Beryl Cook and Friends brings the much-loved British artist’s exuberant characters out of the frame and into the Oxfordshire landscape, marking what would have been her 100th birthday.

Gallery

There is something particularly fitting about encountering Beryl Cook’s characters somewhere people have come to enjoy themselves.

A woman in a flamboyant dress appears among the shops. Elsewhere, figures garden, dance, shop and socialise. A pigeon watches from the greenery, while dogs and cats join the cast. Around them, visitors continue on their own journeys through Bicester Village.

For the next few weeks, Cook’s world has become part of the Oxfordshire landscape.

Beryl Cook and Friends, presented by House of Voltaire and Bicester Village, opened on 10 September — the day Cook would have turned 100 — and transforms the mile-long shopping destination with life-size cutouts, murals and installations drawn from some of her best-known paintings.

Cook, who died in 2008, became one of Britain’s most recognisable artists during the 1970s. Largely self-taught, she developed a visual language that was immediately distinctive: colourful, boldly drawn characters caught in moments of pleasure, mischief and everyday life.

Her subjects were rarely grand. They ate, drank, danced, shopped, gardened and went out. Yet Cook had an instinct for finding something theatrical in the ordinary.

That quality makes the Bicester installation particularly effective.

Rather than asking visitors to stand in front of a painting and look in, the project places them inside Cook’s world. Her characters occupy benches, balconies, green spaces, signposts and other parts of the Village, creating unexpected encounters as visitors move through the site.

One of the most recognisable installations is a full-scale recreation of Breakfast at Elvira’s, Cook’s 1996 painting inspired by the neighbourhood café originally run by her son and daughter-in-law.

It is the kind of scene that lends itself naturally to photography — and to the playful interaction that has always been part of the appeal of Cook’s work.

Visitors can pose alongside the characters, while other details are easier to discover by simply wandering. Look closely and the installation extends beyond its human figures, with Cook’s characteristic animals appearing among the trees and planting.

The project also places Cook in conversation with artists working today.

A House of Voltaire pop-up features editions and merchandise alongside specially commissioned work by artists and designers including Ashish, Jeremy Deller, Patrizio di Massimo, Anthea Hamilton, Chantal Joffe, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Linder and France-Lise McGurn.

Works by Stanley Spencer and Louis Wain, two artists who influenced Cook, provide a further connection between her work and the wider history of British art.

It is an approach that reflects the renewed interest in Cook’s work in recent years. A 2024 Studio Voltaire exhibition, Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland, became the organisation’s most visited exhibition in its history, while a retrospective at The Box in Plymouth earlier this year drew record audiences.

The centenary project therefore arrives at a moment when Cook’s work is being reconsidered by a new generation.

There is a more lasting legacy to the Bicester project, too.

The collaboration marks the beginning of a three-year partnership between Bicester Village and Studio Voltaire, providing funding for the arts organisation’s Learning Programme. The programme works with schools, colleges and community groups, offering free artist-led workshops, drop-in activities and skills development.

That makes the installation more than a seasonal visual intervention. Alongside the commercial and cultural spectacle, the partnership is intended to create opportunities for people who might otherwise have limited access to creative activities.

For Cook’s family, meanwhile, there is an obvious personal resonance to seeing her characters populate the Village.

Her granddaughter Sophie Howe has described the project as a playful tribute to an artist who loved watching people enjoy themselves, laugh and dress up.

It is perhaps the simplest way to understand why Cook’s work continues to lend itself so readily to public spaces.

Her paintings were never really about perfection. They were about people — often imperfect, frequently outrageous and usually having a good time.

At Bicester Village, those people have stepped out of the paintings.

For visitors wandering between the shops and cafés this autumn, Cook’s characters are no longer confined to a canvas. They are waiting around the next corner, sitting in the garden, appearing above a doorway or sharing the pavement.

And, 100 years after Cook’s birth, they are still enjoying themselves.

The Beryl Cook and Friends installation runs from 10 September to 25 October 2026. Bicester Village is open Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 8.00pm, Saturday from 9.00am to 9.00pm and Sunday from 10.00am to 7.00pm.

Stage Watch brings together a curated selection of upcoming theatre, musicals, opera and live performance from London and across the broader Oxfordshire region – from returning West End favourites and bold Shakespearean reinventions to experimental theatre and major operatic productions.

This selection moves between the exuberance of musical theatre, the intimacy of a one-off theatrical experiment and the timeless drama of Shakespeare and Puccini. There are puppets and pop anthems, a forest transformed into a festival, and an opera bringing an international cast and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra to the New Theatre Oxford. Together, they offer five very different reasons to make a date with the stage this week.

1. Avenue Q

Shaftesbury Theatre, London. Booking until 3 January 2027.

Two decades after first making its mark in the West End, Avenue Q returns to the Shaftesbury Theatre with its gloriously irreverent mix of puppetry, musical comedy and distinctly adult humour.

Fresh out of college and uncertain about what comes next, Princeton arrives on New York’s rundown Avenue Q, where he encounters a colourful collection of neighbours grappling with work, relationships, money and the awkward business of becoming an adult. Beneath the jokes and infectious musical numbers is a surprisingly warm story about finding your place in the world.

The production reunites original Broadway director Jason Moore and original puppet designer Rick Lyon, bringing back the distinctive combination of human performers and puppets that helped make the show a theatrical phenomenon. With music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, Avenue Q remains knowingly mischievous while retaining an affection for its flawed, lovable characters.

Best for: Fans of musical comedy, unconventional theatre and shows that are decidedly not aimed at children.

