End Of The Rainbow **** TNT

The legendary Judy Garland married five times, made several suicide attempts and never cracked the pill-popping habit encouraged by the film studios in her early years as a child actor.

Peter Quilter’s play (which premiered in Sydney in 2005) shows her ensconced in a luxurious hotel during a season at London’s Talk of the Town, just months before a fatal overdose in 1969.

It’s scant on biographical detail, but that hardly matters. Hilton McRae is quietly devoted as her gay pianist who instantly disapproves of her toyboy fiancé manager, and Tracie Bennett is simply sensational.

She gives what must surely be an award-winning performance as the troubled, insecure star, delivering barbed dialogue and musical numbers with unforgettable emotional power – desperate for drugs, drink and reassurance in (almost) equal measure.

Trafalgar Studios, SW1 (Tube: Charing Cross) endoftherainbow.com Until March 5 £25

Midsummer **** TNT

Outside, snow was falling, inside the heating had broken down, but David Greig’s delightful play with music lit up the stage and warmed the heart as the paths of divorce lawyer Helena and petty criminal Bob crossed in an Edinburgh bar.

They’d never have met if her married lover hadn’t stood her up.

A one-night shag turns into something potentially more rewarding as, through a series of adventures and misadventures, the two unfulfilled 35 year olds end up spending a rollercoaster weekend together encompassing a wedding, an Ikea car park, a bit of bondage, a swanky hotel and too much rain and booze. Strumming guitars, slipping out of character to address us directly, versatile Cora Bissett and Matthew Pidgeon are perfect in this beguiling yet poignant rom-com for all seasons.

Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR (Tube: Kilburn) (020 7328 1000) tricycle.co.uk Until 29th January £12 - £22

Beasts and Beauties **** TNT

Long sausages of black pudding get stuck on noses, a goat craps gold and a dog joins forces with a fox in this winning selection of eight fairytales and folk stories gleaned from across Europe and wittily retold by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

In the expert hands of Melly Still and Tim Supple, these warning tales (interspersed with folk songs) are brought to imaginative life – sometimes scary, sometimes gruesome but always engaging - as the cast swaps roles, costumes and acting styles with each new story.

Director Still maintains the magic of theatre, yet hides nothing – so, at the end of his murderous tale, Bluebeard checks with the audience that he’s removed all the colour as he rubs his beard clean with a towel. Jason Thorpe, carrying an udder-pink rubber glove, dons fake lashes and a massive tweedy skirt to become a lugubrious cow stuck on the roof when a grumbling farmer and his wife swap roles – disastrously – for a day. He’s pretty impressive, too, as an ancient canine rolling over for tummy tickles, and as an ugly troll who steals a little girl’s magic gifts, given to her by the North Wind.

Jack Tarlton makes a fearsome Beast with overgrown teeth and talons, then bravely bares almost all in a clever updating of The Emperor’s New Clothes - his modesty just preserved in a series of deftly choreographed manoeuvres. And in The Juniper Tree a little boy is decapitated by his stepmother, then minced (with every detail clearly seen in silhouette) and served up to his dad for supper.

Don’t worry if you can’t find a child to take with you – this inventive production is a seasonal treat for anyone from 8 to 80 who still has a sense of fun. Just go and enjoy.

Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) Tube: Swiss Cottage hampsteadtheatre.com Until 31st December Adults £18 children £12

Bea*** TNT

Bea is just like any other young woman in her late twenties – or at least she would be if she weren’t trapped in a body that can barely move. For the last eight years she’s been confined to the same bed in the same room and she can’t kid herself that she’s going to get better.

Bea's body may have let her down, but mentally she’s as alert as ever – and she knows she’s had enough. Initially, the extent of Bea's disability isn’t apparent – we see her interacting with her mother and her new carer in the way she’d like to behave if only her body would still let her.

But playwright Mick Gordon (who has already tackled such serious subjects as religion and emotion with his On Theatre company) doesn’t shrink from portraying the full impact of her illness. And his play raises (even if it doesn’t fully explore) important issues - how far is her barrister mother (Paula Wilcox) prepared to go to help her daughter?Is quality of life necessary to go on living? And, incidentally, why is there no single word in the English language to define a bereaved parent?

Yet much of the time his play is both entertaining and very funny as Pippa Nixon’s Bea teases her Belfast care assistant (Al Weaver’s Ray who’s obviously gay but says he’s not) about his sexuality. Like all Gordon’s work, this intimate investigation into the limits of compassion and empathy is well worth a visit.

Soho Theatre, Dean Street, W1D 3NE (020 7478 0100) Tube: Tottenham Court Road sohotheatre.com Until 8th January (£12.50 - £20.00)

The Rivals *** TNT

Lovers’ tiffs, intrigue and deception run rife when the fashionable folk descend on Bath in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s quintessentially English comedy of manners which was first performed in 1775.

Lydia Languish has had her head turned by too many romantic novels and plans to elope with the man she believes to be a lowly ensign, but who is, in reality, Captain Jack, the son of wealthy Sir Anthony Absolute who, unknown to him, has already arranged his marriage - to the very same Lydia.

Meanwhile a pugnacious Irish baronet and a cowardly country buffoon are all set to draw swords over the capricious young heiress even though she has no interest in either of them, and her cousin (Annabel Scholey’s intelligent Julia) is driven to despair by the self-indulgent insecurities of Tony Gardner’s suspicious Faulkland.

Against the constant backdrop of Simon Higlett’s simple Royal Crescent design, duels are almost fought, misunderstandings are finally sorted out and the true natures of Sheridan’s characters are exposed in all their foolishness.

Director Peter Hall has just turned 80, and the best performances come from the oldest members of the cast - Peter Bowles as an elegant, once racy Sir Anthony who always gets his way and Penelope Keith as Lydia’s guardian, Mrs Malaprop, who, sadly, may not find a husband but is a master at mangling the English language, muddling her “pineapple” with her “pinnacle” and her “alligator” with her “allegory” in this elegantly costumed, sprightly but rather uninspired revival.

Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, SW1Y 4HT (0845 481 1870) Tube: Piccadilly Circus trh.co.uk Until 26th February £17.50-£49.50

Get Santa! **** TNT

Ever wished it could be Christmas every day? You certainly won’t by the end of Anthony Neilson’s imaginative seasonal offering in which stroppy 10 year old Holly (Imogen Doel making her professional stage debut) decides to hijack Santa because, year after disappointing year, he’s ignored her Christmas wish to find her real dad.

