Theatre
1 Golem
Few companies have the all-round panache of 1927, which has always had a distinctive aesthetic. First seen at the Young Vic in 2014, Golem is an exquisitely pitched fable about our over-reliance on machines. Influenced by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Monty Python, it has its own sly, unsettling wit mixed in with live performance, animation and music. See this and you might hesitate the next time you’re offered a tech upgrade.
Theatre Royal: The Drum, Plymouth, 10-13 May
2 Every Brilliant Thing
What would be on your list of the things it’s worth staying alive to experience? Ice-cream, rollercoasters, people falling over, the colour yellow and water fights are just some of the things the boy at the heart of Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s play puts on his list after his mother attempts to commit suicide. This worldwide hit is an unassuming piece with a great big heart.
Roundabout @ Canary Wharf, E14, 10-13 May
3 Othello
Richard Twyman’s production of Shakespeare’s classic is fired by youth and passion. Galloping along, it presents Othello as a Muslim living in a racist and misogynistic Christian state. Add Mark Lockyer’s poisonous Iago into the mix and you have an evening that hurtles towards true tragedy. Featuring lovely performances from Norah Lopez Holden as a heartbreakingly young but whip-smart Desdemona and Abraham Popoola as the conflicted warrior.
Northcott Theatre, Exeter, 9-13 May
4 Focus Group
In Toot’s latest, slippery show, the audience is split into focus groups, intended to find out what they think about a particular brand of fondant fancies. Inspired by David Foster Wallace’s unsettling short story Mister Squishy, what initially seems like a benign exercise gradually turns savage in a multilayered show that exposes the emptiness of corporate life.
Shoreditch Town Hall, EC1, 12-13 May
5 Swan Lake/Loch na hEala
No, not the Tchaikovsky ballet, but Michael Keegan-Dolan’s brilliant dance-theatre piece that relocates the story of Siegfried and Odette to the boggy Irish Midlands. He’s a depressed loner, and she’s the teenager who has attracted the unwelcome attentions of the local priest. Using contemporary theatre techniques and Irish and Nordic folk songs, this is a rich evening in which a dark fairytale becomes an even darker comment on the loneliness of rural life.
Brighton Dome, 9-10 May
Dance
1 Brighton festival
Guest director Kate Tempest has picked a range of dance works for this year’s programme, including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s tango-inspired Milonga and Joan Clevillé’s comic Plan B for Utopia.
Various venues, 6-28 May
2 Voodoo
An eight-hour performance from choreography duo Project O, exploring dance as an instrument for political exploration, provocation and healing.
Sadler’s Wells: The Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1, 12 May
3 Richard Alston Company
Alston’s fabulous dancers perform a mixed bill that includes his nuanced exploration of the music of Henry Purcell, and Martin Lawrance’s celebration of tango culture.
The Oxford Playhouse, 12-13 May
