Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thieves, 1948Film -Werner Herzog, Part 1

It's impossible to pick a favourite from the BFI's upcomingWerner Herzogseason: there is an extended run of his Amazonian epic Aguirre, the Wrath of God; his paranoiac adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck (check out its powerfully stylised murder scene) plus his fatalistic account of the American dream in Stroszek. However it's early documentariesFata MorganaandThe Land of Silence and DarknessI'm most keen to see (the latter a moving portrait of the deaf-blind).

BFI, London, throughout June

Beckett's one-woman performance had its UK premiere at the Royal Court in 1973 and returns to the same venue this month. Lisa Dawn takes on the onerous task of reciting Beckett's meandering monologue (apparently in just nine minutes). Followed by a post-show talk.

Art -Andr Kertsz:Truth and DistortionYou have until Saturday to see this exhibition of influential Hungarian photographer Andr Kertsz's photographs, including his distorted female nudes taken in the 1930s.

Atlas Gallery, London, until 25 May

Film -The Bicycle ThievesPart ofThe Roots of Neorealismseason at the BFI. With The Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica fully realises his objective to reveal the drama in the everyday, transforming a poor father and son's plight to find their stolen bicycle into an epic odyssey. A heartbreaking study of family, poverty and post-World War II Italy.

Art -Propaganda:Power and Persuasion

Hitler, Uncle Sam, John Hurt and Morph appear in the British Library'slatest exhibitionexploring the various channels of state propaganda. It looks like a fascinating and pertinent survey of mass manipulation, distortion and disinformation.

British Library, London, 17 May-17 Sep

Simon Arthur

Ai Wei Wei's pop video...

Short story on a stamp...

Classics on set...

From obscure 18th-century female explorers to classics of literature, English choreographer Cathy Marston tells gripping stories using contemporary dance. Her new work, Witch-hunt, explores a true story of execution and (very belated) exoneration.

Before it opens at the ROH this week, we asked Marston about her career highs and how she has reached the directorship at Bern:Ballett. Along the way she discusses a love of Scandi-drama and a penchant for the enjoyably miserable...

BernBallet's Witch-hunt. Photo: Philipp Zinniker

How was your interest in narrative choreography forged?

Visits to the theatre and my parents (English teachers) ignited an early interest in literature. At the Royal Ballet School, aged 16, I first realised my true interest was in choreography rather than just dance. I soaked up the MacMillan repertoire that I had access to, then, at the Zurich Ballet aged 18, I was drawn to other European choreographers like Mats Ek (still one of my favourites).

As Associate Artist of the Royal Opera House I was influenced by British repertoire and dancers who have been brought up on it; creating for Royal Ballet dancers like Edward Watson, Lauren Cuthberson, Charlotte Broom and Christopher Akrill whose shared backgrounds in NBT and Cullberg Ballet. All this underpinned my passion for storytelling.

Have you faced any challenges to this way of working?

It was only when I became Director of the Bern Ballet that this narrative pull was questioned. Here, critics were not used to stories being told through contemporary dance and associated narrative works with ‘dusty, old-fashioned' ballets. Over the last six years I have taken criticism on board and yet remained faithful to the aspects of my work that are important to me. At the same time, local audiences and critics have learnt more about my creations and now appreciate them. I'm very happy that I've had this chance to create within a surprisingly different culture and have learned from aspects of it that make my work richer and more streamlined.

How would you describe your role and activities now?

I am a choreographer but also a director/curator, thanks to opportunities at the Royal Opera House when I was Associate Artist for public speaking and project initiation; through forming my own company - The Cathy Marston Project - and learning to put a board together, tour booking, programming and marketing. I've built upon these skills, becoming more political in my strategies, wider in my networking and confident in my leadership.

Can you describe how you go about creating a ballet from inception to completion?

An idea comes through music, a book, a work of art or sometimes a conversation. I start to find the right team, collaborators and ingredients. Music is usually chosen before I begin creating in the studio.

I work on the structure and scenario, with a dramaturge or alone. I arrive in the studio full of information about the theme and music which I share with the dancers. We spend about a week researching movement, developing a specific vocabulary for each piece. Then I start to build, using the movement we've found but manipulating it to form dances and scenes. Finally the costumes, set and any other elements are brought into play.

Cathy Marston. Photo: Philipp Zinniker

You Cuba (2004)

Marston and director Margaret Williams were commissioned by Channel 4 to createYou Cuba. Inspired by Mikhael Kalatazov's feature film I am Cuba (1964), they produced a series offour shortabstract dance films reflecting aspects of Cuban culture - its landscape, people and politics. The films were later combined to make a 13-minute long version...

Gabriel Garca Mrquez said that Cuba is ‘the most dance oriented society on earth.' How did Cuba inspire you, and what do you recall about working on this project?

I went to Havana twice to work with the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, first on the films, You Cuba and then on a work for the stage. I was struck by the energy, openness, and beauty of the dancers. Their working conditions left a lot to be desired, but watching class - in which they had four musicians accompany them - brought tears to my eyes.

I loved location scouting, and shooting in an old wrecked theatre, with shafts of light cutting through the dust from the open roof; or along the sea wall with waves crashing over at us.

