The Blue Dragon **** TNT

Though billed as a sequel to his epic The Dragons’ Trilogy, this smaller scale, more intimate work from Quebecois auteur Robert Lepage’s stands, very satisfyingly, alone.

Two decades on, the character of Canadian artist Pierre Lamontagne (played by Lepage) is fifty years old, no longer producing art himself, but running a gallery in Shanghai and in a relationship with a younger Chinese conceptual artist whom he is also promoting.

His home is under threat from property developers and his old flame (co-writer Marie Michaud’s advertising executive Claire, who’s far too fond of the bottle) is passing through on her way, she hopes, to adopt a Chinese baby.

From a seemingly simple scenario, Lepage conjures layers of ambiguity and meaning, the still silences as eloquent as words, and the imagery, as always with this inspired director, touched with magic. The swirling sleeves of an Oriental dancer scatter flurries of digitized snow.

With cinematic fluency, projections and sliding screens transform Pierre’s two storey apartment into an airport, a train station, or the streets of the city where a sightseeing bicycle ride is echoed by his memory of a first date with Tai Wei Foo’s Xiao Ling. But this three-hander (performed in English, French and Mandarin with surtitles) is not only a visual feast.

It suggests the compromises, the resignation and the despair of getting older, the changing nature of the East as it succumbs, in part, to the influence of the West, the clash of cultures, of the old and the new, in a gently beguiling piece which, teasingly, offers no finite solutions.

Barbican, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS (020 7638 8891) tube: Barbican barbican.org.uk Until 26th February £16.00 - £50.00

Penelope ** TNT

Irish playwright Enda Walsh specialises in trapping his often larger than life characters in situations they just can’t get out of.

Unfortunately, trapped is just how I felt during what seemed like much longer than 85 minutes of dense verbal outpourings in his update of a slice of Homer’s Odyssey.

In the original, Penelope, wife of Odysseus, kept a hundred suitors dangling with the promise that (as her husband was missing, presumed dead) she would wed one of them as soon as she’d finished weaving a burial shroud. All the while she was unravelling during the night much of what she had accomplished during the day.

In Walsh’s whacky version, Penelope appears at intervals, her entrance preceded by a siren and flashing red light. She doesn’t look the type to indulge in needlework. Only four potential husbands remain, living in sweltering conditions in a drained swimming pool and well past their best. Death has claimed all the others, and the final quartet makes a last ditch attempt to woo the silent and enigmatic Penelope.

Denis Conway’s flabby Dunne tries to win her with a vaudevillian spring in his step, Niall Buggy’s ailing Fitz with softly spoken entreaty, whilst Karl Shiels’ strutting, wildly exhibitionist Quinn (aided by Aaron Monaghan’s morose Burns) puts on a quick-change fancy dress display of famous lovers including Rhett Butler, Napoleon and their respective other halves.

Druid Theatre’s production is well acted, peppered with symbolism (Quinn tries – and fails - to barbecue a tiny sausage) and more than a hint of the influence of Beckett, but the deluge of words is almost relentless and I kept on hoping against hope that Odysseus would hurry home from the Trojan wars and rescue not only his faithful wife but me as well.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) tube: Swiss Cottage hampsteadtheatre.com Until March 5th (£22 -£29)

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night This is London (unpublished)

The prospect of Sir Peter Hall celebrating his 80^th birthday directing his daughter Rebecca has proved irresistible and you’ll be lucky to get returns for this straightforward, small scale, period production which emphasises the wistful nature of Shakespeare’s bittersweet romantic comedy.

He lets the words speak for themselves as Viola (shipwrecked in Illyria and disguised as a boy) falls for lovesick Count Orsino but is commanded to woo Olivia on his behalf.

Played out on Anthony Ward’s bare set, flanked by autumn leaves and with miniature houses in the background, Hall’s interpretation is both clear and thoughtful, but, especially in the languid early scenes, verges on the ponderous. Much needed life is injected by Amanda Drew’s grieving but spirited Olivia, and Simon Callow’s booming Sir Toby Belch teased by Finty Williams’ cheeky Maria. Best of all is Charles Edwards’ Andrew Aguecheek, hilariously insecure with his long curly locks and apologetic, self-doubting manner.

