Choice

Deborah Warner's elegant production of Richard II illuminates the language of the play, allowing the action to unfurl along the whole length of Hildegard Bechtler's tournament-like traverse design. Fiona Shaw in the title role plays the character, not the gender of the king, and sets an intriguing precedent for the possibilities of androgenous casting.

In this centenary year of Wilde's "trivial comedy for serious people", The Importance of Being Earnest is enjoying three productions, in Birmingham (with Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Lady Bracknell, reviewed on these pages last Thursday), in Edinburgh and - until the end of the week - Nicholas Wright's excellent touring production, starring Bette Bourne, in Huddersfield.