Entertainment: What’s on this week
Ingmar Bergman’s Persona
The world premiere of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona launches at Hammersmith’s newly reopened multi-arts venue, Riverside Studios.
The new theatrical adaptation, created for the stage by visionary director Paul Schoolman, tells the story of Elizabet, a renowned stage actress who suffers a psychological breakdown and relapses into silence. She is sent to a remote summer beach house with Sister Alma, the nurse assigned to her recovery.
Until February 23
Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith
The Morning After
A man wakes up surprised and naked in a young man’s bed, and memories of last night’s one-night-stand come flooding back.
When the boy’s mother joins them for breakfast – in bed – it becomes clear that this is a family that doesn’t do privacy. Or, it turns out, goodbyes. Sweet and silly, The Morning After is a sunny comedy for winter.
Until March 1
Above The Stag, 72 Albert Embankment, Vauxhall
Filthy Lucre: Whistler’s Peacock Room Reimagined
Filthy Lucre is an immersive interpretation of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s famed Peacock Room, a 19th-century dining room once housed just a stone’s throw away from the V&A. In Waterston’s re-imagining, the Peacock Room is transformed into a magnificent ruin, crumbling under the weight of material decadence to highlight the tension between art and money, ego and patronage.
Until May 3
V&A, Cromwell Road, South Kensington
VAULT Festival, Waterloo
VAULT Festival returns to the tunnels under Waterloo station this month with eight weeks of new theatre and comedy, immersive experiences, cabaret, live performance and late-night parties.
The diverse arts festival has more than 500 shows on the bill, with 64% of works being female-led, 33% by the LGBTQ+ community and 25 per cent by BAME artists.The festival takes place in 18 spaces.
Until March 22
Waterloo and Southbank
Crafty Fox Market
Celebrating its 10th year of shaking up the craft market scene this year, Craft Fox is kicking off with a Samples & Seconds Sale at Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant & Castle. This one day event offers discount prices on one-off samples, end of line products and slight seconds from more than 35 of the UK’s best makers, from jewellery and ceramics to clever kidsware. There will also be a free Valentine’s themed craft event with folding paper artist Origami 4 Fun.
February 1
42 Newington Causeway, Elephant and Castle
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
The surreal world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice – both in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass – is given an extra twist in Gerald Barry’s fun and frantic retelling. The runtime is less than an hour making this short show of mayhem, ideal for the family. From the Red Queen to the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter, you’ll meet a kaleidoscope of colourful characters in this joyful, headlong rush into a world gone deliciously mad. Tickets £3-£60.
February 3-9
Royal Opera House, Bow Street
Greek Tasting Journey
The Real Greek will host a multi-course Greek tasting journey celebrating the very best of Greek food and drink. Father Epiphanios, a celebrated Greek monk, chef, author and winemaker, will fly in to for the exclusive event, alongside Greece’s leading chefs from the acclaimed Athenian restaurant, Cookoovaya. This event promises to use Greek seasonal ingredients for authentically Aegean food with a generous sharing ethos at heart.
February 5
The Real Greek, London Bridge
Hospital Rooms
Artists are invited to work closely with patients, staff and the NHS Trust to create exceptional and unique site specific work. In this exhibition, Hospital Rooms presents a display of artworks by artists Sonia Boyce, Harold Offeh, Jessica Voorsanger, Michael O’Reilly, Remi Rough and Tim A Shaw, as well as documentation from a recent project with the artists at Croydon Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, Bethlem Hospital.
February 5-23
South London Gallery Fire Station, Peckham
Slices of Time
NOW Gallery has selected Emmanuelle Moureaux to present a large-scale installation in the UK. Inspired by the gallery’s location on the Greenwich Peninsula, near to Prime Meridian, Moureaux has composed of layers of numbers in 100 shades of colours and white to express the flow of time. Each layer of numbers reflects the now, the past and the future, and the exhibition will be a round representation of a moment, a slice of time – the earth floating in the gallery space.
February 5 – April 17
NOW Gallery, Greenwich Peninsula