The Master and Margarita

TNT

If anyone was going to succeed in bringing Mikhail Bulgakov’s satirical novel to the stage, it’s surely Simon McBurney with his company Complicite. He doesn’t disappoint.

More than a decade in the writing and not published until 1966 (he died in 1940) Bulgakov’s critique of Soviet society has all the qualities of a multi-layered hallucinogenic nightmare and McBurney’s production, with its modern references and a soundtrack encompassing Philip Glass and the Stones, captures its surreal properties. From a stage initially bare but for a row of chairs, he takes us on a whirlwind journey in time and location from Moscow in 1939 (where dissenting poets and writers are incarcerated in mental institutions and suspiciously untimely deaths are a far from rare occurrence) to Jerusalem in the time of Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion.

Projected images create imploding buildings and, as if by magic, a wildly galloping horse from wooden chairs moved in synchrony by the cast. A pond-side kiosk becomes the cabin of a tram, and Behemoth, the feline element of the devil’s retinue, is a lecherous, scrawny, man-size puppet with glowing red eyes.

Paul Rhys has a mesmerising intensity as the troubled Master, whilst Sinead Matthews (as his devoted Margarita) bravely strips naked, smearing herself with a magic blue concoction to play hostess at Satan’s ball.

At over three hours long, it’s not always an easy ride, but despite occasional sensory overload and the sometimes unclear interweaving of the various plot strands, it’s definitely one worth taking.

Barbican , Silk Street, EC2Y 8DSTube: BarbicanUntil April 7£16-£42barbican.org.uk

Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

This is London

With its rich cast of characters and sympathetic awareness underpinning the lighter moments, it’s surprising that Errol John’s post-war tragicomedy, set in the native Trinidad he left behind, has so rarely been staged since it won a newspaper playwriting competition in 1957.
Set in a ramshackle Port of Spain backyard, it’s a humane study of hopes and disappointments and (for most of the impoverished residents) making the best of what life doles out, written with wit, understanding and an actor’s ear for dialogue.
Young Esther (Tahirah Sharif) has won a high school scholarship, but her parents (Martina Laird’s Sophia, acid-tongued, resilient and caring, who takes in washing to pay the bills and Jude Akuwudike’s layabout, once principled former cricketing star Charlie) can’t afford the extras. Bus driver neighbour Ephraim (powerful Danny Sapani) has plans for a better future and nothing is going to stand in his way – not even long term girlfriend Rosa (Jade Anouka) who’s also caught the eye of their elderly landlord (Burt Caesar).
Even Jenny Joules’ provocatively flouncing goodtime girl Mavis (despite the income from the steady stream of American servicemen entertained in her bedroom) wants the security of a ring on her finger and the guarantee of the good things that the Yankee dollar can buy.
Played out on a traverse stage, and with added atmosphere courtesy of the Ebony Steel Band, Michael Buffong’s fine – and long overdue – revival could hardly be bettered.

Cottesloe Theatre.

All New People

TNT

Far from credible and really rather poorly written, Zach Braff’s much hyped - and supposedly darkly comic - off Broadway offering is cruelly exposed on the West End stage.

Four ill-assorted individuals, all of whom (for various reasons revealed in videoed flashbacks) feel the need to reinvent themselves, are thrown together in a deserted Long Beach Island summerhouse in the middle of winter. Suicidal Charlie (Braff) celebrating his 35th birthday with a noose around his neck, neurotic British realtor, Emma (desperate for a green card) who disturbs him, glue-sniffing Myron who subsidises his fireman’s salary as the local drug supplier; and $15,000 a night hooker Kim (an expensive gift to cheer up the birthday boy) – they all want to say goodbye to their old selves and troubled pasts.

The setup is awkwardly contrived, and things don’t improve as Braff shoehorns in feeble jokes and half-baked philosophies over 90 often embarrassing minutes. Paul Hilton’s disreputable fire-fighter runs rings round the rest of the cast, but even he can’t salvage this ill-judged effort which will surely disappoint both the fans drawn by Braff’s success with Garden State and Scrubs and anyone else in search of an entertaining night out.

