From a spine-tingling Tennessee Williams in Manchester to the sparkling Spill festival in Ipswich, the week ahead is packed with theatrical fireworks
North
There's plenty of activity in the north-east. The Simon Stephens' double bill, London, is at Newcastle's Live theatre this weekend and there are two nights more for Mike Bartlett's update of Medea at Northern Stage. Time is running out for Richard Cameron's Roma and the Flannelettes, and Laura Wade's Colder Than Here as the season at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick comes to a close.
The Homotopia festival takes place in venues all over Liverpool. It features lots of terrific theatre work including Bette Bourne and Paul Shaw as A Right Pair and Amy Lamé's investigation into fandom, Unhappy Birthday. Also worth clocking in Liverpool: Pilot's staging of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner at Liverpool Playhouse this weekend. And the Playhouse studio has a new play, Held, by local writer Joe Ward Munrow.
The Oldham Coliseum reopens with The Importance of Being Earnest. Beat a path to the Royal Exchange in Manchester for a spooky revival of Tennessee Williams's Orpheus Descending. West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds plays host to Michael Morpurgo's Farm Boy, and Frantic Assembly's Beautiful Burnout. At York's Theatre Royal, Pilot's studio double bill about the start and end of a relationship, End of Desire/Escaping Alice, sounds promising. Tom Wells's tale of family life in a dead-end Yorkshire seaside town was a massive hit at the Bush at the end of last year, and now has a well-deserved regional premiere at Hull Truck from tonight.
Central and East
Two soldiers separated by a century cope with life after injury in Wounded at the TA Centre in King's Heath, Birmingham. Paul Kerryson revives Joe Orton's outrageous Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Curve in Leicester from tonight. Inua Ellams's Black T-shirt Collection is at Nottingham Playhouse from next Friday, where the main house is reviving Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Propeller's all-male and melancholy version of Twelfth Night goes into the Belgrade in Coventry from next Thursday. Forced Entertainment are at the New Wolsey in Ipswich tonight with The Coming Storm as part of the Spill festival, then head to Warwick Arts Centre from Tuesday. (Also at Warwick: the Best of the BE festival on Monday only.)
Ipswich is a hive of activity over the weekend with Spill, and Hugh Hughes's Stories from an Invisible Town heads into the New Wolsey on Tuesday. Join the fabulous Byrony Kimmings & Friends for Art Crush at the Junction in Cambridge on Tuesday, which also plays host on Wednesday to Mime festival circus favourites Atelier LeFeuvre et André in 8m3. Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, 30 years young this year, is revived at the Mercury in Colchester.
London
David Lan directs Nathaniel Martello-White's satire, Blackta, about trying to make it as a black actor, at the Young Vic. And there are two Uncle Vanyas in the West End this week: the one with Ken Stott and Anna Friel at the Vaudeville and Russia's Vakhtangov company at the Noël Coward from Monday. Howard Goodall's musical version of The Winter's Tale gets its professional premiere at the Landor from next Wednesday. The Bush's Radar season begins next Thursday. Lots of discussion and new work including Luke Barnes's Chapel Street and a work in progress from Theatre ad Infinitum. There have been Miss Julies everywhere recently, and now there's one in Peckham, set in the local community in the 21st century; it's at the Bussey Building on Rye Lane. Info here.
The London Storytelling festival begins at the Leicester Square theatre with the wonderful Rachel Rose Reid retelling the work of Hans Christian Andersen and a late-night story jam. Howard Barker's Scenes from an Execution is dividing audiences at the NT, and you can catch his latest, Lot and His God, at the Print Room. Beckett's All That Fall with Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon transfers from Jermyn Street to the Arts Theatre for 23 performances only from Thursday. Childhood after a mother's suicide is the subject of Beady Eye's Cooking Ghosts at Camden People's Theatre from Monday. And mental illness in the African American community is the subject of but i cd only whisper at the Arcola.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
Green Day's American Idiot is at Edinburgh Playhouse this weekend. The new Scottish musical Glasgow Girls at the Citizens in Glasgow has a great team on board including David Grieg and Cora Bissett. Some Like It Hip Hop, while not strictly theatre, is a total delight and it's at the Edinburgh Festival theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday. Rona Munro's Iron, about a woman in prison for killing her partner, stars the superb Blythe Duff and is at the Tron in Glasgow. Matthew Lenton's staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, set in the dead of winter, is at the Lyceum in Edinburgh. Made in China's We Hope You Are Happy (Why Would We Lie?) is well worth seeing at the Traverse. Also at the Traverse, Morna Pearson's story of an unusual mother-and-son relationship, The Artist man and the Mother Woman.
Belfast is bursting with activity because of the Belfast festival at Queens. Huzzies at the Mac continues, where you can also see Bruiser's new take on Lady Windermere's Fan. Macbeth continues at the Lyric, and don't miss the final performances of Belarus Free theatre's searing Minsk, 2011 at the same venue.
Wales
Volcano theatre are on home territory in Swansea with LOVE from tonight, before heading out on a nationwide tour. Mike Bartlett's Medea is at Sherman Cymru from Tuesday. Mappa Mundi's A Midsummer Night's Dream is at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Theatr Brycheiniog this week.
South
The personal is political and mind maps rule in Ontroerend Goed's Edinburgh hit, All That is Wrong, which is at the Drum in Plymouth from Tuesday. Another company who have found success in Edinburgh, Rhum and Clay, head to the Bike Shed in Exeter with two physical pieces: Shutterland and A Strange Wild Song. Check out the Ferment season which starts at Bristol Old Vic next week, but also don't miss Chris Goode's typically thoughtful God/Head, which is in the studio this weekend. Victoria Melody's Northern Soul is at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol on Monday night. Brighton's Basement will be raising a glass to Pussy Riot, Patti Smith and Emily Pankhurst on Saturday evening as Victoria Melody hosts The Supper Club, an evening of experimental performance. Paper Cinema make a silent movie (with live musical accompaniment) in front of your eyes as they retell Homer's The Odyssey at the Point at Eastleigh on Thursday.
Theatre
Tennessee Williams
West End
Lyn Gardner
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds