AUDITORIUM

✮✮✮✮ Barney Norris's While We're Here Bush Theatre | London directed by Alice Hamilton While the Bush’s main theatre is whisking off audiences to Imperial India in Guards at the Taj, its studio space is offering up a two-hander closer to home in every respect. Barney Norris’ While We’re Here may not be a ticket to anywhere more exotic than a Havant living room, but its characters are so tenderly drawn and poignantly performed you almost feel you’ve popped into a new neighbour

✮✮✮✮ Rajiv Joseph's Guards at the Taj Bush Theatre | London directed by Jamie Lloyd What a canny choice of play to celebrate the Bush’s revitalization of their hundred-year-old library venue. Theatre’s new gateway to the West opens with a piece about the jewel of Mughal architecture in the East. The happy difference here is that the smaller of these buildings didn’t involve the bloodshed of its builders (one hopes, at least). Because if you type “Did Shah Jahan…” into a searc

✮✮✮ Barney Norris's The Rest of Your Life Bush Theatre | London directed by Miranda Cromwell It’s almost closing time. Nick (Waj Ali) is just about to cash up when Hannah (Rakie Ayola) walks in. She only wants a filter coffee and promises to be no bother, so he lets her stay while he closes up the café. However, Hannah has no intention of sitting quietly. What starts as seemingly innocent chitchat gives way to something more sinister; it transpires that Nick and Hannah are no

✮✮✮✮ Marco Ramirez's The Royale Bush Theatre | London directed by Madani Younis Six black boxers stand blindfolded, enrounded by a baying white crowd. A smashed bottle signifies the start of the fight. They are left to slug it out, swinging wildly, eyes bound, until one man alone is left standing. The winner is awarded the dubious honour of scrambling for pennies scattered by the mob. But there’s more than coins left in the dust. This is just one of many rich stories that run

✮✮✮✮ Chris Thompson's Albion Bush Theatre | London directed by Ria Parry “I've got a gay, I've got a black. Everyone still thinks we're the fucking BNP. What more do these people want?” So moans Paul Ryman (Steve John Shepherd), the sweary landlord of proper East End boozer The Albion and leader (for now) of the BNP-like English Protection Army (EPA). These aren't your average hate-filled scumbags: Paul's deputy and best mate, Kyle (Delroy Atkinson) is black, while his tracks

✮✮✮✮✮ Barney Norris's Visitors Arcola Theatre | London directed by Alice Hamilton One old-fashioned living room, ornamented with seated figures who have lost, or are losing themselves; billed as a love story, Barney Norris's play is more of a loss story. His first staged full-length script reveals itself as such only by its freshness and lightness of touch – his handling of this dimly unfolding story of forgetting is masterful. Edie and Arthur are an elderly couple living tog