... SOME TRACE OF HER - This is London

Inspired by the book, created on stage and projected on screen, director Katie Mitchell's 90 minute distillation of Dostoevsky's novel ‘The Idiot’ requires as much concentration on the part of the audience as it does from the actors. Deploying techniques similar to those she used in her adaptation of Virginia Woolf's ‘The Waves’ a couple of years back, it proves fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.
The set resembles a recording studio in which the cast scurries about creating small scale effects - the bumpy sway of a train journey, the view through a window streaming with rain - which are simultaneously shown on the large overhead screen where, convincingly, they take on the brooding appearance of an old black and white film. So far, so impressive. But if, like me, you haven't read the original, the disjointed fragments render both the narrative and the characters' motivation hard to follow. As a result, this multimedia hybrid feels more of an atmospheric exercise than the story of a doomed love triangle.

That said, it's still rewarding to see Mitchell pushing the boundaries and to witness the multitasking cast (led by Ben Whishaw's smitten, epileptic Prince Myshkin and Hattie Morahan's intense damaged beauty Nastasya Filippovna) create a mini art house movie before our eyes.
Cottesloe Theatre.
Louise Kingsley

Turandot - TNT

Still unfinished when he died in 1956, Brecht's last play has, apparently, never been performed in this country before. Though intermittently entertaining, it's not one of his best.

It begins in pantomime fashion with Gerard Murphy's rotund Emperor of China (petulant as an outsize baby in silk undies) threatening, as he does at regular intervals, to abdicate. But there's a dark side to his corrupt rule. Having secretly removed a sizeable proportion of the cotton crop, he and his court find themselves unable to explain to the people why, in a bumper year, prices are so high. Turning to the intellectuals to come up with a solution, the Emperor offers his daughter Turandot (an empty-headed little cutie who goes weak at the knees at the merest suggestion of a brain) as the prize. Failure means decapitation.

Brecht mocks these professional thinkers who sell their opinions in the market place, as well as satirising those in power. But despite the efforts of translator Edward Kemp and director Anthony Clark, it's often an unfocussed and uninvolving event which is unlikely to leave a lasting impression.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 (020-7722 9301). Until October 4. £25-£15 (£10 for under 26s).

Well - TNT

Although the focus tends to go somewhat fuzzy towards the end, I rather warmed to American Lisa Kron's short and surely autobiographical play, thanks in no small measure to an engagingly sympathetic performance from Natalie Casey as a younger Lisa.

With a mixture of affection and exasperation which will ring a bell with many daughters, Lisa tries to unravel the process by which she herself managed to become well, whilst Ann (apart from one brief period when she tackled the racial ills of a whole neighbourhood) has remained crippled by debilitating allergies for as long as she can remember. Armed with prompt cards, she attempts to orchestrate a "multi character theatrical exploration" of illness and wellness. But events aren't completely under her control as, in the way mothers do, Ann fussily interrupts the proceedings to offer hospitality and suggest corrections, and the quartet of hired actors (all excellent) not only slip out of their roles as neighbours, doctors and fellow allergy suffers but also appear as characters she really doesn't want to include.

Quirky and unusual, Eve Leigh's playful production is full of little surprises and gentle humour, and in the intimacy of this tiny studio space, it's easy to believe that we really are guests invited into the Kron's living room where Sarah Miles' chronically fatigued Ann spends her days wrapped cosily in a blanket.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1 (0870-060 6632). Until September 27. £22.50 (£15 Mondays).

Eurobeat -TNT

Some shows are simply beyond criticism and this brash spoof on a 50-year-old institution, the Eurovision song contest, fits firmly into that category. Camper than camp, Eurobeat hits London (via Australia and Edinburgh) in an extended form in which Bosnian hosts Boyka (all teeth and yapping Chihuahua laugh) and Sergei (gold lamé suit and wonky toupee) grin and innuendo their way through the links between 10 international competitors including Russia's KGBoyz and Iceland's weird Björk-like offering.

The costumes are tight and ready to be stripped off, the dialogue banal. But this deliberately trashy show knows its market — so, if you're just out for a good time, grab your mates and your mobile, and get voting.

Novello Theatre, Aldwych, WC2 (0844-482 5170). Until November 15. £10-£42.50.

Joan Rivers - A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress -TNT

For a woman who's become almost as famous for the work done on her face as the work she's done on the screen, Joan Rivers proves remarkably candid about the unwanted aspects of aging. She makes no secret of the fact that she's 75 – or that without a bra she'd probably trip over her tits. Okay, that's obviously a bit of an exaggeration – her clothed body (no doubt with considerable cosmetic help) seems in pretty good nick even for someone half her age. But Rivers is no shrinking violet, and she's not shy about revealing a more vulnerable side either – talking about the suicide of her husband over 20 years ago brings her close to tears, and her never resolved estrangement from fellow TV host Johnny Carson still rankles. At least she's back on good terms with her only daughter, Melissa.

The biographical information doesn't yield many new surprises – but you just have to admire the woman's spirit and determination. Love her or loathe her, she's feisty and funny, and although her new bitchily confessional show(set in her dressing room on Oscar night just before she's due to conduct the red-carpet interviews and in which she's joined by 3 other actors who, to be honest, do very little for most of the time) could do with a bit of cutting, there's enough crude humour and sheer bloody mindedness to keep her fans more than happy. She may not be able to completely hold back the years, but she's a survivor who certainly still knows how to play an audience.

Leicester Square Theatre, Leicester Place, WC2. (0844-847 2475). Currently until September 18. Returns December 2-23 and January 15-29. £47.50-£35

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