Our tips for what’s new and hot on London’s cultural calendar this week
Tonight, Romeo and Juliet opens at the Royal Opera House. This week’s other dance recommendations are Survivor at the Barbican Theatre on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week, and Holistic Strata / Haptic at the Linbury Studio from Monday. Survivor is a unique collaboration between Hofesh Shechter and Antony Gormley; Holistic Strata / Haptic is a blend of street dance and butoh from Tokyo-based multidisciplinary artist Hiroaki Umeda. London really has it all, sometimes, right?
In theatre from tomorrow, you can see The Table at the Soho Theatre: extreme puppetry (think disembodied heads, storytelling briefcases and a miniature Moses) from Blind Summit. On a slightly more traditional note, Abi Morgan’s new play Lovesong opens at the Lyric Hammersmith on Thursday. Finally for theatre, we recommend Execution of Justice at Southwark Playhouse, about the killing of Harvey Milk in San Francisco in the late 70s.
For art fans, you can check out several new shows opening on Thursday. There's Eva Caridi: Nude at Ambika P3; Damien Hirst's Spot Paintings at the Gagosian Galleries; and Front Line: A Year of Journalism and Conflict at Somerset House; a Ronseal exhibition title, if ever there was one. Also opening on Thursday is a new Quentin Blake exhibition at the Foundling Museum. As Large as Life displays recent works commissioned by four hospitals in the UK and France.
Last but not least, we like the sound of Traditions Revised, an exhibition exploring the traditions of the folding fan in Japan at the Brunei Gallery.
Last Chance To See
It’s change-over time in London this week, so there are a few things too look out for in the last-chance bucket:
Saturday is your last chance to see A Christmas Carol at the Arts, The Chronicles of Bitter and Twisted at the Arcola, Haunted Child at the Royal Court, Jerusalem at the Apollo, Million Dollar Quartet at the Noel Coward, Reasons To Be Pretty at the Almeida, and Swallows and Amazons at the Vaudeville.
Sunday is your final opportunity to see Bloomberg New Contemporaries at the ICA; Postmodernism: Style and Subversion at the V&A; and Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture at the RA.