David Ryall makes an ultra world-weary Feste, whilst Simon Paisley Day’s rigid, humourless Malvolio even sleeps in his chains of office. And, at the heart of it all, Rebecca Hall repays her father’s faith in her with an intelligent, considered Viola in what proves, overall, to be a competent, rather than landmark, production.

Cottesloe

The Heretic **** TNT

Palaeogeophysics and geodynamics university lecturer Diane doesn’t believe that the icecaps are melting, but that doesn’t prevent her from enlisting the help of a cute toy polar bear called Maureen in Richard Bean’s over-plotted but very funny new climate change play, the third to open on this topic within less than a fortnight, and the second to feature this iconic symbol of global warming.

Bean is as much concerned with the duty of scientists to put truth before career progression as with whether the world really is heating up. The future of the department is at risk, and head of Earth Sciences Kevin (who had a brief affair with Diane many years ago) wants her to delay publication of her controversial findings until a financially advantageous deal has been secured. Not only that, but her daughter, Phoebe (Lydia Wilson) is dangerously anorexic, and Diane herself is receiving mysterious death threats.

It makes for a highly amusing and entertaining evening – even if not all the characters (or twists of the plot) ring true. Bean writes with wit and intelligence, and Juliet Stevenson’s Diane is totally credible, both as sceptical academic and worried mother. James Fleet’s Kevin (his wishy-washy manner belying a steely resolve when it comes to saving his faculty) is the epitome of a seemingly ineffectual professor, Adrian Hood gets laughs as a security man with useful connections everywhere and Johnny Flynn’s self-harming undergrad wears his carbon emission concerns on his sleeve, spouting his convictions with an inarticulate awkwardness which troubled Phoebe finds irresistible.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS www.royalcourttheatre.com Tube: Sloane Square (020 7565 5000) Until 19th March £10-£28

Vernon God Little **** TNT

Aussie born DBC Pierre’s 2003 Booker prizewinning novel may not be the easiest read, but it makes for irresistibly fast-paced theatre in Tanya Ronder’s attention-grabbing adaptation.

High school student Jesus has gone on the rampage in a small Texas town, killing a clutch of his classmates before turning the gun on himself. Best friend Vernon is accused of being his accomplice and his own mother (her mind focussed on the arrival of a new fridge) seems to have dismissed the possibility that he might be innocent, assuring him that “even murderers are loved by their families” as she takes up with TV-repair man Lally who’s only interested in exploiting the situation to further his own media ambitions.

Haunted by visions of Luke Brady’s guitar-playing, blood soaked Jesus, and with the police snapping at his heels, Vernon absconds from Texas to Mexico, ending up on death row, his fate in the hands of the voting TV audience.

Rufus Norris keeps this biting satirical comedy belting along at breakneck speed, with shopping trolleys and sofas swiftly converted into vehicles, pushed on stage by the versatile cast of trailer trash characters (nothing subtle about this lot!) who regularly break into country and western song or a spot of line dancing. And Joseph Drake makes an impressive professional debut as misfit teenager Vernon in a hugely entertaining evening, unmissable but with darkness at its heart.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ youngvic.org Tube Southwark / Waterloo 0207 922 2922 Extended till 12th March £10.00 - £27.50

Woody Sez TNT

There’s nothing fussy about this small scale tribute to thrice married American folk singer-songwriter Woodie Guthrie.

On an almost bare stage, the four engagingly versatile performers cover thirty of his songs (and play a variety of musical instruments including guitar, banjo, Jews harp, spoons and double bass) whilst cramming in the biographical details of a life overshadowed by the hereditary neurological disease which plagued his mother.

Born in Oklahoma in 1912, he travelled to California during the Depression, aiming his songs at the common people whose suffering he witnessed first-hand. From the foot-tappingly upbeat, to moving ballads and the satirical (and still topical) “Jolly Banker”, this unpretentious show captures the essence of the man who influenced Dylan - and in an unpretentious style of which Guthrie himself would have approved.

Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB (020 7907 7092) artstheatrewestend.com Tube: Leicester Square Until 2nd April £20-£39.50

Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales *** TNT

These five tales within a double framing device range from creepy to gruesome as a stranger entertains his fellow 1950’s commuters with his sinister stories. Some are more successful than others – it’s soon obvious that a taxidermist landlady has no intention of providing bed or breakfast for her guest, that the dentist husband of an adulterous wife has also been having a bit on the side, and that a viciously sadistic public schoolboy is likely to get his comeuppance.

