In 1998 some members of the Knapely branch of the Women's Institute decided to do some fundraising for the cancer wing of their local hospital. Their decision to create a calendar in which they posed nude ended up raising a great deal of money for their cause, plus a few eyebrows. Their daring and endearing plan resulted in an enormous amount of press attention and became a worldwide phenomenon. The first act of Tim Firth's play recounts the well-known initiation and realisation of the calendar project. Perhaps, because the story is so familiar this retelling of it, while charming, seems rather thin and the characters' behaviours rather formulaic. For us, things pick up in the second act which deals with the aftermath of the calendar's initial success. Individual characters start to emerge and the varying motivations for being involved are more explicitly exposed and developed. The tensions within the group move the narrative from the realm of amusing anecdote to real d

London Tide is based on Dickens' Our Mutual Friend . The main theme of the latter is about transformations, to the point of an actual resurrection. (It is no accident that main character Lizzie Hexam is reading Ovid.) On the other hand, in this new musical reworking of the classic, things are transformed to suit contemporary tastes. Dickens' social views are updated to represent a contemporary feminism and his unfashionable sentimentality is undercut by that American sitcom staple, the sarcastic child. The strength of this production is its evocation of the atmosphere of London in the nineteenth century, and its presentation of the desperate lives of those marginalised members of society who struggle to survive in appalling poverty. Bunny Christie's set is sparse but effective, allowing the viewers' imagination to fill in the dark and moody reality of life beside the Thames, and PJ Harvey and Ian Ross's "London Song" forlornly invokes the brutal world we

Caravaggio's innovative art and immoderate life remains a source of enduring fascination. Indeed, it is no accident that they are presented as the inspiration for the protagonist of the new Netflix show, Ripley . Caravaggio's realistic portrayal of saints and sinners and his frequent undertones of sensuality and violence tease his audience just as his extraordinarily tempestuous life intrigues them. This latest bijou exhibition focuses on the master's last known work, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610) which was only definitively attributed to him in 1980. That painting which is on loan to The National Gallery is displayed in the context of the collection's own Caravaggio, Salome receives the Head of John the Baptist (1609-1610). Both pieces focus on particularly grisly acts and the emotional responses to them of the principals and onlookers. In the former it is notable that Caravaggio has painted himself into the story. It becomes tantalising to try to read his exp

Faced with the twin threats of plague and war, the Danse Macabre was a common artistic subject in the late Middle Ages. In The Comeuppance Branden Jacobs-Jenkins revisits this concept in our own time of Covid and conflict. As they approach their twenty-year high school reunion, five friends are faced with the passage of time and its inevitable consequence. Death becomes a character haunting them at the feast of life and neither the doctor nor the artist can stay the inevitable result of time's pressing on. There's a lot to unpack in Jacobs-Jenkins' work, but first and foremost it resonates as a story of friends who are reliving their misadventures and memories. The existential question is nicely wrapped in humour and humanity, and we actually come to care about the members of MERGE, or the multi-ethnic reject group, as they were known in high school. In a wonderfully evocative set created by Arnulfo Maldonado, the action takes place on a porch, that space between home and

Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I and Part II deal with young Prince Hal and the rather libertine lifestyle in which he indulges before he assumes the throne as Henry V. To the despair of his father, Hal has fallen in with a gang of wastrels centred around the notorious Sir John Falstaff. The narrative arc of Shakespeare's story then becomes about Hal's choices as he is torn between two worlds: the enticements of hedonism and self-indulgence, and his father's call to duty and honour. However, in Robert Icke's adaptation of the two plays, the central character actually becomes Falstaff, and Hal's dilemma and decisions seem more like simply a backdrop for the comic hijinks of one of Shakespeare's most enduring and endearing creations. As Falstaff, Sir Ian McKellen puts in an unforgettable performance. He lights up the stage whenever he appears as the drunken prevaricator whose cunning and cowardice are somehow completely beguiling. Indeed, on the occasions when

