A young man from Wythenshawe has been sent on a ten week therapy via poetry course to work through something he would much rather leave alone. He doesn't like therapy. He definitely doesn't like poetry. But he would like everyone to stop asking him how he feels. Facing him, a therapist with one question: are you telling the truth or have you told this story so many times you now believe it? So they talk. They play chess. He makes jokes, changes the subject and, once a week, brings in a poem. The trouble is, the poems start getting harder to hide behind as he realises he's “not f*cking Oscar Wilde”. Act of God is the debut play from Manchester writer Jacob O'Connor, exploring masculinity, class and what happens when a man who can talk his way out of almost anything, suddenly can't.

Harriet Walter reprises her role as Brutus in Phyllida Lloyd's groundbreaking 2012 Donmar Warehouse production. From the back of a prison van, Ancient Rome is brought to the stage. Reflecting their own preoccupations with freedom and justice, a group of female prisoners present a 90-minute version of Julius Caesar. Soon, story and reality collide, and the impact of power politics feels very close to home. Caesar's creeping dominance in Rome risks democracy. A collective of conspirators secretly recruit the popular senator Brutus and they assassinate Caesar to reclaim the republic for the citizens. As terror and chaos rule the streets, Shakespeare's politically-charged play exposes how the overthrow of a tyrant by violent means seldom leads to a peaceful outcome.

The crew of the Dogstar are dropping like flies. Whalers with no whales left to catch, they have been icebound for months and a whiff of mutiny is in the air as they look to cast blame. But something strange is happening. Are the crew's heavenly visions a symptom of scurvy, a result of the endless polar night - or a chance at salvation?