Cultural wellbeing: five shows to see at the start of 2025

With

a new study showing

that engaging with cultural activities is not only beneficial for your mental and physical health but can also save the NHS upwards of £8bn, getting out to more plays and galleries may be a good new year resolution for us all. So once you’ve shaken off the effects of New Year’s Eve, here are five shows with a variety of horror, drama, art and magic to see at the start of 2025.

1. RISE, City Park, Bradford

In celebration of

being named

as the UK City of Culture for 2025, Bradford is rolling out a series of cultural and artistic projects and shows – beginning in January with RISE, an open-air magic show created by Kirsty Housley and Bradford-born Steven Frayne, the magician formerly known as Dynamo. Kicking off the city’s year-long showcase, RISE will take over Bradford’s City Park and has been described as exploring “heritage, people and magic found in unexpected places”.

• RISE will run

  on Friday 10 January and Saturday 11 January 2025

2. Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright, Wyndham’s Theatre, London

Following on from their acclaimed horror anthology series, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith reunite to bring Inside No. 9 to the West End with Stage/Fright. The duo’s show, directed by Simon Evans, combines previous stories and characters from their combined bodies of work as well as original material, and will be their first stage collaboration since the live tours of The League of Gentlemen.

• Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright will run

  from Thursday 16 January to Saturday 5 April 2025

3. The Tempest/Much Ado About Nothing, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London

From the seasoned and prolific theatre director Jamie Lloyd come his adaptations of two of William Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays. Only days away from its first show, The Tempest, a story of hate and forgiveness, stars Sigourney Weaver as the wizard Prospero in her West End debut. His second Shakespeare project, Much Ado About Nothing, will feature Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell as Benedick and Beatrice respectively, two opposites who are led to believe they are in love with one another.

• The Tempest will run

  from Monday 16 December 2024 – Saturday 1 February 2025

• Much Ado About Nothing will run

  from Monday 10 February 2025 – Saturday 5 April 2025

4. The Face Magazine: Culture Shift, National Portrait Gallery, London

From late February the National Portrait Gallery will be exhibiting photos from the pioneering cultural magazine

The Face

. The exhibition will be complemented by a special edition of

the magazine

, which will include interviews with famed contributors such as

the photographer Glen Luchford

, the designer

Neville Brody

and the art director Lee Swillingham.

• The Face Magazine: Culture Shift

  will run from Thursday 20 February – Sunday 18 May 2025

5. Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works, Baltic, Gateshead

Showing

the work of the late Franki Raffles

, this exhibition retroactively explores the lives of women and their roles in different societies around the world, including in the then Soviet Union, the Caribbean, Israel and Palestine– a theme prevalent throughout much of Raffles’s career.

• Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works

  is running until Sunday 16 Mar 2025