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FREE EVERY MONDAY MARCH 18>24 2013

ART & CULTURE COMEDY FILM FOOD & DRINK MUSIC SHOPPING SMALL SCREEN THEATRE

GEEK LONDON A NERD's guide to THE CITY

james mcavoy | David Bowie at the V&A | dexter

Wonder Wonder Wonder

Art Art and Art Art and Science and and Science Science Science on the onon on the Brain the the Brain Brain Brain Mar–Apr Mar–Apr Mar–Apr Mar–Apr A season A season AAtoseason season light to light up to tothe light light upmind the up upmind the the withmind mind film, withwith with film,film, film, theatre, theatre, music, theatre, theatre, music, talks music, music, talks andtalks talks participation andand and participation participation participation barbican.org.uk/wonder barbican.org.uk/wonder barbican.org.uk/wonder barbican.org.uk/wonder #wonderseason #wonderseason #wonderseason #wonderseason

COVER illustration: sam proud / THE BIG PICTURE: Photo collage of manipulated film stills from The Man Who Fell to Earth, about 1975–6. Design by David Bowie, film stills by David James. Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive 2012. Film stills ©STUDIOCANAL Films Ltd. Image ©V&A Images

Cover Story

8 Geek London Being geeky isn’t the invite to ridicule that it used to be.

Nowadays, it’s hip to be square, and modern London is quickly turning into a nerds’ playground.

We show you the best ways to get your geek on.

Regulars

4 Scouted Date Night, Places That Change Your Life, Book Now, Last Chance London 6 Talent Scout Rock band The Red, The White and The Blue tell us about their favourite parts of the capital

Sections 17 20 27 28 32 34 38 40 48

The Big Picture

London Food & Drink Shopping Art & Culture Comedy Film Small Screen Music Theatre

Photo collage of manipulated film stills from The Man Who Fell to Earth, from David Bowie Is at the V&A – page 28

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Giving art the W

ith the e-reader rapidly sending the book cover into the same design dustbin as the album sleeve, it’s perhaps no surprise that some devotees are clinging on for dear life to literature’s most endangered species.

Few, however, are likely to go as far as artist Geoffrey Farmer, who swooped on the closing-down sale of a second-hand bookshop in Vancouver and scooped up a few hundred books. He then set about collaging the cover images and attaching them to pieces of fabric to create hand puppets – 365 of them, one for each day of the year.

Now his ‘puppet calendar’ is going on display at the Barbican as

# love

Date Night

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The Surgeon and the Photographer, The Curve, Barbican Centre, March 26–July 28, FREE, barbican.org.uk

The one where you eat weird stuff...

VENUE Wahaca, Southbank PRICE ££ PERFECT FOR An adventurous partner in crime If life were a Disney movie, dinner date venues would be easy: a midpriced Italian, with checked table cloths and pieces of spaghetti that delightfully tangle and end in a lipsmacking smooch. Unfortunately, real life isn’t nearly that reliable... or fun. Which is why you should try spicing things up with Wahaca’s new insect-based menu. Yes, you heard that right: insects. The South Bank branch of the Mexican chain has added grasshoppers to the

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his first major UK exhibition, The Surgeon and the Photographer.

The puppets look like something Terry Gilliam might have made had he been let loose in the Spitting Image studio. Some are divided into categories, others just arranged at random – much like in a secondhand bookshop.

The free exhibition will open in The Curve space, replacing the phenomenally successful Rain Room, which closed earlier this month.

menu. You can either have them deep-friend or smooshed into a delicious salsa. Sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? But remember, creepycrawly consumption is pretty commonplace in many parts of the world. And there’s nothing more attractive than a sense of adventure (or more of a turn-off than a staid lack-of). And, Jiminy Cricket, there can’t be many better ice-breakers than: “So, how’s your insect?” wahaca.co.uk

FACT TO ENTERTAIN

Legally, a bar of chocolate is allowed to contain eight pieces of insect before it is considered contaminated.

Geoffrey Farmer, The Surgeon and the Photographer, 2009–13. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Photos: Rachel Topham EXCEPT PHOTO BOTTOM-RIGHT: SCOTT MASSEY.

Ahh, finger puppets are so cute and friendly-looking…but, wait, what the hell are these?! Welcome to the warped world of Geoffrey Farmer

finger 10: Battersea Flower Station Spring is about to, er, spring.

Which means your mind is probably turning to more outdoor pursuits, such as proper maintenance and overhaul of the garden. By which we mean, the one sunny window sill or that patch of scrub behind the flat. This is why you should visit the urban oasis that is Battersea Flower Station.

Gone are the hoary old gardeners, and in their place is a team of staff who offer

free garden, flat or window box consultations, an onsite florist, and a gift shop that sells all the garden paraphernalia you could dream of, as well as delicious, locallyproduced jams and chutneys, candles and soaps. They even offer free (or nearly free if you live somewhere ridiculous, like the countryside) delivery so you won’t have to trail dirt on the bus home.

batterseaflowerstation.co.uk Send us your favourite spots of inspiration by email, Twitter or Facebook. You might end up in Scouted.

BOOK

NOW

last chance

Matthew Hock, The Noun Project

LONDON

GET IN TOUCH

Everything Everything The Forum October 24 ticketmaster.co.uk

Seasick Steve The Roundhouse May 1 roundhouse.org.uk

God’s Property Soho Theatre Closes Sat Mar 23

A Time To Reap Royal Court Theatre Closes Sat Mar 23

The Great Gatsby Wilton’s Music Hall Closes Sat Mar 23

Lysistrata Riverside Studios Closes Sat Mar 23

RCA Secret Royal College of Art Closes Fri Mar 22

Port National Theatre Closes Sun Mar 24

Chan-Hyo Bae: Punishment Purdy Hicks Gallery Closes Sat Mar 23

An Instinct For Kindness Pleasance Theatre Closes Sun Mar 24

Chris Addison Queen Elizabeth Hall Closes Thurs Mar 28

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Standon Calling Standon Lordship August 2-4 standon-calling.com

BAD MEANING GOOD

BAD MEANING BAD

Amid all the other Bowie furore, his wife has now implied that the D-bomb is planning a new live tour.

Wham bam thank you mam!

Only a couple of weeks left before arts collective Stoke Newington International Airport are kicked out of their home of five years.

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The Red, The White and The Blue Rock band As the picture suggests, new Camden rock outfit The Red, The White and The Blue are really into their comics. So much so that they’re releasing a comic book to accompany every song on their forthcoming album. Featuring former members of Ash and Feeder, the band recently released single Anytime, and will launch their debut album in July.

Let’s go for a drink – Scout’s buying. Where shall we go?

It has to be Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street. It’s one of the oldest in the city, and there’s no mobile reception in the cellar, so it’s the ultimate place to ‘disconnect’.

Here here, one of our favs too!

Now how about a bite to eat?

Rock & Sole Plaice in Covent Garden, when you need that Fish & Chip fix.

Where do you go to relax?

The Turbine Hall at Tate Modern.

There’s always something interesting

Scout London Cover Stars 0032 Chris Dodd, 30, Photographer & Director, Highbury Barn

What in London inspires you?

Being a portrait photographer, I’m in awe of the diverse range of people here. In what is a relatively small city, the culture is as broad as the world.

Any London secrets to share?

Godfreys, on Highbury Park road, is a butchers that has fed the locals since 1905. It has the best sausages money can buy. There is also a fantastic restaurant in Highbury called Trullo, which serves excellent deep fried mussels. My favourite

place in London is the Algerian coffee house on Old Compton Street, Soho.

What’s your favourite part of London?

Wapping High Street. It rewards me with my favourite pub, favourite Italian and old converted warehouses that I dream of one day owning. Each step is a walk through ‘real London’.

How important is London in your work?

Being a northerner, London seemed huge when I first arrived in 2005,

on there. The Weather Project in 2003 was amazing – people were ‘sunbathing’ on the freezing ground.

What’s your favourite London venue?

Koko – best sound, best stage and best views in London Town.

What’s a great cultural experience you’ve had recently?

The Messiah at The Royal Albert Hall.

Those guys are the real musicians, and Handel was a bit of a tunesmith, wasn’t he?

Do you have any secret tips for Londoners?

Nikita’s, a Russian restaurant on Ifield Road, next to Brompton Cemetery. Book the Snitch or Snatch table. It has a private bell for those impulse vodka orders. And if Roman is there, he will sing you a song accompanied by his trusty accordion. theredthewhiteandtheblue.com but it turned out to be the best move I ever made. It keeps me on my toes, enhances my creativity and keeps me poor. But I love the place, the people and how it has shaped my work.

What’s next for you?

I’m focusing more on directing and celebrity portraiture, so a year or two in LA is on the cards, then back to London to settle down with the girlfriend and my lovely cat, Jilly.

See more at: thisisdodd.com

Hey there, are you a talented creative? Fancy reworking the Scout London logo that appears on our cover each week?

We welcome London-based artists, designers, illustrators, photographers. Get in touch: talent@scoutlondon.com 6

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Word to the Nerd Blame the internet. Blame Mark Zuckerberg. Blame Brian Cox. Whatever the cause, it has never been cooler to be uncool in our fair city. James Drury teleports into the heart of geek London, where a new breed of nerd is making its presence felt well beyond the lab and the living room

“It’s

hip to be square,” Huey Lewis and the News sang back in 1986. But they were wrong. It wasn’t. Unless your squareness had netted you a fortune, like Bill Gates, the less cool among us were destined for a world of torment; of nerd, geek and dweeb name-calling, endless wedgies, bog washes and sometimes worse.

But how times change. Science has become cool – and not just exciting science, like explosions and Breaking Bad. Watercooler conversations are no longer dominated by what happened on last night’s Hollyoaks, but by what the latest discovery in particle physics will mean for our understanding of the universe (liberally doused with whether

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you find Professor Brian Cox fit or not).

And it’s not just complex geekery that is en vogue. Film obsessives and comic book enthusiasts are being welcomed back in from the convention room; history buffs are being dusted down, taken out of the library and put on stages in front of adoring audiences; mathematicians are making people laugh; and even computer geeks are being fêted by hipsters.

London now has more “geek” entertainment than you can shake a composition of cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin and extractives (a stick) at.

So, get ready to admit that Huey Lewis was way ahead of his time, as we round-up the best ways of pushing your geekometer up to 11.

An ode to code Computer nerd event HackCamp

The ultimate trilogy Festival of the Spoken Nerd

Funny Geeks Martin CUnningham / idil sulkan, DRAWHQ

Geek presenter Dara O’Briain

Radio 4 nerds Robin Ince and Brian Cox

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ne of the fastest-growing ‘geekertainment’ spheres is comedy.

Thanks to TV programmes such as Dara O’Briain’s Science Club and Radio 4 comedy The Infinite Monkey Cage with Robin Ince and Brian Cox, people have realised that physics is funny, that maths can cause mirth and that it’s OK to make jokes about the element boron.

Festival of the Spoken Nerd was set up by geek comic songstress Helen Arney, BBC1 science experiments guy Steve Mould and stand-up mathematician Matt Parker. A celebration of

science with comedy, songs, live experiments and unashamed geekiness, it has been selling out venues across the country.

The trio are sometimes joined by comics such as Robin Ince or Alex Horne. Other times they’re accompanied by boffins such as renowned inorganic chemist Professor Andrea Sella, solar researcher Dr Lucie Green, cell biologist Dr Jenny Rohn and economist Tim Harford.

“We got together three years ago after the Edinburgh Festival, where we were all doing science- or maths-based comedy,” says Mould, scoutlondon.com Scout London

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who has a Physics MA from Oxford. “Our first show was to 40 people, which sold out, and we’ve had to keep getting bigger venues ever since.

“We bill our event as a comedy night with science rather than the other way round. There will be the occasional joke that will be for hardcore nerds but in general it’s about reigniting interest that people may have had at school, or even from scratch. Geek comedy has really been growing.

There’s long been a nerd sub-culture, and subcultures often have their own comedy nights, but now ‘normal’ people have started coming too.”

The group’s forthcoming show at the Bloomsbury Theatre (April 14-16) is called Technobabble and will focus on technologythemed comedy. Their guest will be Seb Lee-Delisle, who creates a genuinely engaging spectacle from live coding.

“You’d never think it would be entertaining but

it really is,” says Mould. “The reason that these people are great at entertaining is because they have a passion for talking about their subject.

They’re not just good at it, they love to share it.”

As well as the likes of Ince and Cox making science more accessible – and entertaining – Mould reckons there’s another reason for the rise of the nerds.

“So much of our culture now happens on or via the internet,” he muses, “and the internet was built by and is run by nerds… it means people can find each other, and us, through things such as social media.”

Festival of the Spoken Nerd: Technobabble, April 16-18, Bloomsbury Theatre, thebloomsbury.com

A burning passion for science Festival of the Spoken Nerd The laugh graph Paul Gannon at Geekatorium

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omedian Paul Gannon’s event, The Geekatorium, started as Geek Night Out at The Comedy Pub in 2009 and has since grown into a monthly event at Leicester Square Theatre.

Using a mixture of stand-up, sketch, music and improvised comedy, as well as video links, animation and social media interactivity, acts are invited to talk about whatever they are most passionate about, “whether it’s Star Wars or Sartre, Lord of the Rings or laundry”.

“What’s great about The Geekatorium is we have a group of about 15 to 20 people who come religiously to every show because they want to see a show that has been designed for them,” explains Gannon. “But there’s also a whole load of people who come in off the street, or because they want to see one of our guest comedians – who they already know – do something they’ve not seen before. For example, we recently had Reginald D Hunter come in and do a whole thing on Star Trek – he attracted his fans and they got to see something they wouldn’t normally get to see him do. We often find comedians feel they can try out new material or just do material they never normally would.”

Gannon, who admits to being a geek himself, says having something which in the past might have put people off is now proving to be a strong USP in a crowded stand-up market.

“My own particular geekiness is about Ghostbusters,” he admits. “So much so that it’s become the topic of my current solo show.

I’ve always been obsessed with it, since I was a child. I would always dress up like one of them at Halloween. Since the 25th anniversary recently, there has been a whole resurgence of things to collect and I now have more memorabilia than when I was eight.

He doesn’t even bat an eyelid before confessing: “I actually own my own replica proton pack and a boiler suit.”

Geekatorium, March 24, Leicester Square Theatre, geekatorium.net

This is who you’re gonna call? Paul Gannon

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Exhibition sponsored by

Speak Geek Put your queries to the experts A lecture at LSE

despite overwhelming evidence, the awardwinning monthly meet-ups take place at The Monarch in Camden, organised by Sid Rodrigues and hosted by Tessa Kendall and Carmen D’Cruz.

Despite its name, it has always been open to everyone and isn’t aimed specifically at ‘skeptics’ – even though they make up a majority of the audience.

Also monthly is the Science Showoff (scienceshowoff.wordpress.com), an “open mic night for scientists, science communicators, science teachers, historians and philosophers of science, students, science popularisers and anyone else with something to show off about science”.

Taking place at the Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell, each event sees up to nine people given nine minutes to do whatever they like – as long as it has a science influence. This can range from showing a film they have made to singing a song about protons, trying out a science lesson or even doing an experiment on the crowd (within reason, obviously).

It has a complementary event, Museums Showoff, which is based on the same premise but instead gathers together people who work in, study or are interested in museums, libraries and collections, as opposed to science. That’s not to say the two are mutually exclusive, but let’s not get geeky about that.

A step above your average pub chat London Skeptics in the Pub

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Renowned speakers Burmese politician and campaigner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Elsewhere, the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, British Library and British Museum all run regular talks and lectures, often relating to a current exhibition. Usually hosted by one of the museum curators, they are mostly free to attend and a great opportunity to delve deeper into a topic through the knowledge of an expert.

rebecca watson / stevecadman on flickr

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ne of the simplest ways of indulging your inner geek is to visit one of the capital’s vast choice of specialist talks and lectures.

From Anchorman to zymurgy, if you’re into it (or even vaguely interested in it), there’s a lecture or debate about it.

The London School of Economics’ public lecture series (lse.ac.uk/events) features some of the world’s best-know names from social science. The talks are mostly free to attend, and its impressive roll-call of recent speakers includes the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, Stephen Hester, CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Kofi Annan, former secretarygeneral of the United Nations.

You might also get to hear the president of the Law Society, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, writer and medical campaigner Dr Ben Goldacre, comedian and broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli and esteemed politician Baroness Williams.

This season is drawing to a close with lectures such as Is Multiculturalism Dead?, The Politics of Business in the Middle East after the Arab Spring, and Scarcity, Abundance, Excess: towards a social theory of too much.

But what if you fancy something a little less formal? Then London Skeptics in the Pub (london. skepticsinthepub.org) is probably more up your street. Tackling topics ranging from censorship to why people insist on being against vaccination

A rare chance to catch this comedy classic,

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Geeky Gatherings T

alks don’t have to be have to be about computers high-brow – being or other stereotypically ‘geek a geek is simply subjects’ – think about the about being really (possibly people who are music geeks abnormally) passionate or film geeks or football about something. geeks,” says Betta.

“The best definition of a He points out that, as geek I’ve heard is somebody more obsessive people have who is passionate beyond felt comfortable opening reason about something. up about their passions, so ‘geeky events’ have But that can be about anything,” says software seen their range broaden: engineer Cristiano Betta, co“BarCamps are generally untopic, which means people founder of Geeks of London Nerd alert A poster for HackCamp Ltd (geeksoflondon.com), can talk about anything they are passionate about. What I’ve noticed is how which organises events across the capital and further afield. the topics at BarCamps have changed over the One of its biggest success stories is years. Back at BarCamp 2 in 2006, most of the BarCamp, which sees passionate people get conversations were about tech. Now they are much broader. Recently we had an accountant together at a special sort of conference. All attendees take part in some way, which might come in and talk about his love of sushi. He be running a session, taking photos, blogging, brought in everything and gave a demonstration tweeting and so on. There are no fixed topics; of how to make perfect sushi.” people simply sign up to talk about a subject or And at the HackCamps – which are give a demonstration. specifically aimed at developers – Betta says Geeks of London also organises HackCamps, more and more people who don’t have coding as which offer computer developers and designers a second language are getting involved: “It now an event where they work together on new and brings together people who are associated with hypothetical projects, to share skills. the development world, but aren’t techy, such as “If you people who are good at business strategy.” think about someone who’s a geek, it doesn’t just

Hacked, July 20-21, Indig02 at The 02

Face off Can you tell whose eyes have been super-imposed on whose head for the They Quiz picture round?

Geeky gathering BarCamp London Organiser Cristiano Betta

Martin CUnningham

Big screen boffins You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat film quiz

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Outdoor Geek

Film geeks Happy winners at You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Geek-Off

A Nose for nerds One of Soho’s Seven Noses

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f course, there’s no reason for a geek to stay exclusively indoors, regardless of the computer-chained, darkenedroom stereotype. There are many walks around London that will appeal to geeks of many a subject. From 1960s Soho to the Seven Noses, Jack the Ripper to famous film locations (especially Harry Potter), there are guides ready to take you on a tour of the hotspots of your chosen compulsion. Or get on the internet and plot your own route – that’d be even more geeky!

Whatever the passion, there are plenty of outlets in London aiming to indulge the inner nerd in all of us. Now that it’s not only hip to be square – it’s positively encouraged – there’s never been a better time to get geeky in London.

Gruesome geekery Notorious Jack the Ripper pub The Ten Bells

ewan munro / thelondonphile.com

s well as sharing with others, knowledge is also for showing off. That’s where some of London’s specialist pub quizzes come in.

At The Lexington (thelexington.co.uk) in Pentonville Road, the Rough Trade shops organise a monthly music pub quiz.

Hosted by Paul Guided Missile, there are picture rounds, listening rounds and general pop knowledge rounds, with record token and drinks prizes to be won. Attracting some of the biggest music geeks in the city, you’ll often find industry types here, keen to out-do each other in battles of the music minutiae.

For film buffs, You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat (filmquiz.com) is a monthly audiovisual film quiz that has become something of a cult event for movie nerds from across the capital and beyond. Premiering each month at The Boogaloo pub in Highgate (its original home since 2005), the quiz can also be played at the Hackney Attic (Hackney Picturehouse) and Upstairs at the Ritzy in Brixton.

Rather than simply asking questions, the multimedia quiz involves a big screen for pictures, posters, clips and soundtracks to test even the sharpest of cineasts.

Over in Soho’s The Player Club, Lee Thomas, aka London Film Geek, organises They Quiz (theyquiz.com).

With pun-tastic titles such as Quiznobs and Trivsticks (March 25), and F**k Me Gently with a Quizsaw (April 29), the monthly events are fiendishly difficult and will test knowledge of everything from the main cast members of 1993’s Super Mario Bros film adaptation to the number of theatrical releases produced by comedy supremo Judd Apatow.

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252 Regent St

Once the offices of groundbreaking magazine Melody Maker, it was here, The south London terraced house where David Robert Jones was born on during an interview to launch Ziggy January 8, 1947 (he became Bowie in Stardust, that Bowie proclaimed, “I’m gay and I always have been”.

1965) to cinema usherette Margaret Mary Burns and Bernado’s promotions Though not a shocking revelation these days, back in the 70s Bowie’s officer Haywood Stenton Jones. The family lived here until 1953, when they statement caused quite a stir and won him a whole new legion of fans. moved to suburban Bromley.

Stockwell Infants’ School, Stockwell Rd The primary school that Bowie attended until the age of six. In the two years he spent there he developed a reputation for “defiance and brawling”. A rebel rebel in the making.

La Gioconda, 9 Denmark St

Bowie’s London As the V&A prepares to launch its feverishly anticipated David Bowie exhibition, Claire Considine plots his path round our Suffragette City, while on pages 28-29 we look at the exhibition itself

Iconic The Ziggy Stardust album cover The coffee shop in Soho where Bowie spent many an hour as a struggling artist, dreaming of world domination with friend Marc Bolan.

