Right. This week is the Indian summer you've all been waiting for. So make sure you get out and enjoy it. We're so confident of the sunshine, we've even stuck in a couple of outdoor options for you.
Be There First: London Shows Opening
Punk Rock, the latest play from award-winning writer Simon Stephens, opens at the Lyric Hammersmith tonight. It's all about the "dislocation, disjunction and latent violence that simmers under the surface of success in articulate, aspirational young people." We wonder if it'll be another big teen hit for the Lyric, following last year's smash Spring Awakening; the new cast includes Harry McEntire, who starred in that musical.
Sedos, an amateur dramatics society for members of the Stock Exchange, bring a production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest to the Bridewell Theatre for five nights from tonight.
Tomorrow sees Stockwell, the dramatisation of events surrounding the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, open at the Tricycle Theatre.
Judgment Day opens at the Almeida Theatre on Thursday, looking at a society that that refuses to take responsibility for its actions... Kurt & Sid, an imagined meeting between Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and his idol The Sex Pistol's Sid Vicious, set on the eve of Cobain's suicide, starring Danny Dyer opens at the Trafalgar Studios 2 next Monday.
Two new exhibitions have caught our eye this week. Astronomy Photographer of the Year opens at the National Maritime Museum on Thursday; In a Bloomsbury Square: TS Eliot the Publisher celebrates the 80th anniversary of Faber and Faber at the ever-brilliant British Library from next Monday. Other exciting-sounding (and free) new art shows include Japan: A Floating World in Print at the Arts Depot; Starting with a Photograph at the Michael Hoppen Gallery, (both opening on Saturday); and Typographica at Kemistry, which starts on Sunday.
Head outdoors this weekend, and you can pick between two major festivals: the Mayor's Thames Festival, and the Tower Festival. There's going to be masses going on: more than we can usefully list here, so check out the links instead.
Finally, dance centre The Place is celebrating its 40th birthday this weekend, with two days of free dance classes in the Bloomsbury-based studio: Taste the Place.
Last Chance to See: London Shows Closing
Arcadia, Tom Stoppard's award-winner, closes at the Duke of York's Theatre on Saturday. Hello Dolly also comes to an end at the Open Air Theatre on Saturday, heralding the end of summer. (Sniff.) And No Way Out (Huis Clos) closes at the Southwark Playhouse on Saturday too.
Sunday sees the end of Jeff Koons' Popeye Series at the Serpentine Gallery, and the major retrospective of JW Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Rahaelite at the Royal Academy of Arts. (A must-see for anyone who loved the BBC's recent costume-drama romp, Desperate Romantics.) Enjoy!
Image of Punk Rock at Lyric Hammersmith by Helen Maybanks
