Wednesday 2 June (7pm - 8pm)

@ V&A Museum, Cromwell Rd., SW7 (020.7942.2000) Tube: South Kensington

There are few people better qualified to talk on the subject of new European architecture in Blighty than Czech-born architect Eva Jiricna, whose practice is based in both London and Prague. The timing is also fortuitous: the influx of talent from our new East-Euro chums is about to spice up our rather static homegrown scene. Don't expect a barrage of Alsopian polemic -- Jiricna is sure to be as quietly self-assured and thoughtful as her architecture. She's critical of what she terms the "commercial architects" (she's unimpressed by the current crop of City megaliths) and her 30-year career has concentrated on quality rather than height. The '80s and '90s saw Jiricna dominating cutting-edge retail architecture, from the Way-In store at Harrods (designed with Future Systems) through to Joseph, Joan & David and myriad others. Her Hotel Josef in Prague is all minimalist glamour, and older Flashers may even remember a thing called the Millennium Dome, wherein was Jiricna's cool and calm Faith Zone. So plenty to say at Wednesday's talk plus, as a bonus given the location, she may even mention her current master plan for the V&A itself.

Wednesday 2 June (6:30pm)

@ ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020.7930.3647) Tube: Charing Cross/Piccadilly Circus

Do not allow Zan Lyons' veneer of effected classical instrumentation mislead you. The soothing minor-keyed melodia (suggestive of roots in Aphex Twin and Philip Glass) may lull you into a false sense of security, and, if you bask too long in the metallic tinge of hauntingly minimal viola, you could be taken unexpectedly from behind by the throbbing bass lines and abrasion of distorted beats a la Alec Empire. Such dynamics have the potential to leave you quivering on the floor of your bedroom for days after, and then keep you looking over your shoulder in dark alleys for even more. The solid and relatively uptempo electro-beat-ambience of Plaid in their laptop DJ set should bring you back down to earth (but even this may still dangle you over the edge of uncertainty...). With a DJ set/live vocals from Leila and Nicolette, further able support from Lyons' regular collaborators Sabina Doobay and Kweku Aacht, and visuals from Mr. Super8 himself (Jake Astbury), this is truly a techno-musical philosopher's paradise.

Wednesday 2 June (8:30pm)

@ 291 Gallery, 291 Hackney Rd., E2 (020.7613.5676) Tube: Liverpool St./Old St./Bethnal Green

It is always nice to find out about new (improvised) collaborations, especially when put together in an interesting way and contextualised into new spaces. This quartet led by bass saxophonist Tony Bevan -- a previous member of Sunny Murray's Trio and Derek Bailey's Limescale, to cite only a few -- blends marimba, double bass, drums and saxophone. Joining Tony in this new group are Orphy Robinson, a leading vibe player who has performed with Courtney Pine. The other two members, John Edwards and Mark Sanders, are arguably "the most celebrated bass and drums in modern British music", and have played with Jah Wobble and Evan Parker. A fusion of jazz, contemporary classical music, African, funk and improvisation which is, overall, a very good introduction to an acoustic ambience in such a gallery space. The evening also includes a new sound collage work by Spring Heel Jack's Ashley Wales, whose affinity with improvisation groups has enabled him to merge SHJ's DJ culture with more complex structures.

Thursday 3 June (6:15pm - 8pm)

@ Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2 (090.1272.7007) Tube: Leicester Sq.

West is best. From the American frontier to the westward exodus of young hopefuls each year, the West Coast remains a promised land for those in search of something greater than what they leave behind. A city that has long been draped in the ideologies and expectant imperialism of the sprawling human topography around it, the city of Los Angeles in March is an island of idealism in a giant bowl of celebrity soup. The week leading up to the Oscars is certainly demonstrative of the city at its most corpulent, its every indulgence attended to by the glitterati and their devotees, and so provides the setting for Sarah Morris' new film Los Angeles. The film, shown in conjunction with an exhibition of new work at White Cube, is a visual record of the city's interior and exterior set to an original musical Los Angeles, like her paintings, is a disorienting look at the various grids, both literal and figurative, that conspire to create the framework of peopled expanses in active support of its larger social architecture. Playing the various identities of the city and the people who live in it off of a varied cinematic style, Los Angeles promises to be an intriguing if somewhat unsettling look at the inner workings of the promised land.

