This is the week London opens its doors. On Saturday, three things happen at once: Ava Pickett's five-star Tudor play 1536 arrives in the West End, the National Gallery opens the first UK exhibition devoted to Zurbarán, and Sherlock Holmes steps out under the trees at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Tomorrow, the Design Museum launches the first major NIGO retrospective — seven hundred objects charting the man who turned streetwear into a global language. Across the river, Chiharu Shiota's extraordinary thread installations close at the Hayward after three months. The London Philharmonic plays Howard Shore's score to The Two Towers live at the Royal Albert Hall. At the Old Vic, Aaron Pierre's McMurphy burns through the ward. And on Monday, the bank holiday stretches everything out — a migration festival in Barnes, narrowboats lit up at Little Venice, and London Zoo turning two hundred with the kind of party only a bicentenary earns.
Ambassadors Theatre · Opens Sat 2 May · Until 1 Aug · From £25
Three young women in rural Essex. The year Anne Boleyn falls. Ava Pickett’s debut play arrived at the Almeida with five-star reviews and left with multiple Olivier nominations — a razor-sharp, darkly comic drama about female friendship in a world that doesn’t care whether they survive it. Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds reprise their roles for this West End transfer, directed by Lyndsey Turner and produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap alongside Sonia Friedman. The Guardian called it “blisteringly relevant.” The Independent gave it five stars. This is the theatre ticket of the spring. Saturday’s opening night will sell through — book midweek if you can.
National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing · Opens Sat 2 May · Until 23 Aug · £24 (under-18s free)
The first UK exhibition devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán, the great painter of seventeenth-century Seville. Nearly fifty paintings — saints in impossible fabrics, soaring altarpieces, still lifes so quiet you can hear the room — gathered from the Louvre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Prado and collections across Europe and America. Zurbarán painted light falling on cloth better than anyone before or since. His figures stand alone in dark space, radiating a stillness that makes you forget you’re in Trafalgar Square. This is a once-in-a-generation loan show. The National Gallery has wanted to do this for decades. Go in the first week, before the crowds find it.
Design Museum · Opens tomorrow, Thu 1 May · Until 4 Oct · £18 (students £12)
The first major retrospective of the man who created A Bathing Ape, reinvented Kenzo, and turned streetwear from a subculture into a global industry. Over seven hundred objects drawn from NIGO’s ten-thousand-piece private archive, split across four sections: The Future is in the Past, Evolution, The NIGO Effect and New Traditions. There’s a recreation of his 1980s teenage bedroom, rare early BAPE designs, Nike and Louis Vuitton collaborations, hand-potted ceramics, and a life-size glass tea house. Whether you care about streetwear or not, this is a story about obsession, taste, and what happens when one person’s eye reshapes an entire culture. Opens tomorrow. Through October.
Old Vic · Now playing · Until 23 May · From £20
Aaron Pierre’s West End debut. The first major London revival in over twenty years of Ken Kesey’s countercultural classic, staged in the round by Clint Dyer. Pierre — who broke through in Rebel Ridge and Mufasa — plays McMurphy with an electricity that critics have called unmissable. Giles Terera is Chief Bromden. Olivia Williams is Nurse Ratched. Dyer’s production interrogates rebellion, institutional power and colonialism without ever losing the story’s beating human heart. The run ends May 23rd. £20 day seats release at 10am. Don’t sleep on this.
Royal Albert Hall · Thu 1 & Fri 2 May, 7pm · £25–£110
The London Philharmonic Orchestra — the very ensemble that recorded the original soundtrack — performs Howard Shore’s Academy Award-winning score live to the full film on the Royal Albert Hall’s big screen. The London Philharmonic Choir and Trinity Boys Choir join for the Rohan and Helm’s Deep sequences. This is part of a full trilogy weekender: The Fellowship of the Ring played tonight, The Two Towers runs tomorrow and Friday, and Return of the King follows on May 10th. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the Isengard theme hit you in the chest from a full orchestra in a Victorian rotunda, this is your week.
Also This Week
Lightroom, King’s Cross · Fri 1 May · Late opening
The You’re Not Alone experience stays open late every Friday in May, each week themed to a different Bowie decade. The season opens with the 1970s — Ziggy, Thin White Duke, Berlin. Dress up. Themed cocktails. Spatial audio. The eleven-metre walls do the rest.
Hackney Wick, 20+ venues · Sat 2 & Sun 3 May
Over a hundred DJs and collectives across twenty venues in Hackney Wick — house, techno, garage, disco, day into night. Percolate, Daytimers, and afterparties at Colour Factory and Village Underground. The bank holiday weekend starts here.
Brixton Jamm, Phonox, Electric Brixton & more · Sat 2 & Sun 3 May
The eighth year of Brixton’s annual disco weekender. Norman Jay MBE, Derrick Carter, Natasha Diggs, Melvo Baptiste. House, soul and vinyl across SW9’s best venues. Eat at Brixton Village between sets.