Of course, drinking mojitos with the dancers as they tried to teach us very complicated salsa circles was unforgettable. They are wonderful people.

Ghosts (2005)

In 2005 Marston produced a danceadaptationof Henrik Ibsen's 19th-century morality tale ‘Gespenster' (Ghosts). The production at the Royal Opera House received widespread critical acclaim...

You've previously stated (to Ballet magazine) that if forced, this is your favourite of your works. Why?

A combination of an amazing creative process with the cast and team, a story that inspired me, time to work on ‘details' and good support from the ROH who were producing, all led to a piece that felt layered, investigated, satisfying to watch and loved by performers.

What was it about Ibsen's play that made it seem a good one to adapt as a ballet?

I was inspired by a version directed by Bergman, performed in Swedish, in which the audience were given headphones to hear the English translation. It absolutely gripped me through its physicality; I thought I could go further. I was drawn to its intense emotional world, the realm of ‘memories' becoming more vivid than the living moment, the themes of physical connections and disintegration.

Ghosts had you compared to both Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley in terms of ‘the top quality, thoroughly enjoyable misery stakes'. Do you think of your work as being enjoyably miserable?

Sometimes I'd consider it fair to say that! Not always though. I've recently also enjoyed some lighter - even comedy moments. But I do enjoy themes of unrequited love, regret, longing and tragedy.

Wuthering Heights (2009)

With heradaptationof Emily Bronte's classic novel, Marston was less concerned with sticking to the narrative trajectory of the original text, instead focusing on the relationships and tensions between the five central characters...

Many of your productions are based on literary sources (A Tale of Two Cities, Juliet and Romeo) - why does literature translate well to dance?

It doesn't always. You have to choose sources carefully, and have an idea of how to get around the ‘corners' of the plot before you start. I try to avoid telling stories in ‘ballet-mime' or with too many props, so it often requires rigorous combing of the story to lose the strands that aren't relevant to you or don't inspire you.

Did you ever worry in this instance that in adapting the book, you might inadvertently ‘ruin a classic'?

Yes I've considered this, but not for too long. You have to be brave to create any sort of work, perhaps it's just in my nature to ‘dare'.

Are there any works that you're itching to have a go at? And any that you'd like to but don't think would translate well to the stage?

There are pieces that have been in my head for a long time. One in particular is just waiting for the right ‘mature' male dancer/ performer/ actor to cast in the lead... There are stories I've loved by can't find a way to translate into dance - Bernhard Schlink's The Reader for example.

Hunting me (2012)

Marston combined music and dance to create thispiecebased on the life and works of British-Swiss writer and explorer Vivienne de Watteville, who, along with her father, set out on expeditions to Africa to hunt big game and bring hides back to be displayed in Bern's natural history museum...

Why did de Watteville interest you?

Her story was suggested by a rock singer/ musician, when we started discussing a collaboration with a local band. I found it compelling, and thought it had potential for dance. I also felt it would connect well to the Bern's history, and would mean an interesting mix of ‘the old Bernese families' (because of the story) and a younger public (because of the music) in the audience. I've often tried to build bridges like this.

This was performed as part of the Steps Festival focusing on women in dance. You seem drawn to strong female characters - is that fair to say, and if so, why?

Yes, although it's only become apparent to me over the years as I notice the considerable number of strong female roles in my work; Mrs Alving, Cathy, Juliet, Clara, ‘Bottom' was a woman in my version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ein Winternachtstraum) and ‘Mercutio' was also ‘Mercutia' for me. That said, there have been important male roles too - Robert Schumann, Heathcliff, Sydney and Charles in Tale of Two Cities, and Thomas in my ballet, Flight of Gravity, inspired by The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

I can't say why this is, except that while many artists make work about their own experiences I am drawn to other characters. But perhaps these allow me to express my own experiences/ emotions indirectly. Not to say they are all aspects of myself, but I have to ‘feel' and understand the characters personally - even if I don't like them.

What's the key to telling a story with dance and without words?

Finding a movement language in which to speak; remaining focussed on communicating to the audience; crafting the work to lead the audience around the stage and show them where clues to the story are; developing a clear structure.

Witch-hunt (2013)

Marston's final piece with the Bern Ballet,Witch-hunt,is a retelling of the fateful story of Anna Goeldi, who was accused of sorcery in 18th-century Switzerland, put on trial and eventually executed. Over 200 years later, Swiss parliament granted Goeldi a very belated posthumous exoneration...

How did you come across the story of Anna Goeldi and why did it make a good subject for a ballet?

I was approached by a string orchestra - Camerata Bern - to collaborate on a work with baroque music and original instruments. I researched the Baroque era in Switzerland with dramaturge Edward Kemp, and was surprised to find witch-hunting so prevalent. This seemed an interesting contract with the music; such beauty and structure against something so dark and ugly.

Anna Goeldi's story came up quickly in Google. She's known as ‘the last witch of Europe' and uniquely, was exonerated posthumously by Swiss authorities in 2008 after an intense campaign led by Walter Hauser (the third writer to publish a book about her). There's also a film, a museum and a prize for Women's Rights in her name.

