What to watch: best shows to see this week
5. Cock
Minerva Theatre, until 27 October
Mike Bartlett's award-winning 2009 Cock might be an earlier work from the King Charles III and Doctor Foster playwright, but it still bristles with comedy and satirical edge. Following a gay man who falls in love with a woman, it now has its first major revival at Chichester's Minerva Theatre, with direction by JMK Award-winner Kate Hewitt and a cast made up of Luke Thallon, Matthew Needham, Isabella Laughland and Simon Chandler.
4. Sketching
Wilton's Music Hall, until 27 October
Olivier Award-winner James Graham is trying something different with his new piece at Wilton's Music Hall in east London. The play, based on a modernised vision of Dickens' work, has been penned by Graham alongside eight new writers, selected after a call-out earlier this year. The production is a snapshot of contemporary London, told by people who haven't had their voices put on stage before. We're excited to see what the result will be.
3. The Mountaintop
NST City until 6 October, then UK tour
Katori Hall's Olivier Award-winning play about the last night in Martin Luther King's life had a charged and powerful revival a few years ago directed by another JMK Award-winner Roy Alexander Weise. The production now embarks on a UK tour, starting in Southampton before visiting cities across the UK. A great chance to catch an unmissable piece of theatre.
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream
Crucible Theatre, until 20 October
Last time Dan Gillespie-Sells was at the Crucible Theatre, he helped create the award-winning smash hit musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie. He now returns to the venue to help compose music for a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by the venue's artistic director Robert Hastie. The production is expected to be "brimming with musicality", so the Bard's comedy looks set to be a big musical bonanza.
1. Pack of Lies
Menier Chocolate Factory, until 17 November
Judi Dench once starred opposite real-life husband Michael Williams in the world premiere of Pack of Lies 35 years ago, and in this brand new revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Dench and Williams' daughter Finty Williams takes on the lead role opposite Jasper Britten, as a couple embroiled in a big Soviet spy palava.
Last chance to see: The Prisoner (National Theatre), Dance Nation (Almeida), Poet in da Corner (Royal Court), Holy Sh!t (Kiln Theatre), Wasted (Southwark Playhouse)