5 Things to Do in Nottingham This Week

Well well well, what have we here, eh? It’s only bleddy Lakeside’s Festival of International Children’s Theatre and Dance, or as the kids will call it, Wheee! For a whole week, the University of Nottingham building will be open to tiny tots and big kids alike for a bunch of barmy activities and theatre. You can pay the Luminarium a visit and see what it’d be like to live inside a giant bouncy castle, take in the Buildy-Uppy Dance Show with their glorious use of cardboard boxes on Monday, and have a goose at Alison Duddle’s Puppets and Masks exhibition. You can even have a go at making a puppet for yoursen. Grown ups, drag the kids along. It sounds like too much fun.
Monday 29 - Sunday 4 June, various times and prices, Lakeside Theatre, event link

That there ‘Tempreh don’t half pull out all the stops to give us lot stuff to do. Not only do they have proper crackin’ art exhibitions and the like for us to sink our tegs into for free, but they host weekly film screenings so we can broaden our horizons and open our minds. This week, as part of their summer season, Strange Days: Dystopian visions and alternate worlds for an age of anxiety, we’re invited to a showing of the 1983 film, Born in Flames. Set in an alternate New York, a group of feminists organise and rebel. It’s told in a documentary format, and explores intersectional feminism; exploring the relationships between racism, homophobia and classism within the movement. Get down.
Wednesday 31 May, 6.30pm, £5, Nottingham Contemporary, event link

We’re all familiar with the above acronym when it’s used in Indian restaurants and festivals and the like. But Rough Trade have assigned the bogger a whole new meaning. This week, parents of newborns up to three years old and those with a nipper on the way are invited down to the Broad Street venue for an afternoon of conversation and support. There’ll be multi-sensory toys, colourful visuals and play mats so the sprogs can get on with being sprogs while you have a well-deserved coffee and a good owd natter. It can be lonely with a little nipper, so treat yourself to a day out with free entertainment for the kids. You won’t have to listen to Cbeebies for the afternoon, at least.
Wednesday 31 May, 12pm, free, Rough Trade, event link

When the film version of East is East hit our screens in the late nineties, the UK was tickled and charmed in equal measure, with heartstrings up and down the country receiving a right good tug. This month, the Nottingham Playhouse sees the story unfold in theatrical form, and we can’t bleddy wait. Chip shop owner George has his work cut out as head of the Khan household. Back in George’s homeland, Pakistan, a father rules the house; but in Salford in the seventies, his teenage children are proving quite the challenge. It’s bound to be a corker of a production, with the likes of Vicky Entwistle (Janice Battersby off of Coronation Street) playing Ella Khan, and The Television Workshop’s Sabrina Sandhu playing Mira Khan. Book tickets and sharpish.
Wednesday 31 May - Saturday 10 June, tickets from £8, Nottingham Playhouse, event link

What better way to celebrate your birthday than to throw a three-day bash, complete with live music, good food and plenty of beer, and invite all your mates? That’s exactly what Castle Rock are doing for their fortieth this year. They’ve been providing us with pints since 1977, and how happy we are to have ‘em about. For the big day, they’re pulling out all the stops, with forty-odd keg and cask beers on offer, and performances from the likes of Fat Digester, Unknown Era and Lord Ha Ha. Worra party. Get down on the Saturday and set the kids loose on the bouncy castle or have their faces painted like Spiderman while you neck as many Harvest Pales as humanly possible before they return. That’s good parenting, right?
Thursday 1 - Saturday 3 June, tickets from £10, Castle Rock Brewery, and The Vat and Fiddle, event link