Monday
Get ready to be terrified by Anthony Neilson’s stage version of Shirley Jackson’s classic horror story The Haunting of Hill House at Liverpool Playhouse. Melly Still directs, so this chiller could be a cracker. Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III goes into the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. It’s your last chance for Kneehigh’s Dead Dog in a Suitcase which finishes its tour at Shoreditch Town Hall on Saturday. Jim Broadbent’s Scrooge is packing them in at the Noël Coward, but if you want a more intimate take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the always inventive Flanagan Collective are upstairs at the Arts Theatre, London.
Tuesday
Kim Noble’s provocative but ultimately tender You’re Not Alone opens at Soho theatre, London. Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s thriller The Wasp explores coming to terms with childhood experiences at Trafalgar Studios, London. Tom Holloway’s Forget Me Not at the Bush examines the story of British children told they were orphans and sent to Australia between 1945 and 1968 on a one-way ticket. Rash Dash offer a fairytale reworking in Snow White and Rose Red at Cambridge Junction. Frozen Charlotte’s Too Many Penguins should charm young audiences at Dundee Rep. The Wardrobe Ensemble whisk up enchantments with Eloise and the Curse of the Golden Whisk, a 1944 wartime family adventure at the Bike Shed in Exeter. There is swagger and swash in The Ballad of Robin Hood which sounds fun at Southwark Playhouse.
Wednesday
Rona Munro and Stephen Greenhorn have each written a play for Tracks of the Winter Bear, a double bill at the Traverse in Edinburgh. Nikolai Foster directs Roald Dahl’s The Witches at the Curve in Leicester, a production that will then tour. Arthur Miller’s No Villain, set in a garment factory and written in 1936 when Miller was a student, gets its world premiere at the Old Red Lion, London. Peut-être’s admired The Tin Soldier is at the ARC in Stockton. Neither There nor Here is the latest touring storytelling show from Fine Chisel, a company who deserve to be called foot-stomping. It is at the Theatre Shop in Clevedon until Saturday.
Thursday
Andrew Scott and David Dawson star in The Dazzle by Richard Greenberg, best known for Three Days of Rain. It is at the old Central St Martin’s School of Art building rechristened Found 111, on Charing Cross Road, London. Sophie Thompson and Jamie Parker lead the cast in Guys and Dolls, revived at the Savoy. Daniel Evans has delivered one festive hit after another at Sheffield Crucible. Can he do it again with the 1927 musical Show Boat that features Ol’ Man River and other musical treasures? Kiln curate an alternative and very adult Christmas night out in Dirty Grotto at Birmingham Rep from tonight. In similar vein, West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Christmas Cabaret starts this evening with a mix of magic and raunch. Dickie Beau is channelling Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Lost in Trans, Thursday and Friday at Toynbee Studios, London.
Friday and the weekend
Mike Bartlett’s Bull, a gripping study of power and bullying is back at the Young Vic. Les Liaisons Dangereuses starts at the Donmar, London, with Dominic West and Janet McTeer. Snow White gets a Yorkshire makeover at the Lawrence Batley in Huddersfield, courtesy of Tell Tale Hearts. The Lost Gift starts at Warwick Arts Centre on Saturday, a walk-through interactive family adventure with a mystery that must be solved.
