Things to do in London this weekend (20-21 September)

London’s cultural institutions are having a love affair with the New Romantics this year. Now it’s the Design Museum’s turn to direct its attention towards the most flamboyant subculture of its era, via this exhibition on the Blitz club, the iconic (and we really don’t use that word lightly) Covent Garden nightclub where New Romanticism was born in 1979. Forty years after it closed, the trailblazing club’s atmosphere will be recreated through a ‘sensory extravaganza’ incorporating music, film, art, graphic design and some very ostentatious outfits. This will include several items that have never been on public display before, while some of the scene’s key figures have been involved in the development of the exhibition. Time to liberally apply the kohl eyeliner, fish out your frilliest shirt and whack on some Spandau Ballet: the 80s are back, baby!

Kerry James Marshall is an artist with a singular vision. He has become arguably the most important living American painter over the past few decades, with an ultra-distinctive body of work that celebrates the Black figure in an otherwise very ‘Western’ painting tradition. This big, ambitious show will be a joyful celebration of his lush, colourful approach to painting.

Fashion lovers will lose their heads over the V&A’s big autumn exhibition, focusing as it does on the sartorial tastes of one of history’s most notable bonce droppers. Marie Antoinette Style will look at the ill-fated French queen’s enduring impact on fashion, design and culture, as well as ‘the origins and countless revivals of the style shaped by the most fashionable queen in history’. The V&A’s art collection features two portraits of Antoinette by Jean-François Janinet and François Hubert Drouais which we’d imagine will feature in the exhibition, while visitors can also expect to get up close to some serious couture pieces too; Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Moschino, Dior and the exhibition’s sponsor Manolo Blahnik have all created past collections inspired by the guillotined French Revolution monarch. Let them eat ’fits!

Stationed at the Pembury Tavern since 2018, Ace Pizza has long been in Time Out’s good books thanks to their giddy, stonebaked ‘London-style’ pizza, which combines the crispy-bottomed New York slice with the slow-fermented, bubbly crusts of the Neapolitan original. This is their first stand-alone restaurant and there’s more than just pizzas in store here. Small plates include crispy fried artichokes, salty anchovies draped on a gooey slide of pan con tomate, paired with a Parmtini - a pleasingly depraved take on the classic martini made with cheese-infused vodka. The pizzas are just as good as their Pembury counterparts. It’s all enjoyably, fantastically fun.  

The great avant-garde director Katie Mitchell directs this virtuosic foley performance in which a quartet of actors (Pandora Colin, Tom Espiner, Tatenda Matavai and Ruth Sullivan) deploy a colossal array of objects – from hay bales to hot water bottles – to create the sounds of a cow and also a deer. They’re augmented by sound design from co-creator Melanie Wilson that is heavy on animal noises and a script from Nina Segal that imposes a degree of discipline and direction and ultimately a rather haunting ‘story’ about humanity’s disruption of ordered nature. It’s a dazzlingly coordinated exercise in pure artifice, a sort of vindication of human ingenuity. The four actors are in constant, fluid motion as they fiddle with everything from glittery pom poms to what looks like bundles of herbs to conjure the beasts and their world. Nobody makes theatre like Mitchell, and this is an audacious technical exercise the likes of which you’re unlikely to ever see in a theatre again. 

Ever looked in the window of a commercial gallery in Mayfair, and found it completely empty save for a lone curator at desk, surrounded by expensive art on impossibly white walls? Imagine the exact opposite of that, and you’ve got the Art Car Boot Fair, one of the most madcap, entrancing art events in London, where big names flog their work from little stalls or the boot of a car. And this year, things are getting even more eccentric thanks to this edition's theme, Comedy and the Comic. Celeb stallholders include British comedy legend Vic Reeves, Instagram star Mr Doodle, Scottish fashion designer Pam Hogg, Modern Toss, Dion Kitson, Camille Phoenix, and photographer Rankin, who'll take portraits of punters at the fair. Go along and you'll find an egalitarian mix of big names and emerging artists, all flogging work at knockdown prices and cracking jokes with passers by. 

