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After a fast-paced first half, Mike Bartlett’s timely and topical new play side-lines most of the characters he’s created in favour of a tripartite debate which leaves them stranded till the closing scenes.

Set in a dystopian London of shared nightmares and widespread dissatisfaction, where Geraldine James’ tough Conservative PM is deciding whether to go to war against Iran, it questions the alternative power of social networking as Trystan Gravelle’s scruffy John, missing presumed dead, returns Christ-like to unite thousands of demonstrators in the belief of belief itself.

Played out on a bleak, black set, Thea Sharrock’s well-acted production (with particularly strong performances from Adam James as a brash lawyer and Danny Webb as an influential atheist academic) ably orchestrates the overlapping early scenes, but ultimately Bartlett’s ambition outstrips his final achievement.

Olivier at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo Until January 8
£12 - £30 as part of the Travelex season nationaltheatre.org.uk

Three Days in May

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Ben Brown’s historically-based new play goes behind the scenes at Downing Street.

There in May 1940, the coalition War Cabinet (headed by a newly elected Winston Churchill) weighs up the pros and cons of involving Mussolini in brokering a peace settlement with Germany.

France is on the verge of surrender, British troops are stranded at Dunkirk and though both Labour leader (Clement Atlee) and deputy back Churchill’s proposal to fight on alone, his fellow Conservatives (Robert Demeger’s sombre ex-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax) are in favour of appeasement.

The deliberations of these politicians - just five elder statesmen seated round a table and holding the fate of millions in their hands– makes for static theatre, especially as the outcome is history.

But it’s engrossing nonetheless, thanks in no small measure to Warren Clarke’s convincing portrayal of the stubborn, cigar-smoking Churchill, all too aware of the enormous responsibility resting on his shoulders as he subtly out-manoeuvres Jeremy Clyde’s elegant Halifax to decide the future of Europe.

Trafalgar Studios 1, Whitehall, SW1A 2DY (0844 871 7632) Tube: Charing Cross Until March 3 2012 (£22.50-£45) atgtickets.com/trafalgarstudios

Salt, Root and Roe

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The Donmar’s second season showcasing the work of its Resident Assistant Directors gets off to a touching start with Tim Price’s sympathetic account of family ties on the coast of Pembrokeshire in Wales.

Iola and Anest are septuagenarian twins, born seconds apart (or, as their long dead father would have it, found in a lobster pot) and, it seems, determined to die together now that Iola’s dementia has reached the point where she no longer wants to live.

In a mix of the poetic and the mundane,whimsical family folklore is interspersed with scenes of the messy practicalities of dealing with a loved one who is losing her mind.

Hamish Pirie’s sensitive, often funny production shows the complex emotions surrounding an all too common situation, here given added poignancy by the closeness of the twins, umbilically bound till the end.

Anna Calder-Marshall (Iola) and Anna Carteret (Anest) shine lovingly as the devoted old ladies, the former delightful on a good day, violently aggressive when things get bad, the latter starting to show occasional ominous signs of deterioration, too.

Imogen Stubbs is also affecting as Anest’s daughter, arriving on a mercy dash from Bristol but beset by problems of her own (including an unseen phobic husband whose neuroses feed her own obsessive compulsive disorder) even before Iola brews her mobile in the teapot.

There’s nice work, too, from Roger Evans as Gareth, local policeman and old friend trying to bring some supportive sanity into a household where things are going from bad to worse.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1A 2DY (0844 871 7632) Until December 3 Tube: Charing Cross (£17.50 - £22) atgtickets.com

Inadmissible Evidence

This is London

If you've ever wondered what might have happened to John Osborne's angry young man, Jimmy Porter, when he reached middle age, look no further than his 1964 portrait of Bill Maitland, a dyspeptic solicitor in meltdown who has no respect for anyone, least of all himself, and relies on a diet of booze, pills and insults to get him through the working day.
It's a monster gift of a part and Douglas Hodge is superb. Raddled, rude, yet still, somehow, able to pull the much younger birds who work at his office (its depressing clutter realistically captured in Soutra Gilmour’s murky design) he relentlessly picks on his junior (Al Weaver), has, with the knowledge of his wife, a devoted longterm mistress and treats the divorcing women he represents with a curt crassness which surely heralds the imminent collapse of his firm.
Osborne sometimes seems to have forgotten that he was writing a play as Maitland's rants become longer and more disconnected. But, as his mediocre life implodes in a nightmare of his own making, and colleagues, family and clients desert him, Hodge's tormented performance holds Jamie Lloyd's well acted production together with a mix of self-loathing, self-pity and vicious wit.
Donmar to 26th Nov

Backbeat

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There’s much more to Stephen Jeffrey and Iain Softley’s adaptation (of the latter’s 1994 film) than just a string of cover songs.

Set in the early 60’s – when Pete Best was on drums and the Fab Four were still five, rock’n’rolling in a sleazy Hamburg nightclub whilst bedding down in a local cinema.

The play centres on the conflicting triangular relationship between Andrew Knott’s acerbically witty and jealous John Lennon, his art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe (a talented artist but limited bass player) and Astrid Kirchherr, the young German photographer whose love seduced Stu away from the world of music.

Played out against a background of grainy projections, David Leveaux’s production proves unexpectedly involving, with Nick Blood torn and troubled as the Beatle who didn’t live long enough to witness the global phenomenon his Liverpudlian bandmates were destined to become.

Duke of York’s, St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4BG (0844 871 7623) Tube: Charing Cross / Leicester Square Until March 24 (£15-£57.50) backbeatlondon.com

Death and the Maiden

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Thandie Newton’s transfer from screen to stage is reasonably competent rather than revelatory in Argentine-Chilean Ariel Dorfman’s tense, post-Pinochet three-hander from 1991.

Convinced that a random visitor is the Schubert-loving doctor who raped and tortured her 15 years earlier, her damaged, fragile Paulina is determined to extort her own personal revenge.

There’s decent support from Tom Goodman-Hill as her devoted husband (a human rights lawyer desperately trying to persuade her to seek a confession through official channels) and from Anthony Calf’s trussed up Roberto who, even at gunpoint, denies being her former tormentor.

But although Dorfman’s psychological thriller raises important and pertinent issues about the nature and possibility of justice, Jeremy Herrin’s revival, despite being engrossingly ambiguous, rarely plumbs its emotional potential.

Harold Pinter, Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN (0844 871 7622) Tube: Piccadilly Circus Until January 21 (£10-£49.50) deathandthemaidentheplay.com

A British Subject

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Nichola McAuliffe is surprisingly coy about the identity of the protagonists in her well-intentioned docu-drama.

Even the programme doesn’t make clear the extent of her involvement in the campaign to free a British man held on death row in Pakistan. We’re well into her short play before it becomes clear that the Daily Mirror journalist pursuing a story is, in fact, her real life husband Don MacKay and that she’s actually playing herself, his actress wife, on stage.

In 1988, then then 18 year old Mirza Tahir Hussain was accused of killing a taxi driver shortly after he arrived in Pakistan on a visit. His plea of self-defence was over-ruled and, by the time MacKay was sent to interview him, he had spent 18 long years in jail and, not for the first time, the date for his execution under Sharia law had been set.

McAuliffe paints a bleak picture of a young man growing old in prison, contrasting his polite, accepting demeanour with scenes back home between her and her husband. A loving, bickering couple (neither of whose careers are where they want them to be) their day to day concerns are thrown into trivial relief compared with their frustration with tabloid preference for celebrity stories and the reality of Hussain’s situation in Rawalpindi.

With its mix of comic scenes and serious concerns, the changes in tone occasionally jar, but their campaign for justice – which even involved Prince Charles – makes for involving theatre, and McAuliffe (who also plays a range of minor characters), David Rintoul (as a determined MacKay posing as an English teacher from Leeds to gain access) and Kulvinder Ghir’s condemned Hussain (his deliberate movements a result of half a life spent behind bars) act out this now resolved drama with conviction.

Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB (020 7907 7092) Tube: Leicester Square Until November 26 (£20-£37.50) artstheatrewestend.com

Fanta Orange

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What might have been an unlikely no-strings fling turns into something much more far-reaching in Sally Woodcock’s first full length play, set in present day Kenya and inspired by a real-life Amnesty International report.

Twenty something researcher Ronnie (Jessica Ellerby) is English, brainy, blonde, beautiful and idealistic, with a private income to boot. Yet for some inexplicable reason she swiftly submits to the persistent chat-up lines of Jay Villiers’ Roger, a 45 year-old white farmer whose attentions she initially repels. No sooner have they fallen into bed together than she’s planning to move in with him and there’s talk of marriage.

But both of them are being somewhat economical with the truth, especially Roger who sees no need to clarify that the baby his house girl, Regina, is expecting is his – not the result of the brutal gang rape by British soldiers which left her HIV-Positive.

The plot twists don’t always convince, but the writing, which raises issues of hypocrisy, prejudice and misguided good intentions, is both lively and sympathetic. The performances are always watchable – with Kehinde Fadipe’s displaced Regina, keeper of secrets and condemned through no fault of her own, speaking to us with dignity from beyond the grave.

Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED (0844 847 1652) Tube: Earl’s Court Until November 26 (£11- £15) ticketweb.co.uk

The Last of the Duchess

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Nicholas Wright’s new drama with a genteel bite is the sort of well-written play which sends you rushing to Wikipedia to get the dirt on just about everyone involved.

The belatedly published book on which it’s based was written (in 1980) by Lady Caroline Blackwood, a wealthy alcoholic aristocrat who was married first to the painter Lucian Freud, then to a composer and finally to a poet.

Socialite, muse and author in her own right, she attempted to interview the by then reclusive and widowed Wallis Simpson for a Sunday paper profile. Finding her attempts consistently foiled, Blackwood (Anna Chancellor) then turned her attention to the steely lawyer, Maître Suzanne Blum (herself not much younger than the ailing octogenarian Duchess) who guarded her client with a protective ferocity and viewed the woman responsible for the abdication through decidedly blinkered, rose-tinted glasses.

The play could do with a bit more substance, but to compensate Wright drops in snippets of tantalising biographical detail and Richard Eyre’s elegant production boasts performances to relish.

Sheila Hancock’s snobbish, controlling Blum (who, Blackwood believes, is selling off the Duchess’s jewels for her own gain), John Heffernan’s Michael Bloch (her fey and rather charming assistant) and Angela Thorne’s Diana Mosley – neighbour, former intimate of the exiled royals, and here a hard-of-hearing hoot, despite her obnoxious pro-Nazi sympathies.

Until November 26 Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU ( 020 7722 9301 ) Tube: Swiss Cottage
(£22 - £29) hampsteadtheatre.com

The Pitmen Painters

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Don’t miss Lee Hall’s much praised, fact-based play about a group of Northumberland miners – later known as the Ashington Group – who, encouraged by their hired academic tutor, discovered unexpected skills at their adult educational classes in the 1930s.

Max Roberts’ delightfully witty and entertaining production (which retains a handful of the original cast members from 2007) is clever, informative and sympathetic to these working men whose lack of formal knowledge proves no barrier to their ability to produce impressive works of art, many of which are simply projected on stage as testament to their talent.

Until January 21 Duchess, Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA (020 7452 3000) Tube: Covent Garden/ Charing Cross (£20 - £45) nationaltheatre.org.uk

Some Like It Hip Hop

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Following on from the success of ZooNation’s Into the Hoods, director Kate Prince apparently found initial inspiration in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and the Billy Wilder film Some Like it Hot.

But you don’t need to know a thing about either to enjoy her latest offering which departs so drastically from them both that I’m hard pushed to see many similarities.

It’s a bit too long, with a surfeit of minor characters whose moves are more interesting than their roles. And the narrator’s lyrics are often swallowed by the sound.

