Julius Caesar
Deborah Warner has an unbroken record of exciting and appalling audiences with her Shakespearean productions. She created a beautiful Richard II, with Fiona Shaw in the title-role; she made people faint with her Titus Andronicus. Now she has cast Anton Lesser as Brutus and the inward, famously unskinny Simon Russell Beale as 'lean and hungry' Cassius; Ralph Fiennes promises a reinterpretation of Mark Antony. A core of 30 actors, with 100 extras will perform a play which Warner is convinced will speak powerfully to the present, showing what happens when a tyrant is deposed by violent action. SC
· Barbican, London EC2, 14 April to 14 May; www.barbican.org.uk; 020 7638 8891
27 Dance
Zero degrees
For his much-anticipated new work, Akram Khan has teamed up with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, another remarkable presence on the international circuit. Both are from Islamic families living in Europe; both draw on their dual identities in forging their cross-over dance styles. They'll be performing as well as creating zero degrees, whose title implies the point where life's journey begins and ends. Sculptor Antony Gormley provides the setting for Khan and Larbi's exploration of cultural identity; the commissioned score is by Nitin Sawhney. JP
· Sadler's Wells, 8-16 July; 0870 737 7737
28 Classical
Country house
Highlight of the country-house opera season will be the stellar mezzo Sarah Connolly in the title-role of Handel's Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne, in a new staging by David McVicar to be conducted by William Christie (3 July). The Sussex house's other new production, amid revivals of The Magic Flute, The Bartered Bride, Otello and Jonathan Dove's Flight, is a Peter Hall version of Rossini's La Cenerentola (19 May). Oxfordshire's Garsington offers The Marriage of Figaro, Rossini's Le Comte Ory and Strauss's Arabella, while Hampshire's Grange Park mounts a new South Pacific alongside Don Giovanni and Donizetti's Maria Stuarda. The menu in London's Holland Park ranges from Verdi's Macbeth to Giordano's Andrea Chenier, via Bellini's La Sonnambula, Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. AH
· Glyndebourne Festival from 19 May-28 Aug; 01273 813813. Garsington Opera, 11 June-9 July; 01865 361 636. Grange Park, 6 June-5 July. Holland Park, 7 June-6 Aug; 0845 230 9769
29 Pop
Stevie's back
After 10 years away, Stevie Wonder returns with a new album, A Time 2 Love . His last studio album, Conversation Peace, won two Grammys in 1995 for the single 'For Your Love', but was a commercial disappointment - offset only slightly by the success of Coolio's reworking of 'Pastime Paradise' into the smash hit 'Gangsta's Paradise'. But however Wonder's new work is received, his status as a living legend of Motown is assured. CW
· A Time 2 Love is released on 2 May
30 Film
Comic grotesques
British wit answers Hollywood's roar this blockbuster season with three peculiarly domestic properties. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has attracted an impressive cast (Martin Freeman, Stephen Fry, Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell and - how cool? - rapper Mos Def) and looks like fun if you like that sort of thing. The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse will feature the Royston Vasey crew and anyone else who's been at least vaguely amusing on the telly over the past few years (Simon Pegg, Peter Kay, Victoria Wood etc). It's bound to be unlike anything else ever made here. Lastly, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton on their fifth collaboration, will surely be gobstoppingly brilliant. JS
· The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is released on 28 April; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is released on 15 July.
