Each night, a 14-year-old tasks two actors with playing her parents. They haven’t seen the script

One evening in June last year, actor Ewen Leslie rocked up at Sydney’s Belvoir St theatre to find out what show he was performing that night and meet his fellow actors for the first time. All he had was an email telling him to prepare his best Werner Herzog impression, to wear comfortable clothes, and to expect content around “childhood, parenthood and mental health disorders”.A couple of hours later he was on stage, script in hand, being directed by a 13-year-old in front of an audience and struggling not to cry.The assignment was POV: a micro-budget, 70-minute show which follows a teenager named Bub, who is making a documentary about her parents. Each night, two adult actors who have not rehearsed or seen the script before step into the role of the parents, guided on stage by the young actor playing Bub

From Van Gogh to Superman: Keep cool with our guide to the summer’s best arts and entertainment

From a very hungry crocodile to some equally famished zombies, a superstar Compton rapper to a Smallville superhero: our critics choose the eye-opening arts events that will dazzle you over the next few monthsA Midsummer Night’s DreamBridge theatre, London, to 20 August Nicholas Hytner’s theatrical blockbuster returns to the Bridge theatre, which has developed a real knack for folding the audience into the action. This promenade version of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy was a smash hit six years ago and is light on its feet and effortlessly charming. The new cast includes Susannah Fielding as Titania and Emmanuel Akwafo as the hapless Bottom. Miriam GillinsonHow to Win Against HistoryBristol Old Vic, 19 June to 12 July Bristol Old Vic and Francesca Moody Productions revive this flamboyant musical based on the bonkers life of the 5th Marquess of Anglesey, who blew the family fortune on diamond dresses, lilac-dyed poodles and endless extravagances. When he died at 29, his outraged Edwardian family scrubbed him from the records

Demi Adejuyigbe: ‘Everything I do is because of my love for Ocean’s Eleven’

On 21 September each year between 2016 and 2021, you made a series of increasingly elaborate tributes to the Earth, Wind and Fire song September that were viewed millions of times. Do you hate that song now?I do feel stressed whenever I hear September but I try to ignore it. A few years ago, before the last video came out, I had a panic attack at a Home Depot simply by imagining that it came on. That’s when I was like, I gotta stop doing this – I don’t think I enjoy it any more. I made people think I really love that song

Can South by Southwest’s London debut recreate Austin’s star-making power?

South by Southwest London could become a launchpad for “music’s global superstars of the future”, according to the organisers of the event, which starts its inaugural edition on Monday.SXSW London’s director of programming, Katy Arnander, and the event’s managing director, Randel Bryan said that despite huge competition in the capital, the event, which has been billed as “Olympics of the mind” and is known as SXSW, could become a star-maker.“We had Amy Winehouse playing in tiny venues back in the day,” says Bryan, referring to the Austin event. “We’ve had Adele and Ed Sheeran, and we’re hoping that South by Southwest in London is the same platform to really launch the global superstars of the future.”The original event, which launched in the Texas capital of Austin in 1987, has grown to a London-wide festival that attracts hundreds of ­thousands of visitors to the city in March

My cultural awakening: A Timothée Chalamet drama made me leave my partner – and check him into rehab

It took a viewing of the 2018 film Beautiful Boy, about a father and his addict son, for me to see that my relationship had become damagingly codependentTwo summers ago, I met a man on a dating app who would become my boyfriend. The red flags were there from the start, but I ignored them all. When I stayed at his, he didn’t have a towel to offer me, and he never changed his sheets. It became obvious that he didn’t know how to look after himself. Even though, in reality, he could survive without me (similar to how a teenage boy would survive on his own, eating burgers in bed), I felt like, if I wasn’t there to buy groceries, cook and clean, he might die

Mountainhead to Nintendo Switch 2: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

The Ballad of Wallis IslandOut now Comedy drama co-starring and co-written by comedians Tim Key and Tom Basden. Key plays a lottery winner with some big ideas about what to do with his winnings: namely, pay his favourite musical act to reunite. Hey, it’s more interesting than buying a fancy car. Basden and Carey Mulligan play the folk duo McGwyer Mortimer.The Salt PathOut now Drama based on the true story of a 630-mile pilgrimage along the coast in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset