London Art Guide March 2026: best art, theatre and music

Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

Meet Jeffrey Bernard in this immersive one-hour show staged in the bar of the legendary Coach & Horses pub in the heart of Soho. Bernard is a journalist who doesn’t know the meaning of the word deadline and would rather be drinking vodka at any time of the day or night. He’s a throwback of a man who is feeling rather jaded after four failed marriages and a life of non-stop carousing. When he gets locked in the pub after falling asleep in the Gents, Bernard puts the night to good use.

Robert Bathurst is superb as Jeffrey Bernard and the show is worth seeing just for the neat trick with a pint glass, a match-box and a raw egg. The Coach & Horses is also a quintessential old-school Soho pub that was once the favourite watering hole of actor and infamous drinker Peter O’Toole, so lots of stories there. Many performances of Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell are already sold out, so be quick!

Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell is at the Coach & Horses in Soho, London until 23 March.

Beatriz González retrospective at the Barbican

The Barbican presents a major retrospective of groundbreaking Colombian artist, curator, educator and art historian Beatriz González. This is the late artist’s first solo show in the UK and her largest-ever exhibition in Europe, opening just weeks after she died on 9 January at the age of 93.

Bringing together six decades of González’s work, from the 1960s to the present, this exhibition celebrates her extraordinary and dynamic practice. Through paintings, sculptural assemblages and monumental public installations, she vividly engaged with the ways that images permeate the world. These bold works explore the impact of the images we encounter every day. González reimagined what art can tell us about power, grief, and memory, believing that ‘art says things that history cannot’. 

The Beatriz González retrospective is at the Barbican Art Gallery in London to 10 May 2026.

BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival

The 40th edition of the BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival opens on 18 March with Jennifer Kroot’s riotous documentary Hunky Jesus. The film is a dazzling exploration of the legacy of the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and their legendary annual Easter pageant, the Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary Contest. The event is a defiant expression of community, performance and radical joy in the face of exclusion and repression. Showcasing a series of burlesque and drag performances, it offers a mix of satire, celebration and social commentary.  

BFI Flare is the UK’s largest queer film event, screening the best in contemporary LGBTQIA+ cinema from across the globe. The festival is at BFI Southbank from 18 to 29 March 2026.

Cash on Delivery

The Mill at Sonning, located on the river just outside Reading, is one of the UK’s last remaining dinner theatres. This month, artistic director Sally Hughes brings Cash on Delivery to the stage. Written by Michael Cooney, this is a quintessential British comedy set in a living room in East London on a windy October day in 1996. While it is very much a traditional British sitcom, many of its themes are still timely today, such as benefit fraud, cost of living pressures and changing societal norms and expectations.

Steven Pinder excels as Eric Swan, a loveable rogue who creates all kinds of confusion, and James Bradshaw is perfect as his rather naïve lodger Norman Bassett. Cash on Delivery is so funny that audience members were wiping away tears. The bar and restaurant at The Mill are always great, so be sure to include lunch or dinner when you book.

Cash on Delivery is at The Mill at Sonning to 4 April 2026.

White Cube Bermondsey

The largest commercial gallery in Europe, White Cube Bermondsey is a stunning space. This month, you can see two inspiring exhibitions there, Night Signal by American artist WangShui and Echo by Klára Hosnedlová.

Night Signal is a new body of large-scale works where dreaming forms the conceptual ground for questions about consciousness, perception and technology. At the centre of the exhibition is Myelin Sheath (2026), an impressive painting based on recurring forms from the artist’s dreams. A violet hummingbird, regarded in many cultures as a messenger between worlds, is seen emerging from an acidic green fog.

Klára Hosnedlová’s Echo is a meditation on time. Making the most of the vast White Cube gallery space, these sprawling sculptural structures are consumed by massive growths that appear organic. Regarding time as both iteration and reverberation, these constructed environments evoke an archaeological excavation of a future and of ‘experimental’ places where time-based processes take root and play out.

Night Signal and Echo are at White Cube Bermondsey in London to 29 March 2026.

Oxford Literary Festival

Yes, it’s time to book your tickets for the brilliant Oxford Literary Festival. You can hear from writers working across history, science, literature, the arts, politics and currents affairs, with hundreds of events across the historic heart of Oxford.

This year’s festival highlights include multi-award-winning writer Antony Beevor on his search for the truth about the Russian mystic Rasputin and popular historian Simon Schama giving the inaugural lecture on the growth of antisemitism and the threats it poses for modern society. There’s also an opportunity to see the Booker-winning Life of Pi author, Yann Martel, celebrating the UK publication of his latest novel, Son of Nobody.

Writer Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler, famous for their much-loved children’s book The Gruffalo, will talk about their long-standing partnership. They are the recipients of this year’s Bodley Medal for an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. There really is something for everyone here, from arts and archaeology to wildlife, writing and wellbeing.

The Oxford Literary Festival is at the Sheldonian Theatre and other venues in Oxford from 21 to 29 March.

Affordable Art Fair Battersea Park

The Affordable Art Fair returns to Battersea Park this month. You’ll see works by 900 emerging and established artists across painting, sculpture, photography and textiles, with pieces priced from just £100. This edition of the fair brings 115 contemporary galleries from across the UK and around the world, including 11 who are joining for the first time.

Highlights at the fair include Springtime, a stunning installation by Relton Marine (artists Christine Relton and Tom Marine) in the main atrium; special Art After Dark events; and a chance to see the world’s largest playable Game Boy. To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, there will also be an exhibition spotlighting more than 20 female artists, exploring stories of togetherness, identity and belonging.

The Affordable Art Fair is at Evolution London, Battersea Park from 4 to 8 March.

Jewish Book Week at Kings Place

Jewish Book Week is London’s longest running literary festival. This year it celebrates its 75th anniversary with a busy program of talks, debates and performances at Kings Place, across the city and online. From literary legends to today’s most exciting voices, this is an opportunity to hear from award-winning writers and thinkers including Simon Schama, also at Oxford Literary Festival, along with Anne Sebba, Michael Gove and Helen Fry. With 90 events and 160 speakers, you’re sure to find something of interest here.

Jewish Book Week is at Kings Place, London from 28 February to 8 March 2026.

Famous faces on London stages this month

There’s always an opportunity to see a famous face from film and television live on stage in London. This month, Keala Settle is magnificent as Mrs President, which plays at Charing Cross Theatre to 8 March; Emmy and Tony Award-winner Billy Crudup stars with Olivier Award-winner Denise Gough in High Noon at Harold Pinter Theatre to 6 March; Griff Rhys Jones plays Jim Hacker in I’m Sorry Prime Minister by Jonathan Lynn at the Apollo; Hugh Bonneville stars in Shadowlands at the Aldwych Theatre; and three-time Oscar nominee and Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Cynthia Erivo is Dracula, playing 23 roles, at the Noel Coward Theatre.

ArtsHub: Shadowlands review – a captivating exploration of love and loss

Discover more screen, games & arts news and reviews on ArtsHub.