Everyman, London
In 2000, when Chiwetel Ejiofor was last at the National Theatre, he won the Evening Standard award for best newcomer for his performance in Blue/Orange. Fifteen years on and he’s a worldwide name, with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, plus a Bafta for Steve McQueen’s 2013 film 12 Years A Slave. He returns to the South Bank in poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s new adaptation of Everyman, the anonymous, allegorical morality play from the 15th century. Ejiofor is the eponymous representation of all mankind, facing death and having to account for his life in a bid for Christian salvation.
National Theatre: Olivier, SE1, Wed to 16 Jul
MC
The Rolling Stone, Manchester
Land Of Our Fathers, Chris Urch’s debut play for Theatre503, was a terrific calling card, a gripping and gruelling drama set down a south Wales mine, where an electrical accident threatened the lives of the men below ground. This Bruntwood prize-winner couldn’t be more different, telling of the relationship between two men, Dembe and Sam, who live in Uganda. There, gay people have no legal protection and are hounded and frequently subject to attacks. Dembe’s brother is one of those doing the hounding – from the pulpit every week. The Royal Exchange’s main house is currently hosting Ellen McDougall’s much-admired production of Anna Karenina (to 2 May), and she also directs this contemporary tale of illicit love.
Royal Exchange Studio, Tue to 1 May
LG
Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone, On tour
There comes a moment in every child’s life when they discover that their parents are not gods. Maybe it’s when they realise that they are physically stronger, or perhaps when they first see the cracks in their emotional makeup. Exquisitely performed by Scott Turnbull and Sean Campion, this quietly devastating piece takes its title from John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden, and its emotional heart from mother and daughter relationships. The two male actors play a mother and daughter, while onstage – observing and being observed – are a real-life mother and daughter plucked from the local community.
Farnham Maltings, Tue; Harlow Playhouse, Thu; Marlowe Studio, Canterbury, Fri; touring to 13 Jun
LG
Justice And Mercy season, London
For his final season as artistic director at Shakespeare’s Globe, Dominic Dromgoole has chosen the theme of justice and mercy - which is fitting in the 800th anniversary year of Magna Carta. It all kicks off on St George’s Day with a play for which the word “justice” immediately springs to mind. The Merchant Of Venice (Thu to 7 Jun) stars Jonathan Pryce as Shylock in one of the Bard’s trickiest works. Beyond Shakespeare there’s another big court scene in Aeschylus’s Oresteia (29 Aug to 16 Oct), which is staged in a new adaptation by Rory Mullarkey. Much Ado About Nothing (10 Aug to 12 Sep), Romeo & Juliet (27 Apr to 8 May) and As You Like It (15 May to 5 Sep) also feature in the programme, plus the rarely played King John (1 to 27 Jun, and at Temple Church, EC4, Sat & Sun) and Richard III in Mandarin (20 to 25 Jul).
Shakespeare’s Globe, SE1
MC
A Translation Of Shadows, Coventry
In the early 20th century era of the silent movie, Japanese cinemas employed a benshi, whose job it was to explain audiences through the movie and interpret the visual images for them. They were powerful figures, and objects of some fascination for audiences. But just as some Hollywood silent movie stars lost their jobs with the arrival of the talkies, so the benshi became surplus to requirements as silent films were replaced by movies with sound. Stan’s Café, one of British theatre’s most inventive companies, has been interested in melding film and theatre from its very earliest days, and it resurrects the tradition of the benshi in this new piece featuring a silent movie that tells the story of a couple in love. But will all meaning get lost in translation?
Warwick Arts Centre, Wed to Fri
LG
Feed The Beast, Birmingham
The election is over and a new prime minister is moving his family into Downing Street. He has made promises to the country and intends to keep them, and there is plenty that needs doing urgently, so he reckons there’s no time to smarm up to the press. But his spin doctors know that the first 100 days are when a new prime minister’s relationship with the media is at its most crucial, and if the PM won’t “feed the beast” then he may well be the beast’s lunch. Richard Bean and the National may have got in first with Great Britain but this latest from Steve Thompson – who has written some terrific plays dissecting democracy, including Whipping It Up – takes a more considered look at the relationship between politics and the media.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, to 2 May
LG