Duke of York’s, St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4BG Tube: Charing Cross / Leicester Square Until April 28 (£15 - £49.50) allnewpeople.co.uk

Abigail's Party

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We’re back in the 70’s for Lindsay Posner’s immensely enjoyable revival of what is probably Mike Leigh’s best known play, and the one which brought him to prominence in 1977. But it’s not the eponymous festivities we’re summoned to observe, but the suburban soiree just across the way where Susan, teenage Abigail’s divorced mother, is one of a trio of guests invited over by neighbour Beverly to nibble on cheese and pineapple chunks speared on cocktail sticks and over indulge in alcohol.

Slinking around her brown-and-orange living room in a floor-length, lime green halterneck, Jill Halfpenny is spot-on as the Essex hostess from hell with her social aspirations and disparaging digs at stressed out estate agent husband (Andy Nyman) who thinks that the binding of a book tells you all you need to know about its content – and its owner. Natalie Casey’s rather gormless Angela and Joe Absolom as her monosyllabic, potentially violent spouse are also first rate, as is Susannah Harker’s middleclass Susan, a model of quiet misery trying to maintain her dignity whilst overdoing the G& T’s to disastrous effect.

It’s very funny – but there’s a cruel edge to the humour and (just as in the revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s contemporaneous Absent Friends currently playing in the West End) it’s impossible to ignore the underlying desolation as the remaining marriages fall apart.

Menier Chocolate Factory , 53 Southwark Street, SE1 1RU Tube London Bridge Until April 21 (£29.50 -Meal deals £37) menierchocolatefactory.com

The Leisure Society

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Making her stage debut, supermodel Agyness Deyn more than holds her own against the seasoned thesps in French Canadian François Archambault’s short and rather unpleasant four-hander. She plays Paula, free-spirited 21 year old fuck buddy of Mark (swaggering John Schwab), the recently divorced friend of Peter (Ed Stoppard – a bit too loud for this small space) and his wife Mary (an acerbic Melanie Gray) who, somewhat bizarrely, have invited him over for dinner to tell him they don’t want to see him anymore.

But with their own relationship definitely in need of some spicing up – they can’t give up the booze and fags, but their unfulfilling sex life is virtually non-existent - things don’t go according to plan when the youthfully seductive Paula proves happy to have a threesome.

Far from the perfect couple they present to the world, these well-heeled thirty-somethings (who ignore the escalating cries of their young son issuing from the child monitor but plan to adopt a little Chinese girl – so much cuter) are self-indulgent, self-obsessed and really not very nice. Like this rather dated 2003 satire, they look stylish, but the appeal is all on the surface.

Trafalgar Studios 2Whitehall, SW1A 2DY Tube: Charing Cross Until 31st March (£26.50-£32.50) atgtickets.com/trafalgarstudios

Going Dark

TNT

Sound&Fury’s immersive theatre technique plunges us – thankfully only temporarily – into the world of blindness in their moving and engrossing collaboration with Hattie Naylor.

Max (excellent John Mackay, alone on stage) is a single dad and astronomer whose lectures at the planetarium revel in the excitement of being able to see the stars light years away. But for him, this seemingly limitless vista is about to change drastically as the peripheral flashes of a routine eye test go unseen, the first indication of a degenerative condition which will turn the simplest of tasks into a challenge and deprive him of his vision.

In the intermittent pitch-black darkness, the confusing surround-sound cacophony of traffic bombards his (and our) our senses, whilst the patter of rain is gently evocative. The Milky Way, projected overhead, casts a gentle glow and shadowy photos develop and distort like magic, mirroring the hallucinations which Max begins to experience.

And as he attempts to explain to his precocious 6 year old son Leo (a disembodied voice we never see) why his daddy will no longer be able to see his face, an extra layer of poignancy is added to an already devastating prospect of diminishing horizons and a journey into a frightening unknown.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ Tube: Southwark / Waterloo Until 24th March (£15) youngvic.org

Farewell to the Theatre

TNT

Elegant and subtly acted, American playwright Richard Nelson’s new play borrows its title from a work by its central figure, the influential English actor-manager, critic and playwright Harley Granville-Barker.

