13 August, 2024
Curtains up
Now in its 68th year, the BFI London Film Festival is one of the
biggest and best of its kind, offering cinematic riches from around
the world, from mainstream movies to obscure art-house hits.
Although this year's programme won't be announced until September,
it opens with the world premiere screening of the Apple Original
Films movie Blitz, a tale of adventure and terror set during the
Second World War, helmed by Oscar-winning director Steve
McQueen.
From 9 to 28th October.
Painted ladies
Last chance to see Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 at Tate Britain, which runs until 13 October. This ground-breaking show includes more than 150 works, from Artemisia Gentileschi to Dame Laura Knight, which reveal how female artists fought for recognition and professional status in a male-dominated field. Often dismissed in their time as amateurs, the exhibition demonstrates that female artists were more than capable of matching their male counterparts in both skill and subject matter.
Hang on
Ben Whishaw and Game of Thrones' Julian Msamati star in a new
production of Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett's bleakly knockout
comedy exploring the meaning (or perhaps that should be
meaninglessness) of life. Once described as a play in which nothing
happens, twice, two men sit beneath a tree, waiting for the
mysterious, all-powerful Godot - but will he ever come?
Catch one of the greatest works of 20th-Century theatre at The
Theatre Royal, Haymarket from 13 September to 14 December.
Leading light
The Florence Nightingale Museum commemorates the most renowned woman in nursing history, who, during the 1850s, laid the foundations for modern medicine while caring for the casualties of the Crimean War. Tucked away within St Thomas' Hospital, almost opposite the Houses of Parliament, this small but fascinating museum preserves many of Nightingale's own possessions, including her pet owl (stuffed) and one of the Turkish lanterns that gave her the nickname she would become famous for: The Lady of the Lamp.