The Fifth Step
For an addict in the Alcoholics Anonymous programme, the fifth of the 12 steps includes confessing your wrongs to another person, such as your sponsor. That act is at the heart of David Ireland’s characteristically turbulent, darkly humorous two-hander in which Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman lock horns. Watch out for a (sort of) cameo from Willem Dafoe as Jesus. On National Theatre at Home from 1 October.
13 Going on 30: The Musical
A year after its Manchester premiere, here is an original cast recording led by Lucie Jones for the musical based on the movie about a frustrated teen who suddenly becomes “30, flirty and thriving”. Earworms include Poise, performed by Jones and Grace Mouat, set in the office of the titular fashion mag: “Time to sharpen up those claws / Photoshopping out those flaws!”
A Small and Quiet Light
The British resistance agent Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan was the first female wireless operator sent into Nazi-occupied France by the UK during the second world war. Priyanga Burford plays the intrepid hero in this bio-drama by Stephanie Street, staged at Richmond’s Orange Tree. Available 27-30 October.
Slant
“Not unlike singing along with one’s vacuum cleaner” was composer Nico Muhly’s analogy for his Drones project, which found harmony in ambient-style noise. Choreographer Jules Cunningham matches his works for strings, played live by the Britten Sinfonia, with a magnetic, superbly measured performance that cuts through. From Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage.
A Streetcar Named Desire
With Gillian Anderson back in the West End, starring in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? alongside Billy Crudup, why not revisit her phenomenal performance as Blanche in another explosive American classic, on NT at Home? Anderson also stars in the Streetcar prequel, The Departure, a short film written by Andrew O’Hagan.
Leave Taking & Other Plays
Winsome Pinnock made history in 1994 when her play Leave Taking became the first drama by a black British female playwright to be produced at the National Theatre. This revelatory seven-hour collection brings together her lesser known audio dramas with a first-rate cast including Adjoa Andoh, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Noma Dumezweni. From Penguin.
Away
It is 40 years since the premiere of Michael Gow’s enduring drama Away, about three strung-out Australian families on holiday, who are brought together through a storm. A play of revolutions and revelations, it’s directed by Matthew Lutton for Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre. From the Theatre Channel.
Leslie Odom Jr: An Offering
It’s not exactly theatre but let’s make an exception for this concert performed by the OG Aaron Burr on Broadway, who returned to Hamilton in the West End this summer. The album on YouTube includes a more delicate, introspective version of Wait for It, contrasting with its polished power on the Hamilton album – he makes it all ripple rather than erupt.
