Prins Thomas

East London (well, East of Leicester Square at least) might have its critics, moaners and general humbug-ers, but there’s no doubting its ability to deliver the capital’s best dance nights. This bank holiday’s line up has more East End promise than a young David Beckham at a Leytonstone five-a-side tournament.

On Friday, why not kick things off at Shoreditch staple Jaguar Shoes, where the Recession Sound System bring fast-rising EA Sports down for a free live set. Check the mix below, where the London-based duo blend swinging Chicago house, fuzzed-out footwork loops and 90′s cultural ephemera into a satisfying whole. Keep the night going with the Balearic baron Prins Thomas, keeping things smooth at Shoreditch’s Plastic People. While fellow Norwegian (and sometime collaborator) might have something to say about the flyer’s “King of Space Disco” tag, Thomas brings an assured finesse to his sunset-hued, slow and expansive sound.

Saturday brings the Cannes of East London that is Field Day to Victoria Park. As always it’s an epic line up crammed into less than 24 hours, and there are delights galore for those organized types who print the line-up the day before. Highlights include the man behind oddball 1980′s Indian Acid record “Ten ragas to the Disco Beat” Charanjit Singh, the sadcore r’n'b of How to Dress Well, Lee Gamble‘s rave experiments and a bruising set from Teutonic techno titan Shed. In the evening it’s over to Cambridge Heath’s Oval Space for the highly anticipated live return of Metro Area. The duo of Morgan Geist (aka Storm Queen) and Darshan Jesrani (aka “the other one”) have produced a peerless run of disco-inflected house anthems — good-times music that will appeal to Moroder and  MJ fans alike. The line up is dominated by duos — with Glasgow’s Sub Club former-residents Optimo and London via Ireland’s Bicep promising crate-digging rarities and campy throwback house respectively.

Sunsetsundaze’s line-up for the whole day of Sunday looks good enough to call for a second visit to Oval Space. This week’s Berghain resident to rock the Capital is Nick Höppner, bringing the requisite mix of hard-edged techno and warmer house shades. Alongside him is KiNK, the Bulgarian-born producer who perfectly captures that epic sunrise vibe that Secretsundaze seems to excel at. With an on-site BBQ with meat shipped in from “The Ginger Pig butcher”, expect a cracker whatever the weather.

Friday 24 May

• Recession Sound System: EA Sports (live), Romare @ Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes, E2 8DA. Info here.
• Prins Thomas @ Plastic People, EC2A 3QE. Info here.

Saturday 25 May

• Field Day, Victoria Park, E3. Info here.
• Metro Area (live), Optimo, Bicep @ Oval Space, E2 9DY. Info here.

Sunday 26 May

• Secretsundaze: Nick Höppner, Joey Anderson, KiNK @ Oval Space, E2 9DY. Info here.

Browse the Club Watch archives. Image used with permission.

The album is hauntingly poignant, goose-bump stuff, featuring one song for each of the five explorers on that expedition. Jake spent a lot of time reading the letters of Wilson, Bowers, Oates, Evans and Scott: one feels that both the CD and the subsequent trek became kind of personal, a pilgrimage.

The South Pole is not the kind of place where you can just whip out your fender stratocaster (or whatever) and play a little ditty. Jake had to find a graphite guitar to withstand the harsh climate. And then he practised playing the thing in shop coldrooms and freezers the length and breadth of Rye Lane, Peckham. Thermals were involved. And gloves.

But he did it. He played all five songs, at minus 13°C, in various spots around the hut (which is spookily just as it was left), and it was filmed by his equally adventurous cameraman Colin Rogal. You can see one of the songs performed here and Jake will be talking about his voyage on Saturday Live on Radio 4 tomorrow morning at 9am.

Bring on more extreme singing we say.

A stranger enters a room full of people he does not know and speaks kindly and patiently with them for an hour. By the end of the hour, one of them has agreed to shoot him in the face.

Bullet Catch is more than just a stunt. The backbone of the show is the story of William Henderson, a 19th-century magician who died while performing the infamous trick of catching a fired bullet with one’s teeth. Rob Drummond, our host for the evening, tiptoes amiably between the dramatic retelling of Henderson’s death, conducting mind-reading games with the audience and musing on the philosophical.

The mind-reading games are especially good. Drummond is certainly an accomplished illusionist, prompting more than a few ‘how did he do that?’ moments (although it turns out a magician will sometimes reveal his secrets). His engagement with the audience is particularly commendable. Instantly likeable and trustworthy, he uses the intimacy of the performance space to great effect.

The Shed, a temporary venue based at the National Theatre, has only four rows of seating. There is no shrinking back into the shadows here. The set-up is almost like watching a show in your mate’s living room — except all of a sudden the presenter can read your mind and the pizza guy has just turned up with a firearm.

Ah, the gun. That carefully tailored intimacy and amicability is put to the test the moment a weapon arrives. One moment you are enjoying a rather good magic show with like-minded people, and the next you are in a room full of strangers, one of whom is two paces in front of you holding a loaded gun.

For a play that belongs to a genre heavily involved with smoke and mirrors, Bullet Catch is pleasantly unrefined — you are not separated from the action but part of it. Thrill seekers should go for the danger, thinkers for the philosophy, theatrical types for the drama, those of a curious disposition can go for the magic. And for all you cynics, just go for the Bullet Catch.

Bullet Catch runs until 1 June at The Shed, National Theatre, Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PX. Londonist saw this show on a complimentary review ticket.

Unusual materials and methods are something of a current trend in art. We’ve seen dollar bills, wine corks, train tickets, floppy disks, typewriters and many more everyday items co-opted by artists to create impressive artworks.

The latest innovative artist to catch our eye is Annemarie Wright, who uses handwriting to create political portraits. It’s only upon close inspection that her true message is revealed — you might, for example, discover a dangling Boris made up of words from his speeches at the Olympics and a Tory party conference.

Bill Clinton’s indiscretions are exposed in a portrait formed from his words of denial during the Lewinsky scandal, and we can only imagine what the public opinions about David Cameron have to say.

But there are also positive political messages to be had with Mandela’s long walk to freedom speech acting as the source material for his smiling visage. And the stoic stare of the brave Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, shot last year by the Taliban, features all the messages from well wishers she received while recovering in hospital.

These are spectacular, innovative pieces, and all the more poignant for the political messages contained within. With over 20 works on display, we’re looking forward to this solo exhibition.

Annemarie Wright, #PopPolitics is on at Woolff Gallery, 89 Charlotte St, W1T 4PU from May 31 to June 19. Admission is free.

Whales in Cubicles

Following last month’s profile of three up-and-coming London bands to watch, Londonist unearths three more acts deserving of your attention. Get them while they’re hot!

Whales In Cubicles

Who?
Stef Bernardi, Alex Pyper and Jamie Powell.

Where?
Hackney born and bred.

What?
Indie riff-rock at its finest. The lighter side of Hundred Reasons mixed with a dose of London enigmas My Vitriol. A recent interview in French compared the band to Razorlight, but let us assure you, a huge amount was lost in translation as those words crossed the Channel.

Why?
Strong melodies and soaring vocals make for a powerful mixture. Sometimes there’s just no need for music to be unnecessarily ‘clever’ – sometimes it’s enough for the tunes to speak for themselves. Forthcoming single Disappear will be backed by a headline show at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen on 6 June and an album is due before the end of this year.

Partly Faithful

Who?
Ed Banshee, Anouska Haze, Christopher Blake and Ned K.

Where?
All over the place – Islington, Greenwich, Crystal Palace and “near Nunhead”.

What?
Post-punk flows through this band’s arteries, with the spirit of Gang of Four and Public Image Ltd never far from the surface. That’s not to say the pointy style of that genre overwhelms the tunes – they can certainly string a melody together to keep things interesting.

Why?
With their album Lazarus Under Glass just released it’s the perfect time to catch Partly Faithful. A recent serious illness suffered by guitarist Anouska Haze won’t stop her thrashing her instrument to the point of breakage at Discovery 2 at AAA in Kensington on 30 May, and the band follow that up with gigs at The Windmill in Brixton and Hoxton Underbelly.

The Ethical Debating Society

Who?
Tegan, Kris, Eli and Su.

Where?
Also Hackney. Come on rest of London, you’re being shown up!

What?
Manic ‘riot pop’, more often very loud than not. Their name nods to the politics that come across clearly in the lyrics of founder Tegan Christmas. Think Sleater-Kinney headbutting the Dead Kennedys.

Why?
More than a few heads have been turned by this band’s exuberance, not least at a raucous recent set at the Buffalo Bar in Islington. They bear a passing resemblance to cult Scottish band Bis, who The Ethical Debating Society support at a gig at the Lexington on 25 July. Debut single Creosote Ideas has just popped up on American label Happy Happy Birthday To Me and big things are expected.

By Chris Lockie

Kew Garden’s summer season goes all Willy Wonka this year with its IncrEdibles Festival, which opens this Saturday and runs throughout the Summer.

This festival aims to showcase the wonderful world of edible plants. Kew achieves this by inviting people into its gardens to learn about and interact with the verdant banquet that make up 80% of our calorific intake (so we are told).

At The Tropical Larder, visitors can see over 60 edible plants including banana trees (which are actually giant herbs), jackfruit trees (part of the fig family) and even pawpaw trees (a pawpaw tree’s sap is used for tenderising meat, so don’t get too close). Volunteer guides will be on hand every weekend to hold special sessions, or to dissuade you from taking a nibble of the knee-quivering Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper that grows next door — the world’s second hottest pepper.

The Rose Garden Tea Party is an absolute delight. Edible plants grow up and around the crockery, which is emblazoned with clues as to what the plants might be, and how they go into making a traditional high tea menu. But this is no formal, stuffy tea party, as you are encouraged to explore the ingredients with touch and smell.

The highlight of the festival is undoubtedly The Tutti Frutti Boating Lake (created by ‘food architects’ Bompas and Parr) that looms azure blue through the trees as you approach the centre of the gardens. Kew’s Palm House Pond has never previously been open to the public. In fact, the last recorded excursion on the pond was in 1755 and ‘it certainly was not a member of the public’ who ventured out on it, we were mysteriously told.

Yet it is a feat worth waiting for, as visitors can hire their own boat and explore the pond from the water itself for the very first time. A floating pineapple island, complete with a giant pineapple, looms gaily over proceedings. Head underneath the pineapple for a secret banana grotto, or touch the electrode-festooned plants around it to modify the island’s soundscape.

Visitors will also discover edible plants from every corner of the globe (which will no doubt have to stoically battle through a British summer) at The Global Kitchen Garden, be inspired to grow their own vegetables at The Student Vegetable Plots, or just have a go on The Bouncy Carrot Patch. Why not?

IncrEdibles: A Voyage through Surprising Edible Plants runs from 25 May-3 November 2013. Entrance fee to the gardens is £14.50 for adults, £12.50 for concessions, free for under 16s. The Tutti Frutti boating experience is £4.50 for adults and £2.50 for under 16s. Please see the website for more details. 

Kick-about on the Westway, part of the Street Football exhibition, details below. Photo: Guy Sherwood.

GIVE BLOOD: Today’s opportunities to donate blood are at St Paul’s Church Hall in Stoke Newington and Brewers Hall in the City of London. Free, just turn up, see site for times and conditions

TICKET ALERT: The ever-popular Film4 Summer Screen season at Somerset House was recently announced and general tickets go on sale today, so reserve your spot at your favourite screening now.

EVEREST: Oxo Gallery celebrates the 60th anniversary of the first successful conquest of Everest with Everest 1953 — a photographic exhibition featuring prints of the exhibition. Free, just turn up, until 9 June

KEATS: The Keats Festival kicks off at Keats House today for 10 days of poetry, performance and family events. See website for full details, until 2 June

STREET FOOTBALL: Mobile designers HTC have collaborated with Getty Images to produce Street Football: An Insider’s Perspective – an exhibition at Top Office Machines. The exhibition showcases street football around the world and the different urban spaces that play out this international sport. Free, just turn up, until 28 May

BEER FESTIVAL: Real ales, ciders and barbecue food are on offer at this bank holiday beer festival at The Windsor Castle, Carshalton, which also features live entertainment throughout the weekend. Free, just turn up, until 27 May

SKETCH COMEDY: Comedy festival Sketchfest starts today and carries on through the weekend at The Victorian Vaults in Shoreditch. Acts include Allnut and Simpson, The Pin and the very wonderful Robin and Partridge. There are two double-billed shows a night. £12/£9 for a single show, £20/£15 for a day ticket and £50 for a weekend pass, prebook, until 26 May

JAZZ: The Royal Albert Hall’s free ignite jazz series continues today with the Peter Michaels Trio, who explore the elements which unite music from across the world. Free, just turn up, 12pm

MUSEUM LATES: Unwind after work with a spot of culture at the British Museum, National Gallery or National Portrait Gallery. Free, check websites for closing times and events

FICTION: LA Times Book Prize for Fiction winner Ben Fountain is at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace. £3, prebook, 7.30pm

ROLLER SKATE: The Friday Night skate starts at Wellington Arch. Anyone who feels competent on skates is welcome to join. Free, just turn up, 8pm

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON MARATHON: A couple of weeks ago we told you about the pretty stupendous opportunity to watch every Paul Thomas Anderson film in one sitting. Classics such as Boogie Nights, Magnolia and There Will Be Blood will be screened, so if you forgot to get your tickets the first time round, here is your last chance. £25, prebook, 9pm (finishes 10.35am the next day!)

