Mosquitoes
National Theatre 18th July to 28th September
It will be a tough act for Lucy Kirkwood to follow Chimerica (2013), an extraordinary mystery thriller which swung between Beijing and a US election campaign. Mosquitoes, directed by NT boss Rufus Norris, has two Olivias, Colman and Williams, playing sisters in different worlds thrown together by tragedy. One sister is a scientist in Geneva, deep into particle physics; the other in Luton, addicted to the internet. The production should ensure a theatrical fusion of intelligence and visual pyrotechnics.
The Tempest
Barbican Theatre 30th June to 18th August
Simon Russell Beale plays a Prospero of simmering fury and anxious, articulate momentum in this “technology Tempest” arriving from Stratford-upon-Avon, with Ariel in a motion-capture body suit allowing for startling variations in appearance and emanation. Gregory Doran’s production pitches stage magic against Shakespeare’s verbal variety and whatever the outcome overall, the masque of the goddesses will be the most beautiful you’ve ever seen.
Committee... (A New Musical)
Donmar Warehouse 23rd June to 12th August
Whitehall’s relationship with Kids Company, as revealed in a transcript of a parliamentary select committee session on 15th October 2015, is the unpromisingly dry material of a “show” featuring Alexander Hanson as Bernard Jenkin, Rosemary Ashe as Kate Hoey, Sandra Marvin as Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company, and Omar Ebrahim as Alan Yentob, former chairman of the charity. An invitation to consider how civic life in the UK is really governed.
