On the Wall | TheDadLab | Allelujah | A Gay and NonGay | Krickets...
This week’s edition of The Week in Colour brings you Jacko inspired art, a book to help keep the kids entertained over the holidays, a hilarious LGBTQ+ podcast, Alan Bennett’s latest unmissable production and sumptuous Indian street food.
VISIT: Michael Jackson: On the Wall. Not everybody is a fan of Jacko, and that’s only human nature. But love him or hate him, he is without doubt the most influential pop icon the world has ever seen, and therefore the most depicted cultural figure in visual art. It comes as no surprise that the National Portrait Gallery is celebrating what would be his 60th birthday with a major new show bringing together the multimedia works of over 40 artists drawn from public and private collections from around the world, as well as new works made especially for the exhibition. This show is not one for nostalgic Jackson die-hards, nor one for those looking to educate themselves about the legend. It is hard-hitting, polarising and provocative. Visitors will really experience the full range of emotions Jackson evoked in people, from being idolised and worshipped to being vilified and ridiculed. Look out for the shoes attached to helium balloons, our particular highlight.
Michael Jackson: On the Wall runs at the National Portrait Gallery until 21 October. Check out the website to find out more and follow @NPGLondon on Twitter.
READ: TheDadLab. The long-awaited family-friendly home science book from top dad YouTuber and Instagrammer Sergei Urban is finally here. Featuring 40 simple step-by-step guides for fun science experiments to try at home, TheDadLab is loaded with great ideas that use everyday household items to entertain and educate the kids over the summer holidays. Make a paper ship, suspend it in water, and watch how it doesn’t sink. Learn about dinosaurs, fossils and the different ways baby animals are born by making and hatching your own dinosaur eggs. All you need is a freezer, balloons, a toy dinosaur and a hammer. Or make an amazing coloured kaleidoscope of rainbow colours by adding water to M&Ms or Skittles. Our favourites include pouring water sideways, standing on eggs without them breaking and quite literally, being in a bubble. Got some ketchup, string, balloons and paperclips lying around in your drawer? Think twice before throwing anything away - they could make you very popular with the kids!
TheDadLab: 40 Quick, Fun and Easy Activities to do at Home by Sergei Urban, Blink Publishing, £14.99, is out on July 12. Follow @TheDadLab on YouTube and Instagram for more cool science.
LISTEN: A Gay and a NonGay. Over the weekend more than a million people flocked to central London to watch, and take part in, Pride in London. So, it only seems fitting that this week’s highlight is the country’s most listened to LGBTQ+ podcast. A Gay and a Non-Gay is a regular at the number one spot in iTunes sexuality chart and it is extremely popular for a reason. Every Wednesday morning, when a new episode is released, the hilarious James Barr and Dan Hudson chew the cud on a variety of issues, from decoding gay lingo to learning about gay dads, from understanding gay bar etiquette to dating trends. But the show also has its serious side and explores cultural issues such as homophobia, attitudes towards transsexuality, coming out and mental health. The pair have such fantastic chemistry and their differing lifestyles and perceptions are both refreshing and endearing – no wonder listeners keep coming back for more.
Visit gaynongay.com to find out more and follow @gaynongay on Twitter.
SEE: Allelujah. Alan Bennett should not be referred to as a national treasure, so we will resist the urge to call him one, tempting as it is. Interestingly, this label is often dished out to the great and good once they’ve reached ‘a certain age’, which is precisely the subject of Bennett’s new play, which follows the lives of an old people’s choir in a Yorkshire hospital. Despite Britain’s ageing population, pensioners feature relatively little in the arts. But Bennett often places them centre stage; as his wonderful screenplay, The Lady in the Van, also showed. Here a geriatric hospital ward threatened with closure provides the arena for Bennett’s unmistakable and hilarious writing. One of the most exciting new theatres in London, The Bridge Theatre, is a 900-seater space with a rocketing reputation and a blockbuster line-up and Allelujah looks set to attract millennials and pensioners alike to this unmissable production.
Allelujah runs from 11 July to 29th September. For ticket reservations visit https://bridgetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/allelujah/ @_bridgetheatre #Allelujah.
DINE: Krickets. Try out the new summer menu offering tasty dishes straight from their tandoor oven and robata grill, like the new tandoori methi lamb neck with aubergine bharta. This Indian street food restaurant, which started life as a shipping container at Pop Brixton, opened its first major two-floor restaurant in Soho in 2017 and has now launched another permanent 40 cover restaurant on its original home turf, at Atlantic Road, Brixton. As well as serving up its signature KFC (that's Keralan Fried Chicken!) with curry leaf mayonnaise and pickled mooli, awesome bhel puri, and addictive samphire pakoras, its summer menu includes duck leg kathi roll, raw mackerel, cuttlefish, goan sausage, green mango and lime and rabbit keema pal, salli potato and carrot pickle. The specialist for fiery small plates that smoothly combine British ingredients and Mumbai inspired flavours, Krickets' next stop will be at the refurbed Television Centre in White City.
Follow @kricketlondon on Twitter for updates.
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