Arts Ahead: What's On In London 27 March – 2 April

By Zoe Craig Last edited 144 months ago
Arts Ahead: What's On In London 27 March – 2 April

This week's cultural calendar is heavy on remakes and revivals... here's our selection of the best of the bunch:

DANCE: The Most Incredible Thing at Sadler's Wells opens tonight: dance choreographed by Javier de Frutos to music by the Pet Shop Boys. It’s been around before: here’s what people thought of it last time. Then the English National Ballet's Beyond Ballets Russes Programme 2 comes to the London Coliseum tomorrow. Again, here’s our review of Programme 1.

THEATRE: Mogadishu, the hard-hitting play about a white teacher accused of racially attacking one of her pupils, returns to London from tonight, playing at the Lyric Hammersmith for a limited run (here’s what we made of it last time around). Also opening tonight are two well-known films, transferred to the stage: choose from The King's Speech at Wyndham's Theatre, or A Clockwork Orange at the Arcola Theatre. The Duchess of Malfi brings Jacobean violence and horror to the Old Vic from tomorrow. And from Thursday, you can see The American Clock at the Finborough Theatre: a panoramic “dramatic vaudeville” about the Great Depression of the 1930s.

OPERA: From Friday, you can see Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House. Or hang on til Monday for a real rarity: The Grand Duke, Gilbert and Sullivan's final operetta is staged at the Finborough Theatre, the first full production of this show since it was first staged in 1896.

ART / EXHIBITIONS: Wendy Ramshaw: Room of Dreams opens at Somerset House tomorrow, examining the artist’s last 50 years working in applied arts. Turner Prize-winning Gillian Wearing's exhibition opens at the Whitechapel Gallery tomorrow: look out for film and photography documenting the day-to-day with an odd, theatrical, subversive twist. Royal Connection: A Celebration of the Diamond Jubilee opens at the Bank of England Museum tomorrow, looking at the connections between the bank and the royal family. On Thursday, the Wellcome Collections latest blockbuster, Brains: The Mind As Matter, opens to the public, (we had a sneak preview earlier today); while on Saturday, the V&A's newest show, British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age opens.

CLASSICAL: The Institut français in South Kensington, the official French government centre of language and culture in the UK, is embarking on a series of classical concerts from tonight. With the huge French population in London and a huge body of work by Gallic composers to explore, it's a sensible move. The Psophos Quartet kick off the series this evening with two classics of the repertoire, the Debussy and Ravel string quartets. The series details are all here.

WORLD/FOLK: The Destroyers are a folky Balkan-Brass-influenced collective from Birmingham. The band are promoting their new album, Hole in the Universe, at Rich Mix on Saturday. The Destroyers' live shows are renowned for their chaotic energy, as the clip below suggests.

Anything we’ve missed that you’re really looking forward to seeing this week? Let us know in the comments below.

We also have listings for ongoing shows at London’s top museums on our Museums and Galleries page.

Last Updated 27 March 2012