31 Book
Jonathan Safran Foer
After the success of his award-winning debut, Everything is Illuminated, which told the fictional journey through eastern Europe of a narrator - Jonathan Safran Foer - in search of the person who saved his grandfather's life during the Holocaust, the 27-year-old Safran Foer has settled on another big topic for his follow-up. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell sets out to discover the owner of a key found among the belongings of his father, who was killed in the 11 September attacks. His quest takes him through New York's five boroughs and brings him into contact with a host of odd and intriguing characters. As with Safran Foer's debut, which will be released as a film in September starring Elijah Wood, the film rights to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close have already been sold. CW
· Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is published by Hamish Hamilton on 2 June
32 TV
Africa on BBC1
This summer's G8 conference and Tony Blair's Commission for Africa will keep the huge problems facing the continent in the headlines. At the same time, a week-long bonanza of TV, radio and online services from the BBC will promote a more positive view of Africa through its art, music, dance and drama. Look out for Bob Geldof on a personal journey across the continent; a one-off Richard Curtis romance, The Girl in the Café, set around the G8 summit and starring Bill Nighy; and Kwame Kwei-Armah hosting Songs of Praise in South Africa. But the highlight must be Strictly African Dancing, in which five celebrities are each paired with an African dance troupe to perform some traditional moves. The British Museum will also be collaborating with the BBC to present its Africa 05 season, which will include the 'Throne of Weapons', a chair made from decommissioned arms. KB
· Africa Week will be screened at the beginning of July
33 Dance
Breakin' Convention
Breakin' Convention builds on the success of last year's inaugural festival with a three-day event of hip-hop dance from around the world. B-Boy posses, crews, companies - whatever - have been invited from the United States, France, Russia and South Korea. British artists include Robert Hylton, ZooNation and Dark Blue; local groups, demonstrations and classes are also on offer. JP
· Sadler's Wells, 13-15 May; 0870 737 7737
34 Pop
Gorillaz return
The most animated pop band in the world return at the end of May with their long awaited second album, Demon Days, preceded by a single, 'Feel Good Inc', on 9 May. Produced by notorious Grey Album assembler Danger Mouse, the 15-track CD features guest appearances by Shaun Ryder, Ike Turner, Dennis Hopper (on a track called 'Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head'), cult hip-hop man MF Doom and daisy agers De La Soul, joining core Gorillaz Damon Albarn and his cartoonist mate Jamie Hewlett. A taster track called 'Dirty Harry' is loose on the internet and - despite a song ('Kids With Guns') that samples Salt 'N' Pepa's 'Push It' - rumours suggest that this will be a darker, more intense record than Gorillaz's debut, closer in spirit to the last Blur album, Think Tank. As guitarist Noodle put it to one recent interviewer: 'In one sense the Demon is a disease and the disease is an absence of thought, a state where people make action without consideration. This is the invisible evil, with a million eyes. This is the return of the ogre, the rise of the beats. Its time is now. The moment we live in has agitated this slumbering giant, the dormant illness. These are the Demon Days, and the land it stalks is the on cusp of a thick fog.' So now we know. KE
· Gorillaz's album is released on 23 May
35 Festival
Hay-on-Wye
Each year at the end of May this tiny settlement of bookshops with a town attached hosts the biggest, most prestigious concentration of literary talent to be found outside Edinburgh. This year there's a film festival at a purpose-built cinema in the grounds of Hay Castle, while literary celebrities will include Ian McEwan, Joan Didion, Kazuo Ishiguro and Jonathan Safran Foer. Those not content just to listen can attend workshops on more or less every aspect of creative writing. The children's festival, Hay Fever, will include events fronted by Charlie Higson, Terry Pratchett, Jacqueline Wilson and Eoin Colfer. SM
· Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye, 27 May-5 June; 0870 990 1299
36 TV
Catherine Tate returns
Does anyone know what Catherine Tate actually looks like? Her speciality is to morph into her creations - from Nan's inelegant, splay-legged guffawing to Bernie the man-eating Irish nurse's ginger afro. Last year's series was a sleeper hit, and she's just won an Royal Television Society award. Her work is compared - often unfavourably - to that of the Little Britain duo but, like them, Tate is a master of the tiny observations that can make a sketch show hilarious. RS
· Catherine Tate begins on BBC2 in June
37 Pop
Summer festivals