NB: After the screening there will be a Q&A between Sarah Morris and Tim Marlow. Her White Cube exhibition runs from 03/06 to 10/07 (private view: Wed 02/06 from 6 - 8pm).

Giveaway: We have three exhibition catalogues to give away. They'll go to three randomly picked Flashers who can tell us who is Sarah Morris' husband.

Thursday 3 June (7:30pm)

@ Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue, EC1 (020.7863.8000) Tube: Angel

Prosthetic limbs, insect-like bodies and a "wormy, wriggling" signature movement -- welcome to Wayne's world. Wayne McGregor, that is -- choreographer-director of Random Dance, whose seductively anti-humanist vision of the dancing body shot from leftfield to mainstream in a decade thanks, in part, to his uncanny affinity with Classical Ballet. He's employed a gamut of technological aids to reconfigure human movement, and gets his dancers to articulate joints they never knew they had. The result: that cyborgs-on-acid look, where they twitch, thrust and convulse into oblivion as though their motherboards had gone mental. It's gripping to behold, thigh-thwackingly sexy and, in his best works like Trilogy, poetically visionary. But McGregor takes his cyberpunk seriously. Collaboration with Cambridge neuroscientists has produced his latest, AtaXia, an experiment in interfering with dancers' muscle co-ordination. McGregor has spawned a generation of contemporary dance copycats of his flashy, hard-nosed virtuosity but none has his wonderfully alien soul or inventive genius.

NB: AtaXia runs from Thu 03/06 till Sat 05/06.

Thursday 3 June (6pm - 3am)

@ The End, 16a West Central St., WC1 (020.7419.9199) Tube: Tottenham Court Rd./Holborn

Cosmo is pregnant, so it's time for a change of residency for The End's Thursday nights. Admittedly, Spirit is confined to the AKA bar above the underground cavern that is the actual nightclub, but these Thursday sessions have proved to be worthy weekend warmers, attracting a high calibre of guests. For Cosmo's final night before the bulge becomes too burdensome (and Kenny Hawkes takes over), Rolando will be joining the line-up. Hailing from (where else) Detroit, and an integral member of the Underground Resistance camp, Rolando, under his pseudonym of The Aztec Mystic, has produced some wonderfully intricate, searing and beautifully composed techno classics. His productions are laced with a heavily percussive vibe and more Latino element than normal; unsurprising considering his roots in the Mexico-town area of Detroit. He is most famous for his epic "Knights of the Jaguar" anthem and should be deified for his battle with the evil corporate behemoths at Sony and BMG, where he managed to resist their attempts to mutate his unreleased epic into a cheesetastic trance anthem in the charts. Underground Resistance continue to revel in their relative anonymity, with memorably deep productions and mix albums, and, alongside Jeff Mills and Mad Mike, Rolando plays a key role in their global position as techno overlords.

Friday 4 June (Fri 10am - 6pm; Sat 12 - 5pm; Or by appointment)

@ MW projects, 43B Mitchell St., EC1 (020.7251.3194) Tube: Old St.

Your last chance to see Richard Wathen's first solo show. A room full of portraits, Wathen presents adults, children, animals and insects. Each isolated or gathered against uniform backdrops or idyllic landscapes. Immediately recognisable as traditional technique and genre, their familiarity soon fades into something more uncanny. The closer you look, the more incongruous and conflated the details become. Olive is a rosy-cheeked child, with a head as round as a baby's, yet her hair is grey. Her body is pre-teenage yet her off-the-shoulder dress belongs to a woman and her hands have the strength of a young mother. Depicted holding a rabbit, this is one of a series of double portraits. The largest work, Kingdom brings together a variety of animals into a classic English landscape -- an owl, butterflies, a partridge, a badger and a pigeon. How or why these animals came to be grouped together in this frozen moment is what's weird. Like Wathen's human subjects, most of them stare interminably out of the canvas at us gazing. Questioning our presence as much as we scrutinise theirs. Powerful, immaculate and tender. (Ends Fri 04/06.)

NB: In June, Wathen will show at Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery in New York and at The Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland in September.

