365 - TNT

There are no facts or figures in David Harrower's collaborative new play for the National Theatre of Scotland – the programme fills in the disturbing details. Instead what he gives us is a sometimes dreamlike, sometimes all too real insight into what it can be like for the many teenagers who leave the sheltered environment of institutionalised residential and foster care for the interim arrangement of a 'practice flat'. In this half way house environment, these often damaged kids have to learn how to cope with severely limited financial, practical and emotional support before they are expected to stand entirely on their own two feet.

One gangly youth doesn't know how to plug in a toaster, but wants to be a chef; a young girl can't free herself from the traumatic legacy of being abandoned by her mother, with only a packet of cereal, when she was just four years old; three other youngsters are trapped in a once comforting, now abusive, interdependency.

There are no complete stories. Instead director Vicky Featherstone's moving production combines compelling performances with music, movement and clever design to create a montage of pain, humour and, against the odds, hope for a better future.

Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, Hammersmith, W6 (0871-221 1722). Until September 27. £10-£27

PIAF at the Donmar - This is London

Pam Gems’ reworking of her 1978 account of the life of Edith Piaf

whizzes through her 47 years in not much more than 90 minutes.

The French chanteuse from the gutter started performing on the

streets and went on to make and lose a fortune, thrilling audiences

from the cafés of Paris to the concert halls of New York.

Diminutive Brazilian actress Elena
Roger (recently a first-rate Evita) makes
for perfect physical casting as the tiny
songstress in a simple black dress who
was nicknamed the ‘Little Sparrow’.
When she sings, she almost captures
the heartrending emotion behind the
songs of lost love and vulnerability,
though her accent occasionally muffles
the impact of the spoken dialogue.
Whilst never probing too deeply
below the surface, the kaleidoscope of
short scenes mimic Piaf’s whirlwind life
of handsome young lovers (it’s hard to
keep track) and chart her declining
health, exacerbated by a string of
crippling car crashes and an addiction to
booze and morphine.
More essence than analysis, it
provides a welcome opportunity to hear
those unforgettable songs – including
La Vie En Rose, and, of course, the
defiant Non, je ne regrette rien – and
Jamie Lloyd’s spartan production, played
out against Soutra Gilmour’s drab, grey
unwelcoming set has, appropriately, the
swift, thrusting force and lack of
intimacy of one of Piaf’s seedy,
backstreet encounters.
Louise Kingsley

Zorro: The Musical - TNT

Matt Rawle makes a rather baby-faced hero in this enjoyable new musical about the fictional 19th-century masked crusader, but there's no shortage of swashbuckling antics and clever effects in this vibrant musical which knows not to take itself too seriously.

The chorus of female flamenco dancers wails piteously and stamps ferociously when the menfolk are sentenced to death by Adam Levy's despotic Ramon, and Lesli Margherita's Inez is a siren with a temper and a decent heart. By comparison, Emma Williams' sweet-voiced Luisa seems a pallid rival for Zorro's affections. But with its sword fights, abseiling and catchy Gipsy Kings' tunes, this looks like a hot summer hit which will still be heating up the winter months.

Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross Rd, WC2 (www.garrick-theatre.com; 0844-412 4662). Until September 12 2009. £25-£60

Twelfth Night- TNT

Even though it heavily indulges the musical moments of Shakespeare's dark-tinged comedy, Filter's anarchic production is all over in a bare 85 minutes of misplaced love, drunken revels and electronic music-making. The bare bones and essence of the original are very much in evidence, but this joyous interpretation crams the story into what's staged as a free-wheeling jamming session with a complimentary slice of giant pizza — or possibly a shot of tequila – on offer for the lucky few sitting close enough to the action.

