This week's new theatre

Blue/Orange, London It was 10 years ago that we first saw Joe Penhall's award-winning play, Blue/Orange, staged at the National Theatre and then in the West End. A striking, riveting story about race and madness, power and ego in medicine, it starred a mighty triumvirate of Bill Nighy, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Andrew Lincoln. Now it's been given a makeover by the British African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi with an all-female cast. Ayesha Antoine, Helen Schlesinger and Esther Hall are the players here, directed by Femi Elufowoju, whose production of Ilya-Ile for the same company at Soho Theatre last year won an Olivier award nomination. The story is seemingly simple, of a young black woman sectioned in a mental institution. A trainee doctor and her mentor argue over whether to let her out, but all three have their own agendas. Arcola Theatre, E8, Wed to 20 Nov Mark Cook Vertigo, On tour Sometimes a movie becomes much better known than the original novel, as with Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's story of guilt, exploitation and fixation that most people know from Hitchcock's film, which takes a cynical view of love as a form of manipulation. It's not the film script but Jonathan Holloway's stage adaptation that's being used here for a tour of rural venues by Oxfordshire Theatre Company. It's the third time in just a few years that Holloway's script, which draws heavily on psychoanalysis and the Nazi occupation of France, has been staged, with previous productions by Red Shift and Nottingham Playhouse. It should make for an evening of twists as a psychiatric patient reveals his obsession with the mysterious Madeleine. Leadenham Hall, nr Lincoln, Sat; Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead, Tue; Cassington Village Hall, Witney, Wed; Players Theatre, Thame, Fri Lyn Gardner The Price Of Everything, Scarborough Fiona Evans is clearly a playwright who hordes newspaper cuttings. Scarborough, the play that brought her to attention in Edinburgh in 2007, was a two-hander about Lauren, a school gym teacher who was helping one of her pupils celebrate his 16th birthday by taking him away for the weekend to a seaside boarding house. The writing was sharp and had a regretful twang. Evans will need to utilise all of her skills again for this work which draws on a very raw and recent case about a man whose business gets into difficulties, leading him to turn his gun on his wife and daughter at their luxury home. Evans's play is described as a thriller which "calculates the price we pay for material possessions and the effect it has on those we love". Stephen Joseph Theatre, Thu to 13 Nov LG The Two-Character Play, London A rarely performed piece by Tennessee Williams (first staged at Hampstead Theatre in 1967) finds its way to the Jermyn Street Theatre. Williams spent 10 years rewriting The Two-Character Play, not least because it was a departure from his more naturalistic style towards something more modern. The two characters in question are Felice and Clare – actors, brother and sister (played by Paul McEwan and Catherine Cusack) – deserted by their troupe in a run-down theatre. Faced with an audience, they perform The Two-Character Play, a play within a play in which the characters and actors merge. More innovative in style it may be but it still harbours recurring Williams themes, notably the confining nature of existence and mental illness. It's also Williams's most personal piece, since Felice and Clare are based on himself and his troubled sister. Jermyn Street Theatre, SW1, Tue to 20 Nov MC Lincoln Road, Peterborough Eastern Angles has been putting the art and soul back into Peterborough with several initiatives that bring the community and theatre together. Such was the success of last year's version of Danusia Iwaszko's play about Peterborough's multicultural community that the company have restaged it in an extended version. It still tells the story of local boy of Italian descent who tries to unite the community of Lincoln Road with a Notting Hill-style carnival and is based on the stories of local people, reflecting many voices and many experiences. Naomi Jones, who made a terrific job of the verbatim-style play Return To Akenfield for Eastern Angles and who recently worked on Flight Path at the Bush, directs. St Barnabas Centre, Sat; Volunteer Fire Station, Thu LG Takeover Festival, York Back again after last year's successful debut, York's Takeover Festival hands the Theatre Royal over to under-25s for theatre and comedy created by the young for the young. With workshops and family-friendly events also running throughout half term, it's very much a week of doing as well as watching. Look out for the off-site, interactive show Elsewhere (York Library, Tue to 30 Oct), created by Belt Up, York graduates who have made a big name for themselves since their Edinburgh debut in 2008, and the UK premiere of Declarations by Phoenix Dance Theatre (Theatre Royal, Thu, Fri). In his spoken performance piece Return (Theatre Royal, Tue), wordsmith Polar Bear explores the existential crisis of a man trying to work out where he fits, and, towards the end of the week, Hatch aims to showcase the new work of some of the most innovative of young theatre companies in the UK. Various venues, Mon to 30 Oct, takeoverfestival.co.uk LG Bristol Jam, Bristol The Old Vic sees the return of last year's hugely successful festival of spontaneous and improvised performance. This year it includes Cartoon de Salvo's very enjoyable storytelling and music show Hard-Hearted Hannah; Improbable's Lifegame, which has an often hugely revealing interview format; and The Factory version of The Seagull. You can also hear the live freeform podcast from radio DJ Andrew Collins and comedian Richard Herring. Bristol Old Vic, Tue to 6 Nov, bristoljam.ning.com LG Blackthorn, Mold Gary Owen is very much a writer of the moment. His Watford Palace play, Mrs Reynolds And The Ruffian, has just been nominated for Best Play in the TMA awards and Love Steals Us From Loneliness recently premiered for the National Theatre Wales in Bridgend. His latest, directed by Terry Hands, tells of an English couple and their daughter who leave London for a quieter life in the Welsh hills. But a local farmer could ruin the peace they'd hoped to find. Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Thu to 20 Nov LG