Hammersmith Apollo It was here in 1964 he was spotted The scene of Bowie’s dramatic onby a BBC researcher on the hunt for stage ‘retirement’ of Ziggy Stardust ‘long-haired youths’ for a TV feature on July 3, 1973. After the concert, and invited onto the Tonight with Cliff Michelmore show to discuss his Bowie and his glamorous associates ‘Society for the Prevention of Cruelty headed back to Café Royal on Regent Street to carry on the party. to Long-Haired Men’.

Meanwhile, his band, The Spiders The Ship, 116 Wardour St From Mars, nursed their drinks, having found out that they were This pint-sized pub in the heart of newly jobless.

Soho was Bowie’s favourite haunt from 1967 to 1970. When it became 89 Oakley St, Chelsea clear his self-titled debut album was The lavish home where Bowie lived something of a flop, Bowie chose this from 1973 to 1974. This was during spot to announce he was giving up the miners’ strike and, in a show of music to become a Buddhist monk. solidarity, Bowie turned his house into a mine, painting everything, 23 Heddon St including the TV and the furniture, Perhaps the most popular location black. It was also here that Bowie’s for Bowie pilgrims, you will recognise wife allegedly found him in bed with this iconic spot just off Regent Mick Jagger.

Street from the cover of the seminal David Bowie Is, V&A, Ziggy Stardust album. Bowie posed March 23-August 11, vam.ac.uk here in 1972, sporting a homemade See pages 28 and 29 for our jumpsuit, holding a borrowed guitar.

He didn’t yet know this would be the exhibition feature album that catapulted him to global stardom. In amongst the chichi Follow Bowie around restaurants and shops on the now town with our map: redeveloped street you can find a j.mp/ScoutBowie plaque erected in Ziggy’s honour.

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Alfies Antique Market at Alfies Antique Market, Church Street, NW8 8DT Marylebone Tue-Sat 10am-6pm, closed Dec 25, FREE. Indoor market for antiques and other collectibles.

Ftw Comedy Pop Quiz at The Queen Of Hoxton, Curtain Road, EC2A 3JX Shoreditch High Street Tue 8pmlate, £3. An interactive weekly quiz with stand-up from James Loveridge, Amy Howerska, Luke Capasso and Kerry Billson between rounds. Until Mar 26.

Korea 1950-53: The Cold War’s Hot War at National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, SW3 4HT Sloane Square Mon-Sun 10am5.30pm, FREE. Documents and artefacts, marking the 60th anniversary of the war.

Monday March 18

An Evening With Elizabeth George: Author Event at Hatchards, 187 Piccadilly, W1J 9LE Piccadilly Circus £5, adv booking required in person or by email to books@hatchards.co.uk, 6.30pm. The best-selling writer of the Inspector Lynley mysteries waxes lyrical about her new book The Edge of Nowhere.

Indian Religious Sculptures: Buddhism, Jainism And Hinduism: Talk at Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL South Kensington FREE, 1pm-1.45pm. With Harshad Sanghrajka.

The Politics Of FGM: The Influence Of External And Locally Led Initiatives In The Gambia: Talk at London School Of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE Temple FREE, 6.30pm8pm. Dr Isatou Touray and Professor Sylvia Chant discuss the efforts of campaigns in building resistance to female genital mutilation.

Tuesday March 19

Pat Barker & Iain Hutchison: Revisiting WW1 at Kings Place, 90 York Way, N1 9AG King’s Cross St Pancras £9.50, 7pm. Lively discussion between the novelist and surgeon about the role of art in war.

Abraham Lincoln, Irish-Americans And The Civil War: Lecture at The British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB Euston FREE, ticketed, 6.30pm8pm. A talk on Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

Brecht Meeting at Goethe-Institut, 50 Princes Gate, SW7 2PH South Kensington FREE, adv booking essential, 7.30pm. Mark Ravenhill chairs an informed debate about the relevance of Brecht to modern audiences.

Hatha Yoga Flow at Stratford Circus, Theatre Square, E15 1BX Stratford £7 per session, 8pm. Techniques to correct alignment and improve balance.

Is Multiculturalism Dead?: Panel Discussion at London School Of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE Temple FREE, 6.30pm8pm. A panel of experts and social commentators ponder the future of British society.

Wednesday March 20 Ahlam Akram: Why Are Women’s Rights Not Universal?: Talk at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, WC1R 4RL Holborn FREE, donations £2, 7pm, doors 6.30pm. The writer, broadcaster and human rights campaigner discusses women’s rights.

The Conservation Of Guildaed Objects In The New Furniture Gallery: Lecture at Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL South Kensington FREE, 1pm. With Zoe Allen.

Noam Chomsky In Conversation With Jonathan Freedland at The British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB Euston £7.50, concs £5, phone for availability, 6.30pm-8pm. A look at the roles of the state and the mass media.

Weekend travel update

Freedom Of Photography: Talk at ICA, 12 Carlton House Terrace, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH Charing Cross £12, concs £10, mems £8, NUS £5, 6.45pm.

Writer and curator David Campany and photographer Jason Evans discuss the medium.

Hammersmith & City Saturday March 23, no service Plaistow to Barking until approximately 7am. Rail replacement buses operate.

Metropolitan Line No service between Amersham, Chesham and Northwood. Rail replacement buses operate.

Northern Line No service between Hampstead to Edgware all weekend. Rail replacement buses operate.

For the latest information visit tfl.gov.uk 18 Scout London scoutlondon.com

Culture Now: Vashti Bunyan: Talk at ICA, 12 Carlton House Terrace, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH Charing Cross £5, mems FREE, 1pm. The singer-songwriter discusses her career with music writer Rob Young.

Two-Plate Colour Woodcut: Workshop at Sir John Soane’s Museum, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP Holborn £80, inc refreshments and lunch, 10.15am4pm, doors 10am. Develop a one- or twoplate colour woodcut.

Saturday March 23 Celebrate at Greenwich Dance Agency, The Borough Hall, Royal Hill, SE10 8RE Greenwich £7, concs £5, 5.30pm.

Greenwich Dance celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The London Festival Of British Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace, Alexandra Palace Way, N22 7AY Wood Green £11, child £5, family £32, Until Sunday, 10am-4.30pm. A two-day event featuring 30 working model railway layouts.

Sing The Passions!: Talk at Kings Place, 90 York Way, N1 9AG King’s Cross St Pancras £19.50, 2pm. A detailed look at Bach’s Passions.

Which Way China? at Chickenshed, 290 Chase Side, N14 4PE Cockfosters £15, adv £13, 2pm. A day of events themed around China.

Sunday March 24

London’s Hidden Army: Panel Discussion at Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4QH Liverpool Street FREE, 7.30pm.

Journalist Laurie Penny chairs a panel discussion about the working life of the city’s cleaners, porters and security staff.

Thursday March 21 Error, Lies And Adventure: The Power Of Lies: Panel Discussion at London School Of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE Temple FREE, 6.30pm-8pm. Animated discourse about the nature of lies and the relationship between lies, power and identity.

Central Line No service Liverpool Street to Grange Hill (via Newbury Park) all weekend.

Rail replacement buses operate.

DLR No service Canning Town to Beckton all weekend. Rail replacement buses operate.

District Line Saturday March 23, no service eastbound Plaistow to Upminster and westbound Upminster to Barking until approximately 7am. After 7am, no service Dagenham East to Upminster.

Rail replacement buses operate.

Friday March 22

Mammoth Origins, Extinction And Interaction With People: Lecture at British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG Russell Square FREE, ticketed, 1.15pm-2.15pm. Representation of mammoths in Ice Age art.

The London International Dive Show at ExCel, Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, E16 1XL Canning Town £12.50, under 14s FREE, adv £9.50, 9.30am-5pm. Annual showcase for scuba diving enthusiasts including two dive pools and free seminars throughout the weekend.

The Politics Of Business In The Middle East After The Arab Spring: Talk at London School Of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE Temple FREE, 6.30pm-8pm. Drs Steffen Hertog, Giacomo Luciani and Marc Valeri discuss the uprisings.

Connecting Conversations: Talk at Tricycle Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Kilburn £25, 4pm. Talk with psychoanalyst and author Stephen Grosz.

Whisky Masterclass: Workshop at Vinopolis, 1 Bank End, SE1 9BU London Bridge £50, phone for times.

Sample single malts and a scotch and learn how they were made.

Workshop For Saxophonists at The Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston Culture House, 11 Gillett Street, N16 8AZ Highbury & Islington £10, 1pm-3pm.

Improvisation techniques for sax players.

SAM PROUD

ONGOING

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the new band from OjOs de BrujO

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aLeXandeR aBReu Y havana d’PRiMeRa 12 April • Electric Brixton A Curva Da Cintura TouMani diaBaTe, aRnaLdo anTunes & edGaRd scanduRRa 12 April • Union Chapel Mexico Vs. Balkans Brass Band Battle: Banda esTReLLas de sinaLoa vs.BoBan & MaRKo MaRKovic 14 April• Barbican BuiKa 18 April • Union Chapel MaLa RodRiGueZ 18 April • Village Underground La RaZa: London LaTin hiP hoP FesTivaL 19 April • Rich Mix ana MouRa 20 April• Barbican MaRceLo BRaTKe 24 April • PurcellRoom MeRidian BRoTheRs, chancha & eL G 25 April• Cargo www.lalineafestival.com @lalineafest lalineafestival

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A taste of things to come

Like the release of a single before an album, chefs are increasingly starting to run preview projects ahead of restaurant launches. Ben Norum takes a look at how they work and why they’re popping up all over the place

Dining underground Nuno Mendes

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ever before have new openings played such an important part in London’s dining scene; in the days of food blogs and Twitter, the ‘soft launch’ period, which gives chefs a chance to bed in, is well and truly dead. Log on to see what the foodie community is talking about and you’ll find a race to try out the latest restaurant, pop-up, supperclub or street food van before anyone else.

But who says you have to wait for a restaurant to open in order to check it out? More and more chefs and restaurateurs are holding prelude projects and preview events before their premises are anywhere near open to the general public. Nuno Mendes was the first high-profile chef to pull the strategy off. At The Loft Project, he cooked an intimate 12-course menu for anyone cool enough to have heard about the underground dining club, all the while trialing dishes for the menu at

20 Scout London scoutlondon.com

Foreword thinker Tom Sellers

Masterchef winner Tim Anderson

Zetter manger Bruno Loubert

his forthcoming restaurant Viajante, which eventually opened over a year later. By the time it did, anticipation was immense and tables were easily filled, despite its off-the-beatentrack location in Bethnal Green.

Last November, Tom Sellers replicated the formula. The still lesser-known but highly regarded exNoma chef, whose restaurant Story is due to open up in Bermondsey this March, cooked up a proverbial storm at his Foreword pop-up, with dishes such as bread and butter pudding for starter and pear, parsnip and buttermilk for dessert. Next week, MasterChef winner Tim Anderson will hold a two-night Turning Japanese supperclub at The Prince Arthur in London Fields as a preview of his oriental restaurant, Nanban, which is due to open in a few weeks near Tower Bridge.

The prelude project isn’t just for newcomers to the industry, either. Esteemed chef Bruno Loubet

is set to open his second London restaurant, The Grain Store in King’s Cross, this June, but is first giving an appetite-whetting taster at a special one-off dinner at The Zetter Townhouse, where he’ll be cooking a cameo dish from his forthcoming menu.

Rochelle Cohen, managing director at leading restaurant PR agency Roche Communications explains some of the appeal: “These previews tend to be intimate and exclusive, and right now in London that’s what dining is all about.

These might be restaurant chefs, but for one night they are running a supperclub that’s not about the glamour of a restaurant environment, but just them cooking up close and personal.” They can perhaps be thought of, then, as a little like old-fashioned band fan clubs. While everyone can listen to the latest album or eat at the new restaurant, these special events are the

equivalent of backstage passes or collectable merchandise.

The sheer fact that there’s demand for such events – which often come with a hefty price tag – illustrates the rising status of cheffing. “Chefs are increasingly becoming celebrities,” says Cohen.

“Not necessarily on a Jamie Oliverstyle global scale, but among the foodie community.” Indeed, with thousand-strong Twitter accounts, personal blogs and no end of guest appearances, the chef certainly isn’t hidden away in the kitchen anymore.

How this trend will impact London’s dining scene over the coming months and years remains to be seen. Pop-ups, supperclubs and one-off dining events are already giving permanent restaurants a run for their money, but if food really is the new rock‘n’roll, then perhaps what the industry needs is some truly great acts, rather than more one-hit wonders.

Top Ten

sushi Authentic dishes from 1 Atari-Ya the Japanese importer W1U 1EH

Bond Street

Expensive, but a true 2 Nobu experience W1K 1LB

Hyde Park Corner

of Shiori A tiny venue with a lot of love 3 Sushi for what they do NW1 2PA Warren Street

Thickly sliced sashimi is a 4 Sushi-Say particular draw NW2 5SH Willesden Green

Grill Pair sushi with steaks for 5 Maze surf & turf W1K 6JP Bond Street

Experimental modern flavour 6 Dinings combinations W1H 4HH Marylebone

Sushi Neighbourhood eatery with 7 Ichiban fair prices SW9 8PY Brixton

Tetsu Ex-Nobu chef; kitchen8 Sushi side seats EC1V 4JP Farringdon

9

Soho Japan One of the most popular among Japanese in London W1T 3PR Goodge Street

Sushi on high, cocktails 10 Sushisamba and a view EC2N 4AY

Sushinho the City £££ The idea of a restaurant fusing Brazilian and Japanese food sounds somewhat way out, the two countries having no obvious cultural or geographical connection. Until you start to think about raw fish, that is. While Japan is famous for its sashimi, Brazil and much of South America are well known for ceviche, a dish that is fast becoming a staple on London restaurant menus. Think then of beef, and again there are parallels to be drawn.

Where Japan has its world-renowned Wagyu, Brazil is no stranger to steak.

It’s in these two ingredients that you have the basis of Sushinho, already a successful restaurant in Chelsea and now the newest opening in Devonshire Square, an increasingly foodie office quarter that houses Cinnamon Kitchen, New Street Grill and Kenza, among other restaurants.

This new opening is much larger than the West London original, with the addition of The Cutler Bar in the basement, which offers a small selection of dishes from the main menu, along with an eclectic selection of punchy cocktails that are loosely tied to the restaurant’s theme through an overzealous use of both sake and Brazilian spirit cachaça. Our waiter is just as zealous with the topping up of our crisp, salty and ridiculously addictive cassava chips, but that’s an entirely good thing.

With a more substantial platter of nigiri and sashimi to start than most Japanese venues can muster, perhaps I should haven’t have tucked in quite so greedily. Still, light and bright flavours mean I make easy work of polishing the

lot off, including a sprightly mix of eel and fresh papaya, and unctuous roasted pork topped with sun-drenched droplets of spherical pineapple pineapple caviar, if you will. Scallop ceviche comes with real caviar as well as a generous glug of truffle oil. Raw apple brings the dish back down to earth, cutting through the luxuriously heady flavours to keep up the signature fresh feel.

Beef is the only natural follow-up to all that fish, and Sushinho’s selection includes grilled steaks as well as some neat wagyu sliders, in which admittedly delicious toppings of comte, onion relish and pickled cucumber come disappointingly close to out-flavouring the much heralded beef.

A picanha steak, a popular Brazilian cut that boasts a large rim of meltingly oozy fat, fares much better, being at once deeply charred and smoky-tasting, bleedingly rare and packed with its own, earthy beef flavour. Quite why Sushinho has chosen to use American beef over Brazilian (or indeed British) for this classic South American dish, I do not know, but it does deliver the goods.

A selection of tropical fruit sorbets makes for a less dynamic ending than one might have hoped for, but they are homemade, vibrant and refreshing: exactly what is called for after a packed meat feast that started prematurely with the cassava chips.

For all those fusion food cynics out there, be aware that eating at Sushinho may involve you eating your words, too. Ben Norum Devonshire Square, EC2M 4AE Liverpool Street

Liverpool Street

scoutlondon.com Scout London 21

Mele e Pere Bar Soho ££

El Camion Ladbroke Grove £

Heading downstairs in this popular Italian, the first thing that greets you is a shiny bar decked out with shelf after shelf of multicoloured bottles.

Head sommelier and drinks guru Ed Scothern is the man responsible, using the space to infuse wines with varying herbs and spices to blend into his own vermouths. Try the finished products over ice: a sprightly, citrus-drenched white vermouth is endlessly refreshing with just the slightest notes of bitterness; a deep red is rich, sultry and herbaceous, heading towards campari. There are guided tastings monthly, from 6-8pm for £15, including matching small plates. The next tasting is on April 10, but the bar is open whenever the restaurant is, serving a selection of aperitivo-style drinks alongside the vermouths. Ask for Ed for some enthusing about his infusing. Ben Norum

There is no better spot for people-watching than one of the outside tables at this Mexican eatery on Portobello Road. Formerly known as El Camino, it’s had the ‘i’ and the ‘o’ switched around for legal reasons, but is otherwise the same magnet for as diverse and eccentric a mix of people as you’ll find in any corner of the city – most either getting ready for the night ahead or recovering from the one before. In an unashamed homage to TexMex, the wacky, primary coloured space (hanging skeletons included) serves tacos, burritos and quesadillas from morning until late. Snacky baked nachos laced with cheese can be pimped with shredded pork and spiked with jalapenos, while a picadillo beef (lightly spiced, minced beef) burrito with zingy homemade guacamole is a stomach filler that’s full of flavour. A range of Mexican beers and some potent margaritas complete the package. BN

46 Brewer Street, W1F 9TF

272 Portobello Road, W10 5TY

Piccadilly Circus

Ladbroke Grove

Chinese Cricket Club Blackfriars £££

Malmaison Brasserie Smithfield ££

This restaurant, set within the plush Crowne Plaza Hotel, has been under the control of several different chefs since its launch a couple of years ago. Judging from our visit, the fact that it’s currently between head chefs is the only redeeming factor, as we’d have got a better Chinese from just about anywhere else. Cold food that has become slightly gelatinous – that’s not just one dish, but a theme throughout. When the food arrives, our waiter struggles to match the dishes with the order, and a good number of flavour combinations seem particularly ill-advised. One, described as Orange Beef, presents tough meat chunks in a sickly-sweet sauce reminiscent of a chocolate orange. The best thing we try is the Peking duck, served with hoisin and pancakes, but even this sits at the lower end of average. At over £60 for two, it’s neither good food nor value for money. BN

The impressive façade of the Malmaison Hotel holds court in its own secluded square; serenely picturesque in the centre of the City, around the corner from the hustle and bustle of Smithfield meat market. The alluring scents of Sunday roast or freshly baked bread will occasionally drift up from the basement brasserie, enticing passers-by into the informal but lavish space. A selection of self-styled Mal lollipops – bitesize skewers of chicken satay, prawn tempura crab spring roll, Thai pork and fish cake – are a fun opening to a meal, each morsel elaborately presented and particularly well flavoured. Meat is big on the agenda, and it doesn’t get much bigger than the Mal Burger Stack: 250g of beef is topped with bacon and crowned with a succulent seared foie gras slider and onion rings, and served with ultra-thin crisp fries on the side. It’s entirely excessive but all the more enjoyable for it. This is not a place to come for moderation. BN

19 New Bridge Street, EC4V 6DB

18-21 Charterhouse Square, EC1M 6AH

22 Scout London scoutlondon.com

Blackfriars

Barbican

CENTRAL

High Tea of Highgate 50 Highgate High Street, N6 5HX Highgate teashop ££ Tea shops are relatively hard to come across in London compared to coffee offerings, but here the relaxing old-world charm is as alive as ever. Expect decorative teapots, elaborate cakes, scones and the kind of décor your gran would like.

It will cost you less than half what the big hotels charge, too. What more could you want?

EAST

The Monocle Café 18 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QA Baker Street Café ££ Sleek global affairs magazine Monocole is set to open a London café, following in the successful footsteps of the first one in Japan. It will serve a selection of light bites and snacks, including birchir museli, but the real focus will be on freshly roasted coffee from the Allpress Espresso team.

Attendant Pete 27a Foley Street, W1W 6DY Goodge street Coffee shop £ Crafted out of disused public toilets, this new coffee shop makes a quirky focal point of a row of urinals. The name refers to owner Pete Tomlinson, who has founded this with business partner Ben Russell, and together they serve coffee from the Caravan roastery in Kings Cross and a small selection of food cooked by an ex-Pollen Street Social chef.

Churchill Bar 30 Portman Square, W1 7BH Oxford Circus Bar ££ Inspired by Sir Winston, there’s a very old-world look to this bar set within a Hyatt hotel. Love letters between the former prime minister and his wife Clemmy are on display, along with toy soliders on the book shelves, looked after by Daunt Books. The cocktail menu covers all the classics and throws in some twists for good measure, with whisky - one of Churchill’s favourites - being particularly well represented.

Kimchee To Go 388 Strand, WC2R 0LT Charing Cross Japanese ££ Hugely popular Korean restaurant Kimchee in Holborn has announced the first of its two new take-away outlets. This branch will open on April 2, serving a selection of mix-your-own bibimbaps, Korean sushi-style rolls and bento boxes.

Piste 3-4 Archer Street, W1D 7AP Piccadilly Circus Bar ££ New bar within a bar, Piste, set inside Soho’s Archer Street bar, is bringing the apresski to London every Wednesday. Upon entry, guests can purchase a ski pass for £10 entitling them to 50 per cent off drinks all night. Snow-inspired cocktails and shots presented on a ski are served by the all-singing, all-dancing bar team.

NORTH

Earl of Essex 25 Danbury Street, N1 8LE Angel Pub ££ This brewpub is among London’s best craft beer venues. Choose from a blackboard of more than 25 cask and keg beers, including some of their own experimental options. It’s good to see a particular emphasis on London brews from upcoming breweries, while salt beef sandwiches are good soaking-up fodder.

