Following a sold-out run last year at Chichester Festival theatre, playwright David Eldridge’s skilful adaptation of John le Carré’s classic cold war story of love, espionage and betrayal in the shadow of the Berlin Wall has landed in the West End before touring the UK from March. Remarkably, it is the first time one of le Carré’s novels has been brought to the stage, but director Jeremy Herrin’s thrilling, noirish production, soundtracked by a cool jazz-inflected score, raises the distinct possibility that it won’t be the last. Rory Keenan is terrific as hard-bitten, rumpled Alec Leamas, the spy who wants to “come in from the cold” – that is, return home from the field – but is persuaded to take on one last job in East Germany. And Agnes O’Casey is excellent as the idealistic librarian and Communist party member Leamas falls for while undercover. The searchlight-illuminated, in-the-round setting draws us into the heart of the action and brings home Leamas’s nightmarish sense of being constantly watched from all sides.

Lisa O’Kelly, contributing editor

Harry Lighton’s confident debut was the big winner at last Sunday’s British Independent Film Awards, scooping four prizes including best independent film. Shy traffic warden Colin (Harry Melling, making a handbrake turn from past roles such as Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter) quits his happy suburban family home for a submissive relationship with the taciturn Ray (Alexander Skarsgard) and the world of gay BDSM biker culture. Based on Adam Mars-Jones’s novella Box Hill, it’s a love story – a “domcom” – that is by turns graphic, tender and very funny.

Jane Ferguson, Nerve co-founder

Kayvan Novak, comedy star of cult 2010 film Four Lions and the vampire sitcom What We Do In The Shadows, has a new podcast. Each week he’ll chat culture with a different guest, beginning this week with Adam Buxton – though you may not recognise Novak in his guise as bombastic and barmy (b)arts critic Brian Badonde. Come for the b-idiculous way of speaking, stay for the unexpectedly astute deconstruction of the entire interview podcast form. 

Ellen E Jones, Nerve film critic

Native American multimedia artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith died in January, making this her first posthumous exhibition. It assembles work from across her six-decade career: huge, angry collages from her famous I See Red series; sign-strewn depictions of environmental activists from her Tierra Madre portraits; maps of the US relabelled and reclaimed with Indigenous names; and, new for this show, a detailed ochre sculpture of a menagerie of animals aboard a canoe. Considering Smith's passing and the canoe’s symbolic association with metaphysical journeys, it is a resonant centrepiece to a striking show.

Fergus Morgan, writer

It opens with a scene of domestic warmth: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe breastfeeding her daughter Gabriella at her parents’ home in Tehran while her dad loads her suitcases into the car for her flight home to London. Within moments, Nazanin’s life begins unravelling and we’re plunged into experiencing her terror and confusion as she’s detained at the airport, forced to leave Gabriella with her grandmother, and then subjected to one interrogation after another, escorted blindfolded between locations, with no sense of what she’s supposedly done. Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, this poignant four-part dramatisation of the British charity worker’s six-year hostage ordeal at the hands of the Iranian state, and the tireless campaigning of her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, for her release, is powered by two utterly compelling performances by Narges Rashidi and Joseph Fiennes.

Imogen Carter, co-founder

The clue is in the name of this UK jazz supergroup – and who doesn't love a supergroup? – who create spiritual music with supernatural powers to soothe weary doom-scrollers. They've just launched their third album, Sanctuary, with a tremendous show at the EFG London Jazz Festival but theirs is the kind of meandering loveliness (flute! harp! cello! soulful vocals!) that'll warm up wintry nights at home too.

Kate Hutchinson, Nerve music critic

Humphrey Ker and David Reed of Radio 4’s the Penny Dreadfuls may just have done the impossible in creating the perfect Christmas show. The writers also play Holmes and Watson respectively in this decidedly daft take on a Conan Doyle whodunnit.

Imagine serving the demands of a clever but affectionate Sherlock Holmes parody, original musical numbers by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice and a comedy script broad enough to pull in families wanting a big Christmassy treat with enough multilayered panto humour to keep both adults and children convinced that the show is talking to them. A cast of comedy stalwarts includes Taskmaster’s John Kearns and John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme star Margaret Cabourn-Smith playing Lestrade and Mrs Hudson with relish, and Cameron Johnson puts in an energetic turn as the Dame – a requirement of any festive show, taken to new heights here in a way I won’t spoil.

Julia Raeside, writer

The first solo exhibition in the UK of the Taiwanese artist Val Lee is a chilling exploration of natural and manufactured liminality. Lee combines film, sound and photography to create an intimate but alienating experience. There is a political undercurrent but most perturbing are the futuristic, beastly masked figures, always situated in the corner of your eye. 

Anandita Abraham, Nerve intern

For me, dub reggae is generally music for a summer, background vibe, but the one artist – or in this case collective – I got really into since discovering them about 10 years ago is African Head Charge. Their history is one of those delightful stories of London/Jamaican/African cross-pollination – and of decades-long creativity. They were formed by rasta drummer Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, their first album (1981) was recorded in Dennis “Silly Games” Bovell’s studios and their producer is Adrian Sherwood, known for bringing a post-punk, electronic sensibility to dub reggae (he once shared a squat with Neneh Cherry and Ari Up!). Anyway, back then they described their sound as “psychedelic dub” and none of their albums has ever sounded like the last. Their new EP – a collab with Sherwood and rising jazzers Speakers Corner – is great, and they’ve just announced a Barbican gig in February.

Sarah Donaldson, Nerve co-founder

ART

Gwen John: Strange Beauties

(National Museum Cardiff, 7 February-28 June, then tours to Edinburgh, Connecticut and Washington DC) 

The Welsh artist’s 150th birthday is celebrated with the most comprehensive retrospective of her paintings and drawings in 40 years, including rarely seen work, sketchbooks, letters and archival material.

THEATRE

Hamlet directed by Rupert Goold

(Touring in England February-April, starting at the Hall for Cornwall, Truro on 25 February)

Rupert Goold’s acclaimed maritime production of Hamlet for the RSC, set entirely on a ship’s deck conceived by designer Es Devlin, tours with a new cast.

THEATRE

Dog Man: the Musical 

(Southbank Centre, London, 30 July-16 August)

With the head of a dog and the body of a policeman, the crimefighting star of Dav Pilkey’s bestselling comic book series Dog Man makes his European stage debut at the Southbank centre next summer. After several sell-out seasons off-Broadway and a tour of the US, the musical, aimed at over-fives, will run during the school summer holidays. Tickets go on sale this Friday.