THE CRITICAL LIST: THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS

With mustachioed fairies, an acrobatic Puck and a giant bed in place of a forest floor, Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream reaches London on Wednesday. Meanwhile, at Opera North in Leeds, Richard Jones dabbles in the post-Wagnerian penumbra of Debussy's Pellas and Mlisande.

Booking: ENO 0171-632 8300; Opera North 0113-245 9351

The opera

The play

Continuing the West Yorkshire Playhouse's outstanding season, Steven Berkoff (left), Britain's most physical actor, stars in and directs Coriolanus, Shakespeare's most physical tragedy. The result is likely to be either a histrionic overdose of truly terrifying proportions, or a memorable political epic.

Opens tomorrow (May 16). Box-office: 0113-245 1295

The exhibition

Have Damien Hirst (left), the Shark-Pickler, and Rachel Whiteread, the Woman Who Makes Plaster Casts run out of ideas (Whiteread is showing only one new piece; rumours say it's a cast of an old one)? Have their ideas dated? Answers: probably not, and sadly so.

Hirst is at White Cube, from May 19; Whiteread is at Karsten Schubert, to 3 June

The gig

Last time, they projected Euro-babies on to the walls. They played records of their rhythms and rapped over them rather inhibitedly. This time, Massive Attack (left) - the nation's premier trip-hop combo - promise more of everything but especially flexibility. Catch their rumble in Hammersmith (Tue), Nottingham (Fri) and Manchester (Sat)