Angry as a wasp in her stripy yellow and black jumper, she’s determined to confront him and hatches an elaborate plan which involves blocking the chimney with a sleeping bag, a crisp-covered carpet (she’ll hear the crunch when he drops through the skylight), glue on the mantelpiece and a great big bucket.

Of course, things don’t go quite as expected and she ends up with Santa’s son (Tom Godwin’s gangling Bumblehole in bright elf-green) tied to the tree with tinsel, an increasingly malevolent teddy bear with a Russian accent masquerading as her father, and a Groundhog situation in which no sooner has Christmas day ended than it starts all over again.

Though aimed at 7- 11 year olds, there’s more than enough here to entertain teens and adults too. Neilson (who also directs) and co-writer Nick Powell (who provided the songs) have added some nicely inventive touches: Holly’s stepdad is a dog (her mum turns out to have a bit of a thing for furry animals) - when he takes himself off for a walk he makes sure he’s got a plastic poop bag stuffed in his trouser pocket, and he’s decked the tree with sausages and bacon.

Grumpy Santa is on the verge of retirement, and this is surely the first time in its history that a toy teddy (with a life of its own, thanks to puppeteer Chand Martinez) has had a starring role at the Royal Court.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Tube: Sloane Square (020 7565 5000) royalcourttheatre.com
Until 15th January £12-£25 (under 16’s £8 - £12.50)

The Invisible Man *** TNT

The cast certainly seems to be having a good time in this determinedly jolly but dated revival of the late Ken Hill’s 1991 spoof adaptation of H.G.Wells’ famous thriller.

There are corny jokes and innuendo, stock stereotypes (from pipe-smoking bluestocking to buxom innkeeper) and magic tricks galore, but this tale of mysterious goings on in the Sussex village of Iping is too long and the slapstick too repetitive to completely sustain interest.

Still, Ian Talbot’s musical hall style production with its intentionally rough and ready feel boasts a splendid comic performance from Jo Stone-Fewings as a silly ass Squire, Gerard Carey’s lovesick vicar is good value, too, and with glass or more of festive cheer beforehand and a helping of seasonal indulgence, this alternative to panto will doubtless pass muster.

Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark Street, SE1 1RU (020 7907 7060) Tube: London Bridge menierchocolatefactory.com Until 13th February (£33.50 & Meal Deals available £40.00)

Quality Street **** TNT

Three years before he wrote “Peter Pan”, J.M. Barrie had a considerable success in 1901 with this whimsical social comedy set around the time of the Napoleonic wars. It hasn’t been seen in London since 1946 and, although only a slight work, Louise Hill’s revival proves a charming little gem.

The characters could almost have stepped out of a Jane Austen novel with too many single women and not enough men to go round. Most of these genteel ladies are resigned to being left on the shelf, but it seems as though Phoebe Throssel is on the verge of receiving an “offer” from handsome young physician Valentine Brown – except that instead of proposing, he announces that he’s taken the king’s shilling and is going off to fight.

With half their money gone thanks to an unfortunate investment, Claire Redcliffe’s Phoebe and her older sister Mary open a school, putting all thoughts of romance behind them – until, ten years later, and the war over, old feeling surface once again. But how can an old maid of thirty – her once famous ringlets now tucked away beneath a demure cap, her eyes tired after long hours in the classroom - possibly be attractive anymore?

The answer, it seems, is to pretend to be her non-existent niece, Livvy – who proceeds to entrance all the returning soldiers and confuse her nosy spinster neighbours. Designer Alex Marker does wonders creating the Throssel sisters’ modest dwelling which morphs into a ballroom and back again, and James Russell (who last played an elephant at this address) makes a dashing if rather smug Valentine in this enjoyably whimsical confection.

Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED (Tube: Earl’s Court) (0844 847 1652) finboroughtheatre.co.uk Until December 22 [£15 (Tuesdays £11)]

An Ideal Husband **** TNT

The perfect partner turns out to have feet of clay in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 melodrama concerning a high-flying politician whose first foothold on the ladder of success was gained by dubious means.

There’s an initial surfeit of ostentatiously witty padding, and the idealistic Lady Chiltern’s declarations of her husband’s virtues are too long-winded, but these are minor niggles in a strongly plotted play.

Elliot Cowan relishes the comic aspects of an apparently superficial dandy who turns out to have surprising moral strengths, Alexander Hanson’s Chiltern agonises over the threatened exposure of the youthful insider dealing which could end both his marriage and his career, and Samantha Bond (his real life wife) glitters dangerously as the mysterious Mrs. Cheveley who seems to hold all the cards in Lindsay Posner’s gilt-edged production.

Vaudeville, Strand WC2R 0NH (0844 412 4663) Tube: Charing Cross www.anidealhusbandwestend.com Until February 19 (£27.50 - £50.50)

Kin *** TNT

E.V Crowe’s short new play is certainly no advertisement for boarding school life. Set in the 1990’s, it paints a worrying picture of ten year olds with angelic faces who swear like troopers and have the morals of alley cats. They lie, torment and bully without a moment’s hesitation – especially the marginally older Janey for whom everybody, including dorm-mate Mimi, is fair game. No wonder the somewhat neurotic housemistress thinks her charges are less than human – and not just because they lob tennis balls at her head.

Yet there’s something fundamentally sad about these prepubescent, supposedly privileged youngsters (primarily from broken homes and ex-pat families) packed off with a trunk and a tuck box to the austerity of what is, in Bunny Christie’s purposely drab design, a prisonlike institution where tears can only be shed in secret and the communal payphone is the main link with home.

Making their professional stage debuts, Madison Lygo’s tough but vulnerable Janey and Maya Gerber’s bright Mimi (with a starring role in the school play, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which itself depicts a hothouse of female emotions) handle the brief, disjointed scenes of Jeremy Herrin’s production with confidence. And Ellen Hill’s intimidated Nina quietly suffers the indignity of being forced to execute a knickerless handstand in a promising but not altogether satisfying play.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Tube: Sloane Square (020 7565 5000) royalcourttheatre.com Until 23rd December (£10-£15)

Black Watch **** TNT

Black Watch once again transforms the main house for the welcome return of National Theatre of Scotland’s multi award winning portrayal of life as a soldier in Iraq and back home.

A sell-out at this address a couple of years ago, and a well deserved hit at the Edinburgh Festival two years before that, the inspired staging has lost none of its emotional power.

