The Children's Hour

*** TNT

Keira Knightley brings an intense emotional power to her portrayal of a New England teacher falsely accused by a disgruntled, malevolent pupil, Mary, of having an “unnatural” lesbian relationship with her fellow schoolmistress and closest friend Martha (Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss) .

Ian Rickson’s production of Lillian Hellman’s rather melodramatic 1934 play takes a while to grip as the pubescent fascinations of their teenage charges are over-heavily emphasised. And the plot isn’t wholly credible either – it doesn’t take much for Mary’s grandmother (veteran actress Ellen Burstyn) to be convinced by a brat known to be a habitual liar and a vicious bully at school.

But the waiting pays off as the repercussions of the allegations against the teachers multiply and their lives are devastated by blind, unfounded prejudice.

Comedy, Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN (0844 871 7622) Piccadilly Circus Tube www.childrenshourtheplay.com 30th April (£15 - £60)

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