Features

Theatre highlights of the week: Imelda Staunton in Good People and Relative Values with Rory Bremner

The RSC get busy for Shakespeare’s 450th birthday with ”The Roaring Girl” and ”Henry IV, Part I and II” opening this week

Ben Hewis
London London's West End Off-West End

Monday 14 April

Relative Values opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre

© Catherine Ashmore

Leigh Zimmerman replaces Katherine Kingsley in the cast of Theatre Royal Bath Productions' revival of Relative Values as it transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre. Also starring Olivier Award-winner Patricia Hodge as Felicity, Caroline Quentin as Moxie and Rory Bremner making his theatre debut as Crestwell the butler, Noel Coward's play centres on the consternation caused when a young Earl announces he is to marry a Hollywood film actress (Zimmerman).

Tuesday 15 April

The Roaring Girl opens at the Swan Theatre

Lisa Dillon, whose previous work includes The Taming of the Shrew for the RSC in 2012 and The Knot of the Heart at the Almeida, plays the fearless and feisty 'roaring girl' Moll Cutpurse.

Jo Davies who previously directed Opera North's acclaimed production of Carousel, makes her RSC debut in this Jacobean play, a fictionalized dramatization of the life of Mary Frith, a woman who had gained a reputation as a virago in the early 17th century.

Good People transfers to the Noel Coward Theatre

Good People starring Imelda Staunton and Lloyd Owen transfers to the Noel Coward Theatre following its run at Hampstead Theatre. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by Jonathan Kent (who directed Staunton in the WhatsOnStage Award-winning Sweeney Todd), Good People won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the Year when it premiered on Broadway.

Staunton plays sharp-tongued single-mother Margie, who will do anything it takes to pay the bills after losing yet another job. Hearing that an old boyfriend who has made good is in town, she decides to corner him – old loyalties should be good for something.

Wednesday 16 April

Henry IV Part I and Henry IV Part II open at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre

RSC Associate Artist Antony Sher returns to the Company to play the infamous comic knight Falstaff. He is joined by Jasper Britton as Henry IV and Alex Hassell as Prince Hal. Jasper returns following his performances in The Taming of the Shrew/The Tamer Tamed (2003). Alex returns to the RSC following his recent credits in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cardenio and The City Madam (2011).

Saturday 19 April

Last chance to see The Weir

The Donmar Warehouse production of Conor McPherson's The Weir comes to the end of its West End run this weekend. Read Michael Coveney's review here.