The Week’s guide to what’s worth seeing and reading
Showing now
Portrait of the Artist at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London SW1 (www. royalcollection.org.uk). This exhibition draws on paintings, drawings and photographs of artists from the Royal Collection. It shows how artists – including Rembrandt, Freud and Hockney – have portrayed themselves, and each other. Ends 17 April 2017.
Book now
Patrick Marber’s “scintillating” revival of Tom Stoppard’s Travesties sold out before it had even opened. Tickets are now on sale for a West End transfer, with Tom Hollander – “sensational” as the self-important diplomat Henry Carr – reprising his role (Guardian). 3 February-29 April, Apollo Theatre, London W1 (0330-333 4809).
Choreographer Christopher Bruce’s Ghost Dances, one of Rambert’s most iconic works, returns to the UK for the first time in 13 years. 23-25 November, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, then touring (www.rambert.org.uk). American composer John Adams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in a concert staging of his opera-oratorio El Niño, a contemporary reimagining of the traditional nativity story. 4 December, Barbican, London EC2 (020-7638 8891).
Just out in paperback
Human Acts by Han King (Portobello £8.99). In her latest novel, the author of The Vegetarian here draws on a brutally suppressed student protest in South Korea in 1980 to create a “ghostly narrative” (Observer).