This week's new theatre

Festival Theatre Summer Season, Pitlochry Pitlochry is a beautiful place which has a theatre that offers a chance to see plays in a rural setting. In fact, later in the season, it's possible to catch all six summer productions over six days. There's Cole Porter's terrific musical about a touring company putting on a musical version of The Taming Of The Shrew. Kiss Me Kate (pictured) is paired with another off-stage comedy, Michael Frayn's Noises Off, and other shows playing in rep this week include Tom Stoppard's Rough Crossing, about a couple of playwrights heading to New York on a steamer with their latest musical comedy, confident that it will be a Broadway smash. But the path to success and true love is not a smooth one. A theme is clearly emerging for a season that also includes William Inge's Bus Stop and an adaptation of Emile Zola's Nana. Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Fri to 16 Oct Lyn Gardner Sucker Punch, London In its time, the main auditorium of the Royal Court has undergone major transformations for particular productions, most memorably for Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen in 1994. Now it's being turned into a boxing ring (they've bought one that was actually used by the Krays) for Sucker Punch, a new play by Roy Williams (Lift Off, Clubland and Fallout at the Court; Category B at the Tricycle). It's a look at what it meant to be young and black in the 1980s, a decade that seems to be getting a lot of investigation of late, and how two boxers, with the same white trainer, come to terms with their identity. The theatrical bout, directed by Sacha Wares, finds British champion Leon Davidson up against American Troy Augustus, and both actors have been training hard under ex-pro Errol Christie. Seconds out. Jerwood Theatre Downstairs At The Royal Court, SE1, Fri to 24 Jul Mark Cook Daisy Pulls It Off, Newbury Daisy may pull it off in Denise Deegan's schoolgirl spoof, but directors often fall over their hockey sticks. This story of Daisy Meredith, who becomes the first scholarship girl at Grangewood School for Young Ladies, was clearly inspired by writers such as Enid Blyton. A big success in the West End in the 1980s, the show has fared less well in recent revivals. In a production that plays it straight, this can be an enjoyable and witty spoof whose sly wit lampoons a far more innocent era. Watermill, Sat to 10 Jul Lyn Gardner The Hired Man, Bolton Howard Goodall's latest musical, a version of Erich Segal's weepie Love Story, may be premiering in Chichester this weekend, but this work that he did earlier is one of his best. Melvyn Bragg's book is set in the Cumbrian hills as the 19th and 20th century collided and tells of a young married couple struggling to make ends meet when the ends keep moving. Goodall's wonderful score combines folk tunes to terrific effect and this should be a memorable evening if director David Thacker judges it just right. Octagon, Thu to 3 Jul Lyn Gardner Dandy In The Underworld, London There'll be nothing half-hearted or understated about Dandy In The Underworld, based on the cult memoir of the same name by Sebastian Horsley. He is indeed a living, breathing dandy (not your dodgy modern dandy like Laurence Llewelyn Bowen), who has been described as "Thomas de Quincey mixed with Lord Rochester, a dash of Oscar Wilde and a twist of Quentin Crisp". The latter of whom leads us to the author and director of the stage play, Tim Fountain, who has written previously about Crisp and Julie Burchill and performed his own solo show, Sex Addict. On this area, Fountain and Horsley would seem to be in agreement; Horsley (played here by Milo Twomey) claims to have spent 90% of his money on prostitutes. So expect plenty of sex and drugs, probably no rock'n'roll, but some colourful outfits. Soho Theatre, W1, Wed to 10 Jul Mark Cook The Importance Of Being Earnest, Manchester If regional theatres need to have a reason to revive classic plays, then the Library has an excellent one. Oscar Wilde's wonderfully plastic and endlessly inventive subversion of Victorian values was the very first play produced by the Library Theatre Company when it took up residence in the basement of the Central Library in St Peter's Square back in 1952. Now the company is moving out after a 58-year residency and will be producing work at the Lowry as well as in found spaces across the city. Chris Honer has assembled a cast of Library favourites and newcomers for Wilde's "trivial play for serious people". It should be a fitting finale for a company which has contributed a great deal to Manchester's theatrical landscape over the years. Library, Sat to 3 Jul Lyn Gardner Hay Fever, Leeds The presence of Maggie Steed as the fearsome Judith Bliss, matriarch of a 1920s theatrical family, may be reason enough for Ian Brown's revival of Noël Coward's comedy of bad manners. Like a great many of Coward's plays, it's harder to get right than it might appear, having felled some mighty directors including Declan Donnellan, whose 1999 West End production with Geraldine McEwan, Peter Blythe and Stephen Mangan was not a success. So Brown will need a sure eye to navigate a comedy that has vicious undertones as the egocentric Judith tries to relive her glory days on the London stage by inviting an admirer to stay in her country house. Other members of her family have also invited visitors for the weekend, though, and as the bewildered guests soon discover, when it comes to playing parlour games, the Blisses are champions. West Yorkshire Playhouse, Fri to 10 Jul Lyn Gardner Any Given Day, Edinburgh Brother and sister Lewis and Kathryn Howden work on stage together for the first time in Dominic Hill's production of this new play by Linda McLean, whose previous works for the Traverse include the excellent Shimmer and the tantalising strangers, babies. The Howdens play Sadie and Bill, a couple insulated from the outside world whose bubble is only ever pierced by visits from Bill's niece (Kate Dickie). They have been preparing for her arrival, but even the best laid plans can be disrupted. A story of fear, guilt and responsibility from a Scottish writer of real delicacy and verve. Traverse, to 19 Jun Lyn Gardner