Random London Fact of the Day
In 1865, a tunnel almost two miles long was completed between Holborn and Euston. Its purpose was to convey parcels and packages between post offices, using pressure differentials to pneumatically drive the carriage along. A verbose newspaper account of the time describes the construction with delightfully unwarranted Homeric allusions: “They have had to go up hill and down hill, to wind this way and that, to dodge the Charybdis of gas-pipes, to shun the Scylla of sewers, and to coquet with the underground Naiads of the water company.” The line was later extended to the area of Gresham Street, but it was soon abandoned.

Unintentionally lewd Dickens quote of the Day
“‘Aye!’ cried Rosa, smiting herself passionately on the breast, ‘look at me! Moan, and groan.” David Copperfield, Chapter 56.

Good Cause of the Day
SOLAR PANELS FOR SCHOOLS: Camden-based carbon cutting organisation 10:10 has a project called Solar Schools. It provide teams of teachers, parents, volunteers and students with online and offline tools, training and support to help them reach out to their communities and crowdfund the cost of solar panels for their school roof. Right now, applications are open for new schools to take part next academic year but in order to be in with a chance of taking part they need to have started an application by 29 May. If you’d like to put your school forward for the scheme, follow the instructions here.

London Weather, by Inclement Attlee
This was the scene at Londonist Towers yesterday, when an unseasonal downpour of snow and rain made a recumbent slush puppy out of our balcony.

It’s supposed to be late May. What the actual f*ck?

Reader Imola Unger predicts more extreme weather ahead, and sends us this artist’s pre-construction of today’s contrary weather. Holy Zeus!

As the opening line of the programme goes: “Something Very Far Away is a play about death”, but it’s beautiful and uplifting, quite the opposite of what this morbid introduction suggests.

The story is simple: a man travels the universe in search of understanding of his wife’s death, but what’s most magical about this play is the way it’s performed. Four cameras are set up, all of which are connected to a big screen so the story is ‘filmed’ in front of your eyes; the five-strong company move silently in the dark as they bring life to various puppets and props in a refreshingly simple and captivating way. And just as magical is the music: the original score by Mark Arends is performed live on acoustic guitar, and very much acts as the words in this otherwise silent play. Lasting only 40 minutes, it’s quirky and completely charming.

The piece is aimed at children (Unicorn Theatre is the UK’s leading theatre for audiences between 2 and 21), yet we couldn’t help but notice that the audience was made up mostly by adults (and it was the adults laughing throughout it too). This tiny play had a sell-out run in 2012 and received rave reviews, so don’t miss it this time round; it has wonderful imagination and inspires with its humble simplicity.

Something Very Far Away runs at the Unicorn Theatre, 147 Tooley Street SE1, until 2 June. Suitable for ages 8+. Tickets £10-£16. Londonist saw this performance on a complimentary press ticket.

Another week, another bunch of new gigs to consider booking up. Here’s our pick – tickets to all these should be available from 9am Friday.

Seminal grunge group Soundgarden got back together in 2010. When they played London last year, it was a relatively intimate affair in Shepherds Bush. On 18 September, they’ll play the larger O2 Brixton Academy. Tickets £38.50 + bf.

Fenech-Soler make funky, danceable electro-pop that’s great fun when you take it at face value. See them at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on 21 November. Tickets £14.50 + bf.

Islington’s gorgeous Union Chapel will host US country legend Kris Kristofferson on 26 September. Tickets £35 + bf.

Ellie Goulding has become somewhat ubiquitous since topping the BBC’s ‘Sound Of…’ poll in 2010. She plays properly big venues these days, which means you can see her at Hammersmith Apollo on 16 October. Tickets £22.50 + bf.

It feels as if there are loads of big gigs happening in London this summer, so here’s one more for the list. Elton John plays Hyde Park on 12 July, with support acts that include Ray Davies and Elvis Costello. Tickets from £59.50 + bf.

Also booking this week: Rokia Traore, Alkaline Trio, Placebo, Lionel Ritchie and KT Tunstall.

All Weekend

ESTUARY: Take an hour or so to visit Museum of London Dockland’s wonderful Estuary exhibition. We went on a tour of it yesterday and it really is captivating, featuring contemporary paintings, photographs, prints and experimental film about the Thames Estuary that will have you enthralled. Londonist is proud to be media partner to the show. Free entry, open 10am-6pm

CARS: Enfield Pageant of Motoring takes place on Enfield Playing Fields, Enfield Town. The star attraction this year is Megatron but there’s an Autojumble and arena events across the weekend. Entry £9 per day, open Saturday to Monday.

WALK LONDON: A fantastic series of free, guided walks are being put on this weekend by Walk London’s Spring into Summer campaign. Ramble your day away on a long jaunt or join them for a short stroll. The lengths, routes and topics all vary so there is something to suit everyone. Free, just turn up, Saturday and Sunday.

STEAM TRAINS: All aboard the steam trains on the Metropolitan line to Amersham this bank holiday weekend as the Tube150 celebration events continue! Tickets from £15, prebook.

EDIBLE PLANTS: IncrEdibles launches at Kew this weekend, starting a season all about surprising edible plants. See the fruit salad boating experience, an extraordinary tea party and a global kitchen and enjoy the rest of the amazing gardens while you’re there. Entry adults £16, concessions £14, free to u16s, open daily from 9.30am

FOOTBALL FESTIVAL: The UEFA Champions free festival of football at Stratford rolls on till Sunday. See five-a-side teams of famous ex-players, demonstrations of disability football and try an unsighted penalty shoot out at The International Quarter, Stratford. Free, just turn up, 9am-6pm (Sat), 12-6pm (Sun).

BIG PICNIC: Hampton Court hosts three days of family friendly fun based around a Big Picnic in their East Front Gardens. Tickets give access to the palace and gardens and for the bank holiday weekend, kids go free when with a paying adult at £16.50, concessions £13.65, open 10am-5pm

LITERATURE: The London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre continues: check out our book and poetry events round-up for our recommendations.

CHELSEA FRINGE: The spin-off from the Flower Show offers lots of opportunities to admire blooms and green-fingered achievements all over London, including in the grounds of Battersea Power Station. Check out the extensive what’s on guide or download the app.

606 CLUB: The Chelsea music venue celebrates 25 years with a 12 day festival of live performance. This weekend, experience live jazz and big bands on Lots Road. Check the website for times and tickets.

ALES: The Alma, near Newington Green N1 hosts a bank holiday beer festival with some gypsy folk, reggae and DJing on the side.

Saturday 25 May

DALSTON KIDS: The Dalston Children’s Festival launch event takes place today in Dalston Square, Gillett Square and the Eastern Curve Garden. It’s all free, just turn up and play from 10am till late 

THE SUPREME COURT: Take a free nosey inside The Supreme Court today to begin Guildhall’s centenary celebrations. The courtrooms, library, exhibition area will all be open to visitors, as well as a wide range of portraits from the Middlesex Guildhall Art Collection being on show. Free, just turn up, 10am-4.30pm

GEEKS: It’s International Geek Day at Covent Garden Waterstones. Follow @WaterstonesCGdn for updates and prizes. Free, just turn up, 10.15am-8pm

FIELD DAY: Victoria Park hosts the first of the summer’s big music festivals, Field Day 2013, featuring Bat for Lashes, Django Django, Everything Everything, Fucked Up, Tim Burgess and bags more. Tickets still available £54.50, 11.30am till late

FSTVL: A brand new dance music festival tempts you to Upminster! We Are FSTVL launches with a line-up including some of the biggest names in electronic dance music, clubs and labels across 10 stages and arenas at Damyns Hall Aerodrome, Upminster. Only VIP tickets remain at £95, open 11.30am to 2.30am

CROQUET: Have a bash at croquet in Victoria Park with Croquet East. First game is free to see if you like it, do let them know you’re coming, starts 2.30pm

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Attend a pre-match discussion about literature and football courtesy of Birkbeck Arts Week at the College Arms, Store Street then stick around to watch the match. Free, just turn up, 6-9.45pm

ONE ACT PLAYS: Enjoy a triple-bill at the One Act Festival run by Lost Theatre, Wandsworth. Tickets £14/£10 concessions, prebook or just turn up, 7.30pm

48 HOUR FILM FINALE: A couple of weeks ago we told you about Herne Hill Free Film Festival’s 48 hour film competition, where you had 48 hours to make your own short film. The results will be screened and the winners announced tonight. Free, just turn up, 8pm

MAY MASQUERADE: The Last Tuesday Society’s May Masquerade ball features the London Gay Symphony Orchestra, a Feast Room and Teaspoon Playroom at The Coronet.  Tickets £20 (10% goes to Crisis), prebook, from 8pm-4am

Sunday 26 May

HULA HOOPING: There are still some Sunday tickets available for London Hoop Fest for hoop dance workshops, jamming and play at The Mile End Art Pavilion. Tickets £55, prebook, open 10am-6pm

Bank Holiday Monday 27 May

ACOUSTIC MUSIC: Enjoy an afternoon of chilled out live acoustic music at Boxpark. Free, just turn up, 1-4pm

BERLIOZ: London Symphony Orchestra play live al fresco in Trafalgar Square with a triple bill of Berlioz, which is suitable for all ages. Free, just turn up, 6.30-8pm

RHLSTP: There are still tickets left for Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast with guest, Chris Addison. Cost £14, prebook or chance it on the door, starts 7.30pm

Other good stuff

• What’s on stage and art shows to see
• Live comedy in London
• Booky and spoken word events
• Free things to do in London
• What’s on in the big Museums and Galleries
• Food and drink
• Listen to our latest podcast

Browse all latest arts and events features and make your tummy rumble with our latest food and drink content.

Seek out the Flower Cat Head in Whittington Park! Photo by Bob Comics via Londonist Flickrpool. 

Opposite the ruined cinema that Hitchcock is said to haunt in Walthamstow, another ghost has taken up residence in Ye Olde Rose and Crown pub. Phantom is being performed here upstairs for the next week, though this is emphatically not the Andrew Lloyd Webber version which has possessed Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End for the last 27 years. Similarly adapted from the Gaston Leroux novel, this version has songs by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit, the Tony award winning duo behind the hit Broadway musical Nine.

You have to admire the devil-may-care attitude of All Star Productions in taking on the world’s most successful stage musical with a rival interpretation in a tiny 60 seat auditorium with no budget whatsoever. And it would be very mean-spirited to say that the results look a bit on the cheap side when you can hint at having front row seats for Phantom in London for only £15. So out goes glossy production, the bombast and the da-da-da-da-daaaaa theme and in comes a spritely retelling and a subtler score that is more of a musical melodrama than a histrionic pop-opera.

The bare bones set and lack of special effects means the actors shoulder the whole show here and the experience therefore stands or falls on their performances alone. Luckily, Kieran Brown and Kira Morsley in the two lead roles are full-blooded and sing with both passion and skill, although their Beauty and the Beast style relationship is perhaps under-developed and unconvincing as a love story.

On the plus side, this staging has a real sense of intimacy and gusto – and Pippa Winslow gives a crowd-pleasing turn as the villainous Carlotta. On the minus side, several numbers fall flat (the picnic in the woods was wooden) and a few of the minor characters lack any real sense of definition. The low-rent costumes are also distracting at times with the Phantom’s mask making him look more like Kung-Fu Panda (please – spray it black).

This is a small production with a lot of heart that should please people who prefer music over spectacle. Entertaining as it is however, there is still some way to go to uncover the two extremes inherent in the original story: the romance and the horror. Perhaps they should invite the ghost of Hitch in from over the road to help with that.

By Stu

Phantom is at Ye Olde Rose and Crown, 53 Hoe Street E17, until 31 May. Tickets £15 / £12.50. For more information see the All Star Productions website. Londonist saw this show on a complimentary press ticket.

Ballast Quay Garden

Poke around private and little known London gardens the weekend of 8-9 June.

Over 200 gardens throw open their gates to the public for Open Garden Squares Weekend, a chance to get into those green spaces that are usually out of bounds. Gardens range from historical private squares (like Chester Square, Belgravia) to contemporary roof gardens (like on the IPC Media building on Southwark Street), prisons (HMP Holloway!), herb gardens (Eastbury Manor House) and barges (Downings Road Moorings at Tower Bridge).

There are events all over London so there should be something happening near you. It’s not just flower appreciation either: there’s a gin bar in Arlington Square, edible walks in the City of London and art installations, music and Punch and Judy elsewhere. A weekend ticket costs £10 in advance, £12 on the weekend itself, children under 12 go free. Check the full list of gardens for opening times and restrictions.

Similar-but-different is an open gardens event in Greenwich on 2 June and 9 June, raising funds for restoring St Alphege’s church. Six or seven houses are opening up on each day, sometimes providing Pimms, wine or teas. Gardens cost £3 each to enter or £10 for the full day. The Greenwich Phantom has more information.

Open Garden Squares Weekend is organised by the London Parks and Gardens Trust and runs 8-9 June. For more information and to buy tickets, see the website.

