London events in April

Glistening waters, baby blue skies, romantic architecture... a trip to Venice certainly wouldn't go a miss right now. But even if it’s not so easy for you to jet off to Italy, you can still escape to the floating city with an exciting new exhibition coming to the capital this spring. A complete set of 24 Venetian views painted by Canaletto in the 1730s will be whisked from the famous collection at Woburn Abbey and into London's National Maritime Museum, promising a rare opportunity to see the works IRL as well as drawings, prints, photographs, and other objects that will bring the exhibtion to life. 

Blockbuster exhibitions don't come more blockbuster-y than this. Raphael is one of the great masters of art history, his expert handling of colour and line and perspective, combined with his incredible talent for capturing emotion in scenes religious and historical scenes, made him one of the most influential artists to ever live. All while being a master of ninjutsu? Awe inspiring. This show is going to sell out, and it's going to be rammed, so get your tickets early. 

Sickert is one of Britain's most enigmatic artists. He left behind a radical body of work, depicting dark, intimate nudes and portraits of actors and musicians, and in the process layed the groundwork for the figurative experimentalism of countless painters to come. Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Jenny Savile - they all owe Sickert a hell of a lot. 

Wander down an immersive high street filled with migrant-owned businesses ranging from a 1980s corner shop to a Chinese takeaway in ‘Taking Care Of Business’, a new exhibition co-curated by Time Out’s very own Food and Drink Editor, Angela Hui. You’ll find video installations, interactive artwork and personal accounts from well-known entrepreneurs including ‘Dragon’s Den’ contestant and Reggae Reggae Sauce owner Levi Roots and Darjeeling Express’s Asma Khan. The museum’s gift shop has been transformed into a Migrant Makers’ Market championing Lewisham’s diverse businesses for the occasion. 

Hyped for the Women’s Euros and the World Cup later this year? The Design Museum’s new exhibition ‘Football: Designing the Beautiful Game’ is sure to take you to fever pitch. Through more than 500 objects, films and interviews, it explores how design has shaped the world’s most popular sport, touching on kit development, stadium construction and how technology helps elite footballers perform at their best, with reference to a squad of footballing legends including Messi, Pelé, George Best and Maradona. You’ll be begging for extra time at this one. 

Last year, London’s The Vagina Museum – the first physical museum dedicated to vaginas, vulvas and gynaecological anatomy – was forced to close its doors after being denied an extension on its lease. Thankfully, it managed to find new premises in Bethnal Green and has just reopened for business with an expanded edition of last year’s exhibition ‘Periods: A Brief History’. Speaking about the grand relaunch, the museum’s founder and director Florence Schechter said: ‘We’re thrilled to be able to reopen our doors to the public. During our temporary closure, we’ve had so many people express how much they missed us. Since the beginning of this project, it’s been crucial to us for the Vagina Museum to exist as a physical space, and we’re excited to become a part of the vibrant community in Bethnal Green.’ 

RECOMMENDED: 14 weird but wonderful museums in London.

The Postal Museum’s latest exhibition ‘Sorting Britain’ is a deep dive into the fascinating history and function of postcodes. Learn how they’re used to sort and deliver mail, and delve into the social history of postcodes, beginning with their 1959 trial in Norwich and examining how they have impacted life in the UK since, from affecting what services we can access to defining how we perceive ourselves and others. Along the way you’ll get to check out beautiful unseen maps of nineteenth-century London and some hilarious promo materials featuring Poco, the Postcode Elephant, who never forgets anyone’s address.

Superhero fans assemble! This is the first major exhibition dedicated to the depiction of foundlings, orphans, adoptees and foster kids in comics. It’s definitely a rich seam of storytelling to explore – after all, Black Panther is known as ‘the Orphan King’; Spider-Man’s parents die in a plane crash, and Batman’s parents are killed in a street robbery. The exhibition runs for five months and entry is included with the price of admission to the Foundling Museum. 

Eight years after ‘The Drowned Man’, the mighty Punchdrunk – hands down the best immersive theatre company in the world – finally return with this immense new show. ‘The Burnt City’ takes the scale of Punchdrunk’s shows to the next level by playing in not one, but two buildings, both ex arsenals in the Woolwich docklands (with a third smaller temporary bridging building between them). Taking inspiration from Aeschylus’s ‘Agamemnon’ and Euripides's ‘Hecuba’, it’s a wild interpretation of the Fall of Troy, with one building playing host to a sci-fi Troy indebted to Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’, and the other a barren, desolate Greece, with each having around 60 rooms to wander through. 

It’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’s turn to be the Shakespeare play that has a ‘big’ year, as the Bard’s beloved romcom opens the Globe’s 2022 outdoor season, shortly before a different production plays at the National Theatre for the summer. We don’t know much about this production other than it’s described as ‘riotous’ and is directed by Lucy Bailey – best known at the Globe for directing extremely violent productions of ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Titus Andronicus’, but also a dab hand with a gore-free comedy. The cast will be drawn from the Globe ensemble and will include Peter Bourke, Rachel Hannah Clarke, George Fouracres, Nadi Kemp-Sayfi and Ciaran O’Brien.

Colloquially known as ‘Sexy Oklahoma’, US director Daniel Fish’s stripped back, smoulderingly intense, radically inclusive new version of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic took Broadway by storm in 2019 and would probably have come over here earlier if it weren’t for you-know-what. The semi-immersive US production featured many innovations – not least chilli and cornbread served to the audience at the interval – but its boldest innovation is its darker reimagining of the love triangle between farm girl Laurey Williams and her two suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and farmhand Jud Fry. Anoushka Lucas and Arthur Darvill lead the UK cast as Laurey Williams and Curly McLain, with Patrick Vaill as Jud Fry and Liza Sadovy as Aunt Eller.

London is a treasure trove of brilliant days out