Things to do in London this week

After 430 or so years, it’s fairly apparent that we as a species are not going to get tired of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. And Emily Lim’s new take still feels like a breath of fresh air. Lim’s USP is creating massive-scale participatory public theatre works. This isn’t quite that, but it uses the Globe’s large, lairy crowd to maximum impact for a production that cheerily deviates repeatedly from Shakespeare’s exact text in a joyous, almost non-stop welter of audience interaction. The embellishments run from start to finish, with a lengthy and enjoyable pre-show that involves roping audience members into ‘auditions’ for the Mechanicals. It’s a good vibes only Dream. By the time it all ends in a virtual apocalypse of bubbles it’s safe to say that you will have been charmed.

Brilliant news for bookworms: Fleet Street’s literature festival is returning for 2026. The Fleet Street Quarter Festival of Words will be exploring how words shape our world all while celebrating its heritage as the home of London’s printing press. The first line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is serving as the opening gambit for this year’s festival: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.’ The programme spans 30 events which explore the age of ‘wisdom and foolishness’.  

After four decades of underuse, the Barbican has decided its time to resurrect its grand sculpture court which sits above the Concert Hall and is framed by the curve of Frobisher Crescent. To kick things off, the court will host a major public artwork by Colombian sculptor Delcy Morelos. Inspired by ancestral Andean cosmovisions, and drawing on minimalism and abstraction, Morelos’ installations are hand built from clay, soil, hay and plant seed. By embedding the loam with spices, including cinnamon and cloves, Morelos transforms her sculptures into multi-sensory environments.  

Chic little Italian restaurants are all the rage in London right now, but Auguste, though equally elegant, isn’t that kind of Italian. For starters, there’s barely any pasta on the menu. Instead, this refined east London bistro leans into the hearty mountain food of Abruzzo, a hilltop utopia to the east of Rome.  It’s the first real restaurant chef Mike Bagnall and general manager Dylan Walters, formerly of Bambi. The duo have taken over a space previously home to Papi and made it their own. A rosti with blue cheese and marjoram is every bit as epic as it ought to be. There’s cured sea bream with a sparky puttanesca salsa, fresh asparagus with peas and wild garlic, but most dishes are rich and hearty like the mystical wild boar-stuffed morel mushrooms topped with truffle and skinny, flame-grilled skewers known as arrosticini. If you aren’t afraid of flavour, Auguste truly needs to be your next booking. 

London’s obsession with all things Nordic continues with this four-day fest that’ll send a cool breeze through Covent Garden’s piazza, with a line-up of food, culture and performance straight from Norway. Relax to the sounds of a music line-up, including jazz band Sletta, folk singer Robert Post, and The London Nordic Choir. Browse a selection of Norwegian-inspired food and drink pop-ups, including Stockfleths Coffee in collaboration with ScandiKitchen. And check out brands like Pastael, whose viral packing cubes are an organised traveller's dream. The festivities are all in honour of Syttende Mai (17th May), Norway’s Constitution Day. So pop to the Thirsty Farrier for an Aquavit-laced cocktail or Oslo Spritz, and say a celebratory 'Skål' to the land of the Vikings. 

Virginia Woolf’s towering 1931 novel The Waves, a haunting modernist blend of poetry and novel that sketches out the lives of six – or perhaps seven – friends, is not a simple read. But it goes down surprisingly smoothly in this stage adaptation by Flora Wilson Brown. Julia Levai’s deft, efficient production and a superb cast inject warmth and feeling into Woolf’s lengthy poetic soliloquies. We get plenty of Woolf’s original poetry, but Brown is fearless about chopping and changing, adding lashings of dialogue and rearranging things to make the autobiographical character of Rhoda the effective main narrator. It’s a clever move, and it flows smoothly, poignantly mapping out six people’s lives from childhood innocence to middle age.

A woolly family caper with a nostalgic flavour, The Sheep Detectives conjures flattering comparisons with Babe. Like that 1995 Best Picture nominee, it’s an adaptation from a well-thumbed children’s book with talking animals to charm the stoniest soul, plus a smattering of excellent jokes. Minions director Kyle Balda does a lovely job rounding up a clever murder-mystery plot, some talking sheep and a few deeper thoughts in a way that will bring a smile to all ages. One or two dark moments will bring fleeting alarm to the youngest viewers, but for a movie in which cinema’s loveable Hugh Jackman is offed in merciless style, it’s an irrepressibly jolly way to pass a couple of hours of lambing season.

Discover Hackney's fascinating past at this history festival, which is packed with talks, walks and live events that’ll have you looking at the borough in a whole new light. This weekend the Round House will host talks spotlighting suffragettes, ghost shop signs, the borough’s geology and the hidden histories of Sylheti lascars in Hackney. The fest will conclude at Chats Palace on Sunday with panels covering the 1978 Rock Against Racism, secrets from Savoy Cinema and how Turkish and Kurdish women have helped shape the area. It’ll all round off with a pub quiz to test your newfound Hackney knowledge. 