Michael Landy was always seen as an odd choice for an artist in residence at the National Gallery. Landy is famously known for his piece of performance art where he destroyed all of his possessions over the space of two weeks. So to place him in a gallery whose focus is the preservation of art was always going to produce interesting and unpredictable outcomes.

Landy has been inspired by the gallery’s works, particularly the paintings of saints and has produced a series of contemporary drawings and sculptures that reflect his take on their stories. Many Christian saints met terrible ends but it’s easy to look at the ornately framed masterpieces in the National Gallery and forget about the pain and torture they depict – Landy brings this reality home quite literally with a bang.

Saint Jerome is said to have beaten himself to repress his sexual urges; press a foot pedal and Landy’s kinetic homage repeatedly bashes its chest with a rock.  There’s also a brutality in the representation of Saint Apollonia as she jams a pair of pliers into her mouth to extract a tooth – this being one of the tortures she was said to have endured.

His drawings are interesting experimentations on the saintly theme but it’s his six kinetic sculptures that are the main draw. They are interactive, noisy and less than reverential – at odds with everything we’ve come to expect from the National Gallery. And that’s what makes them so refreshingly entertaining.

Another exhibition at the National Gallery marks the 80th anniversary of the Barber Institute in Birmingham with a loan of the its founding paintings. The two highlights are Poussin’s emotive painting capturing the death of Tancred and a Monet sunset so vivid it’s as if you were there with him as he painted.

Both exhibitions are on at the National Gallery. Michael Landy: Saints Alive until 24 November and Birth of a collection: Masterpieces from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts until 1 September. Admission to both is free.

Jonna Lee and iamamiwhoami

When iamamiwhoami (that’s: i am – am i – who am i) first started chucking bonkers videos upon an otherwise unsuspecting YouTube population in December 2009, nobody – and that includes the Swedish group themselves – imagined they’d become an obsession for an electro-pop generation, racking up nearly 23 million YouTube views for their releases and playing to a standing ovation at London’s Southbank Centre.

Previously operating exclusively online, iamamiwhoami’s debut physical release last year, kin, paved the way for the bundling of their early series of works, bounty, as a tangible commodity. The new-of-sorts album comes out here next month and gives founder, Jonna Lee, and her fellow members of this troupe of audio-visual magnificence an excuse to return to London for a special show at Electric in Brixton. Here we talk to Lee about bounty, her relationship with her fans and performing live in London.

The show at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall last year was your first non-festival gig. You and the band seemed a bit taken aback by the overwhelming response from the audience. What was that experience like for you?
It was quite emotional and, yes, overwhelming, to be honest, being so close to the audience. And, yes, it was different to the other shows we had performed so it was quite amazing and it felt like a rare and unique moment.

Were you surprised by the standing ovation you got?
Yes but also relieved because we have never played to a sitting-down audience before.

And were you aware that the venue would be a seated one?
We wanted to try and do that because it is always interesting to challenge yourself with different venues and I hadn’t really thought too much about it becoming a big change and it was only once I stood there that I realised: yeah, this is something else.

Similarly, while your other European dates are festival shows this summer, we’re getting a headlining performance here. Do you feel that you have a particular connection with the London audience which warrants this special treatment?
[laughs] We have roots in England. There is a sense of home about London, to me. You folks are a lot like us so I guess, yeah, that’s why we are coming back. I enjoyed our performance there.

You previously said that kin was inspired by your first encounter with your audience at iamamiwhoami’s Way Out West festival appearance in 2011. Have subsequent live experiences such as your Queen Elizabeth Hall gig had any effect on your current songwriting?
Well, I don’t know yet because I haven’t come to the process of letting all of that go and working on new material, because we are doing the bounty delivery, the release of it. So I’m sure it definitely will have an effect on me because this whole release has been a big difference, for me and for the project. You know, playing concerts and being so close to… seeing the reactions of people, not having that distance. So it will definitely show.

For your first London gig you opened the set by inviting one of your most prominent YouTube tribute artists, Unplugged70,  to perform. There’s always been a strong link between iamamiwhoami and its fans. Have you considered involving fans in some way in any of the forthcoming gigs?
I have not thought… well, how to say it… there must be a purpose for everything, as I always say in interviews manically [laughs]. There was… it felt so natural having him there because he’s English, first of all. Or, Scottish. And I just wanted him to open it. I couldn’t see it any other way. What will happen at this show I can’t say at this point [after our interview it transpires that Rex The Dog will be opening for the band at Electric]. But fans will always be involved in one way or another. And I like seeing them in real life.

How did you approach plotting the live shows for the bounty release era?
Well, when we started the tour preparations for kin we had this in mind already because I had already decided that I wanted to release bounty the way that we are now doing so it’s been in the works for some time, to be honest. So, yes, it’s prepared for. They belong together, both of them. bounty has existed prior to kin and it’s our history and right from the start it was clear to me how to perform these songs.

With the emergence of bounty on CD/DVD format three years after its individual ‘chapters’ first came out, does it feel strange revisiting what was, essentially, the inception of iamamiwhoami?
It feels good to give bounty the weight and attention that kin got because they are equally important to us. So, it feels natural in a way. It’s also good to focus on it in the physical world. It was different working on it when it first came to life because the songs were all created in real time and everything went very fast in the beginning, to be honest. And now everything has sunk in a bit more and I am really enjoying playing these songs now.

We think we can guess what the answer to this question is going to be but… when you first started working on this project in 2009, did you imagine that four years down the line you’ll be, effectively, releasing your second album and touring extensively as a group?
No… ummm… no. I didn’t expect any of it. But it’s all been a blessing in that sense because I was prepared for a change and, obviously, I wouldn’t have started this otherwise. It was a leap [laughs] – a giant leap. But I didn’t have any thoughts of where it was going. I tried to stay in ‘the now’. I’m still trying to do that. Yeah, it’s the way to go forward, really, to just keep in the moment.

You’ve chosen ‘y‘ as the single to promote the release of bounty. Why this particular song?
It’s a good representation of the bounty series and what the project stands for, for me. And as iamamiwhoami has sprung from necessity and all of the parts of what it has become today have come from that, so that song fits that in a good way.

Before the individual songs from bounty first started coming out in March 2010, iamamiwhoami released prelude tracks that built up towards the series itself. They each contributed hints in terms of the storyline behind the series and its eventual name. Why are they not being included on the physical release?
For me, the start of that series [of preludes] before bounty came to life is its own chapter. And it does not belong in bounty because bounty started with ‘b‘ and it was different from that. That’s a chapter and a source of inspiration from where we started and I want to keep that untouched. Not everything needs to be categorised or… no, that’s not the right word. Let me see… sometimes I need to think a little bit longer about English. Well, I guess, the short of it is that it is its own thing and it belongs where it is right now and who knows what might happen in the future. But it’s not a part of bounty.

How did your remixes of the Moby and The Irrepressibles tracks come about?
We share the same management with Moby and we have the same publisher as The Irrepressibles. The songs… they were requests for remixes and we listened and where there is room for creating something interesting and artistic it’s always fun to experiment. With both those songs there was room for it. And they are very different and the artists are completely different from each other. But we love creating like this.

What do you make of the various remixes of your own songs?
I like hearing other people’s versions of our songs. bounty had a remix for each song while it was being released at first, digitally, and the remixes we did then were more like alternate versions rather than remixes. I think you’ll see more and more remixes of our songs in the future. [A few days after our interview a Moby remix as well as a Joe Goddard remix of 'y' were unveiled].

Do you have any plans to release music and footage from past and/or future live concerts?
No. [pause] But I won’t say no to anything because anything is possible but a concert, for me, is this very rare particular moment that I want the audience to be able to keep and not revisit because also for us it’s something that just happens then and there and that’s magical so… who knows. But I am not planning on doing so.

And what about doing another online gig like the one you streamed back in 2010?
I think having that time to just experiment and invent and communicate with the audience… as soon as the time comes about then it’s always happening in some form. That concert took about six months to do, I mean to prepare for. And I’m sure that equal events to that will happen in the future. As long as there is a want and an urge for creating. As of now, there is.

Speaking of that online concert, you ended it with an unreleased song titled ‘.’ which we, your Queen Elizabeth Hall audience, caught a studio version of playing innocently in the auditorium just before you came on stage last year. Are you likely to ever release it?
Yes, you noticed that… well, that song, it was the start of this whole project for me and for Claes [Bjorklund, fellow iamamiwhoami creative] and also for our visual collaborators. That was the first song that then became this project. It keeps coming back to us, it’s a good description of the project. And I don’t know if I will be releasing it – there are plenty of versions of it both in my head and in reality. But… you know, working in real time as we do is a specific way of recording and writing – everything has its time and when you’ve written something and it’s there you know if you want to release it. And if you don’t want to at that point then the time passes and the moment might be gone… but it might come again, as well.

Is there a possibility that you might play it live?
I might do it, yes.

What about shows outside of Europe? Is that part of your plan?
Yes! As soon as possible, I really want to meet the audience in other territories. We have sort of left that out but touring is a big production and we are still quite new in the concerts arena so it’s not the easiest thing to travel with the whole production. That has been the reason why there haven’t been concerts outside of Europe, yet.

Finally, what – to you – is the most enjoyable element of touring?
Well, hearing the music and feeling it come to life – it’s so different from creating it. It is an equal love, both, but doing it live is just such a grand experience. And also meeting with the audience is equally overwhelming each time and that’s the biggest thing, definitely, seeing the response coming to you once it’s actually happening. It’s amazing.

iamamiwhoami play Electric in Brixton on Thursday 30 May. Tickets are available online. bounty is released on 3 June on To Whom It May Concern via Cooperative Music.

Football fans should head to Trafalgar Square today. Details below.

GIVE BLOOD: Today’s opportunity to donate blood is at St Olave Parish Church on Fencurch Street. Free, just turn up, see site for times and conditions

UEFA: Today is the second day you can take a look at the UEFA Champions League and Women’s Champions League trophies in Trafalgar Square. Footie fans can also have a go on the pop-up football field, buy merchandise, and watch a unique 3D UEFA Champions League show that is projected out three times a day (9.30pm, 10pm and 10.30pm). Free, just turn up, until 23 May

LIVE COOKING: To support the Love Your Local Market 2013 campaign, Borough Market holds a live demonstration kitchen today with resident chef Hayley Edwards showing shoppers how to create dishes with seasonal produce. Various traders will also be giving advice on the best ways to use their produce. Free, just turn up, 12-2pm

AIR POLLUTION: Professor Jonathan Grigg and Dr Rossa Brugha discuss whether we need to worry about air pollution, as part of Centre of the Cell’s Big Question Lecture Series. Free, prebook, 6pm

PICASSO: The Courthauld Gallery’s incredibly popular Picasso exhibition runs its final late event tonight, so you can explore this world-famous gallery after hours. Tickets cost £6/£5 but if you dress as a 1901 Parisian you get in for free! Just turn up but get there early, from 6pm

BRITISH POETRY: Anne Stevenson, Simon Armitage, Professor Stephen Regan and Fiona Sampson debate the state of contemporary British poetry at the British Academy. Free, registration required, 6pm

DISCOVER LONDON: London guide and writer Peter Berthoud leads a talk at The Step in Bowes Park on London’s New River, which marks its 400th birthday this September. £7/£5, just turn up or prebook, 7.30pm

STORIES: A night of live literature and storytelling awaits at The Invisible Dot tonight. Tim Key, John Osbourne, Nick Hart and Tom McCarthy are all on the bill. £8, prebook, 7.45pm
FREE FILM: Mamma Mia screens at a pop-up cinema in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens tonight. Head along to nab a deckchair and enjoy the free film. Free, just turn up, from 6pm but film starts at 8.30pm

COMEDY: Tall Tales at the Good Ship in Kilburn has launched several Radio 4 series (like: Warhorses of Letters, Before They Were Famous). See what John Finnemore, Ian Leslie, Gareth Edwards, Helen Arney, Viv Groksop, Toby Davies, Susannah Pearse and host Robert Hudson are working on now – plus the further adventures of Copenhagen and Marengo. £5, prebook, 8pm

Random London Fact of the Day
We wish a mildly pleasant birthday to Paddington-born Chancellor George Osborne, who turns 42 today. Also on this day, in 1701, the pirate Captain Kidd was hanged in Wapping. Raise a toast to neither in the Captain Kidd pub, also in Wapping.

Unintentionally lewd Dickens quote of the Day
“The jackal then invigorated himself with a bum for his throttle.” – A Tale of Two Cities, Chapter 5.

Good Cause of the Day
A special performance of Beethoven’s ‘Choral Symphony’ takes place at St Paul’s Cathedral tonight, in aid of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal charity. This grant giving charity minimises set up costs for the annual Lord Mayor’s Appeal, and also establishes long-running relationships with City donors. £40/£30/£20/£10, prebook, 6pm

London Weather
Today’s forecast comes via your usual weatherman, cack-handedly trying to use the free graphic software GIMP for the first time. Words cannot describe how grey and miserable it will be out there today — only a half-arsed, amateur digital sketch, with no flair or mastery, can really convey the feeling of ennui and indifference the heavens present today.

