Theatre News

Opening: Platoons, Dahl’s Twisted Tales, RSC Lear

Editorial Staff
London's West End Off-West End

Amongst the major London openings, in the West End and further afield, this week are:

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 24 January 2011 (previews from 19 January), a group of West London parents take up the Big Society challenge and start their own free school in Steve Waters’ Little Platoons, which runs in rep as part of Bush Theatre’s Schools Season until 19 February.

ALSO TONIGHT (previews from 14 January), Roald Dahl’s Twisted Tales are adapted for the stage by The League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson (Ghost Stories) at the Lyric Hammersmith, running until 26 February.

OPENING TUESDAY, 25 January 2011 (previews from 21 January), David Farr‘s production of King Lear opens at the Roundhouse as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s residency continues. It runs in rep until 5 February, with Sophie Russell playing the Fool opposite Greg Hicks‘ Lear following Kathryn Hunter‘s dramatic resignation last week.

ALSO ON TUESDAY, David Benson‘s award-winning documentary theatre piece Lockerbie – Unfinished Business, which premiered at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, opens at Tara Arts for two nights only, marking the start of a national tour.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 26 January 2010, a cult hit on the Continent, Laugh sees choreographer, director and performer Antonia Baehr take to the stage and laugh unprompted, exploring its effect on the audience. It comes to Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio for two nights only.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY (previews from 24 January), the recently relocated Arcola Theatre hosts Richard Vergette’s As We Forgive Them, centring on a newly elected Democrat Congressman who is forced to question his liberal values following the murder of his only daughter. Until 19 February.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, Miss Nightingale, the debut musical from theatre composer Matthew Bugg, about a nurse in wartime London who dreams of being a singer, arrives at the King’s Head as part of a national tour. Until 19 February.

OPENING FRIDAY, 28 January 2011, Sampled celebrates an array of dance over two days at Sadler’s Wells, featuring ZooNation (Into the Hoods) and Balletboyz among others.