The themes that the story touches on - guilt, innocence, and oppression - are timeless. Was there a temptation to update the story and set it in the contemporary world?

It is actually based in 2008, when Goeldi was exonerated, and told through dance and words (for the first time I'm working with an actress as well as dancers). Edward Kemp's text begins with the actress demanding to know what right the ‘living' have to change the past: She plays the girl, Annamiggeli, who was bewitched by Goeldi and, now an adult, has been dead for over 200 years. A restless ghost, she asks indignantly, if Goeldi is now ‘innocent' does that mean she herself is guilty? Spiralling back in her memory (portrayed through dance) she reluctantly unearths a past that she has blocked for centuries.

You've hinted that this may be your final production for Bern Ballet - what's next for you?

I am leaving my position at the end of June to become a freelancer again... Upcoming plans include a version of Stravinsky's Orpheus for Bridget Breiner's company in Gelsenkirchen, a special work in Copenhagen this summer, a creation for David Hughes' company in Edinburgh and two full-length narrative works in Germany. We're also hoping to revive Ghosts in Estonia in 2014.

And finally...

How can we encourage more young people to take an interest in ballet, and help young choreographers develop their careers?

I've put a huge effort into audience development in Bern, including work with young people - both watching rehearsals/ performances and also creating with us. The experience of performing is magically addictive, so even creating a children's choir to perform on stage with us was worthwhile.

I've tried to connect to more traditional elements of youth culture; working with pop bands and holding ‘tweet-ups' in dress rehearsals.

We've collaborated with the London Contemporary Dance School on their apprenticeship scheme, and I've held an annual choreographer's platform for the dancers of my company that has encouraged their own creativity. This is crucial. Not every addition will include a masterwork - that's a rare thing - but even if dancers come away with a better understanding of the choreographic process it's been worthwhile.

Aside from ballet and dance, what have you been enjoying culturally at the moment?

Sometimes when I'm creating I need to switch off rather than on in the evenings. I've become an addict of Scandinavian TV thrillers - The Killing, The Bridge etc. Completely unconnected to my choreography - but a great escape.

Witch-hunt is at the Linbury Studio Theatre, London, from 22-25 May. For more information and to read reviews, clickhere.

The latest project from first-rate contemporary art commissioners Artangel is a riotous exploration of nakedness, Dutch politics and much else. An itinerant, interactive ‘party-for-hire' combining performance and film, Party for Freedom might be coming to a pub, theatre or living room near you soon.

Does all this participatory business sounds a bit much? Holly Gupta had a stimulating experience at the kickoff event last week, but it wasn't easy (and a fire alarm was set off)...

When I sat down in the somewhat staid setting of the Goldsmith's lecture theatre, I didn't anticipate improvised genitalia swinging - enlarged and silhouetted by an overhead projector beam - or that I would be throwing my shoes over the heads of several rows of art students.

A replica pig splashed with paint, an inflatable dingy, hippies with guitars, an audience (if that's the right word) and nudity - lots of it. These are a few of the ingredients in London-based artist Oreet Ashery's mind-boggling performance piece, based loosely on the 1921 play Mystery-Bouffe by Soviet polymath Vladimir Mayakovsky. An anarchic satire, its author desired that for every performance, the content should be changed to keep it 'up-to-date'.

I did not expect the piece to be quite such hard work either, though it is by no means inaccessible. Commissioned by Artangel and travelling to a variety of locations including The Bush Theatre, Shepherd's Bush and The Gowlett Arms, Peckham, the itinerant work, which venues may apply to ‘hire out' for an evening, contains almost too many themes to handle and requires some effort on the part of the viewer, whether that be acute concentration or removing one's clothes (someone did). It explores contemporary Dutch politics, the multiple contexts of nakedness, and how unconscious boundaries and hierarchies shape our actions. It also looks at what it means to be contemporary and our desire to process, reassess and understand.

However, if this sounds too heavy, it isn't - I promise. Over ten sections, the work constantly swings (no pun intended) between the humourous and light-hearted and the horrifying and the absurd with a precision that is absorbing and intelligent.

A pretty blonde woman in a summer dress plants her face in bowl of what might be cake mix, and then expels it slowly through her mouth. Recorded scenes of almost-drowning are interspersed with playful chest slapping and the lighting of fires. This staged breaching of boundaries is stimulating as well as fun. At one point the fire alarm went off and the work was almost brought to a close. As a naked performer stepped outside to reason with the wardens, the audience was forced to ask where the work began and ended, and consider the implications of his being unclothed at that point in time.

Its profusion of ideas and goings-on is the piece's strength as well as its weakness. At times I didn't know where to look and consequently didn't see very much, and at others was almost bored by repeated nude writhing to occasionally grating (and sometimes beautiful) music.

A climax arrived in the final section when an authoritative male voice turned the work into the political essay it really was - yet some ambiguity remained.

Was it all too much? When the artist and performers discussed what they had just created afterwards, I began to see it as more cohesive and came away feeling the experience had been a valuable and interesting one. But I needed a bit of help to get there.

Party for Freedom is on at various venues until 22 June. For more information see this listing.

