Theatre review: All the Angels

New plays in the Swanamaker have tended to have a classical music theme to tie in with the venue's concert series - Farinelli and the King has so far been the big hit. Nick Drake's All the Angels is a returning show from the Dominic Dromgoole era, with a look at a particularly famous piece of music: Handel (David Horovitch) was best-known for opera but had had some embarrassing flops when the libretto to Messiah came his way. A religious choral work seemed a welcome change from opera, an art form he felt had betrayed him, while an invitation to do a residency in Dublin got him away from the scene of his humiliation, as well as a much-needed paycheck.

Theatre review: Unfaithful

Back to the popup venue that can't pop down again soon enough for my liking, Found111. The chairs are still uncomfortable but at least now they actually seem to have been designed for adult humans to sit on, rather than stolen from a dollhouse; and there's even a bit of a rake in the traverse seating for Unfaithful. Owen McCafferty's play sees a younger and older couple cross paths in ways that put both relationships at risk: Married plumber Tom (Sean Campion) is having a drink after work when a much younger woman, Tara (Ruta Gedmintas,) starts flirting with him, before out-and-out suggesting sex in an alley. Tom returns to his dinnerlady wife Joan (Niamh Cusack) to confess he slept with Tara. In revenge, Joan arranges a date with male escort Peter (Matthew Lewis.) Tara is Peter's girlfriend, and her frustration at what he does for a living might be what leads her to hit on other men.

Theatre review: Once a Catholic

The canteen at my work, like every canteen in the country as far as I can tell, always has fish and chips on a Friday; a sign that, although England hasn't been a Catholic country since Henry VIII found himself with more wives than the legal limit, the religion's influence is still felt in all kinds of unexpected places. One place you wouldn't be too surprised to find a supply of Catholic guilt is in a convent school in 1957 Willesden, the setting for Mary J. O'Malley's Once a Catholic. Kathy Fucking Burke revives the story of Mary Mooney, Mary Gallagher and Mary McGinty, three girls going into their O'level year at Our Lady of Fatima, and trying to reconcile the daily diet of fire and brimstone dished out by the terrifying nuns, with the approaching 1960s in the outside world and their own growing sexualities. A strong cast goes some way to bringing O'Malley's once-outrageous comedy into the 21st century, although it's not an entirely successful enterprise.