Things to do in London this week

Grab your rainbow flags and banners and join the million or so people who are expected to march through the streets at London’s Pride parade, which marks the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. With stages set up across central London, it’s a fun and life-affirming event, but we can’t deny that it doesn’t get a little overwhelming with all the crowds. The route kicks off in Green Park at 12pm, by Hyde Park Corner tube station. It then travels along Piccadilly towards Piccadilly Circus station, before finishing outside Big Ben. Pick your Pride stage and then line-up one of the many after-parties across the city to live out the day in style.

London summer has officially kicked into gear. And that means that the Wimbledon Tennis Championships – aka the oldest, and arguably the very best, tennis tournament in the world – is back. This year the tournament is happening from Monday June 30 to Sunday July 13. Thousands will be descending on SW19 to see the matches go down in real life, but live screenings will be peppered all over London for thousands more who missed the ticket ballot or can’t be bothered to queue in the hopes of getting in for the day. With a jug of Pimms in one hand and a punnet of strawberries in the other, you’ll hardly know the difference. Even better – most of watch parties won’t cost you a single penny. So, pack your picnic blanket, fill your flask and pull up a pew at a summery screening near you. 

Women’s football fan collective Baller FC has teamed up with craft beer heroes Signature Brew to bring the Women’s Euros to the big screen. Every single England and Wales game will air at the brewery’s Haggerston taproom, as well as a curated pick of group stage clashes and all the knockout stages. This is not just a bunch of screenings, though. This is an all-out month-long footie fiesta. Besides the games themselves, there’ll be DJs, street skills challenges, foosball contests, karaoke, art takeovers, barber cuts, temp tatts, WoSo-inspired makeovers and the return of Baller’s ‘guess the player by the ponytail’ quiz. No Euros watch party is quite as fun-filled as this one.  

It’s a trap, almost, to think of Eugene O’Neill’s final play A Moon for the Misbegotten as a sequel to his miserable masterpiece Long Day’s Journey Into Night. But you go in expecting despair and instead find something that’s more like an episode of Steptoe and Son. Maybe that’s down to director Rebecca Frecknall, who creates not the faded grandeur of a seaside home here, but a wooden yard full of splintered timbers. Peter Corboy and Ruth Wilson as siblings Mike and Josie burst onto the stage and whack each other with dialogue, fed up with dad Phil’s drunkenness and slave-driving on their rock-infested farm. Frecknall turns the tilth on a half-buried play, and digs up something extraordinary.

Lupa not only promises ‘Roman comfort food’, but also the slim chance of catching sight of its Very Handsome co-founder, the actor Theo James. Carousel co-founder Ed Templeton is also behind this new opening, and in the kitchen is the extremely capable Naz Hassan, who we last encountered as head chef of the much-missed Pidgin. This isn’t a delicate menu of rural farm fare, but a ballsy offering of big, bold food: a tomato carpaccio covered in a vigorously crispy pangrattato, a punchy, gleaming yellow Carbonara and a cacio e pepe humming cracked black pepper. If the food is legit, so is the space, an old shoemenders turned tiny 28-cover room, a fitting facsimile of a cosy Trastevere osteria. 

Respectable theatre? Not tonight. Plied and Prejudice is Jane Austen gone off the rails — and we mean that in the best possible way. Think corsets, cocktails and chaotic costume changes as five actors tear through 20 roles with a wink, a wobble, and maybe a whisky or two. Expect scandal, silliness, and the wettest t-shirt contest Regency England never asked for. Whether you're Team Darcy or just here for the drama, this one's a riot.

From June 28 to August 2 at The Vaults, Waterloo

Buy a £19 ticket through Time Out Offers

This unceasingly silly and consistently entertaining sequel delivers more of the knowing, campy shocks that made 2023’s original a box-office hit and TikTok sensation. 2.0 picks up a little after M3GAN left off. The murderous robot girl-doll has been vanquished; its creator, repentant toy inventor Gemma (Allison Williams) has emerged from a stretch in prison vowing to bring kids’ tech usage under control. Meanwhile, Gemma’s niece, Cady (Violet McGraw) has learnt some key life lessons from her doll friend’s kill spree. But, soon the FBI come knocking looking for help to track down a rogue militarised AI doll called AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno). It’s another goofy brand of cautionary tale against AI, tech dependence, and Silicon Valley types who want to stick a chip in our brains.

