Mercury Fur *** TNT

Nowadays, the Menier Chocolate Factory seems to have found a profitable niche reviving old musicals on a small scale and then transferring them to the West End.But five years ago it played host to Philip Ridley’s taut, controversial and extremely violent drama which begins in the dark and ends with blood and bodies all over the place.

I missed it first time round, so (from that point of view at least) Theatredelicatessen’s new production (directed with a sure hand by Frances Loy) provided a welcome chance to find out what the fuss was about.

This enterprising company has taken up residence in a disused office block (just behind Selfridges) where, once inside, the stripped bare offices provide the perfect environment for a play set in a deserted East London housing estate. Here, clever, tense Elliot and his slower-witted younger brother Darren have a party to arrange and they’re racing against time. There are gangs in the streets, the British Museum has been looted, and memories have been eaten away by hallucinogenic butterflies. This is no conventional celebration, though.

Staging it is a means of survival - the “party piece” is a young boy and it’s soon clear that things are going to turn very, very nasty indeed as they prepare to enable a rich city guy to fulfil his warped Vietnam fantasies and capture them on video.

There are strong performances – particularly from Matt Granados and Chris Urch as the brothers, Isaac Jones as Lola (Elliot's squeamish transvestite lover) and Ben Wigzell as tough guy “Papa” Spinx whose solicitous care of the blind, spaced-out Duchess reveals that he, like the others, is capable of caring.

Ridley (who also writes books for children) has argued that what he shows in his vision of a post apocalyptic world is no more shocking than a Greek tragedy. That may be true, but, worryingly, this isn’t the first time he’s tackled the subject of a child victim at a party. An uneasy mixture of extreme brutality, devotion and neediness, it makes for 2 hours of uncomfortable viewing, but with a diminishing power to shock as the violence spirals.

3-4 Picton Place W1U 1BJ (07708 740913) theatredelicatessen.co.uk Until 13th March £12 (£10 concessions)

Off the Endz *** TNT

Making a better life and getting off the estate proves no easy matter for pregnant nurse, Sharon (Lorraine Burroughs) and her equally hardworking partner Kojo in award-winning playwright Bola Agbaje’s sparky 70 minute new play.

Their indulgent, aspirational lifestyle has already spiralled out of control in credit card debts, and when Ashley Walters’ cocky David (her ex and Kojo’s best mate) turns up fresh out of jail, his layabout chauvinism and get-rich-quick drug-dealing schemes inevitably lead to trouble.

Agbaje has an astute ear for snappy dialogue, accurately pinpointing the divergent paths the friends have chosen. But the plotting proves predictable and (like the couple’s tolerance) increasingly unconvincing.

Ultimately one’s left with the feeling that, though writing from the heart as well as the head, she also had a deadline to meet.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS (020 7565 5000) until 13th March (£10-£25) Special deals for under 25’s

Dunsinane **** TNT

Playwright David Greig has written an engrossing drama, full of wit and a wry humour, which combines the horror of war with the underhand scheming of political machination, the devastation of filial loss and the terrible things that can happen when a foreign army intervenes in another country’s affairs.

Set in the unwelcoming highlands of 11th century Scotland the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production boasts a large cast of English soldiers to control and slaughter the foe. The tyrannical ruler may be dead, but his widow Queen Gruach lives on. Captive in her own castle (but with a continued claim to the throne and, worryingly, a son from a previous marriage still on the run) she’s a serious thorn in the side of Brian Ferguson’s weak but crafty Malcolm, who has returned from England to reclaim the crown snatched from his own murdered father’s head.

You don’t need to know anything about Macbeth to enjoy this imaginative, topical sequel which, through the choric letters of a boy soldier paints a weary picture of becoming a man far from home and with a weapon in your hand.

Siobhan Redmond’s flame-haired Gruach is flirtatious, determined and dangerous as she seduces Jonny Phillips’ gruff English general Siward whose relentless pursuit of peace results in more bloodshed than the money-making enterprises of his amoral lieutenant (Alex Mann’s Egham). And the unearthly singing of Gruach’s female attendants and a final meeting as the snow falls add a touch of beauty to Roxana Silbert’s intelligent and highly recommended production.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU ( 020 7722 9301) until 6th March (£20-£25) Under 25 - £5

11 and 12 *** TNT

Back in the sixties and seventies, Peter Brook made a major contribution to the world of theatre, not only as a director but also as the author of the influential book The Empty Space.