Shipwrecked Viola hides her boobs under a man's jacket requisitioned from a member of the audience, Jonathan Broadbent doubles incongruously as the lovelorn Orsino and a sozzled, back-flipping Andrew Aguecheek whilst OliverDimsdale's equally inebriated Toby Belch (the only character in doublet and hose in this modern dress version) crashes around the cable-filled set quoting from the wrong play. Meanwhile Ferdy Roberts's Malvolio parades around in crotch high yellow socks, proudly displaying his beer belly in a misguided attempt to please Olivia. Despite the clowning and red noses, the darkness is still there. True, the poetry has been sacrificed, but the cast has such a good time that it all proves irresistibly infectious fun – and laughter, after all, is surely what comedy is all about.

Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 (020-7328 1000). Until September 27. £20.00- £10

Gigi - TNT

The Open Air Theatre makes the ideal venue for this stage adaptation of Lerner & Loewe's 1958 musical movie set in turn of the century Paris. It paints a picture of an indulgent society in which men are incorrigible philanderers and women use their feminine wiles to relieve them of their wealth — before moving on to the next rich lover.

Lavishly costumed and led by twinkly eyed, lavender-suited Topol as the lascivious old Honore, a fine cast delivers the witty dialogue and catchy tunes with panache. Lisa O'Hare's Gigi transmutes attractively from tomboy to elegant young lady in love, and Millicent Martin and Linda Thorson are excellent as her practical grandmother and cynical aunt intent on grooming her for the life of a courtesan.

Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, NW1 (0844-826 4242; www.openairtheatre.org). £10-£35. Until September 13.

Dorian Gray- TNT

You'll have to queue for returns or pray for a transfer if you want to catch Matthew Bourne's latest dance drama, a dark adaption of Oscar Wilde's only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," published in 1891.

But whilst Wilde's Dorian had an ageing portrait secreted in the attic as he himself remained ever youthful, Bourne's angular, jagged, contemporary ballet creates an alternative version in which Dorian is a waiter who becomes the new face of a male perfume, "Immortal," with his image plastered on a huge billboard. Instead of by a painter, his beauty is captured by Aaron Sillis's muscular photographer in black leather, and the circle to which this bisexual Dorian's good looks gain him access isn't the high society of the upper classes but the superficially glamorous world of fashion. The hedonistic debauchery and trail of death remains, and as Richard Winsor's Dorian indulges in greater and greater excess, the only sign of a conscience is the Doppelganger which first appears after he callously watches one of his many lovers die from a drug overdose right in front of his eyes.

As one might expect from Bourne (who leapt to fame with his homoerotic "Swan Lake") characters from the novel are reimagined as the opposite sex. But then that might well have been what Wilde himself would have done had the law not forbade it. There's an overreliance on orgiastic bump and grind choreography for the chorus of hangers-on, and purists – be they balletomanes or devotees of the writer – may gripe. But, with Terry Davies' sinister percussive music and designer Lez Brotherston's revolving wall design, Bourne has created a stylised satire which, as an outsize glitterball replica of Damien Hirst's diamond encrusted skill rotates overhead, reflects on the shallow hedonism of today's culture of modern celebrity.

Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue, EC1 (0844-412 4300) Until September 14. £10 - £49

Hedda - TNT

Whether or not you're familiar with Ibsen's play, Lucy Kirkwood's contemporary adaptation of his 19th century domestic drama is well worth seeing in its own right, and director Carrie Cracknell ensures that the updating convinces.

It brings the classic bang up to date whilst still remaining true to the essence of the original – but instead of the icy fjords of Norway, we get a Notting Hill flat with unfulfilled potential. Here Hedda, just back from an extended honeymoon, is bored, discontented and itching to cause trouble when Adrian Bower's dissolute Eli reappears, apparently reformed and with his latest book kept close on the memory stick hanging round his neck.

Cara Horgan's elegantly languid, insomniac Hedda, trapped in a relationship that was bound to disappoint, has a malicious gleam in her eye as she plays dangerous games with the lives of others, and Tom Mison impresses as her decent but uninspiring husband – a young academic researching robotic ants who made the unworldly mistake of thinking that marriage to a beautiful woman would automatically bring him happiness.

Gate, Pembridge Road W11 (020-7229 0706) Until October 4. £16 (£11 concessions)