The Octoroon’, is about a girl who, being one-eighth black, cannot marry the noble white plantation owner she falls in love with.

 

African – American Branden Jacobs-Jenkins take on a popular 19th-century melodrama by Dion Boucicault. “a dazzling deconstruction of racial representation” Matt Trueman, WhatsOnStage

“The play uses the plot of the Irish playwright Dion Boucicault’s 1859 melodrama The Octoroon…as the starting point for a bigger, wilder, more hilarious play about the tremendous, often tragic difficulties of identity, and life, for us all.” The New Yorker

Show Times 19.30 14.30
Duration 2 hours 30 minutes, including an interval
Age Contains strong language that some may find offensive language, strobe effects, water-

based haze and smoking

1 Clarence Street
Richmond
TW9 2SA
020 8940 3633

“a conflict not just of ideas but between people”

Prez is a brilliant biochemist. His experiments show a leading herbicide is carcinogenic. He has an existential fight against entrenched interests on his hands – not helped by the fact that he wears dreadlocks, dresses like David Bowie, and carries a chip on his shoulder as big as the sink estate he grew up on. In his heart he knows he’s right, but can he prove it?

Show Times 19.45 | 15.15
Duration 104 + interval 20 mins
Age 12+

Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP
020 7870 6876

Hear Zadie Smith read from her new novel, Swing Time, and talk about her fiction, essays and how dance inspires her writing.

From the multi award-winning novel White Teeth, to the Orange Prize for Fiction winner On Beauty and the Baileys Prize for Fiction shortlisted NW, Zadie Smith has chronicled contemporary London and the diverse characters who make up the life of the city.

Swing Time deepens this homeward journey but also expands it across the globe, following the friendship of two brown girls who both dream of being dancers. Their lives take different courses: one becoming a member of the chorus line, the other PA to a famous singer whose grand philanthropic aspirations see the story move from London to West Africa. With her characteristic insight and wit, Zadie Smith captures the inequalities of the present and the lifelong dance of friendship.

Show Times 19.30
Duration
Age

Purchased from Russia. Developed in India. Delivered to the UK.
A global transaction over nine months that offers ‘a lifetime of happiness’ for all involved.

Vivienne Franzmann’s new play explores the human cost of surrogacy, and what we’ll overlook to get what we want.

Show Times 19.45 | 15.00
Duration TBC
Age 14+

Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS
Box office: 020 7565 5000

Pan African artist-activist Toyin Agbetu will present a beginner’s master class on how to make an independent film and set up an online radio/video channel for community empowerment work on a shoestring budget.

The session will start with a presentation offering examples illustrating how and why film, music and speech radio can attract supporters to a cause. It will then share practical advice, tips and demonstrations on how to utilise online platforms like YouTube and TuneIn to locate supporters for activist campaigns.

Admission |18:30 – 21:30
Duration
Age

Harrow Mencap
1st Floor, Harrovian Business Village
Beesborough Road
Harrow, England HA1 3EX

A journey from the First World War to the present day, exploring how peace movements have influenced perceptions of war and conflict

From conscientious objectors to peace camps and modern day marches, Fighting for Peace tells the stories of passionate people over the past one hundred years and the struggles they have endured for the anti-war cause.

Over three hundred objects including paintings, literature, posters, placards, banners, badges and music reveal the breadth of creativity of anti-war protest movements, reflecting the cultural mood of each era.

Admission 10.00 – 18.00
Duration
Age

IWM London
Lambeth Road
London SE1 6HZ

This thought-provoking exhibition brings together several series of work by artist-photographer Edmund Clark to explore the hidden experiences of state control during the ‘Global War on Terror’.

The exhibition brings together work including images and documents of CIA operated secret prisons or ‘black sites’, photographs from the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, correspondence from around the world sent to a British detainee in Guantanamo that was transformed by the censorship and intervention of the US military, and the experience of a ‘controlled person’ who was placed in a house in suburban England under the restrictive conditions of a control order – a form of house arrest or detention without trial – introduced in 2005.

Admission 10.00 – 18.00
Duration
Age

IWM London
Lambeth Road
London SE1 6HZ

Trinity explores the aesthetics of gender and female iconography in our society’s visual culture.