Friday 4 June (runs till 13/06)

@ ICA and Institut Francais

Art Spiegelman has described how he despises the fact that there's no place for the comic book as artwork. Neither word nor image, it sits in that wonderful place that's both serious and playful, great art and wonderous pop, both high and low. Yet childhood's escape is now slowly being infiltrated by more adult, existential questions with images that are more for the artistic eye than the youthful one. With Comica, the ICA is doing what it does best: reaching out to culture's fringe. In collaboration with the Institut Francais -- and in its second edition -- this is an opportunity to see, read and hear about the latest hot things working between image and word.

Here are our picks:

The Mindscape Of Alan Moore
ICA -- Mon 07/06 (8:30pm)
Watchmen-creator Alan Moore's imagination makes Chris Ware seem altogether whitebread and homely. The bearded-witchy one is the subject of this documentary and talk. Turning mainstream with From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, his written word is far darker, and humanity has to fight to become just human...

Chris Ware And Seth In Conversation
ICA -- Tue 08/06 (8:30pm)
The smartest comic book artist in the world and The Guardian First Book Award-winner goes head-to-head with the most retro-artist in the Anglo world. Expect some sizzle...

Tintin Animations
Institut Francais -- Wed 09/06
The Shooting Star (2pm), The Secret of the Unicorn (3pm) and Red Rackham's Treasure (4pm)
For you KidtureFlashers a day of adventure with the famous Belgian adventure journalist Tintin and gang. Also on display will be sketches and drawings from his creator Herge (ends 13/06), and The Adventures of Tintin at Sea is at the National Maritime Museum (ends 05/09).

Family Secrets: Craig Thompson And David B. In Conversation
ICA -- Wed 9/06 (8:30pm)
For Blankets, Time Magazine awarded Craig Thompson the graphic novel of the year, while David B.'s autobiographical Epileptic, full of intense imagery, should make this talk compelling.

Dupuy & Berberian With Posy Simmonds
Institut Francais -- Fri 11/06 (7pm)
Soon to be a live-action movie, Phillipe Dupuy and Charles Berberian, creators of Monsieur Jean, bring that French Dad, with the problems and angst of daily life, to London. Here with our own Posy Simmonds, expect this conversation to be more of ordinary things than Benoit Peeters' (12/06, 5pm; Institut Francais) or Alan Moore's.

Blueberry
Institut Francais -- Sat 11/06 (8:30pm)
Mike Blueberry's back, this time in the flesh. Following the success of Michel Vaillant, the French film industry is chasing le Hollywood by turning its BD heroes into stars. With Vincent Cassel, Juliette Lewis and Michael Madsen, the wild west Marshall's adventures should come to life. Director Jan Kounen (of Doberman fame) will be present for a Q&A after this UK premiere.

Comic Factory: Getting Your Hands Dirty
ICA: Sun 13/06 (12pm)
Ever wondered how they do it? Thought it was easy? Here's a chance to see a group of artists and big-name guests working on new frontiers for "comic-ing".

NB: Comica 2004 runs from 04/06 to 13/06. Check the ICA and Institut Francais sites for details.

Friday 4 June (10:30pm -3am)

@ Barfly, 49 Chalk Farm Rd., NW1 (0870.907.099) Tube: Chalk Farm

There's no doubt that Peaches is the star attraction on tonight's Queens of Noize bill. Her DJ-set will likely have the Barfly kickin' till close with a good time had by all. The more unpredictable proposition of the evening is to be had checking out if Philadelphia rockers Silvertide can live up to the hype. NME suggests that they're the wildest rock 'n' rollers since Guns 'n' Roses, while the press release says that they're "classic '60s rock 'n' roll"... Hmm, we think the band they actually bear the most striking resemblance to is LA's Love/Hate who burned brightly circa 1990 then drowned in a pool of Courvoisier and Jack. Silvertide's paean to puff "Mary Jane" has just been released (07/06) and anyone who can spot the difference between that and Love/Hate's paean to puff, also called "Mary Jane", will get their reward in heaven. Let's hope they recycle with enough of their own charisma to pull off an Axl-style bandana and lycra shorts combo, eh.

