#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, Hampstead Theatre online review – imbued with an urgent new relevance

Howard Brenton’s docu-drama about the harassment of the Chinese artist is defiantly brilliant

London’s Hampstead Theatre has recently been very successful in bringing some of its best shows to a wider public – despite coronavirus. This week, it’s the turn of Howard Brenton’s #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, which was first staged at this venue in April 2013, and in the intervening years it has gained in resonance and relevance.

Theatre Lockdown Special 2: Birthdays aplenty, songs of hope, a starry quiz - and more

THEATRE LOCKDOWN SPECIAL 2 Birthdays aplenty, songs of hope, a starry quiz - and more

Sondheim's and Shakespeare's natal days feted. Plus a chance to match wits with a knight and a dame

As lockdown continues, so does the ability of the theatre community to find new ways to tantalise and entertain. The urge to create and perform surely isn't going to be reined-in by a virus, which explains the explosion of creatives lending their gifts to song cycles, readings, or even the odd quiz night. At the same time, venues and theatre companies the world over continue to unlock cupboards full of goodies, almost too many to absorb.

Theatre Lockdown Special 1: Starry podcasts, late-career Shakespeare, a celebrity basement - and more

THEATRE LOCKDOWN SPECIAL 1: Theatre buffs have no shortage of scintillating options during our ongoing shut-in

Theatre buffs have no shortage of scintillating options during our ongoing shut-in

The lockdown has been extended, but here's the good news: each week whereby we are shut inside seems to bring with it ever-enticing arrays of theatre from across the spectrum, from online cabarets to freshly conceived podcasts and all manner of archival offerings of tites both familiar and not. Below is an unscientific sampling of items of interest to look out for either at the moment or during the week ahead.

Drawing the Line, Hampstead Theatre online review - modern history becomes dark farce

★★★★ DRAWING THE LINE, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Howard Brenton's play offers a lucid account of the Partition of India

Howard Brenton's play offers a lucid account of the Partition of India

This week’s gem from the Hampstead’s vaults is Howard Brenton’s political drama from 2013, telling the extraordinary, stranger-than-fiction story of Cyril Radcliffe and his 1947 mission: to arrange the Partition of India in just five weeks.

Wonderland, Hampstead Theatre online review - a major play about the miners

★★★★ WONDERLAND, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE A major play about the miners

Beth Steel award-winner makes for muscular, eerily apposite fare

The talk is of an “economy in ruin [with] unemployment through the roof”: a précis of Britain in lockdown? In fact, this is one of the many eerily apposite remarks to be found in Wonderland, the Beth Steel drama set in the early 1980s that marks the second in the Hampstead Theatre’s sequence of three productions streamed across as many weeks: Howard Brenton’s Drawing the Line comes next, and last.

Wild, Hampstead Theatre online review - timelier than anticipated

★★★ WILD, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE ONLINE Mike Bartlett's 2016 play chimes with our topsy-turvy times

Mike Bartlett's 2016 play chimes with our topsy-turvy times

“The whole world is just tilting at the moment,” we’re told near the end of Wild, the Mike Bartlett play from summer 2016 that is available (through Sunday) online to help get us through these wild times right now.

The Haystack, Hampstead Theatre review - a chilling surveillance state thriller

★★★ THE HAYSTACK, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE A chilling surveillance state thriller

This flawed but trenchant new spy drama asks who's watching the watchers

With counter-terrorism an urgent concern – and specifically how best to find, track and use the data of suspected threats, without sacrificing our privacy and civil liberties – it’s excellent timing for a meaty drama about the surveillance state.

The Tyler Sisters, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review – raucous celebration of sisterhood

★★★★ THE TYLER SISTERS, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE DOWNSTAIRS Raucous celebration of sisterhood

Quick-witted new play tackles a sibling bond in snapshots over 40 years

The Tyler sisters start as they mean to go on: bickering. Middle sister Gail (Bryony Hannah) has come home from uni to find that youngest Katrina (Angela Griffin) has stolen her room. “What about Maddy’s? Why didn’t you take that?” Gail snaps. “She’s in it,” Katrina points out. “I am in it, to be fair,” confirms eldest Maddy (Caroline Faber), trying her best not to take sides. “I am actually in it.”