A collaboration with acclaimed international artists, Trinity explores the aesthetics of gender and female iconography in our society’s visual culture, from pagan and religious artefacts to bedroom selfies, to create a highly visceral visual landscape with an immersive sound experience.

Trinity is performed in Asylum Chapel in Peckham (or SE15), a grade 2 listed building built in 1826 by the Licensed Victualers Benevolent Institution for use by the residents of Caroline Gardens.

Admission | Show Times
Duration
Age 12+

The Asylum
Caroline Garden’s Chapel,
London SE15 2SQ.
020 3302 5955

In the detention room of a Vichy police station in 1942, nine men and a boy have been picked up for questioning but none are told why they are held, or when they can leave. At first, their hopeful guess is that only their identity papers will be checked – but as each man is removed for interrogation, some are set free, some are never seen again, and the stakes rise for those who remain…

Arthur Miller’s largely forgotten masterpiece puts a magnifying glass on Jewish registration in Nazi occupied France. A haunting examination of the cold, bureaucratic efficiency of evil – and the shared humanity that might overcome it.

Show Times 19.00
Duration
Age

115 Upper St, N1 1QN
0207 226 8561
info@kingsheadtheatre.com

Series of plays by the new exciting black writers.

A festival that brings together a community of artists and gives them a space to meet, spark off ideas, build networks and become the next generation to shape British Theatre.

Show Times 19.30
Duration
Age

Talawa Theatre Company,
53-55 East Road, London N1 6AH
Registered Charity no 327362

A vital piece in the Australian theatrical cannon, Chenoa Deemal stars in this funny, devastating everywoman show.

Structurally the play is based around seven different aspects of grief, telling seven different tales. This new adaptation is a coproduction
between Queensland Theatre and Grin and Tonic Theatre Group. The refreshed version reflects the changing
attitudes of Australian people and showcases the immense talents of emerging Indigenous performer Chenoa Deemal.

Show Times 21.00 20.00
Duration
Age 14+

35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA
020 7613 7498

Guy Manton is a national treasure, until a throwaway remark is inadvertently shared with the whole world and, before Guy knows what is happening, he is being battered by the Twitstorm.

A hilarious exploration of what can happen when the self-righteousness of social media gets out of hand. From Chris England author of the hit comedy Breakfast with Jonny Wilkinson and co-author of the acclaimed An Evening with Gary Lineker.

Show Times 19.30
Duration 2 hours 15 mins approx.
Age 16+

Latecomers may not be admitted
*10% telephone booking fee, capped at £2.50 per ticket.

Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP
020 7870 6876

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is a play with music by Lanie Robertson, recounting some events in the life of Billie Holiday.

It is 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia. Billie Holiday puts on a show that unbeknownst to the audience, will leave them witnesses to one of the last performances of her lifetime.  Through her poignant voice and moving songs, one of the greatest jazz singers of all-time shares her loves and her losses.

Show Times 19.45 | 14.45
Duration
Age

32-36 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DA
0844 482 5120

Two men, unlikely friends, stagger through days of crippling prison work, breaking free in nights of playful escapism and ecstatic, dreamlike joy. With just scraps from their cell, they prepare for a performance of Antigone in front of the prisoners and guards – an act of defiance from people who have lost everything they have to lose.

With gut-wrenching emotion, soaring beauty and exquisite simplicity, this great drama of defiance and determination draws on the stories that linger from Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner.

PerformancesTime 20.00 | 15.30
Running Time 75 mins, no interval
Price £20 | £16 concessions | £12 preview performances

77-85 Newington Causeway
London SE1 6BD
020 7407 0234

The genre-defining exhibition of art, design, film and literature.

Uncover the mysterious lands of Jules Verne and Ray Harryhausen where Science Fiction narratives first took root. Venture on an odyssey into our solar system, with vintage artwork promoting Soviet visions of space alongside immersive work by Soda_Jerk. Visit a gallery of aliens, and stand alongside iconic spacesuits from a galaxy of blockbusters including Star Trek and Interstellar.

Imagine dystopian worlds with Margaret Atwood and 28 Days Later. Then, with nowhere left to explore but human consciousness, delve deep and experience the transformation and mutation of the body through the eyes of Jack Kirby and Ex Machina.