24 Scout London scoutlondon.com

Portside Parlour Off Broadway, 63-65 Broadway Market, E8 4PH London Fields Bar ££ This new prohibition-themed bar is harder to find than most.

Head into Off Broadway bar, go down the stairs and into the loo, pull the flusher and you’re in. There’s a lot of rum in store once you arrive; the list boasts more than 50 varieties, from the usual to the rare. This candle-lit basement is as good a place as any to make your way through them.

Spit & Roast @ Dalston Superstore 117 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB Dalston Kingsland Chicken £ Arguably best known for their fried chicken rather than either the spit or roast affairs, this popular street food van, which can be seen at KERB events and Brockley Market, has found a home above Dalston Superstore, at least for eight weeks. Get menu info @spitandroast.

Looking Glass Cocktail Club 49 Hackney Road, E2 7NX Old Street Bar ££ New sister venue to Stoke Newington’s White Rabbit bar, this is a venue of two sides. A small, decadently furnished cocktail bar greets you first, but ask a barman to take you “through the looking glass” and you’ll be led into the event space where glamorous music-filled nights are promised.

Oui Madame 182 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7UY Dalston Kingsland French ££ A new French restaurant in Dalston? Is that on-trend enough? Well, perhaps the fact that there’s only one option per course, the menu changes daily and all the wine comes from small, independent French producers helps. It’s low-lit, candle-filled and cosy, too.

SOUTH The Effra Social 65 Effra Road, SW2 1BZ Brixton Pub £ Antic, the team behind Brixton’s popular Dogstar pub, recently acquired this old Conservative Club and converted it into a pub. In terms of appearance, you might not know it has changed at all: parquet floors, old snooker cues and bright blue walls are part of its ’60s-style charm.

A good selection of ales already exists and a food element is coming soon.

Wahaca Southbank, SE1 8XX Waterloo Mexican ££ The Southbank branch of Wahaca regularly trials new dishes, with the best loved making it onto the proper menu at all the other branches. The latest addition is particularly attention grabbing: grasshoppers. Chapulines fundido is a dip that mixes fried grasshoppers with shallots, garlic and smoky chipotle chillies. It is served traditionally with queso fundido, a mixture of gratinated mozzarella and cheddar cheese, and, at Wahaca, also some tortilla chips. But if you don’t like the idea, you get to say so – customers are being asked to tweet #ChapulinYES or #ChapulinNO to decide if the dish stays.

The Rooftop Café at The Exchange 28 London Bridge Street, SE1 9SG London Bridge Café £ A tucked-away cafe which opened in January, the kitchen at this venture is headed up by Australian chef Magnus Reid – the man behind the Nine French Place pop-up. Here he cooks modern, seasonal food with the ever-changing menu including fig, goat’s cheese and honey on sourdough and pork belly with fennel salad. It might not be able to compete with tall next-door neighbour The Shard, but it has some impressive views of its own.

WEST

The Rum Kitchen 6-8 All Saints Road, W11 1HH Ladbroke Grove Bar ££ More beach shack than Notting Hill bar, this new venue promises to bring a ray of sunshine to even the dreariest London winter. Cocktails are pedictably Havana, with umbrellas and garish garnish very much included. The kitchen doles out comforting Caribbean dishes including jerk chicken and roast cod marinated in coconut milk.

The Five Fields 8-9 Blacklands Terrace, SW3 2SP Sloane Square British ££ It’s an impressive ensemble team who are opening this fine-dining restaurant in Chelsea in spring. The general manager Rob Kihlstrom is ex-Eleven Madison Park, chef-patron Taylor Bonnyman is ex-Corton, both in New York, and head chef Marguerite Keogh is ex-Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley.

The restaurant will serve modern British dishes with a strong focus on seasonality, using produce from their East Sussex vegetable and herb gardens.

Scout London Price Guide ££££ Over £19 per main £££ £14-18 ££ £9-13 £ Under £9

TAKE OUT

DRINK IN

Chipotle, Wimbledon

Caorunn Gin

In the USA, roughly one in every 11 avocados ends up going into Chipotle’s guacamole. Out of America, the massive chain is still growing, and has opened up its first six European branches in St. Martin’s Lane, Charing Cross Road, Wardour Street, Baker Street, Angel and now Wimbledon. This new venue is the first south of the river and a clear boost to an area otherwise lacking in lunchtime options. Tuck into any of the range of burritos or tacos in the knowledge that, despite being a chain, they make everything fresh on-site daily, use only ethically sourced meat and buy as much produce as possible – including all the meat and dairy – from within the UK. A smoky barbacoa beef burrito it is, then.

Hailing from the home of Hendrick’s, this premium Scottish gin is the new kid at the bar. It’s made with five celtic botanicals – rowan berry, bog myrtle, heather, coul blush apple and dandelion leaf – alongside more traditional varieties, including orange and lemon peel and the pre-requisite juniper berries.

The result is a smooth, slightly sweet-tasting gin with notes of pepper and pine nuts. It’s on the spirits list at Sketch, Milk & Honey and 69 Colebrooke Row, or try making a Heather Martini by mixing 50ml of Caorunn gin, 20ml drambuie and 5ml Talisker.

Chipotle, 40 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7PA chipotle.com

Available in Waitrose, Harvey Nichols, Harrods and specialist spirits shops. RRP £25.95 caorunngin.com

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‘One of the most stunning pieces of theatre I have ever seen’ Baz Bamigboye · Daily Mail · 22 Feb 2013

12

First ‘Cabaret’ then ‘Chicago’ and now...

TONY AWARD

®

NOMINATIONS

N DIRECTIO

Y

OGR APH

& CHORE

SUSAN AN TROM AVID FRED DTHOMPSON S EBB BOOK

ND LYRIC

MUSIC A

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JOHN R AND KANDE

A YOUNG VIC AND CATHERINE SCHREIBER PRODUCTION

18 OCT – 23 NOV 020 7922 2922 YOUNGVIC.ORG

Supported by

@ScottsboroLDN

PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS NASH

on a shower trip

Bath time doesn’t have to be boring. Add a splash of fun to your morning routine with these quirky bathroom accessories

Shower threesome

making the brent

it’s a hold up

De-clutter your shower by transferring all your products into this handy triple dispenser, with one section for shower gel, one for shampoo, and one for conditioner.

Aviva Trio Dispenser, £19.76, from amazon.co.uk

No this isn’t a Bane mouthpiece, it’s the ultimate ticket to goatee perfection. Just put the mouthpiece in, adjust the size and shave your way to victory in the David Brent look-alike competition.

GoateeSaver, £12.41, from amazon.co.uk

Throw away that skanky old cup and give your toothbrushes the home they deserve: a tooth-shaped holder.

Tooth toothbrush holder, £3.26 from shop-fun.com

shower play

the big crapple

a nose for hygiene

Everyone’s a pop star in the shower, especially when they have a light show to match. This shower head makes the water light up in four different colours.

LED Light Changing Showerhead, £29.99, from discountbargainstore.co.uk

OK, it’s just a toilet seat. But if you want a truly stylish bathroom, there can be no exceptions – including the throne.

New York Cityscape Toilet Seat, £59.99, from notonthehighstreet.com

There’s nothing like novelty washing, and every scrub will be a giggle with this nose-shaped shower gel-dispenser.

Nose gel dispenser, £12, from menkind.co.uk

scoutlondon.com Scout London 27

Getting Ziggy with it As if David Bowie’s surprise release of new material hadn’t already sent the hype machine into overdrive, now the V&A is launching a major exhibition of objects from the singer and fashion icon’s expansive personal archive. Clare Considine chats to the curator about the most hotly-anticipated exhibition of the year

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ext week sees the opening of the fastestselling exhibition in the entire 160-year history of The Victoria and Albert Museum.

It is, of course, the one that everyone is talking about: the great curatorial tribute to The Thin White Duke, the arrival of which is only adding to an already enormous furore.

Bowie mania has been careering towards fever pitch since he surprised everybody on his 66th

28 Scout London scoutlondon.com

birthday this year by releasing a single that nobody knew was in the pipeline. His album, The Next Day, was developed completely in secret and released earlier this month to rapturous reviews.

But Vicky Broackes and her team over at the V&A were preparing for the David Bowie Is retrospective long before the man himself dropped his spangly bombshell. She has spent the last two-and-a-half years working hard

with co-curator Geoffrey Marsh, wading through a 75,000-piece archive in order to create the streamlined show that opens next Monday. Though not a coordinated plan, the exhibition and the new material have landed together in timely harmony to create the perfect Bowie storm.

Broackes explains with glee that she knew as little as the rest of us about the new music: “I woke up on the morning of his birthday to five

David’s nan ran out of material at a crucial point Asymmetric knitted bodysuit for Aladdin Sane tour, 1973

God of rocks Stage set model for the Diamond Dogs tour, 1974, designed by Jules Fisher and Mark Ravitz

Magic box Brian Eno’s EMS Synthi AKS used for “Heroes”, 1977

Terry o’neill,aladdin sane suit designed Kansai Yamamoto , stage set designed by Jules Fisher and Mark Ravitz, all courtesy of david bowie archive. © V&A IMAGES

Pasted copy Cut-up lyrics for Blackout, from Heroes

Cut-up kings Bowie with author William S Burroughs, February 1974

Ground Control to Major Tom Acoustic guitar from Space Oddity

missed calls,” she says, “and it all just went crazy from there.”

But, like all Bowie fans, Broackes feels a sense of exhilaration about his maverick move: “What we all love about Bowie is that he takes these unpredictable steps.”

And this step in particular has served to ensure that the excitement surrounding the exhibition is even more epic than initially expected.

Nevertheless, Broackes seems sufficiently confident in what she has created with Marsh, and is more than ready for the onslaught of expectant fans. Having been given

unprecedented access to Bowie’s personal archive, she’s sure there will be gems in the exhibition to please even the most hardcore Bowie believers.

Examples of what to expect vary from the obscure to the familiar, from hand-written lyrics to original costumes and instruments. Many of the objects on display will serve as testament to the holistic approach that Bowie has always taken with his career. For example, one of his sketched set designs will feature – a simple etching that demonstrates the grandiose plans he had for The Konrads, the band he was in aged 17. The sketch is accompanied by

the gloriously precocious statement, “I need to be in 3D”.

Bowie’s more familiar artistic offerings will also appear, but they have been left in the hands of innovators and will be delivered in exciting new formats. Take, for example, the show’s grand finale.

It will include performance footage that has been doctored by 59 Productions – the team behind the audio-visuals at last year’s Olympic Opening Ceremony.

In many ways, the V&A and Bowie are consummate companions. Broackes reminds us that, “The V&A are all about trying to push boundaries”, and we all know that Bowie is more than a little fond of ch-ch-ch-changes.

So Broackes and her team have avoided a less predictable timeline experience, opting instead to display the 300 chosen objects thematically. In a step that Bowie would likely approve of, visitors will be free to wander through abstract notions of Outer Space, Inner Space, Ideologies, Impact, Song Writing and Performance.

So, London, take your protein pills, put your helmets on and prepare to get Ziggy with it.

David Bowie Is, V&A, March 23-August 11, £5.20£15.40, vam.ac.uk scoutlondon.com Scout London 29

A ÂŁ3 booking fee is included in the price of discounted tickets. No booking fee on full price.

TKTS is run by the Society of London Theatre. All profits support the theatre industry.

Central

Frank Benson: Flag (Union Jack) at ICA, 12 Carlton House Terrace, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH Charing Cross FREE, Until May 19.

Manipulated image of the Union Flag, which gives the appearance of billowing in high wind.

Chan-Hyo Bae: Punishment at Purdy Hicks Gallery, 65 Hopton Street, SE1 9GZ Southwark FREE, Until Mar 23. A new exhibition of works by the acclaimed Korean photographer.

Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 at The Courtauld Institute Of Art, Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 0RN Temple £6, concs £5, NUS/under 18s/unwaged/ disabled carer FREE, Mon £3, Until May 26. Major paintings originally shown at the artist’s debut exhibition.

Geraldo De Barros: What Remains at The Photographers’ Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW Oxford Circus FREE, Until Apr 7.

Photographs by the influential, 20thcentury Brazilian artist.

Growing Talent: Jewellers And Silversmiths Nurtured By The Goldsmiths’ Company at Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane, EC2V 6BN St Paul’s FREE, Until Apr 13.

Contemporary jewellery and silver by designers and makers.

Handel House Museum at Handel House Museum, 25 Brook Street, W1K 4HB Bond Street £6, concs £5, Mon-Fri ages 5-16 £2, Sat & Sun ages 5-16/under 5s FREE, Until Dec 31. The beautiful Georgian house in which Handel lived up to his death is now a museum devoted to the great composer.

Mughal India: Art, Culture And Empire at The British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB Euston £9, OAP £7, NUS/ disabled/unwaged £5, under 18s/mems/ disabled carer FREE, National Art Pass £4.50, OAP £3.50, Until Apr 2. More than 200 paintings and artefacts documenting the entire period of the Mughal Empire.

Petrie Museum Of Egyptian Archaeology at Petrie Museum Of Egyptian Archaeology, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT Euston Square FREE, Until Dec 31. Featuring collections of over 80,000 artefacts charting the history of Egypt and Sudan from prehistoric times, the Pharoahs and the Islam period.

Items include textiles, ceramics and mummy portraits.

Robert Rauschenberg: Jammers at Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, 6-24 Britannia Street, WC1X 9JD King’s Cross St Pancras FREE, Until Mar 28. Abstract sewn fabrics by the conceptual American artist.

Neil Stokoe: All Things Must Pass at The Piper Gallery, 18 Newman Street, W1T 1PE Tottenham Court Road FREE, Starts Fri, Until Apr 27. Contemporary painting by the artist whose recent work has addressed the suffering of solitary individuals, often isolated, pensive or pained.

The Rest Is Noise: Aura Satz: Impulsive Synchronisation at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX Waterloo FREE, Starts Fri, Until May 26. A film and sound installation inspired by the invention of frequency-hopping.

Workers Unite! at Ellwood Atfield Gallery, 34 Smith Square, SW1P 3HL Westminster FREE, Until Mar 28.

Works in various media exploring the changing landscape of communication in the workplace.

North Painting From The Zabludowicz Collection: Albert Oehlen at Zabludowicz Collection, 176 Prince Of Wales Road, NW5 3PT Chalk Farm FREE, Until Aug 11. Paintings from the last three decades by the German artist.

RAF Photographer Of The Year at Royal Air Force Museum, Grahame Park Way, Hendon, NW9 5LL Colindale FREE, Until Apr 30. Photographs taken by serving personnel.

Royal Air Force Museum at Royal Air Force Museum, Grahame Park Way, Hendon, NW9 5LL Colindale FREE, Until Dec 31. The complete history of manned flight with flight simulator and interactive displays.

East 19 Princelet Street at 19 Princelet Street, E1 6QH Liverpool Street FREE, donations welcome, Until Mar 24.

A museum recounting the tales of peoples from around the world becoming citizens of London.

Black Eyes And Lemonade: Curating Popular Art at Whitechapel Gallery, 8082 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX Aldgate East FREE, Until Sep 1.

Everyday objects made in Britain including a fireplace in the shape of a dog.

Dean Blunt: Brixton 28s at SPACE, 129-131 Mare Street, E8 3RH London Fields FREE, Starts Sat,

Until Mar 24. Solo presentation of mixed material works by the cult electronic recording artist.

Adam Dant: Soerditch: A Diary Of A Neighbourhood at Eleven Spitalfields, 11 Princelet Street, E1 6QH Aldgate East phone for prices, Until Apr 26.

Happy-Go-Lucky at Daniel Blau, 51 Hoxton Square, N1 6PB Old Street FREE, Until Apr 13. An exhibition of affordable vintage 20thcentury American photojournalism.

Sadie Hennessy: Strange Hungers at A Brooks Art, 194-196 Hoxton Street, Hoxton FREE, Until Mar 23.

N1 5LH Mixed works exploring notions of lust, desire and female empowerment.

Adam King: Rollercoastervista at Westland Place Studios, 3-11 Westland Place, N1 7LP Old Street FREE, to book appointment email hello@ westlandplacestudios.com, Until Apr 5.

Mixed-media collages inspired by popular culture.

The Space Between at The V&A Museum Of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA Bethnal Green FREE, Until May 19. Photographs by Tanya Clarke, Peter Gates, Emer Gillespie and Jacqueline McCullough exploring the domestic family environment.

Take Another Look at Museum Of London Docklands, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, E14 4AL Canary Wharf FREE, Until Aug 4. An exploration of the people from the African diaspora who lived and worked in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries.

South Birds, Beasts And Beyond at The Cuming Museum, Old Walworth Town Hall, 151 Walworth Road, SE17 1RS Elephant & Castle FREE, Until Aug 31. A display of ceramics made by the Victorian pottery manufacturer, the Martin Brothers.

Dorich House Museum at Dorich House Museum, Kingston Vale, SW15 3RN Southfields £4, concs £3, under 16s FREE, Until Jul 28. The Museum holds the major collection of internationally acclaimed Estonian sculptor Dora Gordine’s bronzes, paintings and drawings. It also holds a superb collection of Russian Imperial art, gathered by her husband Richard Hare.

Jim Dow: American Studies at Public House Projects, 62 Gowlett Road (above the Gowlett pub), SE15 4HY Peckham Rye FREE, Until Apr 12.

American photographer’s studies of places where people enact everyday rituals and traditions.

This ‘Me’ Of Mine at APT Gallery, Harold Works, 6 Creekside, SE8 4SA Deptford Bridge FREE, Until Mar 31.

Mixed media works exploring the notion of identity in the digital age.

West Codebreaker: Alan Turing’s Life And Legacy at Science Museum, Exhibition

Road, SW7 2DD South Kensington FREE, Until Jul 31. Photographs and objects celebrating the centenary of the British computing pioneer who famously cracked the Enigma Code during WWII. Michael Eastman: Havana at Michael Hoppen Gallery, 3 Jubilee Place, SW3 3TD Sloane Square FREE, Until Mar 29. A selection of photographs depicting the crumbling yet vibrant nature of Cuba’s capital.

Light From The Middle East: New Photography at Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL South Kensington FREE, Until Apr 7.

More than 90 photographs by 30 artists from 13 countries.

My Dog Sighs: Walk By, Ignore Me, Forget You Ever Saw Me at The London West Bank Gallery, 133-137 Westbourne Grove, W11 2RS Bayswater FREE, Starts Fri, Until Mar 31. Paintings combining melancholic and often naive portraiture with the use of found materials.

Simone Sandelson: Behind The Picture at Crane Kalman Gallery, 178 Brompton Road, SW3 1HQ South Kensington FREE, Until Apr 6. Portrait and still-life paintings.

Guide To Alchemy at Science Museum, Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD South Kensington FREE, Until Apr 27. Historical illustrations and manuscripts relating to the quest for the philosopher’s stone.

Tehran Calling London/London Calling Tehran at London Print Studio, 425 Harrow Road, W10 4RE Westbourne Park FREE, Until Apr 20. Print, illustration, conceptual art, video, painting, new media, sculpture and photography.

Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos at Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA South Kensington FREE, Until Apr 7. Contemporary works in a variety of media exploring spaces for interdisciplinary ideas.

RCA Secret at Royal College Of Art, Dyson Building, 1 Hester Road, SW11 4AN South Kensington FREE, Until Mar 22. Over 2,500 original postcardsized artworks, which are submitted anonymously.

scoutlondon.com Scout London 31

I

The prodigal son shines Paul Tonkinson was one of the hottest new acts in ’90s comedy, and went on to host the Big Breakfast. So why has it taken until now for him to do his first ever UK tour? He chats to Si Hawkins 32 Scout London scoutlondon.com

t’s often said – usually by older stand-ups, admittedly – that comedians only really get good when they reach a certain vintage. You might expect Paul Tonkinson to concur, given that he’s currently enjoying a self-confessed creative peak, 20 years in. But it isn’t quite that simple.

“Comics can get better if they keep stretching themselves,” says the suitably gangly quasi-veteran.

“But if they try to do the same act that they had at 25 they’re going to get a lot worse and it’s all going to get a bit bleak. Especially if you get consumed by a bitterness and anger at the young comics, constantly watching people get on telly and going, ‘It could have been me!’.”

Tonkinson is unlikely to do that, mainly because it once actually was him. The Scarborough-born comic is speaking to Scout ahead of the London leg of his first ever UK tour, the belatedness of which is surprising given his mid-90s TV profile. He was a rising star back then, getting his big break on MTV before hosting the Big Breakfast, which had launched Chris Evans a few years earlier.

Unfortunately, with ratings tumbling, Tonkinson was unceremoniously sacked after two months, and you can understand why he eventually re-embraced the more autonomous world of standup. The circuit tends to find a role for its prodigal sons, unlike other performance-based professions.

“Yeah, in music you’d be on your arse. You can only be new once, and when I was new I was presenting.

It might have been more bright to not do that and keep my powder dry, just work on my stand up, but it’s hard to do that when you’re in your mid-20s and you’re an idiot from the north and someone says, ‘Come and present a show’. It’s quite hard to say no.”

His music reference is relevant, as comedy was regularly dubbed ‘the new rock‘n’roll’ when Tonkinson emerged in the early 1990s, a vibrant period that saw the likes of Baddiel and Newman taking stand-up into arenas for the first time. It was “a bit of a heyday”

recalls the 44-year-old Tonkinson.

“I was very lucky to be in at the start of this thing, with clubs opening everywhere. If you were half good back then you did really well really quickly.”

That said, headlining your own tour still wasn’t an option for most comics, whereas today there are numerous similarly scarred-by-TV acts doing more interesting longform live work, including the likes of Robin Ince, Rob Rouse and Richard Herring.

