Winter Arts Calendar Our critics pick the season’s highlights From Elisabeth Moss on stage to Adele’s new album, these are the dates for your cultural diary JANUARY FILM 127 HOURS Danny Boyle’s 10th film tells the story of Aron Ralston, played by 5 James Franco, right, who severed his own arm with a penknife to escape after becoming trapped while hiking in Utah. FILM THE KING’S SPEECH Colin Firth is introverted monarch George VI, battling a debilitating stutter with the aid of an 7 extroverted therapist (Geoffrey Rush). The ensuing friendship is touching – and, when the second world war breaks out, of national importance. CLAssICAL HOLLYWOOD RHAPSODY The BBCSO and Chorus celebrate Hollywood’s golden age. Composers include Korngold, Waxman, 9 Rózsa; films range fromThe Wizard of Oz to Gone with the Wind. Barbican, London. 9 Jan only. THEATRE TWELFTH NIGHT To mark his 80th birthday, Peter Hall returns to the National theatre, which he ran until 1988. 11 He directs his daughter Rebecca, with Amanda Drew as Olivia, in the Cottesloe. To 2 Mar. FILM TRUE GRIT Coen brothers fans are gagging for this deliciously dark-looking wild west yarn. Jeff Bridges 14 plays a lawman hauled out of retirement by a young girl looking to avenge her father’s murder. CLAssICAL CARMEN Director Daniel Kramer makes his company debut while Heather Shipp and Sandra Piques Eddy 17 share the title role. Opera North, Leeds. Tours to Newcastle, Nottingham, Salford. To 20 May. ART GABRIEL OROZCO A poet among conceptualists, this Mexican artist has a Picassoan touch with materials, 19 transforming the lowliest scrap of bric-a-brac into a graceful and witty work of art. Tate Modern. FILM BLACK SWAN The dark underbelly of the New York ballet world is exposed in 21 Darren Aronofsky’s taut psychological thriller, which stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as dancers competing for roles in Swan Lake. THEATRE THE CHILDREN’S HOUR Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss (right, from Mad Men) star as the teachers accused by a pupil of having a lesbian affair in Lillian Hellman’s 22 banned 1934 play. Ian Rickson directs at the Comedy theatre. To 2 Apr. FEBRUARY ART MODERN BRITISH SCULPTURE ART SUSAN HILLER: BELIEF OR DISBELIEF A parade of big names, from Epstein, Hepworth and Moore to Richard Long and Damien Hirst, For 30 years Hiller has collected evidence of mysterious phenomena - hallucinations, displaying the international prowess of British sculpture. Royal Academy, London. 1 telekinesis etc. This survey shows the extraordinary art she makes of it. Tate Britain. POP ADELE: 21 ALBUM FILM BRIGHTON ROCK Two years on from her feted debut, 19, the north London soul singer returns with an album Sam Riley plays Pinkie in a reimagining of Graham Greene’s novel: director Rowan Joffe 24 influenced by the sounds of the American south. 4 relocates the action to the 60s. Helen Mirren and Andrea Riseborough co-star. POP ROXY MUSIC ON TOUR ART Jean-MARC BUSTAMANTE French artist Bustamante’s first Scottish show will include a range of works that blur the The aesthete’s pop band, bar none, head out on a national tour for the first time in a decade. boundaries between photography, painting and sculpture. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. 25 Brian Eno not included. To 7 Feb. FILM THE FIGHTER DANCE REFLECTED David O Russell’s boxing biopic stars Mark Wahlberg as “Irish” Micky Ward; Christian Four-part bill from the Phoenix Dance Theatre includes premiere of Philip Taylor’sWhat It Is, set Bale has a meaty supporting role as his half-brother. Should scoop a few Oscars. 26 to the music of Amy Winehouse. West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds (then touring). To 20 May. THEATRE FRANKENSTEIN FILM HEREAFTER Danny Boyle, right, directs Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller taking Clint Eastwood directs Peter Morgan’s ambitious screenplay about life after death. Matt 5 turns as Frankenstein and the Creature. National theatre, London. To 17 Apr. 28 Damon plays a spiritualist who can talk to the dead, while Mesrine’s Cécile de France is a near-survivor of the 2004 tsunami, convinced she’s been to the other side. THEATRE RICHARD II Benjamin Whitrow is John of Gaunt and John Heffernan plays the uneasy king in Andrew FILM BARNEY’S VERSION 10 Hilton’s production at the Tobacco Factory. To 19 Mar. Matching his Sideways booze consumption almost drink for drink, Paul Giamatti plays likable jerk Barney Panofsky as he stumbles through a very eventful life. Dustin Hoffman also shines as his uncouth cop father. THEATRE RACING DEMON Daniel Evans directs at Sheffield’s Crucible as part of a David Hare season which also includes Plenty and The Breath of Life. To 5 Mar. ART JOHN STEZAKER First full-scale show of this British collagist who works with movie stills, vintage postcards, celebrity portraits and magazine illustrations FILM NEVER LET ME GO 29 to give a new and haunting context to old images. Whitechapel, London. Hailed by Kazuo Ishiguro, author of the novel about human cloning, as “a fantastic showcase 11 for a brilliant new generation of acting talent”. CLAssICAL LUCREZIA BORGIA Clare Rutter, right, sings title role in Donizetti’s bel canto THEATRE THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG melodrama at ENO directed by film-maker Mike Figgis in his Kneehigh’s Emma Rice adapts Jacques Demy’s 1964 movie, with music by Michel Legrand. 