pick of the week

Private Lives

Mike Alfreds takes the four actors who have had such a success with Jude the Obscure and turns them into comedy actors for Coward's magnificent hit packed to the gills with spectacularly bad behaviour and funny lines.

Opens tonight, Everyman, Cheltenham 7.45pm (01242 572573)

Flesh Fly

Eawn Marshall and Graeae theatre company have had the inspired idea of taking Volpone and adapting it for a company of disabled actors. Like plugging this savage satire on sickness and health into a wall socket. An evening you won't forget in a hurry.

Thu-Sun only, Oval House, London SE11 8pm (0171-582 7680)

Slaughter City

Naomi Wallace slips across from the Bush, where her One Flea Spare has just finished, to the RSC for the world premiere of this poetic portrait of life in a slaughterhouse interrupted by a mysterious arrival.

The Pit, London EC2 (0171-638 8891)