Tonkinson – who moved on to radio for many years – seems genuinely grateful for the opportunity to become a full-time stand-up again. Of the current boom in TV stand-up, he does gently diss Stewart Lee’s jobs-for-his-mates showcase, the Alternative Comedy Experience (“A lot of them are old f**kers!”), but refuses to join the chorus of embittered comics criticising Michael McIntyre.

Tonkinson – who was doing similarly energetic tales of everyday life 10 years earlier – is now one of McIntyre’s regular co-writers. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em…

Indeed, a short guest spot on McIntyre’s influential Comedy Roadshow hasn’t hurt his ticket sales, and these 90-minute shows – the longest he’s ever done – are proving an invigorating departure from knocking out the same old 20-minute club sets. “That’s what I’m trying to get away from. It’s so competitive, so many people flooding in all the time. You cannot remain static.”

Even so, a debut tour after 20 years “hasn’t been without its odd moments”, particularly at his recent homecoming show in Scarborough.

“A lot of people have come from my childhood,” Tonkinson reveals.

“People that I used to go out with when I was 12 suddenly appeared in the front row, staring at me for an hour and a half.”

You know what they also say?

Never go back.

Paul Tonkinson, Leicester Square Theatre, March 21-23, paultonkinson.com

ONGOING

Friday March 22

David Baddiel: Fame: Not The Musical: Work In Progress at Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE Tottenham Court Road Mar 1823, 9.30pm, £12. The novelist and TV presenter tries out new material.

Lewis Schaffer Is Free Until Famous at The Source Below, 11 Lower John Street, W1F 9TY Piccadilly Circus Tue & Wed 8pm, FREE. Self-deprecating standup. Until Mar 27.

Paul Tonkinson: Fancy Man at Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square Mar 21-23, 7pm, £12, concs £10. Sharp and fast-paced observations about life.

Sex Guru: The Sexological Comedy Show at Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square Fri & Sat 9.30pm, £15 & £24. Until Apr 20. Wolfgang Weinberger’s provocative delve into dark desires and kinky fetishes.

Banana Cabaret at The Bedford, 77 Bedford Hill, SW12 9HD Balham 9pm, £14, concs £11. With Dave Fulton, Mick Ferry, Mary Bourke and Pierre Hollins.

The Best In Stand-Up at Comedy Store, 1a Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE Piccadilly Circus 7.30pm, 11pm, 7.30pm £20, 11pm £15, NUS/concs £9.

With Mick Ferry, Jeff Innocent, Addy Van Der Borgh, Celia Pacquola and MC Ian Coppinger.

The Boat Show at Tattershall Castle, Victoria Embankment, SW1A 2HR Charing Cross 8pm, £13.50, concs £11, standing £10, £26 inc meal. With Dan Nightingale, Andrew Bird, Ben Norris and MC Danny McLoughlin.

Comedy Carnival at Rumba, 36 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EP Piccadilly Circus 8pm-10pm, £12.

With Zoe Lyons, Andrew Bird and Alistair Barrie.

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven at The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven, Under The Arches Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG Charing Cross 8pm-10.30pm, £13 & £15. With MC Tom Webb, Geoff Norcott, Mick Ferry, John Hastings and Kwame Asante.

Piccadilly Comedy Club at The Comedy Pub, 7 Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE Leicester Square 8.30pm-11pm, £12.50, adv £10. With Bob Mills, Duncan Edwards, Lucy Beaumont and Matt Winning.

Spoon Comedy at The Camden Head, 100 Camden High Street, NW1 0LU Camden Town 8pm, FREE. Fastpaced sketch comedy.

Sunday Comedy Club at The Hideaway, Stanthorpe Road, SW16 2ED Streatham 8.30pm, £10, adv £9, NUS £6. With Earl Okin, Josh Howie and Jessica Fostekew.

Up The Creek at Up The Creek, 302 Creek Road, SE10 9SW Greenwich 8.45pm, £12, adv £11. With Joe Lycett, Josh Howie and MC Rob Collins.

Louis CK at The O2, Peninsula Square, SE10 0DX North Greenwich Weds, 8pm, £35. ALSO at Hammersmith Apollo, Queen Caroline Street, W6 9QH Hammersmith Thurs, 7pm, 9.30pm, £35, phone for availability. Sharp rants and aggravated observations from American cult comedian, in his first London appearances since 2009.

Monday March 18 Casual Violence at Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square 7pm, £7. Musical comedy troupe.

Character Club at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 42-44 Pollard Row, E2 6NB Bethnal Green 8pm11.45pm, phone for prices. Character comedy from Robin and Partridge.

Mark Thomas: Manifesto Warm Up at Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE Tottenham Court Road 7.45pm, £10. The political stand-up tries out new material.

Stand Up For The Comedy School, at The Comedy Store, 1a Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE Piccadilly Circus 8pm, £20. Benefit featuring Phil Jupitus, Neil Mullarkey, Adam Bloom and more.

FX / Press Association Images / Martin Twomey

Tuesday March 19 Stephen Bailey And Gary John Senior: Power Couple at Comedy Cafe, 66-68 Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY Old Street 8.15pm, FREE. The real life couple share stories of their relationship.

Lolitics at The Black Heart, 3 Greenland Place, NW1 0AP Camden Town phone for times, phone for prices. Anarchic political comedy.

Howard Read: Hide And Speak at Downstairs At The King’s Head, 2 Crouch End Hill, N8 8AA Finsbury Park 8.30pm, £7. A blend of stand-up comedy and interactive animation.

Wednesday March 20 The Complete Guide To Everything at Kings Place, 90 York Way, N1 9AG King’s Cross St Pancras 8pm, phone for prices, phone for availability. With Tim Daniels and Tom Reynolds.

Philippa Fordham: Me And My Big Mouth at Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square 7pm, £7.50. Multicharacter comedy from the Radio 4 star.

Teenage Cancer Trust: Russell Brand, Noel Fielding at Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP South Kensington 7.30pm, £25£50, phone for availability. Surreal and flamboyant humour in aid of an important cause.

Laughing Labia Comedy at Candy Bar, 4 Carlisle Street, W1D 3BJ Tottenham Court Road 8pm-10pm, £9, mems £7. With Stella Graham, Lauren Karl, Elizabeth Hotson, Jane Weedon, Giada Garofalo and host Alice Frick.

Thursday March 21 Battleacts! at The Dogstar, 389 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8LQ Brixton 7pm-11pm, £5. Two teams compete in a series of improvised games.

Bite Me! Comedy Jam at The Camden Head, 100 Camden High Street, NW1 0LU Camden Town 7.30pm, £3. Featuring Underdogs, Lewis Schaffer, Tom Holmes, Ruth E Cockburn, Hill & Weedon, Richard Todd, Peter White.

Max And Ivan: Con Artists at St James Theatre, 12 Palace Street, SW1E 5JA Victoria 8pm, £12.50 & £15. An epic narrative sketch-comedy heist.

The Maydays: Confessions! at Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square 9pm, £8. Improvisational comedy from the Brighton-based collective.

Scratch at North London Tavern, 375 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7QB Kilburn 8pm, £5. Improvised comedy.

Saturday March 23

Shazia Mirza: Cuckooland at Canada Water Culture Space, 21 Montreal House Surrey Quays Road, SE16 7AN Surrey Quays 7.30pm, £12, concs £10. Insightful social and cultural observations mixed with personal anecdotes.

Big Night Out at Rumba, 36 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EP Piccadilly Circus phone for times, £9.99. With Eric Lampaert, Ria Lina, Sean Meo and Chris Gilbert.

Comedy Cabaret at Downstairs At The King’s Head, 2 Crouch End Hill, N8 8AA Finsbury Park 8.30pm, £11, concs £7.

With David James, Gerry Howell, Johnny Candon, Lucy Beaumont and MC Dominic Frisby.

Comedy Carnival at The Clapham Grand, 21-25 St John’s Hill, SW11 1TT Clapham Common 8pm-10pm, £14.

With Eddy Brimson, Alistair Barrie and MC Pete Jonas.

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven at The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven, Under The Arches Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG Charing Cross 8pm-10.30pm, £13 & £15. With MC John Mann, Addy Van Der Borgh, Geoff Norcott and guest act.

Crack Comedy Club at The Watershed, 267 The Broadway, SW19 1SD Wimbledon 8pm, £11, adv £10, NUS £7. With James Dowdeswell, Erich McElroy and Nat Luurtsema.

The Funny Side...Of Covent Garden at The George, 213 Strand, WC2R 1AP Temple 8pm, £12.50. Jeff Innocent, Julian Deane, Scott Capurro, plus compere Gareth Kane.

New Cross Comedy Club at The London Theatre, New Cross, 455 New Cross Road, SE14 6TA New Cross 8pm, £5, mems £3. Compered by Liam Smith.

Ben Target And Matthew Highton: Bear Hugging & Other Skills at Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square 2.30pm, £5. Award-winning duo.

Up The Creek at Up The Creek, 302 Creek Road, SE10 9SW Greenwich 8.45pm, £16, adv £15. With Josh Howie, Rob Beckett, Ben Norris and MC Rob Collins.

Sunday March 24 Central London Comedy Club at Theodore Bullfrog, 28 John Adam Street, WC2N 6AS Charing Cross 8.30pm10.30pm, £5. With Eric Hutton, Pam Ford, Josephine Lacey, George Ryegold and Lawrence Boal, plus MC Ramsay MacDonald.

Comedy Store Players at Comedy Store, 1a Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE Piccadilly Circus 7.30pm, £17, NUS/ concs £12. Improvised humour with Phill Jupitus, Josie Lawrence, Richard Vranch, Neill Mullarkey, Andy Smart and Lee Simpson.

Lewis Schaffer’s American Guide To England at Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square 6pm, £10. Controversial humour from the New York stand-up.

Arthur Smith: Exposed! at Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, SE10 8ES Greenwich 7.30pm, £15, concs £12.50. Grouchy, off-the-wall stand-up.

scoutlondon.com Scout London 33

King of the swi With Welcome to the Punch on the screen and Macbeth on the stage, James McAvoy has never been busier. The affable star takes time out to talk to Susan Griffin about shunning the limelight and being picky about his jobs

I

t might be considered bad luck to say the name of Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish play’ out loud, but James McAvoy can’t be doing with such superstitious bunkum.

“We say Macbeth in the theatre,” says the actor, who plays the titular role in the current West End production. “It’s about a man who disdains his fortune and says, ‘Damn you fate, I’m not going to die today’, and so from that moment on he’s sort of outside of fate.

34 Scout London scoutlondon.com

“You feel like you can’t play him unless you go, ‘C’mon, Macbeth’!” explains the 33-yearold Scot, littering his sentences with swearwords and throwing in a double-finger salute for good measure.

Physically, it’s the most demanding role he has ever undertaken, and this is the man who dodged bullets with Angelina Jolie in the action-packed Wanted and experienced the horrors of Second

World War battle in Joe Wright’s epic Atonement.

“We’ve got cuts and bruises all over and we’re down the physio a couple of times a week,” says a bearded McAvoy. “We’re like an army that are struggling to get through it at the moment.”

He’s also promoting his new movie Welcome to the Punch, a slick, cops and robbers action thriller shot in the City of London.

Surely he learned a thing or two

about multi-tasking from Danny Boyle, who directed him in upcoming movie Trance while also helming the Olympic opening ceremony.

“Yeah, but the thing about Danny is he’s got a sort of advantage over mere mortals in that he’s got a nuclear power station in his belly that fuels him 24/7 and he can go and go,” says McAvoy, laughing.

Boyish-looking, with big, expressive blue eyes, McAvoy eschews the limelight when he’s not on promotional duties. “It’s important for me to disappear, so audiences don’t get sick of you, and also to allow time for you to grow so you don’t get caught doing the same thing again and again,” he says.

He’s also “a wee bit picky...

I think I drive my agents nuts sometimes,” he admits, laughing.

ingers That would explain why Eran Creevy, the director of Welcome to the Punch, has remarked how nervous he was on approaching McAvoy to play police detective Max Lewinsky. Does it feel strange to have that sort of impact?

“It makes me feel powerful!” jokes McAvoy. “No, it does make me feel funny actually because I don’t want anyone feeling nervous and there’s no reason to. But also, Creevy’s nervous because he needs to get somebody with a certain level of profile to get his movie funded, so all these meetings he goes into like that are make or break.”

It’s rare that a movie’s given the green light to shoot in the UK’s banking epicentre (even Brad Pitt was turned down for his new film, World War Z), but Creevy – who had

only made one small movie prior to Welcome to the Punch (the critically acclaimed Shifty) – has contacts in the City.

The result is a British film that looks unlike any other, which was one of the draws for McAvoy.

“I think we do great gritty British drama, but I really responded to the fact that this director and this particular script and these particularly characters seemed like something out of a Hong Kong action movie,” says the actor.

“It’s a lot slicker and sharper and a lot more beautiful, dare I say it, than the usual geezer, street gangster kind of thing.”

The film follows the story of two male protagonists, Lewinsky and Jacob Sternwood [Mark Strong], operating on different sides of

the law. In the aftermath of his character’s earlier, botched bid to catch Sternwood, Lewinsky has gone from “being a flag bearer and a champion of his division to being a joke and a bit of a has-been”.

McAvoy continues: “He comes a cropper thanks to Sternwood, who leaves him with a very bad leg and head, and suddenly he knows he’s mortal and becomes a very frightened person.”

Having never endured a crisis of confidence in his career, McAvoy had to draw on more than personal experience.

“I’m still very enthusiastic and I don’t think I’m too jaded but I’m much more aware of what goes on in the business, and how I can do my job better and not be distracted by irrelevant stuff,” he says.

Born in Port Glasgow, McAvoy spent a lot of his childhood living with his grandparents. He’s spoken in the past of having once toyed with the idea of joining the priesthood, but found his interest lay elsewhere after making his acting debut in 1995’s The Near Room.

After graduating from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2000, he appeared on stage, where he caught the attention of director Joe Wright, who later cast him in Atonement, and starred in Steven Spielberg’s television series Band Of Brothers. But his big break was the Bafta-winning Shameless, which McAvoy left in 2005. This is also where he met his wife.

“Yes, where I met my missus, Mrs McDuff,” he says, smiling at the mention of the actress AnneMarie Duff, who went froim being his onscreen girlfriend to his real-life wife in 2006. The pair now have a two-year-old son, Brendan.

Aside from Atonement, which earned him Golden Globe and Bafta nominations, other career highlights include The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Last King of Scotland and X-Men: First Class, a recent prequel to the phenomenally successful X-Men films.

As soon as he finishes his stint as Macbeth, he’ll be reuniting with the cast to shoot the follow-up, X-Men: Days of Future Past, in Montreal.

“It’s nice to see the cast growing by the minute, and it’ll be good to hook up with all of them again,” he says of his X-Men co-stars, who include Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence, fresh from her Oscar glory.

Filming is likely to take him through to October, after which he and the family will “take a wee holiday”.

“I’ve been very lucky, as it’s been a strong year in terms of different types of roles, and I’d quite like that to continue,” he says.

But while it’s “fairly full on” at the moment, he jokes: “I promise I’ll disappear again.”

Welcome to the Punch is in cinemas now

City boys McAvoy (right) with co-star Mark Strong (left) and director Eran Creevy

scoutlondon.com Scout London 35

new releases

Identity Thief (15) Identity theft affects an estimated 1.8 million people in the UK every year, leading to months of worry and stress. It’s hardly a laughing matter. Nor, sadly, is Seth Gordon’s brash comedy – a smash hit on the other side of the Atlantic – which pits a kind-hearted family man (Jason Bateman) against the ballsy con woman (Bridesmaids scenestealer Melissa McCarthy), who has spent thousands of dollars and committed heinous crimes in his name. Identity Thief relies heavily on the razor-sharp comic timing of the two leads, casting Bateman as the beleaguered straight man to McCarthy’s whirlwind extrovert. The opening hour is acrimoniously divorced from reality, reaching a ludicrous crescendo with a motel room threesome; which makes the second half, laced with heart-tugging sentiment and tearful confessions, exceedingly hard to swallow. Damon Smith

The Croods 3D (U) Ice Age meets Brave in Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders’s energetic computer-animated romp about a caveman called Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage), who has taught his family to be afraid of the unknown.

While Grug’s wife Ugga (Catherine Keener), oafish son Thug (Clark Duke), decrepit mother (Cloris Leachman) and feral baby abide by his diktats, restless daughter Eep (Emma Stone) rebels and leads the rag-tag prehistoric tribe on a perilous expedition across uncharted wilderness in the company of a charming caveboy called Guy (Ryan Reynolds). The Croods bursts with vibrant colour, punctuated by lively action set pieces including a hunting sequence that draws in several otherworldly species. A cuddly sloth called Belt provides the comic relief amid the saccharine father-daughter bonding. DS

Stolen (12A) Simon West’s lumbering action thriller, which reunites the Con Air director with grizzled leading man Nicolas Cage, intends to pickpocket 95 precious minutes of your life. Resist at all costs because Stolen is a bore, casting Cage as thief Will Montgomery, who is arrested by the cops shortly after he has incinerated the incriminating $10 million haul from his latest heist. Having served eight years behind bars, Will emerges with a desire to go straight, only to be dragged back into the mire when his old partner (Josh Lucas) kidnaps Will’s truculent daughter (Sam Gayle) and holds her hostage for the missing booty.

Stolen lurches from implausibility to physical impossibility, and none of the crash-bang action scenes, including a chase through a multi-storey car park, quicken the pulse. DS

36 Scout London scoutlondon.com

Also showing

Human Rights Watch Film Festival

The White Ribbon (15)

The London edition of the festival boasts an eclectic programme of live action and animated features that shine a spotlight on humanitarian issues and injustice around the world. Highlights include Atiq Rahimi’s dramatisation of his 2008 novel The Patience Stone (Mar 18), Marc Wiese’s harrowing documentary Camp 14: Total Control Zone (Mar 18, 20), which explores the life of a young man born inside a North Korean prison camp, and Srdjan Dragojevic’s comical road trip, The Parade (Mar 20 & 21), centred on one couple’s attempts to stage a gay pride march in the violently homophobic Serbian capital of Belgrade. This year’s closing night gala is Wadjda (pictured, Mar 22), the first full-length feature film shot entirely inside Saudi Arabia, glimpsed through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl. DS

Shot in stunning black and white, writer-director Michael Haneke’s gripping mystery unfolds in a German farming community on the eve of the first world war, where dark secrets fester beneath the surface of quaint village life. In this melting pot of bitter rivalries and deceit, the new schoolteacher (Christian Friedel) is shocked to learn of an attempt on the life of the local doctor (Rainer Bock) and the subsequent death, perhaps murder, of the Baron’s son (Ulrich Tukur). As the teacher asks questions about this spate of violence, he senses something dreadfully awry in the rural idyll. The White Ribbon is exquisitely unsettling. The pervading mood of doom is offset by a tender romance between the teacher and a 17-year-old parishioner (Leonie Benesch) that somehow flourishes in poisonous terrain. DS

Until Mar 22, times vary, £10-£13.75. Curzon Soho and various venues, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 5DY Leicester Square

Mar 24, 5.30pm (screening as a double bill with Amour), £9.50, concs £8.50. Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, W6 9RL Hammersmith

Camberwell Free Film Festival

Psycho (15)

Planned and run by local volunteers, this inaugural celebration of the moving image in SE5 promises a pick’n’mix of classics and arthouse gems including Miranda July’s delightful offbeat romance Me and You and Everyone We Know (pictured, Mar 18) with free hotdogs and gourmet popcorn (while stocks last), Pedro Almodovar’s tragi-comedy All About My Mother (Mar 19), Bruce Robinson’s seminal comedy Withnail and I (Mar 21) and a matinee screening of The Wizard of Oz (Mar 24). Festivities come to a hysterical close with the unmissable double whammy of Christopher Guest’s mockumentary, Best in Show, and John Waters’ cult comedy, Hairspray, featuring Divine, Rikki Lake and Debbie Harry. DS

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 thriller, based on Robert Bloch’s novel of the same name, has been ingrained in movie lore thanks to that shower scene and Bernard Herrmann’s unsettling score that cuts to the quick like a knife through flesh. Janet Leigh is the unfortunate thief who embezzles $4,000 from her employer, then checks in for a night at the Bates Motel and ends up checking out a lot quicker than she had anticipated, unaware that schizophrenic owner Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is watching her every move. In another director’s hands, Psycho wouldn’t work, but Hitchcock teases us at every turn, coaxing a careerbest performance from Perkins as the motel owner, who takes being a ‘mummy’s boy’ to a completely new level. DS

Until Mar 24, times vary, FREE. Various venues across the district

Mar 20, 8.45pm, £10, mems £7.50. The Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BY Leicester Square

Denmark Hill

scoutlondon.com Scout London 37

The final kill?

F

orensic analyst by day, serial killer by night; Dexter Morgan could only live a double life for so long. At the end of the sixth series of the hit US drama his guilty secret was uncovered when his sister Debra walked in on him as he plunged a knife into a victim’s heart.

Having been kept in the dark about her brother’s ‘kills’, Debra’s shocking discovery has set the scene for season seven, especially as emotions, including the rumbling sexual tension, are already running high between the adopted siblings.

“Deb finding out changes the landscape of the show in such a fundamental way,” explains actor Michael C Hall, who portrays the murderer with a skewed set of values. “It’s really been invigorating, in the seventh season, to feel such a sense of vitality and newness, and that’s testament to the way the writers have handled this revelation that has been hanging in the wings for some time. It’s great.”

Vigilante killer Dexter has been hunting down those murderers he feels will never face real justice since the show began, back in 2006. But, as viewers of many a crime show will know, once you pop you can’t stop, and we’ve grown accustomed to seeing Dexter, who works by day for the MiamiMetro Police Department, bump off those who know his secret to avoid discovery. So what will happen with his only living sibling?

Hall is tight-lipped about the coming episodes, but admits Dexter will initially attempt to hide his true intentions. “We see Dexter try to manage what Deb has seen and hold onto the hope that he can have her only see a piece of the truth, not the whole 38 Scout London scoutlondon.com

It’s complicated Dexter and Debra

truth. But that’s probably not going to work out for long,” he teases. “I think it has a ripple effect that leaves nothing untouched. Every relationship and dynamic is fundamentally changed because of this.”

