Real Choices: Book this

HOT ON the heels of Nicole Kidman, who took David Hare's The Blue Room to Broadway, is Cate Blanchett in a revival of Hare's Plenty. This alternative ginger-and-alabaster Australian, Oscar-nominated for her role in the film Elizabeth, plays Susan Traherne, a fictional ex-Special Operations Executive whose covert wartime activities make her a liability to her civil servant husband. Traherne's mental instability and frustrations between 1943 and the mid-1960s are a metaphor for Britain's struggles after WWII. Tickets to see Blanchett, whose co-stars include Julian Wadham and Debra Gillett, are already selling out. Will the fact that she remains fully-clothed imperil her chances of a transatlantic transfer? Book early to find out if Vanity Fair's latest cover girl could be Hare's next West End emissary. RH

`Plenty' previews start April 15; opening night April 27. Albery Theatre Box Office: 0171 369 1730.