The cultural happenings to bring you out of hibernation this month.

Mr TS Eliot was right about many things but wrong in one particular. That would be his thoughts on April. April is not the cruelest of all months, as he has it in The Waste Land; that laurel leaf should go to January. That ill-starred month is nothing but bad. Cold, full of resolutionary bluster and injunctions of self-denial, it is a month best avoided. But live it we must and survive it we now nearly have. And with those days nearly spent, we can start to have some fun again. And, actually, there is much to be cheery about now February is upon us. To help you make the most of your time, we bring your seven reasons to celebrate the arrival of the shortest month of the year.

Sir Nicholas Hytner is rather like a Caesar figure, attaining victory after victory, laurel after laurel on the London stage. Now, the former artistic director of the Royal National Theatre is to direct Mr William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at The Bridge Theatre – London’s newest theatre, which he casually set up and opened last year. If Sir Nick’s pedigree isn’t attraction enough for you, then the following should be. In the first instance, it stars Mr Ben Whishaw, who is brilliant in everything. In the second instance, the actress who played Catelyn Stark in Game Of Thrones, Ms Michelle Fairley, plays the male part of Cassius. And if that is not enough, well, it is a promenade play, so you are quite literally in the middle of the action. We’re sorry. Et tu?

On now

bridgetheatre.co.uk

Let the bells ring out and joy be unconfined, that parched period we call Dry January is over. And so, what better time to celebrate the fact that one of our favourite restaurants of the past two years, The Palomar, has taken over a pub in London’s Chinatown. The 275-year-old boozer has been split into three levels, with three very different personalities. The ground floor of The Blue Posts is a traditional, if upscale pub. The first-floor houses cocktail lounge The Mulwray serving classics and new creations in rooms kitted out in marble and brass. While the old beer cellar has been turned into Evelyn’s Table, an 11-seat kitchen bar with a daily changing menu under head chef Mr Nacho Pinilla. Triples all round.

Open now

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Shaking off that New Year asceticism? In the market for a little well-mannered indulgence? Well, the sweet potato, parsnip and walnut tortelloni at Fausto in Park Slope, New York, is like a cuddle on plate – and who doesn’t need a hug in freezing February. The restaurant opened last year on Flatbush Avenue and the focus is on regional Italian dishes – think grilled lamb loin chops with salsa verde, linguine with neck clams and all other things we want to eat right now. If your tastes run in a more bibulous direction, they have a wine list dedicated to small producers in Abruzzo, Campania and Sicily.

Open now

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The Hayward Gallery, closed for refurbishment since September 2015, has reopened with a blockbuster exhibition by the acclaimed German photographer Mr Andreas Gursky. The 63-year-old is known for his large-scale crowd-pleasing works which showcase modern life and the to and fro of global capitalism. Most of his oeuvre is made up of large-form architecture or vast landscapes which are given their overwhelming feel of scale by virtue of the fact that the view point is usually high up above. This exhibition hosts 60 of his most important photographs from the 1980s to the present day including “Amazon”, pictured above.

On now

southbankcentre.co.uk

Mountain-high ski jumps, elegant figure skaters, much derring-do: what exactly is not to like about the Winter Olympics. We are counting down the days until the 23rd games begin in PyeongChang, South Korea, on 9 February. 92 nations will compete across 102 events during the $10bn Olympics. And, perhaps most interesting of all, North Korea will not only send 22 athletes to take part, but will also march under a banner of peace with South Korean athletes in an opening ceremony that promises to be something of a tear-jerker.

The tuxedos! The rictus grins of the defeated! The endless thanking of unseen mothers across the globe! Frankly we can never have enough of awards season. It is a circus of human frailty nearly as good as some of the movies it celebrates. The first of the big-league awards is of course London’s Baftas which are often seen as something of a metric on which to guess the Oscars that come at the beginning of March. Will Mr Gary Oldman make a clean sweep of all the big gongs? Or will Mr Timothée Chalamet beat him too it? We can’t be sure. But one thing we are certain about is that we will be glued to the screen watching.

The SS18 collection from Mr P. will soon arrive on site. Our in-house label has taken a different tack from the previous collection, which sought inspiration from the School of London painters and how they dressed – think Mr Francis Bacon in his pomp. (Although our favourite pieces from the main collection are available here.) Our thinking for the second collection was distinctly transatlantic. We took a page from the sartorial book of early 1960s Los Angeles, so you can expect artfully faded fabrics, shades reminiscent of dappled Californian sunlight, and lots of iconic garments brought up to date. Think suede trucker jackets, wide-leg pleated trousers in herringbone twill and, true to form, knitwear you’ll never want to take off. We can’t wait to get it on our Wish Lists.

Shop Mr P. here