Husbands & Sons, Manchester
DH Lawrence’s early plays A Collier’s Friday Night, The Widowing Of Mrs Holroyd and The Daughter-In-Law offer a richly textured snapshot of the world into which Lawrence had been born and which he was determined to escape. They are normally produced as stand-alone dramas but here the National Theatre’s deputy artistic director Ben Power adapts them into a single play, the characters overlapping and coming together at moments of drama and crisis. Marianne Elliott directs a production that has been described by the New York Times as “a symphony in theatrical form” and boasts some fine actors including Anne-Marie Duff on top form as Mrs Holroyd.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Fri to 19 Mar
LG
The War Of The Worlds, London
The Dominion is well-used to the OTT rock musical, having housed We Will Rock You for aeons. Now, it’s hosting a blockbuster in the form of the stage version of the 1978 album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds. Itself based on the HG Wells sci-fi novel, the record has sold more than 15m copies worldwide. The show premieres here, with Wayne himself conducting the orchestra and his Black Smoke Band appearing on stage. The cast includes one of the original contributors to the album, David Essex, plus Jimmy Nail, Daniel Bedingfield, Michael Praed (ex of Dynasty) and former Sugababes and Atomic Kitten singer Heidi Range. Liam Neeson plays The Journalist – in hologram form.
Dominion Theatre, W1, to 30 Apr
MC
Hand To God, London
For fans of puppet-sex theatre – who will have been missing this particular genre since Avenue Q was in the West End – Hand To God is a must-see. Written by Robert Askins, the play is set in a small Texan town and concerns the church puppet club, a place designed to teach children about Christianity. Tyrone is a foul-mouthed, out-of-control and possibly demonic sock puppet assigned to a teenage boy called Jason, and the driving force behind a show that tackles faith and morality. It has been described as an irreverent black comedy with a big heart and “a welcome breath of foul air”, drawing comparisons with both Avenue Q and The Book Of Mormon (so not for the faint-hearted, then). Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel repeats his Broadway stint here, and the cast includes Janie Dee, Neil Pearson and Jemima Rooper.
Vaudeville Theatre, WC2, Mon to 11 Jun
MC
Betrayal, Exeter
The financially troubled Northcott Theatre is back in business under artistic director Paul Jepson, who has chosen Harold Pinter’s play about deception and marital infidelity (inspired by his own affair with Joan Bakewell) for its first proper production in six years. Emma is married to Robert and has been having an affair with his best friend Jerry for many years; the show’s USP is that it works backwards, starting at the end of the affair and ending at the instant it started. It gives the play an emotional vividness and in many ways is one of Pinter’s most accessible and self-revealing plays, centred on a web of deception that tightens around all involved.
Northcott Theatre, Thu to 5 Mar
LG
Chwalfa, Bangor
In 2014, this production by Wales’s other national theatre company – the Welsh-language Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru – was already well into rehearsal when it was cancelled because of construction delays to the venue that was due to stage it. Now the theatre is fully open and the actors and community chorus from the surrounding villages reassemble to tell the story of the UK’s longest-running industrial dispute. This is a stage adaptation of T Rowland Hughes’s novel about the Penrhyn quarry strike, which lasted from 1900 to 1903, told from the perspective of one fictitious family. The show is performed in Welsh but will be translated at every performance for those who need it via a special (and free) smartphone app.
Pontio: Theatr Bryn Terfel, Wed to 27 Feb
LG
Hamlet, Bristol
In a year that marks the 400th anniversary of his death, there won’t be any shortage of Shakespeare productions – but the Tobacco Factory’s annual Shakespeare season is always worth a look. This year it includes All’s Well That Ends Well (31 Mar to 30 Apr), and kicks off with Andrew Hilton’s take on Hamlet. This production may come sandwiched between two more high-profile revivals – the Benedict Cumberbatch effort at the Barbican and the RSC’s upcoming production (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 12 Mar to 13 Aug) with Paapa Essiedu, who was also a very fine Romeo at the Tobacco Factory last year – yet it could turn out to be the pick of the bunch. That’s largely because of Hilton’s direction: his productions may be austere but they always have a crystal clarity and fine performances.
Tobacco Factory: Factory Theatre, to 30 Apr
LG
