Things to do in London this weekend

The Irish are experts when it comes to partying. They’re so good, in fact, they even have a special untranslatable term – the craic – to describe their unique brand of conviviality. With Trafalgar Square as the setting for London’s official bash in celebration of their patron saint, a blast is pretty much guaranteed. This year, the extravaganza is taking place the day before the official St Patrick’s Day celebrations, on Sunday March 16. It’s set to see more than 50,000 turning out for Irish food, dancing and a huge parade featuring pageantry, floats and music that will wend its way from Hyde Park Corner along Piccadilly, St James’s Street, Pall Mall, Cockspur Street and Whitehall.

This luxury celebrity revival of Chekhov’s The Seagull is not your baboushka’s Chekhov: it begins with Zachary Hart’s luxuriantly Brummie accented Simon driving onto the stage on a quad bike, plugging in an electric guitar and launching into a heartfelt rendition of Billy Bragg’s The Milkman of Human Kindness. The show is directed by the great German Thomas Ostermeier and it has a stacked cast: Cate Blanchett, Emma Corrin, Tom Burke, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Tanya Reynolds all star. If you want to see Blanchett and some other world-class actors have a ball in an alternately irreverent and emotional three-hour production of The Seagull, directed by a genius who has clearly directed the play a few too many times… then you’re in for a treat. 

The Seagull is sold out, however a daily lottery via TodayTix distributes £35 tickets on the day of each show.

We all know Edvard Munch’s masterpiece ‘The Scream’, but there was a lot more to him: this show at the National Portrait Gallery catalogues the great Norwegian expressionist through his portraits of family, friends, fellow artists, writers, art collectors and others in his lifetime. Intimate, energetic and deeply human, this exhibit is set to remind us why Munch had such influence in his sphere and far beyond.  

Prince Durairaj and Glen Leeson are good at this by now. The pair have put together a small chain of top Indian eateries; Islington’s Tamil Prince and Tamil Crown, and the first Tamila in Clapham. Fourth time around with Tamila King’s Cross, the experience is more refined than ever. The drinks are a bold harbinger of the strong, spiced flavours to come: the gunpowder margarita boasting masala dust for salt and earthy smokiness. Centrepiece dishes are of the tandoori and curry persuasion. Paneer tikka is cooked to an affectionate level of tenderness, with a dusty heat and a sharp pineapple chutney. The dhal flashed all sorts of vegetables across your tongue, while paneer butter masala was creamy and mightily generous in size. And the roti? Supremely fluffy, a mighty signature dish.

Punch is the perfect example of what playwright James Graham does best. It tells the poignant story of Jacob (David Shields), a lad from Nottingham who got into a totally pointless fight with James, a (never-seen) paramedic just a few years older than him. Jacob punched James precisely once. James went down, and a couple of weeks later he died. Graham’s script delves into this with typical deftness. Shields’ performance is a modulated study in the ferocity but also the innocence and vulnerability of a young offender. Punch is on the smaller side for a Graham play, but its climax will have you blubbing. 

This Welsh producer’s brand of dance music is the perfect soundtrack to those early hours when you step out of the club, first thing, as the sun rises above a cold and empty city. Produced by dh2’s George Daniels, KLO’s latest record features hazy repeated vocal lines and glittering chord changes, eschewing big choruses in favour of euphoric instrumentals. Just listen to Sunshine for an idea of the dancefloor euphoria you’ll experience at the show. 

Troxy, E1 0HX. Thur Mar 13, 7pm. From £35.81. 

Peruse 1000s of handpicked paintings, sculpture, photography and prints from 200 galleries at this springtime edition of the Affordable Art Fair. With a mission to democratise art, works are priced between £50 and £7,500 and galleries from all over the world will be showing their collections, including spaces from UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Japan, Korea, Peru, and more. This year, highlights include a new installation by London-based artist Margaux Carpentier celebrating Women’s History Month, an art for kids space, drop-in stitching workshops and Art After Dark Lates with DJs, workshops and plenty of booze. 

