1 Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.
Beginning life at the RSC’s Midsummer Mischief festival in 2014 and subsequently popping up in both London and New York, Alice Birch’s witty short play arrives in Edinburgh preaching revolution, particularly in the relationships between men and women, but also in domestic life and the workplace. It takes the form of a series of punchy sketches that question a great deal that goes unquestioned, particularly in the way language as a means of seduction can also be an unthinking tool of oppression.
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sat; Traverse, Edinburgh, Tue to 28 Aug
2 Measure For Measure
Declan Donnellan’s Russian-language version of Shakespeare’s “problem” play is a brutal and pared-back account of the misuses of power. Played out on Nick Ormerod’s design of five red cubes, some of which open to reveal very nasty secrets, this is an utterly convincing, utterly contemporary production set in a shadowy, nightmarish world that is clearly supposed to make you think of Russia under Putin. There are terrific performances from the all-Russian cast and Donnellan places his characters on the stage like chess pieces involved in a vicious endgame.
Lyceum, Edinburgh, Tue to 20 Aug
3 Jesus Christ Superstar
You have just two more weeks to catch the unexpected hit of the summer in Timothy Sheader’s revival of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. With the help of a very fine cast and some epic choreography from Drew McOnie, which often suggests that Jesus’s followers are touched by madness, Sheader delivers a tight, thrilling evening. It’s not only a great spectacle but a very intelligent one, too, which plays both to the original’s kitsch and its unaffected, simple heart.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, NW1, to 27 Aug
4 Dancer
The late Adrian Howells’s footprints are all over this piece, in which Gary Gardiner and Ian Johnston dance their hearts out. Ian has complex communication needs but dances as if it was what he was born to do, while Gary is analytical and articulate but doesn’t quite have Ian’s fleetness of foot. It becomes a wonderfully inclusive show about the joy of dancing that also asks questions about who is allowed to take centre stage.
Dance Base, Edinburgh, Wed to 28 Aug
5 Harry Potter And The Cursed Child
There are plenty of really good reasons why this is the hottest ticket in town: Jack Thorne and JK Rowling’s new episode of the Harry Potter story is a fully fledged new story and it is staged with genuine magic.
