Absolute Hell

Joe Hill-Gibbins revives Rodney Ackland’s portrait of a despairsoaked Soho drinking den in 1945. The play was panned in 1952 for being anti-patriotic but it was rewritten in the Eighties and had a hit revival at the National in 1995. The impressive cast includes Kate Fleetwood (pictured in rehearsal) and Jonathan Slinger. Dominic Cavendish National’s Lyttelton Theatre, London SE1 (020 7452 3000), until June 16