Theatre
1 The Pitchfork Disney
Exhilarating, tense and claustrophobic, Philip Ridley’s 1991 play about co-dependent twins who exist on chocolate, prescription medicines and memories gets the revival it deserves from Jamie Lloyd, who eschews his trademark flash for something more needling and haunting. More than a quarter of a century on, it’s still weird, but the really worrying thing is that it is so much more believable, too.
Shoreditch Town Hall, EC1, to 18 March
2 Infinity Pool
Sometimes it’s not the story you tell but how you tell it that matters. That’s certainly the case with Bea Roberts’s deliciously different reworking of Madame Bovary, in which Flaubert’s Emma becomes an admin assistant working at a plumbing supply company on a dreary industrial estate. Roberts tells Emma’s story with no live actors but through overhead projectors, Facebook posts, email exchanges and shopping sites. Clever, but compassionate and moving, too.
Theatre Royal: The Drum, Plymouth, 28 February to 4 March
3 Nell Gwynn
First seen at the Globe, and then in the West End, where Gemma Arterton played the fruit-seller-turned-actor who catches the eye of King Charles II, in other hands this might have been nothing but a Carry On caper. But writer Jessica Swale is cleverer than that, and while Christopher Luscombe’s frisky production is exuberantly bawdy and rude, this amiable production, which won the 2016 Olivier award for best new comedy, probes questions around women’s bodies and asks why the British stage is so male dominated.
The Lowry, Salford, 1-4 March
4 Amadeus
Jealousy becomes operatic in Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play set in the Vienna of Joseph II, where the court composer is the much-admired Salieri. But there is a difference between being quite good and being a genius and when the latter arrives in the form of the precocious Mozart, Salieri can’t contain his envy. Michael Longhurst’s pitch-perfect revival returns to the National in early 2018, but if you can nab a ticket before the end of the current run you are in for a treat.
National Theatre: Olivier, SE1, to 18 March
5 The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
Simon Stephens’s version of Mark Haddon’s bestseller about a teen with Asperger’s captures the essence of the story but cleverly puts it in a theatrical context. Marianne Elliott’s neat production makes you feel as if you’re inside Christopher’s head as he tries to decode the world around him.
The Grand Theatre & Opera House, Leeds, 28 February to 4 March
Dance
1 Leap 2017
Hetain Patel, Barrowland Ballet and Gary Clarke head up the programme of this excellently varied and ambitious dance festival.
Various venues, 1-12 March
2 Scottish Dance Theatre
Botis Seva is one of the hottest new talents in hip-hop dance, bringing a visionary energy to the scene. TuTuMucky, his new work for SDT, is performed alongside a revival of Anton Lachky’s surrealism-inspired Dreamers.
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 3-4 March
3 Ballet Black
More commissioning brilliance from this admirable company with a new mixed bill from Michael Corder, Martin Lawrance and the excellent Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
Barbican Theatre, EC2, 2-4 March
