North
My, it's quiet. At the end of the week, Alan Bennett's monologues, Talking Heads, are revived at the New Vic in Newcastle under Lyme. I can't vouch for the quality, but the originals are great. Across in Manchester, Lass O' Gowrie hosts a stage adaptation of Bruce Robinson's movie, Withnail and I, next Monday to Wednesday, and Peter Whelan's first world war story, The Accrington Pals, opens at the Royal Exchange. Staying nearby, the Re:Play Festival continues to showcase some of Manchester's best fringe theatre at the Lowry, which also plays host to the Moscow State Circus. You need to get your skates on for My Fair Lady with Dominic West, which has just over a week left at Sheffield Crucible – or you can head to the Lyceum for the touring production of Blood Brothers.
Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Here it's quieter still. Jean Genet's The Maids, inspired by a real-life killing, gets the all-male cast that its author intended in Stewart Laing's revival at the Citizens, and Tony Cownie's revival of the 1950s play of working-class life, A Taste of Honey, is at the Lyceum in Edinburgh. Gary Mitchell's account of the life of Northern Irish comic, The James Young Story, continues at the Mac in Belfast.
East and Central
Propeller tour their all-male Shakespeare revivals – Twelfth Night and the Taming of the Shrew – to the Theatre Royal to Norwich. Patrick Barlow's clever theatrical spoof of The 39 Steps, a long-running West End hit, goes out on tour from Cambridge Arts Theatre, and Eastern Angles murder mystery spoof, Dial M for Murgatroyd, continues at the Seckford Theatre in Woodbridge.
In Birmingham it's a last chance for The Wind in the Willows at the Crescent. And down the road in Stratford-upon-Avon Lucy Bailey's revival of The Winter's Tale with Tara Fitzgerald as Hermione is in preview in the RST alongside The Orphan of Zhao and Boris Godunov in the Swan. Details of both shows are here on the RSC website. Opera Up Close's hugely enjoyable version of La Bohème stops off at the Belgrade in Coventry on Tuesday, and on the same night Nottingham's Lakeside plays host to Passing On, a puppet piece using real-life testimony to explore the experiences of those whose loved ones have died in hospital.
Wales and South
Richard Bean's joyously funny One Man, Two Guvnors goes into the Wales Millennium Centre, and also in Cardiff the Sherman stages Rhian Staples' award winning Welsh language play, Cynnau Tan. It's a last chance tonight and tomorrow for Marega Palser's Sometimes we Look at Chapter Arts – a mix of dance, drawing and animation.
In Exeter, the From Devon with Love season at the Bike Shed is two weeks of locally made theatre and well worth checking out. Local theatre makers take over Bristol Old Vic too for Ferment, an opportunity to see work that may be developed for full scale production. At the Tobacco Factory it's a last chance for the glorious Hansel and Gretel, and from Tuesday in the Brewery space there's a solo shop that is a cut above most: Oliver Reed: Wild Thing. There's still time this weekend too for 4 Days at the Arnolfini , a short season of work incorporating theatre and play.
The Mousetrap sets out on a nationwide tour from the Theatre Royal in Bath, while the Ustinov studio hosts a revival of Anthony Neilson's Stitching; I don't know the company, but the play is remarkable and disturbing. Rachel Wagstaff's adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's novel Birdsong goes out on tour from the Haymarket in Basingstoke. And Oily Cart's In a Pickle will bring joy to 2-to-5 year olds at the Gulbenkian in Canterbury.
London
There are some terrific shows in the London International Mime Festival this week, including Gandini Juggling's Smashed at the Linbury. Other shows to check out include Nothing Moves if I Don't Push It, which features the German wheel and Chinese pole at Jackson's Lane, and Zimmermann & de Perrot's Hans was Heiri at the Barbican.
La Turista, directed by Jamie Harper, plays Sundays only at Morito tapas bar in Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell and offers audiences a full meal while experiencing life in Spain during the civil war – sounds intriguing. And it would be insane to pass up the opportunity to see Mariah Gale and Felix Scott who both appear in the destructive love story, Gruesome Playground Injuries, at the Gate. Marianne Elliott revives Simon Stephens' Port, a tale of survival in Stockport in the late 1980s, in previews at the NT. Lindsay Posner directs The Turn of the Screw, adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz at the Almeida. And the highly physical production of Kafka's Metamorphosis is back at the Lyric Hammersmith .
The sublime Kathryn Hunter plays the lead in Mare Rider, a tale of myth and motherhood at the Arcola; Anna Francolini is on board too, which is a good sign. Playwrights imagine the future in Festopia at Theatre 503 from Tuesday which includes Vanessa Wilkins and Polly Churchill's feminist comedy, COC. And there's good week ahead at the Beyond a Joke season at CPT exploring where comedy and theatre meet. Tom Wainwright's Buttercup and Jamie Wood's Beating McEnroe should be worth a look, and looking ahead you should book for Daniel Bye's The Price of Everything on the 26th. Still time for the smart and thoughtful Monkey Bars at the Unicorn.
Have a good (and not too snowy) weekend, and tell us all about the shows you are seeing.