Curated by historian and writer Patrick Gyger, this festival-style exhibition consists of more than 800 works, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. Continuing across the Centre, it includes artwork from Isaac Julien, Larissa Sansour and Conrad Shawcross, and an installation from the creators of Black Mirror.

Admission 10.00
Duration
Age

Concessions: £12.00
Students/14-17: £12.00
Art Fund Members: £12.00
Under 14s: £5.00
Under 5s: Free

Barbican Centre
Silk St
London
EC2Y 8DS
020 7638 4141

Musical. A highly original and universal portrait of the American workday is told from the perspective of those that the world schoolteacher, the housewife, the fireman and the waitress amongst many – whose daily grind and aspirations reflect a nation.

This highly original and universal portrait of the American workday is told from the perspective of those that the world so often overlooks – the schoolteacher, the housewife, the fireman and the waitress amongst many – whose daily grind and aspirations reflect the truths of the people that make up a nation.

Show Times 19.30 15.00
Duration TBC
Age

£25 | £20 concessions | £14 previews

77-85 Newington Causeway
London SE1 6BD

When a peaceful politician is slain on the streets of Vida’s hometown, she’s deeply affected.

The atrocity triggers a journey of descent in which Vida risks self-destruction in a bid to confront the rise in bigotry and fascism. Just as she feels most alone, she discovers there are others who feel the same as her – and now the deadly potential of their combined potency is about to be unleashed.

Show Times 19.30
Duration 80 mins
Age

52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW
020 7582 7680

Two couples – 4 friends share a flat to save money for a deposit on a home.

Rachel and Ben want to buy a flat in London. And so do their friends, Melanie and Sam. But what with rent, tax, student loans and bills, it’s impossible to save for a deposit.

So the foursome comes up with a fast-track solution to the problem: live together. Sneakily split the rent and bills on a tiny one bedroom flat for a year. But with paper thin walls and space growing sparser by the day, which will they sacrifice first – the friendship, the relationship or the dream of buying their own property?

Admission | Show Times
Duration 1 hour and 35 minutes with no interval
Age

73 Eton Ave, London NW3 3EU
020 7722 9301

‘Guston found in Nixon the perfect embodiment of world-historical perfidy, and in satire a way out of his hopelessness regarding the corrupt state of art and politics.

Hauser & Wirth London presents ‘Philip Guston. Laughter in the Dark, Drawings from 1971 & 1975’, an exhibition devoted to the late artist’s satirical drawings of the 37th President of the United States: Richard Nixon. Co-curated by Sally Radic, of The Guston Foundation and Musa Mayer, the artist’s daughter, the show features over 180 works depicting Nixon and his cronies, including Guston’s infamous Poor Richard series and over 100 additional drawings.

Admission Tue-Sat 10.00 – 18.00
Age

Hauser & Wirth
23 Savile Row
London
W1S 2ET
020 7287 2300

Guilty. Not Guilty. You Decide.
Enter the courtroom. Hear the evidence. Make your judgement.

A hijacked plane is heading towards a packed football stadium. Ignoring orders to the contrary a fighter pilot shoots the plane down killing 164 people to save 70,000.

Put on trial and charged with murder, the fate of the pilot is in the audience’s hands.

The Lyric presents the UK Premiere of Ferdinand von Schirach’s thrilling courtroom drama. A worldwide phenomenon that has been stirring debate across the globe. The production is directed by the Lyric’s Artistic Director, Sean Holmes and designed by Olivier Award-winner Anna Fleischle.

Show Times 19:30 13:30 14:30
Running time TBC
Age 14+

Lyric Hammersmith,
Lyric Square,
King St, W6 0QL
020 8741 6850
tickets@lyric.co.uk
enquiries@lyric.co.uk

Tickets £15 – £35

A controversial new gaming experience is inspiring a generation.

In Killology, players are rewarded for torturing victims, scoring points for “creativity”.
But Killology isn’t sick. In fact it’s marketed by its millionaire creator as a deeply moral experience. Because yes, you can live out your darkest fantasies, but you don’t escape their consequences.
Out on the streets, not everybody agrees with him.
“There is an instinctive revulsion against taking a human life. And that revulsion can be conquered.”

