Theatre
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Fifty years youn, Tom Stoppard’s play that puts two minor characters from Hamlet centre-stage continues to delight in David Leveaux’s revival. Daniel Radcliffe leaves his wizarding days far behind him in a well-matched comedy partnership with Joshua McGuire, both of whom are blithely unaware of the fate that awaits them. It’s all clever, clever stuff in a production that finds the balance between comic exuberance and introspection.
Triple Threat
If there was one show that everyone was talking about in Edinburgh last summer it was Lucy McCormick’s knowingly outrageous take on the New Testament. McCormick’s show is a mashup of performance art and pop culture that retells the story of Jesus from a female perspective. This woman can act, sing and dance, which definitely does make her a triple threat in this brilliantly put-together and very funny show that has become infamous for the scene in which Doubting Thomas fingers McCormick’s Jesus.
Soho Theatre, W1, 28 March to 22 April
The Velveteen Rabbit
Lots of children’s books are described as classics, but Margery Williams’s 1922 book about a stuffed rabbit given to a small boy genuinely is one. It’s not just cute, it’s profound as it examines the tension between what is real and make-believe. Purni Morell’s production is a startlingly imaginative and modern piece of contemporary theatre that parents will enjoy as much as their over-fours.
Unicorn Theatre, SE1, to 15 April
Pink Mist
Pink Mist takes its name from the spray of blood that mists the air after a roadside bomb attack. It’s something that Bristol lads Arthur, Taff and Hads learn about when they sign up for the army and are sent to Afghanistan. It turns out that war is nothing like their playground games, and follows them back to Bristol when their tour is over. The project began as a dramatic poem by Owen Sheers but you wouldn’t know it from John Retallack and George Mann’s brawny and yet delicate physical staging.
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 28 March to 1 April
Junkyard
Set around the building of an adventure playground in Bristol in 1979, Jack Thorne and Stephen Warbeck’s low-key musical is deceptively slight. It takes quite a while to get going, too. But it is also entirely without guile as it celebrates the world’s misfits and the transformative possibilities of play, whether it’s in a self-assembled playground or on a stage.
Theatr Clwyd, Mold, 29 March to 15 April
Dance
Lïnger
Issues of age, sexuality and identity and the traditions of Irish dance are movingly and inventively addressed by ex-Riverdance principal Breandán de Gallaí in this duet with Nick O’Connell.
BalletBoyz: Life
A return tour for this superb all-male ensemble, with an elegantly surreal fantasy choreographed by Pontus Lidberg and a dark comedy from Javier de Frutos.
The Lowry, Salford, 28 March; touring to 25 May
The Red Shoes
The UK tour continues for Matthew Bourne’s witty, glamorous and touching adaptation of the Powell and Pressburger film.
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, 25 March; Alhambra Theatre Bradford, 28 March to 1 April
