Theatre News

Opening: Brachetti’s Change, NT Pains, Mrs Klein

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

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 26 October 2009 (previews from 19 October), Italian quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti brings his new one-man show Change to the Garrick Theatre (See News, 27 Aug 2009).

The show, which is written and directed by The Right Size’s Sean Foley, sees Brachetti bring over 100 characters to the stage, from James Bond to the Queen via Johnny Rotten, in a series of astonishing quick change impressions, and runs for a limited season to 3 January 2010.


OPENING TUESDAY, 27 October 2009 (previews from 22 October), the Hampstead Theatre presents the world premiere of Atiha Sen Gupta’s What Fatima Did…, about a teenage girl who, on the eve of her 18th birthday, decides to adopt the hijab. Directed by Kelly Wilkinson, it continues until 7 November 2009.


OPENING WEDNESDAY, 28 October 2009 (previews from 21 October), Martin Crimp’s new, erotically charged version of Bruckner’s Pains of Youth is directed by Katie Mitchell at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre (See News, 19 Aug 2009). The play is set in a boarding house in 1923 Vienna, as a “discontented post-war generation diagnose youth to be their sickness and do their best to destroy it”.


OPENING THURSDAY, 29 October 2009 (previews from 22 October), Thea Sharrock directs Nicholas Wright’s Mrs Klein, with Clare Higgins in the title role, at the Almeida Theatre (See News, 19 May 2009). The production marks the play’s first major London revival since its premiere at the National in 1988, and continues until 5 December.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 27 October), Michael John LaChiusa’s US musical Little Fish has its European premiere at the Finborough Theatre (See News, 13 May 2009). The show, which is to be directed by Adam Lenson, tells the story of short-story writer Charlotte, a woman dealing with an existential crisis after her move to New York. Until 21 November 2009.


OPENING FRIDAY, 30 October 2009 (previews from 27 October), Bryony Lavery’s Origin of the Species opens at the Arcola Theatre, marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s seminal work. Tom Littler directs, and it continues to 21 November.