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A new musical based on the 1990s television series The High Life will embark on a Scotland-wide tour in spring 2026. Previews will begin at Dundee Rep Theatre on March 28, before performances at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen, the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, Eden Court Theatre in Inverness and the King’s Theatre in Glasgow, concluding on May 16. The production reunites the show’s original cast: Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart. Cumming and Masson, who created and starred in the sitcom when it first aired in 1995, also co-wrote the musical’s script and lyrics alongside Johnny McKnight. Masson composed the score, with additional musical contributions from Cumming. The show is co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland...

Richard III feat. Martin Freeman is a vigorous, brutal, and accessible retelling of Shakespeare’s tale of political villainy…

The world loves a bastard. Will it, though, love one whose legendary wickedness is played for laughs and not venom? Martin Freeman’s taut performance as Richard III in a new Trafalgar Studios production wrings cruel humour from the play’s every pun and pause. Freeman jerks his head, and the audience laughs. He raises his eyebrows, and we laugh. He commits murder, shrugs it off, and we laugh. Who knew fifteenth century crown politics could be such a riot?

Jamie Lloyd’s play sets Shakespeare’s lurid account of Richard III’s rapid ascent to “the supreme seat” against the backdrop of the 1979 English winter of discontent. The idea, apt pun aside, is to evoke political instability and bring to mind the behind-the-scenes machinations that unseat power.

Soutra Gilmour's set...

Trafalgar Studios, central London

This production has a lot going for it. It stars James McAvoy (Atonement, The Last King of Scotland) as Macbeth. It takes place in a reconfigured space that gives this steeply raked theatre greater intimacy. And, in launching a season of plays directed by Jamie Lloyd, it is one more step in the commercial theatre's realisation that its future lies in artistic continuity. But, although it's a good occasion, there's a relentlessly visceral quality to Lloyd's production that eventually becomes a bit wearing.

Lloyd certainly takes a bold line on the play: he sets it in a future Scotland wracked by environmental disaster and tribal conflict. This is a strange, savage, post-apocalyptic world evoked, in Soutra Gilmour's design, by grungy costumes, begrimed toilet bowls and, inevitably, a ceiling of broken glass.

You get the general idea in the first few moments when the three witches appear in gasmasks,...

Trafalgar Studios; Royal Court; Palladium, London

The wonderful thing about Jamie Lloyd's production of Macbeth is that the Scottish play is Scottish. There is a rightness about the accents – it's almost as if one had only heard the play in translation until now. It is tremendous to hear James McAvoy's Macbeth say: "the multitudinous seas incarnadine" rolling the "r", giving the line new momentum. Yet designer Soutra Gilmour's stricken set – a concrete bunker filled with overturned office chairs – is not necessarily Scottish. We could be anywhere. And it is immediately obvious that this production is going to do Macbeth the hard way. It's set in a dystopian future in which everyone looks as if they have recently had a mud or blood bath, the witches wear gas masks and Banquo is so bloody he looks as though he ought to go straight to A&E. One feels one...

Claire Foy has joined Jamie Lloyd's upcoming production of Macbeth as Lady Macbeth. The White Heat actress stars opposite James McAvoy, who has the title role, while the rest of the cast has also now been confirmed. They are Jamie Ballard (Macduff), Graeme Dalling (Donalbain), Lisa Gardner (Witch), Kevin Guthrie (Lennox), Richard Hansell (Ross), Forbes Masson (Banquo), Allison McKenzie (Witch), Olivia Morgan (Witch),Catherine Murray (Caithness), Callum O'Neill (Angus), Mark Quartley (Malcolm) and Hugh Ross (Duncan/Doctor). Macbeth runs from February 9 to April 27, 2013 at Trafalgar Studios. Lloyd said: "I am thrilled to announce the first production for Trafalgar Transformed - a season of politically-charged power plays on the doorstep of Whitehall, accompanied by a festival of platform events, discussions and readings. "We (more)...

Meet the four young actors who will be playing the Pevensie children in Rupert Goold's new stage adaptation of Cs Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Rehearsals are currently underway with performances to start on May 8th, prior to an official opening on May 29th, at a specially created venue in the grounds of London's Kensington Gardens.

Philip Labey (represented by Cole Kitchenn), a graduate of Guildford School of Acting (2009), will play the eldest of the Pevensie siblings, Peter.

Carly Bawden (represented by Shepherd Management) originally from Somerset, and also a graduate of Guildford School of Acting will play Susan. Carly recently played Catherine in the revival of Pippin at the Menier Chocolate Factory and previously starred in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and the Evita tour.

18 year old Jonny Weldon (represented by Mark Jermin Management) plays Edmund. Jonny played Jim Hawkins in the Bristol Old Vic's production of Treasure Island last year.