With blockbusters in the arts – Picasso, Freud and Hockney – to laughter in the aisles – Noises Off transferring from the Old Vic and The Recruiting Officer marking Josie Rourke’s reign as the new artistic director at the Donmar- here are some ideas for what to go and so / do / experience in March and April.  Any suggestions for what’s missing email cultureclub@publicis.co.uk

 

Hockney: A Bigger Picture @ Royal Academy

Sold-out, so you have to wait for returns or follow their Facebook page to see when they release more tickets. It is worth the effort though! A huge, breath-taking exhibition that is almost entirely new works by this most prolific of our now “greatest living artist”. With vibrant multi-canvas landscapes of North Yorkshire, Hockney also has on display here his iPad paintings. And even his pencil sketches of the same landscape scenes are as impressive as the large canvasses. Give yourself time too to watch the 3×9 video installation, capturing across a triptych of nine cameras videos of landscapes in different seasons and the small room off this showing his sketchbooks. On until 9 April.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/GP1YXx 

Review a review by Mike Wade here: http://www.publicis.co.uk/?p=1763

 

Lucien Freud Portraits @ National Portrait Gallery

Spanning seventy years and over 130 of the artist’s paintings, this is first major retrospective since his death last year.  This is an impressive show that spans his early works, his auction-busting $30m Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (also known as Big Sue), right up to his final incomplete last painting.  Go and let us know what you think! On until 27 May.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/GR8LBl 

 

The Recruiting Office @ Donmar

This sold-out Restoration comedy at this intimate theatre, starring amongst others, Mark Gatiss and Mackenzie Crook, has been winning much praise. Sounds like one to try and beg, borrow or chance the returns queue. On until 14 April.

Read a review here: http://bit.ly/GR8zly 

 

Noises Off @ Novello Theatre

Transferring from a sell-out show at the Old Vic (closing 10 March) this backstage comedy following the antics of a theatre group struggling to put on a play, follows hard on the heels of another sell-out farce, One Man, Two Guv’nors. Side-splitting, laugh-‘til-I-cried comedy seems to be what’s needed in these gloomy days. Opens 24 March – to 30 June.

Read a review here: http://bit.ly/GR8oXw

 

The Pitman Painters @ Duchess Theatre

This transfer from the National tells the real-life story of the Ashington Group, a group of miners in the North East in the 1930s, who, after hiring a professor from Newcastle University to teach them something about art history, end up becoming recognised group of painters in their own right. Uniquely depicting life and work in their mining town, the play cleverly brings to life both their paintings and the struggle to wrestle with what art means, with more out-loud laughs than you’d expect for a drama about painting miners. Tickets are available at the Half Price Ticket Booth in Leicester Square. On until 14 April.

Read a review here: http://tgr.ph/GG8e5C

 

London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival @ BFI Southbank

The 26th LLGFF sees Olympia Dukakis in Cloudburst, documentaries, including when industrial-rock pioneer Genesis P-Orridge met Lady Jaye, new work and a chance to see (again) Deneuve in Ozon’s camp 70s comedy Potiche or the sublime Weekend. And from the celluloid closet there’s Garbo in Queen Christina, Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly Last Summer and Kubrik’s Spartacus. On from 23 March – 1 April.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/GHXx0m

 

Jiri Trnka season @ BFI Southbank

Dubbed the Walt Disney of the East, this influential Czech animator has a season dedicated to his work at BFI in April.  On from 2-27 April.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/GRlqpv