Holly Gupta

Don Hertzfeldt, It's Such a Beautiful Day, 2012

Film - The Idiots

The BFI celebrate all things Lars Von Trier this May with a season for the controversy-happy director. If you've only dipped your toe into his world and seen his most recent films Antichrist and Melancholia, it's time to wade in further. The opportunity to watch his inaugural Dogme classic The Idiots on the big screen is something I definitely won't be missing.

BFI, London, until 30 MayFilm - It's Such a Beautiful Day - Don Hertzfeldt

Those familiar with this Californian animator will know to expect the unexpected. His first full-length feature retains the humour of his short film work, but combines his wit with something much more moving and insightful as top-hatted Bill struggles with his ailing mental health. Hertzfeldt's characteristic blend of drawings with photographic tableaux and a classical score is utterly mesmerising. Screenings at the ICA also include his shorts Rejected and The Meaning of Life before the main film, so don't show up late to avoid trailers.

ICA, London, until 26 MayMusic - Wild Nothing - Empty Estate EP

It's not quite up to last year's Nocturne but the new Wild Nothing EP is definitely making me think of the summer, even if the weather isn't being quite so helpful.

Bella Union / Captured TracksArt - Dieter Roth - Diaries

I was disappointed to miss this incredibly well reviewed show when it was on at the Fruitmarket gallery in Scotland last summer, so it was a welcome surprise to see a revamped edition touring to the Camden Arts Centre, opening this weekend. The Swiss artist, who died in 1998, was fond of using found materials and even food (or found objects as food - see his Literature Sausage). He was also an obsessive collector and prolific diarist, his journals more objects than organisational.

Camden Arts Centre, London, until 14 JulyArt - Anne HardyOnly on for one more week and well worth a visit is this exhibition by British photographer Anne Hardy, another fan of junk. She makes images of her own intricately constructed interiors or ‘sets' such as 2004's Cell. Although there are only three prints on view, Hardy has also included two of the installations themselves, a rarity as they are customarily destroyed after being captured on camera.

Maureen Paley Gallery, London, until 26 May

Shula Subramaniam

We were thrilled when our friends atErased Tapesasked us to co-present Lubomyr Melnyk's upcoming live show at Village Underground in London, not least because his excellentCorollariesis currently sitting at the top of the Critometer with a very healthy 90%, and is among our favourites of the year to date.

What's more, Lubomyr's live show is going to be accompanied by a live painting session by artist Gregory Euclide, who designed Corollaries cover art. Watch the video below for a taster of what to expect, and buy ticketshere.

‘This is a theatre show with magic, not a magic show,' Rob Drummond explains about Bullet Catch, his much lauded stage work that returns to the UK this week after travelling to America. Blurring such lines is the real work of the Scots writer/performer, who has dramatised the television quiz show format and trained with the Scottish Wrestling Alliance in the name of theatre.

An interrogation of free will, Bullet Catch has provoked walk-outs and been called 'multilayered and utterly gripping' by the Guardian. David Blaine it (thankfully) is not.

So where does it all come from? He talked to us about fear, ego, superstition, Agatha Christie, sit-coms and a few other things...

On his influences... My Grandpa An extremely funny man. He taught me irony, which is, as Christopher Hitchens says, one of the most important personality traits. Francie and Josie My Grandpa introduced me to these two incredibly funny men. Watching the rhythms they created was a big part of my understanding of dialogue and timing both comic and dramatic. American sit-coms Frasier is smart, character driven comedy. Seinfeld is so unbelievably irreverent. No hugs, no learning was the motto of that one. The writing on 30 Rock is some of the best I've encountered. I'm paraphrasing but 'If I'm not Kenneth then how would I know you have a mole on your ... list of pets to buy.' Brilliant. Hitchcock Psycho is probably my favourite. Killing your leading lady off after half an hour - I like the balls of that. I love moments of 'did I actually just see that?' Hitchcock's timing is impeccable and he knows how to take an audience on a journey. Jaws It's a film that bends and amalgamates genre, which is something I did bear in mind for Quiz Show where we took the audience through just about every theatrical genre so that they could never quite relax. Jaws is a family drama, a monster film, a thriller, a slasher (the shark, like Michael Myers in Halloween is not actually properly seen until act three) an event movie, a buddy film, an adventure movie. It manages the holy grail of art - it's populist and good (like Blackwatch). Agatha Christie My dad is obsessed with murder mystery and she is his favourite. I grew up watching Poirot films and learning (as I now realise) the art of plotting.On his work...

Why should we see Bullet Catch? People love magic - things that are impossible. There is also an element of uncontrollability and danger about having an audience member on stage. Evolutionarily speaking it makes perfect sense. It's a misfiring of the impulse to train yourself for dangerous situations. We have to enjoy that feeling otherwise we would never have survived as a species.

