Theatre
1 Escaped Alone
As ever, the brilliant Caryl Churchill confounds expectations with a piece that brings together three old friends and a neighbour in a garden. Despite only running to 50 minutes, it’s a sly production whose impact creeps up on you; anxiety and feelings of dread gradually overshadow the gossip. The original cast, led by Linda Bassett as a suburban Cassandra, reunite for these performances.
Jerwood Theatres At The Royal Court, SW1, Wednesday 25 Jan to Saturday 11 Feb
2 Hedda Gabler
Ruth Wilson is utterly compelling as Ibsen’s self-destructive heroine in Ivo van Hove’s icy staging of a bold new version of the play by Patrick Marber. You may not warm to this Hedda, but you will be unable to take your eyes off a woman who haunts her apartment like a living exhibit in an art gallery. The pace is stately but there is an attention to detail that brings every character – including Eva Magyar’s maid – fully to life.
National Theatre: Lyttelton, SE1, to Tuesday 21 Mar
3 Pink Mist
It’s a welcome return for Owen Sheers’s brawny dramatic poem about three army recruits who are sent to Afghanistan, and the mothers, wives and girlfriends they leave behind. In the sparest but most effective of productions from John Retallack and George Mann; movement, text and sound entwine to create an evening full of energy, anger and heartbreak as it charts a journey from innocence to experience.
Bristol Old Vic, Monday 23 Jan to Saturday 28 Jan
4 The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
The West End production of Simon Stephens’s very canny adaptation of the Mark Haddon bestseller about Christopher, a teenager with autism searching for answers about the murder of a neighbour’s dog, recently announced that it will close on 3 June. But audiences outside London now have another chance to see what all the fuss is about in an astute production by Marianne Elliott that makes you feel as if you have stepped right inside Christopher’s head.
The Lowry, Salford, Saturday 21 Jan to Saturday 4 Feb
5 Bromance
Hull Truck kicks off its City Of Culture celebrations with a real crowdpleaser. Barely Methodical’s all-male three-hander is an engaging circus show that explores the shifting bond between a genuinely skilled trio of performers. It’s a piece with wide appeal and a laddish bent, and – even though it has been on the road for some time now – there is a puppyish freshness about its depiction of young male friendship.
Hull Truck Theatre, Wednesday 25 Jan to Saturday 28 Jan
Dance
1 Les Enfants Terribles
Javier De Frutos directs and choreographs Philip Glass’s dance opera, based on the taboo-breaking novel by Jean Cocteau and with a dream cast led by Edward Watson and Zenaida Yanowsky.
Barbican Theatre, EC2, Friday 27 Jan to Sunday 29 Jan
2 Richard Alston Dance
Alston’s excellent dancers premiere Chacony, set to music by Purcell, alongside revivals of the exquisitely crafted An Italian In Madrid and Martin Lawrance’s fierce, percussive Stronghold.
Theatr Clwyd, Mold, Thursday 26 Jan and Friday 27 Jan
3 52 Portraits
This captivating project by Jonathan Burrows, Matteo Fargion and Hugo Glendinning has become an epic love letter to the dance profession: a video portrait gallery of 52 different dance artists.
The Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1, Wednesday 25 Jan
