45 glorious things to do this week in London
Shake off your Monday blues and take a look at some of the great stuff going on this week. Shuffle along to Danny Boyle’s film festival, try a newly opened Greek restaurant, or party at Your Mum’s House. So. Much. Fun. To. Be. Had.
Eating and drinking
Head to one of these newly opened restaurants:
Opso, Marylebone. A refreshing approach to Greek dining in London.
Hawksmoor Knightsbridge, Yeoman’s Road. Sensational steak for the well-heeled.
Ask for Janice, Smithfield. The best bits from everywhere else – if you don’t mind a lack of originality.
Barrafina, Leicester Square. Barrafina’s menu is studded with Mallorcan and Catalan tapas dishes.
Bell and Brisket, Highgate. Food trucks run by Bel Shapiro, serving brisket.
Stephen Street Kitchen, West End. An awkward concrete space transformed into an appealing brasserie.
…or see more new restaurant reviews.
A few of the best comedy shows
Anthony Jeselnik, Soho Theatre, all week, prices vary. He’s a dark, deranged stand-up, telling near-the-knuckle jokes.
The Good Ship Comedy Club, The Good Ship, Monday, £5, £4 advance. Monday’s Good Ship bill includes Edinburgh Fringe previews from chatty stand-up Carl Donnelly and surrealist thinker Pat Cahill plus MC Ben Van der Velde.
Rise of the Idiots, The Exhibit, Monday, £7, £5 advance. Excellent-value Edinburgh preview double bills.
The Yard Laughs, The Yard Theatre, Tues-Thurs, £7 or £11 for two dates.The Yard Theatre hosts double-bills of Edinburgh Fringe preview double-bills throughout May, June and July.
Volvic Juiced’s Comedy Fest, Regent’s Park, Tuesday, free. This comedy gig sponsored by – yep, you guessed it! – Volvic water is free to all, but you need to reserve a spot through Event Brite.
Dave Hughes – Pointless, Soho Theatre, Wed-Thurs, prices vary. No-nonsense stand-up Dave Hughes is a household name in his homecountry of Australia.
Jim Jefferies – Day Streaming, O2 Academy Brixton, Thursday, £25. This brash, confrontational and dangerously funny comic has just added a second Brixton date due to popular demand.
…or see all 72 comedy shows in London this week.
Live music
Elliot Galvin Trio + Ben Corrigan’s Light Tree, Vortex, Monday, £10, £8 advance. The Chaos Collective (responsible for bringing trumpeter Laura Jurd to the fore) present another exciting new showcase.
Dead Rat Orchestra,London Canal Museum, Monday, £8, £6 advance. Check out this fascinating band, who draw on post-rock and improv as much as folk music, building tracks from haunted violin strains or the tinkling of flung metal.
Chilly Gonzales, Roundhouse, Tuesday, £22.50-£20. The self-proclaimed ‘musical genius’ leads a masterclass to inspire lapsed pianists to start playing again. Expect rapping and dressing gowns.
Shiver + Matthew Bourne Synthesizer Show, Vortex, Tuesday, £10. Guitarist Chris Sharkey – alumnus of Acoustic Ladyland and trioVD – leads his latest project, Shiver through high-octane improv, post-rock and electronica.
Samantha Crain, The Lexington, Tues, £12. Delicate Oklahoman singer-songwriter Crain performs an acoustic solo set.
Songhoy Blues, Servant Jazz Quarters, Wednesday, £8. They’re back for a second crack at London, and should set this intimate Dalston basement venue alight.
Famy, The Lexington, Wednesday, £6. London band Famy (formerly Family, but clearly they were getting confused with the ’70s prog rock band) specialise in highly promising lo-fi, echo-laden songwriting.
Skinny Girl Diet, Ace Hotel London Shoreditch, Wednesday, free. Raucous and very cool female punks Skinny Girl Diet headline a 1-2-3-4 event with support from screechy post-punk band The Wharves and strummy guitar man Joe Fox.
FKA Twigs, Heaven, Thursday, £12. Sensual songs and subtly discomforting visuals from this London singer-songwriter.
…or see all 57 gigs happening this week.
