From Copa 71 to Ariana Grande: a complete guide to this week's ...

9 Mar 2024

The Guardian

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From Copa 71 to Ariana Grande a complete guide to this weeks

A new documentary tells the fascinating story of the 1971 unofficial Women’s World Cup, and the pop superstar returns with her first album in four years

A new documentary tells the fascinating story of the 1971 unofficial Women’s World Cup, and the pop superstar returns with her first album in four years

Going out:Cinema

OriginOut nowAva DuVernay (13th, When They See Us) has a consistent track record of making films that engage subtly with questions of racial identity in the US. This latest is no different: a biopic of the author Isabel Wilkerson (played here by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), during the period that she was writing her nonfiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the WorldOut nowHailed as a masterpiece by none other than John Waters, this anarchic, darkly comic provocation from Radu Jude sees a harried production assistant, Angela (Ilinca Manolache), commissioned by a multinational to produce a “safety at work video”.

Copa 71Out nowDocumentary-makers Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine team up to tell the untold story of the 1971 unofficial Women’s World Cup, using previously unseen archive to reconstruct a tournament between England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy, witnessed at the time by record crowds of more than 100,000 people at the Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium, but since then oddly neglected and dismissed since.

BFI Flare festival13 to 24 MarchThe BFI’s annual film festival celebrating all things LGBTQ+ kicks off with the UK premiere of Amrou Al-Kadhi’s Layla, fresh from a warm reception stateside at Sundance. Starring Bilal Hasna as an Arab drag queen who falls for a guy who works in finance, it’s a story of stilettos and star-crossed lovers. Catherine Bray

Going out: Gigs

Terence Blanchard ft the E-Collective, Turtle Island QuartetRonnie Scott’s, London, 14 & 15 MarchNew Orleans trumpeter Blanchard shares his old friend Wynton Marsalis’s virtues of tonal expressiveness and flawless technique, but he’s also a distinctive and adventurous composer – of jazz, operas, Spike Lee movie scores and more. His exciting E-Collective band is augmented here by the Turtle Island string quartet. John Fordham

AmaaraeHERE at Outernet, London, 12 & 13 MarchPostponed from last September, Ghanaian-American Amaarae finally gets the chance to showcase 2023’s critically lauded album Fountain Baby. Full of undulating songs that fuse pop, Afrobeats, post-punk and futuristic R&B, keep an ear out for sweat-soaked astrology anthem, Co-Star.

Pixies9 to 18 March; starts Dublin For the first time, Boston’s alt-rock greats perform their final two 4AD albums, 1990’s Bossanova and 1991’s Trompe le Monde. Chances are there will also be songs from their late-80s purple patch as well as from their four post-2004 reunion LPs. Michael Cragg

Time and TidesSt Andrews, 13 March; Edinburgh, 14 March; Glasgow, 15 MarchViolinist Pekka Kuusisto holds a visiting artist’s chair with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and his latest residency includes two UK premieres. He’s the soloist in Time and Tides, the concerto composed for him by Anna Clyne, while he will be joined by soprano Ruby Hughes for Helen Grime’s It Will Be Spring Soon. Andrew Clements

Going out: Stage

Glasgow comedy festivalVarious venues, Glasgow, 13 to 31 MarchScotland’s second biggest comedy extravaganza kicks off this week with shows from established standups (Stewart Lee, Ed Gamble, Josie Long) and promising new faces (Vittorio Angelone, Paddy Young) – plus homecomings for Glaswegian stars Elaine C Smith and Susie McCabe. Rachel Aroesti

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too HeavyGarrick theatre, London, to 4 MayDancing between hope and brutality, Ryan Calais Cameron’s drama has had three sold-out runs and is once again back in the West End. Book ahead to catch this raw, poetic production.

Self-RaisingMercury theatre, Colchester, 9 March; touring to 23 MarchAfter years of leading the stories of deaf and disabled artists of acclaimed company Gaeae, Jenny Sealey takes to the stage herself. Softly revealing layers of her own life, Self-Raising explores family relationships, deep-rooted ableism and the ties that keep us together. Secrets are stirred throughout. Kate Wyver

Mark Bruce Company: FrankensteinMemorial Theatre, Frome, Fri & 16 Mar; touring to 28 MarchGothic-tinged, music-driven storytelling is choreographer Mark Bruce’s signature, and his latest is a classic: Frankenstein. The brilliant Jonathan Goddard plays the monster, with Cordelia Braithwaite, best known as a dancer with Matthew Bourne, as his bride. An eclectic score features music by Chopin, Penderecki and Arvo Pärt. Lyndsey Winship

Going out: Art

The Edinburgh Seven TapestryV&A, London: Medieval Gallery, to 27 MayScottish artist Christine Borland has designed this tapestry, made by Dovecot Studios, that remembers the first seven women to matriculate at a British university. The Edinburgh Seven went to Edinburgh University and campaigned to become medical doctors, leading to a parliamentary act in 1876 allowing women into the medical profession.

