Plyas Grieg/Glazounov/Strauss

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Beautifully complicated … Saidah Arrika Ekulona and Russell Gebert Jones in Ruined at Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, in 2009. Photograph: Joan Marcus/AP 34 Ruined (2008) In fact, the popular perception of medieval history as seen through the rulers of the period is pure Shakespeare. We have given ourselves entirely to Shakespeare’s vision. What would Bolingbroke (Henry IV) mean to us today? We would know nothing of him but because of Shakespeare’s plays, he is an important, memorable and significant historical figure. Henry V, nee Prince Hal, is, in our minds, the perfect model of kingship after an education gained by indulgence in a misspent youth, and a perfect human being, but that is only because that’s the way Shakespeare chose to present him in the furtherance of the themes he wanted to develop and the dramatic story he wanted to tell. Clever and dangerous … Ken Nwosu and Kevin Trainor in An Octoroon at the Orange Tree, London, in 2017. Photograph: Richard Davenport/The Other Richard 11 An Octoroon (2014) Endorheic basin, also known as a sink, alkali flat or sabkha, a desert basin with no outlet which periodically fills with water to form a temporary lake

Tom Stoppard sometimes gets accused of being all head and no heart – but this play proves otherwise. Yes, it’s a mind-achingly clever look at both science and art, pitting the rational against the romantic, while giving you mini lessons in chaos theory, the second law of thermodynamics and the life and shaggings of Lord Byron. But there’s a love story and a tragedy here too. Two stories, set in the same country house, in 1809 and the present day, intersect and eventually overlap beautifully. The mathematic theorising forecasts hope as well as disaster for the universe, and the story offers the same for its characters. HW The concept behind Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree is simple but brilliant: each night, a new, unrehearsed actor performs the show alongside Crouch, thus exposing the transformation that lies at the heart of all theatre. While it might sound like a cold intellectual exercise, the use of an unprepared and often slightly baffled performer poignantly speaks to the show’s themes of loss and grief, making it one of the century’s best marriages of form and content. CL Read the review. 37 random (2008) Sophie Melville in Iphigenia in Splott at the Sherman theatre, Cardiff, in 2015. 28 Iphigenia in Splott (2015) Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s dizzily enjoyable musical about Roald Dahl’s telekinetic bookworm sings the importance of two invaluable resources: public libraries and arts subsidy. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, it became a global sensation thanks to its sweetly spiky songs, empowering celebration of the imagination and brilliantly rebellious heroine who puts the “revolt” into revolting rhymes. While her mum is at the bingo, Dahl’s Matilda spends “two glorious hours” at the library. This gives the same pleasure in the theatre. CW Read the review. 6 The York Realist (2001)The plays dramatise five generations of’ Medieval power struggles. For the most part, they depict the Hundred Years War with France, from Henry V to Joan of Arc, and the Wars of the Roses, between York and Lancaster.

Funnily enough, a lot of the best theatre streaming services are currently run by youth-oriented theatre companies. This is because a great majority of established theatre companies for young people already offer online services, to deploy to educational institutions such as colleges and schools. The rich diversity of the city’s theatre scene means there is always something to enjoy. Whether you’re looking for a hot piece of new writing or a revival of a classic, London has something for you. The theatre buildings themselves are also awe-inspiring, with some having hosted plays for centuries. And it’s not just West End plays that are popular: you can also see London musicals , comedies and operas in some magnificent buildings.Playas are among the flattest known landforms. Their slopes are generally less than 0.2 metre per kilometre. When filled with only a few centimetres of water, many kilometres of surface may be inundated. It is the process of inundation that develops and maintains the near-perfect flatness so characteristic of these arid-region landforms.