It’s 1916 and ( out of funds, distressed by the war raging in Europe and on the verge of divorce from his first wife) Granville-Barker is on the Massachusetts’ leg of a financially necessary lecture tour and one of a handful of disillusioned Brits staying at the boarding house run by another ex-pat, Jemma Redgrave’s sad widow, still wearing black years after the death of her errant spouse.

Jason Watkins’ superficially jovial Frank, worrying about his sickly wife whilst he’s reciting Dickens on the circuit, Tara Fitzgerald’s married former actress conducting a semi-clandestine affair with a young student, Louis Hilyer’s humiliated academic – none of them are living the lives they hoped to lead.

Roger Michell’s sympathetic production reflects Granville-Barker’s own desire to write a play not about what people do, but who they are. And although the almost plotless result is more meditative than dynamic, on its own terms it exerts a poignant, understated Chekhovian power, particularly in Ben Chaplin’s convincing portrayal of the Edwardian dramatist at a time of weary emotional crisis.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU Tube: Swiss Cottage Until 7th April(£22-£29) hampsteadtheatre.com

Hay Fever

TNT

Superficially attractive they may be, but the bohemian Bliss family make terrible hosts in Noel Coward’s slight comedy of manners which premiered in 1925. Howard Davies’ enjoyable production turns their Berkshire home – to which, without informing the others, all four have simultaneously invited a different weekend guest – into a kind of converted barn-cum- artists’ studio.

Here Jeremy Northam’s progressively discomfited diplomat, a young flapper completely out of her depth, an eager hunk, and even a sophisticated vamp (miscast Olivia Colman) are just entertainment fodder for the melodramatic Bliss’s.

Lindsay Duncan plays the theatricality of retired actress Judith Bliss to the hilt, and her peevish, precocious offspring (Freddie Fox’s Simon and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Sorel - who has inherited her mother’s love of histrionics but not her calculated allure) know exactly the self-dramatising games she and their novelist father David are up to.

All sympathy, then, to Jenny Galloway’s door-slamming Clara (Judith’s former dresser turned housekeeper) faced not only with her employers’ eccentricities but also the prospect of having to accommodate double the usual number without prior warning.

Noel Coward, St. Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4AU Tube: Leicester Square (£16 - £53.50) Until 2nd June HayFeverLondon.com

Snookered

TNT

Though not all his characters are adequately fleshed out, Ishy Din reveals a good ear for lively dialogue in his first full-length play for Tamasha. It takes too long - and too much repetition- to set up a thin plot, but the reunion of four old friends, gathered in a snooker hall in an unspecified Northern town to commemorate the birthday of a fifth (T, who died prematurely) keeps the ball rolling for its 95 plus minute booze-fuelled duration.

Jaz Deol’s Billy now lives in London after falling out with his family (over, it seems, a long ended relationship with a white girl), but he’s back to mark the demise of old mate T. Aggressive, edgy cab driver Shaf (Muzz Khan) is up to something shady and has too many kids, whilst Peter Singh’s conventional, aspiring manager Mo is still desperate to father one. And Asif Kahn’s underdog Kamy is a butcher in the family business who treasures the “lucky” cue, left to him by T, in the belief it was nicked from a snooker champ.

They’ve grown apart over the years but, although they’re linked by their shared Pakistani Muslim background, these heavy-drinking young men with their different life choices are all unsure of which path to take to be accepted as British whilst remaining true to their heritage. As Shaf rather crudely observes, what else is he expected to do to fit in- short of tattooing a Union Jack on his private parts?

Bush Theatre, Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ Tube: Shepherds Bush (020 8743 5050) (£15-£20) till 24th Marchwww.bushtheatre.co.uk

Bingo

Subtitled “Scenes of Money and Death,” Edward Bond’s 1974 play follows Shakespeare in his final years, no longer writing for the theatre and retired from London to live on his land in Stratford.

More an observer than a participant, his compassion– be it for the peasants who will suffer if the land is enclosed or the young vagrant woman who is whipped then hung – is limited by self-interest and apathy. The fate of the bears baited bankside by the Globe where his works were performed may prey upon his mind, but he seems to have lost the capacity for effective protest.

