Best new plays: London 2019 theatre highlights

When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, National Theatre

Theatre's brightest talents join forces at London's National Theatre for a timely play about sexual domination and resistance. Provocateur Katie Mitchell directs Cate Blanchett in this world premiere.

Betrayal, Harold Pinter Theatre

British actor Tom Hiddleston may be famous all around the world thanks to roles in Thor, The Avengers and The Night Manager. but it's on stage where he's best. He returns to star in Harold Pinter's reversed romantic drama.

All About Eve, Noel Coward Theatre London 2019

Another year, another bold new show by Dutch director Ivo van Hove. This time he joins forces with the luminous Gillian Anderson and bright new star Lily James to bring 1950s film All About Eve to the stage.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Barbican Centre Theatre

Culture Whisper travelled to Galway especially to see Cillian Murphy in Grief is a Thing with Feathers. London theatre fans will be delighted to learn the show will transfer to the Barbican – and that that it was well worth our long journey.

Death of a Salesman, Young Vic

Arthur Miller's masterful, Pulitzer-winning 1949 play Death of a Salesman is re-told from the perspective of an African American family. Director Marianne Elliott brings a new vision to this mainstay of American drama.

Dear Evan Hansen, Noel Coward Theatre

Teenage dreams are about to come true as a smash hit Broadway musical about adolescence transfers to London. Dear Evan Hansen is the heartfelt story of a misfit who accidentally becomes a social media sensation. The show stormed Broadway, scooping six Tony Awards and a Grammy.

the end of history..., Royal Court Theatre 2019

Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, the dream team behind Harry Potter and The Cursed Child and Let the Right One In, return to the Royal Court for an enigmatic new domestic drama.

All My Sons, Old Vic Theatre

Distinguished talents and risings stars come together in The Old Vic's All My Sons. Sally Field, Jenna Coleman, Bill Pullman and Colin Morgan star in a revival of Arthur Miller's masterful 1947 story of suburban sadness, guilt and the failure of the American dream.

Mary Poppins, Prince Edward Theatre London

Get ready for a flurry of kites, jolly holidays and spoons full of sugar as everyone's favourite nanny flies back onto the London stage. Fifteen years after its impressive premiere, Disney's stage show Mary Poppins returns to its original home on the West End.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bridge Theatre

It wouldn't be summer without a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 2019 brings an immersive take on Shakespeare's madcap comedy as Nicholas Hytner invites audiences into an enchanted forest at the Bridge Theatre.

Top Girls, National Theatre

Female ambition takes centre stage as Caryl Churchill's seminal 1982 play Top Girls comes to the Lyttelton stage. Lyndsey Turner directs the National Theatre revival.

Shipwreck, Almeida Theatre

It was only a matter of time before the antics of President Trump were lampooned on stage.

American playwright Anne Washburn has a strong, surreal sense of the zeitgeist. After turning an episode of The Simpsons into a dizzying post-apocalyptic meta-textual masterpiece in Mr Burns, then re-working cult 60s TV series The Twilight Zone, she returns to the Almeida Theatre with a new play about the 45th president.

Bitter Wheat, Garrick Theatre

America's sharpest, fastest talking living writer has spoken up about the #MeToo scandal: David Mamet's Bitter Wheat revolves around a monstrous Hollywood producer based on Harvey Weinstein. John Malkovich returns to the stage after a 33-year absence to star.