But adapter Jeremy Dyson and director Polly Findlay really ratchet up the tension when an American tourist bets his little finger against the Cadillac staked by a cleaver-wielding gambler, and there’s a certain satisfaction watching the wife of a cancer-ridden philosopher taking posthumous revenge on the remains of her controlling spouse.

Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, W6 0QL (0871 221 1726) lyric.co.uk Tube: Hammersmith Until 26th February £10 - £25

Water **** TNT


Water keeps people apart and brings them together in Filter theatre company’s pair of neatly interwoven stories which embrace the political as well as the personal and appear to overlap, momentarily, in a plush hotel.

In one, Phil (a cave driver, intent on breaking the current depth diving record in Mexico) has just broken up with his girlfriend, Claudia, an equally determined government official who is simultaneously attending a climate change conference.

Their once close relationship is concluded, long distance, via laptop as, separately and apart, they each pursue their individual goals.


In the other, two very different sons are brought together for the first time by the death of their English marine biologist father (who, decades earlier, left his depression, his wife and his son Graham behind in Norfolk for a new life, a new family and unexpected happiness in Canada).


Scenes move with liquid fluidity as the three performers plus on-stage sound-designer Tim Phillips visibly create all the sound effects from delicate spattering rain to treacherous subterranean descent.

Ferdy Roberts switches seamlessly between various roles including the deceased scientist
 and reclusive environmentalist Graham, Oliver Dimsdale is welcomingly genial as the latter's Canadian DJ half-brother (and angry as driven Phil), whilst Victoria Moseley’s pressured Claudia is forced, reluctantly, to accept that compromise is often the only option in David Farr’s short, fleet and unfussily inventive production.




Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Tube: Kilburn tricycle.co.uk (020 7328 1000) 
Until March 5 £12-£22

Accolade **** TNT

Welsh playwright and actor Emlyn Williams made no secret of his bisexuality 
in two frank autobiographical volumes published in 1961 and 1973, but in his
 1950 play Accolade the double-life of a Nobel prize-winning author of
 scandalous novels, Will Trenting, involves an irresistible penchant not for 
other men, but for drunken “dirty parties” in Rotherhithe.

It’s a predilection Rona, his wife of 16 years, knew about and accepted right from 
the start of what has proved to be a loving and successful relationship. But recognition comes at a price and the decision to accept a knighthood for
 his literary achievements turns his secret indiscretions into a source of
 interest – and not just to the media.

Blanche McIntyre’s excellent revival (the first since the original production in which Williams himself took the role of Trenting) boasts some first rate performances and an impressive set (designer James Cotterill’s book-lined Regent’s Park home where they have raised their bookish schoolboy son and where barmaid Phyllis and her wide boy husband Harold look 
decidedly out of place).

Aden Gillett’s Will and Saskia Wickham’s Rona reveal all the complex emotions of a devoted couple facing a problem brought out into the open – he only just coming to realise that there’s a cost to his self-indulgence, she almost too tolerant. And anybody who’s picked up the Archers habit over here will be pleased to know that Graham Seed (who played the recently deceased Nigel for nearly three decades) is on fine form as wheedling, unsavoury Daker, intent on capitalising on Trenting’s weakness.


Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED Tube: Earl’s Court finboroughtheatre.co.uk Until February 26 £15- £18





Less Than Kind **** TNT

Terence Rattigan fell from favour in the 1950’s when John Osborne and the angry young men of the Royal Court ousted him from West End popularity. Now, to mark the centenary of his birth, there’s a renewed interest in his work.

Last year saw a sold out revival of After The Dance, and Flare Path and Cause Celebre are due to open in the next few weeks.

So all credit to the tiny Jermyn Street theatre which is currently hosting the world premiere of the original, previously unperformed version of a play he wrote in 1944 but which was subsequently rewritten and produced under a different title.

Adrian Brown’s classy production wouldn’t be out of place on any stage, but in this intimate space one becomes an eavesdropping guest in the plush Westminster house where Sir John Fletcher (still married but separated) has set up home with Olivia, an attractive, fortyish widow. He’s a Conservative cabinet minister and wealthy industrialist. She’s turned into the perfect society hostess.