Angus Jackson’s production has attracted some high calibre actors – notably a dignified, brooding Patrick Stewart as the aging Bard, Catherine Cusack as the aggrieved daughter he has no time for, and Matthew Marsh’s wealthy landowner who easily persuades him to take no action either for or against enclosure. But it makes for a very uninvolving and inert evening as Shakespeare heads towards death, the only light relief coming from the jealous verbal attack launched in a local tavern by the excellent Richard McCabe’s very drunk, very slovenly fellow playwright Ben Jonson.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ 0207 922 2922 Tube: Southwark / Waterloo (£10 - £29.50) Until 31st March

In Basildon

TNT

Sisters Maureen and Doreen haven’t spoken to each other for 20 years. Even as they flank their 60 year old bachelor brother Len’s deathbed (he gurgles his last as we watch) they still refuse to address each other directly in David Eldridge’s eminently watchable, blackly comic new play which keeps its secrets till the final scene.

There are hints along the way as they await the reading of Len’s will by best mate Ken (impressive Peter Wight) a jovial widower, still with an eye for the ladies. But it’s Eldridge’s understanding of the political climate of Essex and of his working class characters which fascinates more than the actual falling out – Ruth Sheen’s carefully presented Maureen, Linda Bassett’s dowdy Doreen (excellent), her never-going-to-make-it son (Lee Ross) with his loudmouth wife (Debbie Chazen) both convinced that the house will soon be home to their yet to be conceived child, and Maureen’s teacher daughter Shelley who’s as keen to reject her background as her banker’s son boyfriend (Michael Bennett) is to disown his.

Royal Court Theatre, SW1W 8AS Until Mar 24 (£10-£18) royalcourttheatre.com Tube: Sloane Square

Singin' In The Rain

TNT

Exuberantly choreographed, packed with hummable tunes and with a first act finale that’s hard to beat, Jonathan Church’s stage version of the famous 1952 film starring Gene Kelly is guaranteed to swoosh away your worries and send you home happy.

Set in Hollywood in 1927 when the talkies were poised to take over the silent screen, it’s a feel-good story of love and romance and a talented unknown triumphing when the star (Katherine Kingsley’s squawking Lena Lamont) can’t hack it.

Scarlett Strallen makes a spirited, sweet-voiced Kathy who falls for Don Lockwood (Lena’s glamorous co-star) and saves the day. Daniel Crossley nearly steals the show as his agile sidekick Cosmo. And, as Don, an elegant Adam Cooper sings, taps and proves that he hasn’t forgotten his years of training with the Royal Ballet.

But this is a show that almost stands or falls by the title number, and as litres of water swamp the stage and Cooper jumps joyously in the puddles, showering the front stalls as he twirls, there’s no doubt that it makes the grade.

Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1V 8AY Tube: Leicester Square / Tottenham Court Road Until 29th September(£15 - £65) palacetheatrelondon.org

The Death of Klinghoffer

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In October 1985, the Italian cruise ship Achille Laura was hijacked by four members of the Palestine Liberation Front demanding the release of 50 prisoners held by the Israelis. There was only one fatality - Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly Jewish American celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife of over 30 years, who was deliberately shot and thrown overboard along with his wheelchair.

John Adams’ 1991 opera (with a somewhat elusive libretto by Alice Goodman) has had a controversial history, having been accused of being overly sympathetic to the terrorists. But although the melodic prologue of Palestinian and Israeli exiles (sung against mesmeric video projections of a troubled landscape over the decades) sketches in some of the background of their on-going conflict – and the hijackers (including Richard Burkhard’s Mamoud and Sidney Outlaw’s Rambo) are given voice - ultimately Klinghoffer’s cold-blooded murder comes across as an act of pure violence.

With clear, powerful performances from Alan Opie as the ill-fated Klinghoffer, Michaela Martens as his spouse and Christopher Magiera as the courageous Captain, War Horse co-director Tom Morrison’s production succeeds in being both reflective and dramatic - and ensures that you don’t need to be an opera buff to enjoy Adam’s often meditative score.

