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A Japanese-Mediterranean small-plates restaurant in Bloomsbury.
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For 34 years, BFI Flare has prided itself on showcasing the best in queer cinema – and 2020’s edition is no different. Kicking off on March 18, the festival has just announced a line-up that includes more than 60 feature films, heaps of special screenings, short films and events, and, of course, the now infamous BFI Flare club nights. Opening the festival is ‘Cicada’ from writer, director and star Matthew Fifer. Following the non-committal and transient bisexual Ben as he meets handsome stranger Sam, the film is an open and honest look at intimacy and confronting trauma. From the short preview shown at BFI Flare’s launch event, the film looks like it could easily become a quiet and contemplative queer classic, like Andrew Haigh’s ‘Weekend’ or Ira Sachs’s ‘Keep the Lights On’. The festival will close with ‘Summerland’, a World War II romance starring Gemma Arterton about a woman nursing a broken heart, while the centrepiece screening is ‘Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen’, a documentary about transgender representation in TV and film. The festival is split into three themes – Hearts, Minds and Bodies – with many films reflecting a spirit of activism, resistance and rebellion. Highlights include Xavier Dolan’s ‘Matthias & Maxime’, the Henry Golding-starring ‘Monsoon’ from ‘Lilting’ director Hong Khaou, ‘Lingua Franca’, the story of a transwoman navigating life as an immigrant in New York, and the hilarious looking ‘Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)’ about a lesbian teen
Before her career as a poet and musician catapulted her into the big time, Kate Tempest wrote a string of well-received mid-sized plays. Now she’s written another, but a bigger star needs a bigger theatre, and ‘Paradise’ will play in the National Theatre’s huge Olivier. The play itself is an adaptation of Sophocles’s drama ‘Philoctetes’, about a wounded, embittered war hero, who sees a chance of escape when a young man awed by the Greek hero’s reputation lands on the island he’s been exiled to. But Philoctetes’s exultation turns to thoughts of revenge. Lesley Sharp (pictured) plays the hero (that’s theatre, baby!) in a production that runs from June 30, with tickets on sale on March 13 at 8.30am. Also announced today for the year ahead at the National Theatre: a return for its sell-out hit adaptation of ‘Small Island’, a West End transfer for Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane’ and Kristin Scott-Thomas making her NT debut in ‘Phaedre’. ‘Paradise’ will be the main event in the next NT season, all of which goes on sale on March 13, and also includes ‘The Corn Is Green’ – a classic Welsh play by Emlyn Hughes starring Nicola Walker – the previously announced ‘Welcome to Iran’ and ‘Romeo and Julie’, Gary Owen’s response to ‘Romeo & Juliet’, that will run at the NT in advance of a major revival of Shakespeare’s classic starring Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor. See our current National Theatre listings
Tate Modern is about to turn 20. But instead of going out and getting hammered on WKD and starting a fight in a Wetherspoons, the Tate’s celebrating in much classier fashion. The modern art museum will be putting on a whole year of exhibitions, displays, performances and events. A standout of the program will be a display of not just one but two of Yayoi Kusama’s famous Infinity Rooms. That, alongside a series of performance pieces and historical displays, is set to open on May 11. Happy birthday Tate, don’t do too many Apple Sourz. Installation view of ‘Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life 2011/2017’ at Tate Modern © Yayoi Kusama Photo courtesy of Tate Photography For more information click here. Can’t wait until May? Find lots of great art to see right now, right here.
If you’re already rooting out your finest emerald green garb and training your stomach to handle that eighth pint of Guinness in time for St Patrick’s Day on March 17, then we have some good news for you. Much-loved Irish boozer Gibney’s in Malahide, a Dublin institution that’s been keeping the locals watered for more than 80 years, will be opening a second outpost – and you don’t have to get on a plane to go there. Taking root in a new basement bar below Old Street restaurant Daffodil Mulligan (the latest venture from decorated Irish chef Richard Corrigan), the pub will stock the Gibney family’s brew stout alongside a host of Irish spirits and specialist cocktails. In keeping with the high-end restaurant upstairs, Corrigan has designed a selection of posh bar snacks to go with your pint, including a black pudding sando and a rock and native oyster selection. Fancy. Gibney’s London launches on March 12 and will be open until 2am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with comedy nights and live music also planned. So raise a toast to the city’s newest drinking spot: let’s hope it has the luck of the Irish. Grab a Guinness at one of London’s finest Irish watering holes.
