Get the most out of London’s theatre scene with our top stage picks for the month. From new theatre to old classics, there is something for everyone
Words Helen Brown
5 TOP NEW THEATRE SHOWS THIS MAY
Schism
From 16 May
Park Theatre
Schism is the stunning play from disabled playwright, Athena Stevens. Questioning the power dynamics between male and female, and disabled and non-disabled, at its heart Schism is a play about two people finding each other, which questions the point where dreams and relationships become unrealistic or out of date.
Clifton Terrace, N4; parktheatre.co.uk
Faceless
Until 12 May
Park Theatre
Inspired by a true court case, Faceless highlights the power of the internet and its far-reaching consequences in the 21st century. This insightful play follows the life of Susie, a suburban Chicago teenager who converts online from Christianity to Islam and tries to reach Syria. In the ensuing court case she finds herself portrayed as an enemy of the State and is prosecuted by a young female Muslim lawyer.
Clifton Terrace, N4; parktheatre.co.uk
Chess
From 26 April
London Coliseum
In the first West End production of Chess since 1986, Michael Ball stars at Anatoly alongside Alexandra Burke as Svetlana. The much-adored production tells a story of love and political intrigue, set against the background of the Cold War in the late 1970s/early 1980s, when the lives of two chess masters are thrown into turmoil as superpowers attempt to manipulate an international chess championship for political ends.
St Martin’s Lane, WC2N; eno.org
Life and Fate
8-20 May
Theatre Royal Haymarket
It’s early 1943. Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia are in a bitter struggle for their very survival. Vasily Grossman’s celebrated novel, Life and Fate, is a sweeping panorama of Soviet Society and an epic tale of a country told through the fate of a single Jewish family, the Shtrum’s.
18 Suffolk Street, SW1Y; trh.co.uk
Peter Pan
From 17 May
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
For the wounded soldiers of World War One, imagination is their only escape. Yet as they’re transported to the fantastical lagoons and pirate ships of Never Land, allegories of the war they’ve left behind are ever present. George Llewelyn Davies, later killed in action in 1915, was one of the children who inspired J. M. Barrie to create the iconic character of Peter Pan. Remembering him, and a generation of Lost Boys, Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel’s spellbinding rendition is not to be missed.
Regent’s Park, NW1; openairtheatre.com