English National Opera at the London Coliseum St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4ES Tube: Charing Cross Until 9th March (£19 -£97.50) eno.org

The Bomb - A Partial History in Two Parts

TNT

Topped and tailed by imagined past and present conversations between two of the scientists instrumental in the genesis of the nuclear bomb, outgoing artistic director Nicolas Kent’s final production explores the history and development of this manmade weapon of destruction over 5 hours and 10 short plays. Punctuated by newsreel footage and verbatim statements, they can be seen in one day or over two evenings, and range from Whitehall in 1940 to present day Iran, via the US, India, the Ukraine and North Korea.

Seven Joys, Lee Blessing’s clever satirical take on the issue of proliferation, portrays the nuclear powers as members of a progressively less exclusive club. Irish-accented Ukrainians with a warhead to sell raise wry laughs in John Donnelly’s cheeky Little Russians. Most effective of all, David Greig’s absurdist The Letter of Last Resort sees an incoming Prime Minister (Belinda Lang) instructed to compose final orders – retaliate or not? – to an offshore submarine in the event of London’s total annihilation.

Some episodes are more effective than others, but the cast of eleven does a fine job throughout and credit again to Kent and the theatre he has run for almost three decades for putting the political, financial and moral issues surrounding the nuclear debate firmly – and disturbingly - centre stage.

Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Tube: Kilburn Until 1st April (£14 - £16 One Part, £25 - £29 Both Parts) tricycle.co.uk

A Midsummer Night's Dream

TNT

It’s a fraction of the length of the original – and much of the dialogue (and most of the gags) certainly weren’t penned by Shakespeare - but somehow Filter’s gloriously irreverent take on his tale of lovesick young Athenians, lost in the woods and played upon by fairies, contrives not only to remain true to the spirit of the original but also to tell the (admittedly flimsy) story.

Oberon, king of the fairies, is a short bespectacled chap (Jonathan Broadbent) in a Superman outfit who falls through the floor and drops from the ceiling. His ethereal Puck (Ferdy Roberts) is an all too earthbound stage manager, heavily tattooed and beer-swilling, who breaks through walls and roughly splatters the mismatched lovers with blue bath gel instead of fairy juice. Bottom doesn’t sport donkey ears, but clip clops along and grabs the mic to belt out snatches of raucous song. Attempting to oversee it all is the minor character of Peter Quince – one of the usually tiresome Mechanicals, here an increasingly exasperated Irish comic (Ed Gaughan) attempting to direct the play within a play with little success.

It’s a lot of fun – and all quite mad – yet somehow manages to make sense on its way to an all-out food fight and, of course, a happy resolution.

Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, W6 0QL

Tube: Hammersmith Until 17th March (£12.50-£35.00) lyric.co.uk

Master Class

TNT

Probably best known here as one half of the 1980’s NY cop duo Cagney & Lacey, award-winning American actress Tyne Daly follows her former television co-star Sharon Gless into the West End. She plays a far more famous (though much less sympathetic) character than the 66 year old academic in search of sex recently portrayed by Gless.

Daly takes on the role of the fêted soprano Maria Callas in her latter years when, in the early ‘70s (and having already given up her international singing career – either because her voice was already going or at the behest of her former lover, shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis who ditched her for Jackie Kennedy) she gave a series of masterclasses at the Juilliard school of music.

Despite its clunky dialogue, Stephen Wadsworth’s revival of Terrence McNally’s 1995 awkwardly constructed play has already been a hit on Broadway. But although one can admire the determination of the impoverished, overweight singer who reinvented herself as a svelte siren, it’s hard to find anything much to like about the intolerant, self-obsessed diva with a poisonously bitchy personality portrayed here.

Daly is imposing as she recalls past triumphs at La Scala and undermines the pupils who have come for advice. But it’s all very stagey, which makes the brief appearance of Garrett Sorenson’s portly student Anthony – bringing with him a much-needed touch of bonhomie and a glorious tenor voice – all the more welcome.

Vaudeville, Strand WC2R 0NH Tube: Charing Cross Until 28th April (£25- £52.50)MasterClassThePlay.com