Performance

The series of classic dramas returns with Sean O'Casey's famous play, in a production starring Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Rea. A dreaming poet is mistaken by a romantic young girl for an IRA gunman on the run.

The series of classic dramas continues with D.H. Lawrence's early play exploring life in a mining community in 1914, starring Zoe Wanamaker, Stephen Dillane, Colin Firth. Lizzie Holroyd feels she must escape from her marriage, but terrible events overtake her.

First on a double bill of plays from the Performance strand is Harold Pinter's Landscape, written in 1968 and first staged by the Gate Theatre, Dublin, last year. A delicate portrait of the secret life of lovers Beth and Duff.

Second on this double bill of plays from the Performance strand is Jim Cartwright's wry drama Bed. The bittersweet memories of seven very old people who all share the same bed.

Director John Caird's adaptation of Shakespeare's two-part work -- telling the story of a young man's elevation from immature prince to responsible king -- explores timeless themes against the brutal backdrop of medieval England.

Concluding the Performance season of classic dramas, this updated version of Strindberg's Miss Julie is vivid and contemporary. It's 1945 and the Labour Party has won the General Election. Miss Julie, the upper-class daughter of a Labour MP, sets out to seduce her father's chauffeur, John, even though he is unofficially engaged to Christine, who works in the kitchen.