Do you think a line can be drawn between showmanship and ‘serious' theatre, and if so where does it lie? All theatre should be serious without being too reverent. I don't draw lines between theatre and magic, wrestling or a quiz show. ‘Serious' suggests one style is better than another. If the audience has a transformative experience in some way, whether it's in front of The Crucible or the main event of Wrestlemania then who cares? Truth and reality seem to concern you. I'm interested in philosophy, quantum physics, astrology; big questions. We're only here a short time. I'm not going to waste it considering interior design (not for long). The most important thing in life is the pursuit of truth. The further away from superstition we can get the better our society becomes and for that you need to question everything constantly. Ballet, wrestling, magic tricks. What is it about these that draws you in? I absolutely love watching people doing something they are excellent at (football, wrestling, singing, dancing) and knowing that it's not 'fake'. There's a reality to it that a more traditional play or a TV show does not have. The theatre of reality you could call it. That's not to say I don't love pure fabrication too but for the shows I perform in, I'm more interested in not faking it.

You have to pack in as much experience as you can in life. I'm lucky because my job allows me to do that to a ridiculous extreme. Growing up watching wrestling I never thought I would one day be a trained professional, standing on the top rope of a ring getting ready to leap onto my opponent with a (modest) crowd chanting my name. So maybe it's just an ego thing. Maybe. Do you think the fact that you haven't had any formal theatre training helps you to challenge the boundaries of theatre? I wouldn't recommend it as a career choice. Training is vital, I've just done mine through actually making work - bad work in the beginning. If you do go through formal training you might theoretically get into only performing or writing in one way. I try to learn many ways of making theatre so that when an idea presents itself I have a large tool belt to draw from. You push yourself to do new things and master new skills. What is your next challenge and why? Ventriloquism, possibly. I'm interested in the relationship between people and imaginary friends - how we can hold conversations with ourselves - different aspects of our personalities vying for control.Bullet Catch is at The Shed at the National Theatre from 21 May to 1 June. Click here for more info and tickets.

Paul Czanne: not a dog man...

What's in a frame...?

Ciao, Calvino...

The art of the interview...

New from Smith Westerns...

Mamma Andersson, Humdrum Day, 2013

Mamma Andersson is among Sweden's best-known painters. Her eerie figurative works are an object lesson in how painting can convincingly be about both surface and visual content. Before her arresting new exhibition Gooseberry at her London gallery Stephen Friedman closes on 25 May, we spoke to Andersson about finding inspiration in Marc Bolan, crime scenes and the importance of being fascinated and disgusted in equal measure...

One of the works in your current show at Stephen Friedman Gallery is entitled Gooseberry. Why is this also the name of the exhibition?

The exhibition is comprised of paintings from last year. The title is primarily about being left outside, being the third wheel. But it is also about the berry itself, the beautiful, translucent, green, sour, unripe berry that stings a bit and the sultry maroon berry. A wondrous berry, just like art itself.

Gooseberry, 2013Is there anything that unifies the works in Gooseberry?

When I work with an exhibition, many times all the paintings together form a larger story, yet every single picture still lives its own life.

They also tend to be held together by the use of technique. My recent exhibitions have been moving around the woodcuts of the former turn of the century, Japanese as well as Norwegian, (Edvard Munch) and French (Paul Gauguin) and around a richer and faster way of painting as in the Swedish artist Evert Lindquist and also Raymond Pettibon. It doesn't necessarily mean that others see this, but to me it is obvious. I will always put the painterly first; learning new tricks really amuses me.

Material and colours never cease to fascinate. When working I feel totally free, never thinking that I have to be logical or follow any regulations and if there are some rules, I set them up myself.

Family Ties, 2013

Do you feel that any new directions have emerged in your work in the last few years? (for example crime scenes).

Over time, various themes have worked as a cover for an inner emotional life. It has been about children, nature, Modernism, crime scenes, theatrical scenes, archaeological sites etc. but really it is deeper and dopier things I am searching for.

The reason why I have, for example, worked with crime scene pictures was certainly not because of a specific interest in the crimes. It is the location itself, the unvarnished place where no one has cleaned up and picked off or styled before the photographer arrives. A place; a situation in the middle of something - our lives.

Backdrop, 2013

You mention your references to Modernism. Why did this appear in your paintings, and as your relationship to that chapter in art history changed?

When I first inserted Modernism, quite a long time ago now, I had a hard time relating to that era. Most of my art teachers were themselves products of Modernism. It appeared masculine and decorative, an established language which had moulded the arts. It was both with love and distance that I made it part of my own work.

Cat Ice, 2013

Art works (paintings and sculptures) have often appeared in your paintings. A recent work of yours, Stargazer, depicts an artist at work in a landscape. What interests you about these motifs?

This autumn I curated an exhibition called Stargazer at an art museum here in Stockholm. I chose to show several artists and works who have influenced me over the years. It came to be a mixture of film, painting, installation, photography, drawing and sculpture. It was built without an overall theme and with massive leaps in time; the oldest work was a painting by Lucas Cranach while others were made this year (2013). That is the way it has always been for me, the art flows through my own creative process. I fall in love with something and let myself get inspired, sometimes during a longer period and sometimes for just a very short time.

The painting Stargazer, which shares its name with the exhibition, came first. I painted it last summer, maybe as a kind of self-portrait. An old tradition under the protection of a parasol. The title itself I find very romantic, but is also influenced by the musician Marc Bolan.

