A show by the Turner prize-winning sculptor Anish Kapoor is always an event. His work is often huge and invariably needles the viewer for a reaction. We see this at his new Hayward Gallery exhibition in spades. A couple of rooms are taken over by gigantic red forms that threaten to swallow up the entire space. Blood, guts, entrails … It is not surprising to see a content warning before we enter one of the goriest rooms. Three works, Plastic Sacrifice I, II, III (2026), resemble massive slabs of raw meat tightly wrapped in cling film – swollen and fit to burst. And Kapoor’s use of Vantablack – a substance that absorbs up to 99% of visible light – upends our normal responses, making three-dimensional objects seem flat and rendering it tricky to process what we see. Is it a void, a hanging object … what?

Jane Ferguson, Nerve co-founder

Trapped in an area with few jobs and little to do, twentysomethings Effi and her best mate Leanne endlessly hit the booze and party hard. That is, until a passionate encounter with a soldier in a nightclub promises a more lasting escape route for Effi than the bottom of a vodka bottle. Beautifully shot by Eira Wyn Jones in Blaenau Ffestiniog in north-west Wales, Effi o Blaenau is a poignant exploration of social inequality with a transfixing central performance from newcomer Leisa Gwenllian. Directed by Marc Evans and adapted from Gary Owen’s much-loved one-woman play Iphigenia in Splott – itself a reimagining of the mythological heroine Iphigenia’s story – on its initial release on 19 June it had the biggest ever opening at the UK box office for a Welsh-language film, and has since expanded to more cinemas. At a neat 90 minutes long, there’s no good excuse not to check it out.

Imogen Carter, Nerve co-founder

Sting by Sophie Swithinbank is a fiercely compelling three-hander about persecution and justice, whatever form that might take. Debbie Duru’s stage design represents two rooms tethered by misogyny and magic: the historical archive where Ash (Adelle Leonce) helps Lily (Phoebe Ladenburg) research the Salem witch trials and the apartment she shares with her controlling partner Dom (Nick Blood). Leonce, a highlight of Summerfolk at the National, gives Ash a madcap vitality that makes her subsequent unravelling all the more painful. But is she just a victim or something more? Director Nancy Medina works wonders with sound (Nicola T Chang) and lighting (Ryan Day) to bring to life a nightclub, a fire, a supernatural apparition. The stranger the better. Sting epitomises young, hungry playwriting – it tries to do a little too much but it does it with furious vigour.

Dorian Lynskey, Nerve theatre critic

This exhibition of prints recently acquired by the Victoria Gallery and Museum covers a wide range of styles and processes – yet they were all made in one place. Studio Prints was founded in 1960s London by recent Slade graduate Dorothea Wight, who saw the works as collaborations between the artist and the printer. The show includes etchings by Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud, but I was most drawn to Wight’s own mezzotints of beautifully lit outdoor views framed by windows, and her husband Marc Balakjian’s miniatures of details from everyday life. His prints convey such incredible texture that you can almost feel the rough fibres of a knotted rope or the buttery smoothness of worn fabric that he depicts.

Laura Davis, culture writer

Two journalists tell their own extraordinary love story in this compelling, intimate documentary set between Syria and the UK. Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak first met via text in 2016 – one a London-based Lebanese journalist working in a BBC newsroom, the other a Syrian activist/cameraman in Aleppo sending footage of the unfolding Syrian revolution.

The two have plundered 13 years of their own footage to tell the deeply personal story of their blossoming love against a backdrop of division. But beyond the rubble and some truly haunting scenes that force you to confront the reality of war, there’s a sweet and sustained note of hope. It’s deservedly gathering awards on the festival circuit and I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t feature in an Oscars shortlist.

Julia Raeside, culture writer

It may raise some eyebrows that the hit 2014 film about a group of gay and lesbian activists joining the miners’ strike of 1984 has been made into a musical – it certainly did mine – but Pride is one of the shows of the summer. Funny, uplifting and also poignant, it had me both laughing and crying between the musical numbers, which range from a moving ballad to a disco anthem. It’s a fitting show for now, not only because it’s Pride month, but because, in a world that constantly seeks to divide, Pride reminds us of the importance of community and solidarity. It’s such a hot ticket that it’s virtually sold out, but there are details here of how to get Friday rush tickets and returns. And, who knows, perhaps it’ll transfer …

Michaela Makusha, culture writer

ART
The Bayeux Tapestry
(British Museum, London WC1, 10 September 2026-11 July 2027)

In a major coup, the British Museum has secured a loan from France this autumn of the Bayeux Tapestry, the monumental 70 metre-long embroidery depicting events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest in 1066. The museum’s booking system crashed when ticket sales opened for members earlier this month. Let’s hope the problem is fixed when they go on sale to the general public tomorrow (1 July) at 10am.

THEATRE
Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy
(Stratford East, London E15, 3 September-3 October)

Playwright Ava Pickett is currently the toast of the West End with her fierce, feminist Tudor drama 1536, and next she’s tackling Greek mythology with this new play about Helen of Troy opening at Stratford East this autumn, directed by Lisa Spirling.

DOCUMENTARY
David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts

To remember the life and work of Britain's most popular painter, who died on 11 June, this film, focusing on two of his blockbuster exhibitions in 2012 and 2016, is being re-released in cinemas around the country.