Things to do in London this week

In Richard Jones’s staggering revival of Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 expressionist classic, our first glimpse of Rosie Sheehy’s Young Woman is the sight of her freaking out in a press of black-clad ’20s New Yorkers. Jones’s production is an infernal anxiety machine, each hallucinatory scene immaculately crafted with its own distinct mood. Hyemi Shin’s retina-searing set is unforgettable, Benjamin Grant’s sound design skin-crawling unnerving, and Sheehy is astonishing. The whole thing is an observation that capitalism is a machine that crushes the little guy. It’s a tale of one woman standing up to the system turned into a pulverising rapture.

Outdoor spaces are big business come London summertime, and this seasonal pop-up between Waterloo and Westminster bridges is one of the biggest in London. Boasting lovely views over the river Thames and an eclectic programme of drag shows, DJs, live performances and themed club nights, it’s packed with surprises. Look out for the Dock Disco, a regular Friday night of classic house, disco anthems and dance pop bangers, Sunday party We Are The Sunset, drag brunches and a seven-hour-long Swiftageddon club night. 

Lantana brings the Aussie sun to London, inviting you to savour great food, coffee and drinks all day, surrounded by friends, and looked after by people who care. Famous for freshness, quality, colour and of course, coffee, Australia’s cuisine and a healthy lifestyle is at the heart of Lantana. Enjoy menus that embrace seasonality and all the sustainable goodness that Mother Nature intended, from the BBQ Mushroom Hash and the Chicken Parmigiana to the Banoffee Banana Bread and Affogato.

Get a main dessert and a cocktail at Lantana for just £25, only through Time Out offers. 

It’s all getting a bit nihilistic for Barbara Kruger. The American art icon’s show of new work at Sprüth Magers is full of existential dread, hefty pessimism and grim monochrome. It’s her usual ultra-bold statement art, but in fading shades of grey. Despite being small, the show ends up being a lot more satisfying than Kruger’s big recent Serpentine exhibition. Kruger’s art doesn’t need to be adapted to fit on TV screens, or animated, or interpreted, or rehashed. Her art is best when it’s like this: in your face, simple, unadulterated. 

Following unprecedented public demand, The Art of Banksy is extending its London run following hugely successful residencies in Covent Garden and Regent Street. Drawing critical acclaim, The Art of Banksy is the world’s largest collection of original and authenticated Banksy artworks showcasing more than 150 pieces. 

£9.95 tickets to The Art of Banksy only through Time Out offers 

You’ve seen ‘The White Lotus’, and now you want to live the sweet Sicilian life. No need to leave the capital to get a slice of the iconic Italian coastline. Pop-up food market SicilyFEST is back taking over the Business Design Centre so you can earn your cannoli from your arancini. The stands will be lined with gelato, pizzas and pretty desserts that will make your mouth and eyes water. There’ll also be Sicilian artists treating foodies to performances as well as interactive classes led by some cracking Italian chefs, too.

The batshit fever dream that Kristen Stewart’s fans have been waiting for, ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ also happens to be the best B-movie of the year. Too early for such lofty claims? Consider the evidence: a single montage includes Ed Harris’s mulleted mobster petting horned beetles, bodybuilder Katy O’Brian pumping iron in Richard Simmons shorts and a tank top adorned with the words ‘Burning Love’, and Stewart’s lost moll reading a paperback called ‘Macho Sluts’. Director Rose Glass infuses a hothouse atmosphere with wickedly unsparing insight – and just a touch more humour – to turn genre tropes inside out in this retro-noir fantasia. 

Peckham Fringe returns for its third year with over 20 productions created by local artists and performers. The programme promises inventive, enthralling storytelling. Look out for ‘Time Fly’s’, a time-travelling adventure back to the south-east London of old and ‘Last Goal Wins’, an award-winning piece about five men trying out for the Nigerian national football team.

The cycle of 13 songs PJ Harvey has written for the National Theatre’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’ slot seamlessly into her body of work and elevate this adaptation of Dickens’s final finished novel. The show is billed as a play with songs: the tune count is a bit low for actual musical status, but nonetheless, Harvey’s songs are integral to the darkly satirical thriller that pivots on the disappearance of John Harmon, who disappeared on the day he returned to collect his inheritance following the death of his wealthy father. This story from the city is something special: Dickens’s late class drama turned into a work both elemental and righteous.

He’s not the first rapper to ‘go rock’, (Jay-Z, Machine Gun Kelly and Lil Wayne all dabbled in guitar-heavy production,) but Lil Yachty’s pivot to indie still came as quite a surprise. The 2023 release ‘Let’s Start Here’ has the Atlanta rapper drawling over psychedelic riffs and out-of-this-world synthesisers, Tame Impala-style. It’s clear (from songs like ‘drive ME crazy!’) that the 14-song collection is just made to be played live. So nab a ticket to be a part of it. 

OVO Arena, Wembley, HA9 0AA. Mon Apr 29, 7pm. From £53.40.

Looking for authentic Italian food and freshly made pasta? Officina 00 in Old Street and Fitzrovia are here to deliver Italian cuisine favourites made from rare regional recipes from Italy. Founded by friends Elia Sebregondi and Enzo Mirto who grew up together in Naples, these London hotspots offers a carefully curated menu of indulgent dishes. 

