From the Editor
* The Gate Theatre is closing after nearly 50 years of “transformative international theatre” and “several years of survival in a precarious funding climate”. The news follows on the heels of an announcement that The Africa Centre is broke and has been forced to close. The Centre’s CEO said it must raise £100,000 to reopen the building.
Daniel Nelson london.globalevents@gmail.com
TALKS AND DISCUSSIONS
Monday 28 September
* China’s Global Strategy Under Xi Jinping, Olivia Cheung, Steve Tsang, David Lubin, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline
Tuesday 29 September
* The Complicit Lens: Media Coverage of Israel's Genocide in Gaza, book lunch with Robin Andersen + Richard Sanders, and Des Freedman, 6.30 - 8.30pm, P21, 21-27 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD. Info: P21
* Britain and beyond: discovering Islamic heritage, Sadiya Ahmed and Tharik Hussain, in-person and online, 7 - 8.30pm, £6, £12, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS
EXHIBITIONS
* Frida: The Making of an Icon, how Frida Kahlo became one of the most influential artists of all time, from her political activism to global Fridamania, £25, Tate Modern, Bankside SE1 9TC, until 3 January. Info: Tate
+ How the zeitgeist helped create Fridamania
* Rising Voices, Contemporary Arts From Asia, Australia and the Pacific, work by more than 40 artists from 25 countries, £17, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road SW7 until 10 January. Info: V&A
+ Arresting voices of the Asia-Pacific
* Moved to Care: Stories of Health and Migration, explores the contributions of migrants from across the globe to healthcare over the last 150 years, from the 19th century colonial legacy of missionary nurses to the Windrush Generation, free, 20 Cavendish Square, W1G OR until 2 November. Info: Royal College of Nursing
+ Migrant nurses: Looking after Britain’s health
* The Arab Hall: Past and Present, the Hall in the 100-year-old Leighton House is a blend of 13th-century Damascus tiles and Victorian architecture. A new exhibition features contemporary art and a dedicated film, offering a deeper look at how Islamic art has influenced British spaces, £14, Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road, W14 8LZ until 4 October. Info: Leighton House
* The Music is Black: A British Story, how Black British music has shaped British culture from 1900 to today through objects like Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, Littler Simz fashion and photographs, £22.50 weekdays, £24.40, V&A East, Queen Elizabeth Park, Olympic Park. Info: V&A East Museu
* When words fall silent, cinema speaks: Zineb Sedira’s installation on Algeria’s key role in African cinema in the 1960s and ‘70s, Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG until 17 January. Info: Tate
* When Third Cinema was a power in the land
* Anish Kapoor, sculptures and paintings by the Mumbai-born Indian-British artist, £22, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX until 18 October. Info: Hayward.
* Hybrid forms and live realities: the sculpture of Bharti Kher, the British Indian artist explores the body, womanhood, mythology and cultural identity, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, until 24 January. Info: Exhibition
* Target Queen, large-scale commission by British-Indian artist Bharti Kher, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre
* Collecting and Empire, trail making connections between archaeology, anthropology and the British Empire, British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1. Info: British Museum
* British Library, installation of 6,328 books marks the contributions of migrants to UK,Tate Modern, Bankside SE1. Info: Installation
* Childhood in War, the UK’s first dedicated exhibition exploring how war affects and shapes young lives, UK-oriented but including contemporary stories and quotes from Afghanistan, Sudan and Ukraine, Imperial War Museums, Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ. until 28 February. Info: War Museum
* Rudy Loewe: Intimacies of Care – Spaces of Grief and Possibility, the lived experience of Black people whose mental healthcare in the UK is shaped by racist discrimination, free, Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE until 7 February. Info: Wellcome
* A Life of Navigation, Taiwanese artist Musquiqui Chihying explores our ambiguous relationship with analogue and digital technologies through installation, video, photography, and sculpture, free, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, until 18 October. Info: Hayward
* Zifzafa, video works by Lawrence Abu Hamdan that address how sound can both sustain and disrupt the richness of community life, free, Barbican Centre, Silk Street EC2Y 8DS. Info: Barbican
* Amar Kanwar, the India-based artist’s film trilogy investigates legacies of decolonisation and the 1947 Partition, free, Serpentine North Gallery, West Carriage Drive W2 2AR until 31 January. Info: Serpentine
* The Unclassified, group exhibition of four leading contemporary Korean and Korean-heritage artists: Meekyoung Shin, Ayoung Kim, siren eun young jung, and Gala Porras-Kim, Korean Cultural Centre, Grand Buildings, 1-4 Strand WC2N 5BW until 31 December. Info: KCX
ARTS OPPORTUNITIES
* The Markaz Review Literary Prizes are open to short stories and literary essay/creative nonfiction by writers from the SWANA region. Submissions deadline: 30 October.