Wilderness is consistently one of the UK’s best festivals, and the Oxfordshire weekender has announced a tasty line-up for its tenth anniversary year. Loyle Carner, Foals and Supergrass will be headlining at Cornbury Park this summer, joined by genre-hopping ‘Milkshake’ purveyor Kelis, neo-soul queen Joy Crookes, mesmerising electro trio Elder Island and fast-rising Irish pop-rock band Picture This. Divine dance duo Bicep will deliver a live set and those champions of soundsystem culture, David Rodigan & The Outlook Orchestra, will be bringing the grooves. But as ever, Wilderness isn’t just about spot-on sounds. Letters Live, the cult performance strand where unanounced actors like Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch read out epistles by distinguished cultural and political figures, will be returning to Wilderness, as will the festival’s famous long-table banquets. Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver of St John, Richard Corrigan and Skye Gyngell will be hosting those this year, so you won’t leave the three-dayer hungry. Let’s hope the chefs don’t use up all the veg, though. Gayzpacho with Jonny Woo is a completely unique slab of alt-cabaret mayhem where half-naked blokes getting covered in tomato sauce. Don’t feel too sorry for them – they can clean themselves off afterwards with a spot of wild swimming in Wilderness’s Lake Majestic. Wilderness at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire on Jul 30-Aug 2. Read more about the best UK festivals here. And marvel at what Wilderness look
BST Hyde Park festival has good form in not only nabbing some of the world’s biggest stars, but also booking an impressively broad cross-section of them. And this year is no exception. Having already announced top pop queen Taylor Swift, grizzled raaaawkers Pearl Jam, everyone’s favourite girl gang Little Mix and King Kendrick Lamar, now it’s added Post Malone to the roll call of 2020 bill-toppers. Fresh from co-headlining Reading and Leeds last year, the New Yorker will be trying to once again prove his ‘Rockstar’ credentials on Thursday July 2, when he’ll take to the stage with an as-yet-unannounced roster of supports. And, love or loathe the ‘Beerbongs & Bentleys’ star, you can’t argue with the numbers – 65 million album sales in the US alone and counting. Tickets go on sale on Friday (February 14) at 9am. So pop to Claire’s, grab a pack of temporary tattoos and stick ’em on your face in prep: this Postie’s getting mailed to London very soon. Tickets for Post Malone at BST are available here. Keep up to date with 2020’s festival season announcements right here.
Anyone who attended The Strokes’ massive All Points East headline show last year will have likely left Victoria Park with two main takeaways: 1) The New York indie icons are still the coolest cats in town, and 2) God damn, the sound was heartbreakingly quiet. Now, however, fans of the quintet have got a very exciting chance for an intimate, sweaty do-over, as the band are heading to London for a one-off show at Camden’s Roundhouse next Wednesday (February 19). The stop-off is to celebrate the imminent release of forthcoming album ‘The New Abnormal’ – Julian Casablancas and co’s first since 2013’s ‘Comedown Machine’, announced yesterday at a Bernie Sanders rally. But whether you’re a diehard gagging for the new material, or merely a noughties nostalgist wanting to yell ‘Last Nite’ at the top of your lungs, there’s little doubt that The Strokes will have something up their leather jacket sleeves for you at this one. Tickets go on sale at 1pm this Friday (Feb 14) here. Keep your 2020 music-filled with a visit to some of London’s other legendary gig venues.
With programming that always delivers serious bang for your buck, Lovebox has become one of London’s very best festivals over the last 19 years. Disclosure, Tyler, The Creator and R&B prodigy Khalid are already confirmed as headliners. Now, a fantastic batch of new acts – including Robyn, Fatboy Slim and vegan grime icon JME – have been added too. Other just-announced acts heading to Gunnersbury Park (Lovebox’s home since 2018) include hip hop queen Tierra Whack, producer Kaytranada, Brit Award-winning rising star Celeste, R&B singer Snoh Aalegra, dance-pop’s woman of the moment Georgia and jazz-funk innovators BadBadNotGood. Also hot off the press are a DJ set from Chase & Status, Ladbroke Grove hip hop queen Lava La Rue, offbeat electro composer Wuh Oh, Philly singer-songwriter Pink Sweats and a gaggle of great DJs including Sherelle, Annie Mac, Louise Chen and Balearic sage DJ Harvey. As this stacked line-up suggests, Lovebox is expanding to become a three-day festival again in 2020 after five years as a two-dayer. Stay tuned for further announcements, but for now, 2020’s episode is shaping up to be a cracker. Lovebox takes place at Gunnersbury Park between June 12-14 2020. Read more here about the first wave of announcements.
