LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

SJ Theatre Productions return to the Theatre Royal Winchester next week with La Cage Aux Folles.

The musical takes you on a journey which contains humour, tears, pathos and glamour, but not everything is as it seems.

With a book written by Harvey Fierstein and music by Jerry Herman the musical is based on a 1973 play by Jean Poiret and centres around a couple who run a nightclub in St Tropez where the glamorous showgirls are not quite as they seem.

With great music and songs such as The Best of Times and I Am What I Am, the show runs from Wednesday to Saturday.

Box office: 01962 840440 or theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk

AFTER MISS JULIE

DOWNTON Abbey meets 50 Shades of Grey in Titchfield Festival Theatre’s spring production.

26th July 1945 – Labour have just won a landslide election.

At a country house belonging to a Labour peer, a victory party is in full swing. The lady of the house, his daughter Miss Julie, descends into the servant’s kitchen to seek out John, her father’s chauffeur.

A passionate midsummer night turns to tragedy as they test the limits of their new freedom.

After Miss Julie is a reworking of the classic yet controversial Swedish play written by August Strindberg in 1888. It is about to be realised in a new film version starring Colin Farrell.

It runs from Wednesday to March 22 at St Margaret’s Arts Centre.

Box office: 01329 556156.

MACBETH

SHAKESPEARE’S tale of evil and ambition comes to the historic setting of the Square Tower, Portsmouth.

Returning from war, Macbeth is promised the throne of Scotland by the Weird Sisters, but how far is he prepared to go to ensure that the supernatural prophecies are fulfilled?

Allied with his fiend-like wife Macbeth carves out a bloody path, but does it lead to the peace of ambitions met or to his eventual damnation?

Southsea Shakespeare Actors present Macbeth from Wednesday to Saturday.

To book tickets call 023 9283 9880 or visit the website: ticketsource.co.uk/ssa.

THE WEEKEND

CANTANKEROUS, world-weary and generally grumpy, Stephen Febble sums up the word crabby perfectly.

All he wants is a quiet life but, to his horror, his longsuffering wife Virginia fills the house with guests for the weekend.

Not only do his daughter Diana, gormless son-in-law Alan, precocious granddaughter Charlotte and incontinent dog arrive, but his best friend, his wife and her smooth chiropodist lover turn up for dinner.

In turn exasperated, frustrated and irritated, Stephen responds in normal fashion – reaching for the whisky and sarcasm (both in large amounts). RAODS bring an evening of comedy from the pen of Michael Palin to the Plaza stage from Tuesday to Saturday.

To book for The Weekend, visit plazatheatre.com or call 01794 512987.