Previewing this week

Twelfth Night

Anyone who missed last year's delightful all-male production of Twelfth Night starring Mark Rylance as Olivia, here's your chance to see it again. Director Tim Carroll brings together the cast of one of the Globe's most successful productions to date for those who want to take advantage of the Indian summer, and continue to enjoy the mixed blessings of outdoor British theatre. First night Thur 2 Oct, Shakespeare's Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, SE1 (020-7401 9919).

Ideas Men
Those masters of the absurd, Ridiculusmus, have created a satire on the way that creativity has become an industry and ideas have no currency unless they come in gleaming packages. Ridiculing the glossy conventions of contemporary office life, they look at how corporate language and a drive towards pseudo efficiency have discarded art for art's sake, and turned it instead into a manic circus for profit. Previewing Tue Sep 30, first night Wed 1 Oct, Barbican: The Pit, Silk Street, EC2 (0845 120 7550).

Wait Until Dark
Peter Bowles last appeared in the West End in Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth - and now he returns for another thriller, involving a Notting Hill basement, a doll stuffed with heroin and a blind woman besieged by three con men. The production also brings together two of the stars from Peak Practice, Saskia Wickham (Dr Erica Matthews) and Gary Mavers (Dr Andrew Attwood). Wait Until Dark premiered on Broadway in 1966 and wasmade into a film starring Audrey Hepburn. When it was revived on Broadway in 1998, none other than Quentin Tarantino led the con men on the sniff for drugs. Previewing from Tue 30 Sep, first night Wed 15 Oct, Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, WC2 (020-7494 5085).
Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet
Already a huge hit in Iceland, this production - by the company Vesturport --distinguishes itself from other interpretations of the Bard's story by animating it with acrobatics. After Baz Luhrman's devastatingly beautiful take on Romeo And Juliet, it seemed that a staged production could never rival his film, but with Shakespeare's R & J storming the West End, and now this, it seems that theatre is at last rising to the challenge. Previewing from Fri 26 Sep, first night Wed 1 Oct, Young Vic, 66 The Cut, SE1 (020-7928 6363).

Betrayal
Based on Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba, this promises to be an interesting event. It unites professional actors and prison inmates to perform an adaptation of the classic by Clare, HMP Cookham Wood. The performance is free, but be aware that audience members must bring security identification such as a driving license or passport. Wed 1 Oct,

12.45pm, Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus, W1 (020-7413 1437).

Peter Hall's Theatre Royal, Bath production of Pinter's time-reversal play about adultery comes into the West End. Janie Dee, Aden Gillett and Hugo Speer star in the drama that famously starts with the end of the affair, and then gradually takes it back to that first kiss between Emma and her husband's best man, Jerry. Previewing from Wed 1 Oct, first night Wed 8 Oct, Duchess Theatre, Catherine Street, WC2 (0870 890 1103).