Love indie cinema? On the hunt for the next Quentin Tarantino or Patty Jenkins? Good news, because Sundance Film Festival: London is back for another long weekend of indie magic this May. The festival, which grows in reputation and stature with every passing year, runs from May 28 to 31, taking up residence again in its spiritual home of Picturehouse Central. Expect to see UK premieres from a selection of films from last week’s Sundance Film Festival in Utah. And there were some crackers, including the award-winning ‘Minari’ and Eliza Hittman’s ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’. Last year’s slate also offered homegrown gems like ‘Animals’ and ‘Last Tree’, a London-set coming-of-age drama that underlined the festival’s commitment to showcasing diverse new voices. Expect more of the same when the 2020 line-up is announced in April. The first batch of weekend passes is on sale now from the official site, including VIP ones that will see you whisked into any film and party at the fest, clutching a special goodie bag while brandishing an inclusive Picturehouse Central membership card. Head to our round-up from this year’s Sundance Film Festival for a glimpse of the films that make the line-up.
The best things to do this week
Céline Sciamma is one of the most exciting young French filmmakers around. With ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, she has crafted a powerfully original story of art and love, almost entirely set on a Breton island in the eighteenth century. It’s her most cerebral and challenging work to date, an intensely moving evocation of female love and friendship, full of ideas about artists and muses, the female gaze and solidarity. It’s deeply romantic and also deeply thoughtful – an electric combination.
A whopping 146 exhibitors will be in attendance at this enormous new beerathon from London favourite Craft Beer Rising. Line your stomach with dishes from the vegan street food market, groove to tunes from Hoxton Radio and Artwork, and sample old favourites and exclusive pours from dozens of big names and lesser-known craft companies.
This stylish Hackney restaurant from chef Doug McMaster wears its eco credentials on its sleeve: everything is sustainable, with many dishes made from ingredients destined for the bin. The no-choice six-course menu is impossibly pretty, with good looks matched by harmonious Eurasian flavours. At £50 a head, it’s on the pricy side for Hackney, but is still a bargain for the league it’s playing in.
Join Burnt Roti magazine at the Genesis Cinema for a day of screenings, panel talks and comedy celebrating South Asian culture. Speakers include editor of ‘The Good Immigrant’ and Observer Magazine writer Nikesh Shukla, journalist Kieran Yates and playwright Vinay Patel.
Stage-comedy supremo Sean Foley directs this West End version of the Ben Elton-penned Shakespeare sitcom. With agreeable silliness and a fistful of genuinely good gags, it’s plot – a loose mash-up of ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Othello’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale’ – is formally ambitious, while David Mitchell’s Shakespeare is more confident and charismatic than one might expect from a relative stage novice. A fairly winning tribute to the bard, even if it’s not great art.
Guns and cowboys, beer and beards, this show might be packed with typical images of masculinity, but with it's intimate, erotic shots of soldiers and films of men crying, it’s also full of subversion. In a society where gender is ceaselessly melting into an ever more fluid substance, this exhibition makes you walk away asking infinite questions.
Browse a vast array of famous titles and cutting edge comics, listen to dozens of free guest talks, geek out in the gaming zone and pick up limited edition merch at this massive film and comic convention. A veritable galaxy of famous faces will be attendance, including Charles Dance, Anna Shafer, Jamie Campbell Bower and Colin Baker. Best dig out that latex.
One of several independent gems in Nunhead, this lovely bar and shop doesn’t look anything like an off-licence, despite the name. The tiny back counter dispenses cask pourings from the likes of London’s Anspach & Hobday and Shipley’s Salt, and there’s a 60-strong list of bottled beers, ciders and porters – mostly (but not all) from London brewers, all with clear, succinct tasting notes. If you’re up for some informal nerdiness it organises regular meet the brewer sessions, while weekly BYO takeaway nights are a clever flip on the usual approach to BYO.
A short, sharp masterpiece in which a father is confronted by multiple clones of his son, the original audiences of Caryl Churchill’s 2002 play ‘A Number’ assumed it was written in response to the cloning of Dolly the Sheep. Powered by Roger Allam's excellent performance, Polly Findlay’s revival is instead a moving examination of the damage parents do to their children and the irresponsibility of trying to run away from them.
Do you rock out to the Nintendo Wii theme, or is the Super Mario Bros music permanently playing in your brain? Sing your heart out at this weekly meet-up of London’s nerdiest choir, whose repertoire comprises entirely of theme tunes from videogames and popular culture, like Pokemon and Tetris. Here we go!
HG Wells’s sci-fi novel gets a horror spin for the #MeToo era in this tart statement on toxic men and their gaslighting ways. Aussie writer-director Leigh Whannell (‘Saw’) is a natural fit for the material, with Elisabeth Moss on top form as a very modern scream queen.
Join Exploding Cinema for an evening of independent, international and underground short films. This time round, San Francisco’s Disposable Film Festival comes to London along with a collection of short films made using webcams, CCTV, flatbed scanners, toys and iPods.
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