Seven days on stage

If Ewan McGregor was praying for a warm reception, he needn't have worried. Critics agreed that Othello at the Donmar Warehouse has just about lived up to its hype - although Chiwetel Ejiofor enjoyed better reviews as the murderous Moor than McGregor's Iago. Michael Billington found Michael Grandage's production 'refreshingly classical, aesthetically harmonious' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

It's been a busy week for Euripides. Katie Mitchell's Women of Troy continues to cause a stir at the National, and now Renegade Theatre have delivered a striking version of The Bacchae at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Judith Mackrell was glad that Cage 'doesn't disintegrate into an obvious B-Boy spectacle of dance battles and gang warfare'. Choreographer Lorca Renoux, she suggested, 'manages to convey unexpectedly rich depths of psychology and history with a cast of just five dancers' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

In Stratford-upon-Avon, Malorie Blackman's thought-provoking teen novel Noughts and Crosses has been adapted and directed by Dominic Cooke for the RSC. Michael Billington enjoyed the twists of this 'absorbing political allegory, which posits a society in which a white underclass, the Noughts, is pitted against a ruling black majority, the Crosses' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Another RSC commission, Anthony Neilson's God in Ruins, put an updated spin on Dickens's A Christmas Carol. The play, which opened at London's Soho theatre, imagines Scrooge as a a self-loathing TV producer. Michael Billington thought it 'cynically witty' but was 'turned off by its mixture of coarseness and whimsy' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Christmas spirit was in short supply at the Finborough Theatre, where Elizabeth Kuti's kitchen-sink drama The Six-Days World followed a family unravelling over Christmas. Although 'there is too much hunt-the-symbol', Billington thought the production was well-acted and 'offers a graphic picture of seasonal dismay' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The little show that could .... Fifteen years after its world premiere at the Watermill in Newbury, the Olivier award-winning Honk! returned home this week. Lyn Gardner enjoyed the gentle charm of this musical, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling Photograph: PR

Finally, let's not forget that panto season is upon us ... Lyn Gardner wasn't exactly hooked (sorry) on Peter Pan at Birmingham Rep, but she still dished out three stars and admired a villainous turn from David Birrell (above right) Photograph: Tristram Kenton