Monday
From Devon with Love, a locally produced festival of work being made in the South West, continues at the Bike Shed in Exeter. There’s something new every night, so check out the website. Walking the Tightrope, exploring the tension between art and politics, starts at Theatre Delicatessen tonight. There’s a great lineup of five-minute plays responding to censorship and arts boycotts, from Caryl Churchill, April de Angelis, Mark Ravenhill, Neil LaBute and others, plus a post-show discussion every night. Alan Bennett’s The History Boys goes on a nationwide tour starting at the Palace in Southend tonight.
Tuesday
The wonderful Third Angel go on tour with The Life and Loves of a Nobody, the story of a woman who takes her life into her hands, at the Nuffield in Lancaster tonight. It’s Exeter’s last chance for The Money, in which there are no actors, only a playing audience who must decide how to spend a pot of money, at Exeter Guildhall tonight. The London International Mime festival continues in venues all over London, with NoFit State at Jackson’s Lane from tonight with Noodles. A Dublin family disintegrates in the build-up to the historic divorce referendum of 1995 in The Separation at Theatre503 from tonight.
Wednesday
This year’s six-week Vault festival starts under Waterloo station. Check out Move to Stand’s Fat Man, a retelling of the Orpheus myth, which starts tonight. Grounded, about a female fighter pilot flying drones over the Middle East, is at Bristol Old Vic from tonight. Lucy Ellinson is blisteringly good, and so is the play. Missed DV8’s John in London? You can catch this story of unsafe emotions and sex at Brighton Dome tonight and tomorrow. Peeping Tom’s dance-theatre piece, 32 Rue Vandenbranden, set in an inhospitable world of ice and snow, looks as if it could be very good at the Pit. One night only for Jasmin Vardimon’s dance theatre piece, Park, at the Theatre Royal Glasgow. Stephanie Ridings’ Unknown Male at Birmingham Rep explores the effect of a suicide on one family. Romantic love is celebrated and debunked in That’s Amore as Tmesis consider what makes our hearts beat faster at the Unity in Liverpool.
Thursday
Mother/daughter relationships, divided loyalties and inequality are tackled in Alexandra Wood’s Merit which begins at Plymouth’s Drum tonight. Poverty and debt are the subject of Paper Birds’ Broke at the Ustinov in Bath tonight and tomorrow. Oh What a Lovely War returns to Theatre Royal Stratford East before heading out on tour.
Friday and the weekend
The Manipulate festival starts tonight with performances at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen, and then continuing over the weekend and into next week at the Traverse in Edinburgh, and there’s plenty of shows to look out for, including All or Nothing’s aerial dance piece, Three’s a Crowd. Jennifer Haley’s Royal Court hit, The Nether, goes into the Duke of York’s. Blanche McIntyre’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (definitely my favourite Stoppard, and lots of other people’s, too) starts a nationwide tour at the Theatre Royal Brighton on Friday. As always, let us know what you’re seeing.
