Allelujah!, Clock Dance, Liverpool Biennial 2018, The Receptionist, Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema

Alan Bennett's new play Allelujah! opens at the Bridge Theatre in London directed by Nicholas Hytner, with music by George Fenton and choreography by Arlene Phillips. It stars Deborah Findlay, Rosie Ede, Sacha Dhawan, Manish Gandhi and Simon Williams. The Beth, an old fashioned cradle-to-grave hospital serving a town on the edge of the Pennines, is threatened with closure as part of an NHS efficiency drive. Meanwhile, a documentary crew eager to capture its fight for survival follows the daily struggle to find beds on the Dusty Springfield Geriatric Ward, and the triumphs of the old people's choir. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Anne Tyler's new novel Clock Dance tells the life story of Willa Drake and her decision late in life to take on the care of a 9 year old child. Anne Tyler is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published over 20 novels, the best known of which are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982), The Accidental Tourist (1985), and Breathing Lessons(1988). All three were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Breathing Lessons winning the prize in 1989. The tenth edition of the Liverpool Biennial includes more than 40 artists from over 22 countries. In the words of the lead curators, "The Biennial asks Beautiful world, where are you?" - a question derived from a 1788 poem by the German poet Frederich Schiller. Artists include Agnes Varda, Inci Eviner, Holly Hendry, Duane Linklater, Taus Makhacheva, Annie Pootoogook, Joyce Wieland and Rehana Zaman and their works ares spread across the city including public spaces, civic buildings and the city's leading art venues. Taiwanese writer/director Jenny Lu's film debut feature film The Receptionist is a drama based on an illegal massage parlour in London and follows the lives of the employees and clients as seen through the eyes of a Taiwanese graduate employed as a receptionist. In a new five part documentary series on BBC Four, Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, film critic Mark Kermode presents a fresh and very personal look at the art of cinema by examining the techniques and conventions behind some classic genres: romcoms, heist movies,coming-of-age stories, science fiction and horror.