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Puppetry, lighting and sound come together to make this National Theatre production of War Horse, a ravishing live stage event. For those who want more meat on their animal fables, let them revisit Animal Farm.

Hollywood may be full of mean people, but their bark is much worse than their bite, in Michael Lesslie's stage adaptation of the Kevin Spacey movie Swimming with Sharks. Christian Slater comes across as an amiable frat boy, not a Hollywood fear monger.

Michael Lesslie's Swimming with Sharks, is one of those cutthroat blood in the water tales of Hollywood that lacks the proper bite.

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This revival of William Wycherley's The Country Wife, offers a masterly performance by David Haig, as the doltish Pinchwife. Otherwise, Jonathan Kent's production could have been better.

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Just a play about some Chicago real estate salesmen trying to stay alive. But, in playwright David Mamet's hands, Glengarry Glen Ross is a brilliant bit of urban office poetry

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This well- done revival of William Nicholson's Shadowlands offers up an added bonus: Charles Dance's eye-opening performance. Who knew he had such a range and strength of feeling.

When is a game of poker, not just a game of poker: When you're watching the revival of Patrick Marber's Dealer's Choice, here exquisitely directed by Samuel West. What once had been a flawed play is revealed to be a contemporary classic.

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Lightning hasn't quite struck twice at the National: Present Laughter is no Private Lives - even though the author( Noel Coward) and the director (Howard Davies) are the same in both cases.

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All hail the Thane of Cawdor all hail Macbeth - all hail Patrick Stewart in the title role, giving a performance for the ages, under the superb direction of Rupert Goold.

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Carson McCullers The Member of the Wedding at the Young Vic is getting a first-class production under Matthew Dunster's direction. This is a play that taps into teen angst like few before it or after it, have ever done. Special kudos to Portia as Berenice