In the spotlight

• The Importance of Being Earnest: Watermill Theatre Reviews (Thu 23 May to Sat 29 Jun).
• Romeo and Juliet and Richard III: Oxford Castle (Mon 17 Jun to Sat 29 Jun).
• Our Church: Watermill Theatre at East Garston Village Hall (Wed 19 Jun).
• Sex Please We're Sixty: DADS (Wed 19 Jun to Sat 22 Jun).
• Our Church: Watermill Theatre at St Mary Bourne Village Centre (Thu 20 Jun).
• Wizard of Oz : Corn Exchange (Thu 20 Jun to Sat 22 Jun).
• Entertaining Angels: Marlborough Players (Thu 20 Jun to Sat 22 Jun).
• Our Church: Watermill Theatre at Uffington Memorial Hall (Fri 21 Jun).
• The Tempest: Basset Manor, Stoke Row (Sat 22 Jun).
• Viva Verdi!: Kennet Opera at Wantage (Sat 22 Jun).
• A Midsummer Night's Dream: Proteus Theatre (Sat 22 Jun to Sun 23 Jun).
• Emma: Woodley Theatre (Tue 25 Jun to Sat 29 Jun).
• ’Allo ’Allo: Abingdon Drama Club (Wed 26 Jun to Sat 29 Jun).
• Small Island: Theatre at the cinema (Thu 27 Jun).
• The Canterbury Tales: Corn Exchange (Thu 27 Jun).
• GamePlan: The Community of Hungerford Theatre Company (Thu 27 Jun to Fri 28 Jun).
• Our Church: Watermill Theatre at Pangbourne Village Hall (Fri 28 Jun).
• Much Ado About Nothing: Proteus Theatre (Fri 28 Jun to Sun 30 Jun).
• The Witches: Shinfield Players (Sat 29 Jun to Sun 30 Jun).
• Dragon Days: The Community of Hungerford Theatre Company (Sat 29 Jun to Sun 30 Jun).
• Chicago: The Community of Hungerford Theatre Company (Sat 29 Jun to Sun 30 Jun).

With the weather improving, it's time to think about booking for open-air productions. As usual, there are lots in the area - as well as the usual Shakespeare, there's some Jane Austen plus The Crucible by Blewbury Players and Progress Theatre's King Lear in the Reading Abbey Ruins. Details here.

See What's on for a list of everything.

The Watermill's touring production is Our Church between 19th June and 13th July. In some people’s lives there is a moment when something goes wrong, when they do something very bad. In a small village, the last remaining members of the dwindling church committee gather to discuss its future.

Marlborough Players' postponed production is Entertaining Angels from 20th to 22nd June. Grace, recently widowed, has been on her best behaviour for years, but even as she grieves for her husband she revels in her new found freedom of being able to do and say exactly what she wants. Thought provoking, irreverent, amusing yet at times deeply profound, the story will resonate with many.

Abingdon Drama Club's next production from 26th to 29th June is ’Allo ’Allo by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft. This uproarious comedy relates the adventures of a hapless cafe owner, René, in occupied France. You can see all of your favourite TV characters in the flesh, including Rene's tone-deaf wife Edith, barmaids Yvette andd Mimi, and the Gestapo officer Herr Flick!

Welsh theatre company Dirty Protest perform How to Be Brave in Wasing Woodlands on 4th, 5th and 11th July before transferring to the Edinburgh Fringe. This new touching and hilarious play is about learning to be brave when your world is falling apart. By Siân Owen, it's based on her own experiences as a mother in a fast-changing and confusing world, as well as being a love letter to Newport.

Courtney Fish is a rich and famous crime writer who calls together the beneficiaries to her Will to tell them of an important development but someone is in for a fatal shock! TADS' next production on 5th and 6th July is A Frightful Evening by Ian McCutcheon, another of their very popular Murder Mystery Fish & Chips Supper evenings. It's at Tilehurst Village Hall.

Didcot Phoenix Drama Group's next touring production between 13th and 21st September is a murder mystery comedy The Bold, the Young and the Murdered. A long-running soap opera has some cast problems and they are given an ultimatum: complete one episode overnight or the show dies. But then the director and cast start dropping like flies. Can these misfits discover the murderer?