LONDON EXHIBITION
Peter Kennard:
Unofficial War Artist
Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Road, SE1
May 14-May 30
Peter Kennard is regarded as one of Britain’s most important political artists, whose imagery has become synonymous with the modern protest movement. This first major retrospective of his work demonstrates how Kennard has consistently confronted issues in world politics and British governmental policy both at home and abroad, inspiring many of today’s politically aware artists from Mark Wallinger to Banksy along the way.
iwm.org.uk

LONDON THEATRE
Light Shining
In Buckinghamshire
National Theatre
South Bank, SE1
Until June 22
Caryl Churchill’s brilliant historical epic is set in the aftermath of the English civil war at a time when food shortages, economic instability and a corrupt political system threaten to plunge the country into darkness and despair. It counterposes those parliamentarians who fought to unseat Charles I but who are prepared to compromise over issues such as voting rights with a populace hungry for change and sheds light on the rebels, preachers, soldiers and dissenters struggling for freedom. A rare chance to catch a stunning piece of political theatre which laments the revolution England never had and points up the unresolved issues it has left behind.
nationaltheatre.org.uk

MOLD DANCE
Richard Alston Dance Company: Triple Bill
Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Raikes Lane
May 8-9
North Wales is not particularly well served for dance performance, so this triple bill by the leading Richard Alston Dance Company, praised in the Morning Star, is well worth checking out. It includes Alston’s Overdrive, set the to pulsating rhythm of modern Californian composer Terry Riley’s music, Martin Lawrance’s latest piece Burning, inspired by the Dante Sonata of Franz Liszt and Illuminations, set to music by Benjamin Britten, which paints a vivid picture of the wild young genius Arthur Rimbaud. Recommended.
clwyd-theatr-cymru

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE EXHIBITION
Albert Adams: Paintings and Etchings
Northumbria University Gallery
Sandyford Road
May 30-July 10
Albert Adams was born and brought up in South Africa before coming to England to study painting in the 1950s. Fully aware of apartheid’s social and political injustices, he painted the triptych South Africa, considered by many critics to be the most important painting produced by a black South African in the last century. Before his death in 2006 he wrote: “My work is based on my experience of South Africa as a vast and terrifying prison, an experience which even now, after a decade of democracy, still haunts me.” Reflecting that vision, this free exhibition includes some of his most startling and moving images.
northumbria.ac.uk