What comes across most strongly is the loyal camaraderie of these Fifeshire lads and the realisation that, unless you were there, you can’t really know what it was like to live through the waiting, the bombing, and the indelible horror of seeing your comrades blown up by a suicide bomber.

With much of his material gleaned from interviews with ex-squaddies, Gregory Burke’s joshing, expletive-filled dialogue rings as true uttered in civvies round the pool table as in fatigues crammed into an armoured car.

Director John Tiffany employs a stirringly atmospheric mix of video, music, skirling bagpipes and stylised movement, with Steven Hoggett’s visceral choreography fusing the disciplined drill of the parade ground with softer, almost balletic moments as, one after another, the soldiers open their letters from home.

A strong ensemble gives their all – a fitting salute to the young men who fought not for Queen, Government or country, but for their regiment, their company, their platoon and, most importantly, for the mates they hoped would still be alive at the end of their tour of peacekeeping duty.

Barbican, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS (020 7638 8891) Tube: Barbican www.barbican.org.uk Until 22nd January (£35-£40)

FELA! TNT

A legend in his life time in his native Nigeria and beyond, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is a name unlikely to be familiar to the National’s usual audience - but then this isn’t a typical NT show.

The pounding rhythms of his Afrobeat music flood the auditorium as his female Queens gyrate intensely, provocatively on a set decked out to recreate the Shrine, the Lagos night club where, in the late 70’s, his fans gathered to smoke spliffs and hear his anti-government lyrics.

Sahr Ngaujah’s charismatic Fela persuades the audience to practise its pelvic thrusts, and Bill T. Jones’ hip-swivelling choreography is hypnotisingly exuberant. But the narrative is so disjointed and one-sided that ultimately this musical is more over-extended carnival than informative biography of a provocative political activist and hedonistic polygamist.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk In rep until 23rd January (£10.00 - £44.00)

Les Parents Terribles **** TNT

The Donmar’s Trafalgar Studio showcase season for its Resident Assistant Directors comes to a darkly glittering close with a dream cast portraying a nightmare family in Jean Cocteau’s 1938 farcical tragedy.

Every character is screwed up to some degree in this hothouse drama of heated emotions and misplaced love. Middle-aged and middleclass, Yvonne and husband George live in mock bohemian chaos which her orderly spinster sister Leo can barely keep in check. Since the birth of their son Michael, Yvonne has devoted herself to the boy, at the expense of her spouse who now spends his time messing with useless inventions – currently an underwater machine gun.

But now, at the age of 22, (and still living with his parents) Michael has fallen in love with Madeleine, a bookbinder just a few years his senior, and everything starts to implode.

The claustrophobically mirrored design emphasises the intensity of the relationships in this expertly judged and cruelly funny production.

Frances Barber’s dishevelled Yvonne (a diabetic semi-invalid who prefers to live in gloom and clings to Michael with the ferocious possessiveness of a lioness) switches from histrionics to helplessness in the blink of an eye. Sylvestra Le Touzel’s soignée Leo, not a hair out of place, is every bit as impressive – a self-confessed paradox, you’re never quite sure what emotions are suppressed beneath that calm, immaculate exterior or how strong are her feelings for Anthony Calf’s unexpectedly determined George who, to complicate matters even further, has been having a secret affair with Elaine Cassidy’s touchingly vulnerable Madeleine.

Written in just eight days, there’s a feverish, melodramatic quality to this conflict between the old and the young, and director Chris Rolls’ expertly judged production hits all the right notes as the dysfunctional setup threatens to collapse.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1A 2DY Tube: Charing Cross (0844 871 7632) donmarwarehouse.com £17.50 Until 18th December

The Glass Menagerie **** TNT

Tennessee Williams called this a “memory play” and director Joe Hill-Gibbins’ expressionistic production highlights the non-naturalistic aspects of the playwright’s highly autobiographical 1944 dramatisation of his early adult life.

Tom Wingfield (Williams’ alter ego) also acts as narrator and master of ceremonies, conjuring the plush red curtain to rise and reveal the strained domesticity of the St. Louis tenement home where he is trapped with Laura, his emotionally and physically frail sister, and their mother Amanda, a faded Southern Belle who still dreams of suitors from long ago.

Stiflingly overprotective, Amanda is desperate to find a husband for the painfully shy Laura. An uncomfortable combination of the practical (she brought up her children singlehandedly after her husband walked out years ago) and the self-deluding (with her endless talk of the non-existent “gentlemen callers” who might turn up to woo her daughter) she finally persuades Leo Bill’s frustrated poet Tom to invite Jim from the warehouse (excellent Kyle Soller) to dine.

Deborah Findlay’s overbearing Amanda struggles at first with her accent, but captures the comic absurdity of a woman denying the passing of the years, whose attempts to do the best for her children do more harm than good. And Sinéad Matthews is heartbreakingly touching as the fragile, limping Laura - too nervous to work, and happiest in the company of her collection of glass animals until Jim (with his determined optimism and easy, open charm) seems, briefly, to offer an unexpected chance of real happiness in a play full of thwarted dreams and unfulfilled ambition.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ Tube: Southwark / Waterloo (0207 922 2922) youngvic.org Until 15th January
£10.00 - £27.50

A Dog's Heart **** TNT

There’s been a lot of fuss in the media recently about the wisdom of letting a theatre director loose on opera, but Complicite co-founder Simon McBurney does a stunning job of staging this new adaptation of Bulgakov’s subversive satire which was written in 1925 but remained unpublished in his native Russia until 1987.

You’re unlikely to remember much of Raskatov’s varied, disjointed music after a single hearing and in reality it proves subservient to the inventive visual images McBurney creates to tell the story of a starving, stray mongrel, Sharik, who is seduced by a tasty sausage offered by the privileged Professor Preobrazhensky, nursed back to health and then (in an operation graphically shown in silhouette) has his pituitary gland and testicles replaced with those of a human.

Like Frankenstein’s monster, however, the result of this manmade experiment turns out to be far from what the scientist anticipated - the mutt morphs into a swearing, spitting, sexually-obsessed, balalaika-playing lout, Sharikov, with all the uncouth characteristics of the proletarian donor.

This is, of course, a critique of communism and Soviet social engineering, but despite a serious message and a darkening atmosphere, the production is also endlessly playful. Sharik is a rangy, emaciated puppet (inspired by Giacometti, created by Blind Summit and doubly voiced by countertenor Andrew Watts and a soprano growling through a megaphone).