The North Carolina-born actor first came to attention as David Fisher, the uptight undertaker in acclaimed drama Six Feet Under. But it’s as the prolific serial killer that he’s really blossomed, winning Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards. And he admits he has some sympathy for the character he’s played for seven years.

“What’s sad about Dexter is that there’s always been in him, in spite of what he claims, a longing for a connection and revelation, to be known and seen.

But the context in which that’s happening with his sister is so fraught with her sense of conflict over it and betrayal,” the New York University-trained actor explains. “Now that what he has done is affecting people in more direct ways, he has a different responsibility to the people around him.”

The 42-year-old admits he and co-star Jennifer Carpenter, who plays Debra, had an idea

of what was to come in the storyline.

“I was excited and nervous. Everyone on the show, definitely Jennifer and myself, have anticipated this development happening and the way they did it was really great,” he says. “The fact that she was on her way to express her conflicted romantic feelings about him sort of primed her to be relatively ready to receive this information, or deal with the conflict that it poses for her.”

In real life, Hall and Carpenter were married for two years before she filed for divorce in December 2010, but he insists their off-screen relationship hasn’t affected their screen partnership. “I think it’s a testament to our commitment to the show and to our work generally,” he says. “We have been through quite a journey but, thankfully, there remains a fundamental friendship and respect.”

There is talk that the eighth season will be the last, with Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS network, letting slip the news. “I’m grateful for having played this character for as long as I have,” says Hall. “It’s never gotten boring.”

Leaving Dexter behind will be “strange” though. “It’s been a huge chunk of my life,” he admits. Having played the role for so long, he can perhaps be forgiven for hoping that this out-ofcontrol vigilante eludes justice and finds himself a happy ending.

“Walking off into the sunset sounds really nice, but I don’t know if Dexter will get away with that,” he says. “We’ll see.”

Dexter continues on Fox on Sunday nights

PA Photo, Randy Tepper, Robert Sebree, Showtime

Dexter’s deadly secret has finally been uncovered. Leading actor Michael C Hall tells Shereen Low what this means for the show as we enter its penultimate season

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (12)

Amour (12)

Available on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes

Available on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes

Bella (Kristen Stewart) gradually acclimatises to her heightened powers as a vampire and to life with husband Edward (Robert Pattinson) and the Cullen clan. But trouble begins when she’s mistaken for an immortal child – an abomination under ancient law, prompting the Volturi, the vampire counsel led

by Aro (Michael Sheen), to amass an army. The Twilight Saga: Treading Water would be a more apt title for this final chapter, considering how scriptwriter Melissa Rosenberg manages to expand 30 minutes of plot into almost two hours of anticipation and dread. Stewart and Pattinson stare dreamily into each other’s eyes to an angst-heavy soundtrack of Green Day, Ellie Goulding and Feist. Taylor Lautner contributes a spot of gratuitous nudity for the fans while Sheen devours the expensive scenery with a twinkle in his eye. The climactic battle royale between the diabolical Volturi and the Cullens is certainly spectacular, director Bill Condon orchestrating the effects-heavy mayhem with verve. Were these brave warriors anything but otherworldly creatures who don’t bleed, the relentless on-screen carnage would merit a 15. Damon Smith

Elderly married couple Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are enjoying a balmy retirement with occasional visits from their daughter (Isabelle Huppert). But the gentle ebb and flow of life in their Parisian apartment is shattered when Anne suffers a minor stroke.

She cannot remember anything about the attack and thinks her husband is pulling her leg when he recounts it. As her condition deteriorates, she says she doesn’t want to go on – compelling Georges to consider the ultimate sacrifice. Writer-director Michael Haneke has never shied away from the harsh realities of life and here crafts a heartbreaking love story threaded with raw emotion. Amour refuses to look away as the doting wife is rendered an empty shell and Georges clings to happier memories to prevent himself sinking into despair. Trintignant and Oscar nominee Riva are stunning, and Haneke’s direction is flawless, tender yet resolutely unsentimental, deservedly earning him a cluttered mantelpiece of awards including an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe. DS

Stella Series 2 (15)

Available on DVD and Blu-ray box set

End Of Watch (15) Available on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes

Officers Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) patrol the mean streets of LA, trading macho banter between shoot-outs.

But their uncovering of a trafficking operation marks them for death. “You just tugged on the tail of a snake,” warns a DEA agent. End Of Watch is unremittingly bleak, patrolling the same beat as writer-director David Ayer’s previous films (which include Training Day). Despite the opening title card, “Once upon a time in South Central...”, this is no fairytale. Villains don’t get their comeuppance, beautiful heroines are slain before midnight and the only people living happily ever after are the pimps and drug dealers. DS

Forty-something single mother Stella (Ruth Jones) certainly has her hands full in the second series of this warm-hearted comedy set in the close-knit Welsh community of Pontyberry. Kind-hearted painter and decorator Sean (Kenny Doughty) might not be the father of Stella’s baby; old flame Rob (Mark Lewis Jones) continues to set her heart aflutter; and daughter Emma (Catrin Stewart) is learning the hard way that marriage to Sunil (Rory Girvan) takes a lot of work and compromise.

Raucous and occasionally potty-mouthed humour counterbalances the tender emotion, drawing us further into Stella’s helter-skelter world in the valleys of South Wales, where everyone knows your business, sometimes before you do. DS

Here Comes The Boom (12) Available on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes

Kevin James teaches biology at a school facing severe cuts. To save music teacher Henry Winkler’s job, James vows to cover the $48,000 shortfall by entering the lucrative world of Mixed Martial Arts, calling on his past as a college wrestler – and hoping his 42-year-old body doesn’t crumble under the barrage. Here Comes The Boom is a preposterous comedy that values brawn over brains. It contrives a romance between Scott and fiery school nurse, Salma Hayek, who has rejected countless overtures but softens when she sees her paramour being pulverised for a good cause.

Matron might get hot and bothered by the brutality but viewers will struggle to raise a smile. DS

scoutlondon.com Scout London 39

Sometimes, when you go to a club, you’re just desperate for a DJ to play a tune by your favourite band. But what if there was a night that played nothing but your favourite band?

Laura Martin investigates the new craze for cult artist tribute nights 40 Scout London scoutlondon.com

H

olding a flashing LED tambourine and an old Stevie Nicks vinyl triumphantly over my head to a barrage of cheers, I am in the midst of hedonistic, infectious Fleetwood Mac fervour.

Hours of enthusiastic dancing at the centre of a crowded club to The Chain, Everywhere and You Can Go Your Own Way have culminated in this moment: me taking the ultimate glory of the night, the coveted ‘best costume’ prize.

The 80s diamante-studded denim jumpsuit that I managed to pick up for £5, teamed with a louche cigarette and trademark vodka tonic, has been deemed “classic Christine McVie” by the promoter of Fleetmac Wood, and won me my moment of triumph. That was one well-spent fiver.

Fleetmac Wood is a cult club night that is, obviously, dedicated to celebrating all things Fleetwood Mac. It has been taking place in the capital every couple of months since June

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Wonder only happens when they’re playing

jon Attenborough

“Classic Christine McVie” Laura Martin (centre) in her winning costume

last year, with one of the strictest music policies around: songs have to be original Fleetwoods, re-edits or remixes only – strictly no covers. And it has tapped into a feverish demand for the Mac, no doubt heightened by the band’s recently confirmed tour of the UK this September.

Far from being an anomaly, Fleetmac Wood is one of several new London nights devoted exclusively to a classic artist. Themed retro clubbing is nothing new – everything from the Blitz Party to Ultimate Power have been going strong for several years now. But the tribute night scene is a new development.

Fleetmac Wood’s founder is Lisa Jeliffe, who also DJs as Roxanne Roll.

“I’ve been to so many house parties where the best of Fleetwood Mac ends up being played and played

again – all night long,” she tells Scout. “People who love Fleetwood Mac really love them so I’m not surprised at all by how popular it has become.”

Jeliffe says it’s a concept she’s been working on for a while now.

“I had the idea about three years ago, but was waiting until I found a venue that felt right,” she says.

“At the same time, since having the initial idea the whole vintage re-edit genre has really exploded. Fleetwood Mac have such an incredible back catalogue that spans blues, rock and 80s pop, so it’s a rich mine for re-editing and remixing. For each party, we put a call out to producers to make exclusive re-edits that we then play on the night.”

While DJs might have taken up the mantle to create their own imprints of famous tracks, the revelers packed into the Visions Video Bar in Dalston on the night of my costumed triumph have gone all out in their finest Mac attire. Alongside my award-winning outfit, you can’t move for swirling, gypsy-skirted

Stevie-a-likes, all floaty scarves, top hats and dangling jewellery.

Lisa says: “A lot of people dress up, which is great, and I like to hand out peacock feathers too. It’s a celebration of the Mac, after all.

What’s great about the night is that people are there for the music.

Everyone’s excited, there’s a sense of ‘we’re in this together’ as it’s essentially a six hour Mac marathon.

I’ve actually bruised my hand from banging my tambourine so hard all night.”

Meanwhile, the trend for tribute club nights in London has taken another 70s/80s musical legend for inspiration. David Bowie’s return after a 10-year absence with a new album has awoken fans of The Thin White Duke – so much so that they want to revel in his back catalogue all night long. So thank the stardust for Shirley Presents: Night of A Thousand Bowies.

Journalist and Bowie super-fan Naomi Atwood set up the club night recently, and it had its premiere on March 8 at Charlie Wright’s bar in

You can dance your own way Fleetmac Wood founder Roxanne Roll

Hoxton. “I always had the idea to do a Bowie-themed edition of my fanzine, Shirley,” she says. “Bowie is an obvious choice for a themed party.

It struck me as an appropriate time to do it now, because of the V&A exhibition and his musical comeback – it’s like the whole zeitgeist has been taken over by Bowieness.”

On the night, three different DJs took over the bar, playing tunes by Bowie and other music inspired by him. Then, in a highly avant-garde performance, artist Thom Shaw lipsynced to Barbra Streisand singing Life On Mars while downing a bottle of red wine. Which surely would have pleased Mr B himself.

“We had some people dressing up more than others,” says Atwood, “with mullet wigs and lightening bolt face paint being the most popular ways to channel his Ziggyness.”

Over in Hackney, the tribute adoration parties have moved into the 90s with a night dedicated to a Mr Robert Sylvester Kelly. Unpackaged Presents: R Kelly promises a night of “Bump n’ Grind-themed cocktails, sneaky Ignition Remix snacks and Trapped In The Closet played in full on the projector”. Oh, and a couple of “sexy surprises”, (which hopefully don’t include any of the King of R&B’s actual sex tapes).

While Atwood says the next Shirley Presents party will be inspired by a different act, Jeliffe is also looking to branch out into other musical avenues: “We’d love to do some festivals and Ibiza feels like a good fit. We’re also launching a new project for my other favourite band, who are rumoured to be headlining Glastonbury. It’s called The Sticky Fingers Project.”

The Rolling Stones, perhaps? I’d better get working on my Keef outfit Fleetmac Wood: White Winged Love, March 23, The New Empowering Church, E8 3RL. £10, 9pm-3am, soundcloud.com/fleetmacwood Unpackaged presents: R Kelly, March 24, Unpackaged, E8 3NJ, FREE, 7pm-10.30pm, search for Unpackaged Bar on Facebook

scoutlondon.com Scout London 41

THIS WEEK

Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Noel Gallagher

March 23, Royal Albert Hall, £25-£75

Reports suggest that each musician will be playing songs from their own repertoire. But the expectation is for some tasty collaborations also. The holy grail that we’re all hoping for is, of course, Noel singing Country House and Damon doing Roll With It. Kensington Gore SW7 2AP South Kensington

Cody Chesnutt March 18, Bush Hall, £21 You know Cody Chesnutt even if you don’t know you know him. Know what we mean?! He is the proud owner of the scene-stealing, rawyet-soulful voice that held together The Roots’ ubiquitous hit single, The Seed. They sampled him over 10 years ago, rocketing him from relative anonymity to overnight media-fascination. But it was at this exact moment that he 42 Scout London scoutlondon.com

chose to step away from the limelight, returning only last year with the accomplished Landing on a Hundred LP. He has a sound and message that is clearly influenced by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, and a great reputation for spirited live performances.

Uxbridge Road W12 7LJ Shepherd’s Bush Market

The Weeknd March 24, Electric Ballroom, £26 If you’re a fan of obscure musical sub-genres then you’ll probably already know that The Weeknd is almost single-handedly to blame for the term ‘alt-RnB’. This niche scene takes the mainstream sounds of poppy RnB and pushes them somewhere more introspective and melancholy.

The Weeknd is Abel Tesfaye, an Ethiopian-Canadian who found YouTube notoriety back in 2010 when he released mixtapes such

as House of Balloons and Echoes of Silence. Since then his rise to fame has been a speedy one, and he has worked with the likes of Drake and Wiz Khalifa. At this concert you can expect gloopy beats, haunting echoes and some very well-soundtracked navel-gazing.

Camden High Street NW1 8QP Camden Town

PA IMAGES

Back in the ‘90s it would’ve taken a miracle to get these three Britpoppers onto the same stage. It turns out that all it took were some grey hairs, a little water under the bridge and a really good cause. This momentous occasion sees the Blur and Oasis’ founding fathers come together to raise some money and awareness for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Rizzle Kicks & Labrinth March 24, Royal Albert Hall, £25-£50 This event is also part of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust series of concerts, and might just be a pairing of the two chirpiest acts in pop. Rizzle Kicks have found boundless adolescent popularity for their charmingly bouncy take on hip-hop, which can be reveled in on their Stereo Typical LP. If you’re looking for someone to blame for school disco dancefloor craze ‘the Hump’, they’re your men. They will be teaming up with Labrinth – the man with the bog toothy grin who is behind Tinie Tempah’s massive hit, Pass Out. With singles like Earthquake and Beneath Your Beautiful to his name, this looks set to be a filler-free affair.

Kensington Gore SW7 2AP South Kensington

Also this week:

March 21, Shepherds Bush Empire, £13.50

PA IMAGES

1

Duane Eddy Stalkin’

2

Darkstar Armonica

3

Legion of Green Men For Maria Wherever, I May Find Her

A swooning delight from 1958. Refreshingly good.

Drunken, twangy psychedelia from the increasingly downbeat duo.

Sometimes you’ve just got to let the funk flow.

4

Armando Don’t Take It (Thomos Edit)

Surrender to those acieed squelch-lines.

Distracting.

5

Jagwar Ma The Throw (Extended Version)

The loose-limbed spirit of Madchester is revived here by the Sydney duo with dilated eyes fixed on the dancefloor.

Listen to our playlist: j.mp/scout0032

Heather Peace Mar 21, Islington Assembly Hall, £25

Polica

Polica have a string of highprofile fans to their name – Jay-Z posted their video on his blog last year and Bon Iver called them the best band he’d ever heard. This show is your chance to see if you agree. The Minneapolis six-piece formed as a creative collective – a meeting of minds between the City of Lakes’ most interesting musical innovators. The result

Scout Stereo

is a haunting sound that has seen them compared to the likes of the xx, with vocalist Channy Leanagh’s dulcet tones twisted into tortured, vocoder-heavy emotions. King Jigga has spoken – resistance is futile.

Shepherd’s Bush Green W12 8TT Shepherd’s Bush

Clannad Mar 20, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £32.50 Die! Die! Die!, Evans The Death Mar 22, Hoxton Square Bar And Kitchen, £6 Eels Mar 21, O2 Academy Brixton, £30 Inspiral Carpets Mar 22, KOKO, £18.50 Jodeci, Blackstreet, Dru Hill, Swv, Changing Faces Mar 23, Wembley Arena, £35-£75 Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds, The Dustaphonics Mar 23, Shacklewell Arms, adv £12.50 Nas Mar 19, The O2, £34-£39

So Solid Crew Mar 21, IndigO2, phone for prices Stiff Little Fingers, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Edward Tudor Pole Mar 22, The Forum, £18.50 in advance Suede Mar 22, Rough Trade East, £12.99 The Script Mar 22 & Mar 23, The O2, £29.50 Toy, Wire Mar 23, The Lexington, adv £15 Woodkid Mar 23, Rough Trade East, £10.99 Yo La Tengo Mar 20, Barbican Centre, £15

scoutlondon.com Scout London 43

BOOKING AHEAD !!! May 7, Village Underground, £13.50 5ive, Atomic Kitten, B*witched, Liberty X, 911, Honeyz May 14, The O2, phone for prices A$AP Rocky May 21 & May 22, O2 Academy Brixton, £20 Adrian Edmondson And The Bad Shepherds Dec 14, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, adv £20 Alasdair Roberts, David McGuinness May 31, DHFC, £12, concs £8 Albert Hammond Apr 17, Bush Hall, adv £25 Albert Lee & Hogans Heroes May 16, Boisdales Of Canary Wharf, £10-£35 Alicia Keys May 30 & May 31, The O2, £39.50 & £45

Alison Moyet Oct 15, Southbank Centre, £25-£45, concs £12.50-£22.50 All Tomorrow’s Parties I’ll Be Your Mirror: I’ll Be Your Mirror 2013: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear May 4 & May 5, Alexandra Palace, day ticket £59, twoday ticket £110 Alt-J, Princess Chelsea May 16, O2 Academy Brixton, £16 Andreya Triana Apr 11, Hoxton Square Bar And Kitchen, phone for availability and May 31, Union Chapel, £22.50, adv £17.50 Angel Haze May 7, The Scala, adv £12.50 and May 9, Heaven, phone for prices Anti Nowhere League Oct 18, The Underworld, adv £12.50 As One In The Park : As One In The Park: Rita Ora May 26, Victoria Park, £35 Atoms For Peace Jul 24, Roundhouse, £49.50 Ava Leigh Mar 26, The Blues Kitchen, FREE Bad Manners, Max Splodge, The Pukes Jun 7, The Clapham Grand, £22 Bamboo, Firebox Apr 5, 229 The Venue, £40 Beach House Mar 25 & Mar 26, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £18

44 Scout London scoutlondon.com

Blondie Jul 7, Roundhouse, £37.50 Beth Orton Apr 17, Southbank Centre, £15-£25, concs £7.50-£12.50 Beyoncé: The Mrs Carter Show Apr 29May 1, May 3-May 5, The O2, £55-£85 Biffy Clyro, City And Colour Apr 3, The O2, £26.50 & £29.50 Big Country Apr 21, The Forum, £23.50 Big Daddy Kane Apr 24 & Apr 25, The Jazz Cafe, £20 Bill Ryder-Jones May 8, The Lexington, adv £8 Billy Bragg Jun 5, Union Chapel, £20 and Dec 1, Southbank Centre, £20 & £22, concs £10 & £11 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Mar 27, O2 Academy Brixton, £22.50 Bonnie Raitt Jun 27, Royal Albert Hall, £40-£50 Boyzone: BZ20 Tour Dec 20, The O2, phone for prices, and Dec 21, Wembley Arena, £37.50 Brian May And Kerry Ellis May 1, Royal Albert Hall, phone for prices British Lion, Zico Chain Mar 26, O2 Academy Islington, £17.50 British Sea Power Apr 17, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £15 British Summer Time: Bon Jovi Jul 5, Hyde Park, £65 Bruno Mars Oct 8 & Oct 9, The O2, £39.50 Bryan Ferry Nov 4, Royal Albert Hall, £35-£95 Burt Bacharach Jun 26, Southbank Centre, £30-£75, concs £15-£37.50 Chas & Dave May 18, IndigO2, £26.50£45 Chris & Cosey May 19, Heaven, £15 Chris De Burgh Apr 24, Royal Albert Hall, £35-£50 Courtney Pine’s House Of Legends May 18, The Albany, £18 Craig David May 22, IndigO2, £35 & £45 David Byrne & St Vincent Aug 27, Roundhouse, £35 Dead Can Dance Jul 2, Roundhouse, £30 Deep Purple Oct 16, Roundhouse, £35 Depeche Mode May 28 & May 29, The O2, £40 & £50

Devendra Banhart Jul 18, Barbican Centre, £20 Dexys Apr 15, Apr 16, Apr 18-Apr 20, Apr 22, Apr 23, The Duke Of York’s, £26-£41 Drizabone Soul Family Apr 4, The Jazz Cafe, £22.50 Dwele Apr 17-Apr 19, The Jazz Cafe, £22.50 Edwyn Collins Apr 24, Union Chapel, £25 Eliza Carthy & Jim Moray May 16, Union Chapel, £20 Elvis Costello & The Imposters Jun 4 & Jun 5, Royal Albert Hall, £45 Emeli Sandé Apr 8, 9 & Apr 10, Hammersmith Apollo, £25-£29.50 phone for availbility Engelbert Humperdinck May 10, Royal Albert Hall, £38.50

Classical

Sasha Grynyuk Mar 21, Wigmore Hall, £12-£25 Academy Of St Martin In The Fields Mar 26, Cadogan Hall, £12.50-£39.50 April Fool’s Day Comedy Concert 2013 Apr 1, Southbank Centre, £9.50-£34.50 Alexander Hamiliton Mar 18, Southwark Cathedral, phone for prices BBC Symphony Orchestra Mar 22, Barbican Centre, £10-£30 Florilegium Mar 30, Wigmore Hall, £18-£35

