Our experts round up the best plays and musicals
CRITIC’S CHOICE The Jew of Malta Justin Audibert’s robust revival of Christopher Marlowe’s 1589 play about a Jewish merchant so maltreated by the Christian authorities in 16th-century Malta that he turns to vengeance is a reminder that those demonised may well play the demon. Jasper Britton’s arch, carefully modulated performance as Barabas treads a nimble line between attracting BEST OF THE REST Hedda Gabler Ibsen’s play premiered to negative reviews in 1891, but Hedda is his greatest character. This aristocratic young woman can’t be reduced to a mere archetype. As we find in Nicola Daley’s extraordinary performance, she is one of the most enigmatic, tragic figures in world theatre. Arch, sharp and unashamedly snobbish, Daley’s Hedda smiles with barely disguised contempt for her husband (hapless academic Tesman) and his stultifyingly bourgeois Aunt Juju. Yet, on account of her sex, she lacks the freedom to live as she would choose. Mark Brown Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, to Sat; 0131 248 4848, lyceum.org.uk revulsion and sympathy. We get a fantastic sense of yet another Marlovian protagonist fatally freed – like Tamburlaine, Edward II and Faustus – from the shackles of convention and discovering what he’s made of. In a dirty world of nasty nobles and corrupt clergy, it’s left to us to decide when to part company with Barabas’s amoral spree. Dominic Cavendish RSC Swan, Stratford upon Avon, until May 8; 0844 800 1110, rsc.org.uk The Royale Boxing is suited to theatre, because of the intimacy and immediacy of the ring. In Marco Ramirez’s play, set in 1905, Jay Jackson (Nicholas Pinnock) dreams of becoming the first AfricanAmerican heavyweight champion of the world. It captures both the beautiful frenzy of boxing and the (sadly still) volatile state of race relations in America. Ben Lawrence Bush Theatre, London W12, to April 18; 020 8743 5050, bushtheatre.co.uk BOOK NOW American Buffalo Damian Lewis and John Goodman star in David Mamet’s 1977 masterpiece. Wyndham’s, London WC2, April 16 to June 27; 0844 482 5138, delfontmackintosh.co.uk