Monday
The London International Mime festival begins today with a special edition of Gandini Juggling’s brilliant, Pina Bausch-inspired show Smashed, at the Peacock theatre. This House, James Graham’s comedy about Westminster machinations, is well worth your time at the Garrick, London. Michael Frayn’s version of Chekhov’s first play, Wild Honey, is a pleasure at Hampstead. It’s your last chance at the Dorfman, London, tonight and tomorrow for Alexander Zeldin’s Love, a story of homelessness. It moves to Birmingham Rep on 26 January. Tom Jacobson’s The Twentieth Century Way at Jermyn Street, London, looks at a period in Los Angeles just before the first world war when actors were hired to entrap gay men. The legacies of three conflicts – the first world war, second world war and the Vietnam war – are explored in Veterans Day, which is revived at the Finborough, London.
Tuesday
Katherine Soper’s Wish List, a devastating look at trying to survive when fate, health, the benefits system and zero-hours contracts conspire against you, starts at the Royal Court Upstairs, London. At the Finborough you can catch the first London production in almost 30 years of Tony Harrison’s The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, a reimagining of the ancient Greek satyr play. Wild Thing, about the life and death of Oliver Reed, goes into the King’s Head, Islington, with a terrific performance from Rob Crouch as the hell-raiser. Giles Croft’s staging of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, first seen at Nottingham Playhouse, is remade for Wyndham’s, London. Stuart Slade’s BU21, about a group of survivors coming to terms with an attack in London, is at Trafalgar Studios.
Wednesday
Sally Cookson’s Cinderella: a Fairy Tale remains a joy at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol. At Theatr Clwyd, Mold, three- to five-year-olds will enjoy Oily Cart’s In a Pickle, inspired by The Winter’s Tale. French company Les Antliaclastes bring Here Lies Shakespeare, a piece that is described as a cross between a Catholic mass and the Muppets, to Jacksons Lane, London. Mathurin Bolze’s circus piece Du Goudron et des Plumes was an astonishment and he’s back with Barons Perchés at Platform, London, a show inspired by an Italo Calvino story.
Thursday
Ramin Gray directs Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Winter Solstice, a comedy about family betrayals, at the Orange Tree, Richmond. Danai Gurira’s The Convert at the Gate, London, explores western cultural impositions in 19th-century Rhodesia. The Witches are still turning children into mice at West Yorkshire Playhouse. Mime festival favourites Mossoux Bonté are at the Lilian Baylis, London, with Whispers, a piece about doubt, secrets and ghosts.
Friday and the weekend
Burt Bacharach’s and Neil Simon’s 1960s musical Promises, Promises is revived at Southwark Playhouse. Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne and Black Swan State’s highly acclaimed version of Picnic at Hanging Rock comes to the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. Plasticine Men’s There Shall Be Fireworks, set in a 200-year-old cemetery in Kabul, is at the New Diorama, London. You can still go to the ball with Cinderella at the Octagon, Bolton. The Push festival starts at Home in Manchester with Louise Wallwein’s story of migration, The Island, the Sea, the Volunteer and the Refugee. The annual Devoted and Disgruntled meeting is for anybody interested in theatre, either as a maker or audience member, and it’s at the Passenger Shed, Bristol, all over the weekend.
