Cottesloe, National Theatre, London SE1
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The National Theatre's one-woman avant-garde department, director Katie Mitchell, has done for Dostoevsky's 1868 novel The Idiot what she did for Virginia Woolf's The Waves.

A giant video screen overlooks an area that serves as both stage and TV studio. The cast, led by Ben Whishaw as the guileless hero Prince Myshkin, double as technicians, setting up scene after scene with video cameras, props and incredibly well-drilled timing.

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 (15) 

Israeli director Joseph Cedar has an enviable record: his first two feature films, 2001?s Time of Favour and Campfire (2004), were chosen as his country's official entries for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar. So, too, was this vivid and compelling, fact-based drama of men at war, scripted by Ron Leshem from his own acclaimed novel.

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Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1

Down-to-earth diva Maria Friedman ? a refugee from big-production musicals like Chicago ? performs a personal selection of show tunes and ballads, including numbers by Sondheim, Bernstein, and even Kate Bush. ?I just want to find pockets of emotion,? she says. They are not so much pockets as fathom-deep wells.

Until May 4; Tel: 020 7907 7060

Wyndhams Theatre, London WC2

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Israel fares badly at a Paris exhibition

On the Paris Metro, heading to the Pompidou Centre, there are stickers declaring Israel ?a terrorist state'. Once inside Les Inquiets (The Anxious), an exhibition ?dealing with the subject of the war in the Middle East' through the work of five artists personally touched by the region's conflicts, Israel does not fare much better.

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(15)

The unlikely story of a London Tube train driver who seeks a would-be suicide to throw himself under his train so that he can claim a bonus from his employers seems a peculiar subject even for a black comedy. And so it turns out to be. Director Jonathan Gershfield does his best, extracting what comedy he can, but the screenplay defeats him. Mackenzie Crook in the lead role fails to makes his essentially unsympathetic character likeable.

All over Britain this summer, a range of festivals - from Glastonbury to V - has been serving up serious musical entertainment. Limmudfest 08, which took place last weekend in the Peak District, was no exception.

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Lyttelton, National Theatre, London SE1

DV8's dance piece makes a strong case to refine an old adage - that a society should be judged by how it treats its minorities.

Eighty-five people living in the UK were asked about their attitudes towards religion and homosexuality. It is these voices, many of them homophobic, some of them belonging to the victims of homophobia, that with varying degrees of success DV8's dancers translate into movement.

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A psychic once told Alissa Torres she would one day become a writer, "but not in the way you might expect".

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It makes no pretension to art, but Sex and the City succeeds as a ?well-honed, character driven, comedy chickflick'

  (15)

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Barbra Streisand has pulled out of one of the main events marking Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations, citing personal reasons. She was due to perform a rendition of the Hebrew prayer Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father Our King) at a festive convention in Jerusalem, hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres, on May 13.

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By Ilana Tahan
The British Library, £20

Hebrew manuscripts are a hidden art, not merely because they are rarely exhibited, but even when exhibited, the viewer typically sees only one spread of hundreds contained in each codex. As Ilana Tahan makes clear in her lavishly illustrated book ? published on the heels of the acclaimed Sacred exhibition at the British Library last year ? Hebrew manuscripts were beautifully decorated and illuminated with a wealth of imagery, from the abstract to the figurative.

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Lalo Schifrin writes hit TV and movie themes, and plays everything from jazz to symphonies.

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 (18)

This alleged black comedy about a chaste young woman whose sexual organs have teeth, to the terminal terror of her sexual partners, never adds up to anything more interesting than writer-director Mitchell Lichtenstein's deliberate but not very clever attempt to shock for shock's sake. Avoid.

What do we know about Sarah Silverman' She is 37, lives in Los Angeles, and has a dog called Duck. Oh, and she is regarded as the world's hottest and most controversial comedian, having carved a reputation in her native United States for taboo-busting stand-up routines - subjects covered include race, rape and abortion - delivered in the persona of a sweet-faced Jewish princess.

Occasionally, her desire to shock misfires - her use of the word "Chink" to describe Chinese Americans resulted in her having to defend her humour on national TV.

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In America, until recently, the opera world was dominated by Jewish singers. In the UK, though, you would be hard-pushed to name even one. So it comes as a surprise to learn that one of the most distinguished classical singers of the day happens to be a British Jew.

Simon Keenlyside is one of the only two opera singers of his generation (the other being Bryn Terfel) to have been honoured with a CBE. His first CD for Sony, Tales of Opera, won him the prestigious Echo Klassik Singer of the Year award.

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One is a foul-mouthed comedian living in LA, the other is a liberal female rabbi living on a kibbutz in the Negev. But actually, Sarah Silverman and her sister, Susan, are not so different.

The US Emmy-winning performer, famous for her controversial gags including a career-defining YouTube pop video in which she claims to be sleeping with actor Matt Damon, is known for her liberal views - as is her older sister. Both siblings hope their work will help to change society for the better.

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New End Theatre, London NW3

There is a sense of quiet anxiety involved in going to Jewish-themed live comedy acts. You cannot help but worry: "Will the material ring true, or be excruciatingly wide of the mark' Will the Jewish audience-members be offended' Will the non-Jewish members be confused' Will the performer feel let down if the Jews do not laugh' Will there be time to eat'"

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