This weekend’s picks include John Waters’ “up close and personal” tribute to John Lennon, Chinese composer Tan Dun’s symphony inspired by a secret script and an after-dark High Seas adventure at the Art Gallery of SA.

You can also see Melbourne band The Bennies, Scottish blues-rock singer and musician Sandi Thom, the Adelaide Wind Orchestra and Unseen Theatre’s The Last Continent.

John Waters – Looking Through a Glass Onion

Described as “a homage to the music, mystery and memory of John Lennon”, this all-ages show sees John Waters seeking not to impersonate Lennon, but rather to explore the “essence” of the singer through song and spoken word”. He performs 31 songs, including, “A Day in the Life”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Revolution”, “Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds” and “Imagine”. There are performances tonight (Friday) and tomorrow in the Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.

Tan Dun: Nu Shu – The Secret Songs of Women

Created by composer and conductor Tan Dun and performed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and solo harpist Elizabeth Hainen, this OzAsia concert is a tribute to the ancient secret language of Nu Shu spoken by women in a small village in China’s Hunan. Described as a 13-movement micro-film symphony, Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women incorporates footage shot during Dun’s research visit to the village of Jiangyong County. It will be presented at the Festival Theatre on Saturday night (September 27) in a program that also includes Dun’s Symphonic Poem on Three Notes and Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin (Suite). Read InDaily’s interview with the composer here.

Departure – High Seas

The Art Gallery of South Australia is showcasing the work of contemporary South Australian artist Nicholas Folland at its Departure after-dark event tonight (Friday). Titled High Seas, it coincides with the exhibition The Extreme Climate of Nicholas Folland, which explores themes of maritime history, migration and colonial exploration. Folland will be discussing his work with curator Lisa Slade, and there will also be live entertainment, activities, food and drinks. The exhibition, in Gallery 9-10, continues until February 1, 2015.

The Bennies – Crown & Anchor

Melbourne-based band The Bennies, recently announced as part of the 2015 Soundwave line-up, are in Adelaide as part of their 17-date Australian tour. With a sound they describe as “psychedelic reggae ska doom metal punk rock from hell”, the lads will be playing two shows (Saturday and Sunday nights) at the Crown & Anchor with New York band Morning Glory.

Community fair + Fork on the Road

Food truck event Fork on the Road is teaming up with Can: Do 4Kids as the children’s charity celebrates its 140^th anniversary with a community fair in the grounds of historic Townsend House at Hove this Sunday from 11am until 5pm. As well as food, there will be Adelaide Hills wine, live music, an animal farm, giant board games, a ventriloquist and a jumping castle. Entry is by gold coin donation and you will find more info here.

Adelaide Wind Orchestra

The fifth concert in this ensemble’s 2014 season will be performed with violinist Elizabeth Layton tonight (Friday) at the Concordia College Chapel. The program comprises Kurt Weill’s Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, and Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Next month (October 31), the Adelaide Wind Orchestra will be showcasing the works of composer John Mackey, including two Australian premieres.

Shimmer Photographic Biennale

This is the final weekend of the City of Onkaparinga’s month-long photography festival. Shimmer includes exhibitions across 32 venues featuring the work of more than 40 artists, with work ranging from Alice Branch’s black and white landscapes captured on a 1940s Box Brownie (at Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards in McLaren Vale) to a collective exhibition celebrating the diversity of the male form (Male: Real/Ideal, Gemtree Vineyards, McLaren Flat). The full program, including exhibition details, can be downloaded here.

Sandi Thom – Trinity Sessions

Scottish blues-rock singer and musician Sandi Thom is returning to the Trinity Sessions with guest Maggie Rutjens. Thom, who got her break by staging a live-streamed tour from her London flat in 2006 and has since become known for her hit “I Want to be a Punk Rocker (with Flowers in My Hair)”, will perform at the Church of the Trinity on Goodwood Road on Sunday. Doors open 5.30pm and you can get all the details here.

Chesslife

This free Splash Adelaide event offers the chance to learn how to play chess, with giant chess pieces, three-way chess, “blitz games” and coaching sessions. And if the finer points of the game still elude you, you can apparently colour in your favourite chess piece. Chesslife begins at 11am on Sunday in front of the National War Memorial on North Terrace.

Pop-Up Play Day

Another Splash Adelaide initiative, the Pop-Up Play Day in the Parklands will encourage kids to use their creativity to turn natural and recycled materials into play equipment – imagine a hide-out made of planks and crates, or a maze built from PVC pipes. It will take place at the East Terrace Glover Playground from 10am until 3pm on Sunday, with an “imagination playground” also operating for older children, and a hang-out area offering food and drink for parents. More info here.

Canada’s Artic – Vibrant and Thriving

This exhibition at the South Australian Museum features contemporary photographs showing nature and life in the Arctic. It continues until October 12, and is accompanied by a selection of Inuit carvings from the museum’s collection, as well as a continuous screening of Kinngait: Riding Light into the World, a Canadian documentary about how the isolated Inuit community of Cape Dorset became a celebrated art capital.

The Last Continent – Unseen Theatre

“The Last Continent is under construction using all the left over bits and pieces from other continents. Basically it is being held together with spit. If this is not a big enough problem, there is also something going on with the space/time continuum. Probably something to do with those pesky wizards at the Unseen University.” Welcome to Sir Terry Pratchett’s The Last Continent, a novel adapted for the stage by Unseen Theatre Company’s Pamela Munt. Six years after it first presented the satire, Adelaide-based Unseen Theatre has brought it back to the Bakehouse Theatre with the season continuing until October 4.

Warakurna exhibition

This travelling exhibition currently at the South Australian Museum features paintings by Aboriginal artists from the Western Australian community of Warakurna. The paintings are said to combine familiar Western Desert symbols and dots with a more figurative style to recount current and historical events ranging from the impact of weapons testing and mining to a visit by Midnight Oil. Warakurna: All the Stories Got into our Minds and Eyes will be at the museum until November 30.

Adelaide Chamber Singers

The singers are promising a “fiery finale” to their 2014 season with concerts weaving together Monteverdi’s madrigals. “Monteverdi was one of the greatest of all madrigal composers and his eight books of madrigals represent the pinnacle of that intimate and dramatic musical genre that entertained and flourished in the royal courts of Renaissance Italy,” says musical director Carl Crossin. The Monteverdi’s Fire concerts are: Saturday, 6.30pm, in the Pilgrim Church andSunday, 3pm, at the Church of the Epiphany at Crafers.

On screen

See InDaily’s reviews of the latest films screening in Adelaide:

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
The Immigrant
We Are the Best
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
What We Do in the Shadows
Boyhood
Predestination