* Entries for Open City Documentary Festival 2027 are now open.
* LegalAliens Theatre’s is designed for migrants, refugees, people seeking asylum and anyone with English as a second language. All sessions are led by migrant artists from the theatre’s professional team: “an incredible opportunity to learn new skills, express creatively, practice English and build friendships.” Email Nada to register at legalalienstheatre@legalaliens.org.
* On 26 September and 3 October playwright John Webber is offering free, 90-minute sessions at the Arcola Theatre on dramatising your playwriting.
* The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series is inviting poems (40 lines or less) and short prose (100 words or less) exploring: African and African diasporic migration and (im)mobility; how African and Asian refugees are being left to drown in the English Channel; and Edward Nkoloso, Afronauts and the 1960s Zambian Space Programme..
* Applications for Projekt Empower’s Practice Lab workshops for international theatre makers are invited, and a new Immersion Lab aimed at translating documentary material into performance is underway.
* Wanted: poems and short prose on the tragedy of refugee deaths in the Channel.
* The Royal Court Theatre’s Writers’ Card aims to help playwrights through mentoring, networking, funding opportunities, events, subsidised meals and free script printing.
* The Climate Migration Collaborative seeks contributors to its Climate Migration Storytelling initiative.
* Comedian Munya Chawawa has launched Black Boys Theatre Club “to give young men access to a world of theatre”.
* The BFI is to invest £150m over the next three years under six headings: audiences, education & heritage, filmmaking & talent development, skills & workforce development, international, and insight & industry.
* Good Chance, formed in the Calais Jungle refugee camp, is launching Stage Door 10 - a national programme placing 10 creatives from refugee backgrounds in paid roles across 10 UK theatres and arts organisations.
* As Yet Unscene, year-round initiative to find and develop scripts in early stages of development. it includes workshops, rehearsed readings and fully-rehearsed performances of longer extracts. Details here
* The Cockpit Theatre offers classes, workshops, readings, advice sessions, support & performance opportunities.
* Papatango hopes its new Playwrights’ Studio will be a home for playwrights of all levels of experience. Its advantages include digital workshops, lone-to-one, and thousands of pounds in open-access funding.
* If you are a refugee, immigrant or asylum-seeking writer interested in exploring your own poetry and prose, Exiled Writers Ink offers classes.
FILM
* The Cycle of Love, reconstructs a 1977 journey, by a Delhi street artist on a 6,000-mile trip to find the woman who had captured his heart, Picturehouses Central, Finsbury Park, Hackney and Ritzy; Curzon Bloomsbury, until 1 October; Lexi until 30 September
* Shadows of Beirut, a woman returns to Beirut after 25 years to visit her dying father, to face grief, resentment and unanswered questions and a world she believed she had left behind, Odeon Lux Haymarket, Ritzy Picturehouse, + Vues Finchley Road, Fulham Broadway and Westfield Stratford City
* Hope, violent mayhem rules the screen in this two-and-a-half-hour Korean police and monster film, cinemas all over town
* Hong Kong Film Festival, 21 screenings and events, 17 UK premieres + Classics Revisited and Experimental & Expanded strands11 venues including Barbican, ICA, Close-up Cinema, Rio, Ritzy and Picturehouse. Until 4 October. Info: HKFF
+ The return of the Hong Kong Film Festival
Tuesday 29 September
* Bodies Adrift: The Short Films of Fernando and Minuca Villaverde, double programme of Cuban shorts + two restored docs from 1981 exploring, respectively, Cuban and Venezuelan migrant communities in Miami, ICA
Wednesday 30 September
* Knife; The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, dramatic biopic of the writer’s life, career and recovery following a 2022 assassination attempt. The film includes footage shot by Rushdie’s wife, visual artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, 6.10pm, Curzon Bloomsbury until 8 October; Lexi; Picturehouses Central, Crouch End, Greenwich, Ritzy
