Matthew Bourne, most famous for his work with Adventures in Motion Pictures, especially the innovative and erotic all-male Swan Lake, has arrived at the National Theatre. His Play Without Words: the housewarming is a witty piece of dance theatre with a jazzy score by Terry Davies. Set in 1965, it explores the social world of affluent Chelsea-dweller Anthony, his fiancee, manservant, maid and an old friend, while suggesting the changes happening in film and television and between classes at this time. Often funny - there is a hilarious dance-dressing sequence involving Anthony and his manservant - sometimes sexy and always as strong on character and emotion as a play should be, this is a piece satisfying to both dance and theatre enthusiasts. The three main characters are played in triplicate, with sufficient variation to allow far greater depth of characterisation than one dancer could provide in each case. Until September 14. Tickets: 020 7452 3000.

* Wedding invitation

The London String of Pearls Golden Jubilee Festival continues next week. Between September 6 and 13, a display of unconventional wedding dresses made by women and children in west London will be on show in the Kensington Palace Orangery. Teenagers from youth clubs and primary school pupils have joined local grannies and women from Africa and the Caribbean to make dresses out of tissue paper, felt, glass, feathers, ribbons and fabrics. The display complements the exhibition, A Century of Queens’ Wedding Dresses 1840-1947. Information: 020 7665 1540.

* Run, Rabbit, run

Unicorn Theatre’s Peter Rabbit amp; His Friends, by Adrian Mitchell, will contribute to the centenary celebrations of Beatrix Potter’s most famous tale by touring the UK from September 9, beginning at the Buxton Opera House. Dates in many places, from Dublin to Worthing, Crewe to Lowestoft, follow. Tour details: 020 7376 0915.

* High notes

British Youth Opera will be performing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London from this evening until September 5. Singers up to the age of 30 have been coached by top professionals and are joined by young instrumentalists and production staff, all under expert guidance, to stage Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Orpheus in the Underworld by Offenbach. Tickets: 020 7960 4242. For information about BYO: www.byo.org.uk.

* Death Valley in Cambridge

The Institute of Visual Culture is a new organisation championing contemporary art in all media in a newly designed exhibition space at the Fitzwilliam Museum. The inaugural exhibition is a solo show by artist Angela Bulloch, opening on September 8. For her installation she will present a new Cinemascope pixel system based on video material shot at “The Artist’s Palette” in Death Valley, California. Information: 01223 350 533.

* Welsh roar

The 2002 Lumiere Lecture, “Lion of the Welsh: Sally Burton on Richard Burton”, will take place at the National Museum of Photography, Film amp; Television in Bradford on September 22. Eighteen years after the star’s untimely death, his widow will provide a coda to the retrospective of Burton’s work shown at the Bradford Film Festival by looking back over his life and career. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, the film for which he won an Oscar nomination, is also due to be screened on September 22.

Meanwhile, the children’s MovieClub offers The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle on September 14, Antz on September 21 and Jason and the Argonauts on September 28. Information about all events: www.nmpft.org.ukfilm.