But that was a long time ago, and although the veteran director (he’s now halfway through his eighties) may have made a lasting impact, the more recent productions I’ve seen have proved far from exciting, let alone groundbreaking.

His current venture (a touring international co-production) looks lovely, its West African setting subtly evoked against a black background by atmospherically lit strips of coloured carpet, carved leafless tree trunks, and a few props scattered in the sand. But the account of a doctrinal dispute in the 1930’s which arose over the precise number of times a religious prayer should be recited, proceeds at the pace of a meandering snail.

Based on the life of the Sufi guru Tierno Bokar as described in the writings of his Malian disciple Amadou Hampate Ba, the production intentionally refuses to inject much energy into the account of the violent feud which, ironically, resulted from an act of intended courtesy and which the French colonials in charge failed to control.

Makram J.Khoury as spiritual leader Tierno delivers his gnomic utterances with a knowing twinkle and the grace of a truly wise man, and the other half dozen members of the multinational cast move smoothly in and out of various roles to the accompaniment of on-stage musician Toshi Tsuchitori.

But there’s too little substance in the material or variation in tone in Brook’s characteristically simple staging, and as a result this meditative plea for tolerance – no matter how pertinent – fails to truly engage.

Barbican, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS (020 7638 8891) to 27th February (£10 - £35)

Enron **** TNT

Lucy Prebble’s much lauded bells and whistles satire makes it easy to understand at least the basics behind the financial manoeuvres which made and (in 2001) finally destroyed the Texan energy giant.

You’ll still need to keep your wits about you, but Rupert Goold’s high voltage production racks up the entertainment quotient with conjoined Lehman brothers, Three Blind Mice stumbling on in suits, slickly choreographed routines and tickertape projections charting the inexorable rise and ultimate fall of Enron’s share price.

At the centre is Samuel West’s superb CEO, giving his CFO free rein to obscure the debts in endless shadow companies, and so obsessed with making profits that he even proposes trading in weather.

Noel Coward, St Martin’s Ln, WC2N 4AU (0844 482 5140) enrontheplay.com). Until August 14. £12.50-£50.50

The Little Dog Laughed *** TNT

Douglas Carter Beane’s Broadway success takes a comic look at the Hollywood film industry - how deals are brokered, and how unconventional sexuality is kept in the closet for fear of ruining a promising career.

A shark in designer clothes, Tamsin Greig’s lesbian agent Diane is brash, forceful and (in small doses) aggressively funny as she promotes rising star Mitchell (Rupert Friend).

Harry Lloyd convinces as sexually ambivalent rent boy, Alex, who only sleeps with men for money but falls for Mitchell all the same. And former Bond girl Gemma Arterton passes the time shopping whilst she waits for Alex to return to her bed.

There’s a generous smattering of killer wisecracks, but also too many dud jokes in what proves to be a rather laboured satire of Tinseltown hypocrisy.

Garrick, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH (0844 412 4662) ambassadortickets.com/london till 10th April (£25 - £47) (Weds matinees £20 -£35)

The Early Bird *** TNT

Running at just over an hour, Leo Butler’s disconcerting two-hander makes you feel uncomfortable right from the start.

A man and woman (clad in head to toe grey) are imprisoned in a Perspex cube, and we, the audience, sit round them on all sides as they go over and over the events surrounding the day their young daughter vanished.

Deliberately (but frustratingly) the abruptly interrupted repetitions of events never clarify what happened to little Kimberley. Did she run away because her parents were arguing? Was she abducted? Is she dead or alive? Did either of her parents (she seems to have suffered from post-natal depression, he may have had an office affair) have anything to do with her disappearance?

All these questions hover in the air as Debbie and Jack comfort and confront each other, recalling an idyllic childfree holiday as they sway, romantically, together then bursting into angry accusations and self recrimination, trapped in a limbo of emotional torture.

Real life husband and wife Catherine Cusack and Alex Palmer movingly convey their joint and individual despair, with Cusack particularly affecting as she torments herself with the knowledge that it might never have happened if only she’d remembered to change the clocks and her daughter had been in time to catch the school bus as usual.

Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED. (0844 847 1652) to 27th February (£11 - £15)

Breathing Irregular *** TNT

Inspired by published transcripts of 999 calls, this short piece integrating dance with drama packs a lot of tension into under an hour.

Four performers on a tarpaulin-covered stage play out both sides of the telephone conversations, with oxygen masks eerily doubling as handsets.

