The Lover/The Collection, two early plays by Harold Pinter, are dazzlingly well served by director Jamie Lloyd. The plays are sexy, smart and...funny.

It's back: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. This six-and-a-half hour production (down from the original's eight-and-a-half hours) has some grand moments, but it doesn't set the theatre alight.

Truth be told, The Vertical Hour, is minor (David) Hare. Yet, isn't it great to have a playwright who engages directly with the times in which we live.

Patrick Marber's Dealer's Choice is a serious comedy that speaks volumes about addiction and obsession, fantasy and delusion.

This latest version of Much Ado About Nothing is edgy and neurotic...taking its cue from, shall we say, the maturity of its leading performers, Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker.

For a show about the transformative powers of art, Marianne Dreams of all pieces shouldn't feel so stillborn.

This is a Cinderella for a metrosexual age, where children are wise beyond their years. Did anyone say civil partnership ceremony?

The Family Plays is just as described: a double- bill of plays from foreign shores, each of which shows a family oblivious to the catastrophes that befall all too many lives.

Michael Grandage's production of Othello puts the emphasis where it should be- on the title character. And it pays off. Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance as the Moor is priceless.

A South African take on A Christmas Carol/Ikrismas Kherol, complete with a female Scrooge. No bah humbug here.