Shakespeare’s Globe; Barbican, London
The possibility of pleasure is everywhere in Sean Holmes’s summer crowd-pleaser, while Adrian Dunbar tackles his first musical role in Cole Porter’s take on the bard’s least appealing play

There’s no whiff of stuffiness in a Sean Holmes production characterised by warm summer euphoria, Elizabethan-era magic and entrancing music

Cruelty, nosiness, truth-telling: whatever you call it, it appears in every community – and in plenty of works of literature too

Party punch-ups, brides in disguise, simmering family rancour … playwrights have cordially invited audiences to some nightmarish nuptials

A disco king hits the dancefloor, Beatrice and Benedick’s romcom gets a feminist framing and Lear faces dystopia as the revered rep company returns in full force

Our roundup of plays to watch at home in April includes a Ukrainian account of war, a blistering exploration of social media and a brass-band audio drama

Afrofuturism meets comic-book kitsch in a radiant production whose dramatic impact cannot match its majestic design

Beatrice and Benedick engage in heartwarming hostilities in Northern Broadsides’ rich and rewarding production

The star plays Beatrice opposite John Hopkins as Benedick in a lively production set in a luxury Sicilian spa full of mafiosi