The initial success of Lillian Hellmans' 1934 play was a landmark event for a number of reasons.  That she was a high-profile female playwright in pre-war USA was one reason, but not enough.  That she was very vocally left-wing and was subsequently called before the House of Un-American Activities before being blacklisted is another.  That this play foreshadowed the entwined cultures of blame and fear that was to engulf post-war USA was yet another, and that this play was a huge smash hit despite centring on a supposed lesbian relationship is yet another.  Revived in London's West End at The Comedy Theatre, The Children's Hour evidences its staying power yet again.

Of course it helps audience figures that this particular production stars Keira Knightley and Elizabeth Moss (of both The West Wing and Mad Men) as the two founders and matrons of a 1930s New England all-girls boarding school accused of having a homosexual relationship by a runaway student but that the London stage has been drawing top-level Hollywood stars to tread its boards for roughly a decade now can - and should - be overlooked.

It must be remembered that any mention of homosexuality on stage was illegal when this play first premiered and that it was such a success that this rule was simply disregarded.  Despite being banned in Boston, Chicago and London, it transferred to Paris where it was acclaimed (even if it was by the French).  Numerous adaptations and translations have been made, all to equal successes.  That this production reverts to the original work is of no detriment.  Get it, if you can, this golden ticket.

The Children's Hour is at The Comedy Theatre, London, from 22 January until 30 April, 2011

We've all heard it said: There are no stupid questions (just stupid people.  Is this right? - Ed.)  Your teachers I'm sure said it all before, if you don't ask questions then how are you supposed to take anything in?  We didn't listen then, but we're older now.  Wiser?  We'd hope.

Signal:Noise takes this concept, brings in some of the smartest people in the art world, and puts it in a gallery.  Since it's move from Bonner Road, East London to Edgware Road, The Showroom has quickly become synonymous with exhibiting and researching participatory art of the highest order; notably it was the London venue for Game Keepers Without Game, the Film London Jarman Award-winning feature-length artists' film by Emily Wardill, whilst also providing the venue for the community participation project that lays the basis for her forthcoming film, Fulll Firearms.

Feedback, that's the word of the day.  Or rather, the weekend.  The project is a four-day series of talks, seminars, presentations (topped off on the weekend by a specially prepared dinner by the wonderful Lucky PDF).  Not entirely usual for a small-scale public gallery, the events are ticketed, by day for the whole weekend, and what do you get for your money?  Well hold onto your hats...(deep breath)... WillHolderDexterSinister(DavidReinfurtandStuartBaileySteveRushtonMarinaVishmidtRodDickinsonEmilyPethickLarsBangLarsen ... (breathe)... CharlieGereRichardHornseyMatthewFullerAndyGoffeyBenedictSeymourStephenWillatsEmmaSmithSophieHopeand(thewonderful)LuckyPDF.  Phew.

Ever wanted to question artists about why they do what they do and why they think what they do has real social, cultural and political implications?  And do so without fear of recrimination?  Here's your chance.

Signal:Noise is at The Showroom from Thursday 13 January - Sunday 17 January, 2011.  Tickets are available from The Showroom.

Art and books?  It's all the fashion nowadays, don't you know?  We've gone from painting to sculpture to film to installation to performance to video back to painting back to performance back to installation to architecture back to film and now we've almost run out of media.  The book people won't mind if we take words from them.  Visual arts is so much more trendy, and we artists can do so much more than just put words in a sentence in a book!  Grammatical constraints?  That's so 20th century.

Architecture put down its visual arts roots in the post-war period and then some smart bod saw that designing a building required the same structuring ability as writing a book.  The Architecture Association have employed curator-polymaths Charles Arsène-Henry and Shumon Basar to create Translated By.  On exhibition at the AA Gallery, and featuring writers including Douglas Coupland and Tom McCarthy, the show will launch an accompanying paperback, including all the stories as well as essays by the curators.  A speculation on the future of the act of writing and the engagement of audiences in reading and listening.  Here's an example, take a look at this:

'You've entered the room. It looks empty, silent. Vinyl text on the wall, like an album track-listing. Writers' names instead of bands.
You've been given a black pamphlet and an electronic device connected to a pair of headphones.
You'll put them on. Pick a number. Press play. You look for the same number on the walls. You find it. Next to it, an image. Beside it there is a seat. You sit. On a beat-up office chair dredged from a river. You listen. And you start travelling. You're on Atlantic Avenue, between Nevins and Third. It's Brooklyn. 1971.
The voice stops. You go for another track, another chair, a different place. Now on a little stool, you follow a six-year-old girl's voice in your ears. You're lost in the Sheraton Hotel. An Aztec spaceship in Doha's desert.
It will last for 11 tracks. Through Tripoli, Brixton, Ramallah. Sofia, The Metaverse. Ardennes forest. A garden.
Until West Vancouver. Where the world is ending.'

Translated By is at the Architecture Association Gallery from 15 January - 09 February, 2011.