It’s been more than a decade since Dickie Beau broke through with his uniquely weird shows that involve him lip-syncing to archival recordings, while he embodies the voices with movement and props and fun stuff like that. But Showmanism feels like a reckoning with the form and with himself. On the surface, the show is a history of acting. And it starts out on brief: some classic ‘I’m stuck in a box’ miming, recordings about Ancient Greek theatre, interesting musings on audiences and actors from the likes of Ian McKellen and Fiona Shaw. Beau puts on costumes, strips down, embodies each voice in a different way. And then halfway through, the themes and motifs criss-cross (a religious Passion play in an Austrian village! Hamlet! Cilla Black!). He starts to question why he’s on stage at all. It’s complex, richly layered, and a very moving celebration of the stage.

Enjoy £50 off 'Showmanism' tickets at Hampstead Theatre with only with Time Out Offers.

The festival bringing some of the biggest stars on the planet to London continues in Hyde Park this weekend. The second weekend opens with a headline show from folk-pop artist Noah Kahan, before 2024 breakout star Sabrina Carpenter headlines for two consecutive nights. 

F1 is the Jerry Bruckheimiest thing to hit our screens in an age – and it’s a full-throttle triumph. The ’90s are officially back and they’re really, really loud. With Brad Pitt engaging A-list god mode, a booming Hans Zimmer score, a crateload full of pop and dance bangers, and writer-director Joseph Kosinski hitting the same punch-the-air beats as his superlative 2022 Top Gun reboot, it’s a throwback to simpler days when multi-dimensional characters were a luxury no one could afford, because they’d spent all the money on helicopter shots. But switch off your brain and F1 will overwhelm your senses with spectacle, sonics and just enough human drama to hold it all together. 

In UK cinemas Wed Jun 25 and US theaters Fri Jun 27

Can’t afford tickets to the big name gigs at BST Hyde Park? As well as putting on mega stars, BST Hyde Park also hosts Open House, an eight-day-long event that’s mostly free to attend. This year’s Open House lineup includes House Gospel Choir, Dub Pistols, Trojan Sound System, South London Samba and many more. Plus, if you feel like getting raucous there’s a Bongo’s Bingo party. There are plenty of kid-friendly events, such as West End Kids and Brainiac Remixed. And other than the music, BST is hosting eight open-air cinema nights, showing flicks including The Goonies, Wicked singalong, The Fall Guy and Dune Part 2. 

Popping up each summer on the steps where the Regent’s Canal passes Granary Square, Everyman’s Screen on the Canal is one of the city’s best-loved outdoor cinemas. This year’s pop-up will be looking more Instagrammable than ever before, thanks to designer and architect Yinka Ilori, who has created an eye-popping screen design. Head down on a sunny afternoon to catch live coverage from Wimbledon every day of the tournament, plus the usual mix of live sports, classic movies, family-friendly flicks and recent hits. 

Looking for a wholesome, creative night out that doesn’t involve a hangover (unless you BYOB)? Token Studio in Tower Bridge offers relaxed, hands-on ceramics classes where you can spin, shape and decorate your own pottery piece. Whether you fancy throwing a pot on the wheel (£32) or painting a pre-made mug or plate (£23), it’s the perfect mix of fun, mindful and surprisingly therapeutic. And to top it all off, you can sip while you sculpt as it’s BYOB and super chill.

Enjoy your Token Studio session from just £23, only with Time Out Offers. 

