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Get crafty this week with laser cutting lessons in Peckham, find out more about the world of independent magazine publishing at the magCulture shop, or create your own terrarium at a free workshop in Leake Street Pocket Park. The joy below will see you right through to the bank holiday weekend!
Things to do
Knockout Speed Dating, St Mary's Church Putney, TONIGHT, £20. Personal trainer Carly will whisk pairs through boxing combos ending with healthy snacks, drinks, and who knows? Maybe your new sparring partner.
Literary Death Match, Royal Festival Hall, Tue, £12. This highly successful, international competitive reading event is basically like 'X Factor', but with literary nerds. Four people read, there are three judges and one ludicrously non-literary finale.
Impropera at the Grant Museum, Grant Museum of Zoology, Tue, £12. After hours in the Grant Museum of Zoology, a new musical experiment takes place as an opera group improvises songs about the collection.
A Right Royal Knees Up, Carousel, Tue-Thu, £38. Get ready to drop some aitches at this immersive experience set in 1969 within a fictional East End boozer The Cobbler's Awls.
magCulture Meets, magCulture Shop, Thu, £6. To celebrate the latest issue of Latvian title 'Benji Knewman', magCulture founder Jeremy Leslie will be joined by the title's editor-in-chief Agnese Kleina for an evening of discussion about the magazine posed as a 'life you can read.'
Bingo and the Beats, Pipeline, Thu, £15. Drake and The Weeknd meets bingo as players tick off the hits played by resident DJ Longers. Themes include 'gone but not forgotten', 'hot from the 90s' and 'film soundtracks'.
Make, Do and Mend Yourself Workshops, Leake Street, Thu, free. These free monthly workshops, each with an urban gardening theme provide a perfect lunchtime activity for workers in the Waterloo area.
Laser Cutting for Crafters, Copeland Park, Thu, £12. An introductory workshop to laser cutting where you leave with a personalised miniature stool and the skills to cut out sharp shapes from wood, acrylic, leather or felt.
The City Garden, The City Centre, all week, free. Inspired by gardens in the City of London, artist Rebecca Louise Law has created an installation especially for new Guildhall gallery The City Centre. Fresh flowers entwine with copper wire above head height where they will, over the summer, dry out and preserve themselves.
West End Musical Choir Taster Session, various venues, all week, free. Learn songs from classic and hit musicals, meet other musical-theatre fans and find out if you'd like to join full time when the choir kicks off its spring term (normal price £10 per session).
…or check out more events happening in London this week.
Eating and drinking
Great British Flavours of East London, Wringer & Mangle, Tue, £40. New supperclub series curated by food journalist Victoria Stewart that offers different menus exploring the different flavours, cuisines and local produce found in East London.
Fever-Tree Pop-Up Gin & Tonic Bar, Finsbury Avenue Square, Wed. Fever-Tree host this pop-up bar in aid of World Malaria Day. The brand will be launching limited edition bottles with all proceeds generated being donated to Malaria No More UK.
The Piadina Project, Shoreditch Arts Club, Tue-Thu. The Piadina Project are importing their meats, cheese, veg and wraps from Italy to make sure we're getting the real deal, so you can be sure of the finest, fanciest toasted sandwich known to Europe.
Sambal Shiok at The Sun and 13 Cantons, Soho, Tue-Thu. Popular street food purveyors Sambal Shiok have already wowed London markets with their modern Malaysian menu. The team are moving into Soho's The Sun and 13 Cantons for a 3-month spring kitchen residency.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Comedy
Jessie Cave: I Loved Her, Udderbelly, Wed, £10-£21.50. Jessie Cave – who 'Harry Potter' fans might recognise as Lavender Brown in the films – lays bare her insecurities (and social media stalking) in her new show, 'I Loved Her'.
…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.
Victoria Davis
Live music and nightlife
Ought, The Dome, Tue, £13. The much-admired Montreal band crack out their spiky riffs in Shoreditch.
Rufus Wainwright, St John-at-Hackney Church, Tue, £42.50 adv. The Canadian singer brings his bold and dramatic but touching pop to London.
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, The O2, Wed, £40.50. Return of the Mack…lemore! Everybody’s favourite thrift store-raiding, gay marriage-advocating rapper and his producer mate Ryan are back in the UK, dropping new tunes from their second album.
Pusha T, Electric Brixton, Wed, £22. One half of rap behemoths Clipse hits London with his massive beats and powerfully complex rhymes.
Digitalism, XOYO, Thu, £10-£15. German electro-house duo Digitalism mash up dancefloor-filling house, disco and techno at a live show to launch their new album ‘Mirage’.
The Fall, The Garage, all week, adv £25. Sarky Mark E Smith and his freaky bunch of post-punk renegades return to the capital.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this week.
Film
Temple Cinema: ‘Don’t Look Now’, Andaz Hotel, Tue, £15. Another screening in the stunning Masonic Temple on Liverpool Street – and a perfect choice of film for the occasion.
Haringey Independent Cinema: ‘McLibel’, Park View School, Thu, £4, £3 concs. With McDonald’s back in the news, it’s a grand time to revisit this terrific docudrama about a court case brought by the fast food giant against a London couple.
Captain America triple bill, Genesis Cinema, Thu, £14, £9 concs. Another monumental triple bill, culminating in the brand-new (and really rather good) instalment in the Marvel soap opera, ‘Captain America: Civil War’.
Or at the cinema...
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ★★★★☆ Tina Fey finally finds a movie worthy of her chops in this stealth feminist comedy about a US journalist in Afghanistan.
…or see all of the latest releases.
Darren Bell
Theatre
The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, Criterion Theatre, Tue-Thu, £20-£69.50. The team behind 'The Play That Goes Wrong' hit the funnybone again.
Funny Girl, Savoy Theatre, all week, £25-£69.50. Sheridan Smith is exactly as great as you'd expect as she steps into Barbra Streisand's iconic shoes.
Another World: Losing Our Children To Islamic State, National Theatre, all week, £15-£25. A sober, powerful new docu-play about the flow of young Europeans to Islamic State.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
This week's best new art
The Tate Britain Commission 2016: Pablo Bronstein, Tate Britain, Tue-Thu, free. Buenos Aires-born, London-based artist Pablo Bronstein takes over the central Duveen Galleries.
Maria Eichhorn, Chisenhale Gallery, Wed-Thu, free. Work: why do we do it? What does it achieve? Apart from being able to pay the rent. And eat, of course. Those are the questions posed by Berlin-based artist Maria Eichhorn.
Frank Ammerlaan: Moonless, Bosse & Baum, Thu, free. Dutch artist Frank Ammerlaan has created the first site-specific installation at this large Copeland Road space.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win... a Zurich city break for two with Zurich Tourism or four VIP tickets to Standon Calling 2016
Grab... four expertly mixed cocktails at a swish underground bar in Lancashire Court for £16
Book… these gigs while you still can
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