Saturday 5 June (Sat 05/06 10pm - 4am and Sun 06/06 8pm - 2am)

@ Plastic People, 147-149 Curtain Road, EC2 (020.7739.6471) Tube: Old Street

Plastic People, that miniscule bastion of underground nights and a pristine soundsystem, has been subject to an extremely welcome hijacking. New York's master of truly deep, percussive and soulful house, Joaquin "Joe" Claussell will be residing for a whole weekend, thereby banishing from the schedule any Balance or Co-Op sessions. Until recently Claussell has been a regrettably rare visitor to these shores, perhaps understandable when you consider this man was at the helm of the revolutionary, visceral and legendary Body & Soul parties (which ceased two years ago). For over a decade, Claussell has been entrenched right in the heart of NYC's dance scene, first as owner of the Dance Trax record shop, then as record label owner of Spiritual Life. How can you describe their musical output without appearing like a pyjama-clad trustafarian? An array of music so deep, subtle, varied and often downright spiritual that devotees have frequently displayed an almost religious devotion to his sets. Get down to the Plastic altar and pay your respects. The true devotees have Sunday night, entitled "Sacred Freedom", as well Saturday night, "Sacred Dance". Open your ears to the power of this music. Hallelujah!

NB: Claussell plays at Plastic People for two nights Sat 05/06 (10pm - 4am) and Sun 06/06 (8pm - 2am).

Sunday 6 June (Sun 06/06 and 27/06 at 12pm, Sat 12/06 and Sat 19/06 at 2pm)

@ Curzon Mayfair, 38 Curzon St., W1 (0871.871.0011) Tube: Green Park

Some of you may think that Dino Zoff should not have made way for the Trap four years ago, or that it's strange that one of the most famous Italian restaurants here is run by two English ladies (Giorgio, we haven't forgotten ya), and that the refurbished Opera House is not ideal for Italian song. Whatever the case, you have to admit that the English love of things Italiano is as strong as that of things Francais; after all, was Vorticism not one big air-kiss to Futurism. Of course, love always clouds truth, as it casts everything in a pretty glow. Now those classics of cinema, the Italian Neo-Realist films -- from Roberto Rossellini's 1945 Roma Citta Aperta (Rome Open City) or Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1942, Obsession) -- believe in the opposite: confronting life. It is real, or tries to scrape at real life circa 1940-50. Perhaps the lack of funds, the use of real people, an interest in the social situation rather than la dolce vita, made artists like Vittorio De Sica -- of The Bicycle Thief fame -- Visconti and Rossellini bring out a new kind of realism and grit to the silver screen. Here is your chance to add to your Latin loves...

NB: This Italian Neo-Realist Season runs from Sun 06/06 to Sat 27/06.

Sunday 6 June (Wed 02/06 to Sun 06/06)

@ ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020.7930.3647) Tube: Charing Cross/Piccadilly Circus

Kicking off ten days of creativity that spans music video, computer gaming, architecture, motion graphics, new media, feature films, graphic-inflected narrative shorts, and documentaries, onedotzero, the festival that celebrates the very best in moving image, returns for the eighth time to the ICA this week. As ever, it will trace the ongoing convergence of contemporary culture by hosting talks, panels, presentations and live events, featuring work from the up-and-coming to the well-known, truly offering something for everyone.

Here are our picks:

Hi-ReS!
Till Sun 06/06 (12 - 7:30pm)
A look at the work of interactive design studio Hi-ReS! 'Nuff said!

Sh*te and Shynola: A Retrospective
Wed 02/06 (5pm), Sat 05/06 (6:30pm) and Sun 06/06 (7pm)
"A Shynola already?" we hear you cry, but yes, they've achieved that much. Expect music videos for Blur, Radiohead and Quannum from this genius collective along with many more.

Anatomy Of A Production Company: Partizan
Wed 02/06 (7pm)
A one-off showcase of work by the directors at Partizan, production company and home to such greats as Michel Gondry and Antoine Bardou-Jacquet (he of the Honda Cog ad).

Ninja Tune: A Visual Retrospective
Fri 04/06 (6:30pm)
A celebration of Ninja Tune's cutting-edge video work and the release of their music video DVD compilation.

Sneakers
Fri 04/05 (7pm) and Sat 05/06 (8:30pm)
This feature takes us through the world of the trainer from design to promotion. For those Nike fans out there check out the Nike Lab-commissioned Art Of Speed (Fri 04/06).