Africa, 2013

There's almost an antiquated atmosphere to your work, as if the last century is depicted more than the present one. Would you agree, and is that conscious?

In my work I often draw from photographs, for the most part from the 1960s to the present, rarely from older ones. It is important to feel affinity with the inspirational material.

Have your influences changed over time and which painter's interest you particularly now?

You ask me about Ernst Josephson, Dick Bengtsson, Peter Doig and Laura Owens. All but the last have been important. Dick Bengtsson without comparison, ever since the early 1990s he's been haunting my studio. As a Swedish painter there is no getting around Ernst Josephson, he is very interesting both as a sane painter as well as a mentally ill drawer; he comes and goes in my work.

I am almost the same age as Doig, first time I saw his paintings I felt very touched, mostly because we had been working with very similar motives. I think that we are actually quite different, but at the time in the early 2000s the figurative painting still was in a state of dormancy. I follow his work from a distance, with interest. There are some contemporary artists who interest me more than others and he is one of them. In Sweden I find Jens Fnge and Andreas Eriksson to be the most interesting artists right now.

Finally you ask me if theatre and film influence me a lot, my answer to that has to be - Yes they do. But I get inspired by many other things as well, equally fascinated as disgusted. It's important to feel, be able to follow and trust your inner self.Gooseberry is at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, until 25 May.

All images the artist. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photo: Stephen WhiteRachel Potts

Fernanda Gomes, Untitled, 2013 the artist. Courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Art - Fernanda Gomes One piece in this quietly lyrical exhibition by the Brazilian artist Fernanda Gomez consists of two Ryvita, floating perpendicular against a white wall, a gold sequin resting in a crater at the lower biscuit's corner. It sounds almost ridiculous - but the artist's ability to tease beauty out of the kind of object that seems headed for the bin (I have never felt something so strong in front of a piece of string before, for instance), and the poetic arrangement of such objects in space, makes a mockery of most installation art I can think of. Get to see this while you can.

And if you enjoy it, this interview between Gomes and fellow Brazilian Ernesto Neto sheds some light on her thought processes.

Alison Jacques Gallery, London, until 17 MayWeb - Ned Beauman's blog

He's almost annoyingly clever, but if there's one thing you can say for this Granta honoured British author, he's fond of ideas. If they might have been too maniacal for some, his novels Boxer, Beetle and its Man Booker longlisted (and very funny) second book The Teleportation Accident (called 'post-postmodern noir-inflected sci-fi comedy' by TIME Magazine), crackled with them, and his blog is just the same. www.nedbeauman.blogspot.co.ukTheatre - The Hothouse

Simon Russell Beale and John Simm prove the consummate double-act in this hilarious new staging of Pinter's asylum-set classic at the Trafalgar Studios. Don't let the programme notes about torture give you the wrong idea, this production is so funny I'm still smiling about it two days later. More on that here.

Trafalgar Studios, London, until 3 AugustRachel Potts

For a man who, along with Arthur Miller, was ejected from the US embassy in Turkey for specifying to the Ambassador his disapproval of the use of ‘electric current on your genitals' - torture being common under the US-sanctioned regime in 1985 - it is perhaps surprising that Harold Pinter had not, in his early career, wanted to be known as a political playwright.

Though he would later write more overtly political work, including a play explicitly about torture, he stated in his 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature speech that ‘sermonising must be avoided at all costs.' Dry polemic arguably has no place on stage, or indeed in any art - and Pinter was certainly an artist.

The closest comparison I can think to the penultimate scene in Jamie Lloyd's fantastically witty new production of Pinter's The Hothouse, set in an undefined residential institution where ‘treatment' is applied and inmates are stripped of their names, is something Chris Morris might produce - the audience was in stitches when a certain character came magnificently a cropper with a baked item, and received a vicious beating.

Pinter knew that comedy serves horror well. He was, in the late-1950s (and chiefly based on The Birthday Party), labeled a purveyor of ‘comedy of menace' by one critic (who later revised his opinion). The Hothouse was written in 1958, but not performed until 1980 and in this production certainly falls more firmly on the side of comedy than it does menace.

What is surprising is just how funny it is despite the proximity of almost all the delivery to caricature (‘panto' was muttered by the person next to me) - at times it was like watching an arch 60s sitcom... but a very, very funny one. Titters followed an ominous mention of the mysterious ‘Ministry', the power behind it all - coming as it did hot on the heels of a comic tour-de-force from John Hefferman as Lush (whose accent equally mysteriously slides as the play goes on).

Pinter's hero Beckett knew a thing or two about the use of lists, and Melling delivers the former's sublimely ridiculous inventories with absolute flair. A roll call of staff, patient and family events, including an Autumn art exhibition, hit home so brilliantly; more effectively than any recriminations, this gentle mockery of institutional life is shaded by probable untruth of the events themselves.John Hefferman (far right) with Simon Russell Beale and John Simm

Pinter's application of repetition, also mastered by Beckett, seems to echo the inconsistency of real speech, the difficulty in getting to any real truth. The nuances of the language he plays with throughout with are laid bare to excellent effect by the cast.