Its been nine long years since Brick Lane last hosted its Curry Festival, but E1’s curry houses are coming together again for this free festival taking over Brick Lane and nearby streets with the aim of reestablishing this East End neighbourhood as the curry capital of the UK. The main event is on Sunday 21, when visitors can expect street food stalls and chef demonstrations outside the stretch of Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurants on the corner of Brick Lane and Hanbury Street, alongside a host of family-friendly fun including DJs, stilt walkers, magicians and live graffiti presentations, plus some opportunities to get stuck in at henna and bangla dancing workshops. 

Yep, this is a live recreation (you could call it immersive theatre if you wanted) of the smash BBC game show The Traitors. As much as anything, this adaptation from Immersive Everywhere is extremely well organised. Clearly, you can’t make a note-perfect recreation the show, but what they’ve done captures a sense of it very nicely. In this much shorter format, a large number of participants book in for a given time slot and are then divided into groups of around 12. Each is spirited away to their own round table, which comes complete with its own Claudia Winkleman-substitute host. The thrill is in the psychology of it all: overanalysing everyone else’s behaviour and body language as we complete a series of puzzles. It’s possible to be eliminated relatively early, but rather than being booted out of the building, ejectees are set up in a comfy room with screens relaying the rest of the game live, and a couple of tasks to complete, which I won’t spoil. Overall: it’s a bloody good laugh.

London’s festival scene caters to just about every kind of music fan, and that of course includes metalheads. After debuting in 2022, this three-day black metal bonanza returns to the O2 Academy Islington for its fourth edition this September. Curated by London-based metal label Cult of Parthenope, its line-up promises to showcase ‘some of the finest, rarest and most transcendental’ bands in the genre. The lineup includes Ritual Death, Bewitched, Kall, Necrophobic, Splendidula, Dark Sonority, Alkhemia, Negative Plane, Shardana, Blood Countess and The Kovenant.

You don't see many festivals billing themselves as a blend of ‘philosophy and music’ but that's exactly what you get at HowTheLightGetsIn. Over 300 talks, discussions, debates, musical performances, comedy sets and documentary screenings are on the bill this year. Alain de Boton, Brian Cox, Ash Sarkar, Mary Trump, Cathy Newman, Alastair Campbell, Roger Penrose and John Gray are just some of the thinkers on the line-up, while performances come from the likes of Alex Farrow, The Orb, Lucy Beaumont, Deptford Northern Soul Club, Alexandra Harrow and Kadialy Kouyate on the entertainment bill. Your centrist dad will love it.

Ever wanted to have a nosy around some of London’s coolest private buildings? Open House London gives guests free access to architectural wonders that are not normally open to the public – from schools and offices to places of worship. It’s an often rare chance to explore iconic or just interesting buildings that make up the capital’s storied history, while the programme usually includes tons of workshops, exhibitions and more, as well as the usual tours.

The annual Future Of Food Festival, hosted by the culinary hotspots of Regent Street and St James’s, has got events galore that are all about the newest, most exciting, and most sustainable bits of the restaurant industry. Join panel talks with industry experts to get some insight into where food is heading in the coming years, tuck into some unique dining experiences and meet some of the most innovative chefs, restaurateurs and suppliers in the country. This year, there’ll be exclusive dining experiences from chefs, masterclasses from sustainable booze brands and On-Street Feasts where you can dine outdoors. 

Cheesier than a wheel of Stilton and about as edgy, Downton Abbey bows out with a cosy but loveable final instalment that will leave few dry eyes among long-time fans of Julian Fellowes’ British TV thoroughbred. It’s a third big-screen instalment that’s one long ending: to the characters, to the house, to the certainties of Edwardian England. It’s mostly soirées and teas and trips to the theatre, though there is a vague gesture at a plot. A handsome American (Alessandro Nivola) with Wall Street airs arrives in Blighty to stir things up; a prospective visit from Noël Coward gets everyone in a flap; and a prize or two needs giving out at the county fair. The headline news is that Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is now divorced from her feckless husband, which gets her rudely booted out of polite society. It’s a touching but low-key ending that gathers all your faves together for a last supper.

After four years of exciting performances, free music and dance festival Urban Elephant has grown into one of Elephant and Castle’s best-loved cultural events, and for good reason. From classic Indian dance to Spanish flamenco, the weekend-long festival is a real showcase for the local area’s vibrant multicultural communities. Look out for Grupo Lokito bringing Congolese grooves and Cuban rhythms, Ivorian drumming and dancers from Kaagô, the IRIE! Dance Theatre Youth Company performing West African folktale ‘Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom’  and a celebration of Colombia and Latin America from dance group Yuruparí Grupo Folclórico. 

