Watch Out Festival, Cambridge
Another day and yet another performance festival, but there’s plenty to recommend at Watch Out, which celebrates the risky and experimental in a day- long celebration. Begin the day at 2pm with Dan Koop’s 360 Degrees, a collaboration with Andy Field and Nathen Street, in which you’ll need your mobile phone to navigate the city and the stars. The gorgeously gaudy Figs In Wigs will be reprising its recent Soho success, Show Off, and poet Rowan James considers normality and “blending in” in Easy For You To Say. There’s also work from Igor And Moreno, while the evening winds up with Lucy McCormick’s Calendar Girl, in which she casts herself as Jesus Christ. Apparently raincoats are advised.
LG
Temple, London
The Occupy London camp of 2011 at St Paul’s Cathedral has inspired a new play by Steve Waters. Few can forget that protest against the financial institutions and individuals who caused the recession, and the sight of one of London’s iconic buildings, having survived the Blitz, surrounded by an encampment of tents. Two weeks after the protesters arrived, the City of London started legal action to evict them. Waters’s piece, a fictionalised version of these events, focuses on the dean of the cathedral, who’s played by Simon Russell Beale – back at the Donmar after award-winning turns in The Philanthropist, Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya – and moral questions of conscience, authority and faith. It’s directed by Howard Davies.
Donmar Warehouse, WC2, Wed to 25 Jul
MC
Pulse Festival, Ipswich
At 15 years old, Pulse festival may be a mere stripling, but in that time it’s made its mark on the theatrical calendar. There’s less emerging work and more tried-and-tested shows this year, including Barely Methodical’s acrobatic exploration of male friendship, Bromance (Thu); and Idle Motion’s That Is All You Need To Know (Thu), which looks at the effect of keeping secrets on those who worked at Bletchley Park during the war. If festivals such as the New Diorama’s Incoming are more likely to throw up unfamiliar names, Pulse is a great opportunity to get a glimpse of rising stars, including Action Hero, Christopher Brett Bailey, Ira Brand and more.
The New Wolsey Theatre, Thu to 6 Jun
LG
Dusty, London
There seems to have been a resurgence of the jukebox musical lately: Sunny Afternoon (the Kinks) and Beautiful (Carole King) are both fine shows. This type of thing usually comes with a certain amount of padding to thread the musical material together, with some working better than others – notably those with better songs in the first place. Dusty, though, is slightly different in that it’s a multimedia show using 3D laser technology and a body double so that the iconic Springfield can actually be seen on stage. There’s also live music, performance and dance, telling – from a friend’s point of view – the transformation of shy Mary O’Brien into one of this country’s greatest singers. There’s probably not so much about her troubled personal life, but the music alone should suffice.
Charing Cross Theatre, SE1, Mon to 22 Aug
MC
Assemble Fest, Hull
Hull may be gearing up to be UK city of culture in 2017, but sometimes it’s the less flashy, local initiatives that really celebrate home-grown talent. That’s the case with Hull’s quirky Assemble Fest, which styles itself as “performance where you least expect it” and takes place in local businesses, a church and outdoors. There will be street theatre, Punch and Judy and magicians, but it’s also a chance to see some of Hull’s most interesting new companies via five specially commissioned short shows. Look out for Bellow Theatre’s The Cautionary Tale Of Horrid Ham Carver; consider seven decades of fashion and feminism with PinUpRound; or hear Hansel’s account of what really happened to Gretel in Silent Uproar’s show.
LG
Suddenly Last Summer, Keswick
Tennessee Williams’s 1958 play – known to most as the bowdlerised 1959 movie that stripped out any references to homosexuality – presents us with Catherine, who witnesses the death of her wayward cousin Sebastian. The sight brings on a breakdown, but Sebastian’s mother, Violet, is determined to find out what happened. If the truth isn’t to her fancy, though, she will make sure that it’s suppressed. Williams’s poetic drama is heightened, febrile and moist. But if it all sounds too overwrought, Keswick’s summer season includes jauntier fare: The 39 Steps (Sat to 4 Nov), Abigail’s Party (6 Jun to 6 Nov), and the world premiere of a new Arthurian drama, The Lady Of The Lake (13 Jun to 6 Nov).
Theatre By The Lake, Sat to 4 Nov
LG
