Arts Ahead: What's On In London 3-9 August

By Zoe Craig Last edited 163 months ago
Arts Ahead: What's On In London 3-9 August

EarthquakesLondon.jpg The Edinburgh festival may be kicking off north of the border, but there's still plenty of fun to be had in London. Take your pick from the following:

Be There First: London Shows Opening

Mike Bartlett's new play Earthquakes in London opens at the National Theatre tomorrow, taking audiences on a rollercoaster journey from 1968 to 2525 and back again. Or if you'd rather get your theatrical kicks for free, check out Don Juan in Love for the adults, or Toad Hall! (an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In The Willows at the Scoop, as part of the More London Free Festival, also from tomorrow. The Camden Fringe offers a local alternative to Edinburgh with a rambunctions raft of theatre and comedy across 8 venues until 29 August. Lastly in theatre, Rodgers and Hammerstein's State Fair comes to the Trafalgar Studios from Thursday.

Dance fans can leave behind London's August clouds and head to the sizzling heat of early 20th-century Buenos Aires via Sadler's Wells. Tanguera is a tango musical about unrequited love and it opens on Wednesday.

Our opera picks for this week are Don Quixote at the Royal Opera House for just Friday through to Sunday, or the completely brilliant-sounding Tête à Tête Opera Festival at the Riverside Studios (and elsewhere) from Thursday: 25 pieces of contemporary opera from more than 200 artists, including three brand new bite-sized operas, and opera in some unexpected places as part of the Lite Bites strand of the festival.

If you want to see some new art shows, this week you can check out Darkness Visible: Photographs of Bruce Springsteen 1975-1978 at the Snap Galleries running for a month from today. From Wednesday, see Jess Flood-Paddock's Gangsta's Paradise at the Hayward Gallery: a sculptural scenario featuring, we're told, "a lobster, a sprinter's autobiography, an invitation to dinner, some rabbits and the end of the world."

From Friday you can see The Light: Portraits of the Hibakusha at the Brunei Gallery. An exhibition of 65 portraits of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, running for 65 days, 65 years after the bombings. A lighter art option is Still City at Room in East London, also from Friday: photographs of London life by Polly Braden, Ollie Harrop, Billy Macrae and Colin O'Brien.

Last Chance To See: London Shows Closing

Carlos Acosta's Premieres come to an end at the London Coliseum on Saturday, as does Lingua Franca at the Finborough Theatre and Pirates! at the Polka Theatre. And Bent closes at the Tabard Theatre on Sunday.

Other Sunday closings include Henry Moore at Tate Britain and Film 4's Summer Screens at Somerset House. If we've missed anything, let us know in the comments below.

Last Updated 03 August 2010