(That said, if you’d like to have a go at sketching the forecast for future days, electronically or on paper, we’d welcome contributions. Please send to matt@londonist.com.)

Tom Jackson Greaves in 'Vanity Fowl'. Photography provided by Cloud Dance.

There is nothing quite like sitting in a theatre, not knowing what is about to be shown: one might liken this to opening presents — some are bright and sparkly, some are a bit odd and others might as well be thrown in the bin. Attending a theatrical showcase such as Cloud Dance Sundays is just this – you never know what you’ll get, so you might as well sit back and enjoy, particularly when the roster of choreographers boasts such impressive CVs.

It must be mentioned first that the Lion and Unicorn pub is so quaintly situated off the main thoroughfare, you could be sitting in a mate’s countryside garden. But once you wind your way up the tiny staircase to the theatre, the tea and crumpets are long forgotten. The first dance segment called ‘Pull Through, Flick’ begins with three women articulating in geometric shapes to dark, at times droning, electronic music. Flashbacks of Riccardo Buscarini’s unnerving ‘Athletes’ from last month’s Place Prize come to mind, but in this piece, choreographer Rachel Burn uses a sheer outer layer of clothing over each performer to represent grief and one’s journey through that process. There are some beautiful, if not disparate movement sequences, implying Burn’s focus is more on dance as an artwork rather than as a narrative. This is not a bad thing, but it felt somehow more ambitious than perhaps Burn was ready for.

The next segment jolts to a war-zone setting where a soldier prepares for one last battle in Afghanistan. The use of voice-over, sound effects and fluid, all-encompassing body movements entrench the audience in the final moments of his life. Both emotive and exhausting, John Ross’ ‘Man Down’ is modern dance in its best form — not surprising as Ross was recently nominated for Best Choreographer Award by What’s On Stage.

Tom Jackson Greaves’ anticipated ‘Vanity Fowl’ completes the showcase, bringing razzmatazz, and even high quality film-work, to the table. Already performed at Sadler’s Wells last year, this performance intercuts between video that helps provide background to a young dancer who faces insecurities with his friends and colleagues, and an on-stage performance that presents his more confident and care-free side. It is fun, often hilarious and full of energy – this also in reference to the slick, sequin jacket he wears, almost a character in itself. Greaves is no stranger to dance audiences, having been named runner-up to Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Choreography Award.

So it’s a mixed bag – one that collaborators Cloud Dance Festival and Giant Olive should be proud of. Putting on a strong line-up of emerging dance performances is not easy – yet the first of Cloud Dance Sundays manages to pull it off, producing an eclectic, solid show.

Looking forward to the next one on Sunday 14  July, also at the Lion & Unicorn. Further performances to be announced for July, in conjunction with the Cloud Dance Festival. Tickets are £15/£12 concessions, and can be purchased online or at the door (but get there early as it does sell out). 

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Thursday 23 May: If you enjoyed Luke Wright’s interview with us, catch the show until Saturday, then Wednesday again at Leicester Square Theatre (7pm, £10 / £8).

Poet / owner of best cameo appearance ever for I Give It A Year / comedian Tim Key, John Osborne, Nick Hart and Tom McCarthy are at Invisible Dot telling Stories (7.45pm, £8).

Ben Fountain talks about his new novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk at the Big Green Bookshop with Sam Jordison (7pm, £3).

Children’s author Jon Klassen reads and draws at Foyles Westfield Stratford (3.15pm, free).

Anne Stevenson, Simon Armitage, Professor Stephen Regan and Fiona Sampson debate the state of contemporary British poetry at the British Academy (6pm, free, registration required).

Conn Iggulden is signing the latest in his Emperor series at Waterstones Leadenhall Market from 12.30pm, but we reckon you should be there earlier to stand any chance of getting pen to book.

Chill Pill celebrates the Albany‘s 30th birthday with a big line-up including Kat Francois, Benin City, Chris Redmond, Simon Mole, Deanna Rodger, Dean Atta, Mr Gee, Raymond Antrobus and Anthony Anaxagorou (7.15pm, £9 / £6).

Damian Barr is at Gay’s the Word chatting about Maggie and Me (7pm, £2).

Not quite sure who to be more excited about, Colum McCann or Jon McGregor at Waterstones Gower Street (7pm, £5 / £3).

Kemi Taiwo is the guest stand up poet at Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £7 / £5).

Suzanne Rindell launches her debut novel The Other Typist at Waterstones Covent Garden (6pm, free).

Storyteller Helen East presents folktales, fibs and facts about Islington at The Acoustic Cafe (6.30pm, free).

American poet Matthew Dickman is joined by award winning Ann Gray at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £6 / £5).

Second chance of the night to see Luke Wright at Bookslam at The Flyover, along with Jon Ronson, Dominic Frisby and De’Borah (8pm, £10 / £12).

Friday 24 May: The Keats Festival kicks off at Keats House. Discover Alexander Pope (2.30pm, free), Cobbett and cottage gardens (4pm, £7) and a continuation of the Southbank Centre’s global Poetry Parnassus project (6.30pm, £5).

Saturday is Towel Day, so get in the mood with Vogon Poetry Night at Hackney Picturehouse (7.30pm, £5 / £4 in costume).

LA Times Book Prize for Fiction winner Ben Fountain is at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace (7.30pm, £3).

Hylda Sims hosts Fourth Friday at the Poetry Cafe with Mark Gwynne Jones and Joolz Sparkes (8pm, £6 / £5).

Brother Niyi, Katie Bonna, AF Harrold, Greta Bellamacina, Bridget Minamore and Lucy Gellman are guest performers at the Farrago Poetry Exam Blues SLAM, with John Paul O’Neill MCing (7.30pm, £6 / £5).

Saturday 25 May: The London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre continues: highlights include more Poetry Parnassus (7.45pm, £8), Rupert Everett (7.45pm, £12 / £10), James Salter on his probable final novel (4.30pm, £10), SPIN for kids with John Hegley, Sally Pomme Clayton and BREIS (11am, free) and Rachel Rose Reid‘s tour of the Southbank Centre (1pm, £5).

Helen Simpson, Ben Fountain, Roshi Fernando and Anna Stothard read short stories at The Word Factory salon in Soho (6pm, £10).

More Keats: Arachne Press presents stories from the Garden of Eden (3pm, £5), Susan Brandt’s docu-play goes behind the affair of Byron and Claire Clairmont (6.30pm, £5), plus more workshops and talks.

Helen East leads another storytelling walk around Islington, this time meeting at Farringdon tube and directing us at the water beneath our feet (11am / 2pm, free).

Amy Key, Jacqui Saphra and Gale Burns host The Shuffle at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Sunday 26 May: Back at the Southbank Centre for the London Literature Festival, the big draw is undoubtedly the full reading of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel by a ton of famous women poets and actors (7.30pm, £10-£25). We also like the look of Cornelia Parker (4.30pm, £10) and Adam Thirlwell, Sarah Hall and Adam Foulds, three of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists (4pm, £8).

Back at Keats House, Spread the Word and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama students present poetry set to music (2pm, free), Foyle Young Poets Flora de Falbe, David Carey, Sarah Fletcher and Alex Hartley (4.30pm, free) and winners of the flamingofeather poetry competition plus judges Mimi Khalvati and Peter Daniels (5.30pm, free).

Monday 27 May: Helen East is back in Farringdon for another Islington storytelling walk (7pm, free).

Another walk, earlier in the day, goes round Keats’s Hampstead (11am, £8 / £6).

Today’s picks of the London Literature Festival are Audrey Niffenegger (7pm, £10), AC Grayling (7.45pm, £12 / £10) and Sarah Dunant and Lisa Jardine (2pm, £10).

Suzannah Evans, Kathleen Jones, Agnes Lehoczky, Agnes Marton and Tiffany Anne Tondut combine art and poetry at the Poetry Cafe (7pm, free).

Tuesday 28 May: Horror and supernatural writer extraordinaire Joe Hill launches NOS4R2 at Foyles (6.30pm, £10).

Lucinda Hawksley talks about suffragettes and suffragists at Wanstead Library (7pm, £5).

Rob Auton performs his Edinburgh show about Yellow at the Gallery Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Some excellent choices at the London Literature Festival: Claire Tomalin lectures on Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice (6.30pm, £10), Lionel Shriver discusses her new novel Big Brother (8pm, £10) and Christopher Fowler, VG Lee, Sophia Blackwell, Anny Knight and Greg Mitchell are guests at Polari (7.45pm, £5).

Patricia McCarthy, Jane Draycott and Pascale Petit, top winners in this year’s anonymous National Poetry Competition, are at Keats House (6.30pm, £5).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts open mic night Poetry Unplugged at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Wednesday 29 May: Phill Jupitus (presumably under his Porky the Poet guise), Ross Sutherland, Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna are the guests of Tongue Fu at the Udderbelly (9.15pm, £12.50).

Join Matt Haig and Andrew J Lambie in the Great Northern Tavern for the Big Green Bookshop Bookswap (7.30pm, free).

Christopher Kul-Want gives an introduction to Slavoj Žižek at Housmans (7pm, £3).

Grab a ticket to the Saboteur Awards 2013 at The Book Club: nominees include Luke Kennard, Dan Cockrill, Vanessa Kisuule, Penned in the Margins, Bang Said the Gun and Come Rhyme with Me (7pm, £7 / £5).

Lyndall Gordon talks about Emily Dickinson as part of the Keats Festival (6.30pm, £5).

At the London Literature Festival, acclaimed short story writer George Saunders talks with Jon McGregor (6.30pm, £8) and Claire Tomalin turns to Thomas Hardy for her next lecture (6.30pm, £10).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Rooftop Film Club distinguishes itself from most other outdoor screens by being, well, on a rooftop. This year, the organisation pitches up at three venues round town: the usual base on top of the Queen of Hoxton (pictured); on Peckham’s busy Bussey Building; and in the refined parapets of the Kensington Roof Garden.

Much of the Shoreditch programme has already sold out. You can still grab tickets at time of writing to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (25 May), The Princess Bride (26 May) and Troll Hunter (17 June). There’s also a special Bank Holiday screening of Purple Rain in the Leonard Street car park, where you’re encouraged to sing and dance along.

The Peckham programme, beginning 4 June, has just been announced, and you should be able to snap up tickets if you’re quick to see Ghostbusters, The Lost Boys, Labyrinth, Top Gun, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Clueless, The Graduate, Stand By Me, Empire Records and Trainspotting.

The Kensington Roof Gardens got in there early, with winter screenings, but promises a fresh programme to be announced shortly. It’s a dazzling venue, so keep your eyes on this page.

See also:

• Film4 Summer Screening at Somerset House
• Nomad Cinema 2013
• Pop Up Screens 2013
• Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens free pop-up screen

From how he speaks and looks you might not expect Wright to be a poet unless you were specifically told as much. He’s well-dressed, for one thing, in a suit, with pink shirt and matching pocket square, the hint of a gold chain, but his hair is insane — inspirational, even. The whole image makes him seem more like a frontman, with his pent-up energy and booming Essex-er voice reverberating off the walls, punctuated with choice four-letter words at least once per sentence. Which might be why he’s one of the stars of the spoken-word circuit right now: he’s not what you’d expect. Your correspondent made and re-made assumptions during the interview, but he managed to turn them around several times in half an hour. In this way, Wright reveals himself in his work; the poems are a reflection of the man.

Written in the middle of the Leveson Enquiry, Your New Favourite Poet is, broadly, about the tabloids. But despite the serious subject matter there’s a slightly bawdy, tabloid-y element to Luke’s poems themselves — a very “carry on” element, he says. What he wants to do is a really fun, enjoyable poetry set — this in contrast with his earlier, more serious shows that delved further into the craft of poetry. There’ll be none of that in Y.N.F.P.; Luke wants to take his audience on a visceral emotional journey. Hopefully they won’t hate it. If you like it, you can expect a range of emotions. Laughing one minute, pensive the next. The majority of the poems are played for laughs. The sole exception, as you might expect from the title, is “The Ballad of Raoul Moat”.

It’s not particularly about the media — there’s no given theme for this one. The poems fit together aesthetically, stylistically — not thematically. It’s more of a set than a show.

Like any musician or comedian that’s been in the business for a while, the way Wright talks about his work becomes quite technical. He sticks to certain metres. He “delights” in using certain words. The work is musical, he says: “the mouth can make beautiful, beautiful sounds”. In China recently, playing to non-English speakers, he found that the audience appreciated the sounds and rhythms and melodies of the poems. If you appreciate the forms, you can use them to your advantage.

Belying the jovial tone and swagger with which he says all of this, the attitude runs deeper than a simple, rebellious “learn the rules so you know how to break them” thing; with a deeper appreciation for form and function, Wright genuinely feels that he got a lot better at his art, even though he’d been doing it for years. Everything pre-2009 he’s pretty much discarded; the book Mondeo Man contains just a couple of free-verse pieces he’ll return to. He got a lot more confident in his process performing weekly on Saturday Live at short notice, often having to produce pieces in a few hours’ time. “If I can do it for them,” he reasoned, “I can pull my finger out and do it for me”.

