Theatre
Much Ado About Nothing
Originally staged at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2014 under the title of Love’s Labour’s Won, Christopher Luscombe relocates Shakespeare’s comedy to late 1918 and an English country house that has been commandeered as a military hospital for returning soldiers. It’s a charming and at times bittersweet celebration of being alive at the end of a conflict, one that bursts with the relief of having escaped death.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, SW1, to 18 March
Grounded
It’s one last hurrah for Christopher Haydon, the departing artistic director of the Gate, with the return of his brilliant production of George Brant’s play about a female US fighter pilot who is reassigned to the role of drone operator. She sits in a trailer in the desert near Las Vegas pressing buttons that will have consequences for her target thousands of miles away. Haydon’s cleverly conceived production heightens the tension and themes, and Lucy Ellinson reprises her scorching performance.
Gate Theatre, W11, to 18 March
The Suppliant Women
Aeschylus’s play in which the 50 daughters of King Danos flee forced marriage may be 2,500 years old, but it couldn’t seem more modern in this new version by David Greig, first seen in Edinburgh last year and now remounted for the Royal Exchange. Utilising a chorus of local women, this is an evening that seems startlingly modern as it asks big questions about democracy, freedom, female agency and asylum seekers.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 9 March to 1 April
Hedda Gabler
Boasting a brilliant central performance from Ruth Wilson, who doesn’t seek to explain Hedda, only present her in all her multifaceted complexity, this might not be Ivo van Hove’s greatest production but it is fascinating to watch. Rafe Spall is a particularly repellent Judge Brack in an evening that gradually closes down Hedda’s options until she is almost totally diminished.
National Theatre: Lyttelton, SE1, to 21 Mar
Sinners Club
Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be executed in Britain, hanged in 1955 for shooting dead her lover, David Blakely. This show – an enticing mix of theatre and gig – doesn’t directly tell her story, but conjures the era and ponders heartbreak, jealousy and our fascination with peroxide blonde bad girls through allusion, connections and unexpected collisions.
Theatr Clwyd, Mold, to 18 March
Dance
Tree Of Codes
London premiere for Wayne McGregor’s spectacular collaboration with artist Olafur Eliasson and Jamie xx, with a cast drawn from Company Wayne McGregor and Paris Opera Ballet.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, 4 to 11 March
Julie Cunningham
The excellent dancer-turned-choreographer explores images of gender and identity, involving the poetry of Kate Tempest and the music of Antony And The Johnsons.
Barbican Centre: The Pit, EC2, 8 to 11 March
Witness
Issues of mental health are explored in the latest work from the powerfully engaging and entertaining dance-theatre troupe Company Chameleon.
