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)