Lately he’s been on a tour of rural England, and has started to think this might be the best way of performing. They’re “up for it”. The audience tends to know each other, and they often end up going to the pub afterwards with Wright. Do you get this in London? “You’d be surprised”.

Venue is important. “A theatre can suck the life out of a performance. They’re black boxes, so you can kind of take over that space. I can do this anywhere.” A lot of bookers don’t know quite what to do with a poet. But given a microphone, he reasons, he can perform pretty much anywhere. There isn’t much functional difference between playing a sold-out village hall and a dark theatre basement with just a few audience members. The most satisfying gigs are those in which he can bring someone around who didn’t know what they’re expecting.

When the topic inevitably comes around to Edinburgh — it’s only a couple of months away — Wright confesses that he no longer goes every year. There are two youngsters at home now. This year he’s performing for the whole run, and they’ll come up for a week or so this year, while he’s doing new show Essex Lion, but probably won’t understand the madness. The festival is a “theme park of booze and art,” he says, but doesn’t specify whether that’s for him or the kids.

While he’s there he hopes to see Ross Sutherland’s new show (if they don’t clash), John Osborne, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring. There are, he estimates, fifty or so spoken word shows now, a lot of them in ensembles. It’s changed a lot since his first days; there’s something of a rennaissance in recent years. But he doesn’t see the others as competitive: he’s been doing it longer, but he thinks the resurgence of spoken word as building a larger audience. He feels like he’s “done his bit” in building up that audience.

Every year, midway through a show’s run, he wonders whether he’s really being creative, or whether he’s just ploughing through the motions. Of course, he’s limited to what he can change in the course of the run — generally speaking, the poems are fixed once they’re written. But between them, Wright likes to leave the show loose and unscripted. He’ll write a script, but not learn it — more taking the “sense” of it to the stage.

So what can we expect to see in Your New Favourite Poet? The question shuts him down for a moment, he deflates in his chair. It’s a difficult question, even in broad strokes. The show has been running for more than a year, but it’s still impossible to answer. Wright’s work, like the artist himself, tends towards the unexpected. Spoken word is usually seen as the littler, more eager sibling of comedy, but with Wright you can never quite be sure. There’s a good chance this show could be “bigger”. There doesn’t seem to be a better way to find out than by showing up on the day — and that would appear to be the case for both the audience and for the poet.

Luke Wright will be performing at the Leicester Square Theatre Basement from the 22 May-8 June. Tickets are available via the website for £10.

For one night only, Seven Dials and St Martin’s Courtyard are closing their streets to traffic and inviting Londoners to a 20% off shopping night in Covent Garden. Last week we gave you a little taster of some of the exciting activities that will be taking place, but here are more details to really whet your appetite.

On Thursday 30 May, shoppers will be able to reclaim the streets between 5-9pm and shop for less at over 120 stores including Diesel, Fred Perry, Jack Wills, Tatty Devine, Kiehls, Benefit, Office, Urban Outfitters, Neal’s Yard Remedies, Orla Kiely, The White Company, plus many more. Fashion, beauty and homeware stores are all taking part, so you can indulge in some hassle-free shopping of your favourite brands at discount prices.

However, it’s not just shopping for less on offer at this MasterCard special event. Live music will accompany you around St Martin’s Courtyard courtesy of vintage singing duo Verity and Violet, while DJ Lee Hume is spinning his eclectic beats at Urban Outfitters. Between shops contortionist, burlesque and balancing act performers will enthral crowds from the window of Coco de Mer.

If you think that shopping, music and live entertainment can be thirsty work, then head to one of the pop-up bars that will be scattered throughout the traffic-free streets. Why not try a ‘wild’ garden cocktail with The Cocktail Gardener Lottie Muir, or maybe satisfy your sweet tooth with one of ice-creamist Ruby Violet’s combination flavours?

Shoppers will also be able to claim some exclusive freebies. Complimentary BLOOM Gin and Tonic with strawberries will be served from the St Martin’s Courtyard pop-up bar, and Seven Dials’ vintage tricycles will spoil you with free Pimms, retro sweets, popcorn and candyfloss. The first 200 MasterCard cardholders who spend over £100 at participating stores will also take home an exclusive goodie bag worth £50!

If you need a sit-down after all that action, then you also have the opportunity to learn how to repair and rework old clothes while you rest, at Patagonia’s Traid Sew Good workshop.

Qualifying for 20% off at over 120 independent boutiques, heritage brands and indulgent beauty stores couldn’t be easier. All you need to do is download a ’Seven Dials and St Martin’s Courtyard Shopping ticket’ for free here. Simple! 

Feeling Austentatious? Details below / photo by Idil Sukan

GIVE BLOOD: Today’s opportunity to donate blood is at The Hop Exchange on Southwark Street. Free, just turn up, see site for times and conditions

FINE ART MASTERPIECES: To commemorate the 80th anniversary of The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, The National Gallery hosts an outstanding collection of Old Master and 19th century paintings. Free, just turn up, until 1 September

POSH CARS: Want to buy a Bentley, or maybe just gawp at one? A pop-up Bentley show room appears in Broadgate today, near the Gaucho restaurant, where it’ll linger for two days. Free (unless you’re buying, in which case, it’s £99999999999 or something), just turn up, 7am-9pm

WALKING TOUR: As part of Clerkenwell Design Week 2013, historian and designer Jane Young hosts two walking tours today. One is on Clerkenwell’s Coffee House Culture and the other around Charterhouse Square. Free, just turn up, 1pm and 4pm respectively

ARCHAEOLOGY: This 45 minute talk, delivered by a partner from L-P Archaeology, focuses on archaeology in London and how it plays an important role in the formation of new developments. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm

SURGERY: The Royal Institution opens late for an evening devoted to surgery. After a talk by a team of Imperial College surgeons, explore the first floor and bar area where you can have a play with…and oh dear we can’t help this pun…cutting edge surgical tools. £10, prebook, 7pm

GIG: Singer-songwriter Josh Rouse plays Islington Assembly Hall tonight. If you’ve ever looked up a song that played on One Tree Hill or Grey’s Anatomy, then you are likely to enjoy this. £20.35, prebook, 7pm

WORDPLAY: Luke Wright is starting a run of his Your New Favourite Poet show at Leicester Square Theatre. £10/£8, prebook, 7pm

LITERATURE: The London Literature Festival continues, and tonight Melvyn Bragg launches his new novel Grace and Mary. £12/£10, prebook, 7.30pm

QUEENSBURY RULES: Learn all about the Marquess of Queensbury, who not only formulated the rules of boxing, but also stitched up Oscar Wilde, at a Bishopsgate Institute talk. £8, prebook, 7.30pm

BOGOF COMEDY: Get two for the price of one with Invisible Dot’s Two Previews for Five Pounds. Tonight you can enjoy Claudia O’Doherty and James Acaster on the stage. £5, prebook, 7.45pm

SHAME: Try an experiment in catharsis and share your stories of shame at the Camden Head with Natural Born Storytellers. Free, just turn up, 7.45pm

AUSTENTATIOUS: If you like Jane Austen then Austentatious is an absolute must: a team of comedians including Cariad Lloyd and Rachel Parris improvise an Austenish novel before your very eyes. Often standing room only in venues above pubs, there’s a seat each at the Udderbelly. £12.50, prebook, 9pm

Random London Fact of the Day
What are the City’s oldest roads? A glance a the Museum of London’s excellent map of Roman London shows that most of the streets of Londinium followed courses very different to any modern roads in and around the City, but there are exceptions. Aldgate and Whitechapel Road are pushing 2,000 years old. Bishopsgate, Fleet Street, Ludgate and Newgate are of similar vintage. All these run through ancient gates in the City walls. Within the walls, the short stretch of road still known as Watling Street follows a Roman antecedent, and you could make a case for Cannon Street, although archaeological remains are very slightly north of the modern alignment.

Unintentionally lewd Dickens quote of the Day
“Mr Brass’s ejaculations died away in the distance (for he continued to pour them out, all the way down stairs).” – The Old Curiosity Shop, Chapter 48.

Good Cause of the Day
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity invites you to an exclusive Party in the Park at the Art Antiques fair  on 11 June 2013, 6pm-8pm in Kensington Gardens. There will be a champagne and canapé reception for guests, who will be the first to get the opportunity to buy the items before any other buyer. In addition, this ticket allows guests unlimited access into the fair from 13-19 June. Tickets cost £75 per person (with the money going to GOSH) and are available from the charity at 0207 239 3004 or email artantiqueslondon@gosh.org.

London Weather
Can anyone lend us a pair of asbestos gloves? The sun needs a serious slapping. Today sees the feckless fireball scrimshanking behind the clouds until late afternoon, when its brief appearance might dazzle a few westbound commuters without really making anyone happy. The git.

Matthew Marsh as assassin with a conscience Eugene de Kock

It’s not every day you get to peer inside the head of a mass murderer, sent down for 212 years for crimes against humanity. This is the repulsive/compelling proposition offered by A Human Being Died That Night, which takes us straight into the prison cell of state-sanctioned mass murderer Eugene De Kock.

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, psychologist and member of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, documented her real-life interviews with de Kock, who committed murders ordered by the State during Apartheid in South Africa, in her 2003 book. Now it’s been dramatized for the stage by Nicholas Wright, who makes his Hampstead Downstairs debut with this grizzly psychological play that asks some tough questions.

Is there a human heart beating within De Kock whose brutality earned him the name ‘prime-evil’? And what part might others play in the guilt — from those who schooled him in brutality to the state powers who sanctioned and demanded the killings? Stirring the muddy waters of history and past trauma can only be done successfully by a person who has been there. This is an important rendering, therefore, of an awful moment in a nation’s past. Not since The Exonerated at Riverside Studios, which shed a light on confessions of (wrongfully accused) death row inmates, have we been granted access so honestly from behind the prison cell bars.

A Human Being Died That Night is on at Hampstead Downstairs until 15 June. Tickets £5-£12

Photo by Bill Cooper

In the early 19th century, Sir Walter Scott promoted Scotland to the world, in what has arguably led to an enduring myth of what it means for the Scots to be culturally distinct from England. Scott was a unionist who referred to Scotland as North Britain, but his efforts to sell the Highlands as tartan-wearing clans with romanticised 16th century traditions have endured as a symbol of independence.

Rossini’s opera La Donna del Lago is inspired by Scott’s epic poem The Lady of the Lake, and while much of the faux-history gets lost in Italian melodrama, there are hints of “otherness” that create a haunting beauty, which matches the lovelorn story.

King James V falls in love at first sight of the eponymous loch-y lady Elena. But she is the daughter of his enemy (oh no), and also she’s betrothed to a rival warrior Rodrigo (Oh No!), but actually she’s in love with Malcom (OH NO!! – it is a melodrama…). The plot is simple — rival men war over a woman, and land. But the score is spellbinding: distant horns call straight from the highlands, Elena’s opening aria brings to mind the still waters on which she rows, and the starkly lit trees on stage evoke a woodland realm of secrets. It’s very pretty.

But that’s not to say it all falls into the Scott-ish tradition of romanticising history. There is a distinctly modern edge when it comes to violent retribution and the treatment of women. One particularly stirring scene shows the warriors returning home from war, singing about how they will now get the love they deserve. It could easily be played with eager women looking after the warlike men, but in this version they are cajoled, pushed around and brutally manhandled as literal trophies of war — there’s nothing romantic in it. There’s also the constant presence of Enlightenment gentlemen who examine the scene with all the curiosity of people looking into glass cabinets, which at times, they are. It’s a strong allusion to Scott’s motivations for writing the original poem, but perhaps more heavy-handed than necessary.

The Royal Opera House has drawn together some of the most impressive singers of Rossini you’re likely to see for a while in this new production by John Fulljames. American soprano Joyce DiDonato as Elena handles the near-impossible final canto so brilliantly that she has the audience on the edge of their seats — which in the ROH can be quite frightening. And when she’s partnered with Italian mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona as her lover Malcom, seems to swim through melodies in perfect unison. Both women received rapturous applause; if only they could have popped down to the House of Commons that day, we’re sure they could have melted some stony anti-gay marriage hearts.

La Donna del Lago plays at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden until 11 June. Tickets are returns only. Londonist saw this show on a complimentary ticket.

While most outdoor cinemas rely on 1980′s blockbusters and family-friendly musicals to draw a crowd, Somerset House opts for a more varied offering, with rom-coms, Bette Davis, premieres, gangster films, a Shakespeare adaptation, a western, and a Powell and Pressburger classic. But they’ve also found room for Gremlins 2 and Predator. Here’s the line-up:

• 8 August – World premiere of Richard Curtis’ About Time
• 9 August – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
• 10 August – Mean Girls + Carrie + The Loved Ones
• 11 August – The Untouchables
• 12 August – Guys and Dolls
• 13 August – UK premiere of The Way Way Back
• 14 August – Kes
• 15 August – Throne of Blood
• 16 August – Predator + Throne of Blood
• 17 August – Badlands + Raising Arizona
• 18 August – Crazy Stupid Love
• 19 August – The Red Shoes
• 20 August – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• 21 August – UK premiere of Prince Avalanche

Screenings go ahead whatever the weather, so come prepared. Prices and times vary, so see the site for details.

