The week in theatre: The Wife of Willesden; Rare Earth Mettle – review

Kiln; Royal Court, London
The Wife of Bath is wonderfully at home in 21st-century Brent in Zadie Smith’s inspired reworking of Chaucer. Meanwhile, the troubles of the Royal Court’s big new play continue on stage

It cracks itself wide open to the audience; it hits them in the face. The Wife of Willesden– Zadie Smith’s terrific adaptation of Chaucer, gloriously staged by Indhu Rubasingham and triumphantly embodied by Clare Perkins – is shot through with the spirit of its heroine, who leaps across the centuries to proclaim what she thinks it is that women really really want.

The spectators are squeezed by the action before a word has been spoken. Robert Jones has redesigned the auditorium so that it is partly a cabaret space with some of the audience seated at tables in a pub, based on the Sir Colin Campbell opposite the theatre in Kilburn High Road. Jones is aiming to create “that infamous sticky carpet feeling”. Light bounces off shelves of bottles; the publican wears a leopardskin top and big gold hoops; the punters – from church and temple and mosque and schul and utter godlessness – jostle to tell their stories.

The Wife of Willesden is at the Kiln, London, until 15 January

Rare Earth Mettle is at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, London, until 18 December