Review: Gone With The Wind

New London Theatre, London WC2

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Review: Richard II, Henry IV Parts I & I, Henry V

Roundhouse, London NW1

For those who grab this rare chance to see all of Shakespeare’s history plays in chronological order, the three-week gap between the first and second half of the RSC’s eight-play marathon will come as an unwelcome distraction.

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Review: Fram

Oliver, National Theatre, London SE1

If anyone can make a gripping drama out of three hours of rhyming couplets, poet-playwright Tony Harrison can.

But in his heavily symbolic biographical drama about Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen (Jasper Britton), Harrison and fellow co-director Bob Crowley take no chances.

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Review: War And Peace

Hampstead Theatre, London NW3

This is a week for epic theatre. As the RSC brings Shakespeare’s history plays to North London’s Roundhouse (to be reviewed next week), down the road the Hampstead is hosting Shared Experience’s hugely ambitious and deeply rewarding stage version of Tolstoy’s great Russian novel.

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Review: Testing The Echo

Tricycle Theatre, London NW6

David Edgar’s zeitgeist play about British citizenship would have benefited from having fewer points of view. But then, to discriminate against one point of view in favour of another would, according to English teacher Emma, be very un-British. Her job is to help a diverse group of immigrants pass their British citizenship test. Their reward — a mayor’s handshake and the rights of a British citizen.

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Review: The Black And White Ball

The King’s Head, London N1

Having, for the first time, announced a full season of new work, there is a welcome burst of energy at the much-loved King’s Head. Kicking off with a new musical by Cole Porter sounds like a winner. But, of course, it is not Porter’s songs that are new here but Warner Brown’s book.

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Review: Visiting Mr Green

Trafalgar Studios, London SW1

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Review: The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot

Almeida Theatre, London N1

Stephen Adly Guirgis is a New York writer whose track record is more Hell’s Kitchen than hell.

No surprise, then, that although his trial play, which tests the guilt of Judas Iscariot, takes place in downtown Purgatory, in Rupert Goold’s exhilarating Headlong production, the place looks a lot like seedy, modern-day New York.

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Review: Contains Violence

Lyric Hammersmith, London W6

Two kinds of gap feature during this chilly open air evening.

The first is the considerable distance between the action, which takes place in office windows, and the audience, who sit on the Lyric’s roof terrace and are equipped with binoculars and headphones.

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Review: Maria Friedman Re-arranged

Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1

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