Things to do in London this week

What to do and see in London this week, Tuesday 27 May to Sunday 1 June 14 : The coolest, cultural, current events in London as selected by the Culture Whisper team.

My Bed for sale

Here at Culture Whisper we applaud Charles Saatchi’s decision to keep his Duke of York’s HQ gallery free to all by selling off his collection of contemporary art, much of it by the YBAs of the nineties. Of all the pieces he’s acquired over the years, the most infamous is surely that by Tracey Emin, My Bed,  a raw portrait of love and loss in the shape of an unmade bed surrounded by empty vodka bottles, pregnancy tests and dirty underwear. My Bed will be auctioned at Christies for between £800,000 and £1.2m – a price Saatchi says is too low. Observers of the art scene will be keeping a close eye.

Icons bow out

Emin now regards the work as ‘historical’, according to the Telegraph, and she’s not the only one closing a chapter in her life. Philip Roth is on BBC1 tonight in the second tranche of his conversation with Alan Yentob, an interview which he says will be the last one he ever gives. Carlos Acosta has announced his retirement from classical ballet (we like that he's going out with a bang, choreographing and dancing a completely new version of Carmen to Bizet's score in 2015 at the ROH before he bows out). And opening this week is  Jimmy’s Hall , a biopic of the Irish communist Jimmy Gralton. Film director and left-wing social realist Ken Loach is rumoured to be making this his last film. The end of an era indeed.  

New films: at cinemas

Our movie of the week, however, has to be a new digital restoration of Frank Borzage’s Oscar-winning 1932 A Farewell to Arms , opening at BFI Southbank on 30 May. Starring Gary Cooper, arguably the most deliriously handsome man ever to grace the silver screen, and Helen Hayes, this adaptation of Hemingway’s novel about the First World War is a hymn to the transcendent power of love. Fans of the (Alpha) Papa may also like to tune into Michael Palin’s Great Lives , broadcast on Friday 30 May at 11.30pm, which promises to to rescue him from the oft-hurled charges of bullying, misogyny and womanizing. 

Another very different iconic figure is celebrated in For No Good Reason , Johnny Depp’s homage to gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman, whose scrawling, nightmarish pictures formed the visual accompaniment to Hunter S Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas .                 

Book-now theatre this week

For theatre treats, head pronto for the Almeida ’s website, where booking for members opens tomorrow for the autumn season. It features Alecky Blythe's Little Revolution (inspired by 2011 Riots), and a production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town from American actor-director David Cromer. Membership costs £50 – and we think it’s money well-spent to snag those early bird tickets. In other theatre news, the Donmar has announced that Nick Payne, probably London’s hottest young playwright, is to be their new writer-in-residence. 

Help! It's half-term: Fun in London

Half-term crept up on you? For children with a taste for the macabre, the British Museum’s exhibition Ancient Lives, New Discoveries , on mummification, could be as gripping as the bloodthirsty exploits of the Vikings. Over at the Science Museum, a four-day festival called  Make Hack Do invites kids from 12 to 16 to get involved with 3-D printing, coding and robotics. 

London-wide, the Festival of Architecture kicks off on Saturday 1 June. 150 events include debates on hot topics like London’s rash of new skyscrapers and the fate of the high street. Check the website for walks, film screenings and family activities. 

Cool new restaurants: London sets the table

New restaurants in London are scarcely news; but two have us excited. James Lowe’s Lyle’s has been hotly anticipated by supportive fellow chefs including Thomasina Miers and Angela Hartnett, and is now open (initial reports are favourable). And in High Street Kensington, Marlow chef Adam Simmonds launches his first London establishment, Pavilion , on Friday 30 May. Marked by foodies as one to watch, Simmonds is known for hand-making every last one of his ingredients on the premises. 

With the Met Office predicting outbreaks of bashful sunshine for Saturday, we feel (muted) celebration may be in order. 

The Culture Whisper team

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