While we spend all weekend wondering if it’ll come home and if it does, where will we put it, binge on some cultural gems around London city. 

The opposite of a comfort movie
This BFI’s summer film season is dedicated to making you squirm. Titled Discomfort Movies, the schedule is a jam-packed compilation of films from across the years which offer a toe-curling viewing experience. Expect to see reruns of David Lynch’s Eraserhead, Billy Wilder’s noir masterpiece The Lost Weekend, Darren Aronofsky’s frenzied Requiem for a Dream and William Friedkin’s Bug.

Check out the full programme here. 

Meditations on Love
The Photographers’ Gallery’s latest exhibition focuses on the one thing that ties us all together: love. Exploring how love is depicted, preserved and remembered through archival photobooks, novels and non-fiction works, the group exhibition examines the emotion in all its varying forms. Designed as a reading room, the space brings together works from the likes of Ewan Spencer, Ollie Adegboye, Deana Lawson and Peggy Nolan.

Meditations on Love runs at The Photographers’ Gallery until September 22nd, more info here. 

Mark Leckey does ballet
Taking over Sadler’s Wells for one day only before embarking on a nationwide tour throughout summer, the National Youth Dance Company is presenting their latest production titled, Wall. Choreographed by renowned Irish choreographer Oona Doherty and soundtracked by British artist Mark Leckey, it’s a show not to be missed.

Wall runs at Sadler’s Wells on July 13th, more info here.  

Slave Play is finally here
When it opened on Broadway in 2019, Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play garnered immense controversy due to its provocative and incendiary plot. The play is set at a couples therapy retreat where interracial couples who’ve lost the passion undergo “Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy”, a type of sexual role play where the couples act out master and slave fantasies. Just from that description alone, you can tell that Slave Play is a play that sees where the line is and then gleefully crosses over it. With a brilliant cast consisting of Kit Harington, Olivia Washington, Fisayo Akinade and James Cusati-Moyer, this is undeniably the hottest ticket in town this summer. But don’t expect to see much of it on social media, as you enter you’re made to put a sticker over your phone’s camera so nothing can be leaked.

Slave Play plays at the Noël Coward Theatre until September 21st, more info here. 

Lucky Star, Love You Forever
London-based artist and musician Chantal X.W.’s solo show Lucky Star, Love You Forever, marks the culmination of her three-month-long residency at Revue Studios. Presenting an installation which merges representations of Asiastic femininity into sentimental objects, posing questions of subjectivity, agency, and representation within the female sphere.

Lucky Star, Love You Forever runs at Soho Revue until August 3rd, more info here. 

Good food, good cause
Thanks to Peckham’s resident bao bun master Mr Bao, SE15’s favourite restaurants have joined forces for a weekend of good food for a good cause. Seventeen of Peckham’s restaurants including the likes of Levan, Kudu, Peckham Cellars, and Cafe Britaly will join forces to offer never-seen-before £8 specials on each of their menus, with £1 for each special going to Peckham Pantry: a membership community food club that supports low-income families.

Peckham Weekender runs until July 14th, more info here.