31 operatic debut, conductor Paul Daniel. To 3 Mar. The show runs at the Curve in Leicester until 26 Feb followed by a West End run. POP TING TINGS ALBUM CLAssICAL ADÈS AND REICH ACROss THE UK The toasts of 2008 have been holed up in Berlin for the follow-up Three concerts by the London Sinfonietta pairing Thomas Adès’s piano concerto and to We Started Nothing. Expect a clubbier edge to their exuberant 13 video-ballet In Seven Days with Steve Reich’s pulsating setting of four psalms, Tehillim boy-girl pop. (Glasgow, 13 Feb) or his Music for 18 Musicians (London, 18 Feb; Birmingham, 11 Mar). 18 THE NEW REVIEW | 26.12.10 | The Observer Winter Arts Calendar For special ticket deals for cultural events, including some of those POP FILM THEATRE CLAssICAL ART DANCE featured here, visit guardian.co.uk/extra MARCH DANCE THE CENTAUR AND THE ANIMAL Bartabas and his Zingaro Equestrian Theatre, right, with live 1 horses on stage. Sadler’s Wells, London. To 6 Mar. DANCE ALICE’S AdvENTURES IN WONDERLAND Christopher Wheeldon’s new work is the first full-length ballet commissioned by the Royal Ballet 2 in 16 years, and could make or break the choreographer. Royal Opera House, London. To 15 Mar. THEATRE BLITHE SPIRIT Ruthie Henshall stars alongside Alison Steadman in Noël Coward’s ghost-driven comedy, directed by Thea Sharrock. Apollo, London. To 18 Jun. POP BEADY EYE ON TOUR “We’re not Oasis, we just look like them,” is the line being touted by Liam 3 Gallagher’s new band (essentially Oasis, minus Noel). Will they prove as popular? A test comes with their first UK tour, starting in Glasgow. To 10 Jun. ART NANCY SPERO Active in the civil rights movement, this American artist, right, drew on sources including Roman frescoes and fashion magazines to produce her scroll paintings, paper works and wall hangings. Serpentine Gallery. POP JUSTIN BIEBER ON TOUR The first pop star to cause a riot via Twitter finally hits UK shores this month. His tour of North 4 Korea – the result of an internet voting prank - has yet to be confirmed. To 24 Mar. FILM ARCHIPELAGO Acclaimed writer-director Joanna Hogg follows 2008’s Unrelated with another tense, intimate portrait of a troubled middle-class family on holiday. Keira Knightley, Carey POP REM: COLLAPSE INTO NOW ALBUM Mulligan and Andrew A 15th studio album from REM, who “haven’t been this excited” about a release since the early Garfield star in the cloning 90s, according to guitarist Peter Buck. There are guest vocalists aplenty, including Patti Smith. film Never Let Me Go, 7 released on 11 February. THEATRE ECSTASY For the first time, Mike Leigh returns to one of his early works. He’ll direct his 1979 10 play at Hampstead, the theatre which first stagedAbigail’s Party. To 9 Apr. ART WATTEAU’S DRAWINGS 80 drawings by this charismatic 18th-century French artist, including portraits, ART WATERCOLOUR 12 shop interiors, theatre pieces and the famous fêtes galantes. Royal Academy. An inspired thematic survey, examining the beauty of this medium 16 and its centrality to British art all the way from medieval illumination to Turner, Blake, Heron (right), and the present day. Tate Britain. POP ELBOW Elbow’s new album (working title: Lippy Kid) is nigh; thanks to download 15 culture, it may be Elbow’s last full-length, according to Guy Garvey. The CLAssICAL ANNA NICOLE traditional art of gigging, though, remains a priority. To 29 Mar. Big event of the season: world premiere of Mark-Anthony 17 Turnage’s opera with libretto by Jerry Springer: The Opera writer Richard Thomas directed by Richard Jones and conducted by CLAssICAL BSO: SHIMMERING SZYMANOWSKI Antonio Pappano. Royal Opera House, London. To 4 Mar. Andrew Litton conducts the Bournemouth SO and soloist Nicola Benedetti 16 in the Violin Concerto No 1, with Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 3 and Liszt’s Les Préludes. Poole, Bristol, Portsmouth, Brighton. To 19 Feb. THEATRE THE DEEP BLUE SEA Kicking off nationwide celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of the acclaimed 18 playwright Terence Rattigan, Shameless star Maxine Peake stars as the suicidal Hester POP KATY PERRY ON TOUR in this powerful play set in postwar Britain.