Director Deborah Warner has been engaged in a spat this week with two of Fleet Street’s most eminent theatre critics. After the Guardian’s Michael Billington and the Daily Telegraph’s Charles Spencer panned her production of The School for Scandal at the Barbican, Warner refused to go quietly into the night, exacting her revenge by describing them as 'two complacent toads crouching on their nests'. Ouch.
Photograph: Tristram Kenton
It's enough to make you sigh for the days of Nell Gwynn. Charles II’s mistress – and one of the leading actors of the Restoration – Gwynn features in a major new exhibition announced this week. Opening at the National Portrait Gallery from October, First Actresses features paintings of some of the British stage’s most famous and historic female performers, in portraits by artists such as Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, John Hoppner and James Gillray
Photograph: Simon Verelst/PA
From Restoration to Ealing Comedy, this week brought news that The Ladykillers is being turned into a stage play by Father Ted writer Graham Linehan. The show, which tells the story of a criminal group posing as a string quintet to pull off a heist, will open in Liverpool before transferring to the West End in November. The cast features Peter Capaldi in the role made famous by Alec Guinness in the 1955 film. Linehan himself managed to make headlines later in the week when he accused the Today programme of 'poisoning' British debate after subjecting him to mild cross-examination – opposite Michael Billington – about the new show on Monday Photograph: PR
Over in the US, Jesse Eisenberg, best known for playing Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook film The Social Network, is turning playwright. The performer is to star off-Broadway in a new play he penned himself, called Asuncion (as if he needed the work). It tells the story of a pair of white liberal friends who have their assumptions challenged when a Filipino girl becomes their flatmate. Opening in October at the 180-seat Cherry Lane theatre, tickets are bound to be in short supply
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But you’ll find it even harder to get tickets for Punchdrunk’s eagerly anticipated new show at the Manchester international festival. Unless, that is, you’re a child aged between six and 12. The immersive theatre company’s latest project, The Crash of Elysium, is for kids only and will allow the lucky little blighters to step inside the world of Doctor Who for an hour and help save the universe. If you are the proud owner of a suitably aged child, expect lots of ‘babysitting’ offers this summer Photograph: Chris Balcombe/Rex Features
Fresh from his stint as guest editor of the New Statesman, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is adding yet another string to his bow, with the announcement that he will be making his playwriting debut. Williams is one of 66 writers who have been commissioned by the Bush theatre to respond to the 66 books of the King James Bible, as a celebration of its 400th anniversary and the theatre’s new home. Rather appropriately, the new Bush is housed in a former library, which used to be owned by the Church of England Photograph: Chris Ison/AFP/Getty Images
North of the border, things are hotting up in anticipation of the biggest theatre and comedy event of the summer – the Edinburgh festival fringe. Programmes have already begun hitting theatergoers' doormats, with tickets for this year’s events going on sale today. Highlights of the month-long festival, which kicks off on 5 August, include John Malkovich directing Julian Sands in a celebration of Harold Pinter, Simon Callow appearing in drag and top comics Phill Jupitus, Stewart Lee and Paul Merton. Oh, and Paul Daniels and (the lovely) Debbie McGee will also be putting in an appearance
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