ARTS : THE CRITICAL LIST : THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS

The gig

On Friday, the cipher formerly known as Squiggle launches himself on fans who have learned to live with diminished expectations while refusing to dwindle in number. An initial week at Wembley Arena will serve as a honing exercise for subsequent one- and two-shot deals in Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, Birmingham and Wembley, again.

n Wembley Arena: 0181-900 1234

The play

Indian Ink, Tom Stoppard's latest will prompt the usual critical heart-searching: Our Greatest Living Dramatist, or an eloquent crossword compiler? Hollywood star he may be, but Ralph Fiennes's (left) Hamlet, opening at the Hackney Empire on Tuesday, will be as much a theatrical as a media event.

n `Indian Ink': 0171-416 6003

n `Hamlet': 0171-312 1995

The exhibition

Bloody finger prints on wall-paper. Scrabbling noises from behind a wall. Abigail Lane, whose "Skin of the Teeth" opens at the ICA on Thursday, is an artist working over the scrap-heap of cast-off genres - there are traces of the body (but no sign of the nude), and sundry interiors (but they're more scene-of-the-crime than still-life).

n ICA: 0171-930 3647

Premiered at Crystal Palace in 1880 and last performed there 15 years later, Sir Hubert Parry's grand romantic Piano Concerto was found in the library of the Royal College of Music last year and dusted down for what will, on Thursday, be its first hearing in 100 years, courtesy of a BBC concert (broadcast live on Radio 3), launching the corporation's series "Elgar: the Music Maker".