Macbeth

Lion and Unicorn Theatre
Various dates

"All Hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis...
All Hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor...
All Hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be King hereafter...
Duncan is King of Scotland... but not for long. As a coven of witches prophesied the sudden advancement of the army general Macbeth, a poisonous ambition is awoken deep inside him driving him in the pursuit of the throne. Supported by his wife, Lady Macbeth, the couple quickly turn to murder to gain and maintain their power but all is not as it seems, and as the couples strength begins to waver the ghosts of the past return to seek revenge.
Fresh from their successful Winter Season of Othello & Twelfth Night, the NLC  are back at the Lion & Uncorn Theatre this Summer with Shakespeare's greatest tragedy Macbeth. The baron wasteland of Shakespeare's Scottish play and the darkness of his characters come into their own in this exciting new interpretation which imagines something is also rotten in the state of Scotland!"

Machines for Living

Blue Elephant Theatre, London
Various dates

Two architects believe they can design life and move into the tower block they have created; engineered to encourage kinship and social harmony. But can their marriage survive the strain of cuddling up to cockroaches, as the building degenerates and the blame falls on them?

Combining black humour with a tragic scope, Let Slip explores the legacy of Britain’s tower blocks in an irreverent, dynamic and visually arresting production.

A playful, dark and provocative piece of theatre from one of the latest companies to graduate from the Jacques Lecoq Theatre School in Paris.

Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun

Finborough Theatre
Various dates

"It is an inefficient and obsolete weapon, sirs, of which our Army has many thousands: and you have, in your wisdom, asked me to guard it with my life, thinking that I would indeed do anything, anything, to preserve and shelter from all harm, a thing so beautifully useless, so poignantly past it, so wistfully outdated, as my youth, or a Bofors gun. I would, and I shall, lay down my life for it."
Germany, 1954. A bitterly cold winter in the early years of the Cold War. In a wind-swept corner of a British Army base, six soldiers are posted to guard an obsolete anti-aircraft gun. Their task is futile and the gunners know it. Placed under the command of an inexperienced teenager, their boredom turns to frustration and their thoughts turn to trouble as the banter and squabbles of the barrack room harden into a battle of wills between a callow NCO who just wants to serve out his time and a disillusioned fighting man with his finger on the self-destruct button...
Directed by acclaimed new emerging director Robert Hastie, John McGrath’s startling, darkly comic depiction of young men coming to terms with a new, inhuman era of warfare is based on his own experience of National Service in the 1950s.

Anton Chekhov's Vaudevilles

Brockley Jack Studio Theatre
Various dates

Mercurius present Chekhov's one-act plays: The Bear; The Evils of Tobacco and The Proposal. These classics of the comic theatre, full of energy, invention and splendidly magnified performances, were written by Chekhov the humorist in between struggling to create his great plays Ivanov and The Seagull.
Joined here by three dramatised short stories, Drama, The Alien Corn and The Inspector-General that Chekhov wrote for the humorous journal Splinter, translator and adapter Michael Frayn has created an evening of entertainment and comic invention.
Mercurius was set up in 2011 by a group of five like-minded theatre practitioners who wanted to create the theatre that inspired them, from new writing to neglected classics.

Late Night Magic

Jermyn Street Theatre
Various dates

Richard Leigh's long running season of Late Night Magic cabarets continue with an ever changing programme of top magicians and speciality acts.

Enjoy a drink in the theatre whilst close up magic is presented right under your very eyes and then sit back and be totally amazed by an hour of magic,comedy and illusion.