Island town

Simon Longman’s a special writer. Gundog, his slip-sliding, time-shifting portrait of rural hardship for the Royal Court was one of the best plays of this year: so bleak it burned. His new one follows three teens stuck in a sh*t town as they get in the car and drive.

Nele Needs a Holiday: The Musical

A Belgian popstar swaps Brussels for Britain in a bid to make it big – only to find the place in a bit of a tizz. A quirky singer-songwriter with plenty of poppy fizz, Nele Needs a Holiday promises a cross-channel perspective on the UK as part of the Big in Belgium line-up.

Fallen Fruit

Two Destination Language made one of my all-time Fringe faves: a furious flower-filled dance piece called Near Gone. Katherina Radeva returns to her roots in Fallen Fruit, looking back to Bulgaria in 1989 as the Berlin Wall falls and forwards, 20 years later, to Britain and its leap from the EU.

Our Country

Straight from New York’s Public Theatre, Annie Saunders and Becca Wolff’s story of sibling love should serve up a slice of all-out Americana. Staged in an oversized linen fort, Our Country plays out to recordings of real conversations between Annie and her outlaw dope-farmer brother. In them, two Americas collide.