Counting Crows Apr 22 & Apr 23, Hammersmith Apollo, adv £37.50 Fairport Convention May 10, The Borderline, £24 Field Day Festival 2013: Bat For Lashes, Solange, Animal Collective May 25, Victoria Park, £49.50 Fleetwood Mac Sep 24, Sep 25, Sep 27, The O2, £80-£125 Frank Turner And The Sleeping Souls Apr 25, The Forum, £22.50, phone for availability Fun Apr 12, 18, Hammersmith Apollo, £18.50 George Thorogood & The Destroyers Jun 21, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £34-£35.50 Ghostpoet May 30, Village Underground, adv £15.50 Goat Jun 27, The Scala, adv £12.50 Gold Panda Jun 12, Electric Brixton, £12 Green Day, Kaiser Chiefs, All Time Low Jun 1, Emirates Stadium, £45-£65 Haim Apr 24, Heaven, £10 Happy Mondays Jun 29, The Forum, £32.50 Hard Rock Calling 2013: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Kasabian Jun 29 & Jun 30, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Sat day ticket £45, Sun day ticket £62.50

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: The Great Classics Jun 7, Royal Albert Hall, £5-£38 Conducted

by Kirill Karabits (pictured) Stephen Kovacevich Mar 19, Southbank Centre, £10-£28, concs £5-£14 Tomasz Lis Mar 20, 1901 Arts Club, £20 St Dunstan’s Chorus And Orchestra Mar 25, St John’s, Smith Square, £12, concs £8, mems £10.80, family £22 Vivamus Mar 26, St Martin-InThe-Fields, £8-£24 Whitehall Choir/London Baroque Sinfonia Mar 28, St John’s, Smith Square, £10-£22.50, mems £9£20.50

Sussie Ahlburg

FUTURE

Hadouken! Apr 25, Electric Ballroom, £14.50 Horace Andy, Dub Asante Band & Matic Horn Section Apr 7, The Jazz Cafe, adv £16.50 Ian Anderson Jun 30, Royal Albert Hall, £30-£55 Ian Hunter, Andy York, Dave Roe Mar 30, The Bloomsbury Theatre, £25 Iron & Wine May 31, Barbican Centre, £18-£22.50 JLS Dec 21 & Dec 22, The O2, £25 & £33.50 Jake Bugg Oct 23 & Oct 24, O2 Academy Brixton, £20 James Blake Apr 9, Heaven, £15 James, Echo And The Bunnymen Apr 19 & Apr 20, O2 Academy Brixton, £38.50 Jessie J Oct 29 & Oct 30, The O2, £25 & £33.50 Joe Cocker May 13, Hammersmith Apollo, £30-£40 Joe Satriani Jun 17, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £40, and Jun 18, IndigO2, phone for prices Johnny Winter Apr 14, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £25 Journey/Whitesnake, Thunder May 29, Wembley Arena, £48 Karl Hyde Apr 25, Union Chapel, £25 Kate Nash May 1, 100 Club, £15 Katie Melua Oct 2, Roundhouse, £37.50 Killer Mike May 21, XOYO, adv £12 King Creosote Apr 15-Apr 17, The Slaughtered Lamb, phone for availability King Krule, Rainy Milo, Night Works Mar 28, The Garage, £5, phone for availability Kings Of Leon Jun 12 & Jun 13, The O2, £57.50 Kinky Friedman Apr 24, 229 The Venue, adv £22.50 Lana Del Rey May 19 & May 20, Hammersmith Apollo, £28.50 Laura Mvula May 1, Islington Assembly Hall, £13.75, phone for availability Leona Lewis May 8 & May 9, Royal Albert Hall, £35-£65 Leonard Cohen Jun 21, The O2, £25£75 Level 42 Sep 20, IndigO2, £28.50£38.50 Loudon Wainwright III May 3, Southbank Centre, £25-£35, concs £12.50-£17.50

Low Apr 30, Barbican Centre, £17.50£22.50 Lucinda Williams Jun 17, Barbican Centre, phone for prices Lucy Rose May 14, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £13.50 Major Lazer, Angel Haze May 4, Roundhouse, £17.50 Mark Knopfler May 27-Jun 1, Royal Albert Hall, £37.50-£52.50 Marlena Shaw Mar 26-Mar 30, Ronnie Scott’s, £30-£50 Maroon 5 Jun 23 & Jun 24, The O2, £40 & £45 Martin Rev, Gallon Drunk Apr 9, Corsica Studios, £10 Matchbox Twenty Apr 16 & Apr 17, Hammersmith Apollo, £29.50 Matt Berry May 18, O2 Academy Islington, £16 McFly May 18, Wembley Arena, £31.50 Meat Loaf: Last At Bat Tour Apr 10, The O2, £57.50

One Direction Apr 1, Apr 2, Apr 4, Apr 5, Apr 2, The O2, £25 & £33.50 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark May 3, Roundhouse, £33.50 P!nk Apr 24, Apr 25, Apr 27, Apr 28, The O2, £42.50-£55 Palma Violets Apr 9, Electric Brixton, phone for prices Peace, Superfood Apr 30-May 3, Birthdays, £10 Pee Wee Ellis, Ronnie Scott’s All Stars Apr 5, Ronnie Scott’s, £50-£70 Pet Shop Boys Jun 18, The O2, £35 Peter Gabriel Oct 21 & Oct 22, The O2, £40 & £50 Petula Clark Oct 13, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, £22.50-£47.50 Portico Quartet Apr 17, KOKO, phone for prices Rascal Flatts Jul 11, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £25 Rico Rodriguez Mar 28, The Jazz Cafe, £18.50 Rod Stewart: Live The Life Tour Jun 4 & Jun 6, The O2, £60-£70 Rodriguez Jun 7 & Jun 8, Hammersmith Apollo, £10-£29.50 Rudimental May 2, Electric Brixton, £12 Rush May 24, The O2, £60 & £75 Santana Jul 19, Wembley Arena, £38.30-£65.80 Secret Affair Dec 7, Islington Assembly Hall, £20 & £22.50 Shuggie Otis May 11, The Forum, £20 & £25 Sinead O’Connor Mar 27, Barbican Centre, £18-£25

Tame Impala Jun 25, Hammersmith Apollo, £19.50

John Grant May 15, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £20 Megadeth Jun 6, O2 Academy Brixton, £28.50 Melvins May 19 & May 20, Electric Brixton, £22.50 Mick Hucknall Apr 28, Hammersmith Apollo, £40 & £50 Mudhoney, Meat Puppets Jun 8, The Forum, adv £18.50 Muse, Dizzee Rascal May 25 & May 26, Emirates Stadium, £49.50-£85 Neil Innes Apr 17, Half Moon, Putney, £14, adv £12 Neil Young & Crazy Horse Jun 17 & Jun 19, The O2, £45-£65 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Oct 26 & Oct 27, Hammersmith Apollo, phone for prices Nitin Sawhney Jun 27, Roundhouse, £23.50-£25 Noah And The Whale Apr 28, May 5, May 12, May 19, Palace Theatre, £26.50 & £32.50 Olly Murs Mar 29 & Mar 30, The O2, £34

Stornoway Mar 27, The Forum, £15 Suede Mar 30, Alexandra Palace, £32.50 The B-52s Aug 16, IndigO2, £33.50£36.50 The Beat May 11, 229 The Venue, adv £20 The Black Crowes Mar 29 & Mar 30, The Forum, £37.50 The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster Apr 12, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, £15 The Fall May 17, The Clapham Grand, £25 The Flaming Lips May 20 & May 21, Roundhouse, £32 The Fratellis Apr 11, Electric Ballroom, £20 The Gaslight Anthem Mar 29 & Mar 30, Troxy, £23.50 The Mission, Fields Of The Nephilim Dec 18, O2 Academy Brixton, adv £28.50 The Residents May 18, Barbican Centre, £15.25 The Smashing Pumpkins Jul 22, Wembley Arena, £38.50 & £48.50

Susheela Raman Apr 10, Royal Festival Hall, £15 Skunk Anansie Unplugged Apr 15, Cadogan Hall, £27.50 Squarepusher Mar 30, Roundhouse, £25 Steve Earle And The Dukes May 21, Southbank Centre, £15-£32.50, concs £7.50-£16.25 Steve Mason Apr 11, Village Underground, £17

The Specials May 28 & May 29, O2 Academy Brixton, adv £37.50 The Stone Roses Jun 7 & Jun 8, Finsbury Park, £55 The Stylistics Nov 29, IndigO2, £21.50£35 The Undertones May 24, KOKO, £20 The Vaccines May 2, The O2, £27 The Who Jun 15 & Jun 16, The O2, £60-£70 The Zombies Jun 1, IndigO2, £15-£25 Tom Odell May 23 & May 28, Electric Ballroom, £11 Tom Paxton Apr 26, Union Chapel, £28.50 Tyler, The Creator Mar 30, O2 Academy Islington, phone for availability Vampire Weekend May 8, Troxy, £27.50 Villagers May 21, Electric Brixton, £15 Willy Moon May 8, Electric Ballroom, £11 World Party Apr 17 & Apr 18, Under The Bridge, £27.50 ZZ Top Jun 24 & Jun 28, Hammersmith Apollo, £45

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CLUBBING Monday March 18 2 Dam Funky at The Silver Bullet, 5 Station Place, N4 2DH Finsbury Park £7, adv £3, 7pm. DJ 2 Dam Funky and MC E-Mix spin African, dance and dub.

Hard Core Salsa at Salsa!, 96 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0JG Tottenham Court Road £5, FREE before 9pm, 7pm-late. DJ Mario and DJ Julian play mambo and salsa, plus dance lessons.

It’s Britney Bitch! at The Shadow Lounge, 5-7 Brewer Street, W1F 0RF Leicester Square FREE, 10pm3am. DJ Tuomo Fox and special guests spin pop, R&B and chart hits under the watchful eye of MC Patrick Lilley.

Jamed at Trafik, 331 Old Street, EC1V 9LE Old Street FREE, 10pm2am. Andrew Lo and AV.rage spin house and techno.

Soulful Sound at Joiners Arms, 116-118 Hackney Road, E2 7QL Old Street FREE, phone for times. Resident DJs spin soul and funk.

Stampede at Escape Bar, 10A Brewer Street, W1F 0SU Piccadilly Circus £5, £3 before 1am, £1 before 11am, FREE before 10pm, 9pm-3am. DJ Laurence Rene spins pop-punk, alternative, rock and ska, with hosts Oli Sandler and Matt Boland.

Smile at Thirst, 53 Greek Street, W1D 3DR Tottenham Court Road £4, £3 before 12midnight, 5pm-3am.

Resident DJs play funky house, club classics and pop.

White Leather Viper Club at Dalston Superstore, 117 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB Dalston Kingsland FREE, 9pm2.30am. Will Viper spins electronica, disco and mutant-pop.

Thursday March 21

Wednesday March 20

Chick Habit at Candy Bar, 4 Carlisle Street, W1D 3BJ Tottenham Court Road £2, 9pm3am. Resident DJs play dance, pop and retro with a live performance from Bela Takes Chase.

The Double R Club at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 42-44 Pollard Row, E2 6NB Bethnal Green £10, 8pm-1am. Rock’n’roll and jazz courtesy of resident DJs and live acts, with dark cabaret inspired by David Lynch films and comedy.

Evolution Of Dub Presents Pull Up at Arch, 15-16 Lendal Terrace, SW4 7UX Clapham North £4, FREE before 10pm, 8pm-3am. Reggae, dub and jungle courtesy of Da Vinci Sound, Ambassador, Disorda, NFinnerty and Japu Selektah.

Hidden Level at Camino, Regent Quarter, N1 9RL King’s Cross St Pancras phone for prices, 7pm-12midnight. Funk, Latin, rock’n’roll and reggae courtesy of Virgil Howe, Mr Snoid and El Barone.

Season Sessions at Bar Vinyl, 6 Inverness Street, NW1 7HJ Camden Town FREE, 9pm-1am.

Hip hop, rap, electronica and old skool courtesy of resident DJs. The Waiting Room Presents at The Waiting Room, 175 Stoke Newington High Stoke Newington Street, N16 0LH phone for prices, 7.30pm. Cosmic pop, Krautrock and psychedelic music courtesy of Lizard King Disc Jockey, with live performances from The Time And Space Machine and Dress Theque.

Work Up at The Big Chill Bar, Drury Walk, E1 6QL Liverpool Street phone for prices, 8pm-1am. Sparky and Edd play funk, disco, boogie, electronica and hip hop.

Your Mum’s House at The Nest, 36 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XJ Dalston Kingsland £7, £5 before 12midnight, FREE before 10.30pm, 9pm3am. Resident DJs spin pop and disco.

Alive! at Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 372 Kennington Lane, SE11 5HY Vauxhall phone for times, 8pm.

Resident DJs play rock’n’roll with cabaret and comedy from Myra DuBois.

Back To My Roots at Zen Sai, 16 Inverness Street, NW1 7HJ Camden Town FREE, 9pm-2am. Paul Trouble Anderson spins 1970s to 1990s jazz, funk, hip hop, disco and R&B. Kids at St Moritz, 159 Wardour Street, W1F 8WL Tottenham Court Road £5, 9pm-2am. DJ Dan Market plays house, techno, hip hop and rock, with a live performance from Bloody Knees.

Bollyparty at Cafe Chai, 34 The Broadway, W5 2NP Ealing Broadway £10, £5 before 10pm, phone for times. Residents play Bollywood, bombass, old skool classics, R&B and funky house.

The Ceilidh Club at Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regents Park Road, NW1 7AY Camden Town £16.50, concs £10, 7.30pm-10pm. Resident DJs play folk, plus traditional Scottish music and dance.

Clock at The Rhythm Factory, 16-18 Whitechapel Road, E1 1EW

Tuesday March 19 Panic at The Roxy, 3-5 Rathbone Place, W1T 1HJ Tottenham Court Road £5, NUS/w/flyer £3, guestlist w/flyer FREE before 10.30pm, 10pm-3am. Max Panic, Gaz Panic and That Perfect Fumble spin indie, electro, retro and pop.

Pink Tuesdays at Mother Bar, 333 Old Street, EC1V 9LE Old Street FREE, 10pm-3am. Freight Train spin hip hop, R&B, soul, funk and electro.

Queerly Out Shots at Escape Bar, 10A Brewer Street, W1F 0SU Piccadilly Circus FREE, 9pm-3am.

DJ Julio Bravo spins power pop, disco, 1980s, R&B, old skool, Motown and hip hop.

White Heat at Madame Jojo’s, 8-10 Brewer Street, W1F 0SE Piccadilly Circus £5, concs £4, 10.30pm-3am. DJs Matty, Olly and Marcus supply electro, techno and indie.

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Friday March 22

Whitechapel £10, guestlist £8, adv £6, 10pm-7am. Techno courtesy of Rich Jones, Renato Pezzella, Sub Secret, Theo Komp, Astin Zos, Frank Bisestile, Alex Zed, Julio Corzo and Stevie R across two rooms.

Count Chocula at The Big Chill Bar, Drury Walk, E1 6QL Liverpool Street phone for prices, 8pm-1am. Count Chocula spins disco, house and R&B. Diffrent Music 3rd Birthday at Secret Hoxton Location, N1 6NU Old Street adv £8, 10pm-4am. Drum’n’bass from Fracture, Hunchbak, Dexta, Arkaik, Shaded, DJ Billion, Mtwn, Fearful, Cease And Sekkle, Sense MC and MCXL. Fabriclive at Fabric, 77A Charterhouse Street, EC1M 6HJ Farringdon adv £21 inc cd, £17, adv £16, mems £12, NUS £10, £8 after 3am, 10pm-6am. Neosignal, Kasra, Enei, Mefjus, Emperor, Foreign Concept, Ivy Lab, Xtrah, Vicious Circle, Pinch, Lone, Distance, Tunnidge, Guido, London Elektricity, Joe Syntax, Lung and Etherwood mix drum’n’bass and dubstep across three rooms.

F*ck Me! It’s Easter at The Coronet, 28 New Kent Road, SE1 6TJ Elephant & Castle adv £5 & £7, 10pm-4am. Resident DJs play dance, chart, house, pop, R&B and student anthems.

The Gallery: Judge Jules at The Ministry Of Sound, 103 Gaunt Street, SE1 6DP Elephant & Castle £14, 10.30pm6am. House, dance and trance courtesy of Judge Jules, Simon Patterson, Omnia, Lee Osborne, Futuristic Polar Bears, Gavyn Mytchel, Ben Yong, Felix Jaehn, CTRL, Ian O’Shea, Mycool, Scott C, Messy A, Traian, Protrapik, DJ 54ALTY, Tom Mabon and Michael Norton across four rooms.

Fiesta Habana International at Fiesta Havana, 490-492 Fulham Road, SW6 5NH Fulham Broadway £6, FREE before 11pm, 11.30pm-late. Don Carlos supplies dance and chart with a Latin twist.

Finer Fridays at Veranda Bar, 30 Acre Lane, SW2 5SG Brixton £8, £5 after 11pm, FREE before 11pm, phone for times.

Resident DJs Kane and Danny Tammuz play hip hop, reggae, bashment, soca, jungle, 1980s soul and 1990s pop.

Flirtacious Fridays at Aquum Bar, 68 Clapham High Street, SW4 7UL Clapham North £5, FREE before 10pm, 7pm-3.30am. Resident DJs play house.

Church 2nd Birthday at Corsica Studios, 4-5 Elephant Road, SE17 1LB Elephant & Castle adv £10 & £12, 10pm-6am. DJs Loefah (pictured), Breach, Trikk, Seb Wildblood, Apes, Squarehead, Rumah and Viers play dubstep, electronica and bass music.

Friday at The Distillers at Farringdon Distillers, 64-66 West Smithfield, EC1A 9DY Barbican FREE, 5pm2am. Emerging acts, breaking artists and established performers spin an eclectic mix of music.

Fridaymojoes at Funkymojoe, 159-161 High Road, E18 2PA South Woodford phone for prices, 9pm-2.30am. Funky house, R&B and garage from Darrell Privett, Tricky, Mark Haley and Vernon James.

Fridays at The Ladybird Bar at Ladybird Bar, 70 Upper Street, N1 0NY Angel £3, FREE before 11pm, 9pm-4am. Jim8Track spins electronica, house, old school, hip hop, rock’n’roll and drum’n’bass.

Fridays at The Camden Head, 100 Camden High Street, NW1 0LU Camden Town FREE, 10pm-late.

Indie, rock’n’roll and soul classics courtesy of DJs The Graftsman Bros.

Friday at The Nest, 36 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XJ Dalston Kingsland adv £7, 9pm-4am. Electro, techno and bass courtesy of Proxy, Gorgon City, Session Noisses and a live performance from Concrete Disco.

Friday Nights at The Old Queen’s Head, 44 Essex Road, N1 8LN Angel £4, FREE before 9pm, 8pm-2am. Disco, house, hip hop and party classics courtesy of resident DJs Mr Thing, Jamie Milton, DJ Khalil and Budakan on rotation.

Friday Night House Party at So.Uk, 165 Clapham High Street, SW4 7SS Clapham Common adv £5-£10, booking required, 6pm-3.30am. DJ Billy Fitz spins deep, soulful, progressive and uplifting house music, with fire breathers, dancers, live percussionists and PAs. Friday at The Waiting Room, 175 Stoke Newington High Street, N16 0LH Stoke Newington £5, FREE before 11pm, 10pm-late. Mr Loverman spins 1990s reggae.

Funky Fridays at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, E15 1BN Stratford FREE, 8pm-late. DJ Esther Jones spins house, Afrobeat, R&B and hip hop.

G-A-Y Camp Attack at Heaven, Charing Cross Arches, Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG Charing Cross w/flyer FREE, 11pm-4am. Pop and retro classics from the 1970s to the 1990s, plus songs from musicals in the Departure Lounge with a chance to perform at 1am.

The Good Foot at Madame Jojo’s, 8-10 Brewer Street, W1F 0SE Piccadilly Circus £8, mems £5, 10pm-3am. DJ Snowboy spins 1960s and 1970s R&B, funk and soul.

Hot Boy Dancing Spot at Dalston Superstore, 117 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB Dalston Kingsland £5, FREE before 10pm, 9pm-3am. The Lovely Jonjo, Hello Mozart and Mighty Mouser spin dance, house and disco.

House Party at Infernos, 146 Clapham High Street, SW4 7UH Clapham Common £10, FREE before 10pm, £5 before 10.30pm, 9pm-3.30am.

Resident DJs spin house classics from early 1990s to present day.

Hyponik at Birthdays, 33-35 Stoke Newington Road, N16 8BJ Dalston Junction FREE, 10pm3am. Terror Danjah, Altered Natives and Pedro123 spin grime, garage and bass music.

It’s Ladies Nite at Orleans, 259-261 Seven Sisters Road, N4 2HZ Finsbury Park phone for prices, ladies FREE before 12.30am, 10pm-late.

Bashment, R&B, hip hop, Afrobeat, dancehall and reggae courtesy of guest DJs on weekly rotation.

Market Manbo at Market House, 443 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8LN Brixton FREE, phone for times. DJ Russ Jones spins Latin, Afrobeat, jungle and world music.

Roots Dance Intelligent at The Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, N1 9NL King’s Cross St Pancras adv £12, 10pm-6am. Reggae and dub courtesy of Mikey Dread, Ras Kayleb, Daughtas, JT, Stamina Li and Aba-Shanti-I. Scared To Dance at Moustache Bar, 58 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XB Dalston Kingsland £6, mems £4, 10pm-3am. Resident DJs play indie, 1960s pop, new wave and lo-fi.

MIKEKEAR.COM

Saturday March 23 45 Revs Per Minute at Zen Sai, 16 Inverness Street, NW1 7HJ Camden Town FREE, 4pm-8pm.

Resident DJs supply rock’n’roll and retro.

Bleed Presents at The Basing House, 25 Kingsland Road, E2 8AA Liverpool Street adv £10 & £12, 10pm-4am. Hieroglyphic Being and Volte-Face play techno and electronica.

The Burning Beat at House Of Wolf, 181 Upper Street, N1 1RQ Highbury & Islington phone for prices, 8pm-4am. The Roustabouts and David Harris play electro swing, Balkan

beats and vintage pop, plus live music and cabaret performances.

