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Pick up your pencils and head to Spitalfields City Farm to draw cute goats and kids, celebrate the work of Alfred Hitchcock with film screenings in St John's Church cemetery or get a taste of Italy's finest street food at a market dedicated to finger lickin' good grub. Buon appetito!
Things to do
Demonstration and Discussion with Silo Studio, Jerwood Space, TONIGHT, free. Find out how Silo Studio cast their unique bowls using a production technique inspired by the principals of Newton’s bucket. The demonstration will be followed by an informal question and discussion session and a chance to see the other work in the Jerwood Makers Open exhibition.
'Go Set A Watchman' Launch, Waterstones Piccadilly, TONIGHT, free. To launch Harper Lee's highly anticipated 'Go Set A Watchman', the Piccadilly branch of Waterstones host an evening of panel discussions and talks followed by a screening of the 1962 adaption of 'To Kill A Mockingbird'.
Wild Life Drawing, Spitalfields City Farm, Tue, £20. Learn how to draw real life goats & kids with Wild Life Drawing who will lead participants through a series of short warm-up exercises before settling in to produce a more finished piece.
Amy's Kitchen Presents: A Handcrafted Summer, E5 Bakehouse, Tue, £10 + booking fee. Learn a new craft and enjoy a healthy dinner courtesy of Amy's Kitchen at this series of supper events held in east London. This session is run by The Cocktail Gardener, Lottie Muir who will show guests how to create summer cocktails using natural herbal infusions and syrups with flavours such as jasmine, charred sage and elderflower.
Ladybird by Design, House of Illustration, Tue-Thu, £7, £5 concs, £4 children. More than 120 colourful illustrations from classic Ladybird titles are on display in celebration of the centenary, with rare photographs and correspondence to provide an insight into the books' production.
An Evening with Michael Rosen, Keats House, Thu, £6. Spend an evening at Keats House with Michael Rosen as he reads from his new collection of surreal and political poems for adults, 'Don't Mention the Children'.
Transcend Festival, St Giles-in-the-Fields, Thu, free. This two-day arts festival is a fundraiser for various organisations which work with marginalised communities. Visitors can expect live music, comedy, theatre and painting.
Leytonstone Festival, various London locations, all week, prices vary. This annual festival has been delighting Leytonstone locals and visitors alike since the 1990s, nowadays presenting a programme which aims to represent local talent. Many of the events are free, and last year's line-up included concerts, supper clubs, dance, play readings, workshops, screenings, tours and a children's carnival.
A World of Information, Stories, all week, free. Feast your peepers on a brand new body of work from London based illustrator and print maker, James Brown. Eight large scales pieces have been created especially for the show, and sit alongside a number of Brown's existing punchy pieces
…or check out more events happening in London this week.
Eating and drinking
Birra Moretti Gran Tour, Space Studios, Thu, £10 + booking fee. Vendors returning for the 2015 edition of this Italian street food market include gelateria dons Gelupo, Arancina, Paste E Basta and Cooking Cooks. 12 others will also join them this year, serving up regional dishes such as pizza from Naples, arancini balls from Sicily and Panino Teca with truffles from Norcia.
Neave's Pop Down Bar, Ely's Yard, Thu, free. The Monkey Shoulder team will aim to get you in as fast as possible but if you do find yourself with a bit of a wait then it might be worth your while; those waiting in line will be treated to cocktail tasters and be given 'mates rates' tokens to use at the bar.
Little Feast, Shepherd's Bush Yard, Thu, free. Street food festival Feast have produced a younger sibling to bring delicious dishes and drinks to Shepherd's Bush. Food options include grilled fish, Korean barbecue, Venezuelan arepas and the inevitable gourmet burger.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Comedy
Dave Chappelle Live, Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, Mon-Tue, £47.50-£51.50. American comedy heavyweight pulls no punches in his London debut.
Puddles Pity Party, Soho Theatre, Tue-Thu, £17.50, £15 concs. A 6' 8" clown belting out sad pop covers? Sounds right up our street. Comedy-cabaret act Puddles has performed as part of 'La Soiree' on the south bank, has opened for the Eels in the States and has 20 million views on YouTube.
John Mulaney, Soho Theatre, Wed-Thu, £25. Trust us, John Mulaney is one of the best comics working the States right now. The Chicago-born stand-up spent five years as a writer on 'Saturday Night Live' before bagging his own sitcom, 'Mulaney', on Fox which, er, sorta tanked and only ran for one season.
Kraken, Udderbelly, Thu, £15.50, £14 concs, £20.50 Sirloin seats. A ludicrously silly show from New Zealand mime artist Trygve Wakenshaw, whose mind is brimming with childlike silliness. Wakenshaw works in a prop- and largely word-less environment and his physicality is flawless.
…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.
Live music
Nick Mulvey, Somerset House, Tue, £29.50. Clever, mellow, easygoing pop by the Mercury-nominated singer-songwriter.
