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a stunning job of staging this new adaptation of Bulgakov’s subversive satire which was written in 1925 but remained unpublished in his native Russia until 1987.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