“It’s funny what people do and what they tell. We’re all hiding bits of ourselves. The bits we’re not proud of. I can see that now.”

It’s Friday night and Franky is back at her local pub for the first time in years. Pints are poured, Motown music drifts from the tinny speakers, and karaoke starts at eight. It’s reassuringly familiar. Like nothing’s changed. 

But, haunted by grief, Franky’s family are quietly unravelling around her. Her dad is hiding himself away, and buried family secrets are leaking through the cracks in every room.

Heart Wall

Bush Theatre

Uncover the darkest sides of human nature in this experimental revival from The New Group. Meet Mr. Zero - he's just another cog. He can’t fulfill his own needs, much less those of his wife Mrs. Zero, or his workwife Daisy. But when Mr. Zero’s boss replaces him with a machine, Mr. Zero is left with nothing but his most despicable instincts. Follow his existential journey as he grapples with what it means to be replaceable in a world where efficiency trumps humanity, a world that feels scarily current, despite being written over 100 years ago.

The Adding Machine

Theater at St. Clement’s

An aging commercial traveller chases a fading dream of success, blind to the illusions that have shaped his life and shattered his family. As memories blur with reality, his desperate pursuit of worth reveals the quiet tragedy of a man out of step with the world around him.

Death of a Salesman

Stratford Festival

Strange things happen in the woods by night, with neither spirit nor mortal safe from the wiles of the trickster Puck. For mismatched lovers, romance runs delightfully amok, but true love triumphs at dawn.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFe6mW6x9pc

The Artelize Podcast: 'Amplifying What Makes Us Human'. A conversation with Zuly E. Inirio

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

Before the New York Dolls. Before Debbie Harry. Before Kurt Cobain. There was Maggie Frisby. Once the roaring voice of 60s counterculture, now broke and disillusioned, a band’s youthful dreams of anarchic rebellion collapse into bitterness. Amidst the wreckage, lead singer Maggie tears through the night fuelled by booze, fury, and a voice that refuses to die.

‍50 years after David Hare’s trailblazing play set The Royal Court alight, Teeth 'N' Smiles is ready to burn things down all over again. The ship is sinking but the music remains the same.

EPSG:4326

Teeth 'N' Smiles

Duke of York's Theatre

On an enchanted island, a deposed duke uses his magical powers to conjure a storm at sea, bringing him face to face with the brother who betrayed him. As old quarrels are resolved, love blossoms for a new generation.

The Tempest

Josephine Park stars as Yerma in a gripping drama about a modern woman’s all-consuming desire for a child—and the lengths she will go to in pursuit of her dream.

What do you do when you have every opportunity in life, yet your greatest wish remains unfulfilled?

Yerma is a successful city woman in full control of her life. She has never considered having children—until the day she moves into her new townhouse. Suddenly, the desire arises: there is plenty of space, after all. She persuades her partner, and together they try for years to conceive.

As their efforts prove unsuccessful, she restructures their work and private lives around her ovulation cycles. She shares intimate details of their struggle with infertility and family pressures on social media, while her partner gradually loses interest in fertility treatments—and in their relationship. Once, she had never defined her body by its biological function. Now, the deep longing for motherhood consumes her entirely, turning into an obsession.

Yerma

Royal Danish Opera

More than 75 years in the making, an unfinished work by one of America’s greatest dramatists takes the New York stage at last. Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium unveils the artist’s final play, brought to life through playwright Kirk Lynn’s masterful completion. As a young man journeys through the city and beyond, he encounters a world of wonder, meaning, and the elusive truths of life itself. Wilder’s long-unseen masterpiece is finally ready to be discovered, offering a rare chance to experience a new work from a legendary voice.

Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium

Lynn F. Angelson Theater

"Perhaps we must finally learn to truly understand that the fabric of our civilization itself is woven from fire and smoke." (WG Sebald) It all begins at an altitude of 4,000 meters: A stream of US bombers, 600 meters wide and 30 kilometers long, moves toward a German city. Below, bombs fall, along with the parachutes of a bomber crew, low-flying aircraft, and flak towers. Far below, houses and streets where staggering people are "grilled" in boiling tar. Air-raid shelters, cellars, chaos—an unimaginable horror scenario. A mother searches for her son, who has already met his death as an anti-aircraft gunner; a young woman is buried alive with a stranger and raped by him beneath the rubble. Gert Ledig's novel REVENGE takes a cold and unsentimental look at the destructive violence of an Allied air raid in July 1944. The city in question remains nameless—but could well be Cologne. Here, too, after the night of May 30-31, 1942, only the cathedral stood amidst a vast landscape of rubble. The book was published in 1956, long after Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass had begun depicting the postwar reality of West Germany. It was soon forgotten. To this day, the trauma of the air raids remains largely unaddressed, while the haphazard postwar architecture of city centers continues to silently bear witness to the horrors of that time. Director Sebastian Baumgarten stages Ledig's defiant challenge to warmongering rhetoric of "fatherland, heroism, tradition, faith, and honor" as a world premiere for the Schauspiel Köln (Cologne Theatre).

retribution

Carlswerk

In San Francisco, four artists and intellectuals wrestle with creativity, legacy, and the complexities of love and family. When they uncover the work of a Black queer feminist writer from the 1960s, her words ripple across time, intertwining their lives in unexpected ways. Bold and imaginative, Christina Anderson’s latest work explores the power of artistic expression and the lasting impact of those who dare to create. A story for dreamers and idealists alike, it challenges us to reconsider who gets remembered and who gets to define the future.

