Harvey, Birmingham
One man, Elwood P Dowd, and his 6ft rabbit – invisible to everyone except him – is the set-up for Mary Chase’s 1944 play. Comedy ensues when Elwood’s sister tries to get him committed to a sanatorium because she believes him to be delusional. The Pulitzer prize committee may have been delusional themselves when this light comedy won out over Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie but, carefully handled, it has real charm. This rare UK revival is certainly cast to the hilt with James Dreyfus playing Elwood and Maureen Lipman as his sister, Veta, who finds her plans don’t turn out quite as she’d expected. Lindsay Posner directs, a sure sign that this giant rabbit has got its eye on the West End after a regional tour.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Fri to 21 Feb
LG
Radiance: The Passion Of Marie Curie, London
Having won six Emmys and six Golden Globes – and written a New York Times bestselling autobiography – M*A*S*H star Alan Alda has penned his first full-length play. Radiance: The Passion Of Marie Curie follows the struggle of the pioneering scientist and her husband Pierre in early 20th-century Paris as they worked – with fatal consequences – on radiation. The endeavour earned them a Nobel prize, the first ever to be awarded to a woman. After the death of her husband, Marie dealt with depression, and an affair with a married physicist created a public scandal. Cathy Tyson (of Mona Lisa and Band Of Gold) returns to the London stage in this gaslit melodrama.
Tabard Theatre, W4, Wed to 28 Feb
MC
The Life And Times Of Fanny Hill, Bristol
John Cleland’s infamous novel Fanny Hill – otherwise known as the Memoirs Of A Woman Of Pleasure – takes the form of a breathless diary and was so explicit that it was banned shortly after its publication in 1748. Now, April de Angelis revisits the story of Fanny, her fall into prostitution and rise to fame. In a piece examing desire and pleasure, it tears back the curtain on the realities of Fanny’s life with all of the transactions it entailed – fiscal, physical and emotional. Caroline Quentin leads this irreverent but, given De Angelis’s authorship, almost certainly thoughtful romp. It also arrives on stage with an original score by Pete Flood of the folk band Bellowhead.
Bristol Old Vic, Thu to 7 Mar
LG
Arcadia, Brighton
There have been plenty of recent revivals of Tom Stoppard’s delicately interwoven play about the secrets of the heart, the tensions between past and present, and the unknowability of history. Some of them have been very good. But this is a play that is always worth coming back to, and the fact that it is rising young director Blanche McIntyre who is doing the revisiting makes this a juicy prospect. Add to the casting of Dakota Blue Richards (who was Lyra in The Golden Compass, though is probably better known for playing Franky in Skins) as 19th-century maths prodigy Thomasina, and this revival of what many consider to be Stoppard’s best play (and almost certainly his most heartfelt) should deliver.
Theatre Royal, to 7 Feb
LG
Jefferson’s Garden, Watford
A new play from Timberlake Wertenbaker, best known for Our Country’s Good, will always be of interest and it’s good to see Watford’s artistic director Brigid Larmour – who also directs here – continuing to programme knotty new work with this play about the birth of modern America. It’s 1776, and Christian is a young Quaker who finds all his beliefs are turned upside down when he encounters a runaway slave and strikes up a friendship with Thomas Jefferson, who may have drafted the Declaration Of Independence but still lives like a southern gentlemen. Jefferson’s Garden is a play about wanting to change the world – and discovering how often idealism is diluted by political pragmatism.
Palace Theatre, Thu to 21 Feb
LG
The Last Of The De Mullins, London
Edwardian playwright St John Hankin has been described as the missing link between Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward. An exponent of the Edwardian “new drama”, he succeeding in ruffling the feathers of audiences, but left behind just 10 works when he killed himself at the age of 39. The Charity That Began At Home was staged by the Orange Tree Theatre in 2011 and now The Last Of The De Mullins, a feminist comedy-drama, is being revived in London for the first time in more than a century. Janet is a proud, working, single mother, regarded as “fallen” by society and her once-rich family. Yet it is soon left to her to save the noble family line from dying out.
Jermyn Street Theatre, SW1, Tue to 28 Feb
MC