Based on the popular Manga of Naoshi Arakawa, Your Lie In April – The Musical in Concert tells the story of a young, prize-winning pianist who has lost his ability to hear the piano after his mother's death. The passing of his perfectionist parent has led Kōsei, played by Zheng Xi Yong, to abandon his vocation and to sink into despair. Although supported by his friends, Ryōta and Tsubaki, it is not until the enthusiastic and free-spirited violinist, Kaori, comes along that he begins to rediscover his aptitude for music. This is a modest little love story that is unabashedly sentimental, but it has a magic that will melt even the hardest heart. Frank Wildhorn has written a lovely score and songs like "Just Like A Movie" and "One Hundred Thousand Million Stars" are instantly relatable. The in-concert version of the show exposed a few wrinkles that still need to be ironed out, but the simplicity of this presentation nicely complemented the unpretentious nature of

Based on a true story, Harry McDonald's Foam recounts the life of Nicky Crane, a young gay man who becomes a Nazi. We first meet Nicky as an uncertain 15-year-old loitering in a public toilet where he meets Oswald Mosley, the notorious British fascist. As part of the British underclass and driven by desires he can neither understand nor control, Nicky feels himself to be both socially and sexually powerless. Mosley's appeal to the youngster is to give him that sense of empowerment he so desperately lacks. In the ensuing scenes, we see Nicky play out his new persona and explore the erotic nature of his transgressive political posture in a series of encounters. His political choice gives him the sense of control he craves, but his sexual proclivities inevitably subjugate him. When his story concludes, he is succumbing to AIDS. He continues to rage and resists being put in a wheelchair, the final expression of his lack of control in a world in which he has struggled with self-loa

Hardcore fans of Sherlock Holmes will probably enjoy this stage version of Conan Doyle's last novel featuring the super sleuth, but for others it has some definite drawbacks. The narrative is presented as two parallel stories which gradually come together: the mystery of a man murdered in a moated manor, which Sherlock is called upon to solve, and the tale of a society of criminals in Pennsylvania that terrorise the valley that is their home. For the average consumer of detective fiction it is not hard to guess where we are going, but the plot plods along at a rather ponderous pace. The time spent following the machinations of the Pennsylvania gang seems drawn out, and we just kept wanting to get back to Holmes and his devilishly clever deductions. Unfortunately, when the dénouement does come it isn't all that surprising. The real strength of this production is the cast who do a superb job of inhabiting different characters and making each of them satisfyingly individual. Bobby

To satisfy 19th century prejudices, the three Brontë sisters had to present themselves as male writers. In response to current fashion, this show presents them as feminists with serious sibling rivalry issues and the cursing capacity of truckers. Ironically, the play titled Underdog: The Other Other Brontë which we might expect to be about Anne (Rhiannon Clements) is, in fact, all about Charlotte (Gemma Whelan). In line with our current obsession with the notion of celebrity, Charlotte is seen through the lens of her remark that she wished to be "forever known." She is presented as ambitious to the point of stealing her younger sister Anne's ideas and actually maliciously suppressing publication of her sibling's work. It is hard to believe that this is the woman who wrote Jane Eyre with its deeply religious sensibility. In fact, the profoundly religious context within which all the sisters lived is completely ignored as the focus is on their career rivalry. Anne is

Life with Oscar is less a play than it is a personal and professional exorcism. The show is an exposé of writer/actor Nick Cohen's origins, ambitions and encounter with the hollowness that is Hollywood. The piece chronicles three generations of Cohen's family and his experience trying to get a film made. As the child of immigrants who have left their roots to pursue success in a new world, the little golden statuette of Oscar comes to represent for Cohen the ultimate symbol of achievement, not simply in a film career but in life itself. In his narrative, Cohen plays an amazing 29 characters, and he manages to bring them all to life. From the bombastic father to the self-effacing mother, and from the sleazy producer to his drug-addled daughter, all the personalities emerge as recognisable individuals. However, while the performance is dazzling, none of the characters are really developed. They remain simply nicely sketched types. The story itself is familiar territory: a tormen