Tips: This is adult-themed musical theatre despite the puppets, with strong language and mature content. The age recommendation is 13+ and running time is approximately 2 hours 15 minutes, including an interval.

Buy tickets

2. White Rabbit Red Rabbit

Duchess Theatre, London. Booking until 2 November 2026.

Few theatrical experiences begin with quite this much uncertainty. White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Nassim Soleimanpour’s celebrated theatrical experiment, returns to the West End for its 15th anniversary – and no performer knows exactly what awaits them.

Each performance begins with an unopened envelope containing a script the actor has never seen. There is no rehearsal and no director guiding the action. Instead, the performer encounters the work for the first time alongside the audience, creating a theatrical event that can never quite be repeated.

First performed in 2011 and subsequently translated into more than 30 languages, the play uses its unusual premise to explore obedience, choice, power and freedom of expression. Its origins in contemporary Iran give the experiment a deeper political and philosophical dimension. At the same time, its deliberately unpredictable structure makes the relationship between actor and audience part of the drama itself.

The rotating line-up adds another layer of intrigue, with performers including David Harewood, Mel Giedroyc, Adam Buxton, Christopher Eccleston, Riz Ahmed, Nish Kumar and John Bradley among those taking on the challenge.

Best for: Curious theatre-goers, lovers of experimental performance and anyone looking for something genuinely unpredictable.

Tips: Every performance is different, so the choice of performer can be part of the attraction. The production is recommended for ages 14+ and contains themes that may be unsettling. Running time is approximately 60–70 minutes, without an interval.

Buy tickets

3. I’m Every Woman – The Chaka Khan Musical

Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, London. Booking until 27 September 2026. Save up to 59%.

The extraordinary career of Chaka Khan comes to the stage in I’m Every Woman, a new musical tracing the life, music and resilience of one of popular music’s defining voices.

With 22 albums, 25 chart hits, 70 million records sold and a career spanning five decades, Khan’s story provides plenty of material for a large-scale musical. Alexandra Burke takes on the central role, bringing her own formidable vocal credentials to a production built around songs including I Feel for You, Tell Me Something Good, Ain’t Nobody, Sweet Thing and Through the Fire.

But this is intended to be more than a concert with a narrative attached. The production explores the woman behind the superstar – from her rise to international fame to the personal battles and pressures that accompanied life in the spotlight. Figures including Prince, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Steve Winwood also feature in the story, placing Khan within the wider musical landscape she helped shape.

Directed by Racky Plews and choreographed by Ebony Clarke, the production promises a mixture of spectacle, biography and some of the most recognisable music of the past half-century.

Best for: Chaka Khan devotees, soul and R&B fans, and anyone who likes their musical biographies packed with big songs.

Tips: Alexandra Burke does not perform as Chaka Khan at Thursday evening performances, Saturday matinees or the Sunday 23 August performance, when Jordan Frazier takes the role. Running time is approximately 2 hours 40 minutes, including an interval.

Buy tickets

4. As You Like It

Globe Theatre, London. Booking until 25 October 2026. Tickets from £6.00. Save up to 44%.

Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden gets a distinctly contemporary makeover in this new As You Like It at the Globe, where the pastoral escape becomes something closer to a euphoric forest festival.

When Rosalind, Celia and their companions flee the restrictive world of the court, they find themselves in a place where conventional rules begin to loosen. In the Forest of Arden, identities shift, relationships flourish, and love becomes considerably less interested in social boundaries.

Co-directed by Sean Holmes and Charlie Josephine, this production promises an As You Like It driven by music, physicality and celebration. The Globe’s famously immediate relationship between actors and audience should lend particular energy to a comedy built around disguise, mistaken identity, desire and self-discovery.

The result is Shakespeare with its sense of playfulness firmly intact – a production that embraces the muddy, unruly spirit of the woods rather than treating Arden as simply a picturesque backdrop.

Best for: Shakespeare newcomers, seasoned Globe audiences and anyone drawn to lively, music-filled productions of the classics.

Tips: Expect a physical and celebratory interpretation rather than a traditional period piece. Running time is currently to be confirmed. Performances run until 25 October.

Buy tickets

5. Tosca

New Theatre Oxford. Thursday 24 and Saturday 26 September 2026.

Few operas arrive with a cast quite as formidable as this new production of Puccini’s Tosca, coming to Oxford for just two performances.

Presented by Oxford International Opera, the fully staged production brings together Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel as the ruthless Scarpia and award-winning soprano Carmen Giannattasio as Tosca, with lyric tenor Saimir Pirgu making his UK debut in the role of Cavaradossi.

Set against the political turmoil of Rome, Puccini’s opera combines passion, jealousy, power and betrayal in a drama that moves with almost cinematic intensity. P Burton-Morgan directs a new production designed by Anthony Lamble, bringing the classic story into a modern setting while retaining its emotional force.

The musical forces are equally significant. Marios Papadopoulos conducts the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, which becomes an integral voice in the drama alongside the Oxford Philharmonic Choir and an international cast of singers. For Oxford audiences, it represents an unusually ambitious operatic event on home ground – and Terfel’s appearance as Scarpia carries particular significance as his final staged production of Puccini’s Tosca.

Best for: Opera newcomers and devotees alike, particularly those wanting to experience a major international cast with a leading British orchestra.

Tips: With only two performances in Oxford, this is one for the diary rather than the spontaneous theatre trip. The New Theatre hosts the production on Thursday 24 and Saturday 26 September 2026.

Buy tickets