Monday
The RSC’s Henry IV Parts I and II, with Antony Sher’s Falstaff, is at the Barbican in London until almost the end of January. Anthony Neilson’s Get Santa! kicks off the festivities tonight at Northern Stage in Newcastle. Nottingham Playhouse always does a good panto: this year it’s Sleeping Beauty. Neil Bartlett’s very fine adaptation of A Christmas Carol is reinvented at the Citizens in Glasgow. Eric and Little Ern really is lots of fun, and it’s at the Gulbenkian in Canterbury tonight only.
Tuesday
It’s your last chance for Mark Bruce’s dance-theatre piece Dracula, which is at the Old Market in Brighton for the rest of the week. Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker is at the gloriously atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall in London. Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands, one of his best productions, is at Sadler’s Wells, London, from tonight. Ontroerend Goed consider what it means to be a woman in Sirens at Soho theatre in London.
Wednesday
Theatre Uncut reminds you of the power of political theatre at Bristol Old Vic Studio from tonight until Saturday. Bryony Lavery encourages you to run away with pirates in Treasure Island, which starts in the Olivier tonight. Selina Thompson’s Chewing the Fat discusses weighty issues at Colchester Arts Centre tonight and Derby theatre on Saturday. Info at selinathompson.co.uk
Thursday
Miracle go out on tour with Dr Livingstone, I Presume? in which the story of the explorer is told through a series of music-hall turns. In Helston, Cornwall, tonight, Truro tomorrow and Saturday, and on tour afterwards. The gorgeous Egg theatre in Bath always does a good festive show for children: this year it’s Rumpelstiltskin. James and the Giant Peach is revived at West Yorkshire Playhouse. I can’t vouch for Looking Glass’s Palace of the Snow Queen which is on tonight, Saturday and 11, 12 and 19 December at a secret location in London’s Shoreditch, but it could be good, decadent fun. More Grimm than grim.
Friday and the weekend
You’ve read the book and seen the movie and now the clever Hampshire company Forest Forge have the rights to Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and are touring it to village halls all over the south-west. It’s in Cranborne, Dorset, tonight, and Ringwood, Hampshire, on Saturday. Feydeau is reinvented and transposed to 1970s strike-torn England for Stephen Sharkey’s Sex and the Three Day Week at the Liverpool Playhouse from tonight. Also from tonight, Dominic Cooke’s gorgeous, grief-drenched version of the Arabian Nights is revived by Rachel O’Riordan with an original score by Simon Slater at the Sherman in Cardiff. Dot and Ethel’s Hans Christian Andersen-inspired Match takes up residency at the Everyman in Cheltenham. From Saturday: City of Angels starts at the Donmar in London. Also from Saturday, Cats gets purring at the London Palladium, and Glimmer at Tramway in Glasgow offers real-life Christmas stories.
