Wodehouse in Wonderland review – less than spiffing portrait of the artist as a light comedian

Robert Daws stars as the great comic author in this one-man show but is let down by lukewarm humour

‘I’ve seen tough, rugby-playing men cowering’: how we made theatre horror The Woman in Black

‘It’s rare to really frighten a theatre audience. So it surprised us when people said, “I didn’t sleep for three nights after seeing your show”’

‘I’ve got my own theory’: Val McDermid play investigates death of Christopher Marlowe

Crime writer says her conclusion on the circumstances of the 16th-century playwright’s killing ‘will surprise people’

Grief is the Thing With Feathers: why Max Porter’s strange but ‘magnificent’ debut keeps inspiring adaptations

With a new Australian stage version and a movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch later this year, the author’s boundary-pushing novella continues to soar

The Guide #200: Get Out, Breaking Bad and the pop culture that defined the 21st century so far

In this week’s newsletter: To celebrate our 200th edition, we look back at the films, shows, albums and more that mattered most over the last 25 years

‘That’s where I found my family’: dancefloor devotees on hedonistic moves and healing grooves

A new season at London’s Southbank Centre is inspired by Emma Warren’s book Dance Your Way Home, about the potency of communal movement. She and other artists involved explain why the dancefloor is their happy place

The Zola Experience review – life follows art as stage relationship spills into real-life romance

When actor-director Anne Barbot embarks on an adaptation of a Zola novel with her neighbour, the gap between theatre and reality appears to collapse entirely

Charles Dickens’s ‘sliding doors’ moment: how a cold turned an aspiring thespian into a writer

An exhibition explores the authors’ love of theatre, highlighting the dramatic impact of his works

The Spare Room review – Judy Davis is electric in thrilling adaptation of Helen Garner novel

The powerhouse actor and the author’s keen prose fuel this show about a woman grappling with grief and rage while caring for her dying friend

Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed review – the poetry, prose and passion of a Scottish modernist

Richard Baron and Ellie Zeegen’s play follows the writer from wide-eyed child discovering nature in rural Scotland to feisty care-home resident

Little Brother review – remarkable migrant memoir falters on stage

Ibrahima Balde’s desperate journey to find his brother should make for essential theatre, but this production lacks the emotional intensity of the book

Ukraine war has reignited ‘cold war strategies’, says John le Carré’s son

Nick Harkaway sees parallels with postwar period as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold comes to the West End

‘Like making whisky’: how The Curious Case of Benjamin Button aged into a timeless musical

F Scott Fitzgerald’s tale of a man who is born old and grows young has become a West End smash. The team behind the musical tell its success story in reverse – from Olivier awards glory back to a Cornish bowling alley

Two Pints review – Roddy Doyle’s boozy banter is a masterclass in comedy

The writer’s gift for gags is on full display in this adaptation starring two men offering up laddish chat along with questions of life and death in an Irish pub

Einkvan review – Nobel-winner’s eerie, evocative study of estrangement and solitude

A sinister, clinical chill permeates this beguiling production of a new work by Norwegian dramatist Jon Fosse, aided by clever lighting and a ghostly piano score