TheatreBloodsport: After Helen of TroyAva Pickett has an impressive track record of imaginative historical dramas, including her award-winning Tudor-era play 1536, which had a West End run this year. Alongside co-writing a film about Joan of Arc with Baz Luhrmann, she has reconceived this ancient epic, with Michelle Dockery playing Helen returning to war-ravaged Troy.
Theatre Royal Stratford East, London, 3 September-10 OctoberMan to ManAt the Edinburgh festival in 1987, Tilda Swinton played a German widow who takes on the identity of her dead husband in a prose poem by the Berliner Ensemble’s Manfred Karge. Almost 40 years later, she returns to the role of Ella/Max in a revised version, again directed by Stephen Unwin.
Royal Court theatre, London, 5 September-24 October. Traverse theatre, Edinburgh, 29 October-7 NovemberThe Standard of LivingPriceless … Thomas Flynn, Rory Kinnear and Natalia Osipova star in The Standard of LivingWhat greater “event theatre” than a new James Graham play? This one brings a twist to Keynesian economics. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, it stars Rory Kinnear as John Maynard Keynes and explores his relationship with the Bloomsbury group and his impact on arts funding. Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova co-stars, making her West End debut.
