What can you say about a composer, musician, multi-instrumentalist, civil rights campaigner, human rights activist and politician?  Inspirational seems a little inadequate but is right on the money to describe FELA!, recently opened at London's National Theatre, having transferred from Broadway with three Tony Awards, an Obie for our devoted lead, and rave reviews, including one from the New York Times' Ben Brantley proudly proclaiming that "There has never been anything like this."

Which may or may not be true.  Hair, recently closed after a West End revival had Sixties audiences dancing in the aisles (calm down, it was part of the plot) had similar superlatives thrown at it - but that is not to deny that FELA! is a magical musical experience.

Fela Kuti lived a colourful life, made music that shook the world and a political activism that resulted in his very own communal compound within Nigeria called Kalakuta Republic.  There is his arrest, persecution, the murder of his mother by soldiers in a midnight raid and dancing - lots and lots of dancing.  Fela, played extraordinarily by Sahr Ngaujah who also sings, dances and plays the trumpet and saxophone, has a charisma that it is near impossible to shake yourself from, especially with an Afrobeat soundtrack that is as visually and aurally affective as it is infectious.

This is a musical revolution, an onslaught that breaks traditional barriers between the stage and audience.  Turner Prize and Cannes-winner Steve McQueen is following up his debut feature Hunger with a big-screen adaptation of FELA! for release next year.  I find it very difficult to find a true definition of the word 'sensational', but I know it when I see it and this is it.

FELA! opened at the National Theatre, London, on 17 November and will be broadcast live to selected cinemas nationwide on 13 January 2011.

Because it's Arthur Miller at the Tricycle - What more do you need?  It can be reasonably argued that the former Mr. Marilyn Monroe is America's greatest playwright, not only for the direct and deceptively simple manner in which he sets the theme of his plays but predominantly being able to deliver complex, worldly scenarios that also act as 'state of the nation'-style addresses.

First performed in 1994, Broken Glass is one of Miller's later plays and it follows in a lineage established by the classic plays that made his reputation, including All My Sons, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, in that a series of personal relationships are explored among the backdrop of a communal social atrocity.  In this instance our protagonists Philip and Sylvia Gellburg are a married Jewish couple living in New York in the years preceding the Second World War.  Their lives, seemingly inexplicably, are disturbed when Sylvia becomes paralysed after reading of Kristallnacht, the two day series of anti-semitic attacks in Nazi Germany, 1938.

The Tricycle Theatre are renowned for staging drama with a strongly political slant, just in the last few years they have shown plays such as Deep Cut, on the mysterious death of four army trainees in the titular Surrey barracks between 1995-2002; The Great Game, a three-part series of twelve newly commissioned plays on the theme of Afghanistan; and Bloody Sunday - Scenes from the Saville Inquiry, one of the theatre's original 'Tribunal' plays, dramatic reconstructions based on public inquiries.

Playing on the themes of the physical and mental experiences that fear and terror has on individuals, Broken Glass is very much an historical piece but one that has a contemporary relevance.  Terror, and the notion that specific communities are specifically targeting members of other communities in combined attack is common motif in most (if not all) editorial-led news programming.  It would be difficult to detach Arthur Miller from his left-wing principles, and the subject matter here is dark.  Admittedly, it would be a mistake to enter an Arthur Miller play expecting to be taken on a journey of wonderment and self-discovery but his is a world of the intricate intimacies upon which relationships are built; it's metaphor, sign and symbol.  His is the interpretation and representation of the raw humanity of people in the most difficult of circumstances - it has been argued that this in itself should be the fundamental role of the playwright.  Miller's standing in the history of twentieth century drama stands testament.

Broken Glass is at The Tricycle Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR between 30 September - 27 November.

photo: Tristram Kenton, courtesy of Tricycle Theatre

Because on November 4, Sarah Morris will show her latest film, Beijing, as part of the on-going "Architecture and Film" series at the barbican, which focuses on cinematic renderings of architecture. Since the mid-1990s, Morris has been making complex abstract paintings and films, derived from the architectural language of various cityscapes. Beijing follows from Morris' earlier city-portrait studies of Manhattan, Las Vegas, Miami, Washington and L.A, which sought to filter the essence of each cultural centre. Beijing offering a glimpse of the Chinese centre - its culture and its politics - at the time of its global ascension during unveiling of the Olympic games. However, the mass-televised glossy portrait of the city is deconstructed. A succession of images- the Chinese president preparing for his Olympic address, workers packing sweets in a downtown store and cultural icons, Jackie Chan, Jacques Herzog and Rem Koolhaas - pulsate in screen against an instrumental soundtrack. Taking the form of a mesmeric tone-poem, in the style of Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqat, the entire feature-length trailer for Beijing is devoid of commentary. It seems as if Morris has condensed the city - its politics, culture and identity - into a refined and exposed version of itself.

Sarah Morris will present her first and latest urban portrait, Beijing, in person at The Barbican, 4 November 2010