The evening was so thoroughly watchable that it came as surprise to be reminded that something nasty was going on. A strangely flat, hammer-style set piece at the end seemed perhaps an attempt to labour some sense of threat, though it was unnecessary.

But as an abstract look at power, the more domestic kind involving colleagues, lovers and friends, the play is magnificent. John Simm is stellar as the unnaturally prim second-in-command, Gibbs (more prim than anything particularly malign). He is outshone slightly by Simon Russell Beale as Roote, the dispeptic ex-colonel that heads the institution, though their exchanges are among the best of the evening.

Indira Varma as Miss Cutts, the play's sole female, deserves a special mention - her's was perhaps the performance most indicative of the whole, in being so comically highly-wrought and hackneyed - and all the better for it.

Soutra Gilmour's set is a winning nod to the era in which the play was written: lino-covered and institutional, although a kind of withered grandeur pervades it too, as if we are looking into a lost city.

The fellow audience member told me, ‘We don't like it. It's not Pinter enough.' How anyone can think a night at the theatre too funny is beyond me.

Rachel Potts

The Hothouse is at Trafalgar Studios, London, until 3 August. Read the reviews here.

Underappreciated writers...

A history of type...

First look at Lee Daniels' The Butler...

London-based writer Stuart Evers won the 2011 London Book Award for his shorts collectionTen Stories About Smokingand his debut novel,If This Is Home, scoreda rather impressive 81%when it was first published last year. The story of a man with multiple identities who ends up at a sinister and mysterious Las Vegas complex called Valhalla, the book won Evers favorable comparisons to JG Ballard, Chuck Palahniuk, Alice Munro and Raymond Carver and is out in paperback this month.

To mark the occasion we spoke to Stuart about the book, and asked him to talk us through a few of the influences that have shaped his career. As a former bookseller and editor, he's incredibly well read, so we were pleasantly surprised when he responded to that particular request with a selection of decidedly non-literary choices, a (very) unorthodox contender for one of the great popular pieces of 20th century art among them...

On his influences...

There are too many literary influences in my life, too many books and writers that have made a huge difference in the way I think, behave, crawl through life. So instead of listing the same old names - Raymond Carver, Georges Perec, Jayne Anne Philips, Patrick Hamilton, Don DeLillo - I thought I'd look at things outside of literature and in other fields. It was harder than I thought.

Memphis (city)

After writing a book no one would publish, I stayed with a musician in Memphis. There was a wide circle of like-minded people around and they didn't seem to care about money or being famous or anything, they just loved doing what they did. It was a lesson - and a fun one at that.

Suede (band)

I fell deeply, swooningly in love with Suede at the age of 17: their faded glamour, their tales of darkly mean sex, neon soaked cities and suburban despair. The later records lapsed into clich, but those first two albums - Suede and Dog Man Star - were like they were written just for me.

Martha Rosler (artist)

I was living in Birmingham: it was not a great time. It was a summer afternoon and I went to see this exhibition of collage by Martha Rosler. I was there for hours; her counterposing of domestic, almost kitsch, images alongside visions of war and graphic pornography was hypnotic. I've been trying to recreate that sense of domestic dread ever since.

Un Coeur En Hiver (film, 1992)

Aside from Star Wars, I've probably watched this story of one man's coldness in the face of desire, beauty and life more than any other film. It is an uneasy blend of the romantic and the cynical, the sexual and the intellectual. It's unsettling, but deeply moving.

Columbo (television series)

One day I will write a very long book about why Columbo is one of the very great popular pieces of 20th-century art. Until then, all I can say is that few programmes get to the darkness at the core of America more than this superficially gimmicky, yet deeply intelligent crime show.

On If This Is Home...

Can you introduce us to If This Is Home?

It is about deception, self-deception specifically. As the novel opens, Joe Novak is selling real estate in Las Vegas, but a series of random events force him back to his hometown in the North West of England. Once there, he confronts the past, his own memory and is faced with the reality of his flight from the UK.

How and why did this narrative develop?

Narratives, for me, tend to build from a series of unconnected events and situations. I started with a woman in a bathtub reading a guide to New York and a man running in a gym in an elaborate building complex in Las Vegas. Things people said, television programmes I saw and books I read helped tease out the story that linked the two.

Why did you set your novel in Las Vegas?

The Valhalla, where Joe works, is a sort of pleasure palace where rich men's dreams come true. If such a place exists, or could exist, it could only be in Vegas. Plus, the idea of Vegas is thrilling: a city where no one is who they say they are, in which they do things they would never do anywhere else. It's a certain kind of writer's dream.

What is the inspiration behind the Valhalla?

It is just an extension of what casinos offer their high-rollers: everything they want, all of the time. The rich appear to want to be ever more exclusive, ever more reclusive from real people and real life, so this seemed a perfect kind of venture. A place without ethics or morals; just total sensory overload.

Your short stories won acclaim and this is your first novel. What are your thoughts on the salient differences between the two (other than length...)

I don't know if there is one. I don't approach them in any different way: all I want to do is write the story the best way I know how, no matter how long.

What is next for you?

I've written perhaps nine or ten new stories since finishing If This is Home, while also writing the next novel, which has just taken a huge diversion from the very detailed plan I had for it. Even the title has changed.

