The Director's Cut: Jonathan Mills

DYBBUK

King's Theatre, Sat 9 - Mon 11 Aug, 7.30pm, tickets from £10

"The theatre programme starts with two productions from TR Warszawa. TR Warszawa literally means Teatr Rozmaitosci Warszawa which is the old variety theatre in Warsaw. Dybbuk is, I think, an incredibly powerful statement about a poignant moment of counterculture. What is more counterculture, what is more ghetto than the Yiddish culture or the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw? It’s a very beautiful story and it's brought right up to life. Krzysztof Warlikowski, who is its director, is one of the most sought after young directors in Europe today."

4.48 PSYCHOSIS

King's Theatre, Fri 15 - Sun 17 Aug, 8.00pm, tickets from £10

"Psychosis is a real homecoming in a way. This is a very poised, very simple, paired back, disciplined, not hysterical production. But the acting is so brilliant because of the stillness of it. Grzegorz Jarzyna, who is the director, is the other artistic director of TR Warszawa, and he has created a fantastic young company: all of these kids have grown up together from primary school. They’re in the beginnings of their careers, several of them are famous actors in Polish theatre at the moment, particularly Magdalena Cielecka and Andrzej Chyra. They were in the Foreign Language Oscar-nominated Katyn this year."

TELL-TALE HEART

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Sat 9 - Sun 10 Aug, 8.00pm; Mon 11 Aug, 2.30pm, tickets from £10

"Tell-Tale Heart is very disciplined, very focused: one actor, one performer [Barrie Kosky, of last year's exuberant Poppea]. It's based on a short story by Edgar Alan Poe about a murderer on a staircase who can still hear the beating heart of his victim below the staircase. He’s murdered someone but the heart is there beating. You never know whether it’s actually the heart or his psychological... thing."

CLASS ENEMY

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Wed 20 - Sat 23 Aug, 8.00pm, tickets from £10

"This is a complete reimagining of the Nigel Williams play of the same name, about social breakdown in South London in the late 70s. It puts it in the context of Bosnia, in particular Sarajevo, in the late 90s during the war. It's about a bunch of school kids who take the radical action of barricading themselves inside the classroom. It features two rap poets who have got themselves into enormous trouble in the little village that they live in in Bosnia, just outside of Sarajevo, because they sent up the local mayor. They made these wonderfully satirical verses about him. He got upset and got his son to rough them up, which he did rather too much and landed them, I think, in hospital. It gives you a sense that all of the people who are performing in this have lived the story."

MORTAL ENGINE

Edinburgh Playhouse, Sun 17 - Tue 19 Aug, 8.00pm, tickets from £8

"The other thing that I think will be of great interest to your audience is Mortal Engine from Chunky Move dance company in Australia. This is a show that I think has the most spectacular use of technology that I have ever seen."