Unmissable Things To Do in London in November 2024
Read on for our November list of Unmissable Things To Do in London (and beyond)!
Terrifying Women | Omnibus Theatre | 1-3 November | £15
New horror from Sampira Al-Fihri, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Abi Zakarian.
The Black Burlesque Festival | Jacksons Lane | 1 & 2 November | From £15
Celebrate Black bodies with this night of burlesque surprises.
A Season of Bangla Drama | Various Venues | 1-24 November
Tower Hamlets hosts a feast of Bengali culture and beyond. Expect theatre shows tackling social issues, music, performance and dance. Highlights from the programme include:
- The Final Trumpet by Queen of Arts Theatre
- Once in a song by DIS/MIS
- Rising Lioness by Adity Dance CIC
- Bengali History Walk by Swadhinata Trust
The Tales of the Weird Cabaret | British Library | 2 November | £12
The British Library gets weird with this cabaret night.
Halooween Bash ft CHEWY SHE + Party Food | The Magic Garden | 2 November | £8.30
Art pop sensation Chewy She joins newcomer Party Food for a bonkers and bizarre night of music and storytelling.
Voila! Theatre Festival | Multiple Venues | 4-24 November
A political, panlingual festival of performance celebrates it’s 10th year by expanding to a multi-venue buffet of edgy ideas. Don’t miss ’74 which confronts a pivotal moment in migration history.
Pitchfork Music Festival | Multiple Venues | 5-10 November
Hear new bands to shake up your soulless Spotify algorithm at this multi-venue music mashup.
Nine Sixteenths | The Pleasance | 6-16 November | From £20
A tale of black female representation and pop culture looking at a public and personal histories of 4 fabulous black female performers including Livia Kojo Alour.
Kemah Bob: Miss Fortunate | Soho Theatre | 6-9 November | From £20
Comedian and FEMMES OF COLOUR trailblazer Kemah Bob is a must-see.
La Clique | Christmas in Leicester Square | 6 November-5 January | From £25
The festive season comes early. Don’t wait for December to experience the West End lights, join the most talented motley crew in town for a foot-stomping cavalcade of circus and variety.
Selecting a Ghost | Stanley Arts | 6 November | £10
A spooky promenade theatre show around the beautiful Croydon institution of Stanley Arts.
Being Human Festival | Various Venues | 7–16 November 2024 | Mainly Free
Science won’t save us. It’s up to the humanities to make life worthwhile and question those in power. Join a free programme of events at your local university.
Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992 | London Performance Studios | From 8 November | FREE
Uncover 50 years of alternative theatre made by women in the UK in this enlightening exhibition.
The Acts | Barbican | 8-9 November | £18
A quadruple hit of unmissable ideas including ‘a solo show about love, joy, and cancer; a comedy about the ways neurodivergent people are expected to sell their stories for the stage; a multisensory meditation on isolation and moon landings; and a dynamic live art show about empowerment and agency’.
How To Catch A Pig – The Alternatives | Rich Mix | 9 November | £11.30
A ferocious ‘abolitionist cabaret with live music for the freaks, sex workers, queers and community organisers’ committed to ‘abolishing and rebuilding, dismantling and proposing, taking risks and imagining the alternatives.’.
Tottenham Literature Festival | Bernie Grant Arts Centre | 11-17 November
Black authors, poets, and artists from Tottenham and beyond make this free anti-elitist book festival pop including the irresistible Dr Ronx.
Blood Show | Battersea Arts Centre | 12-23 November | £12
Ocean Hester Stefan Chillingworth’s extraordinary trilogy on extinction is presents a danse macabre with 3 figures and 75 litres of fake blood
Distant Memories of the Near Future | Arcola Theatre | 12-30 November | From £12
Tech impresario tries love into an algorithm in this multimedia tale of humanity in the age of AI.
‘PASSING’ | Wellcome Collection | 12-16 November | FREE
‘PASSING’, a new short film by visually impaired artist Jo Bannon exploring the manual magic of Sindri, a visually impaired dancer and Augusto, a sleight-of-hand magician
CAKE SIT III: CAKE WRESTLING | Old Nun’s Head | 14 November | From £8-10
The BATSHIT invite you never knew you needed is FINALLY HERE!! You are cordially invited to watch queer performers wrestle in a pool full of cake.
The Glorious French Revolution (or: Why Sometimes It Takes A Guillotine To Get Anything Done) | New Diorama Theatre | From 14 November | From £16
A retelling of the French Revolution with a bouncy castle and a wry take on vital moments in European history.
Runt of the Litter | Unit 3K, Oslo House | 14 November | Pay What You Can
London’s most exciting arty party in Hackney Wick (of course it is!) debuts experimental performance, visual art, spoken word, video, sound works to an eclectic crowd.
The Purists | Kiln Theatre | From 14 November | From £15
High energy comedy with rap battles and beats overload in Kilburn’s Kiln Theatre.
Hot Queer Magic Lates | The Yard Theatre | 15 November | From £10
Hot queer acts from Bollywood, Burlesque, Drag and inexplicable worlds collide in this night out for the adventurous.
A Night of Magic and Medicine | The Old Operating Theatre | 18 November | £30
A night of magic performed in the home of Europe’s Oldest Surviving Surgical Operating Theatre
Don’t Feed The Penguin | Stanley Arts | 19 November | £7
A relaxed BSL interpreted and audio described variety night with disabled and queer performers.
Women Of The Lens Film Festival | Rich Mix | 22-24 November
Women are still massively underrepresented in film and you can help change this by supporting this festival of courageous female stories on screen.
A Queer History of Flamenco / Queerolé | The Divine | 23 November | £5
Fernando López Rodríguez talks about their book A Queer History of Flamenco and then a screening of Queerolé by filmmaker and dancer Patricia Lang follows. This untold story shows feminists, transvestites, butches, femmes, the Spanish Roma, disabled people, guiris, and “incomprehensible” artists have all been part of the folkloric history.
Nan, Me & Barbara Pravi | Omnibus Theatre | 26-30 November | £15
‘A warm-hearted, insightful and inspirational exploration of the need to care – for others, and for ourselves – in these crisis-ridden times. With jokes.’ Read our review and discover the adorable Hannah Maxwell.
The Little Mermaid (1989) | The Brunel Museum | 29 November | £10
Head under the sea (well, the River Thames) for this underground queered screening of the Disney Classic by Sacha Coward writer of new book, Queer as Folklore.
Cry-Baby (1990) | The Cinema Museum | 29 November | £8
John Waters’ classic cheap retelling of Romeo and Juliet with Johnny Depp and Ricki Lake is a cult must-watch in this retro beautiful cinematic heaven.
Did we forget any unmissable things to do in London? We almost certainly did – please let us know in the comments below or contact us!
Occasionally the To Do List team are forced to work together.
Rupert likes: free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
Stuart likes: nice pubs, film marathons, not doing real marathons, bad comedy, plays/musicals with shorter second halves, and the Oxford comma.
