Isley Lynn | Warwick Arts Centre | Directed by Hamish MacDougall & Julian Spooner

Rhum and Clay Theatre Company’s ‘The War of the Worlds’ is a brilliantly executed examination of the nature of truth and the storytelling drive which has underpinned our attempts to understand the world around us for centuries.

James Williams | The Blue Orange Theatre | Directed by James Williams

The Wicked Lady, Birmingham’s own Woman in Black, opens in spine-chilling style at the Blue Orange Theatre.

Mark Farrelly | The Old Joint Stock Theatre | Directed by Joe Harmston

New play about the pained life of much-loved comedian Frankie Howerd is a moving, funny and poetic hit.

Oscar Wilde | Sutton Arts Theatre | Directed by Dexter Whitehead

Sutton Arts Theatre return with Wilde society comedy ‘An Ideal Husband’ in a production worth waiting for.

Ayub Khan Din | Birmingham Rep | Directed by Iqbal Khan

25th anniversary production of East is East at the Birmingham Rep is a triumph: uncomfortably funny, depressingly timely and beautifully performed.

Vanessa Oakes | Shop Front Theatre | Directed by Mark Evans

OCD is centre stage in a new play which delivers an emotionally powerful and moving insight into living with this most debilitating condition. It is the perfect post-pandemic piece to reopen this intimate gem of a space in a Coventry shopping centre.

Alan Ayckbourn | Sutton Arts Theatre | Directed by Barrie Atchison

First performed in 1972, this black comedy from the prolific Alan Ayckbourn (84 full length plays and counting) time travels across three years to chart the changing lives and fortunes of three married couples over three successive Christmas Eve parties. The playwright’s own insistence that this early 1970s period piece should include a note in the programme stating the era of the play to put it into context is telling: it is certainly of its time and although dated in many respects, still delivers laughs and was much enjoyed by the opening night audience.

Emilie Cullum-Kenyon | Park Hall Academy Theatre | Directed by Emily Cullum-Kenyon

School productions are a hit-and-miss affair. They can be tedious at best and plain awful at worst as much-loved but talentless children forget their lines and struggle to remember where they should be standing on stage. Thankfully there is no shortage of talent in the latest theatrical offering from Park Hall Academy. ‘Roald Dahl’s School of Adventure’, a new musical written and directed by Head of Performing Arts Emilie Cullum-Kenyon, is a gloriumptious hit.

L Frank Baum | Sutton Arts Theatre | Directed by Emily Armstrong and Dexter Whitehead

Sutton Coldfield may be a long way from Kansas but this year’s heart-warming and brilliantly performed Christmas production of The Wizard of Oz at Sutton Arts Theatre proves there really is no place like home.

Paul Hutton | Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham | Directed by James Williams

As the title of this filthily raucous adult panto suggests, this is Cinderella as you’ve never seen her before. Out with pumpkins and glass slippers; in with dildos and dating apps. Not so much ‘will she go to the ball?’ as ‘will she swipe left, or right?’