London in Five: November 2024

The London Magazine‘s guide to five of the capital’s best cultural events and shows this November.

 

All’s Well that Ends Well, Shakespeare’s Globe

One of the more bitter and unpleasant works of Shakespeare’s comedies, All’s Well That Ends Well is a tale of deception masked as a love story. Under the direction of Chelsea Walker, the play has become a genre-bending social satire in a stylish contemporary world of gossip and lies akin to The White Lotus and Succession. Hear from Chelsea:

All’s Well that Ends Well is a thriller-esque social satire which interrogates power dynamics across class, gender and sexuality, and explores how far we’ll go to save face. It requires a bold, playful ensemble of actors who are up for rediscovering and reframing this play for today’s audience. I’m very excited to be working with such a talented, fearless company and I look forward to seeing what we create together.

All’s Well That Ends Well is showing at the Sam Wanaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, from 8 November 2024 to 4 January 2025.

Syeda Aatika Fatima: Is Someone There?, Mandy Zhang Art

Growing up in Pakistan, artist Seyda Aatika Fatima felt constantly observed, both by her family and by her devices. This sense of being watched, even in intimate spaces like her bedroom, has created a lasting paranoia and vulnerability. To this day, she keeps her blinds closed even during the day. It is from this sense of paranoia that her first solo exhibition was born. Is Someone There? fuses traditional artistic techniques with futuristic subjects to address the ethics of surveillance and voyeurism: the viewer is brought into intimate and domestic scenes within the home, and made to watch. There, the question her art demands is clear: what does it mean to be human in a tech-driven society where social norms are absent?

Is Someone There? runs until 17 November at Mandy Zhang Art.

Making Poetry: Astra Papachristodoulou, Royal Festival Hall

In visual poet and artist Astra Papachristodoulou‘s debut solo exhibition, poetry is lifted from the page and presented as sculpture, object and textile. Papachristodoulou’s object poems suggest alternative ways for poetry to exist today, ways that are interactive and tactile as opposed to solitary and silent. Materials and techniques include beeswax letter transferring, protest banner poetry, bio-resin sculptures and poetry games. In an exhibition that combines activism and play, it is the pluralised feminine self that emerges as the central figure.

Making Poetry: Astra Papachristodoulou runs from 5 November 2024 to 5 January 2025 in Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library.

Disturbing Darlings, Shoreditch Modern

Dolls, bows, puppies and toys: a picture of childhood innocence. In the hauntingly whimsical world of Disturbing Darlings, things are not quite as cutesy as they seem. The exhibition, featuring the work of five contemporary artists, brings together the sweet and the sinister in a provocative display of works that blur the lines between the adorable and the unsettling. Hear from one of the artists, Amy Coleslaw:

I am drawn to the overlooked and the unloved, transforming discarded doll parts into needle-felted, one-of-a-kind dolls that straddle the line between whimsy and discomfort. Ultimately, my work is about finding magic in the mundane, inviting viewers into a world where nostalgia and imagination collide in unexpected, kitschy forms. Through these dolls, I aim to challenge throwaway culture and the boundaries of traditional art, encouraging a more sustainable and playful approach to creativity.

A perfect way to round off spooky season, Disturbing Darlings is running until 16 November at Shoreditch Modern.

Roots, Almeida Theatre

In a homecoming story of generational differences and self-discovery, Beatie Bryant struggles to find common ground with her traditional family and their rural home in Norfolk. Diyan Zora directs Rings of Power star, Morfydd Clark, in the new production of Arnold Wesker’s lyrical, impassioned play. Running alongside John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, the two plays return to the society of the 1950s as part of the Almeida’s Angry and Young season. 

Roots is running until 30 November at the Almeida Theatre.

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