THE CRITICS: CRITICS ' CHOICE

Art

CHARLOTTE MULLINS

Jackson Pollock

Tate, SW1 (0171 887 8000) to 6 June

Definitive retrospective of Jack the Dripper's canvases.

Feature Film

Atlantis Gallery, E1

(0171 336 6803) to 3 May

angel/Beck's 1999 commission by Douglas Gordon.

Kandinsky

RA, W1 (0171 300 8000) to 4 July

Watercolours by one of the first abstract artists. See review, page 7.

Hermione Wiltshire: Before I Arrived ...

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton (01924 830579) to 27 June

Photographs taken in Rome which deal with sexuality and reproduction.

David Bailey: Birth of the Cool

Barbican Gallery, EC2 (0171 588 9023) to 27 June

Showbiz photographs of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Opening this week

Laura Ford and Jacqueline Poncelet

Arnolfini, Bristol (0117 929 9191) today to 23 May

Installation titled "a stranger here myself". Busy and visually rich.

William Kentridge

Serpentine Gallery, W2 (0171 402 6075) Wed to 30 May

First retrospective in UK of work by South African artist.

Film

ANTONIA QUIRKE

High (18)

Lisa Cholodenko's brilliant debut follows the burgeoning love affair between a one-time successful photographer (Ally Sheedy) and her pretty neighbour (Rhada Mitchell).

The Red Violin (15)

A master violin-maker varnishes his latest instrument with the blood of his dead wife.

A Civil Action (15)

John Travolta stars as a flash Boston attorney approached by eight rural families who blame toxic dumping for the death of their children.

Blast From the Past (12)

Hilarious comedy about a family emerging into modern LA after spending 35 years in a subterranean fall-out shelter.

Plunkett and MacLeane (15)

Eighteenth-century Highwayman drama, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle.

Opening on Friday

Message In A Bottle (12)

Love Story meets The Perfect Storm, starring Kevin Costner.

8mm (18)

Nicolas Cage stars as a disillusioned paramedic.

Theatre

ROBERT BUTLER

Troilus and Cressida

Olivier, SE1 (0171 452 3000) in rep to July Roger Allam's Ulysses is superb in Trevor Nunn's magnificent staging of Shakespeare's bitter take on the Trojan Wars.

Copenhagen

Duchess, WC2 (0171 494 5075) to 7 Aug

Michael Frayn's play turns nuclear physics during the Second World War into a fascinating detective story.

Oklahoma!

Lyceum, WC2 (0870 606 3446) to 26 June Trevor Nunn's answer to Guys and Dolls.

Opening this week

The Birthday Party

Piccadilly, W1 (0171 369 1733) Tues to 26 Apr

The husband and wife duo Prunella Scales and Timothy West bring Pinter's play, 40 years on, to London.

Opera

MICHAEL WHITE

Opening this week

Semele Coliseum, WC2 (0171 632 8300) from Mon Handelian tragi-comedy, in a new (to the UK) production by Robert Carsen. Rosemary Joshua and John Mark Ainsley lead the cast. A must-see.

Paul Bunyan Sadlers Wells, EC1 (0171 863 8000) from Sat Royal Opera revives its production of Benjamin Britten's lumberjack show.

Concerts

MICHAEL WHITE

Opening this week

Academy of Ancient Music St John's, Smith Sq, SW1 (0171 222 1061) Mon A gala for the 25th anniversary of one of the original early music bands.

Felicity Lott Wigmore Hall, W1 (0171 935 2141) Tues With Graham Johnson. The story of Robert and Clara Schumann's marriage, in song.

Dance

JENNY GILBERT

Carmen Lyceum, Sheffield (0114 276 9922) Tues to Sat Spunky dance treatment of Bizet's opera from Northern Ballet Theatre.

Opening this week

Hot Mouth Peacock, WC2 (0171 379 3797) Tues to 1 May Funky, physical cabaret show from New York.