Super Goss: This week's new theatre

Happy Days, Sheffield

Marriage seems to be very much back in fashion, so Samuel Beckett's Happy Days provides the perfect antidote with the story of Winnie, a woman buried up to her neck in sand who can still smile and sing as she spends her days under the blazing sun with her husband, Willie. What Winnie does most though is talk, unleashing a torrent of words to hide her pain. It's a brilliant, bruising, tender play and Winnie is a female King Lear of a role. The wonderful Irish actor Pauline McLynn portrays the woman who won't give up and Peter Gowen is Willie.

Crucible Studio, to 4 Jun

Lyn Gardner

Pulse, Ipswich

We know: another week, another festival. But there's no need to feel jaded by the lineup at Pulse which, in previous years, has brought us early versions of hits including Bryony Kimmings's Sex Idiot. Her latest show, 7 Day Drunk, which explores her relationship with alcohol and was created entirely in states of intoxication, can be seen in an early version here (3 Jun), but there is plenty more on offer in a festival that begins with a debate about the role of regional theatre in the development of new work. Look out for Dan Canham raising ghosts in the exquisite and evocative dance-theatre journey through memory, 30 Cecil Street (Fri). You can also catch work in progress from Dancing Brick, Tim Clare, Inspector Sands and Bootworks, as well as tried and tested works from Caroline Horton and Paper Birds.

New Wolsey, Thu to 11 Jun

Haunting Julia, London

With Alan Ayckbourn back in vogue, some of his lesser-known works have been unearthed. The Print Room staged Snake In The Grass earlier this year, and now the Riverside Studios is mounting Haunting Julia. Ghost stories of sorts, both reflected Ayckbourn's interest in the supernatural, best realised in Communicating Doors. Haunting Julia was inspired by Ayckbourn seeing The Woman In Black and ? unusually for the master of suburban comedy ? it features a dead body, that of a gifted child. The play tackles loss, fathers and daughters, and the impact of a child prodigy on a family. Andrew Hall directs a cast that includes Christopher Timothy and Richard O'Callaghan.

Riverside Studios, W6, Wed to 3 Jul

Mark Cook

Surfing Tommies, Penzance

Beautiful outdoor amphitheatre the Minack hosts the first few dates in a nationwide tour by new Cornish production company Bish Bash Bosh, set up to produce Cornu-centric theatre and arts projects. Surfing Tommies, first produced in the south-west in 2009, is poet and playwright Alan M Kent's award-winning drama about three Cornish tin miners who, fuelled by the local reverend's promise of glory to those who join the war effort, swap the mines for the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. But if life underground in a tin mine is harsh, then their experiences in Flanders' trenches turn out to be far worse in this story of war, friendship and an unlikely redemption.

Minack Theatre, Mon to Fri, touring to 22 Jul

Coco, London

Over the years, the Lost Musicals series of rarely heard works by American writers, reconstructed and directed by Ian Marshall Fisher, has come up with a few musical theatre treasures and curiosities. Few more so than Coco, a show based on the troubled later life of the iconic French fashion designer Coco Chanel, not least because she had a hand in the writing of the work, along with Andr� Previn and Alan Jay Lerner. Quite a pedigree. Rosalind Russell was the intended original star but arthritis prevented her from performing. With a complicated, often malfunctioning set by Cecil Beaton, it opened in 1969 with Katharine Hepburn in her only stage musical; later, Ginger Rogers also played the role. Here, in this "semi-staged" performance, Coco is played by Olivier award-winner Sara Kestelman.

Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells, EC1, Sundays, to 12 Jun

Anna Karenina, Dundee

With Keira Knightley slated to play Tolstoy's heroine in Joe Wright's movie version and a recent London revival of Helen Edmundson's stage adaptation of the novel, there's clearly renewed interest in the passionate love story set in 19th-century imperial Russia. But while most versions are dominated by swept-away lovers and lingering goodbyes, Jo Clifford's new version gives as much attention to the country landowner character of Levin, a man trying to live simply and look after his land and those working on it.

Dundee Rep, Mon to 11 Jun

Nottingham European Arts & Theatre Festival

There's work from all over Europe in a festival that kicks off this week with Norwegian company Det Norske Teatret bringing its acclaimed take on Goethe's The Sorrows Of Young Werther to Lakeside Arts (Fri to 28 May). With Nottingham Playhouse giving Ibsen's The League Of Youth its UK premiere (to 1 Jun), NEAT also features Gob Squad's intriguing, Warhol-inspired, Kitchen (29 -30 May), Cheek By Jowl's Russian Three Sisters (8-11 Jun) and Reckless Sleepers' memorable The Last Supper (4-5 Jun), in which you can sample the last meal requests of the famous, infamous and almost entirely forgotten. The programme really is worth checking out, particularly next week when Robert Wilson's Woyzeck (3-4 Jun) comes to town.

Various venues, Thu to 12 Jun

After The End, Glasgow

Scotland just can't seem to leave Dennis Kelly's clever psychological thriller and breakthrough play alone. Not only did it premiere at the Edinburgh festival in a production by Paines Plough a few years back, but now it's getting two major revivals in the space of a month. In swift succession, Amanda Gaughan's production for the Citizens company will be followed by James Brining's off-site revival for Dundee Rep. Kelly is riding high at the moment, with his version of Roald Dahl's Matilda for the RSC heading for the West End, but the raw talent is apparent in this early piece about a young woman who wakes up in a nuclear bunker to discover that she and an unprepossessing male work colleague are the only survivors of a worldwide catastrophe. Claustrophobically confined, the pair become a microcosm of society at large as fear and insecurity create a dynamic power struggle.

Citizens, Sat to 4 Jun

Mark Cook

Lyn Gardner

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