Sharikov’s relentless pursuit of a cat ends in a deluge of water and McBurney’s clever use of video projection adds layers of association, threat and subtlety to an unconventional UK premiere which deserves to attract both open-minded opera aficionados and those new to the art form.

English National Opera at the London Coliseum St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4ES (Charing Cross tube) 0871 911 0200 eno.org £11 - £52 Until 4th December

When We Are Married **** TNT

Seventy five years of matrimony go up in smoke when three pairs of respectable Edwardian citizens learn that the cleric who married them, on the same day a quarter of a century ago, wasn’t authorised to do so.

J. B Priestley’s 1938 comedy, set in Yorkshire, turns their relationships upside down. Sam Kelly’s underdog Herbert, deliciously relishing his newfound authority, finally puts Maureen Lipman’s battleaxe Clara in her place (and she finds she rather likes it), Michele Dotrice’s Annie temporarily takes the wind out of the bombastic sails of her stingy councillor husband, and the alderman’s wife goes to pieces at the prospect of losing her charwoman as well as her marital status.

It’s old-fashioned and a little creaky, but Christopher Luscombe’s strongly cast, enjoyable revival still gets the laughs.

Garrick Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH (0844 412 4661/2) Tube: Leicester Square ( Until 26th February) £19.50 - £49.50

Joseph K **** TNT

The delivery of a half-eaten sushi supper on his thirtieth birthday (there’s a big bite missing from his California roll) is just the start of the problems facing senior employee Joseph K in comedian and writer Tom Basden’s contemporary adaptation of Franz Kafka’s posthumously published novel “The Trial.”

Before his death in 1924, Kafka left strict instructions that all his unpublished work was to be burned. Fortunately, his wishes were ignored and I reckon he’d be pretty pleased with Lyndsey Turner’s carefully considered production in which even the deliberately visible scene changes emphasise the extent to which Joseph has lost control of his own life.

Informed that he’s under arrest, he sets about trying to sort out what he sees as a misunderstanding - no easy matter when no one will tell him the nature of his crime and his mobile won’t work. His colleague at the bank seems sympathetic – but is she really after the promotion he’s aiming for? His brother says he wants to help – but the useless lawyer he introduces him to is only interested in collecting dolls. And as for the Customer Complaints Centre - well, we’ve all been there.

Siân Brooke, Tim Key and Basden himself share a host of contrasting roles, whilst the receding design suggests the labyrinthine layers of despair through which Joseph (an increasingly anguished Pip Carter) descends in this darkly comic satire on the absurdities of unbending bureaucracy and the oh so familiar frustrations of everyday life.

Gate, Pembridge Road W11 3HQ (020 7229 0706) Tube: Notting Hill Gate gatetheatre.co.uk Until 18th December £16

The Train Driver **** TNT

Though now resident mainly in California, at 78 the award-wining South African playwright Athol Fugard still finds inspiration from (and much to criticise about) events and the political situation in his homeland.

His new play (which he also directs) is set in a forsaken burial ground beyond an Eastern Cape squatters camp where unidentified bodies – black bodies – are finally laid to rest by gravedigger Simon who, for a pittance, spends his days digging up the earth and his nights, wrapped in a blanket in his shack, ready to soothe the ghosts of the departed when the stray dogs howl.

It’s not the sort of place you’d expect to find a white man, but Afrikaner Roelf has come here in search of the nameless young woman who ruined his life.

It’s not, as one might assume, a story of sex or exploitation, but of his emotional journey from deep, uncontrollable anger to a rueful understanding of the hopelessness which drove her to stand, with her baby, in the path of the train he was driving. Unable to stop in time, he’s traumatized by the unshakeable memory of the moment when their eyes met and he realised he was powerless to save the life that she saw no point in living.

Based on a true incident, Fugard’s 80-minute two-hander is both an indictment of the failure of post-Apartheid South Africa to care for its people and a portrayal of a growing understanding between two individuals. Owen Sejake makes silence speak volumes as the compassionate, dignified old Simon, marking the graves of the “sleeping people” with hub caps and bits of metal, and Sean Taylor conveys all the anguish of a man for whom the comforting certainty of everyday routine has become a thing of the past.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU(020 7722 9301) Tube: Swiss Cottage hampsteadtheatre.com Until 4th December £22-£29

Men Should Weep **** TNT

It takes a while to penetrate the Glaswegian accents, but Josie Rourke’s fine revival of Ena Lamont Stewart’s 1947 domestic drama repays the effort as Maggie struggles to make ends meet with an out of work husband, six children still living at home, and a moaning mother-in-law shunted between households along with her much-needed pension book.

Written from personal observation, this depiction of tenement life during the 1930’s Depression reveals the camaraderie of neighbours, close-knit family ties stretched to breaking point and a younger generation desperate to escape from the drudgery of poverty. It’s the women who hold it together – Sharon Small’s Maggie going out skivvying and coming back to more of the same, her eldest daughter finding a questionable way out, and her severe spinster sister helping whenever she can.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk
Until at least 9th January £10.00 - £44.00

Or You Could Kiss Me

(for This is London)

The immensely successful War Horse is a pretty tough act to follow. For their return to the National, South African Handspring puppet company has wisely chosen to tackle a subject on a far smaller scale but performed with the same degree of care and precision which so enhanced their telling of Michael Morpurgo’s war time tale.

From autobiographical anecdotes – his own and those of Handspring founders Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones – writer and director Neil Bartlett has constructed an almost painfully intimate account of a love affair between two men, A and B, spanning nearly seven decades, beginning a quarter of a century in the future and going back to the first chance meeting which shaped their lives.

We see them first in 2036 leaving a Port Elizabeth hospital - B terminally ill, irascible, his emphysema leaving him barely able to breathe; A taking him home for the last time, where memories of their youthful selves (diving, swimming and taking robust health for granted) surface to remind them how it all started back in 1971.

There are four main puppets – a 19 and 85 year old version of each man, plus a faithful canine companion with an insistently loud bark. A quartet of black-suited puppeteers assists Kohler and Jones (who also play A & B in present-day middle-age) with the tender manipulation of these wooden but remarkably expressive creations whose partly exposed muscle, sinew and bone speaks of both the joys and the frailties of the flesh.