Beyond The Interface
Sun 06/06 (2pm)
Attention Archi-flashers, this symposium explores how new digital, moving image technology -- from the web to gaming -- is allowing us to build and envisage building in new ways. Speakers include the design consultancy AllofUs, the architect Tom Verebes (oceanD) and Thames & Hudson's architectural commissioning editor, Lucas Deitrich.

It's a rare thing to find this much talent in one place, so book fast so as not to miss out.

NB: onedotzero8 ends Sun 06/06.

Sunday 6 June (7pm)

@ Scala, 275-277 Pentonville Rd., N1 (020.7833.2022) Tube: King's Cross

No, not quite the lava lamp manufacturers, but in fact the remarkable San Francisco sound sculptors and electronic experimenters -- who take their name from a character in Barbarella -- are best known for their collaborations with Bjork, and have a sideline in teaching "Theory and Practice" classes at San Francisco Art Institute (light-weight topics include the history of music concrete, psychoanalysis and symbolic logic -- click here for recommended reading). Academia aside, Matmos, aka M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, are one of the most resourceful, genre side-stepping and exploratory contemporary musical forces around. Before you panic over the fact that this all sounds a little too serious for a Sunday night, their latest cut-and-splice sampling twists together medieval jigs and acoustic folk with highly modern clickety-beep electronics to delicious effect. Known for their heady mix of humorous and bewildering cut-ups, their sonic ingredients include liposuction surgery and card shuffling, a steel guitar recorded in a sewer, whoopee cushions, balloons and a five-gallon bucket of oatmeal. Their only UK show is a live performance of their fifth album, The Civil War, juxtaposing alt-country sounds and a host of archaic instruments, from hurdy gurdys to honky tonk pianos, with synthesisers, drum machines and more, in a playful interpretation of over four centuries of musical war history.

NB: Matmos will be joined by a host of their Civil War collaborators, including Soft Pink Truth, Leafcutter John, Yaxu Paxo and Dick Slessig Combo, plus The Wire magazine sound system.

Giveaway: We have a pair of tickets and one copy of The Civil War to give away. They'll go to two randomly picked Flashers who can tell us what antebellum means.

Tuesday 8 June (Tue 08/06, 15/06, 22/06 and 29/06 at 7pm)

@ Everyman Cinema, 5 Holly Bush Vale, NW3 (0870.066.4777) Tube: Hampstead

As a phenomenon, Film Noir has as much mystery as an anonymous figure standing in the shadows of one of its empty moonlit streets. No one is quite sure who it is, or what it came to do. Some say the films are social critiques of post-war America. Others call them the children of German Expressionism. The less imaginative put the whole thing down to low movie budgets: bad lighting and copious night scenes being a way of saving dollars and fitting more shots into the working day. The most overt (and Freudian) symbol of Film Noir is the femme fatale, a gorgeous monster of a woman who seduces the hero to his demise. But even she can't characterise noir, which is only really definable from the side of its audience, as a mood infused and absorbed... figurative but loaded with as much atmosphere as one of Edward Hopper's paintings. The bfi's choice of films for this season thus touches the four corners of the noir world, featuring classics, remakes, Jean-Paul Belmondo and some incredibly cool jazz scores.

NB: Planet Noir runs throughout June every Tuesday night. Where The Sidewalk Ends screens on 08/06, Le Doulos on 15/06, Ossessione on 22/06 and Stray Dog on 29/06.

Tuesday 8 June (performances start at 7:30pm and season runs till 07/08)

@ Holland Park Theatre, Holland Park, W8 (0845.230.9769) Tube: Kensington High St

Opera Holland Park's 2004 season kicks off on Tue 06/06 with Bellini's Norma, followed by Puccini's La Fanciulla del West which premieres on Thu 10/06. Norma hasn't been performed in London for some time, and with standards at Holland Park improving every year it surely will be worth a trip. Fanciulla's "Western" setting, and the popularity of La Boheme, Turandot and Tosca, means that it is rarely programmed. It does however have incredible music, arguably Puccini's most harmonically interesting, and should provide a great evening. The season's programme also includes La Boheme, Die Fledermaus and Le Nozze de Figaro, premiering on 29/06, 01/07, 20/07 and respectively. The season will be closed by Verdi's Luisa Miller, which is based on a good Schiller play, and although not as big as later Verdi, it still has very beautiful music.

NB: Runs from 08/06 till 07/08.

