The best of what's on this week

Bad Lieutenant
Werner Herzog’s wonderfully loopy film, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, is the story of a corrupt, drug-addicted cop, Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage), trying to solve a case, score, stay sane and stay alive. CL
15, 86 mins

Ajami
This thriller is set in Jaffa, Israel, where kids with guns face death wherever they turn. An accessible version of last year’s Gomorrah. JD
15, 125 mins

Cosmo Landesman, Edward Porter and Jonathan Dean

Theatre

After The Dance
Neglected since its debut in 1939, Terence Rattigan’s play, in this superb production by Thea Sharrock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch is established as a bona fide masterpiece. CH
Lyttelton, National, SE1, until Aug 11

Lulu
Wedekind ’s famous play, so scandalous in its time, gets a powerful adaptation and a shocking and moving production from Anna Ledwich. Sinead Matthews plays Lulu like an angel from hell. Do not miss. JP
Gate, W11, until July 10

Women Beware Women
Marianne Elliott’s new production brings out the cynical comedy and clownish bawdy of Middleton’s play, as well as a much darker sense of a civilisation’s collapse. CH
Olivier, National, SE1, until July 4

Before I Sleep
Dreamthinkspeak’s promenade installation, inspired by Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, evokes a sense of burning melancholy. MS
The old Co-Op building, London Road, Brighton, until July 4

Christopher Hart, John Peter and Maxie Szalwinska

Picasso's The Mediterranean Years Femme et enfants: Le Dessin (1954) (Eric Baudouin)

Art

Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries
Fascinating story of false attributions, forgeries only revealed years after the picture was first acquired, and puzzles yet to be cracked. All were uncovered or made with the help of cutting-edge science and technology.
National Gallery, WC2, from Wed until Sept 12

Picasso: The Mediterranean Years
Most of the paintings, linocuts, sculptures and ceramics in this wonderful show belong to family members. This may explain why they are even more autobiographical than usual. All were done in the south of France, where the artist lived from 1945.
Gagosian Gallery, WC1, until Aug 28

Italian Renaissance Drawings
Fra Angelico to Leonardo is the subtitle of this amazing show, which brings together Italian 15th-century drawings from the British Museum and the Uffizi, in Florence. With works by, among others, the Bellinis, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Botticelli and Raphael, it’s not to be missed.
British Museum, WC1, until July 25

Henry Moore
Moore on the domestic scale. What most plainly emerges is what a consummate craftsman he was, and how he could work a particular material to bring out its most beautiful qualities.
Tate Britain, SW1, until Aug 8

The Wyeth Family
Three generations of American artists, unapologetically figurative. NC Wyeth was chiefly a brilliant illustrator; his son, Andrew, was an inspired painter of New England landscapes; and there are Henriette and Jamie, too. All are worth getting to know.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, SE21, until Aug 22

Howard Hodgkin: Time and Place
Some 20 pictures, all done in the past 10 years, shown at the place where, in 1976, Hodgkin had his first important show.
Modern Art, Oxford, from Wed until Sept 5

Frank Whitford

Comedy

Andrew Lawrence
Lawrence is hitting his misanthropic, ranting stride. It’s as if Scrooge was in his early twenties and had taken to stand-up to vent his spleen.
Udderbelly, South Bank, SE1, Fri

Patrick Monahan
The half-Iranian, half-Irish stand-up uses a quiz from a women’s mag to springboard into a strong show about growing up teetotal in hedonistic 1990s Britain. Uplifting.
Courthouse Arts Centre, Otley, Fri; Macrobert, Stirling, Sat

Greg Davies
In a curious reversal of “comedy is the new rock’n’roll”, the We Are Klang funnyman gigs at a private boarding school, with his show Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog. Odd.
Felsted School, Essex, Mon

Laura Solon
After the beauty of Rabbit Faced Story Soup, her lit-fit-romp-com, Solon is warming up a new show, The Owl of Steven. It’s only work in progress, but still as worth seeing as other finished sitcoms. Soho Theatre, W1, Fri, Sat

Stephen Armstrong

Dancers in the Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker perform in Cruel (Flavio Colker)

Dance

City of London Festival’s Companhia de Danca Deborah Colker concludes a tour of its vigorous Cruel, while the physical-theatre company Ockham’s Razor rigs up the giant wheel for its aerial piece, The Mill, outdoors.
Cruel, Barbican, EC2, Tue-Sat; The Mill, Paternoster Square, EC4, Thu, Fri (free)

