A Tits D Varg A monthly selection of forthcoming events

recommended by The Spectator's regular critics

DANCE

Vivarta, Phoenix Arts, Leicester (0533 554854) and The Place (071 387 0031), from 17 September. A two-week festival of contemporary South Asian dance, music and performance. The main attractions include Roger Sinha's Burning Skin, Mallika Sarabhai's Changing Planes and two new works by Kumudini Lakhia whose Kadamb Company — one of India's finest — will perform in Leicester on the 17th and 18th, at the Arnolfini Bristol (0272 299191) on the 19th and at Queen Elizabeth Hall (071 928 8800) on the 21st.

Rhythm Method, Purcell Room (071 928 8800), 11 and 12 September. Unreliable, fun weekend of odds and ends creamed off the independent dance circuit. Snooze through the tedious bits, but don't miss the inimitable vocal and physical theatre of Ralf Ralf in Ayama Himmu Ahop, or the sublime dancing of American Lance Gries in two solos, Alter X and

Organum. Sophie Constanti

MUSIC

The Cardiff Festival, 17 September to 9 October. Its theme, A Danger to the State, sets out to explore Plato's proposition that when the modes of music change so also do the laws of the state. Beethoven's Ninth is inevitably there (2 October), along With Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony (18th). Szymanowski's wonderful Third Symphony is to be played on the 28th by the CBSO. The world premi&e of Wilfred Josephs' William and the Bomb (after the story by Richmal Crompton) is given on the 25th.

The Nash Ensemble is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Leipzig Gewand- haus Orchestra by replaying programmes of chamber music heard at the Gewandhaus during the 19th century. This series will run until January 1994 at the Wigmore Hall. The first concert, on the 22nd, features music by Mozart, Mendels- sohn, Weber, Spohr and Rossini.

Willard White will sing Mozart operatic arias with the London Festival Orchestra at the QEH on 28 September. Peter Phillips

EXHIBITIONS

Lucian Freud, Whitechapel Art Gallery, from 10 September. The great master of the figure and Portrait in London again. Why did he not represent us in Venice?

Dorothea Tanning, Camden Arts Centre, from 17 September, Wife of the late Max Ernst who produced Powerful, erotically charged Paintings herself. Fred Elwell (1870-1958), Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. Largely forgotten artist who met Gauguin and Renoir but pursued personal academic vision.

Strange Happenings in the Common Place: Works by Carel Weight RA, Christie's, London, till 15 September. Show celebrating wonderfully idiosyncratic artist's 85th birthday. Giles Auty

OPERA

The Bacchae, Queen Elizabeth Hall (071 928 8800), from 1 September. Opera Factory presents a version of Euripides' play, with music by the distinguished Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, David Freeman directs, Nicholas Kok conducts.

La Boheme, London Coliseum (071 836 3161), from 15 September. The first real test of Dennis Marks's new regime at the ENO comes with this new production of Puccini's early masterpiece, with the excellent American soprano Roberta Alexander as Mimi and an 'unknown' tenor, John Hudson, as Rodolfo. Steven Pimlott directs and Mark Elder's successor Sian Edwards conducts.

Roberta Alexander, appearing at ENO

Falstaff, New Theatre, Cardiff (0222 394844), 11, 16, 24 September. Revival of Peter Stein's famous production of Verdi's last masterpiece. WNO fields a strong cast led by Suzanne Murphy, Bryn Terfel and, in the title role, Donald Maxwell, Richard Armstrong conducts. Rupert Christiansen

THEATRE

Hysteria, Royal Court (071 730 1745), 1 September. Sigmund Freud meets Salvador Dali in serious farce from Terry Johnson.

In the Summer House, Lyric Hammersmith (081 741 2311), 6 September. Long-lost drama from Jane Bowles, favourite dramatist of Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote.

Moonlight, Almeida (071 359 4404), 7 September. Harold Pinter's first full-length play in more than a decade: Ian Holm, Anna Massey.

Travesties, Barbican (071 638 8891), 16 September. Antony Sher

in first major London revival of Stoppard's comedy of identities.

Therese Raquin, Young Vic (071 928 6363), 21 September. Julia Bardsley opens her administration with her Leicester hit.

Sheridan Morley

POP MUSIC

Paul McCartney, Earls Court, 14, 15 September. Since he rediscovered a taste for live performance. McCartney's recorded output has declined in quality. Still, the old hits are so great and so numerous that these shows must be recommended: only the truly cynical will be immune.

Also recommended: a distinctly rejuvenated Squeeze, touring, 8 September-13 October; cult favourites The Levellers, touring, 10 September-17 October; Bon Jovi & Billy Idol, Milton Keynes Bowl, 18 September; and, if only to see what she'll do next, Madonna, Wembley Stadium, 25, 26 September.

Marcus Berkmann

CRAFTS

Letters into Words, The Gallery, 28 Cork Street, WI, till 11 September. Thoughtful exhibition of carved lettering and calligraphy — look out for the inscriptional power of Ralph Beyer.

Father and Son: the Engraved Glass of Laurence and Simon Whistler, Salisbury Museum. Some 44 pieces from private and public collections.

Ron Arad: Recent Furniture, Concord Lighting, 174 High Holborn, WC1. Impractical, even dangerous, shelves for post-

modernists. Tanya Harrod

GARDENS

The Great Autumn Flower Show, held in London in mid-September by the RHS, is well known, but this year there is a sister event in the north, which marks the close links that now exist between the RHS and the North of England Horticultural Society, based at Harlow Carr in Harrogate. The show is open on 17 and 18 September in the Exhibition Halls, Harrogate. Ursula Buchan

CINEMA

The Firm (15) has Tom Cruise as a lawyer, directed by Sydney Pollack from the thriller by John Grisham. A big hit in America.

Sleepless in Seattle (PG) is a tear- jerking romance in which nice Tom Hanks scarcely meets nice Meg Ryan. Nora Ephron, who wrote and directed, has previously been sharp and knowing, so there should be some good jokes as well.

The Fugitive. Tommy Lee Jones is after Harrison Ford and there is a