THEATRE
1 Hedda Gabler
Ruth Wilson is outstanding in Ivo Van Hove’s staging of the Ibsen play in a new version by Patrick Marber. Van Hove’s A View From The Bridge made Arthur Miller’s play seem newly minted and he does the same here, enabling the audience to see the 19th-century drama through modern eyes.
National Theatre: Lyttelton, SE1, to 21 Mar
2 Going Viral
Daniel Bye’s one-man show begins on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to London when all but one of the passengers are afflicted by an outbreak of weeping. Bye’s infectiously enjoyable show plays on the many meanings of going viral and the way rumours and panic multiply in the era of social networks. It also playfully uses liquorice allsorts to demonstrate how viruses are spread. A thoughtful little show that stays with you.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Fri to 7 Jan
3 La Soirée
Leicester Square gets a touch of class with this Olivier award-winning piece reinventing old-style variety with a veneer that is both sexy and subversive. There are some great acts here, most notably the magnificent Ursula Martinez performing her disappearing hankie striptease for one final time. There’s much else to engage, too, including the English Gents, whose awfully British balancing act takes on a post-Brexit hue, and extreme contortionist Captain Frodo.
The Spiegeltent, WC2, Sat, Tue to 8 Jan
4 Wild Honey
Chekhov’s sprawling unnamed first play about a disillusioned schoolmaster has had lots of interest lately. Irish company Dead Centre excavated it to comic effect in Chekhov’s First Play, and David Hare’s version, Platonov, was at National Theatre over summer. Michael Frayn’s adaptation predates those; it was first seen at the National in 1984. Howard Davies died while working on this revival but his production is tended with care by Jonathan Kent, and Geoffrey Streatfeild is compelling as the angry young man.
Hampstead Theatre, NW3, to 21 Jan
5 The Railway Children
The final whistle is about to be blown as Mike Kenny’s version of E Nesbit’s classic pulls out of King’s Cross for the last time. Nesbit’s novel has been treated with love in a production that originated at the National Railway Museum in York, but has delighted London audiences both in N1 and at Waterloo. As well as the appearance of a real locomotive, one of the play’s most memorable scenes comes when Bobby and her falsely imprisoned father are reunited, and it proves a real tear-jerker here.
King’s Cross Theatre, N1, to 8 Jan
Lyn Gardner
DANCE
1 Beauty & The Beast
Opulent costumes and sets complement David Nixon’s fast-moving choreography in this tale about the challenge of finding love in the most unlikely guises.
Grand Theatre & Opera House, Leeds, to 7 Jan
2 Hansel And Gretel
Christopher Hampson’s 2013 ballet updates the Grimms’ fairytale to the 1950s, and while it adds a layer of balletic sparkle to the action, it also boasts a witch of splendidly inventive wickedness.
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu to 14 Jan; touring to 11 Feb
3 The Snowman
Last chance to catch this engaging adaptation of the Raymond Briggs classic, with choreography by Robert North and music by Howard Blake.
Judith Mackrell
