The Threepenny Opera

by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 24 June 2016

The production is a new adaptation by Simon Stephens directed by Rufus Norris and designed by Vicki Mortimer. It features Rory Kinnear as Macheath, Nick Holder as Peachum, Haydn Gwynne as Mrs Peachum, Rosalie Craig as Polly Peachum and Sharon Small as Jenny Driver.

Brecht's technique of alienating the audience from their conventional expectations of 'an evening at the theatre' is marvellously emphasised in this production, with the vast Olivier stage exposed in all its glory, flats and flights of stairs wheeled about by the cast, the flats often faced away from the front of the stage (showing all their struts) and just as frequently revealed to be utterly flimsy as various characters burst through them to enter a scene. Occasionally the revolve is cranked onto service by means of a giant lever wheeled to the front of the stage and laboriously 'worked' by an actor; on only one occasion is the drum used to bring a pre-constructed set up to stage level.

This is Living

by Liam Borrett

seen at the Trafalgar Studios Two on 6 June 2016

Yet another short intense play, although this production is lengthened by having an interval. Liam Borrett directs Michael Socha as Michael and Tamia Kari as Alice in his own play about coming to terms with devastating loss. Sarah Beaton designed the extraordinary set; the acting space is a sheet of black plastic raised on a small dais, and covered with a thin film of water.

Michael is cradling Alice at the beginning, water seeping into their clothes. Alice is totally unresponsive at first, then chokes out a mouthful of water and behaves as if awaking after a party binge. Flashbacks show the couple's courtship and the strain of Alice's miscarriage, then their delight in having a little girl. But all the while, the question is pressing - is Michael dreaming all this? How will he allow himself to let Alice go? Or are we also witnessing Alice's gradual acceptance of the situation she must confront?

The Fantasticks

book and lyrics by Tom Jones, music by Harvey Schmidt

seen at the Jerry Orbach Theater, New York, on 29 May 2016

This musical, famously performed continuously off-Broadway for 42 years from 1960, has recently been revived, directed by the author Tom Jones with Shavey Brown as the Narrator (El Gallo), Andrew Polec as the Boy (Matt), Madison Claire Parks as the Girl (Luisa), Peter Cormican as the Boy's Father (Huckabee), Dale Hensley as the Girl's Father (Bellomy), MacIntyre Dixon as the Old Actor (Henry), Michael Nostrand as the Man who Dies (Mortimer) and Drew Seigla as the Mute.

It is a very self-conscious play, with the Narrator introducing the characters, setting the scene, and periodically commenting on the action. The characters are to some extent stereotypes - hence their personal names appear in brackets in the programme and are only casually used by the Narrator. The situation appears to be a blend of Romeo and Juliet (quarrelling families against young love) and Pyramus and Thisbe (there is a wall between the families' adjoining gardens). There are many other Shakespearean allusions in the spoken text, including a running joke that the Old Actor cannot remember the second line of Mark Antony's famous funeral oration in Julius Caesar, and some truly atrocious puns.

Incognito

by Nick Payne

seen at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, on 28 May 2016

Doug Hughes directs Geneva Carr, Charlie Cox, Heather Lind and Morgan Spector in a production designed by Scott Pask and lit by Ben Stanton.

The actors take multiple roles in a play in which several story lines are developed contrapuntally, with only sudden changes of lighting indicating a scene change on a black stage with four black chairs. We follow the story of the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein and 'stole' his brain for further research (which is never published); the story of an epileptic whose most severe fit left him with a memory window of only a few minutes; the story of a psychologist embarking on a lesbian affair but hesitant to admit that she has been married and has a grown up son; and some of her interviews with clients.

Blackbird

by David Harrower

seen at the Belasco Theatre, New York, on 27 May 2016

Joe Mantello directs this short but extremely intense play starring Michelle Williams as Una and Jeff Daniels as Ray, with set design by Scott Pask and lighting by Brian MacDevitt.

As the play begins, the office space we have been looking at is transformed by moving walls into an untidy office canteen, into which Ray propels Una. He is hunched with misery and fearful unease; she, unwilling to be touched or controlled, seems more in command of herself. There is clearly something clandestine about the meeting, as Ray feels he has been tracked down while Una seems determined on an important confrontation. She is very sceptical that Ray is now evidently known to everyone in the office as Pete.

The Crucible

by Arthur Miller

seen at the Walter Kerr Theatre, New York, on 25 May 2016

Directed by Ivo van Hove, with an original score by Philip Glass, the production features Ben Whishaw as John Proctor, Sophie Okonedo as Elizabeth Proctor, Saoirse Ronan as Abigail Williams, Bill Camp as Reverend John Hale and Ciarán Hinds as Deputy Governor Danforth.

The play, a presentation of the 17th century Salem witch trials widely seen as a criticism of the McCarthy-era prosecutions of communists, is here set in a fairly modern schoolroom with neon lights, which serves for all the settings specified by Miller's text (set and lights by Jan Versweyweld). The actors are dressed in old-fashioned but recognisably contemporary clothes, which interestingly serves to underscore the early modern formality of their speech patterns.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

by Christopher Durang

seen at the Gladstone Theatre, Ottawa, on 22 May 2016

The play takes themes from several plays by Anton Chekhov and blends them into a pastiche set in New England. This production by Plosive Productions was directed and designed by David Whiteley and featured Chris Ralph as Vanya, Mary Ellis as Sonia, Beverley Wolfe as Cassandra, Teri Loretto-Valentik as Masha, Drew Moore as Spike and Sarah Finn as Nina.

Here Sonia is the adoptive sister of Vanya and Masha; she and Vanya run the estate on behalf of their absent sister Masha, who claims to be earning all the necessary finds by being a Hollywood celebrity. Nina is a stage-struck neighbour, Cassandra the doom-laden house-help, and Spike is Masha's toy-boy.