Buzzcut, Glasgow
This experimental performance festival boasts an unrivalled programme of radical work hailing from both Scotland and further afield. There are 60 shows, selected from more than 400 applications, and the range of work means that there’s something for everyone. Look out for returning artists such as Nic Green, Emma Frankland, Foxy and Husk, Richard Layzell and Getinthebackofthevan’s Lucy McCormick, with newcomers heading to Glasgow for the first time including Ria Hartley and Scrimshaw Collective. The set-up is pay what you can and the atmosphere relaxed.
Pearce Institute, Wed to 10 Apr
LG
Clybourne Park, Colchester
Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin In The Sun tells the story of the Youngers, an African American family who put down a deposit on a house in the fictional suburb of Clybourne Park in Chicago, a majority white neighbourhood. In Hansberry’s work, the Youngers are not to move in. Conversely, in Bruce Norris’s 2010 spin-off, while the white vendors are encouraged not to sell to the Youngers, we fast forward to the present day to find that the area is now predominately black. As such, a white couple attempting to move in find themselves unwelcome. Norris’s drama is sharply funny and skewers all sorts of liberal pieties. An incendiary mix of class and race, this is a bold choice for the Mercury.
Mercury Theatre, Fri to 23 Apr
LG
Boy, London
An ordinary youth at a bus stop is the starting point for Leo Butler’s new play, appropriately entitled Boy, which uses his journey as a portrait of coming of age in austerity-hit London. For 10 years, Sheffield-born Butler worked with young writers at the Royal Court, which was where his second play, Redundant, was premiered in 2001. This production, involving 25 actors, is also the jumping-off point for a joint project with the Arsenal Foundation to get young people from north London involved in theatre. It’s directed by Sacha Wares, who returns to the Islington venue alongside award-winning designer Miriam Buether after last year’s highly praised Game, about the negative effects of rising property prices.
Almeida Theatre, N1, Tue to 28 May
MC
Goosebumps Alive, London
Although RL Stine’s Goosebumps books are the second most popular children’s series ever behind Harry Potter – having shifted 400 million copies worldwide – this new piece of immersive theatre is an altogether more grown-up affair. On entering The Vaults, an arts space nestled in disused tunnels beneath Waterloo Station, punters will be buried alive and manhandled by monsters as they journey through a series of 19 rooms. Scenes are based on tales such as Stay Out Of The Basement, Night Of The Living Dummy and Say Cheese, And Die! There’s an original score, too, from The Tiger Lillies of Shockheaded Peter fame, who will perform live at some performances. Although visitors 12 and up are welcome, children must be accompanied by a guardian – a parallel experience for younger audiences, Goosebumps Kids, opens 14 May.
MC
Men & Girls Dance, Folkestone
The title shouldn’t be a provocation, but of course it is. The idea of men over the age of 35 dancing with prepubescent girls is not one that is easily accepted in a society where adult relationships with children are, however innocent, often viewed with suspicion and fear. The project, aimed at adult audiences and hoping to raise discussion and debate, is the brainchild of Fevered Sleep, the fine cross-art form company that has made some excellent work over the last 20 years, much but not all of it for children. This work will prompt many questions: what does it mean for an adult man to dance in public with a young girl? How will it be viewed? Will you feel uncomfortable watching? The show will be performed by male professionals working with local children who dance for fun, and tour to venues across the country (to 29 Oct).
LG
Laila: The Musical, Watford
British Asian theatre company Rifco had a big hit with 2010 musical Britain’s Got Bhangra, so there are high hopes for this production inspired by the ancient Persian story of unconsummated love, which is often described as the Romeo And Juliet of the east. In fact, it predates Shakespeare’s play by many centuries, and is best known because of a 12th-century poem by Nizami Ganjavi. This modern retelling is written and directed by Pravesh Kumar with music by Sumeet Chopra and lyrics by Dougal Irvine. It sees a young woman called Laila take refuge from the rain in a bookshop, where she finds a book that has her name on it. Soon she is swept up in the story and the tragedy that ensues. Or does it? Can Laila’s fate can be rewritten?
LG
