Five of the best… theatre shows this week
1 Women’s Hour
Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit of Sh!t Theatre send up the BBC format with this rough-and-ready and hugely likable agit-prop-style show which neatly considers many aspects of female experience, from the representation of women at the Oscars to the tampon tax. It’s a piece that pirouettes along the tightrope between sketch comedy and theatre but there’s plenty of craft operating beneath its apparently ramshackle exterior.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Tue & Wed
2 Wrecking Ball
Referencing the Miley Cyrus song and its infamous video, Action Hero’s two-hander is a fascinating meditation on the responsibility we take for looking, and how as consumers we eagerly buy the images we are being sold. “I just want to be myself,” says a blonde celebrity on a photoshoot with a seedy photographer; but in a world where image is all, what does being yourself really mean?
The Place, Bedford, Tue; Axis Arts Ctre, Crewe, Thu; touring to 30 Nov
3 1984
Big Brother is only in control until next Saturday at the Playhouse, where Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s superb version of the George Orwell novel has been enjoying a third West End run. It is not an easy watch, but it is a terrifyingly effective one that constantly reminds how willing we are to give away our information – and with it our freedom.
Playhouse Theatre, WC2, to 29 Oct
4 Bright Colours Only
Pauline Goldsmith’s wonderful show brings audiences closer to death as they gather around a coffin and mourn. It is part of Summerhall’s Festival Of Ian Smith: A Celebration Of Death which was conceived as a tribute to Smith (of theatre company Mischief La Bas), who died in 2014. Alongside performances exploring grief, there is a glimpse of a new piece from Victoria Melody called Ugly Chief (29 Oct), about how she set about organising her own father’s funeral when he was misdiagnosed with a terminal illness.
Summerhall, Edinburgh, Fri & 29 Oct
5 Harrogate
Al Smith recently had a hit with Diary Of A Madman, and now this one he made earlier arrives at the Royal Court for a week before touring the south east and eastern counties. It’s a slippery little number, a chamber play looking at relationships, memory and family, that hones in on male sexuality and one father’s inappropriate relationship with his daughter.
Royal Court, SW1, to 29 Oct; touring to 16 Nov
LG
Five of the best… dance shows this week
1 Anastasia
The Royal Ballet presents Kenneth MacMillan’s ambitious retelling of the last days of the Romanovs and the story of a woman who believed she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
Royal Opera House, WC2, Wed to 12 Nov
2 Fractus V
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui makes one of his increasingly rare appearances on stage, in this all-male piece (pictured) inspired by the writings of Noam Chomsky.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, Thu & Fri
3 Stepmother/Stepfather
The reliably deviant Arthur Pita promises gruesome tales of unnatural parenting in this latest work for the HeadSpaceDance company.
Jerwood DanceHouse, Ipswich, Fri & 29 Oct
JM
