London World Naked Bike ★★★ FREE


Yes, it is legal and it’s part of Bike Week. The goals are to show the vulnerability of cyclists and to obtain rights for cyclists while protesting car culture and global dependency on oil. It is intended also be a celebration of body freedom. Great fun and lots of humour in many of the “costumes.” Cyclists and spectators share the liberating experience of the event.

Reviewed by J.C.

 Our Score:  ☆☆☆ 

WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Last Reviewed: June 2020 
Times vary according to chosen start points:
Tower Hill, Regent’s Park, West Norwood, Hyde Park, Clapham Junction and Kew Bridge.
Routes merge to form a core circuit from Westminster Bridge to Hyde Park.
Nearest tube: Various
https://wnbr.london
Map & Location: Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LY, UK

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The Playboy of the Western World ★★★★ National Theatre | Until February 28, 2026

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St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

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David Copperfield ★★★★ Jermyn Street Theatre | Nov 20 - Dec 20, 2025

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It seems like an impossible task. Can you really squeeze all of the incidents and characters of one of Dickens' sprawling novels into a two-hour theatrical production and have all of the people played by only three actors? Amazingly, the Guildford Shakespeare Company manages to do just that. This theatrical version of Dickens' semi-autobiographical masterpiece is remarkably faithful to the original story, and somehow the small cast brings to life each of the author's wonderfully eccentric creations. From the ever optimistic Mr Micawber to the unctuous Uriah Heep every figure David Copperfield encounters on his life-journey becomes a believable and engaging personage. As in the novel, we begin at the moment of David's birth and end with his marriage to a paragon of Victorian virtue. Along the way we are introduced to a plethora of weird characters and must navigate a convoluted plot that is riddled with coincidence. Refreshingly in this telling, the familiar Dickensian...
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Porn Play ★★★ Royal Court Theatre | Nov 6 - Dec 13, 2025

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Ani is a successful academic who lectures on Milton and has recently won an award for her latest book. She is in a relationship with a sensitive, gentle man, and on the surface, she seems to have it all. Yet beneath her success, Ani harbours a preoccupation with violent pornography which threatens to undermine both her personal and professional life. Sophia Chetin-Leuner’s drama explores two intertwined themes: the transgressive nature of sexual fantasies which gain their erotic power from being taboo and the fact that obsessive behaviour often stems from unresolved trauma. Ani’s addiction to porn and her excessive masturbation initially serve to numb her grief over her mother’s death. However over time, they begin to erode both her relationships and career. These themes are then developed through literary concepts, primarily drawn from Milton. The play opens with a reference to the Narcissus myth, which is later illuminated in Ani’s lecture on Paradise Lost , where she examines Milton...
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End ★★★★ National Theatre | Nov 13 - Jan 17, 2026

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End is the third play in David Eldridge's trilogy about couples at different stages of their relationships. In this final instalment, Alfie (Clive Owens) and Julie (Saskia Reeves) confront Alfie’s imminent death from cancer. Their exchanges are at once humorous and deeply affecting as they revisit memories, moments of happiness, regrets, and past conflicts. Plans for the funeral become conversations about dying and tentative imaginings of what might lie ahead. Each of the three plays is set in the morning, a liminal period between night and day that suggests transition and vulnerability. However, in this instance, the strictly limited timeframe feels somewhat contrived. Too much is compressed into a span that in reality would unfold over several days. Dividing the play into a series of distinct scenes with overlapping discussions might have made for greater verisimilitude and prevented some of the abrupt changes in tone and subject matter. Within ninety minutes all five of Kübler...
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Bryan Cranston’s star shines brightly in Ivo Van Hove’s splendid revival of Arthur Miller’s 1946 masterpiece. Cranston is a completely compelling presence as Joe Keller, the kindly older businessman who plays imaginary games with neighbourhood children. His portrayal is simply remarkable as this pleasant veneer is peeled away and the war profiteer and self-serving sophist beneath it are revealed. The games he shares with the children echo the ones he plays with his family and friends, whom he draws into colluding with his pretence of innocence and with the web of rationalisations he has spun for his past actions. Miller’s work carries an epic weight that Van Hove captures with his sparse staging, and Cranston’s performance evokes the moral authority and emotional force of Greek tragedy. As Joe’s wife, Kate, whose belief in her husband is tied to her certainty that her son survived the war, Marianne Jean-Baptiste also gives an unforgettable performance. The strong cast is completed by P...
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The Spy Who Came In From The Cold ★★★ @sohoplace | Nov 17, 2025 - Feb 21, 2026

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“Life isn’t a game. It’s a ride.” This zany Canadian musical takes that mantra and blasts it into orbit. The setup is simple: six teens from the Saint Cassian Chamber Choir of Uranium City, Saskatchewan die in a roller-coaster accident. After that, the weirdness ramps up fast. The afterlife is presided over by a robot named The Amazing Karnak, a mechanical oracle who foresaw their deaths and calmly predicts his own. He informs the teens that one of them can return to life, but only if the vote is unanimous. What follows is a series of musical pleas as each teen lays out not just the life they lived, but the one they fantasised about. Their stories spill out in songs that swing between comedy and heartbreak. We meet the town overachiever, the macho Ukrainian immigrant, the closeted Taco Bell employee, the eager-to-please nice girl and even a teen whose identity is a complete mystery. This show is a gem. It sparkles with self-deprecating wit, meta jokes and killer performances. Baylie Ca...
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