Going out: Cinema
Io Capitano
Out now
Italian auteur Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated latest sees two Senegalese teenagers attempting to reach Europe in a perilous modern odyssey across water, deserts and detention centres, powered by dreams of a better life. Starring Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall in their acting debuts.
Evil Does Not Exist
Out now
One of the more interesting directors working today, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) returns with a characteristically meditative offering. In a small village near Tokyo, single parent Takumi and his daughter Hana live in quiet contentment until a company from Tokyo decide the spot is ripe for a glamping site.
Monkey Man
Out now
An action thriller in the vein of John Wick, this Dev Patel-directed, Dev Patel-starring drama set in the world of underground fight clubs was originally heading for streaming before Jordan Peele (Get Out) saw it and was so impressed he decided to give it a full cinema release.
The First Omen
Out now
Part of the Omenverse, this prequel to the 1976 horror classic sees an earlier effort to bring about the birth of an antichrist unfolding in Rome, where an American woman working at a church uncovers a devilish conspiracy. Starring Nell Tiger Free, Bill Nighy and Ralph Ineson. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Romy
Roundhouse, London, 11 & 12 April
Taking a break from making her band the xx’s fourth album in LA, Romy continues to showcase last year’s dance-pop solo debut, Mid Air. Billed as club nights rather than gigs, support comes from an excellent lineup of DJs including Angel D’Lite, Sherelle and Lagoon Femshayma.
Bryson Tiller
Glasgow, 8 April; Manchester, 12 April; touring to 8 May
The Kentucky singer and rapper has taken his time following up 2020’s Anniversary, but after a handful of mixtapes and false starts, his fourth album arrives just ahead of this tour. Expect new tracks including the recent Miami-inspired heater Whatever She Wants. Michael Cragg
Sean Shibe Meets Dunedin Consort
London, 11 April; Saffron Walden, 12 April; touring to 14 April
Guitarist Shibe tours with the period instruments of the Dunedin Consort in a folk-inspired programme. There’s music by Dowland, Purcell, James MacMillan, David Fennessy and Linda Catlin Smith, and the first performances of Cassandra Miller’s Chanter, composed for Shibe. Andrew Clements
The Necks
Nottingham, 8 April
Every gig by cult Australian trio the Necks is unique, even after 30 years of playing all-improv gigs that grip the avant-jazz cognoscenti and mainstream audiences alike. Pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton and drummer Tony Buck intuitively swap drones, catchy hooks and classical motifs. John Fordham
***
Going out: Art
Enzo Mari
Design Museum, London, to 8 September
This artist of radically and wittily simplified natural forms was also a hugely influential industrial designer. In the age of Italy’s postwar “miracle”, when Milan was the centre of an economic leap forward that put a previously poor country at the forefront of manufacturing, Mari bridged the northern city’s art and economy.
London Pictures
The Gilbert and George Centre, London, 12 April to 31 December
Gilbert and George have been entangled with London since meeting at art college there in the 1960s. They have explored its streets, history and subcultures together ever since. This new show at their own gallery sees them reflect the city in all its majesty and mayhem.
Unicorn
Perth Museum, to 22 September
The new Perth Museum, as well as displaying Scotland’s Stone of Destiny, opens with this survey of the mythical beast that is a Scottish symbol. Unicorns have deep roots in medieval folklore and art, where they are magical creatures of faith and love. Elizabethan treasures and contemporary art illuminate their story.
Bruegel to Rubens
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, to 23 June
As well as being the surreal visionary painter of The Tower of Babel and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a dab hand at drawing. His work stars in this gathering of Flemish designs for carnivals, monsters and nudes that shows how the Renaissance went north. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Elixir festival
Sadler’s Wells, London, 10 April to 20 April
Challenging the idea that a dancing career ends at 35, the Elixir festival highlights the rich experience of older performers, from “mother of contemporary African dance” Germaine Acogny to Louise Lecavalier, who barrel-jumped her way through the 80s and 90s performing with David Bowie and Frank Zappa, and is still dancing at 65. Lyndsey Winship
Ari Eldjárn
Soho theatre, London, 9 April to 13 April; touring to 28 April
A Netflix special won him global attention, but this UK tour proves Iceland’s biggest standup is still determined to build his audience the old-fashioned way. A tabloid-fixture superstar in his own country, Eldjárn delivers material about fatherhood, pop culture and Icelandic society with amenable swagger. Rachel Aroesti
Morgan & West’s Massive Magic Show for Kids & Childish Grown-Ups
Chorley,6 April; Gusburn, 7 April; touring to 1 June
There are few delights brighter than seeing a child wowed by a good magic trick – or being wowed by one yourself. Having fooled Penn & Teller, Morgan & West now tour the UK in this family-friendly show with silly outfits, funny stories, and a healthy heap of magic.
