Theatre review: Utility

Emily Schwend's Utility concludes another successful season at the Orange Tree, albeit one that's felt more quietly consistent than full of explosive hits. This, too, is in the same vein, an American kitchen sink drama about a woman just about keeping her head above water. The play starts with Amber (Robyn Addison) tentatively agreeing to let her husband Chris (Robert Lonsdale) move back in with her and their kids after a separation. It's implied, if never explicitly stated, that there was another woman, but in any case this doesn't seem to be what she's worried about: He's charming and well-meaning, but Chris is also unreliable and can barely seem to manage a couple of shifts at work every week, so Amber feels he'll end up being just another mouth to feed as she works two jobs. This week she's also got to worry about preparing an eighth birthday party for her daughter.

Theatre review: A Further Education

A shaky start could resolve itself in great things or a complete nosedive; true of many people's first year at university, and of Will Mortimer's debut play about a mature student, A Further Education. At an unnamed (more on this later) university, new tutor Chris (Oliver Hembrough) has three first year students in his tutorial group. Straight out of school are Lydia (Isabella Laughland) and Joshua (Makir Ahmed,) while Charlotte (Stella Gonet) is a local, much older but sharper than any of them when it comes to dissecting the classics. Her grades are high and her fellow-students quickly accept her in their social circle as well, and she even ends up becoming friendly with the strident but scatty new Vice-Chancellor Rachel (Issy van Randwyck.) There's more than just her age and the breadth of her knowledge that sets Charlotte apart from the rest of the students though, and Joshua and Lydia soon stumble upon a secret about her.

Theatre review: The Malcontent

Shakespeare's Globe has for the most part been in the true spirit of the playwright it celebrates, but the conclusion of its first indoor season would probably have him spinning in his grave as it resurrects one of his pet hates: Grumbled about in Hamlet for their annoying tendency to steal his punters, the boy players were a popular feature of the Jacobean stage, and particularly associated with the indoor, candlelit playhouses the Swanamaker recreates. John Marston wrote The Malcontent for one such boys' company, which makes it an apt - and peculiarly enlightening - choice for their own version: The Globe Young Players aren't an all-male troupe, but they do use gender-blind casting, so there's still a few boys playing girls, alongside the odd girl playing a boy. And they're all aged between 12 and 16, even if their characters and what they get up to - not just in sexual shenanigans but also in cynicism - are much older.

Theatre review: Facts

Jewish Canadian playwright Arthur Milner's father was a right-wing Zionist, so in writing a play about Israel and Palestine he takes the opportunity, in part, to deal with some of his issues around his disagreement with his father's politics. Inspired by a true story, Facts takes place in a police interrogation room in the Occupied Territories where Palestinian detective Khalid (Philip Arditti) has asked an Israeli colleague he's collaborated with in the past to help him with a murder case that's going nowhere. Khalid and Yossi (Michael Feast) start to piece together the events around the shooting of an American archaeologist whose work made him controversial in the region: Publishing evidence that directly contradicts the version of history in Exodus, he's casting doubt not only on the Old Testament as a factual source, but also on the entire basis for the Jewish claim on modern Israel.