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LAST CHANCE: AFTER THE DANCE
Anyone who’s been riveted by Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance in the BBC’s updated version of Sherlock Holmes should check out his tremendous starring role in After the Dance at the National Theatre, which ends next week. In the revival of Terence Rattigan’s 1939 play, Cumberbatch plays a rich, dissolute, part-time historian caught up in the pre-war social whirl. Until 11 Aug, National Theatre, Lyttleton. Tickets from £10 from www.nationaltheatre.org.uk
BOOK NOW: BLACK WATCH RETURNS
If you didn’t catch Black Watch’s initial run at the Barbican in 2008, do anything you can to get tickets for its return this winter. Gregory Burke’s devastating depiction of the effects of the Iraq and Afghan conflicts on the squaddies sent out there employs straight theatre, physical peformance and song to searing effect. One of the great theatrical achievments of the past decade. 27 Nov-22 Jan, Barbican Theatre, Silk Street. Tickets £35-40 from www.barbican.org.uk