From Nosferatu to Patience: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment in the UK

Going out: Cinema

Nosferatu
Out now
Director Robert Eggers has been carving out a niche for himself in the shadows for quite some time, with films such as The Witch and The Lighthouse taking a dark, artistic approach to both character and subject matter. Now he’s turned his hand to cinema’s founding vampire legend, with a toothsome remake of the 1922 classic.

We Live in Time
Out now
Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh star in a non-linear romance that cuts to different stages of a relationship between Weetabix rep Tobias (Garfield) and professional chef Almut (Pugh), to explore both love and grief. Directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn).

2073
Out now
Blending sci-fi and documentary to paint a dystopian portrait of life on Earth in 2073, Asif Kapadia’s vision of the future is not a happy one, with hazards ranging from drones to libertarians to tech bros. Kapadia uses actual footage of real places along with performances from actors to conjure an eerily familiar hellscape.

Nickel Boys
Out now
Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer prize-winning book and directed by RaMell Ross in his fiction feature debut, this drama is set in a 1960s reform school,, the Nickel Academy, where a young African American, Elwood (Ethan Herisse), is sent after a false accusation that he has stolen a car. Inspired by the real-life Dozier school where dozens of inmates were buried in unmarked graves. Catherine Bray

Going out: Gigs

Bernard Butler
Green Note, London, 7 & 8 January
Since leaving Suede in 1994, Butler has collaborated with the likes of David McAlmont, Edwyn Collins and, in 2022, actor Jessie Buckley on the Mercury prize-nominated album For All Our Days That Tear the Heart. He ushers in 2025 with a return to his solo work, celebrating third album, Good Grief. Michael Cragg

Ili
King Tuts, Glasgow, 5 January
After finishing fourth on The X Factor in 2016, Scottish singer-songwriter Emily Middlemas regrouped and returned three years later as Ili. Over the course of a handful of EPs she’s perfected a sound that sits somewhere between the sugary bops of Sabrina Carpenter and 2010s Katy Perry. MC

London Symphony Orchestra premieres
Barbican, London, 9 and 12 January
Simon Rattle returns to his old orchestra to celebrate his 70th birthday and to conduct two high-profile LSO commissions. In the first concert, Barbara Hannigan is the soloist in George Benjamin’s Interludes and Aria, based upon music from his opera Lessons in Love and Violence. Andrew Clements

Dave O’Higgins Monkin’ Around Quartet
East Side Jazz Club, London, 7 January; Crookes Social Club, Sheffield, 10 January
Like the late soul-sax star David Sanborn, the UK’s Dave O’Higgins has long mingled dance grooves with the twists and turns of bebop-derived jazz. His new Monkin’ Around band leans into the latter with this tribute to post-bop genius Thelonious Monk, but everything the versatile O’Higgins plays invariably swings. John Fordham

Going out: Art

Francis Bacon: Human Presence
National Portrait Gallery, London, to 19 January
Don’t miss your last chance to see this moving exhibition of an artist who put on a tough exterior and yet always said he wanted to “unlock the valves of feeling”. Those valves are wide open here as he portrays lovers and friends and looks deep into the human condition.

Artemisia Gentileschi
Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, to 4 September
This display of a recently discovered and restored painting by the powerful female baroque painter who painted scenes of oppression and resistance 400 years ago is a great introduction to her art. It is one of her versions of Susanna and Elders, which she had first painted as a teenager.

Lynne Drexler
White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, to 10 January
This American abstract painter, who died in 1999, gets a second look in a show full of her fiery reds and emerald greens. Drexler, taught by pioneering abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann, became part of a generation who mixed up the sublimity of abstract expressionism with a more relaxed natural beauty.

The Art of Wallpaper
York Art Gallery, to 23 February
Producing unrivalled wallpaper was at the heart of William Morris’s alternative design business. This Marxist with an instinct for the market transformed affluent Victorian homes with his abstracted, repeating wallpaper patterns that transform nature. Often it’s an insult to compare art with wallpaper but here that’s turned on its head. Jonathan Jones

Going out: Stage

Julia Masli: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Soho Theatre, London, to 11 January
If you think you hate audience participation, prepare to have your mind changed. Relying entirely on conversations with the audience, Estonian clown Julia Masli has won over audiences internationally with her wonderfully strange problem-solving show. It’s hilarious, rambunctious and surprisingly tender. Kate Wyver

Twelfth Night
Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 18 January
Catch Prasanna Puwanarajah’s new production of Shakespeare’s shipwreck story, where identities are as swappable as a pair of shoes, and love is as forceful as a riptide. Samuel West and Freema Agyeman star in this freewheeling farce, with original music from Matt Maltese. KW

Varna International Ballet
Buxton Opera House, 4 & 5 January; Bristol Hippodrome, 7 to 9 January; Empire Theatre, Liverpool, 10 & 11 January; then touring to 5 March
Not the cutting edge of ballet, but a good chance to see some of the best known ballet stories – Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet – at venues homegrown companies don’t always tour to, and with live music at every show. Tour continues across the country until March. Lyndsey Winship

Rob Copland
Soho Theatre, London, to 11 Jan; then touring 7 February to 4 June
Cult standup and winner of last year’s Victoria Wood award – given to the act who best encapsulates the spirit of the Edinburgh fringe – Copland is now one of British comedy’s best kept secrets. Now he’s taking Gimme (One With Everything), his chaotic and profound show about ADHD, bullies and the nature of success, on tour. Rachel Aroesti