This week's theatre previews

The City, Glasgow Martin Crimp may currently have a West End hit with his savagely funny version of The Misanthrope, but he remains better known for the bleakly disturbing and slippery dramas about contemporary life that began with Dealing With Clair. Clair is also the name of one of the characters in The City, which – like Crimp's remarkable play Attempts On Her Life – has a sinister edge as the characters try to get a grip on their lives lived out in a climate of suspicion, frustration and meaningless seductions. Tron Theatre, to 6 Mar Lyn Gardner Way Out West, The Sea Whispered Me, On tour Chicago performance duo Cupola Bobber take their inspiration from the great double acts such as Laurel & Hardy and Gilbert & George, and their work often has a deadpan humour. The pair now take this co-production with the Nuffield, where they were recently artists in residence, on a short UK tour. Drawing on the English seaside tradition, it asks what it is that attracts people to the coast. Edwardian resorts with their bathing belles, the disappearing village of Dunwich which is gradually being eaten up by the water, and the dust bowls of 1930s America are linked in a piece whose DIY aesthetic doesn't stop it from asking big questions that dig into mythology and philosophy. Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster, Mon & Tue; Green Room, Manchester, Fri Lyn Gardner Eurydice, Plymouth The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been an inspiration for poets, playwrights, painters and composers, but Sarah Ruhl's version concentrates very much on the woman rather than the doomed heroics of the groom, who descends to the underworld to try to reclaim his bride, who died on their wedding day. In Ruhl's widely acclaimed version, which made hardened New York theatre critics weep, it is a letter from the underworld from Eurydice's dead father that precipitates her demise, and it is her story that becomes the focus as she arrives like Alice in Wonderland in the afterlife to discover that it resembles a hotel. Although Ruhl is best known for The Clean House, this play is rated far higher in the States. Let's hope we see why in a European premiere production by Bijan Sheibani for ATC Theatre, in conjunction with the Young Vic. Drum Theatre, Thu to 13 Mar Lyn Gardner The Dead School, London A touch of what's known as "bog gothic" comes to the Tricycle in the form of a stage version by Patrick McCabe of his dark novel, The Dead School. The author of The Butcher Boy sets this tale in 1970s Ireland and it's told through the eyes of an old headteacher. Raphael Bell, the tradition-upholding head of a prestigious boys' boarding school clashes with Malachy Dudgeon, a younger teacher given to more unorthodox methods. Both men, though, have troubled childhoods in common, and when a pupil is drowned on a school trip upheaval follows. In this production by Livin' Dred, Sean Campion (one half of the original cast of Stones In His Pockets) plays the old man, who looks back in madness from the dead school of his own making. Padraic McIntyre directs a cast that also includes Carrie Crowley, Peter Daly and Gemma Reeves. Tricycle Theatre, NW6, Mon to 13 Mar Mark Cook Dancing At Lughnasa, Birmingham Theatre likes memory plays and a couple of good ones are on show right now. While Watford Palace revives Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, Birmingham Rep opts for Brian Friel's account of the lives of five sisters living in the wilds of Co Donegal in the mid-30s. Their lives are constrained by circumstance, convention and geography, but a radio offers a lifeline to the outside world and feeds their dreams and passions. This may not be one of Friel's masterpieces, but it is one of his most popular, written straight from the heart. Birmingham Rep, to 6 Mar Lyn Gardner The Ministry Of Fear, Exeter Theatre Alibi is one of the unsung heroes of the British stage, quietly purveying its own distinct brand of storytelling theatre. Here, they turn to Graham Greene's wartime novel, adapted by Daniel Jamieson and directed by Nikki Sved. It's the compelling story of Arthur Rowe, a man complicit in his wife's death, who finds himself alone and numb in the London of the Blitz. Wandering into a Bloomsbury fete, he finds himself the winner of a competition to guess the weight of a cake, and Rowe's soon caught up in a saga of espionage that could either prove his undoing or bring about his redemption. Northcott, Fri to 6 Mar Lyn Gardner Romeo And Juliet, Colchester It's one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and one that lends itself to many different kinds of production – we've had Romeo and Juliets played out circus style, as a tragedy that befalls two Mafia families and even as a story of warring Palestinians and Israelis. Here, the Mercury joins forces with the Astillero Tango Orchestra of Buenos Aires to give it a sultry makeover. Shakespeare's play has inspired composers and musicians before: there's Prokofiev's ballet version and Bernstein's enduring West Side Story, as well as Bellini's opera. Now, in this daring piece of Shakespearian music theatre, the onstage Argentinean orchestra becomes a character force in the drama – as in the National's play for actors and orchestra, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour – as the lovers move from the first moments of intoxication through to death itself and their emotive sounds are played out. Mercury Theatre, Thu to 13 Mar Private Lives, London Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall is becoming a permanent fixture on the West End stage, having made her debut in Whose Life Is It Anyway? before appearing in The Cryptogram at the Donmar. The Widnes-born actress, who won a Golden Globe and five Emmy nominations for her portrayal of SATC siren Samantha, now utilises her comedic gifts in Noël Coward's Private Lives. As one half of divorced couple Elyot and Amanda, who meet on adjacent hotel balconies in the south of France on their respective honeymoons and embark on an almighty folie à deux , Cattrall will bring an (if this isn't too ungallant) older-woman slant to the relationship, paired as she is with Matthew Macfadyen, formerly of Spooks and Pride & Prejudice. Their unhappy spouses are played by Lisa Dillon and Simon Paisley Day. Richard Eyre directs. Vaudeville Theatre, WC2, Wed to 1 May Mark Cook