Things to do in London this week

Austin’s music, film and media festival SXSW is renowned across the world for being the place to discover the next big thing. In previous years, superstars like Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Chappell Roan have all given early performances at the Texas event. And now, the week-long, multi-venue event is coming to London for the first time. The inaugural SXSW London will take over various venues around Shoreditch, with 420 talks and panels delving into the most pressing issues across business, a film festival will feature 250 film screenings, and then there’s the music festival, featuring headline sets from Tems, Mabel, Sasha Keable Alice Glass and Nao, alongside more than 500 gigs. Phew. 

Founded during the Arab Spring in 2011, biennial festival Shubbak has become one of London’s largest celebrations of contemporary Arab and South West Asian & North African (SWANA) culture. The 2025 edition of Shubbak features a plethora of performances, exhibitions and community-driven events scheduled over three weeks across many venues. This year, see fashion catwalks, the largest Palestinian theatre production staged in the UK for 25 years, as well as 40+ events encompassing theatre, film, music, dance, spoken word and experimental arts. 

Chaotic explosions of wood, scrap metal and cotton cascade through the gallery in the work of Brooklyn-based artist Leonardo Drew. Known for using found natural materials that are oxidised, burned, and left to decay, Drew creates visceral, large-scale installations that reflect on the cyclical nature of existence. His sculptures evoke the scars of America’s industrial past, while also suggesting forces beyond human control. At the South London Gallery in London, Drew will unveil a new site-specific work that engulfs the walls and floor of the main space, with fragmented wood appearing as if battered by extreme weather, natural disasters, or what he calls ‘acts of God.’

For a script penned in 1893, Mrs Warren’s Profession still feels remarkably fresh. The attitude of George Bernard Shaw’s play towards sex work as a functioning product of the capitalist labour market feels bracingly current even today. Yet at first glance, director Dominic Cooke’s production is as traditional as they come, but something darker bubbles beneath the surface. Imelda Staunton plays the titular Mrs Warren who draws the eye from the moment she strides onto stage in her striped frock coat. There is subtle pain in her voice when she talks about the circumstances that led her to her profession. You don’t leave with clear answers about Mrs Warren or even her profession, but you will leave unexpectedly entertained. 

One of London’s most elderly restaurants, Wiltons has been in the game since 1742. Beginning life as simple shellfish mongers, Wiltons became a proper restaurant in 1841, and, after numerous address changes, moved into their current premises in 1984. The dining room itself is pitched somewhere between Victorian grandeur and Jilly Cooper camp, and there’s some seriously impressive cooking happening here. An implacably good, twice baked stilton soufflé is perfectly crisp on the outside and cashmere-soft on the inside, while lobster bisque is funky and dank in the best possible way. There are also bountiful platters of oysters, various plates of smoked fish, dressed crab and caviar to start, and, for pudding, the trifle is a sturdy, solid thing of creamy wonder. 

Ever wanted to play on the pitch at Stamford Bridge like a true Blue? Well, now's your chance to do just that, and for less. Chelsea FC's Bring Your Boots Tour is back, and for a limited time only, fans can score 20% off this once-in-a-lifetime stadium experience.

Writer-actors Tim Key and Tom Basden have delivered a rare blend of unkempt charm, emotional precision and soulful folk music with this British rom-com. Key plays Charles, who has retreated to a remote British isle to mourn his wife and wear out the LPs of his favourite folk duo, McGwyer Mortimer. Once an ‘it’ couple, Herb McGwyer (Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) have long since split up – romantically and musically – but for Charles, their music is the sound of happier times. In the manner of Robert Redford in Indecent Proposal, he’s offered them a suitcase of cash in return for a reunion gig on his island. Only, he sold it to them both as a solo gig. It’s a funny, smart premise that pays off in myriad ways. This musical comedy sings when it’s exploring the vagaries of the human heart. 

Playwright David Ireland’s The Fifth Step is about two men in Alcoholics Anonymous – which Ireland was a member of in the past – but the play is not really about the institution as a whole. Rather, it’s AA’s ambiguous spiritual dimension that holds the most interest to the playwright. Jack Lowden plays young Glaswegian Luka, an alcoholic who suffered an abusive upbringing and is desperately lonely to boot. Martin Freeman is James, an AA old-timer who exudes a sort of seen-it-all serenity. Ireland remains a swearword-heavy comic writer with a specialty in bruising one-liners and there are fine performances from Lowden and Freeman. 

You might know The Hotelier for their groundbreaking emo album Home, Like Noplace Is There, but their back catalogue of achingly brilliant rock music spans much more than their legendary sophomore release. In 2023, the group embarked on a reunion tour with frontperson Christian Holden teasing potential new music in their interview with The Ringer that year. While it’s not clear you’ll hear anything fresh at The Garage, you can be assured that you’ll get the chance to yell the hook, ‘I called in sick from your funeral’ at full volume.

The Garage, N5 1RD. Sat May 31, 7pm. From £32.33.

Roll up ageing ravers, curious young clubbers and anyone who just fancies hitting a dance floor and still being home in time for Emmerdale. This hour-long virtual reality experience promises to transport you back to the height of the Acid House era during 1989’s Summer of Love. Having premiered at the London Film Festival back in 2022, the hour-long experience takes over the The Pit at the Barbican for ten weeks this summer. The handiwork of filmmaker Darren Emerson and is soundtracked by some of the era’s biggest bangers, from Joey Beltram’s ‘Energy Flash’ to Orbital’s ‘Chime’. Sadly, there’s no discount for anyone old enough to remember Shoom. 

