Books
From Cradle to Stage
Mum’s the word! Literally, actually, as Foo Fighter Dave Grohl’s mother, Virginia, has gone around the world to interview mothers about their famous offspring, from Pharrell Williams’s ma Carolyn to Amy Winehouse’s mummy Janis for a new book. It’s out on 25 April.
From Cradle to Stage by Virginia Hanlon Grohl is published by Coronet, £20
Streaming
City Girl
Actor Sarah Ramos recently discovered a romcom script she’d written as a 12-year-old – then decided to make it into a web series. The result is an emphatically weird – and very funny – take on 00s nostalgia.
Available now on YouTube
Festivals
Machynlleth comedy festival
Helmed by Henry Widdicombe (brother of Josh), this festival stuffs a small west Wales town with some of the country’s best comedians. Highlights include supremely silly sketch trio Daphne; masterly micro-observationalist James Acaster; the erudite Liam Williams; the equally erudite Sara Pascoe; and daddy of British indie comedy Stewart Lee.
At various venues, 28-30 April
Leeds international festival
A huge celebration of culture with art, music and more. Highlights include the Empowering Women with Tech conference, with the likes of Lauren Laverne and Susannah Lau discussing their digital endeavours; Live at Leeds with gigs from Slaves, Wild Beasts and more; plus a Museum of Youth Culture tracing yoof movements past and present.
At various venues, 22-30 April
V&A performance festival
As a possible antidote to a post-Brexit future Britain, the V&A’s latest festival aims to champion the relationship between British and continental European theatre. They’ll do that via a number of themed tours, workshops, talks, film screenings and performances, including a virtual reality version of the David Bowie-inspired stage musical Lazarus.
At the V&A, SW7, 21-30 April
Music
Feist
The poster girl for a certain breed of whimsical mid-00s indie is back, this time with a decidedly more brooding record. Pleasure – Leslie Feist’s fifth album – reflects on the happiness and satisfaction we are promised, and the disappointments life actually serves up. If that sounds a bit bleak, note that it’s also about how our perspective on the world – positive or negative – ultimately lies in our own hands.
Pleasure is released on 28 April on Polydor
Arca
Is that a clay sculpture or are you just pleased to see me? Venezuelan abstract electronic producer Arca has long been pushing boundaries with his fractured beats; now, with the encouragement of sometime collaborator Björk, he sings, too.
At Roundhouse, NW1, 28 April
Exhibitions
Cornelia Parker
The British sculptor’s installations Thirty Pieces of Silver – as the name suggests, shiny cutlery hung in groups from the ceiling – and Cold Matter: An Exploded View (like a shed that’s been blown apart, suspended in mid-blast) will probably be familiar to even the most casual of art fans. Her latest show at London’s Frith Street Gallery, however, explores the reactions to her work, namely the 2016 installation Transitional Object (PsychoBarn), in which she created the illusion of a traditional red barn on top of NYC’s Metropolitan Museum.
At Frith Street Gallery, W1, 28 April to 21 June
Theatre
How My Light Is Spent
Loneliness, longing and being left behind are at the centre of Alan Harris’s two-hander between Jimmy, a man in his 30s who lives with his mum, works in a doughnut drive-thru and starts to physically disappear, and Kitty, a sex-line operator. After winning a prize for playwriting, it gets its world premiere at Manchester’s Royal Exchange.
At Royal Exchange, Manchester, 24 April to 13 May
Film
Mindhorn
A has-been former TV cop who must return to the Isle of Man, where his series was shot, to negotiate with a killer and obsessed fan who thinks that the show’s titular character, Mindhorn, is real? Sure! Julian Barratt is wonderfully Partridgean as the leading man in this wacky film comedy, currently previewing.
Preview screenings with Q&A, 22 April to 5 May; in cinemas from 5 May