Theatre review: The Hunger Games

My second in-the-round show of the week, but instead of an intimate vag Miriam Buether has given us a huge arena in a purpose-built new theatre that hosts an epic quest. But enough about trying to find your way from Canary Wharf tube to the Troubadour - there are some signs but as far as we could tell they only started once you were practically there - Conor McPherson's biggest show in his year of paying off his mortgage is the first stage adaptation of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. Matthew Dunster directs the story of a future America called Panem, a Roman Empire-inspired dictatorship where the Capitol lives in decadent luxury while the 12 Districts work to keep them in it. To suppress rebellion and remind everyone who's boss, President Snow (a pre-recorded John Malkovich, phoning in his performance in more ways than one) holds the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death between teenagers from each District, shown live on TV as entertainment for the Capitol.

Dance review: Quadrophenia

It's not often I go to see a purely dance-based show - very much not my area of expertise but sometimes a welcome change. There's always been some unusual inspirations for ballet but it seems like there's more than ever at the moment, and while I'm sure Peaky Blinders and Black Sabbath will be... experiences, I'm glad I went for Quadrophenia, based on The Who's album and the subsequent film. Pete Townshend's wife Rachel Fuller is a classical musician, and it's hers and Martin Batchelar's orchestral adaptation of Townshend's songs that provides the musical backdrop to the 1960s Brighton-set story of Jimmy (Paris Fitzpatrick,) a factory worker who finds release from the drudgery in girls, drugs and violence as part of a group of local mods.