Played without an interval, the piece sometimes demands indulgence as Adjoa Andoh (serving as non-judgemental narrator, housekeeper, solicitor and nurse) structures their story. It’s a slow burn and the biographical detail is frustratingly sparse, but the eloquence of the speechless puppets adds layers of poignancy as they face the inevitable.

Cottesloe to 18th November

Blasted **** TNT

Sarah Kane was just 28 when she committed suicide in 1999, but in a short life plagued by bouts of severe depression, she created a huge stir with her powerful and controversial writing. Blasted was the first of her five stage plays, and is still every bit as uncomfortable as the 1995 premiere which was greeted with a clutch of dismissive reviews, including one critic’s “a disgusting feast of filth” verdict.

For the seasoned theatregoer, the influences – including Becket, Brecht, Bond and the Bard – are clear. Kane has taken elements from their works (a character buried from the neck down, a terribly treated baby, eyes sucked from their sockets) and added anal rape and cannibalism to the disturbing mix. This is not a night for the faint hearted.

What begins as an unsettling rendezvous in a plush Leeds hotel room explodes into something far more global - a reaction to the atrocities then being carried out in Bosnia, but applicable to any war torn country. Ian (a sickly, sweaty middle-aged tabloid hack with a hacking cough, terminal cancer and openly racist opinions) meets young, stammering, epileptic Cate with whom he already has some sort of relationship. Sex is definitely on his mind, not (though her presence is voluntary) on hers.

Things get nasty, but the arrival of Aidan Kelly’s hungry, war-toughened soldier turns the tables. A bomb blast rips the room to shreds, catapulting them into the dark ruin of the city where only the merest flickers of humanity punctuate the violent brutality.

There’s nothing likeable about Kane’s apocalyptic vision – but Sean Holmes’ bleakly atmospheric revival (with Lydia Wilson childlike, resilient, violated Cate and Danny Webb’s deeply unpleasant Ian) – is one you’re unlikely to forget.

Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, W6 0QL (0871 221 1726) lyric.co.uk Tube: Hammersmith Until 20th November £10-25

Hamlet **** TNT

Elsinore is smart, grey and under constant surveillance in Nicholas Hytner’s thoughtful modern dress production.

Patrick Malahide’s usurping Claudius seizes every photo opportunity, accompanied by Claire Higgins’ Gertrude (his sister-in-law turned wife) tottering in heels and tight dress, a drink never far from her royal lips.

David Calder’s serious Polonius plays down the old windbag’s humour, and James Laurenson’s quiet, dusty ghost materialises eerily from the battlements, a powerful supernatural presence seeking justice from beyond the grave.

But it’s Rory Kinnear’s eponymous Prince of Denmark who commands attention. Less high profile than recent predecessors (David Tennant, Jude Law) he gives a remarkably intelligent and compelling performance, his feigned madness turned on and off at will, but the threat of debilitating depression lurking just beneath the bewildered anger that torments him.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk Until at least 9th January £10 - £30.00

Saturn Returns *** TNT

This short new play by American Noah Haidle takes an interesting concept but fails to fully realise the potential of the situation it creates. Apparently, the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the universe every thirty years, so we initially meet the still sprightly Michigan-based Gustin at the age of 88, six decades after his life changed forever.

He’s spent those years unable to let go of the past – the first thirty wasted mourning the death of his beloved wife in childbirth, then as long again clinging to the memory of the daughter who died on a trip to Mexico. Lonely and alone, he sees reminders of them both in the face of his new nurse, Suzanne – summoned more for the comfort of company than out of any medical necessity.

In flashback, he comes face to face with his younger self (at 28 and 58) to reveal the immediate events leading up to the loss of the women who were so all-important to him - and to suffer once again as he sees how he could, perhaps, have altered the path of fate.

There’s a certain poignancy in watching the old man observing and interacting with his past selves (played by different actors), but the most touching moment by far is when he clings, momentarily, to a distraught Suzanne. It becomes painfully clear just how starved of the warmth of human contact this old man has become.

The production could be more subtle, and the time-bending scene changes need to be speeded up, but (despite a terrible wig) Lisa Caruccio Came does a fine job of distinguishing between the three women whilst letting us see shades of each one in the personalities of the others.

Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED. Earl’s Court Tube (0844 847 1652) finboroughtheatre.co.uk Until 27th November £11 -£15

Flashdance *** TNT

Nothing wrong with adapting an iconic movie - but the creative team behind this stage version of the 1983 film throws far too much into the story of Pittsburgh welder and wannabe ballet dancer Alex in a flawed attempt to make the transition work.

An apprentice welder in a Pittsburgh steel mill, Alex is desperate to win a place at a prestigious dance academy. On the way there’s romance, tragedy, pole-dancing and a batch of new, forgettable musical numbers which can’t live up to “What a Feeling” and “Maniac”.

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt demonstrates capable energy, if not charisma, in the lead role, Charlotte Harwood is vulnerable as her mate Gloria who’s tempted into the wrong company, and the talented ensemble execute Arlene Phillips’ sassily edgy and eclectic choreography with impressive flair.

Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8DP (020 7379 5399)Tube: Holborn/Covent Garden/Tottenham Court Road Booking until 26th February 2011 £21- £56

Novecento *** TNT

The second offering in the Donmar’s Trafalgar Studio showcase season for its Resident Assistant Directors certainly demonstrates how, in the right hands, the word on the page can be brought to vivid life by the right combination of design, lighting, atmospheric soundscape and solo performer.

In Roisin McBrinn’s darkly shimmering production, Mark Bonnar’s down-at-heel trumpeter Tim Tooney grabs – and holds – one’s attention from the moment he appears on the riveted floor of Paul Wills’ set, a cold, metallic space swagged with heavy chains and defined by steel cables, suggesting the grey confines of the ocean-going SS Virginian where he once spent six years playing the trumpet.

But the story he has to tell isn’t so much his as that of Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Novecento, the liner’s pianist who was found, an abandoned newborn, on board the ship and never left it in the whole of his 30 plus years.

The piercing-eyed Bonnar makes a superlative narrator, imbuing Italian writer Alessandro Baricco’s 1994 theatrical monologue with a dramatic intensity not always warranted by the content. It’s a faultless performance, yet this tale of a jazz pianist, whose otherworldly music mesmerised passengers as they crossed the Atlantic, feels more like the matter for a short story than a play.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1A 2DY (Tube: Charing Cross) 0844 871 7632 donmarwarehouse.com Until November 20 £17.50

My Romantic History **** TNT

The concept that Men are from Mars, Women Are From Venus proves all too true in DC Jackson’s Edinburgh festival hit, now getting a well-deserved London run.

