Alexander Zeldin's The Other Place is loosely based on Sophocles' Antigone. In this version, Annie, a troubled young woman with a history of mental illness, returns to her family for the scattering of her father's ashes. The ritual has been organised by her uncle, Chris, who has inherited, and is now renovating, the family home. Annie, unlike her sister Issy, objects to Chris' decision to deal with the patriarch's remains in the way he has chosen. A squabble ensues and secrets about Chris and Annie's relationship are revealed. With any modernisation of a classic, the danger is always that the epic nature of the original will be lost in the mundane. Here, many of Sophocles' themes, such as the tensions between law and loyalty, or the rightful, perhaps arbitrary, power of the state as opposed to an individual's sense of duty, are lost in the dynamics of a domestic drama. These larger issues absent, the question then becomes how much would we care about t

Two concepts that might seem to be hallmarks of our current era, connectivity and multiculturalism, are put into a fascinating historical context by this unforgettable exhibition. Silk Roads focuses on the extraordinary connections that existed among Asia, Africa and Europe in the period from about 500 to 1000 CE. The show has five divisions moving from Japan to Ireland, and it demonstrates the amazingly rich and varied interaction of different cultures during the period. A sweeping movement of goods, people, ideas and belief systems leads to a cross-fertilisation which is astonishing, but often insufficiently appreciated. With more than 300 objects and texts from almost thirty lenders, this is a stunning overview that takes the visitor on a journey which provides glimpses into the Nara period in Japan and the Tang dynasty of China. It then goes on to explore the lesser known civilisations of the Sogdians and Aksumites among others, before focussing on the Byzantine empire and the sch

Not Shakespeare's most often produced play, Coriolanus poses questions about a man whose qualities yield success on the battlefield, but which lead to his failure in the world of politics. The confidence and modesty that make Coriolanus a successful soldier are read as pride and arrogance when he is faced with wooing the populace to attain the office of consul. However, what he sees as his refusal to pander also involves an inability to self-reflect, and this quality, as much as anything, leads to his downfall, also making him one of the bard's less engaging protagonists. The man of action is simple and inscrutable, and ultimately less sympathetic than characters such as Hamlet or even Macbeth. The decision of director Lyndsey Turner to frame this production in a museum doesn't really add much resonance to the piece, and ultimately seems rather contrived. Similarly, the presentation of the work in modern dress with people using computer tablets and guns while the major com

Based on the 1957 film of the same name, this theatrical production, with music and lyrics from Elvis Costello, considers some controversial current issues. When a local radio presenter who has a show that focuses on ordinary people interviews a drunk from the local jail, she manages to create a celebrity who goes on to become the toast of New York and an opinion maker who can influence American politics at the highest level. Lonesome Rhodes, the demagogue who emerges from her somewhat Dr Frankenstein experiment, is a combination of Will Rogers and George Wallace, and perhaps a little heavy-handedly, he prefigures the USA's latest embodiment of the populist charlatan who has always been a presence on the American political scene. As Lonesome moves from talk radio to television his views become ever more right-wing, his philandering more obvious and his hypocrisy more heinous. One of the problems with this narrative is that we never believe in Lonesome's man-of-the-people act. H

“There's no coming to consciousness without pain.” wrote Carl Jung, but in his masterpiece, Waiting for Godot , Samuel Beckett explores the pain that results from consciousness itself. Set in a bleak nowhere, this absurdist drama engages the most fundamental of questions, the unknowable meaning of existence. Estragon and Vladimir pass their time waiting for a revelation that always lies in the future, and in the interim they engage in a conversation that distracts them and gives temporary purpose to their lives. Their bickering and reflections cover a wide variety of topics including religion and relationships and provide a trenchant parody of human interaction. When two wayfarers pass by, these travellers provide diversion, but not company, for the duo. Pozzo and Lucky are yoked together in what seems to be a parody of the socio-political world which the two hobos, Estragon and Vladimir, exist outside of. It is noteworthy that in the second act when Pozzo and Lucky's condition