A panicking husband whose ailing wife is choking on a prawn sandwich, the daughter of a man having a heart attack, an asthmatic mother suffocating in a smoke-filled building and a 5 year old boy too young to know the meaning of the word “conscious” as his mother lies sprawled on the floor, respond in their various ways to the calm reassurance of the voice on the other end of wire, a temporary lifeline during the endless minutes of panic before the emergency services arrive.

Jane Mason’s choreography adds an extra dimension to Carrie Cracknell’s direction, with Brendan Hughes and the diminutive Bryony Hannah making particular impact in a powerful, fragmented reminder of just how much a person’s life can change in the blink of an eye.

Gate, Pembridge Road W11 3HQ (020 7229 0706) Until 27th February (£16)

The Whisky Taster *** TNT

Friday 05 February 2010 15:17 GMT

James Graham has chosen a fascinating subject for his new comedy – an intriguing neurological condition called synaesthesia in which information processed through one cognitive pathway triggers the functioning of another.

In advertising exec Barney’s case, words and colours are all mixed up together – wavy patterns make him dizzy and tartan catapults him into a headache of colourful sensory overload. But the way he experiences the world also gives him an edge when it comes to winning a new account – a skill his colleague Nicola encourages when pitching to the agency’s latest potential client.

With the possibility of a posting to Mumbai in the offing, she’s desperate to impress their obnoxious boss (Simon Merrells) with a campaign to reinvent vodka as the new, aspirational whisky. Kate O’Flynn is in verbal overdrive as the determined Nicola, and there’s stolid support from John Stahl as the eponymous Scotsman in a kilt. Summoned to London so that she can pick his brains, he’s happy to impart what he knows about life and whisky but stubbornly refuses to even taste the vodka. As shy, lovesick Barney, Samuel Barnett is touchingly perfect, prepared to sacrifice his career rather than break up a working partnership he wishes he could turn into something more.

There’s more than the germ of a first rate play here, but Graham shows a tendency to overwrite and, although the result is frequently enjoyable, he hasn’t yet managed to distil his promising ingredients into anything like a vintage blend.

Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD (020 8743 5050) till 20th February (£15 {Saturday matinees £13})

Six Degrees of Separation *** TNT

Friday 05 February 2010 15:41 GMT

Affluent New Yorkers are serially conned by a clever confidence trickster in John Guare’s fact-inspired 1990 play about a young black hustler who convinces them he’s film star Sidney Poitier’s son and flatters their egos with the promise of bit parts in a movie version of Cats.

Less interested in financial gain than acceptance into an otherwise inaccessible elite society, Obi Abili’s charmingly reinvented Paul touches something deeper in Lesley Manville’s chic Ouisa, even after she and her art-dealing husband discover the deception.

David Grindley’s swift production can’t overcome the self-conscious nature of the writing, and subsidiary characters are sketchily drawn, but there’s enough wit to sustain the 90 minutes of this satire on the lifestyle and values of well-heeled liberals.

Old Vic, The Cut, SE1 8NB Waterloo, Until Apr 3. £10-£47

Three Sisters *** TNT

Friday 05 February 2010 15:08 GMT

Experimental theatre company Filter aren’t quite radical enough in their new production of Chekhov’s drama of unfulfilled lives and hopeless longing. Their irresistible 2008 interpretation of another classic, Twelfth Night, ruthlessly cut it down to less than 90 minutes whilst still preserving the essence – and the fun - of Shakespeare’s comedy. But although some of the same techniques are employed here – the stage looks like a rehearsal room, the technicians and musical instruments are integrated into the action, and the actors themselves shift such scenery as there is – this time round they’re less effective.

There’s an emphasis on sound – a kettle (not a samovar) comes to the boil in a void of silence, declarations of love uttered in secret trysts are amplified through microphones - but quite why, (unlike her older siblings) the youngest Prozorov, Irina (in her black leggings and white lace dress) speaks with an Irish accent is something of a mystery.

As her youthful enthusiasm for work is replaced by the reality of the daily grind, she seems destined to follow in the footsteps of Poppy Miller’s older, dowdier Olga, whilst elegant, languid middle sister, Masha, (wed far too young to Paul Brennen’s well-meaning but irritatingly devoted school teacher) falls for John Lightbody’s philosophising Vershinin (temporarily stationed in their garrison town, equally unhappily married but charismatic in his army uniform).

It’s a competent production, not without its moments of humour and pathos, but the heart seems to have gone out of it – and the innovations aren’t enough to fill the empty space.

Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, W6 0QL ( 0871 221 1726) Till 20 February (£10-25))