29/09/2012

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests stage designer Es Devlin, novelist Kamila Shamsie and academic and critic John Mullan review the week's cultural highlights

Alan Ayckbourn's play A Chorus of Disapproval is being revived by Trevor Nunn at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. It stars Rob Brydon as Dafydd ap Llewellyn, director of an amateur operatic company attempting to stage The Beggar's Opera. Ashley Jensen is his downtrodden wife Hannah who becomes rather interested in newcomer Guy (Nigel Harman).

In Leos Carax's film Holy Motors Denis Lavant plays Monsieur Oscar - a man who cruises Paris in the back of stretch limo, going from appointment to appointment where he plays roles such as a banker, a beggar woman and an irate father, but who the audience is remains unclear. The film also features Edith Scob as his driver, Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue.

Two new books take on the challenge of explaining modern art, one for readers who may be too young to have seen much of it - What Is Contemporary Art: A Children's Guide by Jacky & Suzy Klein - and one for those who may be a bit older, but remain sceptical - Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That by Susie Hodge.

Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London comprises seven pieces from the private collection of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Cattelan has a reputation as a prankster, but the work here also reflects his political engagement and provides a critique of contemporary Italian society.

HBO series Girls stars Lena Dunham as Hannah - a privileged twenty-something living in Brooklyn with her hipster friends. Dunham also wrote and co-produced the series (with Judd Apatow) which is as edgy and uncompromising as her feature film Tiny Furniture.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.