Opening: NT Paintframe, Scoop Fest & EdFringe

Amongst the major openings, in the West End and further afield, this week are:
OPENING TUESDAY, 2 August 2011 Reza de Wet’s award-winning psychological thriller African Gothic, examining the legacy of oppression in South Africa, opens at the Arcola’s studio 2, where it continues to 13 August 2011.

ALSO ON TUESDAY, Luke Barnes’ new comedy Chapel Street, a “rowdy, relentless two-hander about modern life and love on the dole”, premieres at the Old Red Lion Theatre with a run to 20 August.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 3 August 2011, the National Theatre opens up its backstage Paintframe studio to public performance for the first time ever with its Double Feature season of double bills by emerging playwrights. Sam Holcroft’s Edgar and Annabel with DC Moore’s The Swan open tonight.

OPENING THURSDAY, 4 August 2011, the Scoop festival of free theatre at More London returns for its ninth season, featuring free outdoor performances of Bertolt Brecht’s The Mother and family adventure Around the World in Eighty Days, which continue in rep until 4 September.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 2 August), Rebecca Gilman’s drama Blue Surge, centring on a love affair between a 38 year-old cop and an 18 year old prostitute in Midwest America, receives its UK premiere at the (air conditioned) Finborough Theatre, directed by Che Walker. Until 27 August.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 2 August), Howard Goodall and Melvyn Bragg’s 1984 musical The Hired Man, set in Cumbria on the eve of the First World War, is revived at the Landor Theatre, where it runs until 27 August.

ALSO ON THURSDAY, the second part of the NT’s Double Feature season, Prasanna Puwanarajah’s Nightwatchman with There Is a War by Tom Basden, opens in the National Theatre’s Paintframe.

OPENING FRIDAY, 5 August 2011, the 64th annual Edinburgh Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival, gets under way in Scotland. Whatsonstage.com will be there, providing up-to-the-minute news, reviews, interviews and gossip on our dedicated Edinburgh Festivals microsite – whatsonstage.com/edinburgh.

ON SUNDAY, 7 August 2011, West End stars including Ramin Karimloo, Frances Ruffelle and Peter Polycarpou take part in a benefit concert for Covent Garden-based record shop Dress Circle at Her Majesty’s Theatre.