Hampstead theatre, London
There are shades of Blackadder in April De Angelis’s play about the great tragedian of 18th-century British theatre

There is a certain chutzpah to writing a comedy about the life of Sarah Siddons, the great tragedian of 18th-century British theatre. That is what April De Angelis does in this backstage drama, which packs some punches among its jokes on what it was to be a sole, female megastar of the stage.

Siddons (Rachael Stirling) is a woman in crisis when we first meet her. A daughter has died and her husband is shacked up with a mistress. Her brother, Kemble (Dominic Rowan), a fellow (more wooden) actor and theatre manager, is a bully who hustles her into parts.

Duke of York’s; Almeida; Hampstead, London
Matt Smith heads a rousing adaptation of Ibsen for a bruised world; Danny Sapani and co lean into the storm in Yaël Farber’s liberating Lear. Plus, Hollywood power play the hard way

Like a dramatic Tardis, Henrik Ibsen’s play about whistleblowing, entrenched power and populism crashes through 142 years and lands on today’s bruised principles. A terrific Matt Smith stars in a dynamic modern refashioning of An Enemy of the People by director Thomas Ostermeier of the Schaubühne in Berlin (English version by Duncan Macmillan). The production tweaks Ibsen’s feminism and lights up some gloomy corners with humour. It is an urgent but tendentious rendering of an ambivalent play.

Public health versus economic security. Institutional openness versus cover-ups and spin. Ibsen’s central concerns could hardly be more on the pulse of today. Dr Stockmann (Smith) discovers that the water supply to the municipal baths is polluted. The case for closure is evident and Stockmann has the eager support of journalists – until his brother, a local government official, argues that closure will destroy the town’s newfound prosperity. The news about contamination disappears.

Hampstead theatre, London
Neil D’Souza’s sharp script is packed with regret and affection as old bandmates get together to relive the glory days on holiday

Grab the beer and sunglasses and get ready for takeoff – this is a lads’ holiday to remember. Except the lads on this trip are middle-aged men. They’re back in Ibiza after 30 years to celebrate Chris’s 50th birthday, relive the memories of their time in a band and maybe pull a girl or two.

Neil D’Souza’s script is a giddy feast of nostalgia and abandoned dreams. Manchild Chris (Peter Bramhill) has his head in the past and still performs the tunes he wrote with best mate Dev (also played by D’Souza) back in the day. “I’m not an old man,” he insists. Dev has moved on, he’s a music lecturer at a university and spends his days in therapy lamenting his lack of family. Their third group member, the elusive LA-living music manager Michael, is at first nowhere to be seen.