Theatre

Read Caroline McGinn's reviews of all 16 plays as they happen

What do you get if you cross a tummy ache with an illegal invasion? Well, if you’re playwright Mark Ravenhill, you get 16 pointed mini-epic plays. Shoot / Get Treasure / Repeat fires a series of short sharp shots at the idealistic rhetoric of the War on Terror. And, from April 3-20, there’s a mini-Ravenhill festival being staged at various theatres across London.

It’s great to see the National (and indeed the Royal Court, who will pick up the Ravenhill torch this week) using its large resources to stage these chamber pieces. Though it’s a shame that the runs are so short. I caught the first two double bills (‘The Mikado’ / ‘The Odyssey’ at the Lyttelton and ‘Intolerance’ / ‘Crime and Punishment’ at the Cottesloe) on Saturday, but with two- and three-day runs, it’ll only be friends and family, organised pre-bookers and lucky passers-by who got the chance to see them.

And with actors of the calibre of Harriet Walter and Philip Voss involved, they were well worth a look – and augur well for the rest of the fest, which will be staged at Village Underground in Shoreditch and the tiny Gate (where site-specific promenade performances are already apparently sold out).

Read Caroline McGinn's reviews of all 16 plays as they happen

Armageddon | Birth of a Nation | Crime and Punishment | Fear and Misery Intolerance | Love (But I Won't Do That) | The Mikado | The Mother | The Odyssey | Paradise Lost | Twilight of the Gods | War and Peace | War of the Worlds | Women in Love | Women of Troy | Yesterday an Incident Occurred

www.shootgettreasurerepeat.com

See full listings for participating venues
National Lyttelton | National Cottesloe | Royal Court | Gate Theatre | Village Underground
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