More theatre reviews and previews

After Electra, Tricycle Theatre, London

What does society expect of women, particularly old women? April De Angelis's new play focuses on octogenarian artist Virgie, who has unusual plans for her birthday. But her family and friends have other ideas. De Angelis writes with precision and humour about contemporary attitudes to women (her hit play Jumpy focused on the relationship between a mother and a teenage daughter). Marty Cruickshank plays Virgie in Samuel West's production. Sarah Hemming

tricycle.co.uk, 020 7328 1000, April 7-May 2

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Rules for Living, National Theatre, London

Sam Holcroft's caustic new comedy mixes the dramatic staple of the ghastly Christmas lunch with the techniques of cognitive behavioural therapy in a painful and sometimes deliriously funny play. Brothers Adam (Stephen Mangan) and Matthew (Miles Jupp) have returned to the family home for Christmas lunch with their mother Edith (Deborah Findlay). Adam has an estranged wife (Claudie Blakley) in tow, Matthew a new girlfriend (Maggie Service). The scenario is familiar to anyone who has ever watched an Alan Ayckbourn play - or, indeed, attended an awkward family gathering. In Marianne Elliott's production the stage is laid out like a board game, with giant scoreboards that announce rules invisible to the players. As tensions rise, their behaviour becomes increasingly frenzied, finishing with an exceedingly messy food fight. SH

nationaltheatre.org.uk, 020 7452 3000, to July 8

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The Jew of Malta, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Christopher Marlowe's protagonist Barabas is about as reliable as a corkscrew wrapped in a nine-pound note. Marlowe's twist is that he gives Barabas ample reason to behave as he does by showing him savagely persecuted by Malta's Christians. Jasper Britton as Barabas combines a lively current of smarts, swifter and more irreverent than the characters around him, with a deep vein of emotion. Justin Audibert's Stratford directorial debut hits the right note of what TS Eliot, when writing about the play, called "tragic farce". You can clearly see several ways in which Barabas serves as a forerunner of Shylock, who pops up later this RSC season. Ian Shuttleworth

rsc.org.uk, 0844 800 1110, to September 8

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A View from the Bridge, Wyndham's Theatre, London

Last chance to see Ivo van Hove's staging of Arthur Miller's tragedy. Van Hove places the characters in a Perspex-walled rectangle, like specimens in a laboratory - but rather than diminish the emotional intensity, the setting enhances it. At the core of this brilliantly acted production is an outstanding performance by Mark Strong as Eddie Carbone, the Brooklyn longshoreman whose misplaced love for his niece drives him to his own destruction. SH

youngvic.org, 020 7922 2922, to April 11

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Radiant Vermin, Soho Theatre, London

Final week too for Philip Ridley's macabre comedy. Nice young couple Jill and Ollie are offered a home to die for - or to murder for - and, in an acidly funny modern fairy tale, they are soon wading into murky moral territory. The play pokes away at consumerism and the desolate creed that "enough is never enough". In David Mercatali's precisely pitched production, Gemma Whelan and Sean Michael Verey give virtuoso lead performances. SH

sohotheatre.com, 020 7478 0100, to April 12

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The Ruling Class, Trafalgar Studios, London

There's not much longer to catch this rare staging of Peter Barnes's 1968 play. James McAvoy's performance as the 14th Earl of Gurney - who imagines himself to be, first, the New Testament God of love, then Jack the Ripper - has garnered praise but the play offers more than that. Its bilious attitude towards British class-fixation is once again topical, and Barnes's jump-cut mixture of comedy and cruelty is probably easier to digest in today's fast-information culture. Above all else, it's one hell of a lot of fun. IS

trafalgartransformed.com, 0844 871 7632, to April 11

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Shakespeare in Love, Noel Coward Theatre, London

Final few weeks for this droll love letter to the playfulness of theatre. Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman's faux-depiction of history made a popular 1998 film but it seems more at home on the stage, adapted by Lee Hall. In 1593 London, a young Shakespeare has writer's block - until he meets Viola De Lesseps. There's star-crossed love, cross-dressing, mistaken identity and a host of other scenarios familiar from Shakespeare's plays. Declan Donnellan's production makes for a rumbustious night out. SH

shakespeareinlove.com, 0844 482 5141, to April 18

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