Our latest Cultural Calendar

Lily loved seeing Yard Act, and the particularly enjoyed them bringing a series of mannequins in trench coats to 'dress' the stage.

Comedians lined-up alongside pro and semi-pro footballers for this charity match, with giant inflatable ducks. Michael cheered from the sidelines.

Tomas Gittins' pop-up art exhibition, complete with its array of colourful heads, made a great backdrop for Nazma's outfit-of-the-day picture.

Michael felt occasionally uncomfortably close to Lenny Henry in his self-penned performance as a character whose life was devastated by the Windrush scandal.

Settling into Greek culture, Emma caught the most recent Marvel film with a view of the Acropolis. 

Spencer caught a performance of this Great Expectations-inspired comedy but hadn't read the novel recently enough to catch some of the jokes.

Lucky to see this exhibition just before it closed, Justin thought the 55,000 sq ft space was perfect for this ambitious showcase of sound and light installations.

Laura got to worship at the altar of Damon Albarn with 400 other superfans at this Blur homecoming gig with a career-spanning, surprise-laden setlist to boot.

In a sound booth, Deborah Pearson responded to two disembodied producers. Michael wondered if they were voices in her head or echoes from the past.

Learning about Colchester's Roman past was the highlight of Laura's visit but she was let down by the museum's post-Norman exhibits.

Lottie's and her dad took a trip to this much-lauded play. It more than lived up to her expectations, and exceded his.

Alex saw this experimental poet and hip-hop artist. There was a lot more free jazz than he expected. He loved it but some of his companions weren’t as keen.

Michael took in two long sessions (and a 5-hour queue between) of Ruth Wilson’s remarkable performance of the same short scene 100 times in 24 hours.

Justin enjoyed the installations made using paper supplied by G.F. Smith in this show of all things ceramics, jewellery, woodworking, and textiles.

Modern interpretations of the sari from high fashion to everyday wearers, including themes of sustainability, gender, and politics - Nazma loved this exhibition.

Michael returned to the revival of Tim Minchin's dark musical (which we reviewed in 2016). He loved the show but was sad the reviolving stage has gone.

Emma visited the home of the Greek National Opera on her holiday to check out the award-winning architecture and gardens.

Art performance musicians HMLTD performed songs from their ‘difficult’ worm-based concept album. Michael was there for the shirt-off, early work.

Nick was taken to heaven and back as he caught the touring production of Sister Act, which comes back to the West End next year.

Nazma had a top night out at this lively, buzzy, great vibes show. Songs mostly sung in Norwegian, with some Arabic, Gujarati, French, and English.

Nazma wasn’t so sweet on this Regency rom-com, but it was an entertaining enough way to spend a rainy Saturday evening.

Long after you've all experienced it, both Michael and Laura decided that this was the month to immerse themselves in the dotty world of Kusama.

Home to an impressive fashion collection and library, and part of Manchester Art Gallery, Nazma enjoyed hearing about its history during the Open Day tour. 

Laura did her best to work through the 111-item cheese selection. And if you don’t think gastronomy is culture, take it up with the French tourist board! 

Accompanied by an amazing string quartet and Adrian Utley, Marwin loved watching Philip Selway playing songs from his new album.

Directed by Katie Mitchell, Michael loved this stripped-back staging where four performers became the overlapping internal monologue of a day in the life. 

Although a little disappointed by the scale of the Peter Doig exhibition, Emma was impressed by The Courtauld’s permanent collection.

Nazma and her niece enjoyed stepping into this video game world, picking up on the artist’s themes as they played each game with no queues and no coins.

Laura saw a lot of churches on her holiday in France but couldn't get enough of Narbonne's - she even climbed the 100+ step tower to get a better look.

If you look closely you'll be able to spot Emma's comfy slippers as she jumped at the opportunity to interact with this installation at EMST.

Johanna Walderdorff created our disturbing illustration, see more of her work on her website.

Other images taken by the Cog team with due credit to the designers and artists who created the works we photographed.