CARDIFF OPERA
The Barber of Seville
Millennium Centre
Bute Place
February 13-April 8

Upbeat and optimistic, Rossini’s great comic opera gets its first Welsh National Opera production for 30 years in a new translation by Kelley Rourke. Its fantastic slapstick energy, driven by crazy disguises, twists and turns in the plot and are unlikely interventions preceded by one of opera’s best-loved overtures, full of wit and playfulness. The cast includes outstanding comic performers including Andrew Shore as the greedy Doctor Bartolo, directions by Sam Brown and the set designs by the great Ralph Koltai. What’s not to like? Probably nothing at all.
wno.org.uk

LONDON THEATRE
Protect and Survive
The Vaults Theatre
Leake Street, SE1
March 2-6
Taking its title from the British government’s public disinformation booklet about what to do in the event of a nuclear attack, Protect and Survive is set in the early 1980s. With the cold war casting a shadow across the country, the play tells the story of Jack, who lives with the knowledge of a secret government facility hidden deep beneath his family’s farm and his experiences as he explores it with three companions. It is, so the blurb tells us, “a dangerous journey that uncovers entombed guilt, grief and sexual desires. Buried deep underground, not everyone survives.” Hmm. May be worth a punt.
vaultfestival.com