Theatre highlights of the week: Nigel Havers, Rupert Everett and Noel Coward

Tuesday 15 July

Invincible opens at the St James Theatre

St. James Theatre Productions presents the Orange Tree Theatre’s Invincible by Torben Betts, directed by Ellie Jones.

The recession is biting hard and so Emily and Oliver have decided to downsize and shift their middle-class London lifestyle to a small town in the north of England. They want to live, work and to raise their two young children in a friendly community, among what Emily terms ‘real people’, away from the cold anonymity of the city.

So these left leaning, well educated people have invited over two of their neighbours in an attempt to break the ice. Tonight Alan and Dawn are to be offered olives, anchovies and are to be introduced to Karl Marx and abstract art. As classes and outlooks collide, the scene is set for a meeting which will have consequences as hilarious as they are tragic.

The cast comprises Daniel Copeland in the role of Alan, with Laura Howard as Emily, Samantha Seager as Dawn and Darren Strange as Oliver.

Thursday 17 July

The Importance of Being Earnest opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Oscar Wilde’s much loved masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest features a cast comprising Rosalind Ayres, Niall Buggy, Patrick Godfrey, Nigel Havers, Martin Jarvis, Christine Kavanagh, Cherie Lunghi and Siân Phillips performing as The Bunbury Company of Players, in a new production directed by Lucy Bailey, designed by William Dudley with added material written by Simon Brett, lighting design by Oliver Fenwick, the composer and sound designer is Tom Mills.

This Was a Man opens at the Finborough

This Was a Man explores some of Coward’s lifelong and enduring themes of social mores, jealousy and the futility of a life with no moral compass. Can good manners emasculate us? What happens when we repress our inner caveman? Is it more courageous to look away or to face our demons and fight? What, indeed, does it mean to be a "man"? 
Written in 1925 and immediately banned by the censor, This Was a Man opened on Broadway in 1926, and was subsequently produced across Europe, but has never been seen professionally in the UK until now.

Friday 18 July

Amadeus opens at the Chichester Festival Theatre

This multi award-winning play by Peter Shaffer is set amidst the splendour of 18th Century Vienna and marks the opening of the new Festival Theatre.

Directed by Chichester Festival Theatre’s artistic director Jonathan Church, the role of Salieri is played by Rupert Everett, returning to Chichester following Pygmalion (2010) and his much acclaimed performance in The Judas Kiss in the West End.

Saturday 12 July

Last chance to see: Carousel at the Arcola

Read our review of Carousel here.