The Cinema Made In Italy festival will be celebrating the best new Italian cinema and filmmakers at its new home at BFI Southbank. Over five days, the festival will screen 10 of the best contemporary Italian films, including biopics, period drama, historical epics, noir thrillers and documentaries. This year look out for Francesca Comencini’s The Time It Takes charting her relationship with her famous filmmaker father, Anywhere Anytime from Milad Tangshir portraying Issa, an African migrant scratching out a living in Turin and a special archive screening of the classic Italian comedy Bread, Love and Dreams. 

A pint-sized homage to 70s punk has popped up in Soho. Tying in with the launch of the first RRPL magazine, Mick Jones’ Rock & Roll Public Library offers a glimpse into the mind of one of punk music’s great minds. The display showcases previously unseen material and artefacts from The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite frontman (diaries, figurines, magazine clippings, AAA passes, a guitar, a complete stage outfit, you know the sorts), while celebrating over-the-counter-culture. 

Think of the Italian Mafia as a man’s world? Think again. ‘Donne di Mafia, having a voice’ returns to highlight the lives and experiences of women in both the Calabrian and Sicilian mafias. Head to Covent Garden’s beautiful Garden Cinema to watch The Judge And The Mafia Boss (3.30pm)– the story of Cesare Terranova, the first magistrate to instruct trials against Mafia bosses – and Sicilian Letters (6.30pm)– following imprisoned politician Catello as he’s tasked with helping to capture the last major Mafia boss still on the run. Look out for post-screening Q&As. The organisers say that this will be “the last edition for some time”, so don’t miss out. 

Imagine indulging in all the dumplings, rolls, and buns you can handle, crafted by a Chinatown favourite with over a decade of culinary excellence. Savour Taiwanese pork buns, savoury pork and prawn soup dumplings, and luxurious crab meat xiao long bao. To top it off, enjoy a chilled glass of prosecco to elevate your feast. Cheers to a truly delightful dining experience at Leong’s Legend!

Leigh Bowery was a convention-shunning icon of 1980s London nightlife, taking on many different roles in the city’s scene, from artist, performer and model, to club promoter, fashion designer and musician. His artistry also took many shapes, from reimagining clothes and makeup to experimenting with painting and sculpture. A new Tate Modern exhibition will celebrate his life and work, displaying some of his looks and collaborations with the likes of Charles Atlas, Lucian Freud, Nicola Rainbird and more.

Director Bong Joon Ho’s post-Parasite return is a spectacular if uneven sci-fi romp offering two stellar Robert Pattinson performances for the price of one. It’s 2054 when the eponymous Mickey (Pattinson) wakes up stuck in a frozen crevice on far-off Planet Niflheim. He’s been ‘reprinted’ – or cloned – 16 times. We learn in flashback that Mickey escaped from Earth on a four-year journey to Niflheim after volunteering to become an expendable: an astronaut willing to die, memories intact and be reprinted forever more. Everything unspools into disarray after an extra Mickey is erroneously reprinted. Pattinson is terrific in his dual role. This is tremendous fun: a big, strange spectacle that’s unlike most blockbuster cinema out there.

In cinemas worldwide Mar 7.

Pioneering Black playwright Michael Abbensetts’ play Alterations originally ran for a few weeks in 1978. There was a BBC radio adaptation too, but that looked to be it for his drama about Walker, a Windrush immigrant grappling with his dream of opening his own tailor shop in London. And yet its first-ever revival is at the National Theatre. Walker (Arinzé Kene) is an ambitious tailor struggling to get his business off the ground. But a potential jackpot has come along: Mr Nat (Colin Mace), an older German Jewish immigrant has offered him a warehouse’s worth of trouser alterations. But before that there are emotional crises to be surmounted. Abbensetts provides a window into a specific time in his characters’ lives. They’re immigrants on the cusp of middle age, who are now grappling with the idea of putting permanent roots down in Britain. It's a play about a generation now looking for meaning in the journey they made in their youths.

