Things to do in London this week

Easter is an underrated holiday. It doesn’t get anywhere near as much hype as Christmas, but it’s almost as good, largely because we get a whole four-day weekend to spend however we like. This year, this glorious double bank holiday lands between Good Friday on April 3 and Easter Monday on April 6, and there’s tons to do in the capital over Easter weekend, from checking out spring flowers and other kid-friendly activities to making the most of the spring sun at one of London’s top rooftop bars and parks.

John Proctor is the Villain is a period drama about 2018, and what Kimberly Belflower’s play does brilliantly is nail the intersection between the relatively brief apex of the #MeToo movement and a generation of smart, naive school girls who would have been the right age to absorb its rhetoric at the precise moment they’re discovering what it was a reaction to. Plus, it has a banging soundtrack, with Lorde’s 2017 hit ‘Green Light’ embedded deep in its bones. Danya Taymor’s production is an absolute blast, the many serious issues raised all of a piece with its breathless ebullience and Belflower’s endlessly witty text. As much as anything else, it’s a wholehearted celebration of teen girl dorkiness and a rebuttal to the idea their lives should be viewed through a sexual lens, even in sympathy.

In 2022 66-year-old Veronica Ryan was the oldest artist to ever win the Turner Prize. Four years later Whitechapel Gallery is staging one of the biggest presentations of her work to date. Known for her prize-winning exhibition at Spike Island in Bristol, Ryan has also created comissions dedicated to the Windrush generation, which included giant marble and bronze sculptures of fruit. Through more than 100 works, Multiple Conversations will span Ryan’s multifaceted practice, which includes work with sculpture, textiles and on paper. As well as displaying her most recent creations, the exhibit will include rediscovered works from the 1980s – large-scale sculptures made from plaster and beaten lead, as well as vivid drawings.

Cafe Kowloon is an extremely good-looking restaurant. You’ll find it by walking through the empty Wonton Charlie’s (a lunchtime noodle bar next door to London Fields station) and into the two roomy railway arches behind it with a stainless steel counter, curvy tan booths and a neon-lit bar. Without a single window, it feels more like a club than a restaurant. The food is equally beguiling. In the kitchen is acclaimed chef Budgie Montoya, who kicks out Cantonese classics with aplomb, including a soupy bowl of beef tendons, squishy yun cheong sausage, crispy-edged turnip cake, juicy prawn toast, and Hong Kong French toast. These are Cantonese classics with a Hackney attitude. 

French actor Denis Lavant (Holy Motors) has a face filmmakers love. Creased and pockmarked, with a bulbous nose and prominent ears, it’s the sort of visage that’s compelling to watch do practically anything. It serves Swedish director John Skoog’s oddly mesmerising monochrome folk tale particularly well, considering it’s essentially 90 minutes of watching one man’s massive DIY home renovation project. Inspired by true events, it’s a story of fruitless obsession. At the peak of the Cold War, Karl-Göran Persson, a farmhand in rural Sweden, dedicated his twilight years to transforming his modest cottage into a communal fallout shelter, or ‘redoubt.’ He successfully constructed a fortification for a war that never came. A gifted physical performer, there’s a hypnotic manner to Lavant’s movement, even if all he’s doing is trudging across a field or preparing to suck an egg yolk directly from its shell.

Small and independent nurseries from across the south east will gather in the Horniman Museum’s huge gardens to sell all manner of flora. Go on down to the Forest Hill museum from 11am to get your hands on succulents, shrubs, alpines and more from specialists like Miles Japanese Maples, Spring Platt Snowdrops, ZC Succulents and Ottershaw Cacti. It’s also a great opportunity to get expert advice on how to avoid killing off your pet plant within days of bringing it home. 

Rebecca Lucy Taylor, the artist also known as Self Esteem, is a hugely versatile character actor, and here she plays the theatrical, theatre-literate singer Maggie Frisby – a minor rock singer, angry, amused and very drunk as her band disintegrates at a 1969 Oxford student ball. David Hare’s 1975 play Teeth ’n’ Smiles is a vehicle to fire Taylor up as she pours her heart and soul and cynicism at the music industry into the role of Maggie, combusting spectacularly – and at one point, almost literally – at the tail-end of the ’60s. 

The Tate Modern began keeping its galleries open until 9pm every Friday and Saturday back in September. Its been taking full advantage of those extra hours ever since, hosting free live music performances at its Corner Bar. This Friday, it’s collaborating with King’s Cross-based community station Voices Radio for an evening of improv jazz. A roster of London jazz scene heavyweights will meet on stage for the first time and break out in unrehearsed, live improvised jazz. That’s right, they’ll be making it all up right on the spot. There’ll also be vinyl DJ sets in between sets, a bunch of board games to play for free and a curated selection of natural wines from the Tate’s cellar. 

Weird things happen up the Magic Faraway Tree. Zany characters reside in its branches, a big slide careers down the trunk with no obvious structural implications, and at the top, a long ladder leads up to a revolving carousel of equally magical kingdoms. A sugary confection for a wartime generation deprived of goodies during the early 1940s, it’s Enid Blyton at her most escapist. Transplanting all the hippy-dippy goodness from a three-book series into a movie is a challenge that Simon Farnaby’s adaptation half-overcomes. With a game cast and good vibes throughout, it’s a smart update of the Blyton stories for the smartphone era, but with the plot hinging on some small-batch pomodoro sauce, the stakes never match the eccentricity levels. 

Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh returns with director Monique Touko to bring the play that earned her five Tony Award nominations in 2024 – and it’s easy to see why it was such a hit on Broadway. Set over the course of a single working day in the heat of summer, it begins with the shutters of Jaja’s Harlem salon being hauled open. But Jaja herself is nowhere to be seen: instead, her 18-year-old daughter Marie has been left in charge, while her mother is off preparing for her wedding day to a white American. The daily grind continues as the staff arrive to braid hair, bitch and banter, offering us a small slice of their everyday routine. The play uses the salon space to host big conversations. As customers pass through the women open up about their lives in America, their journeys to get there, and their relationships and ambitions. The skill of Bioh’s writing lies in simply presenting a moment in time and place. 

Camden Market has created a dedicated Easter Garden with loads of arts, crafts and performances to welcome in spring. You'll be able to do a 3D painted Easter trail by artist Joe Hill, there'll also be visits from circus acrobats, bulb planting and Cheeky Meeky’s family rave. All events are free: just head to the main hub in Market Place to get your paws on the line-up. 

With over 400 objects, including 100 ensembles and 50 artworks (by the likes of Salvador Dalí, Picasso and Man Ray), as well as accessories, jewellery, photographs, perfumes and an excellent collection of buttons, Schiaparelli presents a deep dive into the fantastical and surreal world of the fashion house. Founded on Paris’ Place Vendôme in 1927, the exhibition spans the 1920s to the present day, showing glorious garments from Creative Director Daniel Roseberry, who has been at the helm since 2019. The clothes truly are pieces of art and prove that haute couture could always do with a bit of humour. 

Awaken your inner child by delving into enchanted lands, magical creatures and timeless tales at the British Library’s interactive family-friendly exhibition. All the bangers from your childhood will be explored – from Goldilocks, to Aladdin – through books, artworks, interactive displays, theatrical design, story sharing spaces, costumes and activities. Opening in time for the Easter holidays, Fairy Tales is ideal for passing a few hours with the little’uns. 

Sarah Power’s play presents as a cosily familiar comedy about a clutch of small-town eccentrics pulling together in an effort to stage a fundraising fun day for the medieval fort in their sleepy town. But it’s the hiring of Sean Delaney’s ex-con Kurtis that starts the real story, the quirky villager tropes used as cover to ask some very hard questions about community and forgiveness. Really, Power’s play is a meditation on human nature and the ability to forgive, magnified through the lens of small-town life, where every addition to the community is scrutinised and dwelt upon. On the surface, Welcome to Pemfort is a naturalistic drama about quirky rural folks, but scratch that surface, and it’s got a core of steel – an unflinching look at the human condition that’s only cosplaying as cute.

The Wellcome Collection’s big spring exhibition is a deep dive into perceptions of ageing. Expect the Euston Road institution’s typical blend of art, science and pop culture in the 120+ artworks and objects on display, which range from16th century woodcuts made by German printmaker Sebald Beham to Deborah Roberts’ contemporary collages exploring Black childhood. There’ll also be a spotlight on the Wellcome Trust-funded health research project Age of Wonder – one of the largest studies of adoloscence in the world – and an exploration of how societies can adapt to improve everyone’s experience of ageing.

This is a big show of big paintings. Big, energetic, happy paintings which are just as enjoyable to stand in front of as one can imagine they were to make. Hurvin Anderson is the artist responsible, and the 80 paintings on show at Tate Britain amount to 30 years worth of work. Some date back to 1995 when he was an art student at the Royal College of Art; others were made this year (some he even finished off once they’d been hung). Looking at them feels like you’ve been carried somewhere else, if only briefly, sharing in that condition of being in one place while thinking about another.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the godmother of rock and roll. Raised by her mother, a travelling Arkansas evangelist, she played guitar and sang on the road from the age of six and grew up to be a huge recording star. Her story and her music are extraordinary. So it’s a privilege and a treat to see British soul goddess Beverly Knight play Rosetta in this intimate two-hander that’s all about the music. Knight is a singer who raises the hackles on the back of your neck, but she does more here, channelling Rosetta Tharpe in a stomping, dramatic performance that conveys the passion, resilience, and sheer physical hard work of her life on the road. During the finger-tapping, off-beat clapping, and irrepressible grinning, there is a higher power being channelled, and it’s pure joy to witness it.

Tracey Emin: A Second Life is an evocative experience. Positioned as a 40-year retrospective through the pioneering artist’s vast and varied repertoire, the show lays bare Emin’s life through her distinct and often unsettling art, from career highs – such as the iconic, Turner Prize-nominated ‘My Bed’, which is every bit as shocking and moving today as it was in 1998 – to stark personal lows in work depicting her experiences with sexual violence, abortion and recent life-threatening illness. As you can imagine, with such subject matter, it is not always a comfortable experience for the artist and the viewer alike. However, Emin’s flair for dark comedy adds moments of levity throughout. ‘Mad Tracey from Margate’ is truly a force to be reckoned with, and a master of reflecting society back at itself, warts and all.

The National Portrait Gallery is an education in our collective understanding of British life, culture and history. But who isn’t here? Who doesn’t get to shape the version of the nation’s identity on display? That question is central to the work of American photographer Catherine Opie’s exhibition To Be Seen. Visitors are met with the piercing gaze of actor Daniela (now Daniel) Sea, best known for playing trans man Max in The L Word, another room is filled with vivid portraits shot on black backdrops, redolent of Baroque masters. A nude portrait of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad evokes Caravaggio. It’s the kind of representation that has an impact. And that’s something worth celebrating. 

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.

Save 40% with bottomless dim sum vouchers, only through Time Out Offers