Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro review – the Bard and the culture wars

Interracial marriage, cross-dressing and Trump as Caesar – the cultural politics of Shakespeare in the US

Noughts + Crosses review – reverse-race love story is vital viewing

Adapted from Malorie Blackman’s hit series of novels, this smart drama highlights structural racism by flipping a familiar tale of star-crossed lovers on its head

Oliver Twist review – artful new take on Dickens is stunning

The Victorian orphan is given an even greater sense of exclusion in Amy Leach’s excellent production for Ramps on the Moon

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am review – powerful portrait of a cultural giant

Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis and Morrison herself explore her work and legacy in this documentary completed shortly before the Nobel-winning author’s death

Broken Greek by Pete Paphides review – chip shops and pop music

An evocative memoir by the music writer, which tells how a sensitive, silent child of immigrants learned to cope, with the help of Abba and other pop bands

The Year Without Summer review – volcanic tales of changed climate

Guinevere Glasfurd’s multi-stranded novel passionately dramatises the catastrophic aftermaths of the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815

Difficult Women by Helen Lewis review – a history of feminism in 11 fights

Pioneering women have often been unlikable, argues this witty account. But being difficult is a vital element of feminism

My Town by David Gentleman review – a 70-year record of London life

The Gentleman vision: from cockney flower sellers to drug dealers in Camden ... the artist’s wonderful illustrated memoir captures change in the capital

Trainers review – a messy brush with Montaigne

Sylvan Oswald gives a dystopian twist to the French essayist’s ideas on borders to explore modern gender politics

Revisor review – astonishing take on Gogol demands to be seen again

Choreographer Crystal Pite and theatre-maker Jonathon Young combine their worlds for a riveting piece

Spacefarers by Christopher Wanjek review – getting practical about our future beyond Earth

Skyhooks, railguns and growing sweet potatoes on Mars … a nerdily engaging discussion of how humans might settle other planets

Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti review – Denise Mina’s Scottish Brecht falls flat

This update starring Elaine C Smith focuses on modern-day Scotland’s landowning class but struggles to make the satire funny

Collected Short Fiction and Invisible Yet Enduring Lilacs by Gerald Murnane – review

Self-obsessed but never self-indulgent, in his genre-melting short stories and essays the cult Australian author Gerald Murnane creates an extraordinary universality

Our House Is on Fire by Greta Thunberg et al review – a family and planet in crisis

A courageous family account of Greta Thunberg’s Asperger’s diagnosis becomes a must-read ecological message of hope

Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas review – the gory birth of Christianity

The author of The Slap plunges into the tumult of early Christianity, with a visceral portrait of the life of Saint Paul