This week's new theatre

London Christmas shows | The Merry Wives Of Windsor | Swallows And Amazons | The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe | Treasured: A Secret Journey | The Weather Factory | Sex & Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll

Christmas shows, London

Now that it's December, it's an appropriate time to mention the C word and trawl through this year's offerings, festive and otherwise. For a straight play with a seasonal theme, the big one has to be Season's Greetings, which is in rep at the National Theatre (SE1, to 13 Mar). Alan Ayckbourn's suburban comedy, set at a family Christmas has a great, and suitably stellar cast: Mark Gatiss, Catherine Tate, Katherine Parkinson, Nicola Walker and more. Over at New End in Hampstead, until Christmas Eve, there's an American production, It Had To Be You (to 24 Dec, NW3), by Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna, a modern festive comedy that looks back to early Hollywood studio pictures. For something really alternative, get along to the Old Vic Tunnels at Waterloo Station, where Cart Macabre (to 22 Dec, SE1) by performance collective Living Structures puts 32 punters in moving wooden carts to create a sort of modern ghost train. With a title like Get Santa! (Wed to 15 Jan, SW1) and the authorship of Anthony Neilson – best known for some quite nasty dramas you wouldn't expect something suitable for over-sevens at the Royal Court. In fact, it's the tale of a 10-year-old girl who wants Father C to help her find her dad and ends up on a weird and wonderful journey. The Young Vic's offering this year is My Dad's A Birdman (to 1 Jan, SE1) by David Almond, who also gave us the enchanting Skellig. The story of a Great Human Bird Competition has original music by the Pet Shop Boys. For children and adults alike, the Warehouse in Croydon is staging its ninth instalment of the spy story inspired by the 1940s BBC radio series and the adventures of Dick Barton. A Fistful Of Barton (Fri to 20 Feb) finds the special agent and chums Jock and Snowy setting off into the wild west of America.

Mark Cook

The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Bath

Legend has it that Elizabeth I so enjoyed Falstaff in Henry V that she demanded a sequel about "Falstaff in love".It's a good story, although unlikely to be true, but there are reasons to be grateful that Shakespeare penned this suburban farce in which the old rogue tries to enrich himself by making love to two Windsor matrons. The Globe undertakes its first large-scale tour with Christopher Luscombe's very enjoyable 2008 production with Christopher Benjamin playing the heroically ludicrous Falstaff. It's a comedy that can fall flat as a pancake but is here richly studded with comic gems about the rising Elizabethan middle class.

Theatre Royal, Mon to 11 Dec

Lyn Gardner

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Taunton

Somerset Council may have voted to cut its arts budget, a foolish move made in haste and which it is likely to repent in leisure, but the excellent Brewhouse won't be cancelling Christmas like the White Witch. Using Theresa Heskins's excellent adaptation, which premiered at the New Vic last year, the company will be taking audiences through the wardrobe and into the world of Narnia where fauns talk, trees move and the White Witch has cast a spell which means that it is always winter but never Christmas. It's a book that has defeated a number of adapters over the years, but Heskins came up with a racy version that puts the story in its second world war context in a very clever way.

The Brewhouse, to 31 Dec

Lyn Gardner

Swallows And Amazons, Bristol

It's surprising that somebody hasn't thought of it before, but with family shows such as the current production of The Railway Children doing good business in London, it seems there is an appetite for theatre with endless Edwardian summers and plucky children solving problems. With War Horse's Tom Morris at the helm, an adaptation by Helen Edmundson – who did such a brilliant job on Coram Boy – and music from the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, the omens are good for this tale about four children who are allowed to sail to an island on a family holiday in the Lake District. Inspired by the adventures that Arthur Ransome had with four real-life children, it's a rip-roaring tale of dastardly deeds, pirates and sailing in the dark.

Bristol Old Vic, to 15 Jan

Lyn Gardner

Treasured: A Secret Journey, Bradford

It begins with a cup of tea and it ends who knows where, perhaps somewhere in the dark thickets of the imagination. Like a little jewel, this rough and ready but hugely enjoyable storytelling show from the Jane Packman Company is an exquisite thing and full of possibilities. When I caught it at Birmingham's mac earlier this year the show was very much in development, but you could already see its potential. Offered a series of choices along with your tea you are let loose in a simple maze-like structure where the audience member becomes the protagonist in the story which unfolds. It barely lasts 30 minutes and it's very gentle, but it is a slight but enriching experience that revels in the power of storytelling and the power of the listener's own imagination.

Theatre By The Mill, Wed to Fri

Lyn Gardner

Sex & Docks & Rock 'N' Roll, On tour

Trust Red Ladder to offer something alternative at Christmas time. Last year it was Riot, Rebellion And Bloody Insurrection, and this year founder Chumbawamba member Boff Whalley offers a tale of a Liverpool docker's family divided by a strike. Set in 1960, this musical comedy is set in the heart of a family living through changing times. Striking dock worker Ronnie has been out on strike for a while, and his life has settled down to a routine of sitting around all day while his wife Jean tries to keep body, soul and family together. But teenage son Jack's attempt to find a drummer for his band and a visit from a police officer conspire to rock their world. Intriguingly, Whalley describes it as a musical which is, "anti-Lloyd-Webber".

Greentop Circus Centre, Sheffield, Sat; Otley Courthouse, Sun; Seven Arts Centre, Leeds, Mon & Tue; The Met, Bury, Wed, Thu; Balne Lane WMC, Wakefield, Fri

Lyn Gardner

The Weather Factory, Caernarfon

Another flag in its theatrical map of the country, this latest piece from the National Theatre of Wales is brought to you by Fevered Sleep, one of the best companies around. Director David Harradine made a piece for the Brighton festival about the quality of light in that city, and now he turns his attention to Welsh weather and asks where it comes from? Audiences will be taken to a Penygroes house where they will discover a very unusual guest. Walking through the house families will encounter installations and performances that reflect the changing seasons. Fevered Sleep make brilliant work for all ages and this show sounds as if it could be a real winner from a company very much at the top of its game, as well as another hit for NTW, hot on the heels of Told By An Idiot's The Dark Philosophers.

Penygroes, Tue to 21 Dec

Lyn Gardner

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Mark Cook & Lyn Gardner

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