The familiar creative writing class cliché, "write what you know," is referenced in The Real Ones . Taken literally, this platitude, which dismisses most literature from Shakespeare to Tolkien, may also explain why four of the five recent shows we've seen have had writers as their main characters. Despite citing this simplistic precept, playwright Waleed Akhtar's manages to avoid writing another self-indulgent dramatic diary and creates characters which resonate with the audience. The show raises some interesting questions about the bonds created by otherness, and the nature of friendship. Zaid and Neelam both come from rather rigid Pakistani families and both are outsiders: he because his is gay and she because she flaunts the sexual, and later the marital conventions, of her background. This sense of difference creates a bond between the two outsiders and allows them to share "real talk." The irony of this shared reality of alienation is that once they gro

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was a female scientist whose achievements are extraordinary. She graduated from Cambridge at a time when the university did not award degrees to women. She then went on to do a doctorate at Harvard, which was bestowed through Radcliffe, as the former institution also did not provide such degrees for women. Her work in astronomy was absolutely groundbreaking, but her thesis, developed in the 1920s, that stars were largely composed of hydrogen and helium was misappropriated by a male colleague. Nevertheless her place in the pantheon of science is now secure, and this drama highlights her fascinating personal story, focussing on her determination to become Harvard's first female chair of a department. Unfortunately, the construction of this narrative suffers from various issues that face playwrights when they are trying to introduce the public to little-known historical figures. Facts about her life are rather awkwardly worked into the text, in this case using

First produced in 1982, Tom Stoppard's play about a playwright and his actress wife somewhat echoes the writer's own history, while self-consciously raising lots of questions about the relationship between life and art, as it explores the limits and definitions of love. The familiar device of a play within a play has dramatist Henry's wife, Charlotte, acting in a show called "House of Cards" in which the principal character questions his wife's fidelity – just as Henry himself does. Ironically, it turns out that it is the playwright who is cheating on Charlotte with Annie, wife of the actor who is Henry's surrogate in his play. Later, when he is married to Annie, the issue of fidelity again arises, forcing the rather pompous playwright to wonder if he has found the real thing this time. While Henry hides behind various witty and erudite disquisitions on art, politics, class and relationships, his actual conception of love seems to be mainly informed by his

Thomas Weaver is a best selling author, who returns to his small town to deliver the eulogy for his childhood friend, Alvin Kelby, with whom he has almost lost contact. That moment causes him to recall the memories which he has mined for his stories, while simultaneously forcing him to reconsider the power of that friendship and his part in its decline. He comes to realise that nerdy and needy Alvin, who shared his obsession with the film, It's A Wonderful Life , has really been his muse. And, despite Alvin's seemingly small life, through his sharing of his sense of wonder at the world, he has actually had a far reaching effect. Neil Bartram and Brian Hill's musical riff on the perennial Christmas film's theme and also on the so-called butterfly effect produces a small touching tale that works beautifully in the intimate venue of the Stage Door Theatre. It is a setting which allows the two principals, Markus Sodergren and Tim Edwards, to make a direct emotional connect

This exhibition is a triumphant celebration of The National Gallery's Bicentennial. Taking inspiration from the Gallery's purchase of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" (1888) exactly 100 years ago, the exhibition concentrates on the two years which the painter spent in southern France in Saint-Rémy and Arles. Along with pictures from the National's own holdings, the show presents work which has been borrowed from an astonishing number of international institutions. There are pieces from Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Ottawa, not to mention those masterpieces from various collections in America. The theme of the exhibition, Poets and Lovers , may seem rather narrow, not really resonating with many of the works presented, but if it is extended as a metaphor to encompass the presence of emotion and artifice as components of the creative process, it can provide a fascinating perspective on Van Gogh's oeuvre. This is an artist always walking a line between nature and inven