Exclusive early booking for holders of a certain US credit card has already opened. Other priority bookings start Wednesday at 10am, and general tickets go on sale on Friday 24 May.

See also:

• Nomad Cinema 2013
• Pop Up Screens 2013
• Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens free pop-up screen

Famed for her long, limber legs, flaming auburn hair and uncompromising standards of excellence, Sylvie Guillem is the closest thing the dance world has to a rock star. Not a mere passing twinkle, either, but the kind of star that has been burning a hole in the firmament for three decades, recreating classical roles in her own image and striking out into challenging contemporary territory at an age when most primas are hanging up their pointe shoes and taking a well-earned rest. 6,000 Miles Away (titled in tribute to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that took place while the programme was being rehearsed in 2011) is a welcome return to Sadler’s Wells for the woman regularly regarded as the outstanding female dancer of her generation.

Two of the evening’s three pieces were created for Guillem by her friends and regular collaborators William Forsythe and Mats Ek. Forsythe’s Rearray is the more conspicuously post-modern of the two, an abstract, academic collision of classical form and contrary contemporary presentation. Everything about the staging seems designed to distract and perplex the audience: the lighting is wayward, flicking on and off mid-phrase and plunging from dazzling brightness to squinty darkness. The music is a disconcerting combination of backward strings and detuned piano; the movement puts the poised arabesques and beaten jumps of classical ballet through the blender and mashes it up with dislocated hips and sudden flurries of gesture. Rearray seems to pit Guillem and her partner Massimo Murru against one another rather than bringing them together. The two never connect and perform only momentary snatches in unison. Fans of Forsythe’s rigorous, cerebral style will enjoy this challenging work; those who aren’t, less so.

If Guillem’s formidable technique and capacity for challenge are shown off to their best advantage in Rearray, Swedish choreographer Mats Ek allows the dancer to demonstrate her sometimes-overlooked talent for character work in Bye. Guillem appears first as an oversized, sepia-tinted eye peering out at the audience from a white box at the back of the stage. Video projection and cleverly timed choreography conjure up the illusion that this is a door to Guillem’s memories, or a magical Looking-Glass world somewhere offstage that contains friends, family and even a dog.

Appearing first in a dowdy cardigan and flat shoes, Guillem’s character gradually regresses through memories of a life well-spent, leaping and spinning playfully around the stage to the boogie-woogie stylings of Beethoven’s Op. 111 Arietta, shedding layers to reveal an eye-socking purple blouse and mustard skirt that Tom and Lorenzo could devote a whole blog to. Like the iconoclast that she is, Guillem ends the piece defiantly standing on her head as more and more figures crowd into the upstage box to beckon her back. Finally she submits and joins them in the upright world — but not, we sense, for long. Cute and characterful, Bye is the undoubted crowdpleaser of the night.

The programme is headed by a duet for former NDT dancers Aurélie Cayla and Lukas Timmulak. Created in 2002 by Jiří Kylián, 27’52″ begins with the dancers playing and rewinding rapid, punchy gestural sequences to a squelchy electronic score, moves into a supple, languid duet which both perform topless, and ends with both dancers wrapped in the very lino dance flooring that they perform on. Both dancers perform beautifully, but the three sections of the piece seem disjointed and unrelated (perhaps not helped by being edited down to a shorter, 20-minute running time) and this is not Kylián at his shining best.

The evening is, in any case, all about its flame-haired star. We know that Guillem is a performer of astonishing technical prowess and lucid expression. We know that she is an artist always willing to take creative risks. Returning to Sadler’s after a lengthy worldwide tour,  the contrasting works of 6,000 Miles Away also reveal her as a dancer of unrivalled physical courage.

6,000 Miles Away is at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue EC1R 4TN until 25 May at 7.30pm.

Londonist saw this show on a complimentary review ticket.

At the end of the month, Walk London launches its Spring into Summer weekend, with no fewer than 36 free, guided walks on offer around the capital.

Walks range from a leisurely 1.5 mile stroll  to a more hardy 17.5 mile superwalk, but all are designed to be away from traffic and connect walkers with London’s beautiful parks, woodland, rivers, canals and open spaces. No pre-booking necessary, just turn up and set off!

Not only is walking carbon free, stress-reducing and healthy, it is also a lovely way to discover the cultural, historical and environmental sights on your doorstep. Plus, it’s free!

If you prefer a shorter stroll, here are a selection of less demanding walks (all under 5 miles long) taking place over the weekend:

Saturday 25 May

LONDON’S HIDDEN ALLEYWAYS AND COURTYARDS: Explore the history of the winding walkways of London on this 1.5 mile walk. Starts 10.30am

LONDON’S HIDDEN TREASURES: This 2 mile walk takes you along the south bank of the Thames and shows you the unique venues and hidden treasures that line this part of the capital. Starts 10.30am and 2.30pm

OLD CAMDEN TOWN: Camden Town contains a heady mix of canals, cafes, cobblestones, catacombs, craftsmen’s studios and a whole lot of street cred. It also boasts Camden Lock, which forms the centrepiece of this walk. Starts 11am

OLD KENSINGTON — LONDON’S ROYAL VILLAGE: Stroll by cobbled lanes, an American president’s flat, a secret trapdoor and the largest roof garden in Europe, on this walk through the picturesque and characterful Royal Kensington. Starts 2pm

LITTLE VENICE: Arguably the prettiest spot in town, Little Venice boasts the finest early Victorian architecture in London and, of course, is right by the Regent’s Canal. Starts 2pm

THE OLD CITY: London, 2,000 years old: labyrinthine, haunted, secretive. Join this walk and take a look into the hoary old City of London. Starts 2pm

Sunday 26 May

OLD HAMPSTEAD VILLAGE: Traverse London’s most picturesque neighbourhood and discover the characters who trod the streets before you, such as John Keats, Sigmund Freud, DH Lawrence and Elizabeth Taylor. Starts 10am

SUBTERRANEAN LONDON: Uncover the city beneath your feet as your guide shows you the secret tunnels, bomb shelters and lost rivers that lurk under the London we know. Starts 10.30am

ST PAUL’S AND THE SECRET CORNERS OF THE CITY: Start off from St Paul’s Cathedral and explore many peaceful and rarely visited parts of the City of London. Starts 11am and 2pm

SHAKESPEARE’S AND DICKENS’ LONDON: London served as canvas and inspiration to both Shakespeare and Dickens and despite the ravages of time, traces of their cities can still be found in the capital. Starts 2pm

OLD WESTMINSTER — 1,000 YEARS OF HISTORY: Where kings and queens are crowned, a Mecca of politicians throughout the ages, a forge of national destiny. Westminster has seen some seminal London moments and this walk brings those moments to the surface once more. Starts 2.45pm

HAUNTED LONDON: Bring a friend to cling on to in the darkened alleyways on this spooky London voyage. Starts 7.30pm

If that’s not enough, then you can take a look at our selection of the longer walks on offer from Walk London here.

Spring into Summer take place on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 May 2013. Like Walk London on Facebook for updates or visit Walk London online for more information. Walk London is a cross-borough partnership led and funded by Transport for London. 

Chelsea did us proud in the Europa League final, but they’ve already handed back the Champions League trophy — the prize that will be fought over at Wembley on Saturday night by Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. If a ticket for that was beyond your luck or means, try the accompanying Festival taking place over four days (23-26 May) at The International Quarter, close to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Some features of the festival will be available throughout. Champions League sponsors will each offer activities and skill challenges, and there’s also the tournament’s mobile museum where visitors of parental age can show young ‘uns the exploits of guys called Platini, Cruyff and Eusebio who hand out the medals these days. A highlight for many will be the opportunity for a photo alongside the Big Cup itself, though our experience of the Milanese celebrations of 2001 suggests you’ll need to be there on Thursday or Friday before the trophy is whisked across town and thence Westphalia or Bavaria.

Which day you attend might also be governed by your choice of special footballing interest. UEFA have, quite imaginitively, decided to dedicate three of the four days to facets of football that deserve wider attention. The festival’s opening day, Thursday 23 May, showcases women’s football, with girls’ training sessions led by Arsenal legend Faye White and appearances by current stars of Chelsea and England Eni Aluko, Hannah Blundell and goalkeeper Carly Telford. Then, round off the day watching the UEFA Women’s Champions League final between VfL Wolfsburg and Olympique Lyonnais at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge (7.30pm, tickets £10/£5).

On Friday you can immerse yourself in Futsal, the small-sided indoor format of football. There will be tournaments and coaching alongside two showpiece games. The first at 4.30pm features FC Barcelona U-23 against England’s senior futsal team. Then at 6.15pm the likes of former Arsenal stars Robert Pirès and Giovanni van Bronckhorst take on five-time English national futsal champions Helvécia Futsal London. There will also be appearances during the day by James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter films) and members of rock band ‘You Me at Six‘.

On Saturday at 12.30pm, the Ultimate Champions Match between five-a-side teams of famous ex-players will act as a curtain-raiser for the Champions League final at Wembley while Sunday‘s activities include a demonstration of disability football, the opportunity to try out an unsighted penalty shoot-out at 1pm and an hour later the world’s top 16 trick-meisters in the final of the World Freestyle Championships.

Further details on the whole festival can be found at www.UEFA.com/championsfestival.

UEFA Champions Festival, 23-26 May, The International Quarter, Stratford. Entrance is free, and you just need to turn up.

Valerie Colin-Russ discusses London's lions at Guildhall Library tonight. Image courtesy of the author.

GIVE BLOOD: Today’s opportunities to donate blood are at Paddington Central Building 3 and Cathedral Hall in Victoria. Free, just turn up, see site for times and conditions

JAPANESE WHISKY: Award-winning Japanese whisky brand Nikka pops-up on Smiths of Smithfield’s newly opened first floor cocktail bar from today, so you can sample 17 of the brand’s single malt and blended whiskies. Free, just turn up, until 31 May

UNICYCLE: Look out for a unique set of unicycle docking stations in London this week. Half hour slots can be booked in advance and come with an expert to help you find your feet (or wheel). Free, prebook, until 25 May

LONDON SIGNPOSTS: If you don’t mind going to Sussex today then you could own your very own London signpost. Westminster council are auctioning off 362 signposts at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurt, West Sussex. Free, register beforehand, 1.30pm

ROAR!: Last year, Valerie Colin-Russ published a book about London’s 10,000 sculpted lions. Now she’s at Guildhall Library to discuss this colossal pride. Free, just turn up, 2pm

DESIGN: Clerkenwell Design Week, one of the capital’s biggest design events, begins today. It runs until 23 May.

GAUCHO POLO: The world’s largest indoor Polo event is trotting (sorry) into London tonight for an evening of sport, wine-tasting, culture and music. The HPA Gaucho Intertnational Polo tournament takes place at the O2 and features a sizzling tango performance by Strictly Come Dancing’s Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace. £20, prebook, from 5.30pm

ART AND ARCHITECTURE: Gazelli Art House hosts a panel discussion on art and architecture tonight. £5/£3, prebook, 6pm

SMILE: Wellcome Collection’s Roy Porter Lecture, given by Colin Jones, tackles a novel subject: how the toothy smile was invented in 18th Century Paris. Free, prebook, 6.30pm

SHORT FILM: Bar Shorts is a free short film and animation screening that showcases some of the best shorts from award-winning directors. Free, prebook, 7pm

WRITERS’ CLUB: Chris Wellbelove from Greene & Heaton literary agency is the speaker at London Writers’ Club Live. £20/£15, prebook, 7pm

HAPPINESS IS HANDWRITTEN: Make Me Joyful is an initiative to make the world, and the people in it, a bit happier. You can read more about the initiative on their manifesto, but they also put on nights such as Happiness is Handwritten, where to celebrate National Letter Writing Day you can gather with friends and perfect your penmanship by handwriting a letter to a loved one. £12, prebook, 7.30pm

COMEDY: Simon Munnery, Aisling Bea, Ben Target, Kieran Boyd and Beasts are the guests at Monster comedy at Leicester Square Theatre – a great line-up, and all for charity. £8, prebook, 8.30pm

Random London Fact of the Day
It’s The Evening Standard’s birthday today. The newspaper was founded on on 21 May 1827 as The Standard. Confuse a distributor by going up to them, shaking their hand and wishing them a happy 186th.

Unintentionally lewd Dickens quote of the Day
“When the throbbing I had seen before, came into it as I looked at her, she absolutely lifted up her hand, and struck it.” – David Copperfield, Chapter 32.

Good Cause of the Day
The NDCS Stolen Futures petition for deaf children is about to close. Please sign and help deaf children today: www.ndcs.org.uk/petition. This is an urgent opportunity to call for a debate about cuts to deaf children’s services. They are 99% of the way to hitting their target of 50,000 signatures – please join in to help with the final push.

London Weather
Bromidic, banausic and doleful are just three of the words you might use to describe today’s monotone skies — if, that is, you were writing an idiosyncratic weather forecast and wanted an alternative word for ‘boring’. Which we are, and do. So thank you. It’s a thoroughly unremarkable day out there, with only a high pollen count worthy of comment. Dress up in your most colourful clothes to counterbalance the leaden skies.

