Yen, Manchester
This year’s Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting has recently been launched and you have until June to submit your play and nab the £16,000 first prize. One of the best things about the award is that all entries are anonymous, which means that the judges have no idea whether they are reading work by a debut playwright or an established writer. It has thrown up plenty of unknowns and kickstarted the careers of playwrights including Duncan Macmillan and Vivienne Franzmann. It should do the same for the 2013 winner Anna Jordan, already a rising star with eye-catching work including Freak and Chicken Shop. Her winning play Yen follows the fortunes of two teenagers who are pretty much raising themselves, until there’s an unexpected knock at the door. Ned Bennett directs.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Wed to 7 Mar
LG
Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant, London
Pantomime dames and cross-dressing roles are nothing new, of course, but there’s a history of female performers dressing up as chaps too – one that goes back far beyond the days of Jimmy Krankie. In the 19th century there was Vesta Tilley, who first donned trousers at the age of six and became a highly paid, pioneering music hall act, with her taboo-breaking performances much admired in Britain. But she also played a crucial role when the first world war broke out: with her husband, she helped recruit men into the army and was nicknamed “Britain’s best recruiting sergeant”. That’s the title of a new play by Joy Wilkinson for all ages (over eight) that celebrates Tilley’s life.
Unicorn Theatre, SE1, to 15 Mar
MC
Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage, On tour
Being openly gay is something that is still difficult to talk about in many sports, but it’s particularly hard in rugby. So when Welsh rugby star Gareth “Alfie” Thomas came out as gay in 2009 after the Sun threatened to out him, it was always going to be news. Thomas’s story is told in this new piece by Robin Soans, a co-production between National Theatre Wales and Out Of Joint, which has been working alongside young people living in Thomas’s home town of Bridgend to explore issues around sport, truth, lies and having the courage to really be yourself in the face of hostility and prejudice. Max Stafford-Clark directs.
LG
Rebecca, On tour
Rebecca and Maxim de Winter’s marriage may not have been one made in heaven, but the pairing of Kneehigh with Daphne du Maurier’s haunting Cornish tale of obsession, love, jealousy and murder should be a very entertaining one. Emma Rice both adapts and directs the famous story of the new Mrs de Winter, a young bride who goes to live at her husband’s ancestral home and becomes increasingly insecure in the shadow of the glamorous first Mrs de Winter, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident. Particularly as sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers clings obsessively to Rebecca’s memory. The mixture of mystery and gothic romance fits nicely with Rice’s sensibility and this should be a hit for the inspiring Cornish company.
LG
Boi Boi Is Dead, Leeds
Boi Boi was always a bit of a larger-than-life character. An Afro-jazz legend, he was also a rule-breaker who didn’t let being a husband and father get in the way of his reputation as a playboy and lover. But now that he’s dead, somebody’s got to pick up the pieces – and that’s the grief-stricken Miriam. There are plenty of others trying to get in on the act though, including Boi Boi’s beguiling ex-wife Stella and his brother, a strong traditionalist who wants to stake a claim to Boi Boi’s legacy. Written after a year-long Channel 4 writer’s residency at the Playhouse, this is the first full-length play from the Zimbabwe-born Zodwa Nyoni, who now lives in Leeds.
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Sat to 7 Mar
LG
Multitudes, London
For sheer topicality – following events in Paris and government minister Eric Pickles’s letter to British Muslim leaders – John Hollingworth’s debut play Multitudes is bang on the money. It’s set on the eve of a Tory party conference and the visit of the PM to multicultural Bradford (where Hollingworth grew up). The issues about British identity, immigration and war in the Middle East are played out within one family: Kash, a liberal British Muslim who’s about to make a big speech; his girlfriend Natalie (a recent convert to Islam); and her mother Lyn, who bemoans the decline of her England. “This whole multicultural happy-clappy, hippie-dippie love-in is a fantasy” is the provocative quote in the tagline. Discuss.
Tricycle Theatre, NW6, Thu to 21 Mar
MC
