Juniper Blood

Prolific and mercurial, playwright Mike Bartlett had a semi-dud earlier this year with his bland West End throuple comedy Unicorn. But the thing about Mike Bartlett plays is that there’s always another one along soon. It’s intriguing, howveer, to note that Juniper Blood shares not only a director – James Macdonald – with Unicorn, but both seem to be comedy dramas about couples exploring new ways of living. Here the action centres on Lip and Ruth, who’ve quit the city in favour of a quiet life on a farm – but the big city has a way of catching up with them. Will it prove to be Bartlett’s version of The Good Life? That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, surely. Terique Jarrett, Hattie Morahan, Nadia Parkes, Jonathan Slinger and Sam Troughton star.