Oppenheimer, Stratford-upon-Avon
The American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer is often referred to as “the father of the atomic bomb”, thanks to his work on the Manhattan Project. The second world war initiative led to the development of the nuclear bombs – Little Boy and Fat Man – that were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. How could Oppenheimer live with himself after that? Directed by Angus Jackson, Tom Morton-Smith’s new play delves into the scientist’s life, contradictions and legacy. Beginning by casting off his radical past in order to help win the war, Oppenheimer then found himself at odds with authority and fought against the development of the hydrogen bomb, which led to his career being almost destroyed by accusations that he was a communist.
Swan Theatre, Thu to 7 Mar
LG
The Ruling Class, London
This coruscating play by Peter Barnes premiered at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1968 before moving to the West End, then became better known as a 1972 film starring Peter O’Toole. An acerbic satire, The Ruling Class remains a pinnacle work for Barnes – despite his 1985 play Red Noses earning him an Olivier award. Now, as part of director Jamie Lloyd’s politically minded Trafalgar Transformed season, we have the play’s first revival, with James McAvoy – returning to the scene of his 2013 Macbeth – as the paranoid schizophrenic who inherits an earldom and is thrust into high society.
Trafalgar Studios, SW1, Fri to 11 Apr
MC
Re:play Festival, Manchester
The merger of the Library Theatre Company with Cornerhouse will create HOME, a new arts centre that will be the UK’s largest outside of London when it opens this spring. In the meantime, HOME provides a pop-up venue at Number One, First Street for this year’s Re:play festival, which brings together some of the best local fringe theatre shows seen over the last year and gives them an encore. There are revivals of Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter (Thu & Fri), Anya Reiss’s Spur Of The Moment (Thu to 17 Jan) and Laura Wade’s fine comedy about death, Colder Than Here (17-20 Jan).
Number One, First Street, Mon to 24 Jan
LG
Taken At Midnight, London
Written by first-time playwright Mark Hayhurst and starring stage doyenne and Downton Abbey regular Penelope Wilton, Taken At Midnight premiered at Chichester last autumn and now transfers to the London stage. Last seen in the West End as Gertrude to Jude Law’s Hamlet, Wilton here plays Irmgard, the mother of brilliant German lawyer Hans Litten who cross-examined Hitler on the witness stand in the early 1930s. Hans’s eventual punishment involved him being sent to multiple concentration camps. The play, in restrained and unshowy fashion, follows his mother’s battle to get him released.
Theatre Royal, Haymarket, SW1, Thu to 14 Mar
MC
Faith Healer, Edinburgh
The Fantastic Francis Hardy is an Irish faith healer who has journeyed to the furthest points of Celtic Britain with companions Grace, his wife, and Teddy, his campy, showbiz-style manager. Francis claims to bring succour to the sick, but is he a miracle worker or a conman? Gifted with second sight or merely deluding himself? And what is endless journeying except perhaps a desperate attempt to find a way home? Brian Friel’s exquisite play has the potential to be as haunting and lyrical an evening in the theatre as you can hope to see, especially when watching a production that uncovers all of the story’s pain and ecstasy. Director John Dove is the man charged with delivering it.
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Wed to 7 Feb
LG
A View From The Bridge, Bolton
Arthur Miller once described himself as “an impatient moralist” and that’s easy to detect in this drama set amidst the Italian-American community in 1950s Brooklyn. Here, longshoreman Eddie Carbone is taking an unhealthily obsessive interest in his teenage niece, Catherine, whom he has helped raise. So when Catherine falls for Eddie’s wife’s cousin Rodolpho, who has come to New York as an illegal immigrant, Eddie makes a decision that will have tragic consequences. Director David Thacker has a special affinity with Miller’s work, having collaborated extensively with the playwright in the late 80s.
The Octagon Theatre, Thu to 14 Feb
LG