Romeo and Juliet
Birmingham Royal Ballet tours Kenneth MacMillan’s classic production, to Prokofiev’s music.
Lowry, Salford, Wed-Sat

Royal Ballet School summer performances
The upper and lower schools dance in programmes including classics and new works.
Linbury Studio Theatre, ROH, WC2, Wed-Sat

Flamenco Sin Fronteras
The virtuoso flamenco guitarist Paco Peña returns, with his company of musicians, singers and dancers, in his 2009 show exploring the fusion of Andalusian and Latin American musical traditions.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, Tue-Sat

David Dougill

Pop

Hop Farm Festival
It’s ornery 1960s legends weekend down in Kent, where Van Morrison headlines on Friday and Bob Dylan on Saturday. Also in attendance are Ray Davies, Seasick Steve and Pete Doherty.
Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent, Fri, Sat

Paul McCartney
His old band pioneered outdoor gigs in London, but he doesn’t have to make do with a crowded rooftop these days. Supported by Crosby, Stills and Nash, Crowded House and Elvis Costello.
Hyde Park, W1, today

Serpentine Sessions
Fancy a quiet walk in Hyde Park? You’ve chosen the wrong week, then. As well as Macca wowing the big crowds, these boutique gigs offer the chance to see Grizzly Bear (Mon), Patti Smith (Tue) and Laura Marling (Thu).
Hyde Park, W1

Stevie Wonder
It’s a bit of a week for musical geniuses: Dylan, McCartney, Van Morrison... Here’s yet another.
MEN Arena, Manchester, Tue

Mark Edwards

Domingo, left, performs in Simon Boccanegra in Berlin

MARKUS SCHREIBER/AP

Classical

Simon Boccanegra
Placido Domingo makes his London baritone debut in this Royal Opera staging, with Marina Poplavskaya as his daughter, Maria, and Ferruccio Furlanetto as his implacable enemy, Fiesco. Antonio Pappano conducts. Long sold out, but worth trying for returns. HC
ROH, WC2, Tue, Fri

Opera Holland Park
Stephen Barlow directs a new Don Giovanni, with Nicholas Garrett in the title role and Robert Dean conducting. Olivia Fuchs revives her acclaimed Fidelio, with Yvonne Howard returning as Leonore and Tom Randle as Florestan. HC
Holland Park, W8, Mon, Wed, Fri (Don Giovanni), Thu, Sat (Fidelio)

Salome
David McVicar’s decadent, Weimar-period staging of Strauss’s gory biblical psychodrama for the Royal Opera returns with a new man-eating antiheroine: the German soprano Angela Denoke. Gerhard Siegel, Irina Mishura and Johan Reuter are newly cast as Herod, Herodias and the Baptist. Hartmut Haenchen conducts. HC
ROH, WC2, Sat

London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Colin Davis conducts Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons, with the soprano Miah Persson, the tenor Jeremy Ovenden and the baritone Andrew Foster-Williams. PD
Barbican, EC2, tonight

Miklos Perenyi and Andras Schiff
The Hungarian duo perform Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano (including five sonatas) in two concerts. PD
Wigmore Hall, W1, Tue, Thu

Lawrence Power and Simon Crawford-Phillips
The violist and pianist give the Viola Sonata by Bliss, extracts from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, and the world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Viola Sonata. PD
Wigmore Hall, W1, Wed

East Neuk Festival
The Belcea String Quartet and London Winds open the festival on Wednesday with a concert comprising Brahms’s Quartet No 2 in A minor and Schubert’s Octet in F. On Friday, at 4pm, the Elias String Quartet play Schubert’s G minor Quartet, D173, and Britten’s Quartet No 1 in D. PD
Crail Church, East Neuk

Hugh Canning and Paul Driver

Books

John Burnside and David Constantine read from their poetry collections The Hunt in the Forest and Nine Fathom Deep.
St Oswald’s Church, Grasmere, July 6, 6.45pm, £7 or £8 on the door. To book, call 01539 435 544

Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, until July 11: talks and discussions with authors including Louis de Bernières, Mavis Cheek, Suzannah Dunn, Hilary Mantel, Martin Parr and Alison Weir.
Hebden Bridge, HX7 8AH. For details, call 01422 842 684

Martin Amis discusses the relationship between literature and violence with John Gray and Blake Morrison.
University of Manchester, Bridgeford Street, July 1, 6.30pm, £7, concs £5 (0870 428 0785)