Deep Disorder at Cargo, 83 Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY Old Street £15, 10pm-3am. DJs Scott Kemp, Alex Van Ratingen, Robbie Linstead, Pel Robinson, DJ J Roast and Brad Clark spin underground house and techno.

Duckie at Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 372 Kennington Lane, SE11 5HY Vauxhall £6, 9pm-2am. Resident DJs spin pop and indie hosted by the inimitable Amy Lame, plus cabaret performances.

Queen Of Hoxton Is Four at The Queen Of Hoxton, 1-5 Curtain Road, EC2A 3JX Shoreditch High Street £6-£7, adv £4, 8pm-4am. Birthday celebration featuring house, disco and electro courtesy of Chicago house legend Robert Owens, Alan Braxe (pictured), Voyeur, Bi-bop, Slothboogie, Amp And Deck, Orlando Boom DJs, Tapped DJs, Capita! and Dead Air Music.

Fabric at Fabric, 77A Charterhouse Street, EC1M 6HJ Farringdon adv £24 inc cd, £20, adv £19, NUS/mems £14, £10 after 4am, 11pm-8am. DJs Derrick Carter, Terry Francis, Severino, Ben Sims, Norman Nodge, Matthew Burton and Mark Pavitt play house, techno and garage across three rooms, plus live performances from Kruse And Nuernberg, Skudge and Jay Shepheard.

Family Jam at Renaissance Rooms, opposite Arch 8, Arches, Miles Street, SW8 1RZ Vauxhall £10 inc skates, £7.50 w/own skates or spectator, 11am5pm. The residents play pop, dance, soul and funk while you skate.

I Love the 80s Vs I Love the 90s at The Jazz Cafe, 5 Parkway, NW1 7PG Camden Town £5, 10.30pm-3am.

Guest DJs play party anthems from the 1980s and 1990s.

Kisstory at IndigO2, Peninsula Square, SE10 0DX North Greenwich £18£37, 9pm-late. Kiss FM DJs Justin Wilkes and MK spin old skool classics, dance, hip hop, R&B and garage, with a live PA from Architechs.

The Loft: Re: Train at The Bedroom Bar, 62 Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY Old Street £7, adv £5, 10pm-3am.

House, electro and disco courtesy of DJs Ben Osborne, Rupert The Brewer and Pheetus, with a live performance from Evokateur.

Mixology at Veranda Bar, 30 Acre Lane, SW2 5SG Brixton FREE before 12midnight, phone for times. DJs Phat Kontrollaz mix trance and techno.

Ok_Ma at The Bedroom Bar, 62 Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY Old Street £7, adv £5, 9pm-3am. Afrobeat, funk, disco, Latin and electro courtesy of DJ Younglee, Jake on saxophone and Daryl on percussion.

Pinup Peepshow at Proud Cabaret, 1 Mark Lane, EC3R 7AH Fenchurch Street £10, 8.30pmlate. Resident DJs spin swing, jazz and electro, plus live burlesque and cabaret performances including Miss Betsey Rose, Beau Rocks, Slinky Sparkles, Velma Celli and Teddy Boy. RapturePresents at The Hoxton Pony, 104-108 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AH Old Street £10, guestlist £7 before 10pm, FREE before 9pm, 8pm-2am. Loud Minority spin dance, house, disco and hip hop with resident support.

Remix at Escape Bar, 10A Brewer Street, W1F 0SU Piccadilly Circus w/reentry stamp £10 after 10pm, FREE before 10pm, 5pm-3am. DJ Julio Bravo spins dance music from the last four decades.

Rihanna Night at Love & Liquor, 34 Kilburn High Road, NW6 5UA Kilburn High Road £10, guestlist £7, FREE before 10pm, 8pm-3am. DJ Ben Cain plays R&B and dance hits by the pop star.

Fact LDN: Lost & Found at Egg, 200 York Way, N7 9AX King’s Cross St Pancras £22, NUS/mems £15, adv £10, 10pm10am. House and techno courtesy of Satoshi Tomiie (pictured), Guy J, Alan Fitzpatrick, Reset Robot and Leading Ashtray.

Samba My Arse at The White Horse, 153-155 Hoxton Street, N1 6PJ Hoxton FREE, 8pm-1.30am. Bossa nova, disco and Brazilian classics from the residents.

Saturday at The Big Chill House, 257259 Pentonville Road, N1 9NL King’s Cross St Pancras phone for prices, 9.30pm-3am. London-based DJ and producer Ed Melech spins house, disco and hip hop.

Saturday Night Lick at Moonlighting, 16-17 Greek Street, W1D 4DR Tottenham Court Road £12, w/ flyer/ladies mems £10, ladies mems £2 before 12midnight, 10pm-5am. Resident DJs and guests provide R&B, soul, funky house, reggae, hip hop and bashment.

Saturday Nights at Paradise at Paradise

By Way Of Kensal Green, 19 Kilburn Lane, W10 4AE Kensal Green £5 after 9pm, 8pm-2am. Resident DJs spin funk, soul, rhythm’n’blues and party classics.

Saturday Social at The Social, 5 Little Portland Street, W1W 7JD Oxford Circus FREE, 6pm-1am.

Resident DJs spin soul, rock’n’roll, funk, disco house, pop, boogie, psychedelia and classics from the 1960s and 1970s.

Serious Moonlight at Dalston Superstore, 117 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB Dalston Kingsland £5, FREE before 10pm, 9pm-4am. Princess Julia, GQ Style DJs Ben Reardon and Jeremy Abbott, Jim Stanton and The Men Who Fell To Earth spin rock, pop and Bowie classics.

Seventy Times Seven at The Old Blue Last, 38 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3ES Shoreditch High Street FREE, 6pm-2am. DJs Jen Lond and Fredric Fernandez play rock, indie and pop, plus live performances from Best Friends, Nai Harvest, The Sinking Feeling, Playlounge, Pjaro and Mystyrys.

Zig A Zig Ah!! at Concrete, The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ Shoreditch High Street £6, w/flyer £5, FREE before 10pm, 9pm-2am.

Resident DJs spin dance, R&B and Irish pop music.

Sunday MArch 24 An Afternoon With Satta at Bar Music Hall, 134-146 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AR Old Street FREE, 2pm-7pm. Resident DJs and guests spin reggae, dub and roots vinyl.

Horse Meat Disco at Eagle, 349 Kennington Lane, SE11 5QY Vauxhall £6, 8pm-3am. Resident DJs spin dance, house and disco.

Industry Night at Fiesta Havana, 490-492 Fulham Road, SW6 5NH Fulham Broadway FREE, phone for times. Resident DJs spin Latin, funk and soul, plus live 10-piece Latino band.

Jaded at Cable, 33A Bermondsey Street, SE1 2EG London Bridge £12, concs/mems £8, 5pm-1am. Raymundo Rodriguez spins house and techno.

The Mistaa Presents at Hoxton Square Bar And Kitchen, 2-4 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU Old Street FREE, 1pm12midnight. Deep house and electronica courtesy of The Mistaa, Funk Butcher, Lance Morgan, Adam Cotier, Jordan P and DJ Random.

Orange at Fire, Arch, 39-43 Parry Street, corner South Lambeth Road, SW8 1RT Vauxhall £12, £10, w/flyer £5 before 1am, 11pm-7am. The Oli, Paul Martin and The Sharp Boys spin house in room one, while Gonzola Rivas, David Jiminez and Hi Fi Sean provide minimal techno and tech house in room two.

Re:Touch at The Rhythm Factory, 16-18 Whitechapel Road, E1 1EW Whitechapel £7, adv £5, 9pm-late.

Deep house and techno courtesy of Roberto Amo and Johnny Fiore.

Submit at Plan B, 418 Brixton Road, SW9 7AY Brixton £10, NUS £8, adv £6, 10pm-6am. Icicle, Blu Mar Ten, J:Kenzo and Soap Dodgers spin drum’n’bass and dubstep.

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Masters of reinvention “I

am thrilled at the thought that someone might surprise me,” says Mike Shepherd.

“But I do hear every now and again, as if it’s a criticism, ‘well that’s not what I was expecting’. I can’t think of anything worse than going to the theatre and sitting there going ‘great, this is just what I was expecting’!”

It’s a statement Shepherd has stood by in creating work with the theatre company he founded in Cornwall 33 years ago. Known for its imaginative adaptations of classic stories, often staged in unconventional places, Kneehigh’s recent shows have included a pantomime, a puppet show, a Bollywood musical and a menacing folk fable, while their 2008 multimedia adaptation of 1945 film Brief Encounter was mounted in a West End

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cinema complete with popcorn and 1940s ushers.

Kneehigh certainly isn’t a company you can put into any one box. “We are in the business of reinventing,” says Shepherd. “We like to paint with different colours, and it’s not that we flip from one thing to the other but that all sorts of things interest us.”

The projects chosen by Shepherd and coArtistic Director Emma Rice may be diverse, but one thing is common to them all: Kneehigh’s characteristic creative flair. Highly theatrical, visually stimulating and often incorporating original music, the only expectation you should have of a Kneehigh show is to be entertained.

So while their latest interest – in classic 1960s sitcom Steptoe and Son – may seem a rather conventional choice, if anyone can reinvent a black

and white television series for a modern theatre audience, Kneehigh can.

Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s comedy, which ran for four series in the 60s before returning in the 70s, followed the antics of Albert Steptoe and his son Harold, rag-and-bone men scavenging a living on fictional London street Oil Drum Lane. Aging war veteran Albert was a foul-mouthed dirty old man, content with his lot and unwilling to better himself, while grown son Harold wanted nothing more than to escape his father’s stifling grasp and ascend in life: the clashes between the two, as Albert continually knocked Harold down, created the show’s tragicomic set-ups.

Shepherd, who plays Albert in Kneehigh’s production, was “fascinated” by the series growing

STEVE TANNER

As Kneehigh’s stage adaptation of Steptoe and Son comes to the Lyric Hammersmith, the company’s founder, Mike Shepherd, tells Caroline Bishop about his Cornish brand of creativity

with Emily, who was Harold’s mother, Albert’s wife.”

It’s a melancholic set-up for a comedy, and Shepherd agrees that comic tastes have certainly changed since the 1960s, but he doesn’t feel – as some critics suggested when the production played at the West Yorkshire Playhouse – that Kneehigh emphasises the poignancy at the expense of the comedy. “Our version has got plenty of melancholy and poignancy, but it’s also got plenty of humour and joy and a tenderness that I think is inherent in those scripts but comes out further.”

And if the comedy is received differently, does it matter? As Shepherd reminds me, Kneehigh’s aim isn’t to slavishly replicate the original, but reinvent it.

“The sitcom still exists, you can still watch that, we haven’t messed that up at all, but we have created a new show.”

Their stamp on the piece can also be heard in the West Country accents – the action has been transposed from London to Cornwall, where the show first played last summer.

Though the company tours all over the UK and internationally, Kneehigh is most at home in Cornwall, where it nurtures its creativity in an appropriately unconventional rehearsal space – a set of barns overlooking the sea in Mevagissey.

“Invariably when you co-produce you are in some miserable rehearsal room that has none of the up, and “a little bit alarmed” by the cruel, vindictive conditions for creativity,” says Shepherd. “So those humour that had his own father in stitches. “It was a barns – with the weather coming in and out, the bit like Beckett, the bleakness and humanity of it.” colour, the fact we make delicious things to eat, and Rice’s adaptation is based on four classic light fires, and all the rest of it – are very important.” episodes and sticks pretty faithfully to Galton After Steptoe, they will retreat to the barns to and Simpson’s scripts. The reinvention lies in cook up their next productions, which are, of course, the theatricality of the staging: the inclusion of a a diverse duo: a contemporary version of John Gay’s whimsical female figure who embodies the two 1728 bawdy musical The Beggar’s Opera and a men’s lost dreams, and a soundtrack of pop music family show based on a story by former Children’s from the era. “We were determined not to put the Laureate Michael ‘War Horse’ Morpurgo. What half hour TV sitcom on stage,” says Shepherd of should we expect? Surprises. their approach. “You see the men’s secret dreams and fantasies, whether it’s Harold wanting to be Steptoe and son, Lyric Hammersmith, super sleuth Perry Mason or Albert dancing again March 19-April 6, lyric.co.uk

STEVE TANNER

Visionary theatre maker Kneehigh’s Mike Shepherd as Albert Steptoe

KNEEHIGH’s greatest hits The Red Shoes (2000) Loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale about a young girl whose red shoes force her to dance, Kneehigh’s dark and surreal production was a visual feast.

Cymbeline (2006) Shepherd played King Cymbeline in this ultra-modern reworking of Shakespeare’s little-known romantic comedy, staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of its Complete Works season.

A Matter of Life and Death (2007) Circus tricks, tango music and physical theatre infused this adaptation of the 1946 Powell and Pressburger fantasy film about a RAF pilot who cheats death.

Brief Encounter (2008) Rice paid homage to David Lean’s 1945 romantic film and Noel Coward’s original stage play by mingling live action and film footage, and staging it in a West End cinema.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (2011) Kneehigh’s take on the 1964 Jacques Demy movie saw cabaret artiste Meow Meow preside over the story of young lovers torn apart by war.

Midnight Pumpkin (2012) A dressing-up box, ugly stepsisters in catsuits and a heroine who does acrobatics: Kneehigh’s Christmas pantomime was Cinderella, but not as we know it.

Magical reinvention Midnight’s Pumpkin

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PREVIEWS

Spymonkey’s Cooped Leicester Square Theatre, March 18-23, £18-£22

The Low Road Royal Court, March 22-May 11, £10-£28 Judging by the previous two, we can expect sharp dialogue, pithy comedy and searing social commentary from The Low Road, billed as a fable of free-market economics and cutthroat capitalism. And there’s no doubting the popularity of a Norris-Cooke collaboration: the show has extended by two weeks before it’s even opened. Caroline Bishop SW1W 8AS Sloane Square royalcourttheatre.com

Potted Potter Garrick Theatre, March 23-April 14 £20-£30 Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner have got an awful lot of mileage out of their 70-minute comic condensation of all seven Harry Potter books. Following multiple stints in the West End, they’ve just returned from entertaining American and Canadian muggles on their world tour. Half parody, half homage, Potted Potter delves into JK Rowling’s magical world and extracts the best bits, adding a dash of slapstick, some ridiculous costumes and a game of Quidditch (audience participation guaranteed) along the way. CB WC2H 0HH Leicester Square pottedpotter.com 50 Scout London scoutlondon.com

WC2H 7BX Leicester Square leicestersquaretheatre.com

Three Birds Bush Theatre March 19-April 20, £15£19.50 It began life in Manchester, but this south east London-set play is coming home (albeit to west London) following rave reviews and an award win for playwright Janice Okoh, who bagged the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.

The plot centres on three sisters left to fend for themselves by their absent mother. Moving from black comedy to chilling thriller, it concludes with a twist of cinematic proportions. CB W12 8LJ Shepherd’s Bush bushtheatre.co.uk

jonathan keenan

Dominic Cooke (pictured) has come full circle by staging the latest play by Bruce Norris. The American playwright’s The Pain and the Itch was the first production Cooke directed as artistic director at the Royal Court, while Clybourne Park was one of the biggest successes of his tenure, transferring to the West End and winning Best New Play at the 2011 Olivier Awards. Now, as Cooke prepares to leave the Sloane Square venue, he directs Norris’s new play as his final production.

A chance to catch this 2001 show by lunatic theatre-makers Spymonkey. A parody of gothic romantic novellas, it’s set in the 1960s and centres on a young secretary who becomes a hostage to love when she’s employed by a possibly insane recluse in his remote countryside mansion. Cooped comes with solid comic pedigree: it’s directed by Cal McCrystal, the man responsible for the physical slapstick in the National Theatre’s mega-hit One Man, Two Guvnors. CB

Untold Stories Duchess Theatre, March 22-June 15, £12-£59.50 Alan Bennett and the National Theatre go together like ice cream and intervals. Following recent successes The History Boys, The Habit of Art and the currently playing People, the National delved into Bennett’s past and came up with Untold Stories, a double bill of autobiographical plays Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, starring Alex Jennings as the playwright himself. Moving audiences to tears when they opened at the National, both plays draw poignantly on Bennett’s relationship with his parents, in childhood and beyond. In transferring to the Duchess Theatre, Untold Stories makes history for the National, which will have four productions playing simultaneously in the West End for the first time ever. CB WC2B 5LA

Covent Garden untoldstorieswestend.com

jayne west / KEITH PATTISON

Before the Party Almeida Theatre, March 21-May 11, £8-£32 Outgoing Artistic Director Michael Attenborough obviously wants to throw a bit of a bash with his penultimate production at the Islington venue. Based on a short story by Somerset Maugham, Rodney Ackland’s 1949 play pokes fun at the social-climbing middle classes struggling to readjust to life after the second world war, when rationing interfered with hearty socialising. The Skinner family just wants to get back to parties and pretty dresses, but daughter Laura, a young widow returning to the family fold, has a secret that could put paid to that.

The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson plays Laura, with Olivier-winner Michelle Terry promising fine comedic support. CB N1 1TA

Angel almeida.co.uk

WEST END

Old Times booking until Apr 6 2013, The Harold Pinter Theatre, 6 Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN Piccadilly Circus £10-£49.50, £10 front row day seats available at the box office from 10am on day of the performance, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 3pm. Not much time left to catch Kristin Scott Thomas in Harold Pinter’s famous sexually charged drama.

The 39 Steps booking until Oct 19 2013, Criterion Theatre, 218-223 Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, W1J 0TR Piccadilly Circus £15-£55, Mon-Sat 8pm, mats Wed 3pm, Sat 4pm. John Buchan’s ever-popular thriller.

The Audience booking until Jun 15 2013, Gielgud Theatre, 35-37 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6AR Piccadilly Circus £10-£59, concs available, limited number of £10 day seats on sale from 10am on day of performance from the box office, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm. Peter Morgan’s fictional renditions of private meetings between Queen Elizabeth II and her Prime Ministers, starring Helen Mirren.

Billy Elliot - The Musical booking until Dec 21 2013, Victoria Palace, Victoria Street, SW1E 5EA Victoria £19.50£65, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Thu, Sat 2.30pm. Adaptation of the film about a miner’s son who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer.

The Book Of Mormon booking until Sep 21 2013, Prince Of Wales Theatre, 31 Coventry Street, W1D 6AS Piccadilly Circus £27.50-£57.50, Premium Seats £95, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm, no perf May 31 (press nights Mar 19 & 20, Mar 21, 7pm). South Park creators’ musical satire chronicling the misadventures of two missionaries in Uganda.

A Chorus Line booking until Jan 25 2014, London Palladium, 8 Argyll Street, W1F 7TF Oxford Circus £19.50£65, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Wed, Sat 3pm. Revival of Michael Bennett’s awardwinning musical.

Dear World booking until Mar 30 2013, Charing Cross Theatre, The Arches, Villiers Street, WC2N 6NL Embankment £15-£42.50, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm. A new version of Jerry Herman’s musical fable, written here by David Thompson.

52 Scout London scoutlondon.com

Great Expectations booking until Jun 1 2013, Vaudeville Theatre, 404 Strand, WC2R 0NH Embankment Mon-Thu/ Sat mats £25-£50, Fri & Sat eves £25£55, Premium Seats £75, Mon, Wed-Sat 7.30pm, Tue 7pm, mats Wed, Sat 3pm.

Jo Clifford’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic.

Jersey Boys booking until Mar 2 2014, Prince Edward Theatre, 28 Old Compton Street, W1D 4HS Tottenham Court Road Tue-Thu £20-£65, Fri-Sun £20-£67.50, Premium Seats Tue-Thu £85, Fri-Sun £95, Tue-Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm, mats Tue, Sat 3pm.

Musical drama about the career of Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons.

The Judas Kiss booking until Apr 6 2013, The Duke Of York’s, St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4BG Leicester Square £15-£52.50, Premium Seats £65, MonSat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm.

Rupert Everett plays Oscar Wilde in David Hare’s drama.

Les Miserables booking until Oct 26 2013, Queen’s Theatre, 51 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6BA Piccadilly Circus £20-£85, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm. Musical based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel.

Macbeth booking until Apr 27 2013, Trafalgar Studios, 14 Whitehall, SW1A 2DY Charing Cross Mon £15 available online on the first day of each month, Tue-Sat £24.50-£54.50, Premium Seats £65, £10 day seats available in person at the box office from 10am on the day of the performance, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Thu, Sat 2.30pm.

James McAvoy and Claire Foy headline Jamie Lloyd’s staging of Shakespeare.

Mamma Mia! booking until Oct 26 2013, Novello Theatre, 5 Aldwych, WC2B 4LD Covent Garden Mon-Fri £15-£64, Sat £15-£67.50, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Thu, Sat 3pm. Musical comedy based at a family wedding and set to the ABBA songbook.

Matilda: The Musical booking until Dec 22 2013, Cambridge Theatre, Earlham Street, WC2H 9HU Covent Garden £19-£58.50, disabled £28.75, Tue-Thu under 18s £19-£48.50, Tue 7pm, WedSat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm, Sun 3pm. Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s tale.

Monty Python’s Spamalot booking until Dec 2 2013, Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, WC2N 5DE Charing Cross £15-£85, Mon-Sat 8pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm. Monty Python man Eric Idle’s musical comedy featuring Stephen Tompkinson as King Arthur.

The Mousetrap booking until Dec 21 2013, St Martin’s Theatre, West Street, Cambridge Circus, WC2H 9NZ Leicester Square £16-£42, Premium Seats £61, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Tue 3pm, Sat 4pm. Agatha Christie’s murder mystery.

Mydidae booking until Mar 30 2013, Trafalgar Studios, 14 Whitehall, SW1A 2DY Charing Cross £15-£25, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Thu, Sat 3pm. An intimate tale about the darker side of love, written by Jack Thorne.

