Critics choice: What our writers are looking forward to this week

The best of what’s on offer this week...

THEATRE

MEDEA

CITIZENS’ THEATRE, GLASGOW, UNTIL 13 OCTOBER

IT’S FEROCIOUS, it’s unexpected, it’s set in a suburban street somewhere in England, now. Yet Mike Bartlett’s new version of Euripides’ mighty drama about the searing revenge of a woman betrayed and abandoned by her husband has never seemed more chilling than in this new revival at the Citizens’, co-produced by Headlong and Watford Palace Theatre. Rachael Stirling plays Medea, in a dazzling and terrifying star performance; Mike Bartlett himself directs.

• Tel: [phone]

JOYCE MCMILLAN

FILM

DONNIE DARKO

DUNDEE CONTEMPORARY ARTS, TOMORROW

With Looper reinvigorating the time-travel movie, the DCA are offering the chance to go back in time to check out another great wormhole-related movie. Donnie Darko became a huge cult phenomenon in the UK back in 2001/2002 and it remains one of the finest debuts by an American director (Richard Kelly) of recent times. It also launched Jake Gyllenhaal’s career and should have led to a critical rebirth for the late Patrick Swayze. As for what it all means – reacquaint yourself with Watership Down and it will all make sense. Possibly.

• Tel: [phone]

ALISTAIR HARKNESS

VISUAL ART

DIETER ROTH: DIARIES

FRUITMARKET, EDINBURGH, UNTIL 14 OCTOBER

JUST a few more days to catch this Dieter Roth retrospective at the Fruitmarket. The show reflects what the artist called “the unconstrained representation of his life” and features not only his diaries, but also all the rubbish he accumulated in his studio over the years, right down to crisp packets, newspapers and sweetie wrappers. There’s also a voyeuristic video installation – countless hours of film in which the artist recorded every aspect of his daily life.

• Tel: [phone]

DUNCAN MACMILLAN

CLASSICAL

ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA: OUNDJIAN CONDUCTS SHOSTAKOVICH

MUSIC HALL, ABERDEEN, TONIGHT; USHER HALL, EDINBURGH, TOMORROW; GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 6 OCTOBER

There’s no sparing the horses in this weekend’s season opener from the RSNO. For as well as marking Peter Oundjian’s first official programme as the orchestra’s new music director, and featuring the brilliant Russian violinist Vadim Gluzman, the programme itself is a red-hot Russian cocktail. It opens with Glinka’s sizzler of an overture Russlan and Ludmilla, and ends with Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony, often referred to as “a film score without a film” for the vivid way it depicts the happenings of the 1905 Revolution. Gluzman plays the epic Romantic hand in Tchaikovsky’s full-blooded Violin Concerto.

• Tel: [phone] (Aberdeen); 0131-228 1155 (Edinburgh); 0141-353 8000 (Glasgow)

KENNETH WALTON

POP

FIELD MUSIC

ORAN MOR, GLASGOW, TONIGHT

Consistently one of the most inventive bands grafting away in UK indiedom, Field Music – aka Sunderland siblings Peter and David Brewis – have finally been recognised with a Mercury Prize nomination for their current album, Plumb, one of the year’s most satisfying releases. Like their friends The Futureheads, the Brewis brothers are big on quirky male harmony vocals, and are skilled at distilling their broad range of influences into dynamic pop songs which sound a little like a proggy Makkem Beach Boys.

• Tel: [phone]

FIONA SHEPHERD