The Independent Recommends: The Five Best Plays

Troilus and Cressida

(Olivier, NT, London)

This play and this theatre are made for each other, a fact proved by the masterly sweep of Trevor Nunn's production (right). To 19 May

Gross Indecency (Gielgud Theatre, London)

The artfully fractured form of Moises Kaufman's compelling play about Oscar Wilde manages to present the writer - man and symbol - in all his complex contradictoriness. Booking to 5 Jun

Trust (Royal Court Upstairs at the Ambassadors, London)

It's not Protestants vs Catholics, but Protestants at violent odds with one another in Gary Mitchell's timely and involving Ulster thriller. To 3 Apr

Volpone (Swan Theatre, Stratford)

Comedies don't come any funnier or more astringent than Ben Jonson's brilliant dissection of avaricious, over- reaching egotism. To 9 Oct

The Late Middle Classes

(Palace Theatre, Watford)

The fruitful and richly entertaining collaboration between Simon Gray and Harold Pinter continues with the latter's production of Gray's latest dark comedy, set in Fifties England. To 10 Apr