For 23 editions, Kinoteka has been highlighting the creativity and magic of Polish cinema in London, taking over some of the most-respected cinema locations with offerings from the country. This year will be no different so get down to the likes of BFI Southbank, the ICA and more to discover some new cinematic treasures. The opening gala on March 6 will spotlight Damian Kocur’s ‘Under The Volcano’, which looks at the impact of war on a Ukrainian family’s lives as they holiday in Tenerife. Things will wrap up on April 26 with the closing gala, centred around Wojciech Has’ 1973 movie ‘The Hourglass Sanatorium’, while a retrospective of Has’ work will see his entire filmography screened across the festival.

Seemingly set somewhere between heaven, Ibiza and a novelty Instagram backdrop, Jamie Lloyd’s remarkable production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing eschews a conventional set in favour of a drift of candy-pink confetti that blankets the Drury Lane stage. The vibe is that of an endless, hedonistic holiday, its wild romantic currents mirroring the internal melodrama of a week away with a group of friends. Tom Hiddleston is clearly having the time of his life as man-child Benedick, while Hayley Atwell is bolshy and passionate as Beatrice. It’s very funny and looks incredible – an immaculate and hilarious synthesis of naffness and cool.

Noah Davis, the Los Angeles painter known for his figurative works depicting dreamlike visions of everyday Black life, was not one to be pigeonholed: each canvas here is technically unique, yet they still work as a set, each brushstroke deliberate, considered. In this retrospective, we are taken into his personal life – ‘Painting for My Dad’ was created when he lost his father  – we discover his deep, well-referenced knowledge of art history and learn about his hopes and dreams, where vast canvases show scenes of his crime-striken neighbourhood transformed into a utopia where Black ballerinas dance in the street. Davis was an artist that played with paint, commanded it. The result? Quietly, yet urgently political art. 

During the freezing cold, pitch black days of January, any sign of the warmer weather to come is a welcome one, so it’s always a happy occasion when Chelsea Physic Garden’s annual Heralding Spring season rolls around. London’s oldest botanical garden has its very own unique microclimate, which means that come late January the ancient spot is home to over 120 species of snowdrops that bloom unusually early each year there. As the gardens to reopen for visitors, guests are invited to embark on the Heralding Spring trail to check out the dainty white flowers and other early spring plants including a 70-year-old grapefruit tree and the fragrant wintersweet. There are also a variety of gardener tours, talks and botanical workshops throughout the season. 

Bridge boss Nicholas Hytner is back with the first new Bridge Theatre production in over two years: Richard II starring Jonathan Bailey. There’s a clear nod to Succession in Grant Olding’s stringy score. Bailey’s doomed king is a self-loathing fuck-up who at his best presents the air of a smug but inept middle manager and the strong suggestion that Bailey’s Richard knows he’s in over his head is an interesting one and he abuses substances to get through an insanely high pressure job that was forced on him at birth. It’s entertaining and a treat to see this play performed with a top-notch cast. 

In his far too short career, Donald Rodney (1961-1998) created an incredibly varied body of work, using a huge breadth of mediums to confront the prejudices that course through British society. The works here tackle themes of racial identity, chronic illness and colonial history, and are a fascinating window into the issues that mattered in 1990s Britain, and still resonate today.

In Coral Wylie’s nature-driven debut Pip – also played by Wylie – is a non-binary 19-year-old trying to make sense of themselves and their world. To do this, they keep a diary. Pip’s parents prefer to keep their worries as ungerminated seeds. Twenty years ago, Pip’s father lost his best friend Duncan to AIDS and has tried his best to bury Duncan’s existence. Pip discovers one of Duncan’s old jackets with an old diary stuffed inside the pocket. Almost immediately they feel an affinity with their parents’ old friend. The past starts to overflow like running water. It’s beautiful and touching – a play that shows the wonder of friendship. 

★★★★ 'Frameless has managed to create something genuinely exciting' - Time Out

Escape reality through maximum immersion and experience 42 masterpieces from 29 of the world’s most iconic artists, each reimagined beyond belief, through cutting-edge technology. Situated in Marble Arch, Frameless plays host to four unique galleries with hypnotic visuals and a dazzling score. Enjoy 90 minutes of surreal artwork from Bosch, Dalí and more for just £24!

Get £24.80 tickets (originally £31) to Frameless, only with Time Out Offers.