Their cosy love nest is disrupted by the return of Olivia’s 17-year-old son who was evacuated to Canada at the outbreak of war five years earlier and is completely unaware of how much his mother’s situation has changed in the interim. She’s desperate for the two most important people in her life to get on, but, with all the naïve arrogance of youth, and brimming with his socialist convictions, he detests everything about her new paramour – and she is forced to choose.

Rattigan writes with an emotional acuity which, despite some dated language, still resonates today. Michael Simkins’ excellent Sir John obviously didn’t fall for Sara Crowe’s Olivia for her intellectual abilities, yet it’s clear that they’re totally devoted to each other. And you really want to knock some sense into David Osmond’s priggish Michael who sees himself as a latter-day Hamlet in this amusing and unexpectedly engrossing rediscovery.

Jermyn Street Theatre SW1Y 6ST (020 7287 2875) Tube: Piccadilly Circus jermynstreettheatre.co.uk Until February 12 (£18.00)

Little Platoons *** TNT

The futures of their children are at stake and passions run high among the strongly motivated Shepherd’s Bush parents determined to secure a decent education for their offspring.

Steve Waters’ new play, the second in the Bush’s short Schools Season, sets out to show the arguments for and against an alternative system, as well as the potential pitfalls faced by these caring, but not exceptionally wealthy, mums and dads (the luxury of an expensive private education is not an automatic option) in their attempt to set up a free school in their local catchment area.

It’s an important issue (journalist and erstwhile theatre critic Toby Young is currently at the helm of just such an enterprise in nearby Ealing) but though interesting, well-acted and indisputably topical, it lacks a certain lightness of touch.

Waters’ doesn’t completely succeed in merging the personal aspects of the plot with the political issues, and his characters – serially failing middleclass entrepreneur Nick and his wife Lara who jointly initiated the project with working class website developer Parvez; recently ditched, comprehensive school music teacher Rachel who found them on a flyer, and Martin, her thoughtless ex - are sometimes in danger of seeming mere mouthpieces.

That said, there are some very funny moments – especially when Andrew Woodall’s arrogant Nick (based on Mr. Young?) confronts Joanne Froggatt’s sprightly civil servant – and there’s more than enough material here to sustain this topical debate between parents who, despite their stated idealism, still want their own kids to be the ones guaranteed to benefit from a non-selective, state-funded system which won’t let them, or their children, down.

Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD Tube: Shepherds Bush (020 8743 5050) bushtheatre.co.uk
Until February 19 (£15-£20)

Tiger Country **** TNT

The disconcerting whiff of authenticity pervades award-winning playwright and director Nina Raine’s well-researched new play which recreates the pressurised tensions of a hectic NHS hospital where a patient’s life can depend on the gut feeling of the doctor on call.

With a large, bustling cast, she paints, vividly, a familiar picture of a competitive environment where the old boy network still holds sway and staff and facilities are stretched to the limit.

Thusitha Jayasundera’s abrupt urologist (she views children as a consolation prize for a stalled career), Ruth Everett’s idealistic newcomer and Adam James’ totally convincing cardiologist are especially potent reminders that those at the sharp end are as likely as the rest of us to go under a fellow surgeon’s knife – and just as scared of hearing a fateful diagnosis.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) Tube: Swiss Cottage hampsteadtheatre.com Until 5th February £22 -£29

King Lear This Is London

The simplicity of the set reflects the straightforward but effective qualities of this moving interpretation of Shakespeare's great tragedy. There are no tricksy surprises in Michael Grandage's fine production which places the emphasis firmly on the personal rather than the political.
Christopher Oram's dull grey boards, splattered with white, cover the stage and surround the auditorium - there's nowhere to hide as Derek Jacobi's superb Lear divides up his kingdom and completes his tragic journey from monarch to broken old man, emitting a heart-rending wail of inconsolable grief as he cradles the body of his once favoured and favourite daughter in his arms.
His is not a particularly regal Lear - proud and petulant as a thwarted child, he bursts with pleasure at the loving avowals of Goneril and Regan which are so soon to be tested and rebutted. First and foremost, he is a father, a man who suffers greatly having lost what is dearest to him, only to find her again too late. It's impossible not to be moved by his quiet descent into the bewildered confusion of madness.
There's fine support from Ron Cook's lugubrious Fool, and from Michael Hadley as the loyal Kent. But this is Jacobi's night. At 72, his white hair cropped close, he rules the stage, if not a kingdom, with a performance of heartbreaking honesty.

Donmar Until 5 February.