Tweet

Opening: Richie Cuckoo, Fine Balance & Spill Pain

In this quiet Easter bank holiday week, London openings are thin on the ground. Nevertheless, they include:

OPENING MONDAY, 9 April 2007, Shane Richie – best known as Alfie Moon in EastEnders - stars in the new tour of Terry Johnson and Tamara Harvey’s 2004 production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which touches down this week at New Wimbledon Theatre (See News, 15 Mar 2007). Hollywood’s Christian Slater made his West End debut, and won the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best Actor, in the production, which also won Best Play Revival in the Whatsonstage.com Awards following its first West End season. In Dale Wasserman’s play - based on the 1962 novel by Ken Kesey and subsequently made into a film starring Jack Nicholson – hard-living bad boy RP McMurphy opts for a stint in a mental institution rather than jail, but he didn’t reckon on the domineering terror of Nurse Ratched. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is at the New Wimbledon until 14 April as part of its ongoing tour.

** DON’T MISS the chance to see One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for just £10 - valid until 13 April 2007 only! - click here for more details! **

OPENING TUESDAY, the Spill festival - a season of experimental theatre and performance - continues at Soho Theatre with Forced Entertainment’s Exquisite Pain, for a run to 14 April 2007. A man and a woman tell stories of heartbreak including the end of an affair remembered differently each time, humiliations, death and love letters that never arrive. The festival is on until 22 April 2007, featuring 52 performances from 13 international companies at the Barbican, the Soho Theatre, South Bank Centre, Shunt Vaults and Toynbee Studios (See News, 8 Mar 2007).

ALSO ON TUESDAY (previews from 4 April), A Fine Balance - premiered at Hampstead Theatre in January 2006 and presented in association with Tamasha Theatre (See News, 17 Nov 2005) - returns for a short run to 21 April 2007. Based on Rohinton Mistry’s 1995 Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, adapted by Kristine Landon-Smith and Sudha Bhuchar, the play is set in India in 1975, where a state of emergency has been declared. It’s directed by Landon-Smith and designed by Sue Mayes, with an original score by Felix Cross. Following Hampstead, A Fine Balance visits Southampton’s Nuffield Theatre and Birmingham Rep.

- by Caroline Ansdell

Related Content