But who cares when she and co-writer Felix Harrison have come up with an athletic, fast-paced production, complete with original music (by DJ Walde and Josh Cohen) and a mix of contemporary ballet and street choreography which had the entire audience on its feet and dancing by the end of the show?

We get women dressing as men, an estranged daughter, and a city where books are banned along with the sun which the grieving Governor (Duwane Taylor) has hidden away for 15 years since the death of his beloved wife. Women are relegated to the role of drudges subservient to the men and, if they break the macho rules, they’re banished.

Limber-limbed Tommy Franzen’s book-loving nerd Simeon steals the limelight along with Teneisha Bonner and Lizzie Gough as the rebellious females in fake moustaches. But with its flips, spins and body-popping verve, everyone gets a chance to shine in this vibrant, well-drilled dance piece.

Until November 19 Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street WC2A 2HT (0844 412 4322) Tube: Holborn (£12 - £38) sadlerswells.com

Jumpy

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With a stroppy 15 year old daughter (Bel Powley’s micro-skirted Tilly) and the threat of losing her job, being 50 isn’t proving easy for Tamsin Greig’s affectionately, habitually married Hilary who once protested at Greenham Common.

Playwright April De Angelis captures the contrast between the teens of today and of 30+ years ago, and the different ways in which menopausal women deal with becoming invisible.

Her comic strokes are often broad, but there’s heart as well as humour in Nina Raine’s zappy production in which, surprisingly, the young male characters show themselves to be surprisingly thoughtful when it really counts.

Until November 19 Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS (020 7565 5000) Tube: Sloane Square (£12 - £28, Mondays £10) royalcourttheatre.com

A Walk in the Woods

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Inspired by a real life private walk taken by a pair of Soviet and American arms negotiators in Geneva in 1982, Lee Blessing’s neatly structured two-hander analyses the actual (as opposed to the perceived) function of these Cold War diplomats.

Steven Crossley’s seasoned Botvinnik wears his responsibility lightly, much to the annoyance of his newly promoted US counterpart (a male character in the 80’s premiere, but here played with impatient idealism by Myriam Cyr).

She’s determined to get results whilst he has long acknowledged the inbuilt obsolescence of any agreement their countries might reach in their tactical dance of political game-playing.

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

Third Floor

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Even if you’re not sharing the inside of your flat with anyone else, neighbours’ habits can drive you quietly mad – so I had more than a little sympathy with the unnamed first-time buyers in flats 11 and 12 when the unseen occupant of no. 10 repeatedly dumps bin-bags in the communal area of their new canal-side block.

Then there’s the problem of either (a) trying to avoid or (b) catch the eye of the singleton living across the corridor. Just because you’re living in the same building doesn’t automatically mean he/she is going to be your new best friend.

Jason Hall’s slickly directed two-hander neatly catches the frustrations of having total strangers living just a few yards away, but then makes the mistake of taking a slight, but enjoyable, comedy into the realms of a thriller. That said, Craig Gazey (as the persistent and slightly unhinged Hitchcock fan in no.11) and Emily Head (the sleek, rather reserved young professional in no. 12) work well together in a series of short, swift scenes of escalating frustration with the whiffy rubbish cluttering up the hallway.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1A 2DY (0844 871 7632) Tube: Charing Cross www.ambassadortickets.com/trafalgarstudios Until 5th November (£25)

Saved

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Banned from public performance in the UK in 1965, Edward Bond’s portrayal of aimless social alienation went on to become an international success. In Sean Holmes’ respectful, unfussy but effective revival the infamous baby-stoning scene now unsettles rather than shocks, but the bleak, detached limitation of his working class characters still retains all its power to disturb as Pam (Lia Saville) and her discarded pick-up (Morgan Watkins’ well-meaning but ineffectual Len) head towards the same desolate emotional waste ground which her parents have occupied for years.

Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, W6 0QL (0871 221 1726) www.lyric.co.uk Tube: Hammersmith Until 5th November (£12.50- £30)