What did you think of the Suede comeback record - and what else have you been enjoying recently?

I think it's the third best thing they've ever done, but still very much in the shadow of the brilliance of those first two records. I saw them at Rough Trade East and they put on a great show, but to me it's remarkable that they still want it so much. I love that about them; and when Brett gets it right lyrically, he can still make me shiver.

I've been enjoying theKurt Vilerecord, as well as Widowspeak's. I've also been on an extended trip through Miles Davis's electric period, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and some Afrobeat compliations that are good for running to.

If This Is Home is published in paperback by Picador on 9 May, read the latest reviewshere.

Photo: Simon Prince

Dance - Some Like it Hip Hop Watching ZooNation's critically acclaimed debut, Into The Hoods a few years ago, I was amazed by its energy and diversity. Back at Sadler's Wells with their signature hip hop/ physical theatre hybrid, ZooNation should undoubtedly impress again with their much-loved, multi-award-nominated hit (pictured above).

Sadler's Wells, London until 30 June

Film - The Great Gatsby

As a fan of Baz Luhrmann's contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet and flamboyant Moulin Rouge, I'm intrigued as to how F Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 classic will translate onto the big screen in his hands. An all-star cast can't hurt (Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire) - it's no surprise The Great Gatsby is one of the most anticipated films of this year. Released 16 May

Theatre - The Old Woman, The Buffalo and the Lion of Manding

With a global reputation, Jan Blake should deliver a vibrant take on the heroic rise of the 13th-century Malian founder Sundiata Keita with this piece. It sounds great as it brings to life a mythical tale with a combination of storytelling and music - the kind of theatre I really enjoy. Musicians Raymond and Kouame Sereba accompany Blake.

Soho Theatre, London, 14 MayLucy Basaba

Ubu Tells the Truth, 1996-97, Image Courtesy David Krut Fine Art, New York and London. the artist and David Krut Fine Art, New York and Johannesburg In a series of six prints, Kentridge intersperses images of himself with those inspired by the character in Alfred Jerry's absurdist play Ubu Roi - an exaggerated caricature of man at his least pleasant. Kentridge would next develop a full theatrical production called Ubu and the Truth Commission, based on reconciliation attempts that drew on personal testimony in post-apartheid South Africa and produced by Handspring Puppet Company.

Living Language (Trees), 1999. Courtesy the artist. Photo: John Hodgkiss the artist This drypoint prints sees Kentridge printing onto a vinyl LP, a device born of his desire to investigate visual distortion and the idea of ongoing procession (see below). The circular motif, including discs reminiscent of optical games, would also become a regular feature in his work; all part of his interest in ‘the process of seeing'.Portage [detail], 2000. Image courtesy David Krut Fine Art, New York and London the artist and David Krut Fine Art, New York and Johannesburg Over fourteen feet in length, this striking collage consists of encyclopedia pages overlaid with silhouettes of figures in procession (a common theme for Kentridge). It is both carnivalesque and redolent of darker themes such as the plight of refugees.Telephone Lady, 2000. Image Courtesy David Krut Fine Art, New York and London the artist and David Krut Fine Art, New York and Johannesburg

Kentridge's surreal and somewhat sinister life-size linocut gives new meaning to the phrase ‘hanging on the telephone'. As a cheap means of expression, the linocut has strong connotations in South Africa.Zeno II, 2003. Image courtesy David Krut Fine Art, New York and London the artist and David Krut Fine Art, New York and Johannesburg Based on the 1923 novel Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo (featuring an angsty anti-hero with many similarities to his author), Kentridge's Zeno project comprised animation and various repetitive drawn and erased images.

Nose, 2007-09. Image courtesy David Krut Fine Art, New York and London the artist and David Krut Fine Art, New York and Johannesburg Having read Gogol's surrealist novel The Nose, in which the appendage concerned enjoys surprising professional success once emancipated from its owner's face, and upon hearing the Shostakovich opera adaptation, Kentridge would go on to direct a production of the latter for the New York Metropolitan Opera. He produced a number of prints alongside the project.

Unremember, 2012. Courtesy the artist. Photo: John Hodgkiss the artist

It's not just antiquated visual technology that interests Kentridge; typewriters get a look in too. Words are shown to be the (possibly untrustworthy) creators and repositories of memory in this juxtaposition between their presence in the pages of a book and the means of creating them.

Universal Archive - Cat Assemblage A, 2012. Image Courtesy David Krut Fine Art, New York and London the artist and David Krut Fine Art, New York and Johannesburg.

One of the more recent works in this show, and the first time it has been displayed in the UK, this is part of Kentridge's Universal Archive series in which images are created on pages from dictionaries and encyclopedia (see above). The work appears to hang between figuration and abstraction and suggests an intriguing place in Kentridge's oeuvre, on the edge of both animation and printmaking.

A Universal Archive - William Kentridge as Printmaker will be at mac, Birmingham until 2 June. Click here for details.

The exhibition will tour to QUAD, Derby from 15 June to 18 August, then University of Northumbria Gallery, Newcastle from 30 August to 11 October and Peninsula Arts, Plymouth from 28 October to 30 November.