Things to do in London this week

This tiny exhibition is dedicated to the miserable, chaotic, sombre depiction of feverish violence that is the last painting of one of history’s most important artists, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It isn’t in the best state of repair, but it’s still a mesmerisingly beautiful work of art. It’s a maelstrom of movement and brutality and morbidity. It’s incredible. Caravaggio would die not long after finishing this painting, but what a way to go out. Not with a whimper, and not with a bang, but with a scream of blood-drenched anguish.

A whopping 12,000 pint lovers are set to visit this year’s edition of mega beer festival BrewLDN, which is on the Southbank this year with a slew of craft brewers from around the UK and further afield. Plenty of London favourites will be in attendance, including Toast Brewing, Renegade Brewery, Jiddler’s Tipple, Moot Brew Co, Flowerhorn Brewery and SXOLLIE. There’ll also be street food to soak up the pints, and DJs spinning tunes throughout your seshing. Good luck hauling yourself onto the dancefloor after all that boozing.

Soho’s Chinatown will always be a symbol of culture and community in the heart of Central London. Stepping through Wardour Street’s kitsch pagoda gates today, the infectious buzz is undeniable. London’s Chinatown is always evolving, with the most recent wave of restaurants representing Malaysian, Korean, Singaporean, Thai and Taiwanese cuisine alongside regional Chinese flavours like Sichuanese, Cantonese and Gansu style classics – not to mention an entire alley of pan-Asian dessert options. Here’s Time Out’s round-up of the 20 best places to get to know the foodie enclave. 

Yes, the presence of soon-to-turn-85 stage and screen legend Ian McKellen tackling Shakespeare’s great character Sir John Falstaff is the big draw in ‘Player Kings’. But Robert Icke’s three hour-40-minute modern-dress take on the two ‘Henry IV’ plays does not pander to its star, and is unwavering in its view that this is the story of two deeply damaged men, linked grimly together. McKellen is naturally excellent as an atypically elderly Falstaff, but it also has a supporting cast to die for See it because it’s a terrific take on one of the greatest plays ever written (plus its decent straight-to-DVD sequel) blessed tremendously original lead performances.

The Big Apple, Empire City, The City of Dreams – whatever you want to call it, New York is one heck of a place, inspiring everything from music to art, to food. It’s now become the latest muse for London’s Six by Nico, with its latest menu creation taking cues from the team's travels to the city that never sleeps for an adventure with the help of local chefs and tour guides, crafting a true New Yorker menu which includes a playful take on the classic bacon, egg & cheese and the famous Pastrami Sandwich.

Get your six courses and a glass of Prosecco at Six by Nico for just £39, only through Time Out offers. 

The number of films originating from Mongolia makes every​ single one feel special. If Only I Could Hibernate follows teenager Ulzii (Battsooj Uurtsaikh), his widowed, alcoholic mother (Ganchimeg Sandagdorj) and his three younger siblings as they scratch out a living in their yurt, incongruously located in the industrialised and rapidly modernising capital, Ulaanbaatar. As bleak as a winter’s day on the steppes, yet as hopeful as green shoots emerging from a spring thaw, this is an astonishingly assured debut.

Car boot, but make it classy. Unlike your usual boot sale, there’s no tat being flogged out of the back of a Ford Fiesta here. Instead Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard at King’s Cross are gearing up to be dotted with rare classic vehicles from which vendors will be selling vintage fashion, homewares and collectables. Mobile eateries will be dotted between the old-school cars and campervans, while DJs will be impressing purists and pop lovers with vintage vinyl. 

Britain is littered with symbols of death and exploitation. Public sculptures of controversial historical figures are everywhere, and now they’re in the Serpentine too, because Yinka Shonibare CBE has put them there. The Nigerian-British art megastar has filled the gallery with recreations of statues of Churchill, Kitchener, Queen Victoria and Clive of India. But they’re scaled down, their power diminished, minimised, undermined. And of course, they’re covered in Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax print. This is what Shonibare does: highlight, tear apart and subvert the legacy of British imperialism with directness, colour and wit.

Plenty of things have happened on April 23, but Shakespeare’s birthday has gotta be one of the most monumental in history. No wonder the V&A sets aside 10 days for a programme of live performances, talks, screenings and workshops (plus more) by actors, musicians, dancers and comedians around the Bard’s day of birth. This year’s festival includes an interactive installation of sound equipment, screenings of the all-female performance of Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse, 2013) and a special Friday Late looking at the next waves of feminism. 

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. 

Returning with another provocative, penetrating array of non-fiction films, The Open City Documentary Festival is setting up camp at London cinemas to show the best in documentary filmmaking from around the world. It all kicks off with ‘Sunless Haven’, a poetic piece of artistic filmmaking looking at the history of the London Docklands through the 20th Century. In total, there are 161 films including ‘Expanded Realities’ projects on the programme. Something for all tastes, in other words. 

Hugely influential silent US comic Doctor Brown – real name Phil Burgers, astonishingly – returns with his first proper new show in 12 years, a period that has seen him mentor and nurture the current impressive glut of LA-based US clown comics. ‘Beturns’ (all his shows begin with latter 'b') comes with no real promise beyond being the first Doctor Brown show in a decade – and that should be enough for most of us. 

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

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. 

A beautiful listed church smack dab in the heart of Islington has become London’s newest art gallery. Castor Gallery has taken up residence in Holy Trinity Church in Cloudesley Square. The church had been in a poor state up until recently, but it has now been deconsecrated and had its vast roof repaired, which has paved the way and hints of the church’s past everywhere, with the build leaving space for stained glass, war memorials, cracked floor tiles and wooden crucifixes to poke through. The current exhibition, by Mexican artist Fabian Ramirez, takes full advantage of the ecclesiastical setting, riffing on ideas of christianity, conversion and oppression. 

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. 

Porij are a Manchester-based four-piece band splicing up nu-jazz, art-pop, lo-fi pop, garage and late 90s drum 'n' bass. Since their inception in 2019, they’ve released the EPs ‘Breakfast’, ‘Baby Face’ and ‘Outlines’, and supported Coldplay on the Music of the Spheres World tour. In January, the group announced their debut album ‘Teething’, teased with the airy UKG-inflected single, ‘Unpredictable’. 

Electric Ballroom, NW1 8QP. Wed Apr 24, 7pm. From £20.35.

The fifth edition of the Queer East Film Festival arrives in kinos across London with a diverse programme of rarely-seen queer cinema from across Asia. A vast programme of features and shorts from 10 countries will be screened at venues across London. Other highlights include ‘Re-encountering Sunsets, Waves, Birds and Bees’ at the Museum of the Home, which involves a screening of Long Time between Sunsets and Underground Waves (by Hu Wei), before a stroll through the Museum’s gardens led by ecologist Connor Butler. What’s more, Hackney Wick Community Sauna will be hosting ‘Steamy Intimacies’, where you can catch films and then literally let off some steam in the saunas afterwards.

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