sots /DI ry

A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics

CINEMA

The Snapper (15), adapted from a sequel by Roddy Doyle, concerns the same family as Alan Parker's The Commitments, with the attention this time on a pregnant daughter. The director is Stephen Frears, back from Hollywood where he triumphed with Dangerous Liaisons and The Grifters and, well, did not triumph with Accidental Hero.

Les Enfants du Paradis (U) is a re- issue of one of the most enjoyable classics ever made. Romance and melodrama in backstage 19th- century Paris involve Arletty and her admirers, who include Jean- Louis Barrault as a melancholy mime; perhaps the first half is even better than the second. Directed by Marcel Carrie in occupied France, 1944-45. Mark Amory

GARDENS

The Savill Garden, one of the great gardens of England, is holding a plant fair on 28 August (10-5.30). Unusual plants, together with terracotta pots, gardening books and paintings, will be on sale. There is free entry to the fair, but admission to the garden, which is in Windsor Great Park, is £3 (£2.50 for OAPs). Ursula Buchan

THEATRE

Time Of My Life, Vaudeville (071 836 9987), 3 August. Ayckbourn's latest, about a family dinner at which the business collapses and the skeletons fairly tumble from the kitchen closets.

Here, Donmar Warehouse (071 867 1150), 4 August. Frayn's latest, about a young couple (Lesley Sharp, lain Glen) moving into a new home.

Hot Stuff. ( 'ambridge (071 494 5040), 17 August. Pop-rock version of Faust, in from Liverpool.

Three Hotels, Tricycle (071 328 1000), 31 August. Rapid move to London for off-Broadway hit by Jon Robin Baitz about corporate and family guilt. Lindsay Duncan stars.

Sheridan Morley

MUSIC

The Proms continue this month with five youth nchestras: the NYO of Great Britain under Bamert on 8 August; the Gustav Mahler YO under Abbado playing that rare masterpiece, Bruckner's Fifth (9th); the National YO of Scotland under Loughran playing Hoist's The Planets (14th); the European Community YO under Sanddrling Playing Brahms and Rakhmaninov (18th); and the National Youth

Chamber Orchestra under Kovacevich playing Beethoven's Fifth (21st). Amongst the grown- ups from abroad come the Oslo Philharmonic under Jansons (23rd and 24th); and the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Masur (30th and 31st). All the concerts will be broadcast live by BBC Radio Three.

On the 7th, Eton College presents a rare opportunity to visit its grounds with a concert given by the King's Consort. Music by Handel, Albinoni, Pachelbel and Clarke will be supplemented by a fireworks

display. Peter Phillips

CRAFTS

Past, Present Future: turned wooden vessels by Mike Scott, Brewery Arts, Brewery Court, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, 14 August-2 October. Rugged, intensely tactile work.

Royal Presents from the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Institute, Kensington High Street, till December 1993. If you ever wondered what happens to all those exotic gifts from loyal subjects, this exhibition provides the answers.

Nigerian leather cushion presented to HM Queen Mary by the Government of Kano in 1925 Contemporary American Quilts, Crafts Council, 44a Pentonville Road, Islington, till 5 September. Glorious colourful celebration of a tradition that turns out to be truly

radical. Tanya Harrod

EXHIBITIONS

China Transformed, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. Based on the first national exhibition of avant- garde Chinese art in 1989. Conceptualism replaces Confucius.

Aratjara: Art of the First Australians, Hayward Gallery. Art from the realms of the dingo and didgeridoo.

The Edinburgh School, The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh. Paintings by graduates and teachers from Edinburgh College of Art 1909-90.

Illustration as a Way to Survive: Ilya Kabakov and Uloo Sooster, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. Art produced under Soviet regime from 1950s to

1970s when poking fun was not

taken lightly. Giles Auty

OPERA

The Turn of the Screw, Theatre Royal, Bath (0225 448844), 8-14 August. Bath and Wessex Opera present Britten's masterly adaptation of Henry James's ghost story in a production by John Pascoe, conducted by Klaus Donath. Janis Kelly sings the role of the neurasthenic governess, Nigel Robson the baneful Peter Quint.

Ariadne auf Naxos, Broomhill Theatre, Tunbridge Wells (0892 515152), 23-4, 27-8 August. This new summer school for post–graduate students presents a full production of Strauss's most refined opera, directed by Jonathan Miller. Great fun for talent-spotters and a lovely country-house setting.

Simon Boccanegra, London Coliseum (071 836 3161), 26, 28 August. The new regime of Dennis Marks and Sian Edwards is inaugurated with a revival of one of the causes celebres of the Jonas era — David Alden's production of Verdi's moving treatment of the tragedy of a beleaguered Doge of Genoa. Janice Cairns sings his daughter Amelia and the title–role is taken by the Australian baritone Gregory Yurisich. Alexander Rahbari conducts.

Rupert Christiansen

DANCE

Mark Morris Dance Group, ample compensation for the lack of dance events in this year's Edinburgh Festival, brings two programmes to the Playhouse Theatre (031 225 5756). New Love Song Waltzes and Love Song Waltzes (17-19 August) are followed by a mixed bill of new work (21-23 August) including dances to Bach, Cowell and live music by Michelle Shocked.

Bangarra Dance Theatre, Queen Elizabeth Hall (071 928 8800), 7 August. Australian company, fusing indigenous and contemporary dance, in Praying Mantis Dreaming.

Sophie Constanti

POP MUSIC

U2, Glasgow Celtic Park, 7, 8 August; Wembley Stadium, 11, 12 and 20, 21 August. For U2 suddenly to be producing The best and freshest work of their career, after years of pomposity and dullness, has been one of pop's more

pleasant recent surprises.

Also recommended: those old folkies Fairport Convention, Half Moon, Putney, 9 August; Jean Michel Jarre, Wembley Stadium (28th); and for fans of mud, pneumonia and appalling lavatory facilities, the Reading Festival (27-29 August), this year featuring New Order, Lemonheads, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The The and Porno For Pyros. No,1 won't be there either. Marcus Berlunann