The festival season kicks off with Glastonbury in June. Rumoured headline acts at Worthy Farm are Coldplay, the White Stripes, the Who, Outkast - and even Kylie Minogue trying to keep her sequins clean in the mud. In honour of the late BBC broadcaster, the New Bands tent of old has been renamed the John Peel stage. In July, T in the Park has the Foo Fighters, the Killers, the Queens of the Stone Age and the Kaiser Chiefs on the bill in Balado, Kinross. The summer is rounded off with the dual V festival and the Reading and Leeds festivals in August, which promise similarly solid line-ups, including the Scissor Sisters and Franz Ferdinand. CW
· Glastonbury Festival, 24-26 June. Tickets go on sale on 3 April ; 0870 165 2005. T in the Park, Balado, Kinross, 9-10 July; 0870 169 0100. V Festival, 20-21 August; 0870 060 3778. Reading and Leeds festivals, 26-28 August; 0870 060 3775
38 Theatre
Talking to terrorists
Two years ago, Out of Joint had a startling success with the railway drama The Permanent Way, which was based entirely on conversations with people involved in the industry and its accidents. Now - in a co-commission with the Royal Court - Robin Soans has used the same technique to create a play about terrorism. Together with director Max Stafford-Clark and the cast, he has interviewed people implicated in or affected by terrorism: journalists, peace-makers, hostages, perpetrators of violence. 'I looked around the room,' one of them says, 'and I thought, I'm the only person in this room that hasn't killed anyone.' SC
· Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, 21-23 April, then touring to Oxford, Malvern, Leeds, Manchester, Ipswich, Coventry, Salisbury, Liverpool and London
39 Theatre
Sienna on stage
As You Like It, the early Shakespearean rom-com, has been reworked by director David Lan (artistic director of the Young Vic) and set in the bustling cafe society of 1940s postwar Paris. Helen McCrory and Dominic West play the romantic leads, Rosalind and Orlando, although the big attraction is clearly intended to be Sienna Miller in the small role of Celia. Expect a star-studded audience. CW
· Wyndhams Theatre, London WC2, 3 June-3 September; 0870 060 6633
40 Art
Rebecca Horn
Cult German-born artist Rebecca Horn is best known for her films, aggressive kinetic sculptures and wearable 'body extension' works - strap-on arms, elongated torsos, distorted heads. This should be a spectacular installation, based on 30 years of her work, much of it influenced by her long stays in hospitals and sanatoriums following a serious illness in the late-1960s. Expect weird and fetishistic automata, designed to surprise and jolt but also, on occasion, to bring on uneasy laughter. LC
· Rebecca Horn, Hayward Gallery, London SE1, 26 May-29 August; 0870 169 1000
41 TV
Patrick Collerton
Unlike some documentary-makers, Patrick Collerton manages to treat his subjects with compassion as well as humour - and without deliberate sentimentality or gloss. His exceptional The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off is followed by Chemo, which traces 19-year-old Steven Liddel's journey through chemotherapy for testicular cancer. His anxious mother and pregnant girlfriend add to this already heavy load, but Chemo manages to tell his story while debunking some of the mysteries around cancer treatment, showing that real life always carries on - especially on a cancer ward. RS
· Chemo is on C4 in the summer
42 Pop
Finally, Coldplay's new album
Pressure, what pressure? When Coldplay's third album was delayed recently, their record company's share price slumped and EMI was forced to issue a profit warning. If you believe tabloid gossip, Gwyneth Paltrow is fed up with husband Chris Martin being a perfectionist in the studio when he should be playing Dad. But (at last!) X&Y, the much-anticipated follow-up to A Rush of Blood to the Head is due in June, and Coldplay have announced a handful of live dates to coincide with its release. Early reports speak of Kraftwerk samples and Echo and the Bunnymen moods. Will the song Martin wrote for Johnny Cash be on it? Here's hoping. KE
· Marlay Park, Dublin (22 June); Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium, London (27-28 June); Bellahouston Park, Glasgow (1-2 July); Reebok Stadium, Bolton (4-5 July). Coldplay's album is released on 6 June
43 Book
Mao biography
In 1991, Jung Chang's Wild Swans became a global bestseller, telling the story of three generations of women in revolutionary China and shifting more than 10 million copies in the process. Her follow-up is the story of the man who was at the centre of it all: Mao Tse-tung. After a decade of research, and interviews with some of Mao's close circle, Chang and her husband, John Halliday, have written an authoritative life of Mao which charts the leader's rise to power and his subsequent bid for domination, which ultimately led to the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. CW
· Mao: The Unknown Story is published by Cape on 2 June
44 Film
War of the Worlds