Show Times 19.45 15.00
Duration 2hours 10
Age 14+

Royal Court Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS
020 7565 5000

I have stayed. I have stayed. I have stayed for as long as I possibly can.

”Three generations of women.
Playwright and feminist Alice Birch (Revolt. She said. Revolt Again, We Want You To Watch) returns to London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2017 with a brand new work, Anatomy of a Suicide.

Show Times 19.30 14.30
Duration tbc
Age 14+

Royal Court Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS
020 7565 5000

Theatre. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. One day. Six cities. A thousand stories.

This dynamic new play leaps from a barber shop in London to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling.

Admission | Show Times
Captioned performances: Thursday 22 June, 14:00 Thursday 6 July, 20:00
Audio-described performances: Friday 7 July, 20:00 Saturday 8 July 14:00 (Touch Tour 12:45)
Duration
Age

Tickets

Exhibition. Photographs by award-winning Russian documentary photographer Sergey Ponomarev, featuring more than 60 unforgettable colour photographs from two recent bodies of work.

The exhibit covers

‘Assad’s Syria’ offers a rare insight into what life was really like for people living in Government-controlled areas of Syria in 2013-2014.

‘The Exodus’ captures the determination, endurance and suffering of people from Syria and elsewhere who sought asylum and a better life in Europe in 2015-2016.

Admission 10:00 last admission 17:00

Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Rd
London
SE1 6HZ
020 7416 5000

Exhibition. Turner Prize winner Chris Ofili unveils a new tapestry, handwoven by Dovecot Tapestry Studio

Ofili has been collaborating with the internationally renowned Dovecot Tapestry Studio to see his design translated into a handwoven tapestry. The imagery reflects Ofili’s ongoing interest in classical mythology and the stories, magic, and colour of the Trinidadian landscape he inhabits.

Admission 10:00 – 18:00 Fri 10:00 – 21:00

08 May, Curator’s introduction to Chris Ofili – 13–13:45pm
20 May, Weaving the Magic workshop 14:00 attendees have the opportunity to discover the creative process of weaving a tapestry,

Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN
020 7747 2885

Workshops. Get in touch with your creativity in poet Rachel Long’s exclusive space for women of colour. Rachel has curated a new series centred on reading, writing and poetry.

The workshops in Rachel’s new series are:

 

Tuesday 27 June
Take inspiration from music as we compose our own group soundtrack, dedicated to the displaced.

Tuesday 25 July
Explore contemporary African and African-diaspora poetry as we study poems by Warsan Shire, Kayo Chingonyi, Victoria-Anne Bulley and Safia Elhillo.

Tuesday 29 August
What is an image of summer without the sun? This session is dedicated in part to poems from Melissa Lee-Houghton’s collection Sunshine (Penned in the
Margins, 2016).

Tuesday 26 September
How can we communicate the incommunicable through poetry?

Age 18+
For black and minority ethnic women only.
Admission 18:30 – 20:30

Tickets £10 per session or £50 when booking for all 6 sessions
booking fee: £1.75 (Members £0.00)

Royal Festival Hall
Level 3 Function Room
Belvedere Road SE1 8XX
Tel: +44 (0)20 7960 4200

Art. The first exhibition dedicated to queer British art

Deeply personal and intimate works are presented alongside pieces aimed at a wider public, which helped to forge a sense of community when modern terminology of ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, ‘bisexual’ and ‘trans’ were unrecognised. Together, they reveal a remarkable range of identities and stories, from the playful to the political and from the erotic to the domestic.

Featuring works from 1861–1967 relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) identities, the show marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England. Queer British Art explores how artists expressed themselves in a time when established assumptions about gender and sexuality were being questioned and transformed.

Admission 10:00 – 18:00

Millbank
London
SW1P 4RG

Stage Play. A married father who leads his family into ruin as he falls head over heels in love with a goat

Martin is at the pinnacle of life: he has a loving wife and son, a hugely successful career as an architect, and the commission of a lifetime, but when he embarks upon an improbable and impossible love affair from which there is no return, he must face the dizzying, explosive consequences.

