Barbican Theatre

The Barbican's brutal architecture is almost as divisive as the South Bank's Hayward. Find your way inside, however, and you'll be rewarded with a distinctly adventurous spirit. Vast spaces (including two theatres, three cinemas, three galleries and a 2,000-seat hall) defy their stern exterior through eclectic, colourful programmes. The mammoth Barbican Theatre and its mini studio space, The Pit, offer particularly intriguing bills. The annual BITE season (Barbican International Theatre Events) cherry-picks exciting theatre from around the globe presenting fresh (often sur-titled) plays from international companies such as Complicite and Cheek By Jowl. Multimedia and interactive works are also a favourite here and events have been known to break free from the confines of Barbican's sculptural building. Blast Theory for example, premiered a production on wheels, 'Rider Spoke', that saw audiences take to bikes around the centre on a tech-driven game of hide-and-seek.