The week on stage, from Ruth Wilson in The Human Voice to Clybourne Park

The highs and lows of the week’s theatre

Clockwise from top left: ‘Straight Line Crazy’, ‘Steve and Tobias Versus Death’, ‘Clybourne Park’, ‘The Human Voice’ (Manuel Harlan/Andrew H Williams/Mark Douet/Jan Versweyveld)

This week’s theatre includes Ruth Wilson’s return to the stage, a zombie comedy, a gentrification drama and the reunion of David Hare and Ralph Fiennes. Check back next week for another cohort of productions.

The Human Voice – Harold Pinter Theatre ★★★☆☆

A revival of a 1930 Jean Cocteau monodrama, director Ivo van Hove’s stripped-back production is less a West End play than a relentlessly dolorous art installation, with Ruth Wilson using every weapon in her arsenal to keep it eventful. The Human Voice, also adapted by Pedro Almodóvar in 2020 into a half-hour short film starring Tilda Swinton, finds Wilson’s spurned lover in an empty modern apartment, on the phone to her ex, running a gamut of emotions: joy, insouciance, melancholy, anger, delirium, despair.