Dave Harris’ Tender is a drama about how hard it is to be a man. But don’t worry, you can put the pepper spray away: we are far away from incel territory here. The US playwright’s latest, directed by Matthew Xia, speaks to the sheer scope of Harris’ imagination, and Xia’s ability to articulate his out-there ideas on a modest budget. The setting is a New Jersey strip club in which the female clientele and the male strippers are allowed to engage in actual sex acts due to a convoluted legal loophole. But the men are a mess. It’s a story about the pressure of being a man as a sexual being; not in a woe-is-me way but as in ‘these are pressures on men that aren’t often discussed’.

James Cameron has found another strong female to celebrate in this get-up-and-dance, visually electrifying burst of pop iconography. Yes, it’s in 3D, but Cameron really knows how to use the tech. Apart from the confetti-cannon finale, this is an immersive front row and on-stage spot at Billie Eilish’s 2025 world tour. Filmed across several nights of the singer’s gigs at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena, and co-directed by Cameron and Eilish herself, it opens without preamble: a giant cube lifts up from the stage and the singer jack-in-the-boxes out and into a storming rendition of ‘Chihiro’. The behind-the-music interludes are mainly intimate and insightful, as the doc cuts back to the hours leading up to the gig. There’s gushy confessions of love for the fans, and pre-gig vox pops full of Billiemania, but they’re sincere. She’s a refreshing, reflective presence. 

The Southbank’s graffitied skate mecca is about as iconic as skate parks get. This spring, the Southbank Centre is celebrating 50 years of the concrete space beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall that was first adopted by skaters in 1976. To tell the story of the legendary park, the Southbank centre has collaborated with the skate community to identify key events, figures and moments that have shaped the space, bringing all the stories together in one mega exhibition. Skate 50 will comprise photographs, films, sound art and animations, featuring contributions from Winstan Whitter, Dan Magee, Lev Tanju, Jack Brooks, the Keep Rolling Project, Beatrice Dillon and Sofia Negri. 

This 1968 play by the great dramatist of the fractured American Dream, Arthur Miller, is compelling in its uncompromising cynicism, originally written as a rebuke to how Miller perceived the abstract, consequence-free tone of 1960s theatre. New York cop Victor (Elliot Cowan) has returned with his wife, Esther (Faye Castelow), to his long-dead father’s home before it’s demolished, re-opening old wounds. A heavyweight creative team makes the weight of this past almost tangible and it’s thrilling to see talented actors really knock chunks out of each other, with the director excavating every ounce of pain from their performances. There’s some seriously meaty material here about how we take ownership of our lives when value is relative.

Six by Nico returns to Time Out with its latest tasting menu, heading straight to Seoul and drawing on a research trip that saw the team dive deep into the city’s food scene. Over three days, they moved through basement kitchens, chef-led tastings and cultural spaces that revealed just how layered and expressive Korean cooking can be.

That journey now shapes a six-course menu built around memory, technique and bold flavour. Expect dishes that pull from tradition but land with a modern edge, each one tied back to moments from the trip that stuck long after returning to London. It’s immersive, confident cooking that turns travel into a tasting experience.

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Artist Sian Fan’s new multidisciplinary installation at Somerset House explores how magic and mysticism manifests in our consumer-driven world. From TikTok tarot readings, to Pokémon cards, Chinese fortune knots and video game talismans, Fan’s references range from pop culture to the historical. She draws on the myths, folklore, and storytelling traditions found in contemporary gaming and popular culture, Fan highlights how spirituality persists in these ultra-modern spaces. 

Tucked inside the Pan Pacific London hotel, Ginger Lily Bar & Lounge makes a very good case for slowing down over the weekend. Available on Fridays and Saturdays, the experience pairs elegant surroundings with half a bottle of Taittinger champagne, served as sunlight pours through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

On the table, expect freshly baked scones, delicate pastries and neat finger sandwiches prepared by the pastry team. A selection of Newby teas and tea-infused mocktails rounds things off nicely, creating an easy, indulgent way to spend an afternoon in the City.

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A landmark exhibition exploring how Black British music has shaped culture in Britain and beyond. Items on display will include Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, looks worn by Little Simz and newly acquired photography by Dennis Morris and Jennie Baptiste. The exhibition’s opening will also feature a sound experience by Sennheiser, and will mark the launch of a the inaugural edition of a new festival that will take place annually each spring, bringing together the East Bank’s neighbouring cultural institutions, which include the London College of Fashion, the BBC Music Studios, Sadler’s Wells East and UCL East.

Celebrate the Year of the Horse in Chinatown with a feast that keeps the good fortune flowing. Tucked in the heart of Chinatown, Leongs Legend is a long-running Taiwanese favourite offering 45 percent off its bottomless dim sum and prosecco brunch, with 90 minutes of unlimited handmade dumplings and a glass of fizz from a very enticing £24.95. Expect plent of baskets (over 40 dishes) of xiao long bao, and a lively, teahouse-style setting that makes it an obvious pick for ringing in the lunar celebrations with friends.

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Newsflash! The Idler has given Victoria a bit of a glow-up. The Mediterranean restaurant sits inside The July hotel and feels stylish without trying too hard, just the place to slide into a booth for a date or grab a solo seat at the bar and still feel right at home. The dishes lean on seasonal British produce with a bright Mediterranean lift. Until March 31 you can enjoy two or three courses with our exclusive Time Out offer.

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