A series of “unique” abridged Shakespeare productions is on offer in the Shakespeare Schools Festival in the Royal, Northampton on Monday and Tuesday while Ad Infinitum reinvents Homer’s Greek myth The Odyssey on the Underground stage on Wednesday.
Bill Kenwright presents the Classic Screen to Stage Theatre Company’s Rain Man by Dan Gordon, featuring Mathew Horne and Ed Speleers, at Derby Theatre from Monday until Saturday.
Ian Hislop and Nick Newman take inspiration from real-life events for their new play Trial by Laughter, based on their BBC Radio 4 drama of the same name, which should amuse audiences at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham from Monday until Saturday.
Gbolahan Obisesan plays Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Rochelle Rose is Camae in Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, a Reading Rep Theatre, Desara Productions and Nuffield Southampton Theatres co-production, at Curve, Leicester from Tuesday until Saturday.
London Classic Theatre performs Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should, a “poignant, bittersweet story about love, jealousy and the price of freedom”, at Malvern Theatres from Tuesday until Saturday.
New Perspectives and Pentabus collaborate to present Deirdre Kinahan’s Crossings at Blythe Bridge Care and Fun Club, Staffordshire on Wednesday, Swythamley and Heaton Centre, Cheshire on Thursday, Rutland County Museum on Friday and Biggin Village Hall, Derbyshire on Saturday.
Welsh National Opera is at Birmingham Hippodrome with Verdi’s La traviata on Wednesday and Friday, Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) on Thursday and War and Peace by David Pountney on Saturday.
Stoke-based Claybody Theatre Company transports the city’s Spode Works back to the 1950s for Deborah McAndrew’s Hot Lane from Wednesday until Saturday 24 November.
A “powerful compendium of the finest stories and poems of the trenches of the Great War from both sides of no man’s land”, Anthem for a Doomed Youth, compiled and performed by Guy Masterson, can be seen in the Djanogly Theatre at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham on Thursday.
Bent Architect’s Women of Aktion “picks apart the way history paints men as its heroes and honours unheard stories of women’s rebellion that helped spark the end of the First World War” at the Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton on Thursday.
The trials and tribulations of a rugby player from South Wales are marked out in Fly Half, written and performed by Gary Lagden with original songs by Gareth Moulton, at the Old Library Theatre, Mansfield on Thursday and Mansfield Rugby Club on Friday.
Drawing on writer Leo Butler’s experience as a guinea pig in the world’s first LSD trials since the 1960s, Told By An Idiot’s new play All You Need Is LSD “combines history, fantasy and scientific research to playfully dissect the UK’s ongoing drugs debate” at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Thursday until Saturday.
A solo dance piece, performed in a white cube space with a digitally animated environment, I Infinite tours to the Council House, Nottingham from Thursday until Saturday.
“The UK’s most popular rock ‘n’ roll variety show” That’ll Be the Day celebrates the festive season at Wolverhampton Grand on Thursday and Derngate, Northampton on Saturday.
Art with Heart’s Declaration which “examines when we want, need or are forced to declare our differences and the faces we wear to fit in” tours to the Studio at Derby Theatre on Saturday.
Toby Hulse’s new adaptation of Pinocchio is the Christmas production at the Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham which runs from Saturday until Sunday 30 December.
Pins and Needles gets into the Christmas spirit with its original show Rudolf at mac Birmingham from Saturday until Monday 31 December.
2Magpies Theatre rides into the Guildhall Theatre, Derby with Ventoux, the story of Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani on the fearsome Mont Ventoux in the 2000 Tour de France, on Sunday.
Ballet Theatre UK presents “one of the most enchanting love stories of all time”, Beauty and the Beast, at Mansfield Palace Theatre on Sunday.
Mark Gatiss and Adrian Scarborough team up in Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III which continues at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 24 November.
Cameron Mackintosh’s Broadway production of Boublil and Schönberg’s musical Les Misérables continues at Curve, Leicester until Saturday 24 November.
At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Troilus and Cressida continues until Saturday 17 November while in the Swan Theatre, Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine continues until Saturday 1 December and Molière’s classic Tartuffe is brought up to date in a new version by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto which continues until Saturday 23 February 2019.