Opening: Frontline, Outgoing, Hangover, Magnolias

Amongst the major openings in London this week are:

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 7 July 2008 (previews from 2 July), Anupama Chandrasekhar’s Free Outgoing is revived at the Royal Court Downstairs as part of the Upstairs/Downstairs season (See News, 19 Feb 2008). The play is set in the fiercely conservative Tamil region of southern India, where the rampant technology of the modern world comes up against traditional society. It runs until 19 July 2008.

OPENING TUESDAY, 8 July 2008, Riverside Studios welcomes The London International Youth Circus Festival for a season of the best of youth circus from Europe, until 19 July.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 9 July 2008 (previews from 6 July), The Frontline by Che Walker premieres at Shakespeare’s Globe, directed by Matthew Dunster. Billed as a “modern, vigorous tale of London life on the edge”, it’s set on a Saturday night outside Camden Tube station and carries a warning that it “contains bad language and strong content”. It runs as part of the ‘Totus Mondus’ season at the Globe until 17 August 2008.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY (previews from 8 July), the New Theatre Dublin presents The Tailor and Ansty at the Old Red Lion. Based on the controversial 1943 novel by Eric Cross about an elderly Irish couple who share a small cottage in West Cork, it’s adapted for the stage by PJ O’Connor and directed by Nuala Hayes, running until 3 August 2008.

OPENING THURSDAY, 10 July 2008 (previews from 2 July), Sean Holmes’ production of Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight & Magnolias returns to the Tricycle Theatre, prior to a speculated West End transfer (See The Goss, 13 May 2008). The comedy tells the story of movie mogul David O Selznick, who shuts down production on Gone With the Wind in order to re-work the script. It runs at the Tricycle until 2 August 2008.

OPENING FRIDAY, 11 July 2008 (previews from 9 July), Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square, adapted for the stage by Fidelis Morgan, is revived at the Finborough Theatre (See News, 19 Jun 2008). The story of obsession and addiction centres on alcoholic George Harvey Bone, who becomes hopelessly infatuated with the cool, desirable and contemptuous young actress Netta. It runs until 2 August 2008.

OPENING SATURDAY, 12 July 2008 (previews from 8 July), Dominic Leclerc reworks a 75-minute version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for children at the Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park, where it can be seen until 2 August 2008.

– by Theo Bosanquet