The Independent Recommends

LIKE Shopping and Fucking, Handbag, the latest play by Mark Ravenhill (below), displays an impressive tendency to spark offbeat dialogue into an all-engulfing debate. And deafen you with house music. Wittily interweaving a Wildean prequel to The Importance of Being Earnest with the parental angst of a Nineties lesbian and gay couple, it suggests dysfunction is our chief birthright.

Lyric Studio, London W6 (0181-741 8701) 8pm

The Swansea-based physical theatre company Volcano has taken Alan Ayckbourn's Time of My Life - tempers fray at family reunion, etc - and shaken it awake with funny, and telling, non-naturalistic movement.

Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan, Wales (01239 621200) 7.30pm