Great expectations and a bleak house: the promise and perils of staging Dickens

London Tide at the National Theatre is the latest in a flood of Dickensian adaptations. Few have captured the novelist’s surreal imagination – are solo shows the most successful?

On my radar: James Smith of Yard Act’s cultural highlights

The singer on the power of trespassing, a life-changing film, and the one item of clothing he never takes off

‘I write all my poems with a quill by candlelight’: John Cooper Clarke on the joy of life without tech

The punk poet has no smartphone, no email, not even a computer. Everyone should try it, he says

Tim Key: ‘I like writing in the pub, but then the poems tend to be about the pub’

The comedian on his strangest fan encounter, preshow rituals and his new film with Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan

A Song for Ella Grey review – Orpheus casts a fateful spell over teenage dreamers

David Almond’s young adult novel is brought to life in a soulful production that weaves its mythical elements with imagination

The week in theatre: The Hills of California; Metamorphosis; Candace Bushnell: True Tales of Sex, Success and Sex in the City – review

Dreams of fame trap and inspire in Jez Butterworth’s female-centred, Blackpool-set new play; Lemn Sissay takes a personal approach to Kafka; and the Sex and the City creator is full of unsurprises

Sebastian Barry: ‘When you get past 60, you do feel a licence to write fearlessly’

The Irish novelist and playwright on the positives of ageing, his struggles with depression and a golden age of Irish writing

Ockham’s Razor: Tess review – circus spin finds light and laughter in Thomas Hardy’s tale

This company’s skills cleverly animate the characters in a dreamlike production that does not blunt the novel’s tragedy

Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Fiend review – the spoof’s afoot!

The detective goes on the hunt for Jack the Ripper in this funny but tangled comedy on how crime is sensationalised for entertainment

Prime movers: the German circus exploring Amazon through acrobatics

Rimini Protokoll’s new show is part of a series of performances inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses and draws a connection between its Aeolus episode and hypercapitalism

The Jungle Book Reimagined: how an eight-year-old girl helped reinvent a classic

UK choreographer Akram Khan planned his new show while working from home, with his daughter drawing in the corner. She overheard his meetings – and had some notes

Northanger Abbey review – Janeites, be warned! Austen gets a fanfic makeover

Writer Zoe Cooper and director Tessa Walker reignite Jane Austen’s early novel with hilarious physical storytelling and a fizzing cast, though the romance sputters out too soon

Candace Bushnell: ‘I dated a 21-year-old and a 91-year-old in the same week’

The Sex and the City writer, 65, talks about her rebellious youth, Studio 54, million-dollar contracts and getting married and divorced

Today’s lesson: The Boy at the Back of the Class now learns from To Kill a Mockingbird

Adapting Onjali Q Raúf’s novel for the stage proved a challenge but her refugee story, which has a new nod to Harper Lee, is both urgent and unforgettable

Edge of the aisle seat: the case of the theatre critic who becomes a sleuth

Countless nights spent reviewing plays informed Here in the Dark, a novel of psychological suspense in which critical faculties are essential to solving a real-life drama