Tom isn’t looking for commitment – and he certainly doesn’t want to find a serious girlfriend at his new office, but Friday night drinks end up in colleague Amy’s bed and lead to far more involvement than he ever intended.

Told first from his point of view, then from hers (and punctuated by rosy remembrances of teenage romance when Tom worshipped the unattainable Alison and Amy got it together with Calvin) the progress of their semi-relationship of misunderstandings and of his passive attempts to get ditched make for hilarious viewing.

Rosalind Sydney reveals true versatility as samba–drumming workmate Sasha and a host of other incidental characters, whilst Iain Robertson and Alison O’Donnell bring the main protagonists to all too convincing life in a snappy production played out on a set stashed with archived boxes ominously labelled “One Night Stands 2003-2004” and “Flings 1990-1991”. Yet there’s also something poignant in this tale of two unfulfilled thirty somethings and their almost accidental shag which makes this immensely enjoyable show far more than 90 minutes of witty cynicism

Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD (020 8743 5050) Tube: Shepherds Bush bushtheatre.co.uk
Until 27 November £15-£20

Onassis ** TNT

Clumsily constructed, low on character development and disappointingly undramatic, Martin Sherman’s attempt to write the modern day equivalent of a classic Greek tragedy makes heavy going of the last years of the uber-rich shipping tycoon who bedded opera diva Maria Callas then wedded J.F.K.’s widow, Jackie.

There’s too much exposition and not enough action, with Gawn Grainger’s chorus leader ushering us through the essentials in a wasted opportunity to bring a larger than life character to the stage.

Thankfully, Robert Lindsay rises to the challenge of playing the irascible broker of shady moneymaking deals. Light on his feet as he dances to his favoured folk music, incensed at perceived slights and, possibly, complicit in Robert Kennedy’s assassination, his performance injects this clunky production with a dash of much-needed vigour.

Novello Aldwych WC2B 4LD (0844 482 5170) Tube: Charing Cross tube Until 8th January £12.50 - £49.50

Tribes **** TNT

Keeping up with the chattering classes can be pretty hard going – but for twenty-something Billy it’s an uphill struggle he’s almost given up on.

Deaf from birth, he’s surrounded by parents and siblings who love the sound of their own voices, making mealtimes a challenging cacophony of affectionately abusive squabbling and egotistical attention-seeking.

Nina Raine’s intelligent, though over-plotted, new play (her follow-up to Rabbit which garnered a couple of Most Promising Playwright awards in 2006) looks at communication, isolation and coming to terms with the loss of a faculty that most of us take for granted.

Brought up to fit into a hearing society, Billy (Jacob Casselden) is an accomplished lip reader with an easy to understand voice – but learning sign language and a blossoming relationship with Sylvia make him realise just how hard he has had to work to make himself heard.The daughter of two deaf parents, she herself is now losing her hearing.

Roger Michell’s deft production moves fluently between the spoken word and surtitled sign language as Sylvia (in an emotionally rich and poignant performance from Michelle Terry) tries to convince Billy’s intellectual family, with their passion for words, that gestures can be just as expressive as speech, whilst simultaneously being painfully aware of how her world is slowly narrowing.

Stanley Townsend as Billy’s argumentative, non-PC, academic father, Phoebe Waller-Bridge as his aspiring opera singer sister and Harry Treadaway as his volatile, thesis writing brother all provide fine support as people with whom you’d rather not share too many dinners, whilst Kika Markham (as their novelist mother) brings a touch of gentle concern to a family whose facility with language is no guarantee of happiness, compassion or understanding.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS (020 7565 5000) Tube: Sloane Square royalcourttheatre.com
Until November 13 £10-£25

Red Bud *** TNT

While middle classes Brits slug it out verbally in Tribes in the main house downstairs, upstairs things get much more visceral when a quartet of old friends meet up for the 22nd time on the eve of the annual Michigan motocross championship.

They’ve been coming here since high school to “Get high. Get drunk. Get wild.” in Californian playwright Brett Neveu’s short and increasingly unpleasant new play.

Tensions are immediately apparent in the joshing between the old buddies. Jason’s lost his job and sold off his belongings in a garage sale, Shane’s been demoted, and Bill’s brought along his latest squeeze (blonde 19 year-old Janna who soon strips to bikini top and shorts) whose youthful charms bring out the jealously competitive worst in his near middle-aged mates.

Late arrival Greg, with his seven-months pregnant wife in tow, is in a foul mood right from the off. The trouble is, they’re getting older - with all the disappointment that brings – but still insist on behaving just as they did when they were irresponsible teenagers.

Their American dream isn’t ever going to materialise – and they’re starting to realise it. As the light fades and the beer cans and whiskey bottle empty, the atmosphere darkens along with the sky.

There’s nothing wrong with the performances, with Tom Hadley’s super-realistic design (a battered pick-up and real grass you can smell) or with Jo McInnes’ direction – but Neveu’s writing does little more than make an obvious statement and, without knowing more about his characters, it’s hard to care when things turn really nasty.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS (020 7565 5000) Tube: Sloane Square royalcourttheatre.com
Until November 13 £10-£15

The Country Girl **** TNT

Though probably best known for his TV roles as various representatives of the law, Martin Shaw also has a lengthy stage career behind him. He first appeared in American Clifford Odets’ 1950 backstage drama, nearly three decades ago, as the ambitious up-and-coming director who risks his Broadway-bound production by giving alcoholic actor Elgin one final chance to show his mettle.

Shaw now plays the washed-up old thesp, his once glorious reputation in ruins and his marriage (to Jenny Seagrove’s controlled, emotionally drained Georgie) driven to breaking point by a web of deceit and dependency.

Exploding with rage, then wheedlingly insecure, protesting he’s dry (his lines still unlearnt) but swigging treacherous cough mixture, he gives a powerful portrayal of a desperate man no longer capable of separating truth from lies.

Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EZ (08444124658)Tube: Piccadilly Circus Until 26 February£20- £49.50

Broken Glass **** TNT

Being Jewish proves a torment for married middle-aged Brooklynites Sylvia and Phillip in Arthur Miller’s powerful blend of the personal, psychological and political, written in 1994 (when he was nearly 80) but set in 1938 as news of the Nazis’ Kristallnacht rampage hit the NY headlines.

