The Maids, London
Three women who have made a big impact on TV line up for the latest of Jamie Lloyd’s productions at the Trafalgar Studios. The Maids is a psychodrama by Jean Genet with themes of class, gender and sexuality, as two maids plot the murder of their mistress in a luxurious bedroom, playing out violent scenarios as they do so. In this modern, US-set version, the two servants are played by Uzo Aduba, a double Emmy-winner for her performance as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren in Orange Is The New Black, and Zawe Ashton of Fresh Meat fame, seen in Splendour at the Donmar Warehouse last year. Madam is played by someone familiar with upstairs-dwelling characters: Laura Carmichael, best known as Downton Abbey’s Lady Edith.
Trafalgar Studios, SW1, Sat to 21 May
MC
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play For The Nation, Stratford-upon-Avon
This collaborative Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream sees actors from various amateur theatre companies join the professional cast to play Bottom and his friends. Alongside Ayesha Dharker as Titania and Lucy Ellinson as Puck, local am-dram groups play the Mechanicals, themselves part-time actors who perform a play within the play. It’s good to see the contribution amateur companies make to cultural life recognised, and, of course, it means the production will be different every place it’s performed, as it travels to 11 theatres across the country next month.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, to 16 Jul
LG
The Destroyed Room, On tour
Jeff Wall’s photograph The Destroyed Room, which features on the Sonic Youth album of the same name, depicts a ransacked room in which the furniture has been mysteriously destroyed by an unknown force. Now Vanishing Point, one of the UK’s most distinctive companies, attempts to shed some light by using the photograph to examine western privilege and what threatens it. Vanishing Point frequently examines the audience’s perspective and director Matthew Lenton often offers an unexpected take on the world, too. Here, the morality of witnessing without acting is explored in a show that tours Scotland ahead of a London run.
Eden Court, Inverness, Sat; Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu to 5 Mar; touring to 14 May
LG
Beyond The Fence, London
Beyond The Fence is apparently the first computer-generated musical, partially created by an IT system dubbed Android Lloyd Webber. It is the result of a process carried out by academics at Cambridge and Goldsmiths, as well as a West End crew, who looked at elements from cast size, backdrop and emotional structure in the most successful shows – and then let the algorithms do the work. Although a human was needed for the book and lyrics, the end product is something of a surprise, set as it is at Greenham Common in 1982, where a woman is torn between her political ideals and her young daughter. A documentary on the production will be broadcast on Sky Arts on Thursday.
Arts Theatre, WC2, Mon to 5 Mar
MC
Chip Shop Chips, On tour
Manchester company Box Of Tricks has a decade of production under its belt and the company’s last two have been crackers. So there are high hopes for this new play by Becky Prestwich, which sets off on tour this week. At some venues a chippy tea will be available, which is appropriate for a show set in Booth and Son’s Fish & Chip Shop, where Eric has returned after 40 years away. He’s hoping to rekindle love but his old flame Christine has other ideas. Meanwhile, the teenage Lee has got a thing for the beautiful Jasmine, but has she even noticed he’s there? A love story with salt, pepper and a touch of vinegar, this four-hander should be a piquant celebration of Box Of Tricks’ 10th anniversary.
LG
Right Now, On tour
Alice and Ben are a young couple who are delighted to have found a beautiful new flat. The neighbours, Juliette, Giles and their 35-year-old son François, seem very welcoming; in fact, perhaps a bit too welcoming, to the point where they become intrusive. What seem like perfectly innocent invitations suddenly start to appear rather more disturbing. The fact this is heading to two major new writing venues – London’s Bush and the Traverse in Edinburgh– after its Bath debut suggests there is a lot of faith in this play by Quebec’s Catherine-Anne Toupin. It has been a hit in Canada, where it was praised for the way it adds laughter to a tense thriller. The wonderful Maureen Beattie stars as a woman very much on the edge.
Ustinov, Theatre Royal, to 19 Mar; then touring
LG
