In town this Monday

Pick of the night

Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary
6.15pm, 8.40pm, Barbican Screen, EC2. £4.50. Tube: Barbican.

Radical Canadian director Guy Maddin has transformed Bram Stoker's legend into an expressionist ballet, with Mahler's symphonies haunting the soundtrack. Filmed beautifully in a perfectly detailed evocation of the German silent films it quotes (such as Murnau's Nosferatu and Dreyer's Vampyr) this is a brilliantly daring piece of poetic artifice that draws out all the horror and eroticism from the story. On Monday nights all tickets are reduced to concession prices at the Barbican, so there's absolutely no excuse!
020 7638 8891

For one night only

John Cale
7pm, Shepherd's Bush Empire, W12. £17.50. Tube: Shepherd's Bush.

The former Velvet Underground man is a complete one-off in the history of rock - a classically trained Welshman who wound up playing viola with Warhol's protégés in New York. Since parting company with Lou Reed, he has pursued a myriad of musical paths, always pushing back boundaries. His latest album, Hobosapiens has been received with critical rapture, and marks a highly listenable amalgam of his left-field interests.
0870 771 2000

Film

Alien: The Director's Cut
8.20pm, Odeon Mezzanine, Leicester Square, WC2. £8. Tube: Leicester Square.
The revamped 1979 classic feels improbably new. Ridley Scott's nightmarish universe is still the eeriest of any sci-fi film.
0870 505 0007

Goodbye Lenin!
Odeon Wardour Street, Screen on the Green, Rio Cinema (phone for times).

Still on at a few cinemas, but it's your last chance to catch it. An East-German boy tries to shield his Communist mother from the realities of the new capitalist regime.

La Règle du Jeu
8.30pm, ICA2, SW1. £6.50 (£5.50 concs). Tube: Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus.

Jean Renoir's 1939 society comedy centres on a lavish country party, with the director's trademark roving camera fluidly tracking between reality and fantasy, farce and tragedy.
020 7930 3647

Shows

Jerry Springer: The Opera
7.45pm, Cambridge Theatre, WC2. £25-£50. Tube: Covent Garden.

The king of trash TV gets the full-on opera treatment. Reductions for the under-25s.
0870 890 1102

Sweet Panic
7.30pm, Duke of York's, WC2. £7.50-39.50. Tube: Leicester Square.

Creeping terror is the order of the day in Stephen Poliakoff 's lengthy drama. Jane Horrocks gives a riveting performance as the stalker mother of a disturbed young boy.
020 7369 1791

Duck
7.45pm, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, SW1. £7.50-£16. Tube: Sloane Square.

Duck (Ruth Negga) is a confused young lady caught between uncaring men. Playwright Stella Feehily's debut is hard-hitting and emotional.
020 7565 5100/5000

Music

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Royal Festival Hall, SE1. £6-£33. Tube: Waterloo, Embankment.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts Brahms's Tragic Overture and Schumann's D Minor Violin Concerto among other pieces.
020 7960 4242

Ed Harcourt
7.30pm, Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Road, W12. £12.50. Tube: Shepherd's Bush.

The debonair piano maestro has just come back from supporting REM, so expect him to be in fine form.
020 8222 6933

Jackie Leven
8pm, 12 Bar Club, Denmark Place, WC2. £8. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

The wonderfully voiced Celt's Christmas special: an intimate evening of poetry and song at this fantastic venue.
020 7916 6989

Comedy and Cabaret

The Pub Landlord's Winter Warmer
8pm, Headliners, 185 High Road, W4. £12.50. Tube: Turnham Green.

Al Murray's comic creation is side-splittingly spot on. Tonight's gig is a benefit for a local primary school.
020 8566 4067