There aren’t that many bits of London that are actually secret anymore, but the residents of Eel Pie Island have done a very good job at keeping their island as clandestine as possible. Only accessible by boat or via a little footbridge reaching over the river, a ‘private property’ sign at the entrance usually keeps people out, except for twice a year when the public is allowed to snoop around the place at the island’s Open Studios event. The summer open days are usually a laidback affair and a chance to see inside the workspaces of 26 artists, from painters and potters to sculptors. View, commission or purchase yourself some art or craft and leave having experienced a still-hidden part of the city.

Omnibus Theatre’s 96 Festival has proven to be rich territory for coming across new LGBTQ+ writing, and its headline one-man show ‘Get Happy’ is very much worth discovering. This intriguing debut from Joseph Aldous, sees the writer-actor play Adam, who is fully embedded in a hot gay summer of partying, sex and directionless, but enjoyable, hedonism. That’s until his best friend and housemate, Ryan, gets engaged to his boyfriend. Suddenly, about to turn 30, Adam starts to reassess his life. Can he be just as seemingly happy, settled and secure as Ryan? Written with the Soho Writers’ Lab and packed with a playlist of queer bangers, this debut show navigates the thorny question: how do we ‘get happy’ when we don’t actually know what it looks like? 

Escape the Soho crowds by dashing straight down to the Clapham Grand after Pride. South London's carnival of camp will be going strong on Saturday July 5, with not one but two massive parties for LGBTQ+ types. This day edition begins at 5pm, and promises an appearance from Girls Aloud's very own Nadine Coyle. And if that's not enough of an incentive, there's also sets from Silly B*tch Disco and DJ Tete Bang, the venue's Dreamteam dancers and resident queen Miss LeighDing, plus balloon drops, cocktails in fishbowls, and big screen karaoke so you can see your glittery face gurning its way through a pride anthem or two. 

The RA’s annual showcase of all the artists you need to know about right now is back to brighten up the summer holidays. Now in it’s 257th year, the world’s oldest open submission exhibition (which means anyone can enter their work to be considered for inclusion) is curated by a different member of the Royal Academy each year. The artist tasked with the big job in 2025 is British-Iranian architect Farshid Moussavi. The great thing about the Summer Exhibition is that it’s open to all, and the selectors pick from thousands of entries. That means that your mate’s mum’s weird little whittled sculptures of George Michael might be shown alongside something by Antony Gormley. 

Treat yourself to a Mediterranean feast in the heart of Soho at Maresco, where Scottish seafood meets bold Spanish flavours. With this exclusive deal, you’ll get two courses, house sourdough and a glass of wine for under 20 quid – a serious steal in central London. Whether you're craving jamón ibérico, fresh octopus or rich paella, this buzzing spot brings sunshine to your plate without breaking the bank.

Get two courses with sourdough and wine, for £19.95 (originally £31), only with Time Out Offers.

The Cosmic House is one of those rare places deserving of the name ‘hidden gem’. A Victorian villa on a residential street near Holland Park station and the former home of revered postmodernist landscape architect Charles Jencks. Since 2021, it’s operated as a museum, and each year an artist responds to the surroundings. This time round, it’s a video work by Lithuanian-born musician Lina Lapelytė, composed of 12 screens dotted around the house to be hunted down like a game of hide and seek. Each screen shows a video of a musical performance taking place in the home, often right where you’re standing. There’s even a screen in the ‘Cosmic Loo’, complete with a mirrored ceiling and postcard-like tiling. Beautiful and peculiar, this is immersive art as it should be.

4.48 Psychosis was originally staged in the Royal Court’s tiny Upstairs studio, and this 25th anniversary revival of Sarah Kane’s final play gathers together the original creative team and cast – which includes current RSC co-artistic director Daniel Evans – and James Macdonald’s production returns to us as somewhat luxury theatre. The play is an acknowledged modern classic, and this revival sold out aeons ago (although you can still get tickets on Mondays). Its unnamed narrator – here divided between the three actors – is obsessed by suicide, and regards it as an inevitably, but is it bleak? Yes, but you can also revel in the brilliance and wit of the mind it conjured. It’s less a tortured confessional than a prodigious talent determined to spin the thoughts consuming her into pure, molten art.