A couple of decent club nights
Your Mum’s House, The Nest, Thursday, prices vary. A ‘dress up ‘n’ get messed up’ night of mayhem and mischief.
Sessions, Corsica Studios, Thursday, prices vary. A weekend bass session for some of the finest underground warriors around.
…or see all 34 parties happening this week.
Film
Everyman: The Power of Summer, Battersea Power Station, Tues and Thurs, prices vary. With a 1,000-capacity bar and the Street Feast crew bringing Yum Buns and jerk chicken, we highly recommend this film and food mash-up.
Shuffle Festival, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, Wed- Thurs, prices vary. More than a film festival, Shuffle is a local get-together and cultural free-for-all, with music, art, a pop-up restaurant (using locally foraged foods – the mind boggles), circus acts, swimming pool and a mile-long hopscotch.
Or at the cinema…
‘Joe’ ★★★☆☆ Adapted from Mississippi writer Larry Brown’s 1991 novel, ‘Joe’ is a moody, melancholic throwback to the dramas that first gained director David Gordon Green (‘George Washington’) attention.
‘Branded to Kill’ ★★★★★ The violence is raw, the sex even more so, and the monochrome photography is flawless.
‘Northwest’★★★☆☆ Cool down with this tough Scandi crime drama about the rise of a teenage skinhead in Copenhagen’s crime-ridden Nordvest neighbourhood.
…or see our reviews of other films in cinemas right now.
At the theatre
‘The Nether’, Royal Court Theatre, all week, prices vary. ‘The Nether’ may never happen, but the questions it asks are already chillingly pertinent.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Tues- Thurs, prices vary. Eve Best is fabulously lucid as the Egyptian queen in Jonathan Munby’s fine production.
‘A Street Car Named Desire’, Young Vic, The 1948 play tells of the fragile fading southern belle Blanche, whose visit to her sister results in a dramatic, violent and sexually charged confrontation with her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski.
‘Forbidden Broadway’, Menier Chocolate Factory. Ripping through audiences for over 30 years, this take-no-prisoners Broadway revue is dangerously funny.
‘The Pajama Game’, Shaftesbury Theatre. The show may be called ‘The Pajama Game’ but there’s nothing sleepy about a production that harkens back to Eyre’s legendary revival of ‘Guys and Dolls’.
‘1984’, Playhouse Theatre. A brilliant but brutal production.
‘The Crucible’, Old Vic. Three-and-a-half-hours engulf your soul like a black mass in this titanic, ritualistic production of Arthur Miller’s tragedy.
…or see all critics’ choice theatre shows.
This week’s best art
‘Inflatable Cobblestone’ © Oriana Eliçabe/Enmedio.info
Disobedient Objects, V&A, all week, free. Take a peek at a selection of objects from the 1980s until the present day, that detail the history of protest and the role these objects played in making change happen.
Malevich, Tate Modern, all week, prices vary. Square up to a twentieth-century giant in this gripping survey.
Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision, National Portrait Gallery, all week, prices vary. Woolf’s words are brought to life at the NPG.
Gilbert & George: Scapegoating Pictures for London, White Cube Bermondsey, Tues-Thurs, free. Never have kisses seemed more self-consciously sardonic than in Gilbert & George’s ‘Scapegoating Pictures for London’.
Sickboy: Make It Last Forever, The Outsiders,Tues-Thurs, free. Vivid paintings that capture the ephemeral qualities of our daily existence are juxtaposed by personal paraphernalia.
What’s Love Got to Do with It, Hayward Gallery, all week, free. The Hayward’s Project Space has gone all gooey-eyed with this group show about how we express love.
A House is Not a Hotel, Pi Artworks, all week, free. Five artists including Lisa Slominski, Christian Newby and Farniyaz Zaker look at the role of inhabiting and our relationship to a short-lived existence.
Donald Silverstein: Jimi Hendrix, Snap Galleries, Tues-Thurs, free. These previously unseen archive images taken by the late American photographer in London in 1967 form a mesmerising portrait of the legendary Jimi Hendrix.
Absurd Observations, Proud Camden, all week, free. The effervescent images perfectly capture ‘The Art of Dressing Up’.
And finally
The best of the blog…
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