Lucy Cohu’s gentle, understated Sylvia has mysteriously become paralysed - perhaps because of her deep fears about what might follow, perhaps because of her unfulfilling marriage.

Antony Sher’s Phillip, despising his origins yet proud of what he has achieved despite them, is pasty, sweaty, uptight and unable to physically express the love he feels for his wife. He’s the polar opposite of Nigel Lindsay’s completely assimilated Jewish doctor whose interest in Lucy’s psychosomatic symptoms threatens to overstep professional boundaries in this intense and poignant revival.

Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR (Tube: Kilburn) 020 7328 1000 tricycle.co.uk Until 27th November £12 - £22

Me and Juliet *** TNT

It’s prettily done and lustily sung, but Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1953 parody of the Golden Age of musicals is a hotchpotch of half-developed storylines and confusing characters – instantly forgettable, but enjoyable while it lasts.

Set backstage (a nicely realistic design by Alex Marker who consistently works miracles in this tiny space) where chorus girl Jeanie is having trouble with her love life, the show-within-a-show structure is unnecessarily complicated but at least gives replacement lead Betty (a sassy Jodie Jacobs) the chance to shine even if her stage manager boyfriend refuses to date her any more now they’re working on the same production.

Meanwhile Laura Main's good girl Jeanie, fed up with being given the run around by bad boy lighting electrician Bob (a powerfully voiced, well-muscled John Addison with a fiery temper to match), finds herself drawn to Robert Hands’ unassuming but far more suitable Assistant Stage Manager. Unfortunately, she neglects to tell Bob.

It’s no surprise that this musical comedy proved to be one of the duo’s least commercially successful collaborations – it’s not a patch on Oklahoma or The Sound of Music and lacks the quirky originality of their State Fair, which the Finborough staged last year. But director Thom Southerland has assembled some fine voices and Sally Brooks’ clever choreography exploits the limitations of the stage in this likeable, small scale European premiere.

Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED (Tube: Earl’s Court) 0844 847 1652 finboroughtheatre.co.uk Until 30th October £15 - £18

Krapp's Last Tape **** TNT

Just turned 70, Michael Gambon is only a year older than the protagonist in Beckett’s seminal monologue. With his crumpled features he looks as though all the life has been drained out of him as he sits, slumped, at his desk before getting up to scrape his nail deliberately along its decorative edge, retrieve a banana or two from a drawer and add a moment or two of comic business to the glum proceedings .

Running at under an hour, with a long opening sequence carried out in virtual silence and periods spent listening to the birthday tapes he recorded thirty years previously, this reflection on the end of life needs an actor of Gambon’s stature to carry it off.

Shuffling around in a shabby waistcoat and dusty trousers, angrily sweeping the tin containers which hold the carefully catalogued spools marking the passage of the years, he delivers Beckett’s sparse dialogue with the world weary resignation of someone with nothing left to look forward to and the dreams of an unfulfilled writer to haunt him. His haggard features are every bit as expressive as that sonorous voice with its Irish tones.

It’s a masterly portrayal of hopeless decrepitude and it comes as something of a shock when the lights come back on and Gambon skips nimbly downstage to take an age-defying bow.

Duchess, Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA (0844 412 4659) krappslasttape.co.uk nimaxtheatres.com Tube: Charing Cross Until 20th Nov £25 - £35

Birdsong *** TNT

Although this routine adaptation of Sebastian Faulk’s bestselling 1990 novel held my attention throughout the three hour running time, I was never completely convinced by the passionate affair framing its depiction of life in the trenches.

Projected images facilitate rapid scene changes in Trevor Nunn’s efficient production as, in 1910, Ben Barnes’ personable young Englishman Stephen falls in love with the unhappy wife of his brutal French host. War devastates the idyllic landscape of their secret riverside trysts and damages the increasingly isolated Stephen as he marshals his men at the Somme.

But it’s a superb Lee Ross who steals the acting honours with his honest portrayal of working class sapper Jack, worrying about his son dying of diphtheria back home, whilst tunnelling deep beneath no-man’s-land towards the German lines.

Comedy, Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN (0844 871 2118) Tube: Piccadilly Circus (Until 15th January) £20 - £49.50

Enlightenment *** TNT

Programming at the Hampstead theatre has been somewhat hit and miss in recent years, so hopes are high that incoming artistic director Edward Hall will turn things round and restore its former reputation as a first class off West End venue. Unfortunately, his inaugural production fails to live up to expectations, a double pity as playwright Shelagh Stephenson has a proven track record as a writer of intelligent, witty and thought provoking drama.

The premise is promising enough – backpacking 20 year old Adam has been missing for 6 months since the Jakarta bombings and his academic step-father Nick and mother Lia crave proof, one way or the other, of the fate of her missing son.

Although the opening scene - with a not very funny psychic - doesn’t ring true in the context of their pristine middleclass household, the desperate anguish of Julie Graham’s Lia certainly does. So one can just about buy her reluctant decision to get involved with Daisy Beaumont’s unscrupulously persistent TV programme maker (who’s more caricature then credible) in a last ditch attempt to trace him. But one loses patience with Lia’s prolonged indulgence of the amnesiac (and increasingly disturbing) cuckoo in the nest who meets them at the airport, and, whilst moderately entertaining, this psychological thriller fails to live up to its more profound (and only partially integrated) aspirations.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) Tube: Swiss Cottage www.hampsteadtheatre.com Until 30th October £22-£29

Traces **** TNT

The intriguingly named young Canadian troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main consists of a couple of former Cirque du Soleil performers plus alumni of Montreal’s National Circus School. The training shows. They’ve brought all their considerable acrobatic skills with them, but have ditched fancy costumes (they don’t need them) and superannuated clowns in favour of a short, edgy production which builds to a jaw-dropping finale with lots of gasp-making moments along the way.

Staged within the conceit that, sometime in the not-too–distant future, they find themselves sheltering in a bunker, the five performers introduce themselves - name, height, weight and the barest of personality information – then throw their lithe bodies across the stage with a breathtakingly fluid agility.

The solo routines are impressive enough – Philip Rosenberg’s superbly controlled hand balancing on a disjointed window dummy, Antoine Carabinier Lepine’s gyroscopic rotations on the single wheel, Antoine Auger giving the monkeys in the jungle a gravity-defying run for their money as he swings from pole to Chinese Pole. But there’s also an astonishing amount of trust between the acrobats as Genevieve Morin throws herself backwards into the air to land on her partner’s shoulders. There’s light-hearted urban fun, too, with basketball and skateboard routines led by a cheeky Jonathan Casaubon - all leading up to an accelerating tumble through an ever higher pile of hoops, diving backwards, forwards and every which way in a quicksilver climax to a thrilling show.

