London Tide at the National Theatre is the latest in a flood of Dickensian adaptations. Few have captured the novelist’s surreal imagination – are solo shows the most successful?

Party punch-ups, brides in disguise, simmering family rancour … playwrights have cordially invited audiences to some nightmarish nuptials

Best known for writing Tom and Viv, Hastings made his debut as a teenage dramatist in the 1950s. Now, his vivid ‘young man’s play’ Don’t Destroy Me is back

From a sportive Falstaff for the RSC to a powerful Juan Perón in Evita, Ackland – who has died aged 95 – rarely had the star role but was a reassuring presence

Despite being panned as ‘a dirty act done publicly’ on its London premiere, the tragedy is now regarded as a classic – here are three productions that radically shifted our perspective