JADE YOURELL

Beauty pageants and bus boycotts seldom belong on the same page, but in Chinonyerem Odimba's joyously playful and beautifully played Princess & the Hustler, they're brought together by Princess James, a flamboyant young girl who is black, beautiful, and brilliantly funny.

Bomb-blasted London. A Soho den in the hangover from World War II, where members drink into the darkness, night after night. Lying, fighting and seducing, these lost souls and bruised lovers struggle from the rubble of war towards an unknown future.

The National Theatre has announced its May-September 2018 season.

Bomb-blasted London. A Soho den in the hangover from World War II, where members drink into the darkness, night after night. Lying, fighting and seducing, these lost souls and bruised lovers struggle from the rubble of war towards an unknown future.

New casting announced for the new National Theatre season. Full cast has been announced for Brian Friel's Translations including Colin Morgan and Ciaran Hinds, part of the Travelex season with thousands of tickets available at £15. Eric Kofi Abrefa and Thalissa Teixeira join Vanessa Kirby in the cast of Julie, part of the Travelex season with thousands of tickets available at £15. Sam Mendes directs The Lehman Trilogy, a co-production with Neal Street Productions, cast includes Adam Godley, Ben Miles and Simon Russell Beale. Full casting is announced for the award winning An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, transferring to the National Theatre in a co-production with the Orange Tree Theatre. The NT will tour to 30 venues in 27 towns and cities across the UK and Ireland, for a total of 83 playing weeks over the next year. Rufus Norris' Macbeth to tour to 18 venues across the UK and Ireland from autumn 2018. War Horse returns to the National Theatre marking the centenary of Armistice Day.

THE COUNTRY GIRLS by Edna O'Brien will run at Chichester's Minerva Theatre from 9 June - 8 July, with a press night on 1 June, directed by Lisa Blair.

Final performances of the Young Chekhov trilogy begin this autumn in the Olivier Theatre, and The Plough and the Stars is wrapping up at the Lyttelton. In addition, previews begin in the Lyttelton for The Red Barn on 6 October (press night on 17 October), and Amadeus starts previewing in the Olivier from 19 October, (press night on 26 October).

The Red Barn a new play by David Hare, based on the novel, La Main, by Georges Simenon opens in the Lyttelton Theatre on 6 October (press night 17 October). The great detective writer Georges Simenon escaped France at the end of World War Two, and arrived in the USA to start again. With his American wife, he settled at Shadow Rock Farm in Lakeville, Connecticut. Years later, he wrote La Main, a psychological thriller set in a New England farmhouse.

Ruth Wilson takes the title role in HEDDA GABLER in a new version by Patrick Marber, directed by Ivo van Hove, in the new National Theatre season. The production previews from 5 December.