WWT London Wetland Centre, Barnes · Sat 2 – Mon 4 May · Included with admission
The first ever. A festival celebrating the connection between West Africa and west London through the shared story of migration — both birds flying thousands of miles each spring and human cultural traditions. Djembe drumming, West African dance, a jollof rice workshop, storytelling, guided bird walks and family crafts. Beautiful idea, beautiful setting.
ZSL London Zoo, Regent’s Park · Sat 2 – Mon 4 May
The world’s oldest scientific zoo turns two hundred. Three days of games, workshops, cake and conservation — Hook a Flamingo, Animal Tail Tag, a BBQ and ice cream stations. Founded in 1826, ZSL has spent two centuries studying and protecting wildlife. Take the kids. Stay for the cake.
UK cinemas · From Thu 1 May
Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci return eighteen years after the original. Early reviews from New York are warm. Miranda Priestly in a world where print is dying and digital has won. This is the film London will be talking about over the long weekend.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre · Opens Sat 2 May · Until 6 Jun
The first show of the outdoor season. A brand-new Sherlock Holmes mystery by Joel Horwood, directed by Sean Holmes, with Joshua James as the detective. A stolen jewel, a mysterious woman at 221B, a chase down the Thames. This is a world premiere — no one knows how the story ends. The Open Air Theatre is one of the best places to spend an evening in London, and the season always opens with a sense of occasion. Wrap up. Bring a blanket. Arrive early for a drink in the park.
Opens Saturday
The Bedford, Balham · All May · 45 acts across 11 shows
After forty-three years, London’s longest-running comedy club takes its final bow. Paul Merton, Lee Evans, Michael McIntyre, Jo Brand, Catherine Tate and Eddie Izzard all started here. The farewell month features Ed Byrne, Milton Jones, Al Murray and Zoe Lyons across eleven shows. The last gig is May 30th. If you’ve ever laughed in that room — or if you haven’t yet — this is the time.
Final month
Hayward Gallery · Closes Sat 3 May · £18.50
Three days left. Chiharu Shiota’s first major London solo show fills the Hayward with monumental installations woven from thousands of yards of thread — red threads cascading through doorways evoking the Taoist “red thread of fate,” austere metal beds engulfed in black thread, hundreds of letters of thanks suspended in mid-air. The installations are disorienting, beautiful and impossible to photograph properly. You have to stand inside them. Also closing: Yin Xiuzhen’s Heart to Heart in the adjoining galleries. This Saturday is the last day for both.
3 days left
National Portrait Gallery · Closes Mon 4 May · £22
170 rarely-seen drawings alongside the paintings they became. The intimacy of Freud’s preparatory studies — the way a pencil line predicts the weight of flesh in oil — changes how you see the finished portraits. This is the bank holiday Monday to use. Tours to Louisiana in Denmark this summer. Four days left in London.
4 days left
Somerset House · Closes Mon 4 May · £14
Over 300 photographs selected from 430,000 submissions across 200 countries. Includes a Joel Meyerowitz retrospective. The final weekend also has talks, workshops and portfolio reviews. Bank holiday Monday is the last day.
4 days left
Also closing: V&A Performance Festival (Sat 3 May). Multitudes at the Southbank Centre (Thu 1 May). Loie Hollowell at Pace Gallery (Sat 23 May). Richard Artschwager at Gagosian (Sat 23 May).
Oudh 1772
66 Union Street, Southwark · Opens tomorrow
Aktar Islam — two Michelin stars at Opheem in Birmingham — opens his first London restaurant. Awadhi cuisine: the refined, slow-cooked tradition of Lucknow. Dum pukht lamb shoulder baked in a lamb-fat crust, delicate kebabs, curries built over hours. This is the most serious Indian opening London has seen in years.
Opens tomorrow
Ornella
51 Wilton Way, Hackney · Opens tomorrow
Milanese Italian on Wilton Way. Risotto alla Milanese, vitello tonnato, tagliatelle al burro e Parmigiano — the kind of food Milan does better than anywhere, now on one of Hackney’s best streets. Walk-ins welcome.
Opens tomorrow
| May 7 |
Mother Courage and Her Children. Michelle Terry leads a new adaptation by Anna Jordan of Brecht’s anti-war masterpiece at Shakespeare’s Globe. Set in a dystopian future. Opens 7 May, runs to 27 June. |
| May 8 |
Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape. Starring, directing and designing. Beckett’s one-man play about an old man listening to recordings of his younger self. Royal Court, 8–30 May. All seats sold out — but Monday tickets release day-of and standing tickets go on sale 90 minutes before curtain. |
| May 8 |
Equus. Toby Stephens as Dr Dysart in Peter Shaffer’s psychological thriller at the Menier Chocolate Factory. 8 May – 4 July. Intimate space, big play. Book early. |
Curated from Time Out, Londonist, The Nudge, Hot Dinners, Resident Advisor, Southbank Centre, National Gallery, Design Museum, Old Vic, Royal Albert Hall, Hayward Gallery, WWT London, ZSL & friends.
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Updated 30 April 2026