Victorian In The Wall: humour, history and hijinks

Fans of the turn-of-the-millennium cult comedy series Spaced should prick up their ears. No, there’s no further episodes (unfortunately) or US remake (fortunately) but new play Victorian In The Wall will fill that yearning nicely, thank you.

The Royal Court is an auspicious place for writer and co-director Will Adamsdale. In 2004, he nabbed the top Edinburgh comedy award back in 2004 when it was sponsored by something you could see yourself drinking while sober, beating current comedy luminaries The Thick Of It’s Chris Addison and the FA’s bête noire Reginald D Hunter. Later, Adamsdale turned the winning show Jackson’s Way into a 26-stop London tour he called a “Jacksathon”.

And, yes, one of those venues was the Royal Court, a theatre which once housed the brave and brilliant Clybourne Park before it attracted a West End move and an Olivier award. Like that play, Victorian In The Wall toys with the traditional concepts of theatre, coming across like a bottle episode of Spaced played to Dogme rules and with scant regard for the fourth wall.

The central character Guy, played by Adamsdale, is a slacker writer too easily distracted by neighbourhood dogs, boxsets of The Wire, his guitar and anything really. Guy’s future relationship with his ambitious girlfriend (the superb Melanie Wilson), and the plot itself, hangs on the success of some building works that he is charge of while she is abroad working.

The play sticks to elements of the Dogme 95 film rules with rooms of the flat itself laid out in a similar fashion to the set of Dogville and all sounds and songs played live by the cast. The storyline veers from the frankly surreal to Frank Spencer-inspired calamity and crosses time and space from within the confines of the flat.

A production not short on laughs, heart and invention as well as quality turns from all involved, it tries to cram too much into its 90 minute length and suffers from an all-too-brief denouement and a fair number of loose ends. To be continued?

Victorian In The Wall continues at the Royal Court Theatre until 8 June. More information can be found here.

Londonist attended on a press ticket.

Another outdoor cinema has revealed its schedule for 2013. Pop Up Screens has lined up 30 screenings at seven different venues that particularly favour west London:

• Bishop’s Park, Fulham
• Wormholt Park, Shepherd’s Bush
• Morden Hall Park, Morden
• Manor House Gardens, Lewisham
• Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith
• South Park, Parson’s Green
• Coram’s Fields, Holborn

The packed programme is stuffed with pop-up mainstays like Ghostbusters, The Goonies, Jaws and Top Gun, plus that sine qua non of outdoor cinemas, Back to the Future. Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan gets a timely showing, given the titular baddy’s revival in the latest Trek movie. Here’s the full listing for you to browse.

Events take place from 12 July to 15 September, with tickets £8 for an individual screening or £20 for a weekend pass (three films).

See also:

• Nomad Cinema 2013
• Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens free pop-up screen

London events for people with curious minds.

This will be the last edition of Week in Geek as an individual article. Instead, we will cover the more exciting events and exhibitions as standalone preview articles. Other events will be listed in our daily ‘things to do in London’ articles or weekend updates, which can be subscribed to by email alert here.

Monday 20 May

COMEDY: Rob Newman (pictured) begins a series of nine performances of his New Theory of Evolution at the Little Angel Theatre. £10, prebook, runs till 31 May

QUANTUM: Jonathan Oppenheim is at the Royal Society for a Cafe Scientifique all about quantum information and the real-world applications it can and could lead to. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm

Tuesday 21 May

ROAR!: Last year, Valerie Colin-Russ published a book about London’s 10,000 sculpted lions. Now she’s at Guildhall Library to discuss this colossal pride. Free, just turn up, 2pm

SMILE: Wellcome Collection’s Roy Porter Lecture, given by Colin Jones, tackles a novel subject: how the toothy smile was invented in 18th Century Paris. Free, prebook, 6.30pm

Wednesday 22 May

SURGERY: The Royal Institution opens late for an evening devoted to surgery. After a talk by a team of Imperial College surgeons, explore the first floor and bar area where you can have a play with…and oh dear we can’t help this pun…cutting edge surgical tools. £10, prebook, 7pm

Last year we were blown away by the creepy Victorian-style trappings of the Museum of Curiosity. The curatorial team behind it are back to take an equally macabre look at death in their new show Memento Mori, with artworks that remind us that death is inevitable, yet which also contain a streak of dark humour.

Many artists from the previous exhibition make a return with new works. The ever popular Nancy Fouts has several pieces on display, our favourite is a taxidermied bird lying on its back in a cracked and splintered bell jar — as if it died trying to escape.

Marcos Raya offers another standout with his signature style of skeletonising classical portraits, so smiling skulls replace heads in a wedding portrait and a child at play looks particularly disturbing. A subtler but equally perturbing piece by AVM is completely edible including a replica of a skull.

It’s also no surprise to see the Chapman brothers here with a gory work that features miniature bloodied bodies trying to crawl out of the mouth and eye sockets of a human skull. It’s typical of their over the top style but fits in seamlessly with the theme of this exhibition.

But it’s not just contemporary objects on display, and a set of vitrines by Dr Viktor Schroeder contain genuine human skulls. There is also a claimed Saint’s hand from centuries ago when such relics were in high demand.

Comparisons will inevitably be drawn between this exhibition and the excellent Death at the Wellcome Collection, and anyone who enjoyed that show will definitely find Memento Mori fascinating. It’s perhaps not quite as brilliant as the Museum of Curiosity but is stuffed with great works to be enjoyed by those who can stomach it.

Memento Mori is on at Pertwee, Anderson & Gold, 15 Bateman St, London, W1D 3AQ until 14 June. Admission is free.

GIVE BLOOD: Today’s opportunities to donate blood are outside County Hall in Waterloo and Freemason’s Hall in Covent Garden. Free, just turn up, see site for times and conditions

CHELSEA FRINGE: Horticultural happenings across with capital continue this week with Chelsea Fringe festival. There are dozens of events daily to tickle your tillage — today try tree hunts, floral cocktails and sensory garden tours. Until 9 June.

BIRKBECK ARTS WEEK: University of London’s Birkbeck is hosting a week of lectures, panel discussions, screenings and performances as part of its sixth annual Arts Week. See website for full listings, until 25 May

RAW WINE: Natural wines are celebrated at the RAW Wine Fair, where attendees can sample pure, unprocessed and environmentally friendly wine. £25/£25, prebook for cheaper tickets, open to the public 5-8pm

PROGRESSIVE CAPITALISM: London School of Economics eases us into the week with a lecture on progressive capitalism, hosted by Lord Sainsbury. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm

THE SECRET SERVICE: At Kings Place, Charles Cumming, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones and Peter Guttridge discuss the myths and realities behind the secret services. £9.50, prebook, 7pm

LITERATURE FESTIVAL: The London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre kicks off today with readings by some of the nominees for the Man Booker International Prize 2013: UR Ananthamurthy (India), Lydia Davis (USA), Intizar Husain (Pakistan), Yan Lianke (China), Marie NDiaye (France), Josip Novakovich (Canada) and Peter Stamm (Switzerland). £12/10, prebook, 7.30pm

Random London Fact of the Day

It’s well chronicled that Wellington Arch (or Constitution Arch) on Hyde Park Corner was a former police station. Less well known is that it was also a private residence. The splendidly named Staff-Corporal Farrier Arthur Dick lived in the monument from 1897 until 1934, serving as the King’s Gatekeeper. His duties included opening and closing the structure’s huge gates whenever his or her Majesty wished to pass through. Dick also bred prize-winning spaniels and terriers in the Arch, and two of his sons were born there. The only substantial account of the man that we can find is in My Secret London (1932) by Maud Bigge, although a photo of Dick’s funeral procession is online here. Oh, the statue you see on top also has an interesting story attached, but we’ll save that for another day.

Unintentionally Lewd Dickens Quote of the Day
“Mr. Jasper broke silence by declaring that he placed his whole reliance, humanly speaking, on Mr. Sapsea’s penetration.” – The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Chapter 15.

Good Cause of the Day
Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity that provides legal, humanitarian and journalistic services to Non-Governmental Organisations. On 1 June they are  supporting The Sound of Change Live at Twickenham Stadium, where stars such as Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Ellie Goulding are performing to promote education, health and justice for girls and women across the world. Although the event is sold out, Thomson Reuters Foundation are giving away a pair of premium tickets to the event — find out how you can enter here.

London Weather
Bah, bah black skies
Have you any rain?
Yes sir, yes sir
Three. Full. Drains.

One floods the city
And one stops the train
And one causes Londoners
To curse the skies again 

A rare opportunity to look inside The Supreme Court this Saturday. Pictured: The Library, courtesy of UK Supreme Court.

CHELSEA FRINGE: Horticultural happenings across with capital continue this week with Chelsea Fringe festival. There are dozens of events daily to choose from, most of which are free, so take a look and see what tickles your tillage. Until 9 June.

Monday 20 May

PROGRESSIVE CAPITALISM: London School of Economics eases us into the week with a lecture on progressive capitalism, hosted by Lord Sainsbury. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm

Tuesday 21 May

DAFT PUNK: Oval Space are celebrating Daft Punk’s new album launch by opening their venue doors for all to listen to the music, have some food, and maybe indulge in a little dancing too. Free, prebook, 6pm

SHORT FILM: Bar Shorts is a free short film and animation screening that showcases some of the best shorts from award-winning directors. Free, prebook, 7pm

Wednesday 22 May

LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY: This 45 minute talk, delivered by a partner from L-P Archaeology, focuses on archaeology in London and how it plays an important role in the formation of new developments. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm

BOGOF COMEDY: Get two for the price of one with Invisible Dot’s Two Previews for Five Pounds. Tonight you can enjoy Claudia O’Doherty and James Acaster on the stage. £5, prebook, 7.45pm

GIG: Blake Robson, front man of folk, rock’n'blues band Black River Wild, performs at The Narrow Pub and Restaurant. Free, just turn up, 8pm

Thursday 23 May

LIVE COOKING: To support the Love Your Local Market 2013 campaign, Borough Market holds a live demonstration kitchen today with resident chef, Hayley Edwards, showing shoppers how to create dishes with seasonal produce. Various traders will also be giving advice on the best ways to use their produce. Free, just turn up, 12-2pm

AIR POLLUTION: Professor Jonathan Grigg and Dr Rossa Brugha discuss whether we need to worry about air pollution, as part of Centre of the Cell’s Big Question Lecture Series. Free, prebook, 6pm

PICASSO: The Courthauld Gallery’s incredibly popular Picasso exhibition runs its final late event tonight, so you can explore this world-famous gallery after hours. Tickets cost £6/£5 but if you dress as a 1901 Parisian you get in for free! Just turn up but get there early, from 6pm

COMEDY: Tall Tales at the Good Ship in Kilburn has launched several Radio 4 series (like: Warhorses of Letters, Before They Were Famous). See what John Finnemore, Ian Leslie, Gareth Edwards, Helen Arney, Viv Groksop, Toby Davies, Susannah Pearse and host Robert Hudson are working on now – plus the further adventures of Copenhagen and Marengo. £5, prebook, 8pm

FREE FILM: Mamma Mia screens at a pop-up cinema in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens tonight. Head along to nab a deckchair and enjoy the free film. Free, just turn up, from 6pm but film starts at 8.30pm

Friday 24 May

JAZZ: The Royal Albert Hall’s free ignite jazz series continues today with the Peter Michaels Trio, who explore the elements which unite music from across the world. Free, just turn up, 12pm

Saturday 25 May

THE SUPREME COURT: Take a free nosey inside The Supreme Court today to begin Guildhall’s centenary celebrations. The courtrooms, library, exhibition area will all be open to visitors, as well as a wide range of portraits from the Middlesex Guildhall Art Collection being on show. Free, just turn up, 10am-4.30pm

48 HOUR FILM FINALE: A couple of weeks ago we told you about Herne Hill Free Film Festival’s 48 hour film competition, where you had 48 hours to make your own short film. The results will be screened and the winners announced tonight. Free, just turn up, 8pm

Sunday 26 May

WALK LONDON: A fantastic series of free, guided walks are being put on this weekend by Walk London’s Spring into Summer campaign. Ramble your day away on a long jaunt or join them for a short stroll. The lengths, routes and topics all vary so there is something to suit everyone. Free, just turn up, 25 and 26 May.

Check out our map of free things to do in London for more frugal fun.

The story of Anne Boleyn staged in the Tower of London? Site-specific theatre might just have reached its peak: go back to your proscenium arches, companies, none of you will be able to top this.

Fallen in Love focuses on Anne’s relationship with her brother George, who was eventually executed two days before his sister after accusations of being the most scandalous of her lovers. It’s generally believed that Thomas Cromwell engineered Anne’s downfall to rid Henry VIII of his feisty second wife, and chose the men according to who it would be most politically useful to see on the scaffold – and was so sure his plot would succeed he didn’t even flinch at a charge of incest.

Joanna Carrick’s play shows us a devoted pair of siblings, united against a world determined to use them as pawns for social climbing – not even excluding their own father. George (Scott Ellis), the younger, is clearly besotted with his clever, spirited sister (Emma Connell); but in Anne’s early self it’s easy to think yes, wouldn’t any brother delight in such company? But there the line is drawn. No lascivious meddling with history here.

