The Week’s guide to what’s worth seeing and reading

Last Chance

Terror at the Lyric Hammersmith, London W6 (020-8741 6850). In Ferdinand von Schirach’s “morally compelling” courtroom drama, the audience are the jury in the case of a fighter pilot who defied orders and shot down a hijacked passenger plane (Sunday Times). Ends 15 July.

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Conor Mcpherson – whose new play Girl From the North County opens at The Old Vic this week – will also see his most famous work, The Weir, tour the UK this autumn. 8-16 September, Mercury Theatre, Colchester (01206-573948), then Harrogate and on (www.ett.org.uk).

Whales: Beneath the surface at the Natural History Museum, London SW7 (www.nhm. ac.uk). Exhibition marking the arrival of the blue whale skeleton in the Hintze Hall (see TV listings, right), and featuring some of the world’s most impressive whale specimens. From 14 July.

Superstar mezzo-soprano Joyce Didonato fills concert halls and opera houses worldwide. In December, she is coming to London to sing in the more intimate Wigmore Hall; tickets are going fast. 18 and 21 December, Wigmore Hall, London W1 (020-7935 2141).

Just out in paperback

Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Penguin £8.99). Smith displays an “Austen-like sensitivity to social gradations” in her novel about two female friends growing up on a council estate similar to the one she started out on. It’s a “satisfying and thoughtful” read (Daily Telegraph).