SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND
Have you had enough Hamlet yet? If you’re not taken by the fascinating and absorbing production at the Young Vic starring Michael Sheen, give the German auteur Thomas Ostermeier’s seriously audacious, violent Hamlet a go at the Barbican – this is the Bard’s most cerebral play, with a Berlin twist, so expect serious darkness. Otherwise, aside from the Sheen Hamlet, it’s bit of a down period for new openings. If you are looking for the best of the still-playing, go for the much-vaunted Jerusalem, starring Mark Rylance, which is still playing at the Apollo Shaftesbury (NB: Morning Wire was not taken in by its implied class snobbery and cast of thuggish characters, but the rest of the world was). Broken Glass, the Arthur Miller play, is on at the Vaudeville and stars Antony Sher and Tara Fitzgerald on top form as they poignantly portray a Brooklyn Jewish couple in the 1930s responding to news of Kristallnacht (it was written fifty years after Hitler’s downfall). There’s some nice opera on this week: Stile Antico at Wigmore Hall sees the vibrant choir take on the best of Tomas Luis de Victoria – Spain’s most famous 16th century composer – alongside work by earlier composers, while Harry Christophers directs The Sixteen in Handel’s oratorio about the conversaion of St Paul, at Barbican. Both 22 Nov.