Exeunt recommends... the best summer theatre

Herds of animals, revolutionary puppets, and Avril Lavigne conspiracies... it's our picks from now until September. Plus: a spotlight on Emily Ling Williams

Dickie Beau in SHOWMANISM. Photo: Sarah Ainslie

Fear not, we’ll be doing special round-ups for the Edinburgh Festival – but there’s plenty more on round the rest of the country all summer long. Here, Exeunt writers offer up their choices for what to see.

Tracey Sinclair: The Bench – touring the North East

It sometimes feels like if you turned up at any theatre in the North East on any given day, you could catch a show where football is used as a metaphor for life. But what it loses in originality of concept, Jeff Brown’s play promises to make up in authenticity – Brown has four decades’ experience reporting on news and sport in the region. This, only his second play, has already garnered positive feedback, and arrives at Live Theatre in Newcastle next week for three nights, as part of a wider tour. The story of an unlikely friendship between a struggling single mother (Hannah Marie Davis) and a new signing to the local team (Jason Njoroge), this tackles issues of belonging, racism and social justice. On tour until 21 June

Maddy Costa: STARS: and Afrofuturist Space Odyssey – Brixton House, London

A kitchen sink drama that’s also a comedy and a DJ set and a queer feminist tract for menopausal women right up there with Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Space Crone: this play by Mojisola Adebayo is A LOT and entirely, heart-soaringly delightful. The story of Mrs might weave in domestic violence, misogynist practices and sexual unfulfilment, but performer Debra Michaels is such deft, homely presence on stage that laughter keeps pace with tears. I saw this when it had a run at the ICA in 2023 and loved it so much I’m going back and hosting a post-show discussion as well. 5 to 28 June

Holly Williams: The Walrus Has a Right to Adventure – Liverpool Everyman

A white stag in a Tesco in Liverpool. A walrus on a boat in Oslo. A bear on a running route in Colorado Springs. I adore the sound of Billie Collins’s endearing new play, about people encountering wild animals in places they shouldn’t be – all based on real-life headlines. And you know what else I love a bit of? Live Foley! The cast will be bringing the stag, the walrus, and the bear to life by creating sound-effects of the wild world around us live onstage. [cue a happy walrussy roar] 12 to 21 June