30 minutes
New releases on Bandcamp
Scroll through Bandcamp, the excellent online music store for indie bands that gives more than 80% of what you pay to the music makers. I have EPs by family and friends on there – Veiled in Clouds by Dreamwire, The First of Many by Blisssymbols – but the energy of the site and new artists such as Silkarmour, Toast Club and Mali Bone make it a pleasure to buy safe in the knowledge that you are actually supporting new music.
60 minutes
Zurbarán, National Gallery, London
A perfect contrast to the hustle and bustle of daily life, this retrospective of the work of the 17th-century Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán takes you back into another world; his closely observed details of saints and still lives are an antidote to the speedy-looking online realm. Worth the price of entry simply for Agnus Dei, that famous curly haired lamb usually seen in the Prado in Madrid. But there is also so much more in this magical mingling of the mystical and the real.
Two hours
The Car Man, Sadler’s Wells, London
Hot, steamy and surprising, Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man owes as much to The Postman Only Rings Twice and film noir as it does to Bizet. It’s a clever and compelling story of tangled passion and misplaced trust, told in pure narrative dance of great energy and excitement. Perfect for a sizzling summer, in fact.
Three hours and 30 minutes
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The Oresteia, Bridge theatre, London
Don’t let the length put you off. Simon Stone’s contemporary version of the Oresteia unfolds with the implacable menace of a thriller, holding you firmly in its stormy, shocking grip. It is very much “after Aeschylus & others”, dispensing with the gods and notions of fate, but keeping the sense of trauma handed down from generation to generation, scarring individuals with its searing weight. An all-star cast – David Morrissey, Rosie Sheehy, Tom Glynn-Carney and Mary-Louise Parker – lend lustre to a drama that rips off the mask of Greek tragedy to reveal the suffering beneath.
Ten hours and 25 minutes
Head North, Audible
If you want to understand Andy Burnham, the man who is suddenly prime minister, then this audiobook is a good place to start. Written and narrated by him and Steve Rotheram, mayor of Liverpool city region, Head North combines an insight into their lives with a 10-part plan to build a better Britain. It’s much more inspiring than your average political memoir and offers a perspective on the thinking of the politician who now holds the country’s future in his hands.
Illustration by Charlotte Durance