Sam Waite

A beloved classic that's never truly left the public consciousness – for better (the iconic songs) or worse (accusations of white saviour-ism) – The King and I is closing out its UK tour with a stint at the West End's Dominion Theatre. Last seen at the Palladium with Broadway's Kelli O'Hara and Ken Watanabe reprising the title roles, Bartlett Sher's production is, from its earliest moments, a crowd-pleaser.

Its always exciting to visit a theatre I've never been to, and this week I did just that, with my very first show at Jermyn Street Theatre. A new play, and a co-production between the theatre itself and DONOTALIGHT, The Beautiful Future is Coming is a poignant look at climate crisis, across 250 years, deeply rooted in the humanity of all those affected.

Twelve Angry Men is a courtroom drama known by most from the 1957 film adaptation starring Henry Fonda. Since the film's release, there have been several stage productions, with the last UK run being at The Garrick Theatre in 2023-14. The play is now firmly back in session, stopping off at Richmond Theatre as part of its UK tour. Twelve men decide the fate of an accused man, but what exactly would my verdict be?

Over a century after its release, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis still has its satirical bite, making it an oft-adapted story across all mediums. Nearing their own 30th anniversary, Frantic Assembly bring a UK tour of their take on the classic tale of horror and revulsion to a close at the Lyric Hammersmith, keeping their well-honed combination of movement theatre and dynamic storytelling at the forefront of both new and familiar plot beats.

When Jenny Sealey started adapting the book Flour Babies by Anne Fine for the stage, she found herself coming back time and time again to her own story. The parallels in the narrative were clear, she tells us. At the start of her one-hour play about Sealey's own life and the family secrets which have shaped it, she stands alone with her ‘terp' – a friend signing for the audience. Together they provide plentiful context for why we're all sat in Soho Theatre's main space waiting for her performance with anticipation. What follows is a cute and gentle, but sometimes challenging and uncomfortable tale of personal resilience.

The Boy at the Back of the Class is an award-winning book by Onjali Q. Raúf, often studied in schools. The book, now been adapted for the stage by Nick Ahad, tells the story of Ahmet, a refugee boy from Syria. Told from the perspective of nine-year olds, this is a play aimed at children but, as I found, with plenty to be enjoyed by all ages. While the classroom of children at the centre of the action competed for gold stars from their teacher, I was intrigued to see just how many stars this show would receive from myself.

How do you improve upon the hundreds, if not thousands, of productions of Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream? It's certainly a challenge for any director in 2024, finding new relevance and still making Shakespeare's antiquated jokes funny today. Yet, perhaps in this new outing at the RSC, I think that Eleanor Rhode's production, helmed by Horrible Histories' Mathew Baynton as ‘Bottom', may well have truly and utterly smashed it.