1 Blow Off
When the pressure gets too much, something has to blow. It does for the woman at the heart of Julia Taudevin’s collaboration with Kim Moore, Susan Bear and Julie Eisenstein (the latter two from Glasgow band Tuff Love), which takes the form of a dynamite hour of sexual politics embedded in a gig format. In it, the lyrical melodies and fierce pulsating chords tell their own stories just as much as Taudevin’s script.
2 The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil
John McGrath’s masterpiece is one of the defining plays of the 20th century, an epic account of the history of the Highlands, from the clearances to the oil boom of the 70s, the decade when it was written. Joe Douglas’s fine revival offers some sly updating but stays true to McGrath’s rough-and-ready style, and while the play and production quite rightly don’t stint on anger at the way that Scotland has been plundered over and over, this is also a giddy and joyous evening, alive with song and dance.
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, to 24 Sep
3 The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
Playwright Simon Stephens has spoken eloquently about his desire to do justice to Mark Haddon’s much-loved novel about Christopher, a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome, when writing this page-to-stage adaptation. He has, and together with director Marianne Elliott, he makes you experience the world through Christopher’s eyes with a production that uses innovations in sound, movement and video to create an evening that’s both intelligent and moving.
Gielgud Theatre, W1, to 18 Feb
4 Doctor Faustus
Maria Aberg has consistently proved herself to be one of the more interesting directors working at the RSC and she does so again with this revival of Christopher Marlowe’s play about damnation, made over for an age in which neither the devil nor hell have all that much traction. Oliver Ryan and Sandy Grierson will play Faustus or Mephistophilis depending on two struck matches: whoever’s flame goes out first is the doctor who strikes a bargain with the devil.
Barbican Theatre, EC2, to 1 Oct
5 The Glasgow Girls
Inspired by the story of a group of teenagers at Glasgow’s Drumchapel High School who in 2005 stopped the deportation of a fellow pupil, this is a stirring musical evening that celebrates community action, and displays a big heart along with a genuine lack of sentimentality.
