The Importance of Being Earnest - TNT

It's back to the world of cucumber sandwiches and inscrutable manservants in this straightforward revival of Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy of multiple mistaken identities and a baby found in a handbag. Algernon and John, both moneyed young men of leisure, aren't yet quite at home with the rhythms of Wildean wit, but things look up when Penelope Keith's superior Lady Bracknell arrives with her daughter (Daisy Haggard's spirited Gwendolen) in tow. She delivers her lines to the manor born as she questions her would-be son-in-law's credentials. There's nice work, too, from Rebecca Night's Cecily (his determined teenage ward whose sweet exterior belies a deviously sharp determination) and from Janet Henfrey as her spinster governess, blushingly falling for the local reverend.
Vaudeville, Strand, WC2 (0870- 040 0084). Until April 26. £45-£20

Worlds End - TNT

In an emotional 70 minutes, Paul Sellar's Edinburgh transfer pulls apart a three-year relationship as Charlotte Lucas's artist Kat packs her belongings. It's a job made even more upsetting by the obstinate presence of her ex (Merryn Owen's struggling but half-hearted writer Ben) who promised to be out when she came round, but now refuses to leave the basement flat they used to share — partly because he's hoping to change her mind, partly to satisfy his curiosity about the man who's replaced him.It's a sad but familiar last-ditch scenario, given added interest when Kat's tall, dark and handsome new man drops his guard and her high-maintenance best friend shows her true colours.
Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1 (0870 060 6632). Until March 8. £22.50 (£15 Monday)

Scarborough - TNT

Thanks to an emotional performance from Holly Atkins as a 29-year-old PE teacher having an affair with a 15-about-to-turn-16-year-old pupil, the first half of Fiona Evans' well-acted Edinburgh hit is totally compelling in a voyeuristic way. For its London transfer, it has doubled in length and the Royal Court's smaller auditorium is transformed into a meticulously recreated bedroom (complete with peeling wallpaper, en suite bathroom) in a seaside guest house. The audience perches wherever there's an available space – on a window ledge or chest of drawers - and is encouraged to move after the interval, presumably to give a different perspective as, in a neat gender reversal, the older woman with toy boy scenario is replaced by a male teacher and a confident schoolgirl on a dirty weekend away. Word for word,the dialogue is virtually the same, as, on the face of it, is the outcome.The nuanced differences don't quite merit the repetition of this unsettling, sometimes powerful piece, but the hurt and disappointment that these clandestine relationships cause is, perhaps surprisingly, more convincingly evoked in Jack O'Connell's cocky but childishly vulnerable Daz than in his female counterpart.
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, SW1 (020-7565 5000). Until March 15. £15- £10

The Lover/The Collection - TNT

First aired on TV in the early '60s, this double bill of Pinter shorts keeps firmly in the period, with the teasing emergence of uneasy sexual liberation permeating both of them. In the first, a suburban housewife reinvents herself as a bedroom vamp to play out sexual fantasies with her afternoon lover who is, in fact, her straight-laced husband similarly, but less comfortably, transformed. In the second, an older gay man (excellent Timothy West) takes charge of a messy, possibly adulterous, situation when his much younger companion is accused of spending the night with another man's wife. There's more than a hint of events moving out of control, and Jamie Lloyd's carefully pitched production captures the menace, the comedy and the homoerotic overtones of Pinter's work.
Comedy Theatre, 6 Panton St, SW1 (0870-060 6637). Until May 3. £20-£45

The British Ambassador's Belly Dancer - TNT

Officials who fall from grace have to make a living somehow – and so do their partners. So while Craig Murray (the former ambassador to Uzbekistan who was removed for his outspoken comments about the use of torture) has written a book, his decades younger and far prettier other half is undulating seductively on stage and giving us more than a glimpse of what first caught the middle-aged, long-married diplomat's eye when he visited a Tashkent nightclub. Co-written with Alan Hescott and Murray (who is now her husband) Nadira Alieva's one woman show sets out to tell her story - from an impoverished childhood smuggling drugs for her out of work actor father, through a university education, to the discovery of the seductive power she had over men – and the more brutal force they could (and, twice, did) exert over her. It's strong material (though does it really add much to our understanding to know that Murray is into spanking?). But there's something so pert and coy about much of the performance that (despite her protestations that she wants to prove she's more than just a bimbo) it's with her scantily clad body that this former lap dancer still tries to win over her audience. Interesting none the less.
Arts Theatre, Great Newport St, WC2 (0844-847 1608) Until February 23. £15 - £12.50

The Homecoming - TNT

While a pair of written-for-TV Pinter shorts is currently making its mark in the West End, his slightly later and more frequently revived black comedy from the mid '60s gets an atmospheric airing in the more intimate surroundings of the Almeida. Once again, a highly charged eroticism emerges as the eldest of three sons (now an academic based in the States) brings his wife, Ruth, back home to North London to meet the relatives. They're all still firmly rooted in their working class origins - one brother wants to be boxer, the other (Nigel Lindsay's quietly disconcerting Lenny) is a pimp. Meanwhile their father (Kenneth Cranham's red-faced, ex-butcher Max) blusters in grubby vest, cloth cap and cardie, heaping expletives on his adult offspring and veering erratically from sentimentality to explosive near-violence. But, ultimately, even their combined testosterone-fuelled misogyny proves no match for Jenny Jules' Ruth. Cool, detached and in total control, she discovers an unlikely fascination with their repellent lifestyle, and knows exactly how to play each member of this all-male household to achieve exactly what she wants. Almeida, Almeida St N1 (020-7359 4404). Until March 22. £29.50- £6.00

Sweet William - TNT

Michael Pennington first fell under the spell of Shakespeare's words as an unwilling 11-year-old, dragged along by his parents to see a production of Macbeth. Now, it's almost time for him to collect his pension, but his enthusiasm remains undiminished. In a little over two hours, and with only a chair and a blood-red handkerchief to keep him company on an otherwise bare stage, his perceptive one-man show gives a glimpse of what has fired this lifelong passion.By his own reckoning, Pennington has devoted more than 20,000 hours to either rehearsing or acting in the Bard's plays, not to mention writing several books about them. So he's doubly well qualified to take an audience on a guided tour through the elusive life of the man who was born and died in Stratford upon Avon, but, in the interim, frequently disappeared off the historical map.Apart from his intelligence and analytical insights, it's Pennington's mellifluous voice and relaxed delivery which make the evening such a success. Whether he's suggesting what Shakespeare was really up to during those missing years, or slipping into actor mode to deliver less familiar snippets from his works, his ongoing love affair with England's greatest dramatist is a treat for anyone wanting to delve just a little deeper into what lies behind the text.
Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1 (0870-060 6632). Until February 16. £27.50