The Time Out London blog team

The jewel in the crown of the National Theatre’s 2026 schedule is Electra/Persona – a mash up of the Ancient Greek tragedy of Electra with Ingmar Bergman’s classic 1966 thriller Persona, adapted and directed by Aussie hotshot Benedict Andrews. That’s not the reason it’s such a big deal, though: it has a sensational cast headed by Tár co-stars Nina Hoss and Cate Blanchett. The presence of the latter means it’s all but guaranteed to sell out its two-month run immediately, so don’t miss out on your chance to buy tickets. The show was announced some time ago, but we do finally have the full information about it: it’ll run August 19 to October 10, with public booking opening at noon on Thursday May 21. Electra/Persona will also be going on sale to members the week before – although it won’t sell out on the pre-sale, membership will more or less guarantee you can get a ticket in an unhurried fashion (if you have an Amex card you should also get a couple of days’ advance sale access). Failing that, £10 Rush Tickets will be released every Friday throughout the run. Image: National Theatre‘Electra/Persona’ poster Electra/Persona is the biggest NT show to go on sale May 21, but not the only one. It’ll be joined by an eagerly anticipated revival of Caryl Churchill’s landmark Cloud No 9 (Nov 2 2026-Jan 13 2027), the first time the legendary avant-garde playwright’s breakthrough play has been staged in London in decades. There’s a one-week run for radical Portuguese play Catarina and...

Chessington World of Adventure is definitely the most old fashioned of the big London-adjacent theme parks. There’s something endearingly last century about the random bits of zoo you still find scattered around. It has, nonetheless, been investing in some very modern IP of late. Okay, 2023’s World of Jumanji area was relatively low stakes, given there probably isn’t such a thing as a rabid Jumanji fan. But it set the template for a rapid period of expansion that takes in two staggering thematic coups. Next summer Chessington will open the world’s first Minecraft-based theme park zone. And before that it’s done the same with a possibly even more successful franchise. If you are somehow unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is PAW Patrol, it’s a cartoon about a group of talking puppies who fight petty crime in Adventure Bay, a San Francisco-alike town populated by harmless oddballs who get into minor scrapes that inevitably require a ‘ruff ruff rescue’ from the pups and their absurdly OTT vehicles (bankrolled by Ryder, an incredibly wealthy 10-year-old child). Anyway, it is absolutely enormous with the under-fives, and now it has its own Chessington zone in the shape of World of PAW Patrol, which takes in four rides, a gift shop, a play area and themed snacks. Me and my kids went down to the press preview just before it opened and here are some thoughts. To get the slight negative out of the way first, the thing to bear in mind is that it’s a Chessington zone on a Chessington...

For travellers looking to explore Covent Garden and the West End, Charing Cross station is an invaluable jumping off point, with trains from all over the southeast terminating at this major transport hub. But this summer, getting into town will be a little bit more fiddly. Southeastern trains has warned that the stretch of railway leading from London Bridge to Charing Cross is in serious need of an upgrade, so it’s embarking on a three week long programme of engineering works. Usually, works like this are staggered over a series of weekends. But after conducting a review, Southeastern trains has discovered that the works are so extensive that the line would need to be closed for more than a year’s worth of weekends (120 days in total). As well as being highly disruptive, that would have a catastrophic knock-on effect for businesses who rely on weekend visitors buzzing into the city’s entertainment centre to enjoy its restaurants, cinemas, theatres and bars. So instead, the plan is to go for a single 22-day summer closure period, chosen to be a time when schools are on holiday and commuter numbers are lower. During this time, engineers will replace over 1,800 metres of worn out track that’s been in situ since the early 1990s. In recent years, growing numbers of faults on the track have caused hundreds of hours of delays, so this work will have a positive impact on future journey times. The programme of works will also include drainage improvements at Waterloo East station,...