Show Times 19:30 15:00

18 Suffolk St, London SW1Y 4HT
+44 20 7930 8890
info@trh.co.uk

Exhibition. Explore the experience of those who travelled from the Caribbean and West Africa to live in London

This display brings together works from the 1960s and 1970s by eight photographers who documented Black communities in London: Raphael Albert, Bandele ‘Tex’ Ajetunmobi, James Barnor, Colin Jones, Neil Kenlock, Dennis Morris, Syd Shelton and Al Vandenberg.

The photographs reveal the many and varied experiences of individuals who travelled from the Caribbean region and West Africa to live in London, from everyday family life to political engagement. They show people as they respond to, react against and move beyond the racial tension and exclusion that were part of life for Black communities in the British capital. The title of the display, ‘Stan Firm inna Inglan’, is taken from the poem It Dread inna Inglan by Linton Kwesi Johnson, who in the 1970s gave a voice and poetic form to the Afro-Caribbean diaspora and its resistance in the face of racism. The poem expresses in Jamaican patois (creole) the resolve of African, Asian and Caribbean immigrants to ‘stand firm in England’, asserting the determination of Black British communities to remain in Britain and declare it as their rightful home.

Open 10:00 – 18:00 daily

Millbank
London
SW1P 4RG
020 7887 8888

Tickets

Experience. Let your adrenaline levels go through the roof during a 50-minute white-knuckle ride on the Thames River.

Feel your excitement heighten as the boat’s engine roars into life and propels you toward iconic London landmarks like Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and St Paul’s Cathedral. Gaze at the sharp spire of the Shard as you reach speeds of up to 35 miles (56 km) per hour. Listen to fascinating commentary during slower periods of sailing and glide under the monumental Tower Bridge as your skipper yanks back the throttle and accelerates to high-velocity speeds. Gasp as your skipper performs break-neck turns and wave jumps, and then catch your breath during a brief interlude at Canary Wharf. Enjoy a leisurely cruise back to the boat’s original departure point

Departure hourly 10:00 – 12:00 then 15:00 and 17:00
Running time 50 mins

Tickets from $53

Exhibition. The story of electricity is the story of life itself. Within every object on earth is hidden either a positive or negative electric charge.

Three celebrated artists have been commissioned to create three new artworks for this exhibition: John Gerrard has taken inspiration for his commission from Luigi Galvani’s famous experiments into bioelectricity; Bill Morrison explores historical footage from the Electricity Council archive to consider the movement and networks of electricity and its profound interconnectedness with our daily lives; and Camille Henrot considers our energy-dependent lifestyles, as well as the relationship between humans, technology and the environment.

Tue – Sat 10:00 – 18:00 | Thur 10:00 – 22:00 | Sun 11:00 – 18:00 | Mon Closed

Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE
020 7611 2222
info@wellcomecollection.org

The annual free exhibition of stunning space photography

Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year is the biggest international competition of its kind, annually showcasing spectacular images shot by astrophotographers worldwide.

For a taste of past exhibits and a preview of this year’s contestants click on the link

Opening hours: Daily 10am-5pm (last admission 4.30pm)
ENTRY FREE

Blackheath Avenue
London
SE10 8XJ

Exhibition. Robots reveal’s the astonishing 500-year quest to make machines human.

Exhibits from the dawn of mechanised human forms to cutting-edge technology fresh from the lab. Focusing on why they exist rather than on how they work, this blockbuster exhibition explores the ways robots mirror humanity and the insights they offer into our ambitions, desires, and position in a rapidly changing world.

An incredible journey spanning five centuries, illustrated with robotic artifacts from around the globe. From a 16th century mechanised monk to some of film’s most iconic robotic creations and the very latest humanoids, Robots will make you look at yourself and society in a whole new way.

Entry 10:00 – 18:00
Tickets adults £15 | kids £13 Under 7’s free
Museum Lates: Adults Only from £ £7:50 | £6:50 concs | £7:00 seniors. Last Wednesday of each month until August

Science Museum
Exhibition Road
South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD

Exhibition. 100 exceptional images, revealing the astonishing diversity of life on our planet.

From intimate portraits to dramatic landscapes, see how photographers’ passion for the natural world produces startling images.

Admission 10:00 -17:50
Tickets Adults from £10.50 | Child & concs from £6.50 | Family from £27.00

The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
SW7 5BD