Walthamstow's Big Penny Social has only been on the scene for three years, but it's made a name for itself as a fun, down-to-earth spot for locals to hang out and party. Now, it's throwing a mammoth birthday bash that'll be its biggest knees up to date, with a festival feel. Big Penny's Biggest Ever Party will unfold across six different spaces, including new arts venue Big Penny Studio. There'll be a mammoth line-up of over 100 performers, including wrestlers, circus acts, a full orchestra and more, with tons of opportunities to mingle, chat and dance.  

The V&A East Storehouse opened in May this year. Spoiler: it’s amazing. But visitors have had to wait a bit longer for the arrival of the massive David Bowie archive containing more than 80,000 items and spanning six decades of the life of Ziggy Stardust. Now, the David Bowie Centre will officially open on Thursday September 13, with opening exhibits curated by BRIT-winning indie band The Last Dinner Party and living musical legend Nile Rodgers. Rodgers, who produced Bowie’s albums Let’s Dance and Black Tie White Noise has selected items including personal correspondence between himself and Bowie, a bespoke Peter Hall suit worn by Bowie during the Serious Moonlight tour and Chuck Pulin photographs of Bowie, Rodgers and guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan recording Let's Dance in New York. The free-to-enter gallery will have nine displays showing everything from photographs to clothing, and drawings, and will include insights into unrealised projects.

London is widely recognised as one of the design capitals of the world. Cementing this title is the annual Design Festival, a colourful and thought-provoking celebration of some of the world's best designers, who interrogate the boundaries of design through events, exhibitions and installations. This year, the fest will showcase how contemporary design intersects with technology, sustainability, and our shared cultural heritage. Phew. Look out for landmark projects including What Nelson Sees by Paul Cocksedge, which will let you see London from Nelson’s vantage point on top of his Trafalgar Square column and Beacon by Lee Broom, a site-specific sculpture at the entrance of the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, inspired by the area’s Brutalist architecture that will illuminate when Big Ben strikes. 

Love sushi, dumplings or noodles? Inamo’s got you covered. This high-tech spot in Soho or Covent Garden lets you order from interactive tabletops, play over 20 games while you wait and even doodle on your table. Then it’s all you can eat pan-Asian dishes like Sichuan chicken, red dragon rolls and Korean wings with bottomless drinks. Usually £113.35, now just £33 or £26 if you're in early at the weekend!

Get Inamo’s best ever bottomless food & drink brunch from only £26 with Time Out Offers.

If you think a two-hander drama about Elizabethan legends Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare having a sexy, dangerous time while trying to write a play together sounds a bit slash fiction-y then you would have the number of Born with Teeth, a new drama by US playwright Liz Duffy Evans. There is more to it than that, though. For much of its running time Daniel Evans’s RSC production comes across like an outlandish workplace comedy. It stars a Ncuti Gatwa who makes a case for Marlowe as quite possibly history’s most annoying person. Hyper horny, hyper bawdy, and with the attention span of a gnat. His unfortunate colleague is Edward Bluemel’s mild-mannered William Shakespeare, who has been summoned by his (then) more famous peer to co-write the play Henry VI. It’s a lot of fun: two charismatic actors having a ball pinging off each other while chomping down on a script that spikes the trashiness with some genuine wit.

The late Peter Jones’ labyrinth of polychromatic tunnels is returning for another UK tour, stopping in Clapham Common this September for a 36th year. Never been to Colourscape? Self-described as ‘Europe’s most unusual festival’, you wander around its big inflatable neon maze to see what musicians you can find inside. You might happen upon a flautist, a classical guitarist or, new this year, a Balinese gamelan accompanied by a troupe of Indonesean dancers. Who knows!? Those kaleidoscopic innards are designed to surprise. 

Video games are the medium for Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley. The young artist uses them to ‘imaginatively archive and empower Black Trans stories’ - this isn’t just point-and-shoot, slack-jawed gaming for the sake of it, this is one of contemporary society’s most important cultural forms being used to give voice to marginalised identities. 