Tuesday 8 June (7:30pm)

@ Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, SE1 (0870.401.8181) Tube: Embankment/Waterloo

Poetry has a clarity about it that distils expression for all time. This new series of literary talks celebrates the enduring relevance of poetry to our lives. Writers tackle issues in the social, political and historical landscapes, resonating in the world today. Kicking off the programme, poet and natural scientist Mario Petrucci will read from his book-length poem, Heavy Water, a disturbing work based on eyewitness accounts of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in April 1986. Voices of those experiencing the destruction of everyday life are expressed with outstanding human dignity. Poet and novelist Adam Thorpe, who lives in France and rarely reads here, shares Petrucci's poignant vision of modern society, with poems from his fourth collection, Nine Lessons from the Dark. Thorpe presents his unique observations on the contemporary lives we live and the world around us, encompassing the Iraq war, terminal disease and the natural world. His poetry embraces history and humanity with imagination and originality. Along with Petrucci, Thorpe affirms himself as a literary luminary, who shines light in a world of shadow.

Ends Sunday 13 June (Thu to Sun 12 - 6pm)

@ IBID Projects, 210 Cambridge Heath Rd., E2 (020.8983.4355)

Goth is in the air. If New York shows like Scream at Anton Kern Gallery set the pace for a season of horror and mystery, gathering 10 artists, 10 writers and 10 films (parodying Phaidon's Cream series), London is ready then for the invasion of fear and the occult coming directly from Eastern Europe. The main exhibition space at IBID hosts a solo show by English artist Anj Smith, whose postcard-sized paintings depict women in the process of fusing with nature. Their outfits, carrying fragments of an artificial urban sophistication, violently instigate a longing for incorporation with the primordial. Especially in the etchings, characters recalling Aubrey Beardsley's decadent heroes are adorned with androgynous poses and painfully hip clothing. In the backroom of the gallery, leaking into the office, a group show titled Esoterica foregrounds the implied atmosphere. A suffused succession of mysterious systems and insane, almost morbid religious visions prods the imagination towards blurred and seductive neo-pagan territories. Laura Youngsoncoll's black skeletons of birds engage in a macabre dance in front of Djordje Ozbolt's painting M After a Night Out, depicting Karl Marx with red eyes and yellow skin, hinting of a Dionysian and self-indulgent hangover.

NB: Runs till 13/06.

Ends Saturday 3 July (Tue to Sat 10am - 6pm)

@ Sprovieri Gallery, 27 Heddon St., W1 (020.7734.2066) Tube: Piccadilly Circus

Jorge Peris' show at Sprovieri will surprise you. Should we say more? It's an installation, there is a ladder and the ceiling slants. At one level, the object (no pun) of installation art -- as with all art -- is to touch the viewer, but this is art that expects the viewer to be more participative, to take a more physical, and thus a more intimate, relationship with the artwork. Some like Turrell and Irwin merely sensitise our eyes, while others like Ann Hamilton or Mike Nelson reach a more psychological depth. With Peris, a Spanish multimedia artist, it is both and neither. Closer to some of the anarchic-schoolboy antics of Chris Burden, yet more playful, the Madrid-based artist tests our nerves. Is this a one-liner, or did your heart just skip a beat? Oh, just one last thing, don't forget Vito Acconci's early work!

NB: Runs till 03/07.

Ends Sunday 4 July (Tue to Sat 8pm; Sat and Sun mat 3:30pm)

@ Menier Chocolate Factory, 51-53 Southwark St., SE1 (020.7907.7060) Tube: London Bridge

An attorney named Ermine Miami, an airplane crash announced by grief clowns, an airline owner who's a frustrated poet, and a hostile take-over of a family-owned funeral parlor... What more could you want? If you answer this with: morphine addiction, scathing satire of America, great writing, acting and execution, and a weirdly anthropomorphic, yet strangely mute wolverine... well, it's got them too! This blindingly executed absurdist Brechtian comedy -- written by Brian Parks, directed by John Clancy and superbly acted by an ensemble of some of the best New York downtown actors -- achieves a startlingly accurate portrait of America that is neither annoyingly topical nor overly simplistic. The production effortlessly switches from high to low comedy in a dizzying fashion, which adds to both its supreme pleasure and its precision aim.

NB: runs tills 04/07.