+ Rushdie film: ‘It’s not just about me. It’s about freedom’
* Palestine 36, historical drama that chronicles the interwoven stories of ordinary citizens during the 1936–1939 Great Arab Revolt against British colonial rule and Zionist settlement + Q&A, 7pm, £16.63, Frontline Club, 12 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline
+ Palestine 1936: A story for today
Wednesday 30 September - Thursday 1 October
* Cotton Queen, in a Sudanese cotton-farming village, teenage Nafisa grows up on her matriarch grandmother's heroic tales of resistance against British colonisers. But when an ambitious businessman arrives with genetically engineered cotton and a high-stakes development plan, Nafisa finds herself at the centre of a battle for her village's future, 30 September: Cine Lumiere + 1 October, Castle + Q&As
PERFORMANCE
* Darkllng, one-woman show on the impact of the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster in India, £15 - £45, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 24 October. Info: Bush
+ A bleak story that needs to be re-told
* Fire, Fire, climate crisis two-hander, £15-£29, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street E8 3DL until 3 October. Info: Arcola
+ Gaia and pyramids in the line of fire
* The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media), BÉZNĂ Theatre’s multimedia investigation into the relationship between mainstream media, public opinion and state crime, £13 - £19, New Diorama Theatre, 15 - 16 Triton Street, Regent's Place, NW1 3BF, untll 10 October. Info: New Diorama + workshops 28 Sept, Shadow World Investigations, 6-8pm; 1 Oct, post-show Q&A: Media Ethics, Mike Berry; 2 Oct, International State Crime Initiative, 4-6pm; 5 Oct, Shadow World Investigations, 6-8pm; 6 Oct, Producing Political Theatre, 4-6pm; 9 Oct, International State Crime Initiative, 4-6pm
+ Angry response to the first year (of the Gaza Genocide)
* Palart Festival, celebration of Palestinian theatre. Return to Palestine, ensemble piece tracing a diaspora Palestinian’s first journey home; 2077: Who Wants to Survive, dystopian thriller from Ramallah’s Ashtar Theatre; Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You, chaotic, defiantly funny exploration of the value of hate today; Two Names, Meet and Part, coming-of-age story about identity and activism in the US; Hanna Shammas Takes it to Heart, warm stand-up storytelling show from Haifa + talks, workshops and industry networking. Developed in collaboration with The Freedom Theatre, Al-Hakawati Theatre and ASHTAR Theatre. Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, North Road, N7 9EF, until 3 October. Info: Festival
* The Story, when a white teacher is killed in a black neighbourhood four journalists are forced to confront what they are prepared to risk to tell their version of the truth, National Theatre, South Bank SE1 9PX, until 24 October. Info: National
* For coloured girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, “Stories of love and violence, joy and survival - and what it feels like to come out the other side”, Yard, Queen’s Yard, White Post Lane, E9 until 17 October. Info: The Yard
from Thursday 1 October
* The Hungry Ghost, Mei Leng Yew’s sexy horror rom-com exploring what lies between superstition and rationality, £15 to £25. Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Rd, W12 8LJ until 31 October. Info: Bush
TV and RADIO
Monday 28 September
* Global Eye, news magazine, 7pm, BBC2
* Finding Britain’s Slave Traders With David Olusoga, second part of documentary that looks on the dark side of British history and the institutions that are still benefitting, 9pm, BBC2
* Michael Palin in The Philippines, 9pm, Channel5
Tuesday 29 September
* Finding Britain’s Slave Traders With David Olusoga, documentary on a dark side of British history and its many beneficiaries, 11.10pm, BBC2
* Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise, sleazy delights for tourists, 1.10am, BBC3
Wednesday 30 September
* Where is Austin Tice?, inquiry into the disappearance of a US journalist in Syria, 9.30am, Radio 4
Thursday 31 September
* Omid Djalili: Namaste, the British-Iranian comedian, 6.30pm, Radio4