★★★☆☆ The UK tour of Midsomer Murders: The Killings at Badger’s Drift arrives with significant expectations. For more than 20 years, this crime saga has lived comfortably on television, with its idyllic villages and grisly murders becoming appointment viewing for millions.

Tom Holloway’s stage adaptation of Double Indemnity brings James M. Cain’s crime novella out of the shadows and onto the stage, transporting audiences into a world of deception and ambition. With a bold visual style that nods to Billy Wilder’s legendary film while striving to forge its own theatrical identity, the production embraces the aesthetics of film noir.

★★★☆☆ There’s something exciting about a ghost story staged just as the nights grow longer, and Francis Evelyn’s adaptation of The Signalman certainly leans into that allure.

★★★☆☆ When Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened at the Curve Leicester, the anticipation in the theatre was palpable. This is one of Edward Albee’s most notorious works; a play so ferociously written, so cutting in its depiction of marriage, that it shocked audiences when it first premiered in 1962.

★★★☆☆ If Gatsby himself were staging this, I imagine he’d insist on a sea of glittering lights, crystal chandeliers, and a champagne fountain. Here at Derby Theatre, co-producing Elizabeth Newman’s adaptation to mark both Fitzgerald’s 100th anniversary and Derby Theatre’s 50th year, we get something slightly leaner—but still bursting with ambition. This Great Gatsby is a spirited and enjoyable ride, full of clever ideas and emotional peaks.

★★★☆☆ Frantic Assembly celebrates its 30th anniversary with Lost Atoms, a brand-new play written by award-winning playwright Anna Jordan.