Get this three courses and a glass of house wine at Officina 00 for £29.50, only through Time Out offers. 

The concept of a ‘wood-fired’ London restaurant might not elicit the same reverential ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ as it did a decade ago; such an elemental technique is now commonplace, but wood-firing the Mayfair way is methodical and calculated, with just a dash of dark ages energy. Humo (‘smoke’ in Spanish) received its first Michelin star at the start of 2024, a little over a year since Colombian-born chef Miller Prada opened the restaurant down a Mayfair backstreet. Different woods and different temperatures impart different flavours on different dishes in a fittingly alchemistic fashion from raw starters of 12-day aged Hampshire trout to smoked vegetables and lamb.

There’s been a frenzy of hype around Sam Grabiner’s debut play ‘Boys on the Verge of Tears’. It was the recipient of the prestigious Verity Bargate Award last year, and has found vocal support from big name playwrights Lucy Kirkwood and April de Angelis. But, the real attraction comes in the form of the director James Macdonald: a real industry legend. Set exclusively in a public toilet, with five main actors and over 50 characters, Grabiner has created an intimate study of men and boys, their potential for violence and pain. Following a rough chronology from boyhood to old age, with no break between the changing scenes, men from all walks of life flow in and out of the cubicles. It’s a tiny, tragic and beautiful glimpse into a public toilet's secrets.

Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘Swan Lake’ opens with soft-lapping melodies, before building to several great crashing crescendos. And so it is with this raucously entertaining, ballet-themed gorefest. Abigail is a vampire film that pirouettes over your funny bone while sinking its teeth into your neck… over and over again. Six testy individuals stake-out a 12-year-old girl as she’s driven home from ballet practice. They drug and kidnap little Abigail (still in her tutu) and zip her into a bag during a set-piece that’s too slick to be tense. Then it’s off to the creepy isolated mansion where the rest of the film unfolds. This is a delightfully-pitched, gory horror comedy that energetically creates a crossover genre we never knew we needed: the vampire ballet. 

Can art save the world? Can it lead to world peace? Nah, probably not, but Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) believed it could. In the 1980s, the giant of post-war American art launched ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange, pronounced ‘Rocky’ like his pet turtle), an initiative that saw him travel to countries gripped by war and oppression in an ambitious act of cultural diplomacy. He visited places like Cuba, Chile and the USSR and the results are on display here. As a document of a world gripped by paranoia and tension, of the slow demise of communism, of the birth of neoliberalism, it’s great. 

Never ending baskets of delicious dim sum. Need we say more? That means tucking into as many dumplings, rolls and buns as you can scoff down, all expertly put together by a Chinatown restaurant celebrating more than ten years of business. Taiwanese pork buns? Check. Pork and prawn soup dumplings? You betcha. ‘Supreme’ crab meat xiao long bao? Of course! And just to make sure you’re all set, Leong’s Legend is further furnishing your palate with a chilled glass of prosecco. Lovely bubbly.

Get 51% off bottomless dim sum at Leong's Legend only through Time Out Offers

On a curved grey wall, Antwerp-based painter Kati Heck’s new show has laid out a serpentine journey through art history. There are riffs on Durer and Cranach, nods to mythology and the Old Testament. A ripped canvas shows ’60s superstar Donovan on a crumbling wall. Adam and Eve stand fruitless beneath a tree. One canvas is filled with cartoon-y scenes of Donald Trump, the Count from ‘Sesame Street’, a mother wiping her toddler’s arse. It’s all unfollowable, dizzying, a whorl of clashing symbolism. It wouldn’t work if it wasn’t so brilliantly painted, a collision of Hieronymous Bosch, De Chirico and Alice Neel. Every choice is so clearly deliberate, but left entirely unexplained. And that, it seems is the point. 

Lightroom is back with another spectacle set to take your breath away. See this exciting Apollo Remastered collaboration with Tom Hanks, Christopher Riley and 59 Productions with an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind the scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. With a musical score by Anne Nikitin, Lightroom’s powerful projection and audio technology will transport you to another world.

Get tickets to 'The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks' at Lightroom for £19, only through Time Out offers. 

Settle down for a while host of free film screenings in weird and wonderful venues across south east London. There’ll be a full and varied bill with old school classics, indie flicks, shorts and local documentary, including family-friendly films like ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and ‘Bugsy Malone’, newer releases like ‘Rye Lane’ and ‘Wonka’, hard-hitting foreign films like ‘No’ and ‘Smile Orange’, plus docs like ‘Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bambi’. Look out for discos, DJ nights and talks after many of the screenings. 

Escape reality through maximum immersion and experience 42 masterpieces from 29 of the world’s most iconic artists, each reimagined through cutting-edge technology. Marble Arch’s high-tech Frameless gallery houses four unique exhibition spaces with hypnotic visuals reimaging work from the likes of Bosch, Dalí and more, all with an atmospheric score. Now get 90 minutes of eye-popping gallery time for just £20 through Time Out offers.

£20 tickets to Frameless immersive art experience only through Time Out offers