Alan Bennett's Enjoy with everyone's favourite costume-drama-mum, Alison Steadman, opens in Richmond on Friday. Previews of Lily's dad in Treasure Island also hobble, peg-legged into the Theatre Royal Haymarket on Friday. Saturday brings Damon Albarn and co's modern acrobatic opera Monkey: Journey To The West to Monkey's World at The O2.

On Tuesday, take your pick between the opening night of Gesthsemane by David Hare featuring Lawrence Award-winning, Black Books/Love Soup/Green Wing star Tamsin Grieg at the National, and Bill Bailey's Tinselworm at the Gielgud. We warned you it was a mixed bag.

In the art world, check out some lovely British impressionism at Sisley in England and Wales when it opens at the National next Tuesday. And fans of the British Museum's Statuephilia should check out their Statuephilia Late on Friday.

Last Chance:

In theatreland, Come Dancing closes on Saturday, so this is your last chance to see The Kinks' Ray Davies' musical about love set around the Ilford Palais in 1950s London. The critically acclaimed In The Red and Brown Water from American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney also closes this weekend.

Finally, Rupert Goold's utterly astounding, teeth-clenchingly brilliant head-fuck of a show, Six Characters in Search of an Author is all over on Saturday.

Catch 'em while you can.

Image shows David Leventhal and Rita Donahue in Romeo and Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare. Photo credit Gene Schiavone.

Last Updated 05 November 2008