Art meets science

The Clean Rooms exhibition at Gallery Oldham (until November 30) makes the link between the “white cube” environment of the modern art gallery and the brightly-lit decontaminated chambers used for conducting ultra-sensitive scientific experiments.

The work in Clean Rooms uses art to familiarise visitors with biotechnology materials and practices rarely seen outside a corporate laboratory. Neal White’s exhibit constructs a spoof “clean room” complete with white-suited operatives. Gina Czarnecki’s installation allows visitors to manipulate life-sized projections of human figures and digitally generate new composite human subjects. Tomorrow only, American art group Critical Art Ensemble presents GenTerra, a free performance that aims to separate the hysteria from legitimate concerns about bioterrorism and transgenics. Tel: 0161 911 4653; www.galleryoldham.org.uk.

Hail SeZaR

SeZaR is an energetic South African production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Transposing the action to the fictional African state of Azania, SeZaR brings to life the violent power struggles of a nation in transition. Remaining broadly faithful to the original Shakespearean text, this powerful physical version adds dance and drumming and gives voice to the “rabblement” through a chorus of South African dialects. It tours the UK until November 9, visiting Winchester, Reading, Belfast, Nottingham and the Isle of Man. www.sezar.com.

All the pretty horses

Cossack riders, Arabian stallions, 34-inch miniature falabella horses and a winged Pegasus can all be found in the Spirit of the Horse show, touring until November 24. Equine stars mix with dancers, comic performers and gymnasts from around the world. In London, Cardiff and Dublin. Tickets: 01260 288681; www.equestriantheatre.co.uk.

National Poetry Day

“Celebration” is the theme of this year’s National Poetry Day on October 10. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts new poems throughout the day by writers including Jackie Kay and Liz Lochhead. Check the Poetry Society’s website (www.poetrysociety.org.uk) for up-to-date details of activities. In Birmingham they’ll be unravelling a 128-metre ode to libraries, putting poems on barges, holding poetry boat races and crowning Birmingham’s 6th poet laureate. In London, meanwhile, national Poet Laureate Andrew Motion will be reading with Carol Ann Duffy at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. Booking: 020 7420 9880.

Literary Cheltenham

A visit from Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy is the main coup for the Cheltenham Festival of Literature (October 11-20). Hot tickets will include Jenny Uglow talking about the 18th-century scientists Erasmus Darwin and James Watt, Richard Eyre and John Bayley discussing Iris Murdoch, and a discussion on the influence of childhood reading. Also look out for Alan Ayckbourn, Germaine Greer, Ben Okri and Beryl Bainbridge. Booking 01242 227979. www.cheltenhamfestivals.co.uk.