After the feast, the famine. Well, not entirely – there are still plenty must-see shows around, but it's probably the quietest week of the year so far for new openings and I'm going to take the opportunity to have a break before the Edinburgh fringe starts on 6 August. The main event is undoubtedly the christening of Kneehigh's new travelling theatre tent, The Asylum, with a revival of the marvellous The Red Shoes. I wish I could be there. National Theatre Wales has The Beach – part game, part documentary theatre – in Prestatyn, and at Chapter Arts in Cardiff you can catch a glimpse of Polly Teale and Linda Brogan's Speechless before it heads to the Traverse for the fringe, where Sam Holcroft's eagerly anticipated While You Lie also previews from next Friday. The Traverse festival season looks great and includes Grid Iron's Decky Does a Bronco, which can be seen in Dundee and Inverness this week, and Richard Milward's co-adaptation of his own novel, Apples, which is at the Rosehill Theatre in Whitehaven and the Hull Truck.
In London, a play about Afganistan called The Great Game is revived at the Tricycle, while Howard Brenton's Anne Boleyn premieres at the Globe, and The Prince of Homburg is at the Donmar. London Bubble's latest piece of fan-made theatre, an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 space epic, The Sirens of Titan, begins its tour of green spaces in London at Sydenham Wells Park. The Bubble does a mean outdoor show, as does the Dukes Lancaster, whose Peter Pan continues in Williamson Park. Move further north to Glasgow and you've just time to catch the riotous Valhalla! at the Tron, The Venus Labyrinth at the Arches and the Performance Banquet at Sloans on Sunday night, featuring Mischief La Bas. Meanwhile, The Mikado and A Number at the Stephen Joseph in Scarborough deserve your attention.
What else? My most exciting experience last week was Francis Alÿs's A Story of Deception exhibition at Tate Modern. Do go – it's phenomenal. I haven't seen Light Shining in Buckinghamshire at the Arcola, Peter Nicholls's Lingua Franca at the Finborough or The Railway Children at Waterloo Station, but they all come highly recommended by my colleague Michael Billington. The Young Vic has had ecstatic reviews for its revival of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, while Lisa Hamond and Rachael Spence's No Idea at the same venue sounds intriguing. If you want to discuss the state of theatre, Improbable's monthly Devoted and Disgruntled is also there on Wednesday. The InTransit festival continues with David Leddy's Susurrus in Holland Park Gardens and lots of other interesting projects over this weekend.
The Cock Tavern's brilliant La Bohème goes to the Soho Theatre; Mike Bartlett's Earthquakes in London is in preview at the National, where Watch This Space also showcases Chez Cocotte you've also just time to catch InStallation at the Milton Keynes International festival, which is by all accounts remarkable. Slapdash is a festival of improv that continues in the Old Vic tunnels until tonight, and anyone who loves a disaster will probably enjoy Blink Twice at Above the Stag, which celebrates those musicals that closed before you could get to them, such as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jeeves, Kander and Ebb's 70 Girls and Mike Read's Oscar, which closed on the night it opened.
Those are my tips; now for yours.
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