The Rover
The RSC has a hit on its hands with a revival of the Restoration comedy by Aphra Behn, the extraordinary playwright who predated the current glut of female writers in theatre by several hundred years. Loveday Ingram had all but disappeared as a director yet returns in triumph with a production that’s irresistibly entertaining as it follows a group of English cavaliers, led by Joseph Millson’s charming bounder Willmore, who find fun at the Naples carnival while in exile during the Cromwell period.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre: Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 11 February
LG
Attached
Circus is very much on the rise in the UK, both in terms of audiences numbers and the quality of the work being shown. This lovable, layered show from Franco-Norwegian duo Magmanus has the performers finding themselves connected, often as a result of Velcro. It’s terrifically inventive as it uses audience participation to look at how relationships involve give-and-take, moments of meanness and also gestures of love.
Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, 11 October; Lighthouse, Poole, 14 to 15 October
LG
Matilda The Musical
Long-running West End shows sometimes get overlooked, but if you want a family treat that delivers then Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly’s musical version of the Roald Dahl tale does the business. It’s rare that a page-to-stage production is actually better than the book but it’s the case in this wildly inventive version by Matthew Warchus.
Cambridge Theatre, WC2, to 15 October 2017
LG
Eurohouse
Pop-up festivals are all the rage and Outpost is back (to 31 Oct) in Plymouth, showcasing work by local companies and throwing touring shows into the mix. One of those is Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas’s Eurohouse, a two-hander that opened in the last week of the Edinburgh fringe and turned out to be a perfectly formed cracker, exploring the relationship of the EU with some of its members.
Outpost at Royal William Yard, Plymouth, 12 & 13 October
LG
Torn
It’s a real statement that two shows featuring black lives are on offer at the Royal Court at the same time. Downstairs, Suzan-Lori Parks’s Father Comes Home From The Wars (to 22 October) charts the story of a slave offered his freedom if he fights on the Confederate side during the civil war; while Upstairs hosts Nathaniel Martello-White’s tale of secrets and hidden prejudices in a south London mixed-race family.
Jerwood Theatres At The Royal Court, SW1, to 15 Oct
LG
CCN Ballet De Lorraine
Unknown Pleasures is a fascinating mixed bill of five works. The brilliant twist is that none of the choreographers – who are both male and female and range in age from their 30s to 70s – are named, leaving the audience unusually free of preconceptions.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, 8 October
JM
Avant Garde Dance
The superbly inventive choreographer Tony Adigun brings a contemporary hip-hop spin to the characters of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist for Fagin’s Twist.
JM
Birmingham Royal Ballet
A week of Shakespeare-inspired ballet, including Jessica Lang’s one-act Wink, based on the Sonnets, and David Bintley’s The Tempest.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, 10 to 15 October
JM