Martin BoyceFruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, to 9 JuneIn the intelligent and witty work of this Turner prize-winner, you are in a neverland poised between the utopian beauty of early 20th-century modernist art and design, and the scrappy realities of our world. Glasgow’s estates may haunt his art but Boyce is now a sculpture professor in Germany.

An Idea of a LifeWomen’s Museum, London, 9 March to 21 DecmberThis exhibition curated by Nephertiti Oboshie Schandorf explores the women-only community that once existed at Barking Abbey, east London. Meera Shakti Osborne, Lesley Asare and Sarina Mantle show art that meditates on convent life in the middle ages, alongside archaeological reconstructions. The show opens a new museum of women’s history.

Aesthetica Art PrizeYork Art Gallery, to 21 AprilWhat is art? The title of York’s international art prize invites a philosophical approach to that question. The range of works by 20 participants in everything from photography to installation shows what a problem it is to compare artworks and rate them in a post-Duchampian age. Wear your thinking cap. Jonathan Jones

Staying in: Streaming

Girls5EvaNetflix, 14 MarchThis Tina Fey-produced comedy about a 90s girlband who get a second chance at fame gets a second chance itself courtesy of Netflix (its original broadcaster, Peacock, canned it after two seasons). The reunited pals hit the road for a comeback tour, encountering excessive wealth and parental reckonings along the way.

ManhuntApple TV+, 14 MarchTobias Menzies plays Edwin Stanton, the politician who tracked down Abraham Lincoln’s killer in this new drama from Friday Night Lights writer Monica Beletsky. But expect more than a high-octane horse-and-cart chase through 1860s America – Beletsky has created a portrait of the nation that reflects the volatility of the civil war’s final days.

The DryITVX, 14 MarchThanks to the hype surrounding crime drama Kin, Irish TV is having a moment – something this returning comedy-drama plays right into. Starring Roisin Gallagher (Sky’s The Lovers) as Shiv – a woman returning to the bosom of her dysfunctional family as she attempts to recover from alcoholism – series two sees the clan on an apparently even keel, but disaster is never far away.

Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile HoaxChannel 4, 12 March, 9pmFans of podcaster Alexi Mostrous’s excellent work will already be familiar with this brain-melting story of a mother and her boyfriend who spread lies about a satanic cult based in a north London school – a claim that fuelled conspiracy theories across the globe. It’s now the subjct of a feature-length doc. RA

Staying in: Games

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter StoryOut 13 March; Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC, PS4/5Take a trip back to the 80s with this interactive documentary about one of the UK’s most eccentric and renowned independent developers.

HighwaterOut 14 March; PC, PS4/5, Xbox, Nintendo SwitchHumanity has failed to heed the catastrophic warnings of climate scientists and the whole world is now an open sea. Join a gang who hope to escape on a rumoured rocket to Mars. Keza MacDonald

Staying in: Albums

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Glasgow EyesOut nowIt’s comforting to find Scottish noise merchants the Jesus and Mary Chain exactly where we left them after 2017’s Damage and Joy. This eighth album, they’ve said, is exactly what people expect from them. Chemical Animal is a slowly unfurling, shoegazey epic, while Jamcod is post-punk par excellence.

Ariana Grande – Eternal SunshineOut nowAfter previously rattling out six albums in quick succession, Eternal Sunshine is Grande’s first record since 2020’s loved up Positions. She’s since got divorced and been embroiled in tabloid scandal, both of which fuel lead single Yes, and?, a house throwback that politely suggests everyone mind their business.

Kim Gordon – The CollectiveOut nowThe erstwhile Sonic Youth bassist returns with her second solo album and follow-up to 2019’s No Home Record. As with that album, The Collective explores the outer reaches of alt-pop, touching on trap (Shelf Warmer), industrial noise (I Don’t Miss My Mind) and, on the excellent BYE BYE, dissolving hip-hop.

Bleachers – BleachersOut nowWhen he’s not co-producing albums for the likes of the 1975, Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff also fronts his own band. On this fourth album, their first on the Dirty Hit label, Antonoff et al continue their penchant for Springsteen-esque rock anthems, not least on lead single Modern Girl. MC

Staying in:Brain food

What the Hell Is My Job?!Podcast Bite-sized and often strange, this gem of a series interviews members of the public about their working lives and the fulfilment or frustrations of having a job. Hear from an immersive theatre-maker, a reiki master and more.

Big ThinkYouTubeExperts and academics host this collection of high-production value video essays exploring the world’s most enduring ideas. Begin with political scientist Ian Bremmer’s analysis of the biggest threats facing people across the globe in 2024.

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold WarNetflix, 12 MarchPacked with first-hand testimony from the politicians, protesters and people living through the uncertainty of the cold war, this detailed series traces the complex postwar relationship between the US and Soviet Union. Ammar Kalia

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