AUDITORIUM

✮✮ Mike Bartlett's Game Almeida Theatre | London directed by Sacha Wares “This is going to be the best, show, ever,” says one of the college students settling into the camouflaged hide of Section D. Her optimism could spring from many things: the maverick redesign of the Almeida’s space; the scattered screens suggesting a multimedia binge; the programme littered with progressively disturbing MailOnline articles. It isn’t your usual school trip to humdrum, hammed-up Shakespear

✮✮✮ 1/2 Russell Labey's Gods and Monsters Southwark Playhouse | London directed by Russell Labey In Bill Condon's 1998 film of the same name, the aging Hollywood director James Whale draws on the words of Frankenstein's monster, his most notorious cinematic creation, to plead “Friend?” to a young man he torments and tries to seduce in turn. Russell Labey's obvious love of his source makes for a faithful adaptation that still has a life and energy of its own. But his productio

✮✮✮✮ Mark Hayhurst's Taken At Midnight Theatre Royal Haymarket | London directed by Jonathan Church “There’s no better way of forgetting something than by commemorating it,” remarks Irwin from Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Transferring from Chichester to the Haymarket on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Taken At Midnight is a capable refutation of the idea. This is a quiet and dignified commemoration of an ineffable event made more and more startling by

✮✮✮✮ Stan Sakai's Usage Yojimbo Southwark Playhouse | London adapted for the stage by Stewart Melton directed by Amy Draper As the old Japanese proverb probably doesn’t go, the life of a samurai ain’t easy. First there’s the obligatory Karate Kid apprenticeship – archery, meditation, gardening, tea ceremonies, and, of course, calligraphy. Lots and lots of calligraphy. Not to forget getting your head around the traditional Eastern naming of the times of the day. When your sens

✮✮ Jack Thorne's Hope The Royal Court Theatre | London directed by John Tiffany “We live in the age of cutting cunts,” deputy Council leader Mark (Paul Higgins) announces near the start of Jack Thorne's new, highly topical comedy about the swingeing public sector spending cuts this country has suffered since the Tories – sorry, the Coalition government – came to power in 2010. Mark's X-rated language is worthy of that most memorable satirical political character of recent yea

✮✮✮✮ Made in Dagenham Adelphi Theatre | London music David Arnold lyrics Richard Thomas book Richard Bean directed by Rupert Goold Industrial unrest is unlikely grist to the mill, but it's made plenty of dough for the British film industry, whether it's Pride, Billy Elliott or The Full Monty. This easily digestible adaptation of the 2010 Britflick has a surreally silly streak that almost, but doesn't quite, undermine its attempts to depict the morally grey landscape of factor

✮✮✮ AllthePigs' The Piano Man New Diorama Theatre | London directed by Sam Carrack Ziggy Stardust and his “Spiders from Mars” blare out of the speakers at the end of this thought-provoking, collaborative experiment devised by the ensemble actors of AllthePigs' young company themselves. It's an apt choice of music because, as you may remember, a decade ago a smartly-dressed but drenched-through young man was found wandering the streets of coastal town Sheerness in Kent. The Pi

✮ 1/2 Duncan Macmillan & Chris Rapley's 2071 The Royal Court Theatre | London directed by Katie Mitchell Artistic director Vicky Featherstone's Royal Court season is themed around “revolutions: big and small acts of resistance.” After two rumbunctious plays up and downstairs at the venue, this sombrely-served climate change lecture is more of a cold white wine than a molotov cocktail. It’s marketed as a play, and has a director, lighting designer and set designer as you mi

✮✮✮✮ 1/2 Ibsen's The Wild Duck in a version by Simon Stone & Chris Ryan Barbican Theatre | London directed by Simon Stone At the heart of Ibsen’s Wild Duck is the killer concept of the ‘life-lie’ – the big fib that we all rely on, consciously or not, in order to get by. It’s cognitive dissonance at its most benevolent. The question is what happens when a well-meaning Samaritan comes along to kick the psychological crutches away. It’s testament to both the self-sufficiency and

✮✮✮✮✮ Ray Davies' Sunny Afternoon Harold Pinter Theatre | London book Joe Penhall directed by Edward Hall Even if musicals aren’t your cup of tea (and there are plenty of us out there), you should book seats for Sunny Afternoon while you still can: word is quickly spreading that this West End transfer of the Hampstead Theatre’s wonderful Kinks musical is the hottest ticket in town. People are already travelling from far and wide to see it, including the people next to me who’