Best plays of the week

The best plays on now in UK theatres. Charles Spencer's pick of the week according to http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The Country Girl

Cracking revival of Clifford Odets’s fine and perceptive play about an alcoholic actor and his wife, set against rehearsals for a Broadway opening. Rufus Norris’s production evokes the theatrical atmosphere and the late Forties period setting, deftly mixing sly comedy with deeper feeling. There are terrific performances from Martin Shaw as a bleary bruiser of an actor and Jenny Seagrove as his tense wife, desperately trying to keep him on the wagon. Apollo Theatre, London W1 (0844 412 4658), until Feb 26

Love Love Love, Drum
A nuanced, witty script about payback for the baby boomers who merrily swung through the Sixties.
Until Oct 23, then touring to Manchester and Bath. Details:

 

 

Doctor Who Live

The storyline is risible but how often are you going to breathe the same air as an Ood?

Wembley Arena

 

 

Krapp’s Last Tape

Michael Gambon plays Beckett’s battered old man looking back on his youth and the end of a love affair in Michael Colgan’s superb revival of the dramatist’s most moving and humane play. Gambon brings a sense of angry exhaustion and emotional hurt to the role that is both comic and unbearably sad.

Duchess Theatre, London, until Nov 20.

 

 

Passion
Even some of Sondheim’s most devoted fans find this joke-free story of obsessive love in 19th-century Italy heavy going, but it works powerfully in Jamie Lloyd’s outstanding production. Elena Roger (Evita, Piaf) stars as the ugly ailing Fosca who sets her sights on a dashing army officer, stopping at nothing until she has won his love.
Donmar Warehouse, London