Kid Wave, The Old Blue Last, Tue, free. One of the best new live bands we’ve seen in a while, Heavenly Records’ latest signings bust out joyous, jangling shoegaze-pop with no shortage of great melodies.
Lauryn Hill, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, Wed, £49.50-£75. At this acoustic performance you can expect new tracks and a few old classics. She may regularly turn up on stage hours late, but when she’s on form you’ll know it.
Telegram, Electrowerkz, Wed, £8 adv. Drawing on krautrock, classic British psychedelia and glam rock, four London longhairs thrash through their loosely-structured, wah-heavy tunes.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this week.
Nightlife
Sounds Familiar Music Quiz, Trapeze, Tue, £40 (ticket for eight people), £33 (ticket for six people), £24 (ticket for four people), £8 (single-person ticket). Eyes down and ears open for this delightfully raucous, super-fun music-fuelled quiz, featuring rounds such as 'Round of Cheese', 'Office Party' and 'Feel the Power Ballad'.
Gospeloke, Queen of Hoxton, Thu, £6-£10. A full-on fun karaoke night themed around gospel music, complete with a full gospel choir.
Summer Tales, Red Market, Thu, £5, £4 before 9pm. As it's summer, there's a jungle theme in play, plush hammocks, rope swings and a 20m terrace to soak up the sun. Drinks are served at four bars, including the Lazy Flamingo Bar, where you can enjoy bespoke summery cocktails including a Mescal Mule and a Pin-Up Collada.
…or see all the parties planned this week.
Film
Tufnell Park Film Club: ‘Husbands and Wives’, The Lord Palmerston, Tue, £15 m’ship. When Sally (Judy Davis) and Jack (Sydney Pollack) announce their amicable break-up, their friends Gabe and Judy (Woody Allen and Mia Farrow) start looking at their own marriage more critically. Do they keep secrets from each other? Why have they never had kids? To put it another way, what is this thing called love?
High Art, Barbican Centre, Wed, £9.50, £8.50 concs. ‘The Kids Are Alright’ director Lisa Cholodenko's debut is an ambitious, intelligent account of a young woman who gets a job on a trendy Manhattan photography mag and goes for a big break when she discovers, thanks to a leaky ceiling, that the woman who lives in the apartment above her is a famous but reclusive retired photographer.
Hitchcock's Home, St John's Church, Thu, £15 one night, £30 three nights + booking fee. This trio of film screenings coincides with the Leytonstone Festival and celebrates the 'Master of Suspense' Alfred Hitchcock, who was born in the area. 'Dial M for Murder' will be shown on Thursday. Food will be on offer from a number of local vendors including the Ice Cream Peddler, Karma Cans, The Wanstead Tap and Peel & Chimney.
BFI Cult: 'Society', BFI Southbank, Thu, £8.35–£11.75. One of the greatest, grossest horror movies of the 1980s gets a welcome screening. And in the wake of last week’s budget, it’s especially relevant – it even opens with a rewrite of the ‘Eton Boating Song’.
…or see all of the latest releases.
Theatre
As Is, Trafalgar Studios, all week, £17-£27.50. Billed as ‘The First Aids Play’, having opened in New York in 1985, you’d be likely to forgive William Hoffman’s ‘As Is’ a lot, just for the fact that it broke such new ground. That it’s also sensitive and radically empathetic is a bonus, but the fact that it’s strikingly inventive and often very funny makes this revival a moving and heartfelt thrill.
A Number, Young Vic, all week, £10-£19.50. Michael Longhurst uses mirrors to unsettling effect in his revival of Caryl Churchill's great play.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Barbican Centre, all week, £19-£25. Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's production of Harper Lee's classic returns to London, this time under a roof.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
This week's best new art
Marc Quinn: The Toxic Sublime, White Cube Bermondsey, Wed-Thu, free. Blurring the boundary between sculpture and painting are ‘The Toxic Sublime’ series that transform photographs subjected to a barrage of manipulative processes into three-dimensional seascapes.
Joana Vasconcelos: Material World, Phillips, Wed-Thu, free. This exceptional display of handcrafted objects which are covered in beautifully ornate crochet knitting coincides with the forthcoming Thames and Hudson monograph on the Lisbon-based sculptor who came to prominence at the 51st Venice Biennale.
The Fifth Pan-African Congress, Rivington Place, Thu, free. Marking the seventieth anniversary of the Pan-African Congress, this show presents rarely seen photographs by John Deakin of the influential 1945 meeting.
No Shadows in Hell, Pilar Corrias, Thu, free. Dystopian writer JG Ballard continues to inspire the next generation of artists in this group show about the pressured existence of our near future.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win...two tickets to Cornwall's Port Eliot Festival 2015 or two tickets to every gig at Meltdown Festival 2015
Grab...tickets to 'Constellations' at Trafalgar Studios with a post-show Q&A on July 17
Book...these gigs while you still can
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