From the mind of David Mamet comes a razor-sharp noir thriller about risk, deception and obsession. When celebrated psychoanalyst Dr Margaret Ford takes on a troubled new patient, her clinical curiosity leads her into the seedy backrooms of Chicago’s gambling scene. As she infiltrates the House of Games, a dangerous underground poker lounge, she’s drawn into a complex psychological battle with a charming con man named Mike. Adapted by acclaimed playwright Richard Bean and directed by Jonathan Kent, this thrilling stage production is a masterclass in tension.

Enjoy £50 off 'House of Games' tickets at Hampstead Theatre with only with Time Out Offers.

A fascinating feminist hybrid of EastEnders, Samuel Beckett and Wolf Hall, Ava Pickett’s 1536 is set in some marshland on the outskirts of an Essex village in the year Anne Boleyn was executed. The story begins as a funny drama focusing on three young Tudor women – Jane (Liv Hill), Anna (Sienna Kelly) and Mariella (Tanya Reynolds) – effing and blinding away. But news arrives that Henry VIII has arrested Boleyn and accused her of treasonous adultery. The men of Essex start taking cues from their king, with word reaching the village of adulterous local wives executed by their vengeful husbands. The engine of the play is Pickett’s superb dialogue and the sweary, lairy modern-language chats had by the women. It’s a droll and perceptive period piece that’s also a searing and unsettling contemporary feminist drama. 

From screeching tube carriages to the lulling podcast we listen to on our commute, noise is constantly shaping our lives, and the Barbican’s Feel the Sound exhibition promises to be a multi-sensory journey into our personal relationship with sound. Eleven commissions and installations will take over the arts centre, all exposing visitors to frequencies, sound, rhythmic patterns and vibrations that define everything around us. Even the Centre’s underground car parks will be part of the action as it’s transformed into a club space. Sing with a digital quantum choir, experience music without sound and look out for experiences celebrating underground club culture. 

Mischief Theatre – they of The Play That Goes Wrong – are now aiming their slick brand of ever-escalating theatrical farce at the spy genre in this West End premiere. When a top-secret file is stolen by a turncoat British agent, a deeply mismatched pair of KGB agents and a CIA operative and his over-enthusiastic mother collide in pursuit of it. General chaos ensues. Writers Henry Shields and Henry Lewis mine plenty of daft comedy from spy staples like bugged radios and improbable gadgets while paying homage to a decade in the UK rocked by the revelations of double agent Soviet Union spy rings. A talented cast know their mission, steering into every eccentricity in the play’s helium-filled parade of stereotypes. For bungling wit matched with peerless physical comedy, you’d be hard pressed to find better in the West End.

Looking for a wholesome, creative night out that doesn’t involve a hangover (unless you BYOB)? Token Studio in Tower Bridge offers relaxed, hands-on ceramics classes where you can spin, shape and decorate your own pottery piece. Whether you fancy throwing a pot on the wheel (£32) or painting a pre-made mug or plate (£23), it’s the perfect mix of fun, mindful and surprisingly therapeutic. And to top it all off, you can sip while you sculpt as it’s BYOB and super chill.

Enjoy your Token Studio session from just £23, only with Time Out Offers. 

Treat yourself to a Mediterranean feast in the heart of Soho at Maresco, where Scottish seafood meets bold Spanish flavours. With this exclusive deal, you’ll get two courses, house sourdough and a glass of wine for under 20 quid – a serious steal in central London. Whether you're craving jamón ibérico, fresh octopus or rich paella, this buzzing spot brings sunshine to your plate without breaking the bank.

Get two courses with sourdough and wine, for £19.95 (originally £31), only with Time Out Offers.

The Natural History Museum always has fun with its big, slick exhibitions: for 2025 it poses one of the big questions of our times – are we alone out there? Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? won’t be getting bogged down in what aliens might want from us, but it will be focussing on the geological side of space: the NHM’s collections contain some of the world’s most important space rocks, many of which will be on display here. Snap a selfie with a piece of Mars, touch a fragment of the Moon and lay your hands on the Allende meteorite, which is, remarkably, older than Earth itself. Listen to the sounds of Mars and smell the smells of outer space.

Doing something genuinely original with Romeo and Juliet is no mean feat, but Sean Holmes’s latest Globe version transposes fair Verona to the rootin’ tootin’ American West, the cast donning stetsons and petticoats befitting a trad production of Oklahoma! as the sighs of our star-cross’d lovers are scored by a banjo and intercut with the odd ‘yee-haw!’ This Romeo and Juliet is remarkably unafraid to have fun. The Western theme is wrung tightly to eke out every last drop of comic potential. You have to admire the Globe’s commitment to doing something different. 

The home, migration, global displacement: these are all themes Do Ho Suh explores in his work, consisting of videos, drawings, and large translucent fabric installations of interiors, objects, walls and architectural structures. Often brightly coloured, skeletal and encompassing, this survey exhibition at Tate Modern will showcase three decades the celebrated Korean-born, London-based artist, including brand-new, site-specific works on display.