Go see.

Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street WC2A 2HT (0844 412 4322) sadlerswells.comTube: Holborn tube Until 30th October £10 - £38

Faust TNT

Icelandic theatre company Vesturport first made an impact over here in 2003 with an aerial Romeo and Juliet. Its eye-catching approach opened London doors for actor/director Gisli Orn Gardarsson who has since brought us inspired productions of Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Buchner’s Woyzeck.

His latest venture reinvents Goethe’s life’s work as a disturbing Christmas time occurrence in an old people’s home where the residents are waiting to die and retired actor Johann is bemoaning the fact that, during a long and successful career, he never had the opportunity to play Faust. Encouraged by a fellow resident, he starts to enact it, but, frustrated by the knowledge that he can never possess the beautiful young nurse Greta, he tries, instead, to hang himself with the Christmas fairylights. His attempt is foiled (or is the whole episode a brink of death experience?) by a neck-crunching Mefisto, ripping off a latex mask to emerge from a recent corpse and offer him the chance of a moment of perfect happiness with Greta in exchange for his soul.

The production is a collaborative effort but isn’t totally successful. The basic theme of the mammoth original is still there, though confusing, but what fascinates is the gymnastics of the Icelandic cast who wade across the enormous fishnet suspended over the stalls to the atmospheric music provided by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Every so often, a performer lands in the crisscross mesh, seemingly from nowhere, with the explosive force of a shot fired from a cannon. Walls are scaled and the floor holds its own secrets.

Not without its moments of wry humour – a synchronised wheelchair workout to Wham’s Last Christmas, the decrepit oldies transformed into seductively athletic, punkish devils – but, despite a touching performance from Thorsteinn Gunnarsson as the lovesick Johann, ultimately this is more show than coherent content.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ (0207 922 2922) Tube: Southwark/ Waterloo youngvic.org
Until 30th October £10.00 - £27.50

Lower Ninth *** TNT

Stranded on a rooftop, two African-Americans sweat, bicker, banter and wonder whether anyone will come to their rescue before it’s too late for them, just as it is already for the garbage bag covered corpse of their drug-dealing friend whose body, hauled from the rising water, lies decomposing next to them.

Kicking off the Donmar’s first Trafalgar Studios season showcasing the work of its Resident Assistant Directors, Charlotte Westenra’s atmospheric production of American playwright Beau Willimon’s short new play takes us back to 2005 when the Mississippi flooded its banks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans became a watery grave for hundreds of inhabitants - and the failure of the emergency services subsequently claimed the lives of many more.

The dialogue fizzes in the early scenes as young E-Z and older bible-spouting Malcolm try to outwit each other in a time-passing game of twenty questions. Malcolm was once a bad boy who, years ago, walked out on E-Z’s now dead mother and has since found God. But Willimon only offers tantalising hints of their past lives, focussing on their current predicament as, without food or water, their condition deteriorates.

Like its protagonists, the play can’t find a way forward, but Ray Fearon and Anthony Welsh are superb as, respectively, born-again Malcolm struggling to maintain control over a still volatile temper and edgy, resentful E-Z who’s more scared than he wants to let on.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1A 2DY (0844 871 7632) Tube: Charing Cross tube donmarwarehouse.com £17.50 Until 23rd October

Passion This is London

Inspired by the 1980's film of mid 19th century Italian Iginio Ugo Tarchetti's unfinished novel (he died, at 29, before he could complete it) Sondheim's musical version is perhaps one of the most operatic of his works.
The melodies are elusive, the lyrics less witty than customary, and though there are tiny touches of humour in the officers' mess, this is, overwhelmingly, the powerful story of an unequal triangle
in which a dashing young soldier finds himself unexpectedly torn between his torrid love affair with his beautiful married Milanese mistress Clara and the relentlessly scheming Fosca, the overwrought, sickly cousin of the colonel in charge of the remote garrison where he is posted.
Played without an interval, Jamie Lloyd's elegantly choreographed production (the scene changes executed with military precision by Giorgio's fellow soldiers) builds in intensity as Fosca's manipulative plotting begins to wear Giorgio down. Christopher Oram's triple arched set provides the backdrop for both boudoir and barracks.
Scarlett Strallen brings a luminous purity to the role of Clara, her afternoons of adulterous bliss slowly replaced by doubt and the growing knowledge that she has an unlikely rival. She is well matched - physically and vocally - by David Thaxton's Giorgio (despite a certain lack of subtlety in his acting).
And though it's hard to see the inner beauty which overcomes Giorgio's initial repulsion in this gothic love story, Elena Roger's tiny, emaciated Fosca (her cheeks sunken but her eyes bright with desire for the handsome young officer) gives touching credibility to the feverishly relentless passion with which she stalks her prey and her doomed delight when she finally enjoys the affection she so desperately craves.

Donmar Theatre

Yes, Prime Minister *** TNT

Fans of the immensely popular ‘80s sitcom won’t be disappointed by the reincarnations of Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey and Prime Minister Jim Hacker.

Henry Goodman’s pocket-lining civil servant is on Machiavellian form, using his superior intelligence to run rings round David Haig’s increasingly apoplectic PM. But, although often very funny, the original 30-minute TV formula yields decreasing rewards when stretched to two hours.

Gielgud, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6AR (0844 482 5130) Tube: Piccadilly Circus yesprimeminister.co.uk
Booking until 15th Jan 2011 £17.50 - £52.50

(Unedited version below)

Stepping into dead men’s shoes isn’t easy, but fans of the immensely popular 80’s sitcom won’t be disappointed by the reincarnations of Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey and Prime Minister Jim Hacker, nor by a discomfited Jonathan Slinger as the latter’s Principle Private Secretary uncomfortably caught between them.

Henry Goodman’s pocket-lining civil servant is on Machiavellian form, using his superior intelligence to run rings round David Haig’s increasingly apoplectic PM, who knows there are things he ought to know but has no idea what they are.

But, though brought up to date and often very funny, the original 30 TV minute formula yields decreasing rewards when stretched to 2 hours in an overegged plot involving a $10 trillion loan from Kumranistan and the illegal sexual proclivities of its unseen foreign minister