Hampstead Theatre

‘Two men forge a friendship over sport’ is something of a storytelling cliché. But in the assured hands of writer Rajiv Joseph and director Alice Hamilton, the connection made between two very different Ohio natives over their love of basketball – and particularly of fellow Ohioan, the legendary player LeBron ‘King’ James – succeeds in being funny and genuinely touching. The play begins in February 2004. Cleveland is buzzing with the news that LeBron is coming to play for local team the Cavaliers. After yet another failed business venture, down-on-his-luck bartender Matt (Sam Mitchell) is trying to hawk some season tickets to Shawn (Enyi Okoronkwo), a wannabe writer who has just had a short story published. The pair quickly exasperate each other – until, that is, they start talking about basketball, almost in-spite of themselves. From this ‘first quarter’, the play then skips through 2010, 2014 and 2016. It charts the ups and downs of their friendship and life choices against a wider backdrop including LeBron’s controversial decision in 2010 to move from the Cavaliers to Florida-based team Miami Heat. Joseph’s beautifully observed script is full of telling details that show us – often in hilarious ways – what makes these differently lonely men tick. Shawn’s self-projection of being the only grown-up in the room can quickly break open into childlike enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Matt’s self-pitying lack of awareness of his many privileges is softened by genuine vulnerability....

A pretty juicy piece of festive programming from Hampstead Theatre: Simon Russell Beale and Matthew Tennyson star as the old and young incarnations of Victorian poet AE Housman in the first major British revival for Tom Stoppard’s hugely acclaimed 1997 play. As ever with Stoppard, the main reason The Invention of Love hasn’t been revived in over 25 years probably boils down to how dizzyingly high concept it is: the play follows a deceased Housman as he crosses the River Styx and returns to Oxford University, then voyages through the high Victorian era. Blanch McIntyre directs. 

This surprisingly slick police procedural drama was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe a couple of years back and transfers to Hampstead Theatre’s Downstairs studio with a juiced up cast of Rosie Sheehy, Colm Gormley and the returning Jamie Ballard. Written and directed by Jamie Armitage – the co-director of smash musical Six – it follows young detective Ruth (Sheehy) as she tries to crack Cameron Andrews (Ballard), a successful businessman and all roiund good egg who she suspects of having something to do with the disappearence of a young woman.