The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Barbican Theatre

For those with an eye on the international theatre scene - and super-exciting collaborations - note these dates down in your calendar. For only four performances this 5-9 June the Barbican hosts a co-production between British company Cheek by Jowl and the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre with Francis Beaumont's Renaissance comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle.

Cheek by Jowl's Co-founder and co-artistic director Declan Donnellan will direct the Russian ensemble, who were in London at the start of 2019 with a whirlwind visit consisting of three shows, with plays by Chekhov and Brecht.

The play itself, written by one of Shakespeare's greatest and most renowned contemporaries, is of course originally in English, but will be performed in Russian with English surtitles. It is a proto-meta play within a play, in which an audience member and his wife interrupt a London comedy and start to try and improve it.

Along with his partner, designer Nick Ormerod, Donnellan has been collaborating the Moscow actors, known for their electric and powerful intensity as performers, on projects since the early 90s. Their last collaboration was a celebrated take on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, which premiered at 2016's Edinburgh festival and also played at the Barbican.