The Comeuppance
Almeida theatre, London, to 18 May
How does 20 years change a friendship? How long does it take to revert back to who you were? A group of friends gather for a high-school reunion, but an uninvited guest turns up, too. Eric Ting directs this cutting satire from American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon). Kate Wyver
***
Staying in: Streaming
The Regime
NOW & Sky Atlantic, 8 April, 9pm
A rare diversion into high satire for Kate Winslet as she throws herself into the role of paranoid and highly eccentric autocrat Elena – whose infatuation with a dishy disgraced soldier throws her crumbling country into further chaos – in this farcical but still slightly frightening new series from the executive producers of Succession.
Baby Reindeer
Netflix, 11 April
Scottish standup and writer Richard Gadd specialises in shockingly dark autobiographical trauma; his 2019 one-man show detailed his experience at the hands of an obsessive stalker. Now it has been adapted for TV, but don’t expect a neat little thriller; Gadd expertly probes the grey areas of the pair’s dysfunctional dynamic.
Defiance
Channel 4, 8 April, 9pm
The struggles and resistance of the British Asian community in the late 70s and early 80s is a criminally neglected facet of UK history: this three-part documentary aims to rectify that by reliving watershed moments, from the Southall protests to the battle for Brick Lane and the case of the Bradford 12.
Fallout
Prime Video, 11 April
What do you mean you’re not in the mood for another terrifyingly bleak post-apocalyptic dystopian drama? If you do find room in your schedule (and soul) for one more, try this adaptation of the colossally successful game franchise, which imagines humans exiting their bunker-based society 200 years after a mid 20th-century nuclear war. RA
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Staying in: Games
Botany Manor
Out 9 April, Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox
Explore the dusty, curio-filled manor home of a retired botanist in this peaceful puzzler, reading old letters and turning time-worn objects over in your hands.
Turbo Kid
Out 10 April, all platforms
Based on the variably enjoyable 2015 superhero film, this gory pixel-art action game sends you out into a post-apocalyptic 1990s wasteland on a BMX bike. Keza MacDonald
* * *
Staying in: Albums
Khruangbin – A La Sala
Out now
Houston’s sonic explorers continue with their lofty aim of fusing funk, psych, surf rock and dub on this follow-up to 2022’s Ali, their collaboration with Malian artist Vieux Farka Touré. A La Sala feels like the perfect soundtrack to spring sunshine, full of warm melodies and undulating reveries.
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
Out now
The impeccably dressed New Yorkers return with the follow-up to 2019’s baggy, loose-limbed Father of the Bride. While that album was created by frontman Ezra Koenig and a host of external collaborators, this tighter, more aggressive outing finds the trio reuniting to reflect on modern life in their city.
Conan Gray – Found Heaven
Out now
After dabbling in full pop star mode on his previous albums, US singer-songwriter Gray goes the whole hog on this third record. Max Martin and his coterie of hitmakers are all over it, helping craft 80s-tinged electropop stompers such as singles Never Ending Song and Killing Me.
Fabiana Palladino – Fabiana Palladino
Out now
Channelling tactile R&B, big-hearted 80s pop and sultry soul, Palladino’s debut album refracts a broken relationship through a glitter-specked prism. Centrepiece Stay With Me Through the Night longs for continued connection over lithe disco, while the Jai Paul-assisted I Care sinks elegantly into the abyss. MC
* * *
Staying in: Brain food
Ministry of Evil: The Twisted Cult of Tony Alamo
BBC Four, 9 April
Telling the story of how a televangelist couple rose to fame in the 60s before becoming cult leaders, this remarkable series has testimony from former followers on the Alamos’ horrifying abuses of power.
Why was the Rosetta Stone So Important?
YouTube
Egyptologist Franziska Naether presents an engagingly straightforward animation explaining how the Napoleonic discovery of the Rosetta Stone allowed scholars to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs after centuries of attempts.
Ad Hoc
Podcast
Taking the act of improvisation as its starting point, this thought-provoking series examines how harnessing unpredictability has led to creative breakthroughs for everyone from free jazz drummer Milford Graves to chef Shola Olunyolo. Ammar Kalia