How to Catch Creation

Young Centre for the Performing Arts

When the plague steals 11-year-old Hamnet from his loving parents, Agnes and William Shakespeare, they must each confront their loss alone. And yet, out of the greatest suffering, something of extraordinary wonder is born. Experience the U.S. premiere of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “elegant and beguiling” (London’s Evening Standard) stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel, adapted by award-winning playwright Lolita Chakrabarti (Life of Pi, Red Velvet) and directed by Erica Whyman.

Hamnet

Toni Rembe Theater

Karl-Aage’s life begins and ends with Regitze. Who is he without her? Experience Olaf Johannessen and Maria Rossing in an intimate production about love and grief.

'It would be a beautiful evening. One of those rare, still, warm summer nights, where everything seems to pause and hold its breath for a moment. Regitze could not have chosen a better evening for her party.'

Karl-Aage has been married to Regitze for over 40 years. Now, as she faces an incurable illness, they prepare for what will be their final gathering at their allotment garden. As he reflects on a lifetime with the fearless, strong-willed, and life-affirming Regitze, his own story unfolds—one in which he has always been the passive, hesitant, and reserved one.

Memories of a Marriage

Smart. Scrappy. Savage. 1536, the “electrifying” (The Standard) historical drama with a modern edge, transfers to the West End following a sold-out run at the Almeida Theatre – don’t miss your chance to see this “effortlessly funny, bold and ballsy” (The Guardian) must-see new play.

Written by Ava Pickett, winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and directed by Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica), this “razor-sharp, darkly comic and blisteringly relevant” (The Independent) hit explores the dynamics of female friendship in a world stacked against women.

1536

The Ambassadors Theatre

Eemani and Jade light up to unwind, but their blunt is laced with more than weed. A wild hallucination gives them superpowers to confront the past in a hilarious, eye-opening journey. This electrifying play celebrates Black womanhood and self-discovery.

Don`t Touch My Hair

Unicorn Theatre

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise…

After committing a violent act with her partner, Jake, feminist Jen becomes obsessed with a survey asking women if they’d rather be alone in a forest with a man or a bear.

Bears Bears Bears is a wild and electric drama that explores power dynamics within relationships, nature vs nurture, and what it means to be a feminist.  It is written by Natalie Beech, directed by Connor Goodwin, and produced by Divided Culture Co.

Winner of the 2025 DCC Playwriting Prize - expect horror, comedy, performance art, and a lot of bears.

Visiting for a strictly limited run from 6-16 May, don’t miss your chance to catch this explosive world premiere.

Bears Bears Bears

The University of Manchester

Step into the charged atmosphere of a 1950s South African tea shop in Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”…and the Boys, a gripping, deeply personal drama that unflinchingly confronts the realities of race, power, and betrayal. On a rainy afternoon, Hally, a white teenager, passes the time with Sam and Willie, two Black waiters who have helped raise him by filling the gaps of a broken home with warmth, wisdom, and laughter. But as the day unfolds, playful memories give way to painful truths, and a single moment threatens to shatter the fragile bond between them forever.

“Master Harold”...and the Boys

Geffen Playhouse

Fall under the spell of this effervescent romantic comedy where love, laughter, and tradition playfully intertwine. This delightful Jewish-American story weaves together vibrant traditions, sizzling chemistry, and joyous celebrations into a warm-hearted theatrical treat. Bursting with laugh-out-loud moments and tender revelations, this smart crowd-pleaser celebrates family, devotion, and finding your true self. Fresh, funny, and deeply heartfelt, BEAU JEST delivers the perfect blend of humor and heart that will leave you smiling long after the final bow.

Beau Jest

Lomas Sante Fe Plaza

In 1968, George buys a suburban Southern California home—a stop on his way to something bigger—and hires Audrey as a housekeeper. In 1991, Robert is still living there, itching to start his own life. Thirty years later, Joseph returns home, still struggling with a secret that holds him back. With humor and heart, this multigenerational drama revolves around three Black men, their journeys to choose love and the woman who holds them all together.

Fremont Ave.

South Coast Repertory

Bilbo Baggins is reluctantly swept from his cozy hobbit hole into a perilous quest across Middle-earth to help a band of dwarves reclaim their home, Lonely Mountain, from a deadly dragon. Faced with trolls, goblins and a mysterious magic ring, he discovers that true courage often lies in the most unlikely of hearts.

Play events in Shipshewana, Indiana next week

Heart Wall

Bush Theatre

The Adding Machine

The New Group

Death of a Salesman

Stratford Festival

A Midsummer Night's Dream...

Stratford Festival

The Artelize Podcast: 'Am...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

Teeth 'N' Smiles

Duke of York's Theatre

The Tempest

Stratford Festival

Yerma

Royal Danish Opera

The Adding Machine

The New Group

Thornton Wilder’s The Emp...

Classic Stage Company

retribution

Bühnen Köln

How to Catch Creation

Soulpepper Theatre Company

Hamnet

American Conservatory Theater

Memories of a Marriage

Royal Danish Opera

1536

Ambassadors Theatre

Don`t Touch My Hair

Unicorn Theatre

Bears Bears Bears

Contact

“Master Harold”...and the...

Geffen Playhouse

Beau Jest

North Coast Rep

Fremont Ave.

South Coast Repertory

The Hobbit

Stratford Festival