★★★★ 'Frameless has managed to create something genuinely exciting' – Time Out

Escape reality through maximum immersion and experience 42 masterpieces from 29 of the world’s most iconic artists, each reimagined beyond belief, through cutting-edge technology. Situated in Marble Arch, Frameless plays host to four unique galleries with hypnotic visuals and a dazzling score. Enjoy 90 minutes of surreal artwork from Bosch, Dalí and more for just £24!

Get £24.80 tickets (originally £31), only through Time Out Offers.

The fourth and (supposedly) final Conjuring film promises ‘the case that ended it all’. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigator couple Ed and Lorraine Warren in this recreation of the Smurl Haunting, a series of demonic possessions at a Pennsylvania home between 1974 and 1989. Last Rites promises to conclude the Warrens’ exploits, but don’t be fooled by the title: The Conjuring universe continues, with a Max series already in development.

Out Sep 5

Imagine indulging in all the dumplings, rolls, and buns you can handle, crafted by a Chinatown favourite with over a decade of culinary excellence. Savour Taiwanese pork buns, savoury pork and prawn soup dumplings, and luxurious crab meat xiao long bao. To top it off, enjoy a chilled glass of prosecco to elevate your feast. Cheers to a truly delightful dining experience at Leong’s Legend!

This new comedy drama from state-of-the-nation playwright Mike Bartlett is an amusing but bleak satire about middle-aged couple Ruth (Hattie Morahan) and Lip (Sam Troughton), who have left behind the Big Smoke to plough Ruth’s inheritance into setting up an organic, regenerative farm. Farming requires dedication and an understanding of the land, Juniper Blood tells us. And most of us are slaves to capitalism and too reliant on technology to be able to go back to basics anyway. It’s not one big lecture, though. Directed by Barlett’s regular collaborator James Macdonald, it’s really very funny while holding a mirror up to the gaping chasm between idealism and pragmatism.   

Every year, London’s famous river gets a whole festival of art installations, performances, and talks devoted to her watery charms, many of which are free to check out. This year’s Totally Thames Festival has scores of events throughout September, all dotted along riverside locations from Richmond to Barking & Dagenham. This week, look out for St Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival (Sep 6) which lets you clamber aboard ancient vessels. You can also visit a mudlarking exhibition, walk and masterclass, take boat tours and listen to special lectures. 

It’s one of those Fringe successes people dream of mimicking. Since debuting in Edinburgh in 2014, Duncan Macmillan Every Brilliant Thing – co-written with its original star Jonny Donahoe – has earned rave reviews and performed all across the globe. Now it’s on the West End. Over the course of its three-month stint, Donahoe, Ambika Mod, Sue Perkins and Minnie Driver will all take the lead role, but we see Lenny Henry. Dressed in a colourful patterned shirt, he sends smiles soaring across the crowd from the outset. The conversation about mental health has moved on since 2014. Nevertheless, the play’s message still lands today. For all its sorrow, the play gleams with hope. It is a truly brilliant thing.

This new play by American writer Doug Wright comes to the Barbican from Broadway heralded by a 2023 Tony Award for star Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and is about someone you’ve likely never heard of. Oscar Levant was a pianist – best known for playing George Gershwin’s music – and a humourist, who popped up in a handful of films including An American in Paris. This play re-imagines the events surrounding his chaotic appearance as a guest on The Tonight Show in 1958. It's fragmentary and frantic – culminating in a truly virtuosic piano performance by a spotlit Hayes, who looks agonisingly at his own hands as if they belong to a stranger. It’s hauntingly powerful and the apex of this funny and devastating play.  

You’ve probably heard of ‘Instagram face’. This summer, Somerset House is dedicating a whole exhibition to things like the internet’s inclination for everyone to look exactly the same. In Virtural Beauty, Somerset House will explore the impact of digital technologies on how we define beauty today. The show will display more than 20 artworks from the 'Post-Internet' era, an art movement concerned with the influence of the internet on art and culture. It will feature sculpture, photography, installation, video and performance art, with highlights including ORLAN’s Omniprésence (1993), a groundbreaking performance in which the artist live-streamed her own facial aesthetic surgery, and AI-generated portraits by Minnie Atairu, Ben Cullen Williams, and Isamaya Ffrench.