Gigs in London tonight

Each summer, Dalston's much-loved Arcola Theatre transforms into a hotbed of bold, experimental and genre-blurring new operas. Take any opera-related stereotypes you might have and bin them: Grimeborn is all about finding new ways that music and theatre can collide, over a series of up close and personal shows in the Arcola's two intimate brick-walled theatre spaces. 2018's teeming line-up kicks off with 'The Rape of Lucretia', a work by Benjamin Britten that pioneered a new, psychologically intense, more intimate style of opera. It's directed by Julia Burbach, who'll train her focus on the story's representation of women. In 'Carmen The Gypsy', Romani composer Dan Allum has reimagined Bizet's opera for a setting in Britain's traveller community. There's also hot jazz show 'Swing Sister Swing', which'll hop its way through female-led dance history using a line-up of lindy hoppers and champion chorus line The Dinahs. 'A Fantastic Bohemian' is a promenade reimagining of an Offenbach opera set in Mexico City's movie studios. 'Opera Mouse' and 'Jazz Cat' are animal-inspired shows for kids. And Patrick Kennedy's European premiere of avant-garde rock-opera 'Elephant Steps' is an occult, incense-scented spectacular that's probably best left to the grown-ups.