It’s performed under the 17th century beams of the New Armouries banqueting suite (so not quite contemporary) mere yards from where the pair were beheaded, 50 or so chairs placed around a bed, the only piece of set dressing. It’s about as intimate as it comes and it’s only later that you might think ‘well, that occasionally got a bit melodramatic’ because at the time it all makes effective, heightened, historically accurate Tudor sense. We’d also recommend handing over a fiver for the programme and play text and flicking through it beforehand: the play jumps forward through time between 1520 and 1536, and if you’re not super-familiar with the period you might end up wondering when you are. (It’s not like spoilers are an issue here.) If not, you can probably gauge the dates by the increasing sumptuousness of the Boleyns’ clothing and Anne’s foulness of temper.

Note: although the play is inside the Tower, a ticket doesn’t mean you get to wander around. Access to the grounds is only 30 minutes before the show starts, but that does allow a fair bit of gazing time. Plus, if you plump for one of the evening performances you’ll be there after the public has gone, for added atmosphere.

Fallen in Love takes place at the Tower of London May 18-19, 25-26, 31, June 1, 8-9, 13-16 at 3.30pm, 6.30pm, 9pm. Tickets £22-£32. For more information see the Fallen in Love website. Londonist saw this play on a complimentary press ticket.

The musical follows the life and fame of Leslie Hutchinson, one of the biggest cabaret stars (and womanisers it transpires) of the 1920s and 30s. A favourite singer of the then Prince of Wales, he was regularly heard on the radio with such hits as These Foolish Things and Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love), and was a general darling of society. The play delivers these hits relentlessly, and concerns itself mainly with Hutch’s affair with a certain Edwina Mountbatten, as well as touching lightly on issues like struggles with his colour in a time of racial prejudice.

However, the subject of the play demands a certain level of talent in singing and piano playing, and here the play is somewhat lacking. It is a bit underwhelming to be made to believe that performers of only moderate singing ability are the crème-de-la-crème of their time, and the piece also doesn’t run very naturally from dialogue to song (a number is often started with just: ‘Hey! Does anyone remember that song?’). The play smarts from trying to fit a dazzling, decade-long showbiz career along with several huge personalities onto a tiny stage; all the props and visuals are there, but the integral ingredient is missing.

So yes, the piece is current in that it’s embracing the Gatsby uproar, but as a play to stand on its own two feet it doesn’t completely deliver. Go and see it though, if crooning love songs and histrionic lines are your thing; the audience was filled with those nodding along to their favourite golden oldies.

Hutch is running now at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith until 8 June. Tickets are £17.50 (£15 concessions). For more information visit the Riverside Studios website. Londonist saw this show on a complimentary press ticket.

The Austentatious team / photo by Idil Sukan

Where to find funny this week

Sunday 19 May: Daniel Simonsen, Paul Rickett, Edward Hedges, Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Simon Caine, Luke Graves, Laura McClenaghan, Paul Duncan McGarrity and MC John Hastings make up the packed bill at Twice as Nice Comedy in Hammersmith (8pm, £5).

Monday 20 May: Remember Going Live? Then head to the Udderbelly where Trevor and Simon are the guests of Tom Allen. If you don’t remember Going Live then this may be your first ever chance to properly swing your pants, you lucky whippersnappers (7pm, £15.50).

Tuesday 21 May: Simon Munnery, Aisling Bea, Ben Target, Kieran Boyd and Beasts are the guests at Monster comedy at Leicester Square Theatre – a great line-up, and all for charity (8.30pm, £8).

Wednesday 22 May: If you like Jane Austen then Austentatious is an absolute must: a team of comedians including Cariad Lloyd and Rachel Parris improvise an Austenish novel before your very eyes. Often standing room only in venues above pubs, there’s a seat each at the Udderbelly (9pm, £12.50).

Thursday 23 May: Radio 4 series like Warhorses of Letters, Before They Were Famous and parts of John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme got their starts at Tall Tales in Kilburn’s Good Ship. Find out what Helen Arney, Toby Davies, Gareth Edwards, John Finnemore, Viv Groskop, Ian Leslie, Susannah Pearse and host Robert Hudson have come up with this time, plus the latest adventures of Copenhagen and Marengo (8pm, £5).

Friday 24 May: Sketchfest starts and carries on through the weekend at The Victorian Vaults in Shoreditch. Acts include Allnut and Simpson, The Pin and the very wonderful Robin and Partridge. There are two double-billed shows a night, tickets are £12 / £9 for a single show, £20 / £15 for a day ticket and £50 for a weekend pass.

Saturday 25 May: Mark Thomas has spent the last year committing 100 minor acts of dissent and the results will be his new Edinburgh show. See a preview at Hen and Chickens (9.30pm, £6.50).

Book ahead:  Adam Buxton is trying out new stuff at the relatively wee Invisible Dot on 28, 29 and 31 May as well as July (7.45pm / 8.45pm, £8).

Tip us off to friendly, intelligent, alternative comedy around town tips@londonist.com, read our guide to watching live comedy in London and our top 10 themed comedy nights.

The Horniman Museum’s famously mal-stuffed walrus was recently packed away for a short trip to Margate, where he’ll be on show at the Turner Contemporary gallery until September. The video above shows the delicate operation to lift the toothy, one-tonne mammal from his plinth and into a transport crate, and then out onto the streets of south London. Margate will be the closest he’s got to the sea since the 1880s, when he was first put on exhibition in London.

All weekend

MUSEUMS: Explore London museums after hours during a weekend of special Museums at Night events and activities – even sleepovers. Here are our recommendations, including our Thames quiz at Museum of London Docklands’ Cockles and Mussels late on Saturday.

OPEN STUDIOS: Wimbledon Studios host their Summer Open Studios Art Show from Friday to Sunday. Nose around the artists’ creative spaces and see and buy work from them direct, whether painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, textiles or furniture. Free entry, just turn up, open Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm

HORTICULTURAL HAPPENINGS: Chelsea Fringe blossoms into life for three weeks of green-fingered, flowery fun events celebrating the pleasures of gardening around London. Check the website for the full programme.

ARCHIKIDS: Get the little ones in your life interested in London’s buildings at the city’s Archikids Festival, running Friday to Sunday. Free, check the website for the full programme and timings.

SE LONDON: Hither Green Festival gets underway with a World Food Arts and Crafts Fair, a bake-off, an art exhibition, Open Gardens and a choral concert. Check the website for more info and tickets.

PHOTOGRAPHY: The Syngenta Photography Award Exhibition opens at Somerset House on Friday, so go and see the winning pictures this weekend, themed around Rural – Urban. Free entry, just turn up, 10am-6pm

BEER FESTIVALS: Seek out real ales and ciders in Kingston and Ealing.

Saturday 18 May

MORRIS DANCING: It’s the 60th anniversary of Westminster Day of Dance. Lots of Morris troupes will be coming to London to dance at prime locations across the borough: Westminster Cathedral, St James’ Park, Victoria Embankment, Tate Britain, Duke of York Steps, China Town and Trafalgar Square. Check the schedule at the Westminster Morris Men website. Free, just turn up, from 10am-4pm

GALLERIES: It’s Gallery Day in EC1 and WC1 meaning special events and extended opening hours at 23 galleries, so go out and discover new spaces and new art. All free entry. Check the website for a map and more info.

CYCLEFEST: The Yellow Jersey Press Cycling Festival takes place outside Foyles on the Southbank with books, games, quizzes and talks. Free, just turn up, from 11.30am-4pm

MAY FAIR: Notting Hill Mayfest is in full swing. St John’s Church, Lansdowne Crescent is the venue for a bit of traditional maying, including maypole dancing, jam and tombola. Free, just turn up from 1pm

UNUSUAL WALK: If you like history, science, surprising stories and walking round London, discover Invention, Intelligence & Enterprise in Vauxhall and Lambeth with the excellent Laurence Scales. Tickets £10, prebook, 2-5pm

CEMETERY: Magnificent Nunhead Cemetery holds an open day with catacomb tours, stalls, kids activities and crafts. Free entry, just turn up, 11am-5pm

MANGA: It’s ComicaMangAsia day at the Festival of Asian Literature: take the kids to a free manga workshop from 12pm and browse the fair. Buy tickets for talks and workshops for adults in the afternoon at Asia House, New Cavendish Street W1. Open 11am-4.30pm

SCIENTIFIC SIMON MAYO: The radio DJ heads up a family friendly afternoon, talking about his passion for science and the creation of ITCH. Expect lots of live experiments and take part in an elements treasure hunt at the Royal Institution. Tickets £10 adults, £7 concessions, 3-7.30pm

KAYAKING: Take a Moo Cruise down the Thames in a kayak. Read our review of the experience. Tickets £49pp, prebook through Facebook, 6.30-9.30pm

EUROVISION: We made a list of Eurovision parties going on around town but these are all bound to be very busy so please check with the venue about tickets. Or stay home and have a drinks and cheeses of Eurovision party like what we’ll be doing. Tune in to BBC One, live, 8pm

ROSS SUTHERLAND FAN CLUB ALERT: SJ Fowler, Ross Sutherland, Hannah Silva, Honor Gavin and Outfit are at Rich Mix for a night of Electronic Voice Phenomena, cutting edge poetry, music and performance. Entry £10 / £8, starts 8pm

FREE FILM: Watch anime classic Spirited Away in Brockwell Park as part of the Herne Hill Free Film Festival. Free, just turn up, 8.30pm

Sunday 19 May

GEFILTEFEST: Ivy House in Golders Green hosts the London Jewish Food Festival with 50 sessions including cookery demonstrations and workshops but also talks and discussion sessions about the art and culture of food. There’s a kids’ programme too and live music and stalls in the garden. Tickets £25 adults, £12.50 children, prebook, open 9.30am-6pm

CAMERA FAIR: Photographica is the UK’s largest photographic collectors fair and there will be over 135 tables offering images, cameras, books, accessories and restoration tools. £5, just turn up, from 10am

RAW WINE: Discover and taste natural wine at the RAW Wine Fair in the Old Truman Brewery. Tickets £20 advance, £25 on the door, open 10am-6pm

MUSICTECHFEST: A festival of music ideas looking at the latest developments in music, performance and technology. Workshops, talks, performances, music making, hacking at The Rave campus, North Greenwich. Free, preregister - only tickets left for Sunday’s Hackers, Jammers and Beatboxers all-dayer from 12-11pm

SE LONDON: Dulwich Park Fair is a highlight of the ongoing Dulwich Festival with a steam fair, loads of stalls, animals from Vauxhall City Farm, a dog show plus local ales and food. Free, just turn up, 12-6pm

FLEA MARKET: Mooch to Candid Arts in Islington for a flea market featuring 50 traders proferring collectables, upcycled, vintage stuff and have a go on the tombola. Free entry, just turn up, 11am-6pm

PUB DANCE: Cloud Dance Sundays bring contemporary dance to the pub. Watch talented and promising artists show you their stuff while you ease into the end of the weekend with a beer or two. At Lion and Unicorn, Kentish Town. Tickets £15, £12 concessions, book or just turn up, starts 7.30pm

Other good stuff

• What’s on stage and art shows to see
• Live comedy in London
• Booky and spoken word events
• Events for curious-minded Londoners
• Free things to do in London
• What’s on in the big Museums and Galleries
• Food and drink
• Listen to our latest podcast

Browse all latest arts and events features and make your tummy rumble with our latest food and drink content.

Westminster Day of Dance photo by McTumshie via the Londonist Flickrpool. 

Amy Herzog’s chamber piece comes to Westbourne Grove from successful runs in New York and Bath. Her main concern is the connection between generations: ‘leftie’ intellectual Vera struggles determinedly with physical debilitation and loneliness; Leo seems adrift from the people closest to him, cycling across the US to escape the pressures of relationships and social expectations. The two are linked by a certain idealism or naivety, Vera’s unaffected admiration for Communist Cuba reflecting Leo’s refusal to accept college, city life and mobile phones as the only option.

Sara Kestelman as Vera and Daniel Boyd as Leo are strong performers, working to keep the hovering hand-across-the-years clichés at bay. Kestelman makes Vera’s physical limitations both convincing and funny, especially when she undercuts Leo’s soul-baring monologue by admitting she didn’t have her hearing aid in. They are, however, hampered by the play’s very traditional structure which tends to deliver what the audience expects, when the audience expects it. Jing Lusi stands out with a scene-stealing cameo as a girl who comes back with Leo for an abortive one-night stand, a scene which is very funny and perfectly constructed (“I’m feeling kind of shy.  It’s uncharacteristic, I’m usually quite slutty”).

The set-up is promising, but needs to go further than the basic reflection that the old and the young have more in common than they think. It achieves this only fitfully. When Vera and Leo get on to their political inheritance, the play begins to spark – Vera’s acceptance of her husband’s affairs, for example, horrifies Leo’s girlfriend. Unfortunately, Herzog never really gets going with a full investigation of what an alternative way of life might mean now, in an era when ideology is passé and political choices are grey.

However, the beautifully observed set by Simon Kenny is a quiet star: the archetypal West Side apartment crammed with mid-century books, furniture and ornaments. We want one just like it.

4000 Miles is at the Print Room, 34 Hereford Road, London W2 5AJ until 1^st June. To book click here.

Production shot by Jane Hobson.