Once booking until Nov 30 2013, Phoenix Theatre, 110 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0JP Leicester Square £19.50£67.50, Premium Seats £95, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Thu, Sat 3pm (press night Apr 9, 7pm). The romantic stage musical adaptation of the 2006 Irish film about an Irish busker and young Czech immigrant and their shared love of music.

Let It Be booking until Oct 5 2013, Savoy Theatre, Savoy Court, Strand, WC2R 0ET Charing Cross £20£60, Mon, Wed-Sat 7.30pm, Sun 7pm, mats Sat & Sun 3pm. Marking 50 years since the release of their first single, The Beatles are celebrated in this musicalnarrative, created by RAIN Productions.

One Man, Two Guvnors booking until Aug 31 2013, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 18 Suffolk Street, SW1Y 4HT Piccadilly Circus £15-£55, premium seats £85, concs available, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm. Richard Bean’s comic tale, based on Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant Of Two Masters.

Peter And Alice booking until Jun 1 2013, Noel Coward Theatre, 85-88 St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4AU Leicester Square £10, £27.50, £57.50, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sat 2.30pm (press night Mar 25, 7pm). John Logan’s drama about the chance meeting between Alice Liddell Hargreaves and Peter Llewelyn Davies, the original Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Quartermaine’s Terms booking until Apr 13 2013, Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DA Leicester Square £25-£58.50, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Thu, Sat 2.30pm.

Rowan Atkinson stars as the teacher St John Quartermaine in Simon Gray’s tragicomic play.

Robin Windsor And Kristina Rihanoff: Burn The Floor booking until Sep 1 2013, Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8DP Holborn £16£57, Mon, Wed & Thu 7.30pm, Fri & Sat 8pm, mats Thu 3pm, Sat & Sun 4pm.

A dance spectacular featuring two of the professional stars of Strictly Come Dancing and special guest Karen Hauer.

Rock Of Ages booking until Nov 2 2013, Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH Charing Cross £25-£65, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Fri & Sat 3pm. Chris D’Arienzo’s musical celebrating Los Angeles rock culture.

Singin’ In The Rain booking until Sep 1 2013, Palace Theatre, 109-113 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 5AY Leicester Square £14-£84, £25 day seats available from the box office from 10am on day of the performance. Musical based on the MGM film about the end of silent movies.

Stomp booking until Dec 22 2013, Ambassadors Theatre, West Street, WC2H 9ND Leicester Square £20£49.50, Mon, Thu-Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm, mats Thu, Sat & Sun 3pm, no perf Jul 27, Aug 12. Steve McNicholas and Luke Cresswell’s percussion-based show.

The Tailor-Made Man booking until Apr 6 2013, Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB Covent Garden £20-£39.50, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Thu, Sat 2.30pm. The true story of silent screen actor William Haines who lost his MGM contract due to his homosexuality, written by Claudio Macor.

Thriller Live booking until Oct 15 2013, Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7ES Piccadilly Circus £26£87.50, Tue-Fri, Sun 7.30pm, Sat 8pm, mats Sat 4pm, Sun 3.30pm. A celebration of the music of Michael Jackson.

Top Hat - The Musical booking until Apr 27 2014, Aldwych Theatre, 49 Aldwych, WC2B 4DF Covent Garden £20£65, Tue-Sat 7.30pm, mats Tue, Thu, Sat 2.30pm. Irving Berlin’s romantic musical.

Viva Forever! booking until Feb 14 2014, Piccadilly Theatre, 16 Denman Street, W1D 7DY Piccadilly Circus £20-£67.50, Mon-Thu, Sat 7.30pm, Fri 5pm & 8.30pm, mats Sat 3pm. Jennifer Saunders’s comedy musical, featuring the songs of the Spice Girls.

War Horse booking until Feb 15 2014, New London Theatre, 166 Drury Lane (corner of Parker Street), WC2B 5PW Covent Garden £15-£55, Premium Seats £85, Mon, Wed-Sat 7.30pm, Tue 7pm, mats Thu, Sat 2.30pm. Michael Morpurgo’s story about a horse caught up in the horrors of the First World War. The Winslow Boy booking until May 25 2013, Old Vic, 103 The Cut, SE1 8NB Waterloo Mar 18 preview £23-£45, then £11-£50, OAP mats £26, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 2.30pm, no mat perf Mar 20, extra mat perf Mar 21, 2.30pm (press night Mar 19, 7pm). Classic drama written by Terence Rattigan about principles and the powerful establishment.

Manuel Harlan, simon annand

LISTINGS

The Woman In Black booking until Dec 14 2013, Fortune Theatre, Russell Street, WC2B 5HH Covent Garden £16.50-£48, Tue-Sat 8pm, mats Tue, Thu 3pm, Sat 4pm. Adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story.

noddy clark, simon annand

OFF WEST END Before The Party Starts Thu, ends May 11 2013, Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, N1 1TA Highbury & Islington £8-£32, Mar 21-27 previews £8-£26, concs available, From Mar 21, MonSat 7.30pm, mats Sat 2.30pm, extra mats Apr 10, May 1 (press night Mar 28, 7pm, audio described perf Apr 27, 2.30pm, captioned perf May 2, 7.30pm).

Rodney Ackland’s drama about a family struggling to rebuild shattered lives.

The Captain Of Kopenick booking until Apr 4 2013, National Theatre: Olivier, South Bank, SE1 9PX Waterloo £12-£47, concs available, Mar 21-23, 25, Apr 2-4, 7.30pm, mats Mar 23, Apr 3, 2pm, Mar 24, 2.30pm. Ron Hutchinson’s comic version of Carl Zuckmayer’s satire, starring Antony Sher in the title role.

Cocktail Sticks booking until Mar 30 2013, National Theatre: Lyttelton, South Bank, SE1 9PX Waterloo £12£32, Mar 18, 28, 30, 6pm. An oratorio without music by Alan Bennett, with Alex Jennings and Janet Dale.

Dirty Great Love Story Ends Mar 30 2013, Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE Tottenham Court Road Mar 23, 30 7.30pm £13, concs £11, Sat 3.15pm £13, concs £11, Mar 18-30 7.30pm £15, concs £13, Mar 18, 20-23, 25-30, 7.30pm, mats Sat 3.15pm. The story of two hopeful romantics who get it on and then get the hell away from each other.

Elsewhere Land (Eldersland) Starts Thu, ends Mar 23 2013, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 3DL Dalston Junction £17, concs £12, Mar 21-23, 8pm. A performance about a son who is confronted with his parent’s traditions.

God’s Property Ends Mar 23 2013, Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE Tottenham Court Road £20, concs £17.50, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sat 3pm.

Arinze Kene’s drama set one year after the inner-city riots of 1981.

The Guide To Second Date Sex Ends Mar 30 2013, Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE Tottenham Court Road Mar 18, 20 £10, concs £8, Mar 21-30 £12, concs £10, Mar 18, 20-23, 25-30, 9.45pm, Sat 5.30pm. Amy Butterworth and Thomas O’Connell star in a modern comedy about attitudes to sex.

Hello/Goodbye Ends Mar 30 2013, Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU Swiss Cottage £12, concs £10, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Sat 3.15pm.

Comedy drama about two strangers who move into a rented flat.

Longing Ends Apr 13 2013, Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU Swiss Cottage Mon £22, concs

£15, Tue-Sat £29, concs £18, Wed, Sat 2.30pm & 3pm OAP £15, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed 2.30pm, Sat 3pm.

A single drama adapted, by novelist William Boyd, from two short stories by Anton Chekhov.

The Low Road Starts Fri, booking until May 11 2013, Jerwood Theatre At The Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Sloane Square Mon £10, Tue-Sat £12-£28, concs available, From Mar 22, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sat 2.30pm, Apr 18, 25, 2.30pm, no perf Mar 29, Apr 1, May 6, no mat perf Mar 23 (press night Mar 27, 7pm). A modern fable on modern, savage capitalism, written by Bruce Norris.

Lysistrata Ends Mar 23 2013, Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, W6 9RL Hammersmith £16, concs £13, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Tue, Thu 2pm (extra mat perf Mar 23, 2pm). A musical adaptation of Aristophanes’s comedy.

Misunderstood Monsters (Ages 4-9) Artsdepot, 5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, N12 0GA Finchley Central £7, Mar 24, 12noon & 3pm. Conquer your fear of various beasties and aliens with Georgie and Squeezy.

People booking until May 15 2013, National Theatre: Lyttelton, South Bank, SE1 9PX Waterloo £12-£47, MonFri under 18s £19 & £23.50, other concs available, Mar 18-20, 26-28, 30, Apr 1 & 2, 19 & 20, 22, 26 & 27, 29, May 6-9, 13-15, 7.45pm, Mar 21, 7pm, mats Mar 27, 30, Apr 20, 27, May 8, 15, 2pm, Apr 21, 28, 3pm. Alan Bennett’s drama about the owner of a British stately home who’s contemplating a sale of the house’s contents.

Mies Julie Ends May 19 2013, Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, W6 9RL Hammersmith £25 & £26, Tue-Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm, mats Sat 2.30pm. An award-winning modern reworking of August Strindberg’s drama, adapted and directed by Yael Farber. Contains nudity and scenes of a sexual nature.

Proof Ends Apr 27 2013, The Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark Street, SE1 1RU London Bridge £31, Premium £35, Meal Deal £39, concs £27.50, Tue-Sat 8pm, Mar 18, 8pm, mats Sat & Sun 3.30pm , no mat perf Mar 24 (press night Mar 20). David Auburn’s awardwinning drama is directed by Polly Findlay.

The Man Who Pays The Piper Ends Apr 13 2013, Orange Tree Theatre, 1 Clarence Street, TW9 2SA Richmond £14.50, concs £12.50, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Mar 21, 28, Apr 4, 2.30pm, Mar 23, 30, Apr 6, 13, 3pm, no perf Apr 1, 7.45pm (post show discussions Mar 21, 28, Apr 4, 2.30pm, audio described Apr 6, 3pm, audio described eve perf Apr 2, 7.45pm).

An important play about economic power and gender written by GB Stern.

Paper Dolls Ends Apr 13 2013, Tricycle Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Kilburn Mon, Wed 2pm & 8pm £14, Tue-Thu, Sat 4pm & 8pm £20, concs £18, Fri & Sat 8pm £22, concs £20, Mon-Sat 8pm, mats Sat 4pm, Mar 20, 2pm, no perf Apr 1. Philip Himberg’s drama adapted from the film by Tomer Heymann.

Port booking until Mar 24 2013, National Theatre: Lyttelton, South Bank, SE1 9PX Waterloo £12-£34, concs available, Mar 22 & 23, 7.45pm, mats Mar 23, 2pm, Mar 24, 3pm. A young girl looks to the future and for something better, despite everything, in Simon Stephens’s drama.

PoundTown Starts Tue, ends Mar 23 2013, Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, Greenwich £7.50SE10 8ES £12.50, Mar 19-23, 7.30pm, mats Mar 20-22, 1.30pm, Mar 23, 2.30pm. A dark story of poverty, opportunity and revenge.

Purple Heart Ends Apr 6 2013, Gate Theatre, 11 Pembridge Road (above the Prince Albert Pub), W11 3HQ Notting Hill Gate Mon-Sat 7.30pm £20, concs £15, Sat 3pm £10, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sat 3pm. A moving drama on love, loss and grief, written by the award-winning playwright, Bruce Norris.

Quasimodo Starts Wed, ends Apr 13 2013, King’s Head, Islington, 115 Upper Street, N1 1QN Angel Mar 20 & 21 previews £10, then £15-£25, From Mar 20, Tue-Sat 7.15pm, mats Sun 3pm, Apr 13, 3pm (press night Mar 22). The last musical written by the great musical composer Lionel Bart.

Ring Ends Mar 28 2013, Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN Clapham Junction £15, concs £10, Mon-Sun 7.30pm, Mar 27 & 28, 9pm. An immersive theatre piece taking place in complete darkness. The audience wears headphones to augment the intimacy.

Rutherford & Son Starts Tue, ends Mar 23 2013, Rose Theatre, 24-26 High Street, KT1 1HL Kingston-upon-Thames £8-£23, concs £13-£20, Mar 19-23, 7.30pm, mats Mar 21, 23, 2.30pm. A powerful drama written and set in the North of England in 1912.

Some Small Love Story Starts Thu, booking until Mar 23 2013, Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB Covent Garden £15, NUS/OAP £12, Mar 21-23, 10pm. A stripped-back musical production.

Splat: The Paint-by-Numbers Show: CloudCuckooLand & Greenwich Theatre (Ages 5-8) Starts Sun, ends Apr 6 2013, Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Greenwich £10, Hill, SE10 8ES concs/child £7.50, family £30, Mar 24, 29 & 30, Apr 1-6, 10am, Mar 24, 29, Apr 1 & 2, 12noon, Mar 30, Apr 3, 2pm, Apr 4-6, 1pm. Children’s performance involving puzzles, mazes and code-cracking.

Spymonkey’s Cooped booking until Mar 23 2013, Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX Leicester Square £18-£22, Mar 18-23, 7.30pm. A crazy comic, gothic romantic tale from Spymonkey.

Steptoe & Son Starts Tue, ends Apr 6 2013, Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, W6 0QL Hammersmith £12.50-£35, From Mar 19, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Mar 20, 27, 1.30pm, no perfs Mar 29, Apr 1 (press night Mar 20, 7pm). Emma Rice’s stage adaptation of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s legendary sitcom.

This House booking until Apr 8 2013, National Theatre: Olivier, South Bank, SE1 9PX Waterloo £12-£47, Mar 18-20, 26-28, 30, Apr 1, 5 & 6, 8, 7.30pm, mats Mar 20, 27, 30, Apr 6, 2pm, Apr 7, 2.30pm. A political drama set during the double-election year of 1974, written by James Graham.

A Time To Reap booking until Mar 23 2013, Jerwood Theatre At The Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Sloane Square Mon £10, Tue-Sat £20, concs £15, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Thu, Sat 3.30pm. One woman’s personal story set against the backdrop of Polish national evolution and politics, written by Anna Wakulik.

Three Birds Starts Wed, ends Apr 20 2013, The Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ Shepherd’s Bush Mar 20 & 21 previews £15, concs £10, then Mon-Sat 7.30pm £19.50, concs £12, Wed, Sat 2.30pm £15, concs £10, From Mar 20, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sat 2.30pm, Mar 27, Apr 17, 2.30pm (press night Mar 22, 7pm). An award-winning, darkly comic play by Janice Okoh, on childhood and fantasy.

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LISTINGS

FRINGE 3Some Starts Tue, ends Apr 7 2013, Etcetera Theatre, 265 Camden High Street, NW1 7BU Camden Town £9.50, Mar 19-23, 26-30, Apr 2-6, 7.30pm, Mar 24, 31, Apr 7, 6.30pm. A comedy exploring the complex nature of three-way relationships.

Above Me The Wide Blue Sky Ends Mar 28 2013, Young Vic, 66 The Cut, SE1 8LZ Waterloo £19.50, concs £10, Mar 7-9, 11, 13-16, 18-23, 25-28, 7.45pm, except Mar 12, 7pm press night, mats Mar 9, 16, 20, 23, 2.45pm. Fevered Sleep’s performance installation exploring how we connect to the natural world.

Anything Goes Starts Wed, ends Mar 23 2013, The Questors Theatre, 12 Mattock Lane, W5 5BQ Ealing Broadway Mar 20 & 21 £16.50, concs £13.50, side seats £12.50, Mar 22 & 23 £16.50, side seats £12.50, Mar 20-23, 7.45pm, mat Mar 23, 2.30pm. A musical comedy by Cole Porter set on the high seas Arthur Pita: The Metamorphosis Ends Mar 23 2013, Linbury Studio Theatre At Royal Opera House, Bow Street, WC2E 9DD Covent Garden £11£32, Mar 18, 20-23, 7.45pm, mat Mar 23, 2pm. An award-winning adaptation of Franz Kafka’s story, from Arthur Pita.

Ballet Revolucion Ends Mar 23 2013, Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street, WC2A 2HT Holborn £15-£48, TueSun 7.30pm, mats Sat & Sun 2.30pm.

An exciting fusion of ballet, hip hop and

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An Instinct For Kindness Starts Wed, ends Mar 24 2013, Pleasance Theatre, Carpenter’s Mews, North Road, N7 9EF Caledonian Road £15, Mar 20-23, 8pm, Mar 24, 5pm.

Chris Lamer’s part-autobiographical drama on the personal and general implications around the topic of assisted suicide.

La Voix Humaine Institut Francais Du Royaume-Uni, 17 Queensberry Place, SW7 2DT South Kensington £8, concs £6, Mar 21, 6.30pm. Jean Cocteau’s despairing monologue.

My Brother The Robot: Tall Stories (Over 4s) Starts Sun, ends Mar 25 2013, The Albany, Douglas Way, SE8 4AG Deptford £7, family £24, Mar 24, 1pm & 3pm, Mar 25, 10.30am. A futuristic story with music, storytelling and lots of laughs.

The Passion St John’s Church, Peckham, 10A Meeting House Lane, SE15 2UN Queen’s Road £7, concs £4, Mar 24, 10am. An adaptation of the Easter story presented as a classical cabaret by The Bluebirds.

Play It Again Sam Ends Mar 23 2013, Incognito Theatre, Holly Park Road, N11 3HB Arnos Grove £9, NUS £5, mems £8, Mar 18-23, 8pm, mat Mar 23, 3pm. A production based on the famous comedy written by Woody Allen.

Ross Sutherland: Comedian Dies In The Middle Of Joke Ends Mar 20 2013, Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 4244 Pollard Row, E2 6NB Bethnal Green £5 & £7, Mar 20, 8pm, doors 7pm. Interactive performance piece, incorporating 14 interchangeable audience roles.

Rumpelstiltskin: The Story Hat (Ages 3-8) Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, Waterlow Park, N6 5HG Archway £4.50, concs £3, under 2s FREE, Mar 23, 10am & 11.30am. A fresh new spin on this classic fairy tale with lots of opportunities to join in and help the story along. One for the kids this Easter.

The Sagas Of Noggin The Nog: Third Party Productions (Over 4s) Jacksons Lane Theatre, 269a Archway Road, N6 5AA Highgate £8.95, Mar 24, 3pm. Adaptation of Oliver Postgate and Peter Fermin’s children’s TV programme.

Sus Ends Mar 23 2013, The Lion & Unicorn, 42-44 Gaisford Street, NW5 2ED Kentish Town £15, concs £12, Tue-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sat 3.30pm.

A disturbing account of overt racism and the abuse of police power on the eve of Margaret Thatcher’s election by Long Good Friday writer, Barrie Keeffe.

Tales From The Shed (Under 7s) Ends Mar 23 2013, Chickenshed, 290 Chase Side, N14 4PE Cockfosters £5.50, child under 6 months FREE, Fri & Sat 11.30am, Sat 10am. Interactive performances for children.

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A Thousand Miles Of History Ends Mar 30 2013, The Bussey Building/CLF Art Cafe, 133 Rye Lane, SE15 4ST Peckham Rye Mar 4-6 previews £10, Mar 7-30 £14, concs £10, Mon-Sat 7.45pm, mats Sat 3.30pm. Harold Finley’s play about the lives of the artists JeanMichel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.

Top Girls: East 15 Acting School Starts Wed, ends Mar 23 2013, Waterloo East Theatre, 3 Wootton Street (Entrance In Brad Street), SE1 8TG Waterloo £8, concs £5, Mar 20, 22, 7.30pm, Mar 23, 3.30pm. Rosamunde Hutt directs Caryl Churchill’s eviscerating drama.

The Vacant & Rut Starts Tue, ends Mar 23 2013, The New Diorama Theatre, 1516 Triton Street, NW1 3BF Great Portland Street £12.50, concs £10.50, Mar 19-23, 7.30pm, mat Mar 23, 3.30pm. A dance theatre exploration of faith, fear, love and hope combined with the story of two theatre makers who undertook a year-long period of competition with each other out in the real world.

Yerma Ends Mar 23 2013, RADA, 62-64 Gower Street, WC1E 6ED Goodge Street £14, concs £10, mems OAP £6, Mar 18-23, 7.15pm, mat Mar 22, 2.15pm. In a remote Spanish village, Yerma, a woman teeming with life and passion longs for a child.

The Great Gatsby Ends Mar 23 2013, Wilton’s Music Hall, 1 Graces Alley, off Ensign Street, E1 8JB Aldgate East Tue-Sat 7.30pm table seats £35, standard ticket £20, Sat 2pm £10, £15, £30, Tue-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sat 2pm. An evocative, immersive, jazz-filled adaptation by Peter Joucla of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel.

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Stephanie Woolf

contemporary dance, performed by a group of Cuban dancers and musicians.

Facts Ends Mar 23 2013, Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, SW10 9ED West Brompton Wed-Fri, Sun £14 & £16, concs/Tue £10 & £12, Sat £14 & £16, Feb 26 & 27 preview £9, Tue-Sat 7.30pm, mats Sun 3pm, Mar 23, 3pm.

A powerful new play about a prominent American archaeologist working in the West Bank found murdered.

Guys And Dolls Ends Mar 23 2013, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, N15 4RX Seven Sisters £10, concs £6.50, Mon-Sun 3pm & 7.30pm. An amateur production by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Ltd on behalf of Music Theatre International of New York.

Trelawny Of The Wells Ends Apr 13 2013, Donmar Warehouse, 41 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LX Covent Garden £10-£35, standing £7.50, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Thu, Sat 2.30pm. Arthur Wing Pinero’s homage to the stage, directed by BAFTA award-winning director Joe Wright.

Untold Stories: Hymm & Cocktail Sticks Starts Fri, booking until Jun 15 2013, Duchess Theatre, 3-5 Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA Covent Garden £12-£59.50, concs available, From Mar 22, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Wed, Sat 3pm, no mat perf Mar 23, 27 (press night Apr 2, 7pm). Alan Bennett looks back over his childhood and recalls memories of his late father, in this double bill featuring Alex Jennings as the writer.

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