Top 5 theatre openings this week: 2 – 8 May

5. The Busker's Opera – Park Theatre

Olivier Award-winner George Maguire and Bend it Like Beckham actress Lauren Samuels star in this new musical by Dougal Irvine (Departure Lounge, Teddy).

Set around the London Olympics in 2012, Maguire plays a political activist intent on taking on the media and government – presumably through the power of song.

5 May – 4 June, Park Theatre. More information and tickets here.

4. The Iphigenia Quartet – Gate Theatre

It's four plays for the price of two as the Notting Hill venue goes all Cursed Child on us with this presentation of the Greek legend in two parts.

Four playwrights – Caroline Bird, Suhayla El-Bushra, Lulu Raczka and Chris Thorpe – examine the story from the perspective of its key players – Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia and Chorus.

You can see both parts for £30 when booked together.

3 May – 21 May. More information and tickets here.

3. The Lovers of Viorne – The Theatre Room

James Roose-Evans' production of Marguerite Duras' 1968 play marks the debut of his new company Frontier Theatre Productions – established to provide opportunities to actors aged 60 and over.

It also opens the organisation's new 55 seat chamber theatre, The Theatre Room, located in their headquarters at 6 Frederick's Place, in the City of London.

4 – 21 May, The Theatre Room. More information and tickets here.

2. An Enemy of the People – Chichester Festival Theatre

Downton Abbey's Earl of Grantham, Hugh Bonneville, returns to the stage to play Dr Stockmann, a Chief Medical Officer who discovers a sanitation scandal around his local baths.

Ibsen's play is adapted by Christopher Hampton whose adaptations of Florian Zeller's work have enjoyed recent widespread success.

The stellar cast also includes Abigail Cruttenden, William Gaminara and Adam James.

4 – 21 May, Chichester Festival Theatre. More information and tickets here.

1. A Midsummer Night's Dream – Shakespeare's Globe

Emma Rice made history earlier this year by becoming the first female artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe. Stepping into the well-worn shoes of Mark Rylance and Dominic Dromgoole, the Kneehigh co-founder pledged to make 50/50 gender balance a priority for the venue.

Fast forward five months and her first production as director features an all-female mechanicals and Helena is now a gay man named Helenus – way to mix it up from the get go Emma!

5 May – 11 September, Shakespeare's Globe. More information and tickets here.