Comedy
Reginald D Hunter
The controversial US comic is back on tour in the UK with a new show, Some People v Reginald Hunter, taking in a mammoth 43 dates before he hits Edinburgh in August. Expect his typically biting takes on race and politics.
Touring to 24 June
Exhibitions
Chris Ofili: Weaving Magic
The Turner prize winner’s latest exhibition is a five-star show of “tropical tapestry” at London’s National Gallery, translating watercolours to sumptuous weaves, detailing a beach at twilight and cocktail club murals, complete with dancing ladies and guitar-playing serenaders.
At the National Gallery, WC2, to 28 August
Bank holiday clubbing
It’s a bank hol! Which means an extra day for parties, including Sunday in Manchester with disco dons Hercules & Love Affair.
At Albert Hall, Manchester, 30 April
Festivals
Cheltenham jazz festival
This jazz marathon is one of Britain’s most reliable annual musical treats, expertly programmed, keen to reflect the genre’s endless diversity, and set amid the regency grandeur of Cheltenham. This year’s highlights include the mighty Orchestra Baobab, whose hybrid of African-Cuban propulsion and Congolese rumba raises the roof. They’re touting their first album in six years, so expect fireworks. Also, look out for Brummie soul-jazz diva Laura Mvula and Australian improvisers the Necks, whose every performance is both entirely unique and utterly mesmerising.
At various venues to 1 May
Pilot Light TV festival
Proof that telly is the hottest medium around right now – it’s gone and got its own festival. This is the second season of Manchester’s Pilot Light. It features a premiere of new Amazon series American Gods on Tuesday’s opening night; a celebration of 10 years of Don Draper’s finest with anniversary screenings and Q&A between Mad Men experts; and one for 20 years of Chris Morris’s Brass Eye, as well as panels on soap writing, audience building for web series and Q&As with PREY creator Chris Lunt and Walter Iuzzolino of All4’s Walter Presents strand.
At various venues, Manchester, 4-7 May
London comedy film festival
There’s some excellent film fare at 2017’s edition of Loco, the festival celebrating British comedic talent. Picks include Brakes, Mercedes Grower’s portrait of complicated love in London starring Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt and Julia Davis; an adaptation of Stephen Fry’s The Hippopotamus; and millennial motherhood flick We Used To Be Cool.
At BFI Southbank, SE1, 4-7 May
John Grant’s North Atlantic Flux
Hull’s year of cultural centrality continues with this festival of music from Scandinavia and Iceland. They’ve been summoned by revered artist John Grant, whose eclectic vision will be perfectly represented by the likes of GusGus, Prins Póló, Susanne Sundfør, Lindstrøm and more. Grant will be playing a live set himself and there’ll be related art happenings all over the city.
At Hull City Hall, 28 April to 1 May
Theatre
Happily Ever After
Youth theatre group Action Transport Theatre presents a production for children that puts a contemporary twist on the classic fairytale, in which two princes fall in love. Its tour starts in Ellesmere Port on Tuesday.
Touring to 24 June
Tank
There’s a lot of fishy goings on in this play based on Margaret Howe Lovatt’s experience of living with a male dolphin, Peter, as part of a Nasa experiment in the 1960s (and dealing with his distress by, er, masturbating him). Whether or not that makes it into this theatre production we couldn’t say, but considering it’s a deeply satirical look at linguistic and cultural colonisation, perhaps not.
The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol, 29 April; HOME, Manchester, 4-6 May; touring to 26 May
Opera
The Exterminating Angel
Thomas Adès’s witty, luxurious show – based on Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surrealist film – gets a UK premiere at London’s Royal Opera House, with plenty of bold outfits, big hair, dinner party guests driven to distraction and anarchy as peculiar events unfold.
At Royal Opera House, WC2, to 8 May
