Lyn Gardner's Weekly Picks
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[Holy Fool](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/holy-fool-tickets), which opens at the Park this week, couldn’t be more topical, exploring the role of the artist in dictatorships and asking what happens when art is at the mercy of the whims of the autocrat. It focuses on the composer **Shostakovich**, who fell foul of **Stalin**, who accused his work of being bourgeois. Can the composer navigate a way to survive and, if so, does survival come at a price? **Rosalind Adler**'s and **Lea Sellers**'s new play considers appeasement and defiance at a time when artists all over the world are being silenced.
There are more shows closing over the next few weeks than there are opening. It’s always easy to miss out on some great work, so here are a few early warnings. **Tom Stoppard**’s brilliant, heart-breaking play, [Arcadia](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/arcadia-tickets), ends its run at the Duke of York’s on September 12, which is the same date that [To Kill a Mockingbird](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/to-kill-a-mockingbird-tickets) has its final curtain at Wyndhams. Time too to say goodbye to [The Truth](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/the-truth-tickets) at the Menier. One of its stars, **Stephen Mangan**, goes pretty well straight into [The Cherry Orchard](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/the-cherry-orchard-tickets), playing opposite **Kristin Scott Thomas** in **Ian Rickson**’s revival, which opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre in October.
When **Natasha Gordon**’s [Nine Night](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/nine-night-tickets) transferred from the National Theatre to the Trafalgar Theatre in late 2018, it was the first time that a play by a Black British woman had been seen in the West End. That’s quite a statistic. And even more astonishingly since then there have only been two—**Yasmin Joseph**’s *J’Ouvert* and **Benedict Lombe**’s *Shifters,* recently seen in New York. So good to see *Nine Night* is being revived at the Kiln, a reminder of how far British theatre has come but also how far it has still got to go. Taking its name from the Afro-Caribbean custom of nine days mourning for the dead, it is a raucously enjoyable comedy about grief, sibling rivalry and family relationships. A play which dances with life and has one laugh-out-loud line after another.