Staged in The Chamber at London’s historic County Hall, Witness for The Prosecution is now in its second year, but the feel throughout the audience as they take to their seats has the hushed anticipation of opening night. The grandeur of the building, the supersized leather seating all helps to create an exciting and authentic atmosphere. And there’s a suitably dramatic opening, and then we are off, into the world of Agatha Christie’s courtroom drama. …

Any chance to see a play by Alan Bennett is always a shot in the arm and so the opportunity to see a double bill is doubly welcome. The determined and dedicated Teddington Theatre Club based in Hampton have put together an intriguing couple of one-act plays. A Visit from Miss Prothero and An Englishman Abroad. The latter is usually paired with A Question of Attribution in a double bill Single Spies. Director Jenny Hobson …

The thing about metatheatre – and Wife is metatheatre writ large – is that it can easily become a bit of a Luvvie-in where cast and creatives are playing not just to the gallery but to the dress circle, the stalls, the dressing rooms and the stage door to boot. The danger in this is that it all becomes one big “in-joke” with us bunch of critics getting it, the theatre professionals in the audience …

Tom Glover’s one-act comedy has plenty of gags, some fine actors and an essentially interesting conceit but it doesn’t really gel as a full-length play. Feeling very much like it belongs in the first phases of ITV pilot writing from a few decades ago, this play is not especially funny nor particularly important although it makes attempts at both. Kevin Tomlinson plays Simon, a 37-year-old intruder alarm salesman in pursuit of his big bonus by …

Operation Mincemeat is set in 1943 and as the audience arrives the mood is set by the dark, smoky atmosphere and wartime music playing in the background. The set is basic, just a few filing cabinets and a plethora of phones hanging from the ceiling. Operation Mincemeat is the almost unbelievably true story of how the Germans were taken largely by surprise by the allied landings in Sicily because the body of a supposed Royal …