Under The Dark Moon, Bristol
Fairytales are at the heart of Invisible Circus’s show, which once upon a time (in 2013) was part of Bristol’s circus festival and has since been developed into a production that can be performed in theatre settings. It’s a piece of theatrical alchemy directed by a Pied Piper-style ringmaster, which uses a live band and old film footage to entice audiences into the dark thickets of the mind. These are tales of loss, heartache, magic and mystery, grief and desolation, delivered through circus acts that range from the trapeze to silks and acrobatics.
Bristol Old Vic, to 18 Apr
LG
Ah, Wilderness! London
Eugene O’Neill is not known for his comedic writing, but one of his earliest works was a light, idealistic family drama that prefigured possibly his greatest play. Ah, Wilderness! is set in Connecticut in 1906 on the Fourth of July amongst the Miller family and is the tale of a 16-year-old’s coming of age and gentle heartbreak and disillusionment. In many ways it’s the boyhood O’Neill wished he’d had – he’s certainly more at home in the dark classic Long Day’s Journey Into Night and the tragedy of the Tyrone family – the Millers are like the Tyrones but without the drugs and TB. The 1933 play became a 1935 film of the same name and another, Summer Holiday, in 1948 (both featured Mickey Rooney), as well as a 1959 Broadway musical, Take Me Along.
Young Vic, SE1, Tue to 23 May
MC
Love’s Sacrifice, Stratford-upon-Avon
John Ford’s rarely revived The Broken Heart can currently be seen in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe. But those wishing to catch an even more obscure play of his should head to the Swan, where Greg Doran’s challenge to scholars to suggest a forgotten 17th-century play with modern appeal has led to the first staging in 400 years of this tale of love, death, betrayal and revenge. Director Matthew Dunster makes his RSC debut in a play that, like The Broken Heart, includes unconsummated love and a madly jealous husband. There are often good reasons why plays have languished in obscurity, but sometimes there are exciting discoveries. Here’s hoping that Ford’s play falls into the latter category. It is cross-cast with The Jew Of Malta, offering a chance to see the same actors across two productions.
Swan Theatre, Sat to 24 Jun
LG
American Buffalo, London
There is a stellar lineup for this revival of David Mamet’s 1975 play, American Buffalo, which has starred the likes of Dustin Hoffman (the 1996 film version), Al Pacino and William H Macy over the years. In this typical Mamet tale of low-life crims, greed and ineptitude, centring on attempts by a pair of junk shop owners to steal a coin collection (the title refers to a rare US coin), we have Damian Lewis and John Goodman. There’s also Tom Sturridge, whose career has encompassed Broadway theatre and Hollywood films, and who is soon to be seen in a new adaptation of Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd and as Henry VI for the BBC.
Wyndham’s Theatre, WC2, Thu to 27 Jun
MC
Titus Andronicus, Dundee
Dundee’s revenge season has already included Lorca’s Blood Wedding, and now Stewart Laing’s revival of the bloodiest revenge tragedy of them all, Titus Andronicus, takes to the stage. Following funding rejections for his company Untitled Projects, Laing may be bloodied but he’s definitely unbowed, with his much admired staging of Paul Bright’s Confessions Of A Justified Sinner heading to the Edinburgh international festival this summer. Titus is an early Shakespeare play but one that is full of muscular vigour as it charts an unceasing cycle of revenge, some of which takes place not just on the battlefield but in the kitchen. Last year’s Globe revival had audiences fainting, and Laing is likely to do this play full justice.
Dundee Rep, to 24 Apr
LG
Outside Mullingar, Bath
American playwright John Patrick Shanley is best-known for the convent-set play Doubt: A Parable, which won the 2005 Pulitzer prize. Here, he looks to rural Ireland for this low-key romantic comedy about two feuding families, who are contesting rights to the strip of land that separates their two farms. Its damp, soggy heart certainly warmed the cockles of the New York critics when it played Broadway last year, with the New York Times admiring a “comedy freckled with dark reflections on the unsatisfactory nature of life and the thorns of love”. A story of different kinds of inheritance, directed by Sam Yates.
Ustinov Studio, Thu to 16 May
LG
