Theatre News

Opening: Robert Lepage’s Playing Cards, musicals Glasgow Girls & Dear World

| London's West End |

11 February 2013

Among this week’s major London theatre openings, in the West End and further afield, are Robert Lepage’s Playing Cards, new musical Glasgow Girls, Dear World, the Barbican’s Rhinoceros, and more:

Opening Monday

Playing Cards 1: Spades
11 February 2013
(Previews from 7 February)

A new production from Robert Lepage, and the first in a planned series of four plays, each shaped around one suit in a deck of cards. This first part explores the theme of war and is set in the desert city of Las Vegas at the onset of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Runs at the Roundhouse until 2 March.

Opening Wednesday

Glasgow Girls
13 February 2013
(Previews from 8 February)

Glasgow Girls is a new musical about a group of seven young women in a high school in Glasgow fighting for the life of their friend and for the rights of children of asylum-seekers in Scotland. Runs at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East until 2 March.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
13 February 2013
(Previews from 12 February)

Franzis Gruber, a lowly bureaucrat, lives a neat and ordered life in a sleepy, provincial German town. When a travelling fair arrives, full of clowns, freaks, magicians and sleepwalkers, it drags Franzis into a series of nightmarish murders – spinning dreams into reality, the imagined into truth and order into chaos. Runs at the Arcola Theatre until 16 March.

Dear World
13 February 2013
(Previews from 4 February)

Starring Betty Buckley and Paul Nicholas, Jerry Herman’s musical receives its British premiere. Set in post-war Paris in 1945, this musical fable of Good versus Evil runs at the Charing Cross Theatre until 30 March.

The Vortex
13 February 2013
(Previews from 7 February)

Kerry Fox, James Dreyfus and David Dawson star in this revival of the Noel Coward play, which portrays 1920s cocktail society and centres on the tempestuous relationship between glamorous socialite Florence Lancaster and her hedonistic musician son Nicky. Runs at the Rose Theatre until 2 March.

Opening Thursday

Rhinoceros
14 February 2013

An absurd classic about a French town where the inhabitants start turning into rampaging rhinos but only one man seems to know what’s happening. This fable draws parallels with the rise of fascism in middle of the 20th century, and runs at the Barbican Theatre until 16 February.

The Paper Cinema’s Odyssey
14 February 2013

Raging storms and supernatural forces prevail over one man’s almighty quest to get home.
Homer’s cornerstone of literature is vividly told with illustration and masterful puppetry. Runs at the Battersea Arts Centre until 9 March.

Opening Friday

Medea
15 February 2013

Banished, betrayed, besieged on all sides, the barbarian sorceress Medea exacts a terrible vengeance upon her faithless lover and all those he holds most dear. Runs at the London Coliseum until 16 March.

Opening Sunday

Whatsonstage.com Awards Ceremony & Concert
17 February 2013

Join us for the UK’s most raucous theatre awards event, now entering its 13th year! The Whatsonstage.com Awards Ceremony and Concert has become one of the highlights of the theatregoing calendar: an unmissable night with lots of glitz, glamour and fun and a chance for you, the theatregoer, to take part in the culmination of the only major theatre accolades decided across the board by the public. Buy your tickets now!