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Welcome to a brand new week! This Monday to Thursday you can get stuck in at a midsummer supper club, get your pooch papped in a photobooth in east London, or welcome the dawn at Morning Gloryville at The Shard. Have fun out there!
CENTRAL
‘Hamlet’, Harold Pinter Theatre, Thu, £15-£100. Transferring to the West End, Robert Icke’s production of ‘Hamlet’ starring Andrew Scott remains a remarkable piece of work.
Smells Like Green Spirit, various London locations, all week. Camden Town Brewery is celebrating the launch of its picnic-perfect beer, ‘Inner City Green’, by giving away hampers full of beers and snacks, plus free beers during National Picnic week.
‘Kiss Me’, Trafalgar Studios, all week, £15-£35. An unorthodox love story and change of pace for Richard Bean.
Bernar Venet: Looking Forward: 1961-1984, Blain Southern, all week, free. The French artist’s early tar works are the first things you see here. They’re glistening liquid, frozen on fragile cardboard. They’re grubby, elemental, brutal monochromes. They reflect you but repulse you.
NORTH
Swedish Midsummer Supper Club, The Underground Restaurant, Wed, £50. This solstice-style feast takes flower crowns and Scandi chic as its inspiration with a meal of home-smoked salmon, sandalwood herrings, strawberry cake, crispbread and more.
The Avalanches, The Forum (O2 Forum Kentish Town), Wed, £21. The Australian collective perform their electronic music.
‘The Fly’ + introduction, JW3, Wed, £8. Film studies professor Nathan Abrams will explore the Kafkaesque elements of David Cronenberg’s horror masterpiece ‘The Fly’, and ask how much the director’s Jewishness has influenced his work.
Kiefer Sutherland, Islington Assembly Hall, Thu, £25. The UK-born Canadian actor and singer performs his country music material.
‘I Hear You and Rejoice’, Tricycle, all week, prices vary. Mikel Murfi returns to the Tricycle with the celebratory sequel to last year’s ‘The Man in the Woman’s Shoes’.
Wood’s Navy Rum Shack, King’s Cross. Popular Kentish Town cocktail bar Ladies & Gentlemen is hosting a pop-up on a working barge, where they’ll be serving up piña colada slushies, mai tais and the boat’s signature serve, the Greenheart Grog.
EAST
Collage Club © Stefan Jakubowski
Absinthe Drink and Draw: A Tangled Surrealism, The Last Tuesday Society, TONIGHT, £12-£20. Join The Last Tuesday Society for its monthly Absinthe Drink & Draw evening where you’ll trace the surreal poses and contortions of a model tied up with her hair in the style of the ancient art of Japanese bondage.
Talking Heads: Presented by the London Astrobeat Orchestra, XOYO, Tue, £10. Music by David Byrne’s New Wave crew reworked by the afrobeat collective.
Collage Club, Lunar HQ, Wed, £5 + booking fee. Swap pencils for scissors and a wealth of beautiful papers and magazines in this monthly collage workshop for anyone keen to flex their creative muscles and get making.
Paws-Port Photobooth, The Hub Café, Thu, free. Dog owners can take their furry friends along to this photobooth in Victoria Park, which, equipped with an adjustable basket seat, speakers playing dog-friendly noises and peepholes with squeaky toys, promises to get a top-notch pic of your pooch that you can use in their dog passports.
The Nomad: ‘Vertigo’, Citypoint, Thu, £13.50. Pull up a deck chair and settle in for a stone-cold classic, as presented by pop-up cinema experts The Nomad in this outdoor plaza.
Evan Parker, Vortex, Thu, £12. Parker’s snake-like sax explores the infinite possibilities of free improvisation with circular breathing, harmonics, chords and unbroken rhythmic note patterns.
SOUTH
© Richard Termine
‘Tristan & Yseult’, Shakespeare’s Globe, Mon-Wed-Thu, £20-£45. Kneehigh’s swooningly eccentric retelling of the ancient love story.
Black Sound: Black British Music’s Journey of Creative Independence, Black Cultural Archives, Tue-Thu, free. The story of 100 years of innovation in black music through three key phases: Original Imports, DIY Culture and Re-mastering the Mainstream.
Morning Gloryville & The View From the Shard – Sky High Solstice, The Shard, Wed, £45. An early morning dance party high above London kicking off at 4.15am. A gong orchestra will start followed by a full summer solstice ceremony led by a trio of ceremonialists.
Pop-Up Cinema, Rivoli Ballroom, Thu, £14, £12 adv. Settle down in the beautiful surrounding of the Rivoli Ballroom – one of the country’s last remaining 1950s ballrooms – for a pop-up film fest along with plenty of popcorn, ice cream, hot dogs and wine, draft ale, beer and cider.
Charles Heidsieck's Maverick Encounters, Blenheim Forge, Thu, £51. Explore Blenheim Forge and hear more about the knife producers’ mastery of Japanese steel and artistic flair. A hands-on experience in knife craft will be followed by food prepared by a chef using the razor-sharp knives, plus a champagne masterclass.
Streatham Food Festival, various venues, Thu, prices vary. A long weekend of eating and food events to celebrate all the edible excellence SW16 has to offer.
Fahrelnissa Zeid, Tate Modern, all week, from £11. Pulsating hives of colour on large cuts of canvas that unfold in front of the viewer like living Byzantine mosaics, letting the interpretive chips fall where they may.
WEST
Female Power Pop-Up, 35 Thayer Street, Wed-Thu. Head to Marylebone where ten British fashion and lifestyle brands all run by female entrepreneurs are hosting a five-day pop-up shop showcasing under-the-radar clothing, accessories, jewellery and footwear.
Taschen Sample Sale, Taschen Books, Thu. Book lovers should make a beeline for Taschen’s Starck-designed west London flagship-shop this week, as the publisher kicks off its annual summer sale.
AND FINALLY
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