By rights, Peter Hujar should be far more famous than he is. A contemporary of Robert Mapplethorpe and Nan Goldin, and a close friend of Paul Thek and David Wojnarowicz, he rubbed shoulders with countless artists and literary luminaries, photographing everyone from Andy Warhol, Susan Sontag and Wiliam S. Burroughs to Greer Langton, John Waters and Cookie Mueller. Many of these photographs are on display in this landmark exhibition, amongst a huge variety of tender, poised, enigmatic, compassionate photographs that cement Hujar’s reputation as a major force in 20th-century photography.

Ditch the usual pub pint and get hands-on with clay at Token Studio near Tower Bridge! For just £32, enjoy a 90-minute session crafting pottery, from spinning the wheel to painting your own design. Prefer painting? Choose from already-fired mugs, plates, or bowls to customise for £23. The best part? You can BYOB! And if you love your masterpiece, come back in two weeks to pick it up for just £10.

Get the ultimate pottery experience from £23 at Token Studio, only with Time Out Offers.

Oskar Reinhart knew a masterpiece when he saw one. The twentieth century art collector amassed a stunning trove of artworks, and now some of his finest picks are coming to the Courtauld. On display will be an amazingly grim Géricault painting, an incredibly saucy Courbet image of a lady in hammock, a staggering Goya still life and two stunning hospital-era Van Goghs. And then there are some Manets, Cezannes, Picassos and Renoirs to boot. Wowzers.

Adaptor/translator Rory Mullarkey has created a novel take on Chekhov, recasting the titular trio of sisters as less fading, doomed aristocrats waiting to get crushed by the Russian Revolution, and more trapped in an absurdist pantomime. Caroline Steinbeis’s production makes the sisters feel like part of an automata, doomed to repeat their days over and over and over. What we see is the machine break down, as fraying interpersonal relationships cause their comfortably numb limbo of an existence to stop working.

The Young V&A’s exhibition Making Egypt will look at creativity in Ancient Egypt and its enduring influence on contemporary society, gathering together over 200 items from the V&A archives, with the oldest around 5,500 years old and many not displayed before. It will range from the fully painted inner sarcophagus of Princess Sopdet-em-haawt to examining the influence of Egyptian design on Minecraft and Moon Knight. New films will explore Ancient Egyptian art techniques, and there will be kids’ activities including drawing with scale, deciphering hieroglyphics and designing your own amulet.

No matter what your thoughts on Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s beloved BBC horror anthology series Inside No 9, Stage/Fright is a delight, with the duo at the peak of their powers. It dips into the TV show – the first half heavily revolves around the episode Bernie Clifford’s Dressing Room – but it is a rare spinoff that feels totally a thing of the theatre. That’s partly a result of the pair’s long-standing fascination with Grand Guignol, music hall, stand-up and other forms of stage entertainment. It’s a tribute to theatre and stage life in a broader sense. It’s a parting gift, a celebration of Inside No. 9 and its influences, the real wrap party.

You’ve probably heard all about Versailles’ dazzling Hall of Mirrors and its gorgeous, well-manicured gardens – maybe you’ve even seen them IRL. But do you know about the role the French royal court played in not just spreading scientific knowledge, but making it fashionable, too? The Science Museum’s latest exhibition, ‘Versailles: Science And Splendour’, will uncover that lesser-talked-about side of the palace’s history, diving into the royal family’s relationship with science, women’s impact on medicine, philosophy and botany at the royal court, and showcasing more than 100 items that reinforce those stories – many of which have never been displayed in the UK before. 

Get tickets to Versailles: Science & Splendour, for just £5.40, down from £10.80, only through Time Out Offers.

Designed by the legendary Tom Dixon, Sea Containers Restaurant offers an all-day dining experience along the Thames, blending the elegance of transatlantic travel with fresh, local ingredients. The three-course menu celebrates seasonal flavours, with dishes like Butternut Squash Soup, Atlantic Prawn Cocktail, Flat Iron Steak, and Seabass with celeriac. Finish with indulgent ice cream, sorbet, or a rich chocolate brownie, paired with a glass of prosecco. Perfect for any occasion!

Get a three course menu & a glass of Prosecco for an exclusive price of £30, only with Time Out Offers.