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This week, London has a Harry Potter quiz, a German beer festival and a Studio 54-themed night from the Some Voices choir ready and waiting for you. Get planning ASAP with the list below!
CENTRAL
C U Next Tuesday, Muse Soho, Tue, free before 10pm, £5 after. C U Next Tuesday focuses strictly on hip hop, R&B and bashment – and this music policy is proving a huge hit.
Annette Messager: ‘Avec et Sans Raisons’, Marian Goodman Gallery, all week, free. The first work here is a series of giant suspended objects sewn out of leather. There’s an immense hammer, a pair of scissors, keys, safety pins and a diamond ring dangling from the ceiling, dwarfing you as you wander past their softened edges.
‘Nuclear War’, Royal Court Theatre, all week, £15-£25. An erratic but often thrilling collaboration between playwright Simon Stephens and movement director Imogen Knight.
‘The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?’, Haymarket Theatre Royal, all week, £15-£65. Sophie Okonedo is superb and Damian Lewis is entertaining in Edward Albee’s unlikely classic.
Awol Erizku: ‘Make America Great Again’, Ben Brown Fine Arts, all week, free. The young black American artist (best known for taking the most liked Instagram photo of all time, an image of Beyoncé draped in flowers to announce her pregnancy) has filled this dark room with black panthers, broken fences and swastikas. You don’t need a PhD in nodding at art to figure out that he’s not happy.
NORTH
Valerie June, Scala, Tue, £16.50. A soulful blues singer from Memphis, June plays what she calls ‘organic moonshine roots music’.
Tufnell Park Film Club: ‘High Hopes’, The Star, Tue, 15 annual membership. Mike Leigh’s warm, optimistic second film centres on the splendidly unfashionable figures of Cyril and Shirley, two downmarket residents of old King’s Cross.
FuckUp Nights: Stories about Failure, Impact Hub King’s Cross, Tue, £5.80. This talk series provides a platform for entrepreneurs to share experiences of failure, inspiring other budding business-heads to carry on, even when things go wrong.
Jaws, Scala, Wed, £11. Following in the footsteps of fellow Brummies Peace and Swim Deep, Jaws are purveyors of shimmery, ’90s-influenced pop.
EAST
HogWhats Quiz Night, Concrete, Tue, £20. Potty for all things Harry Potter? Test out how sharp your wizarding knowledge really is in this monthly immersive quiz night grilling you on everything from Quidditch to Herbology.
Operation Red Rocket, The Rose Lipman Building, Wed-Sat, £55. Get ready to be transported to the year 1965 at the ‘British National Space Laboratory’ (handily located in Haggerston) for foodie pop-up specialist The Art of Dining’s latest retro-futuristic gastronomic adventure.
‘Power, Subcultures & Queer Stages’, Queen Mary University of London, Thu, free. Who gets to decide what counts as ‘high’ art? This LGBTQIA symposium rips through cultural norms with presentations exploring the history of queer invisibility in public spaces.
German Bierfest London, Mile End Park, Thu-Mon, free-£40. London’s biggest ever beer garden is being set up in Mile End for the German Bierfest. The 2,000-seater biergarten will be free to enter, but you’ll have to fork out for a giant bier stein.
‘The Key, the Secret: Powered by Pecha Kucha’, Geffrye Museum, Thu, £8. In the Japanese talk format Pecha Kucha, each person is given six minutes to present 20 images, creating a fast-paced night of spoken word.
SOUTH
© Pamela Raith
‘Home Truths’, The Bunker, all week, £15, £12 concs. This multi-story look at housing features plays from some of the UK’s most exciting playwrights.
Erik van Lieshout: ‘Three Social Works’, South London Gallery, all week, free. Erik van Lieshout’s show feels like watching a foreign soap opera when you’re on holiday. That surreality, that sense of getting a peek into something brash, gruesome and mainstream yet totally alien emanates from every pore of this exhibition.
Tate Tap Takeover X Tiny Rebel Brewing Company, Tate Modern, Thu, £10-£15. Tiny Rebel Brewing Company heads for Tate Modern to present its new beer range for the latest British Brewery Tate Tap Takeover.
Spring Table Centre Floral Masterclass, The Herne Tavern, Thu, £65. Learn to create a beautiful spring flower arrangement using the best seasonal blooms in this step-by-step workshop led by south London florist Joanne Truby Floral Design.
Bloomin’ Jewels, Contemporary Applied Arts, From Thu, free. An exhibition celebrating the long and esteemed tradition of depicting flowers and foliage in jewellery while spotlighting cutting-edge and imaginative modern work that incorporates floral motifs.
Some Voices presents Studio 54, The Printworks, Thu, £17. London’s coolest choir (500-strong!) will be belting out their unique take on New York’s iconic club for stars and star-gazers: Studio 54.
The Celluloid Sorceress presents ‘Housekeeping’ + Q&A, The Cinema Museum, Thu, £8.50 adv, £10 door, £6.50 adv, £7 door concs. Adolescent sisters Ruth and Lucille live by a threatening black lake. Their mother lies at its bottom, and Aunt Sylvie rows on it late at night. Sylvie rocks the boat in other ways too.
WEST
HRP Hampton court Princess Diana artefacts
‘Diana: Her Fashion Story’, Kensington Palace, all week, £15-£19. Diana’s fashion story, like her life story, ended just as things were getting good. This exhibition charts the way her style evolved.
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