After the dystopian disappointments of Minority Report, the box-office busting, double-whammy combo of Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise could take over the world (or most of it) with their version of HG Wells's novel. The film - more correctly based on Orson Welles's panic-inducing 1938 Mercury Theatre radio adaptation, the last remaining script of which Spielberg bought at auction 12 years ago - is being released across 90 per cent of the globe on 29 June, although we Brits will have to wait a week longer. Of all the summer trailers, this one looks the most promising. Spielberg returns to Smalltown USA, seeing the conflict through a child's eyes (Dakota Fanning is the ubiquitous moppet). But there's no need to panic: Tom Cruise will save us. JS
· War of the Worlds is expected to open in the UK on 8 July
45 Theatre
Death of a Salesman
When Arthur Miller died last month, nearly all obituarists agreed that Death of a Salesman, the playwright's first big success, was one of the defining plays of the twentieth century. A chance to test this claim comes with the arrival in London of Robert Falls's Broadway (originally Chicago) production. Brian Dennehy - fresh from his triumph opposite Vanessa Redgrave in Long Day's Journey into Night - will take the part of Willy Loman, the salesman for whom the American dream has curdled; Clare Higgins, an actor at the top of her considerable form, will play his loyal wife. SC
· Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1, from 10 May
46 TV
Celebrity Wrestling
If you fancy watching a former Miss Sweden get to grips with Big Brother winner Kate Lawler, or want to cheer on Marc Bannerman (previously EastEnders' Gianni Di Marco) as he puts cad-about-town James Hewitt in a headlock, then Celebrity Wrestling answers your prayers. Taking the celebrity concept to its natural conclusion, the show pits a group of 12 D-listers against each other in a series of wrestling bouts in which they compete for their survival and your amusement. Must-see TV, if only because it satisfies that simple urge to slap a celebrity. Get ready to rumble... CW
· Celebrity Wrestling begins on ITV1 at the end of April
47 Festival
Edinburgh
Among the highlights of this year's festival is Christopher Weeldon's new production of Swan Lake. The ballet is performed by the American Pennsylvania Ballet, accompanied by the Russian Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio. In opera, Olivier Py directs a production of Benjamin Britten's Curlew River, which is based on the play Sumidagawa, a piece of Japanese Noh theatre that is also being performed at the festival by the Association of Japanese Noh Theatre. Over at the King's Theatre, the Druid Theatre Company are staging all six plays by Irish playwright JM Synge - and offering three opportunities to see all six performed, as a cycle, in a single day. One of the highlights of the fringe promises to be Ginny Dougary's David Blunkett - The Musical, which contains, among other things, the Boris Johnson Rap. CW
· The Edinburgh International Festival runs from 14 August to 4 September, booking begins on 2 April; 0131 473 2000. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs from 7-29 August, booking from 10 June
48 Theatre
Neil LaBute month
May is Neil LaBute month: you have been warned. The controversial American playwright responsible for The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat and The Distance from Here has not one, but two hard-hitting plays on this season. This Is How It Goes has its European premiere at the Donmar Warehouse towards the end of May. Set in small-town America, LaBute's first collaboration with the Donmar deals with race and infidelity by dissecting an inter-racial love-triangle. Meanwhile at the Gielgud Theatre, David Schwimmer stars as a crippled womaniser in the world premiere of LaBute's Some Girls. Guaranteed to be explosive stuff. CW
· This Is How It Goes is at the Donmar Warehouse, London WC2, 26 May-9 July; 0870 060 6624. Some Girls previews at the Gielgud Theatre, London W1 from 12 May; 0870 890 1105
49 Photography
The World's Most Photographs
The National Gallery and BBC2 join forces to explore the lives and iconography of Muhammad Ali, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Adolf Hitler, Elvis Presley and Queen Victoria. Along with an accompanying BBC TV series, an exhibition of photographs - some famous, others previously lost or suppressed - will examine the nature of celebrity and how photography is used to create a public persona. CW
· The World's Most Photographed, National Portrait Gallery, London WC2, 6 July-23 Oct; 020 7306 0055
50 Radio
50th anniversary of From Our Own Correspondent
The BBC began broadcasting its much-loved strand in 1955. Over the years, the programme has made the names of some of our most famous foreign correspondents. To mark the anniversary, a book of the programme's highlights is to be published with an introduction by Kate Adie. It includes John Simpson on the Cape of Good Hope, Orla Guerin with a sniper in the West Bank, Douglas Stuart on the Suez Crisis, and Fergal Keane's 'Letter to Daniel'. CW
· From Our Own Correspondent is published by Profile on 25 August
· Contributors: Anthony Holden, Laura Cumming, Carl Wilkinson, Kim Bunce, Stephanie Merritt, Rebecca Seal, Jann Parry, Kitty Empire, Susannah Clapp, Jason Solomons
