The Week’s guide to what’s worth seeing and reading
Showing now
Faustus: That Damned Woman Playwright Chris Bush reimagines the Faust myth in this radical new production, in which the eponymous character is a woman. Until 22 February, Lyric Hammersmith, London W6; then Birmingham and on (headlong.co.uk).
Portraying Pregnancy Spanning five centuries – from a Holbein sketch of Thomas More’s daughter to Awol Erizku’s 2017 photograph of a pregnant Beyoncé – this exhibition charts the artistic representation of an experience that “unites women across history” (FT). The Foundling Museum, London WC1 (foundlingmuseum.org.uk), until 26 April.
Book now
Aubrey Beardsley, at Tate Britain, is the largest exhibition in 50 years of drawings by “the bad boy of fin-de-siècle London”, who died aged just 25 (Guardian). 4 March-25 May, Tate Britain, London SW1 (tate. org.uk).
Northern Ballet’s 50th anniversary celebrations continue with Geisha, a new work by composer Alexandra Harwood and choreographed by Kenneth Tindall, about two geisha drawn into a collision between East and West. Premieres at Leeds Grand Theatre on 14 March, then touring until 16 May (northernballet.com).
Just out in paperback
Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh (Bloomsbury £9.99). Rajesh’s first book recounted “a 25,000-mile odyssey” around India; this time, she details an “enthralling swirl of cultures and landscapes” across Europe, Asia and North America (Guardian).