The Libertine

If you loved Johnny Depp's performance in The Libertine, the 2004 movie version of Stephen Jeffery's outrageous 1994 play, or you've seen it on stage before in a previous iteration, you're going to adore this! It's on at the sparkling Theatre Royal Haymarket and the amazing Dominic Cooper – star of Game of Thrones – is tipped to set the stage on fire as the deliciously wicked and amoral Earl of Rochester. Billed as a major revival, it's beautifully directed by Terry Johnson and the excitement is gathering fast.

On stage in autumn 2016, it's a true story weaving the fascinating and shocking story of John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, a hugely charismatic poet, playwright and rake whose legendary appetite for excess made him a short-lived star in notoriously excessive 1670s England. Rochester's world is colourful to say the least. He drinks like a fish, sleeps with every woman he can get his hands on and causes chaos wherever he goes. When the King asks him to write a play, he gladly agrees. But an unexpected encounter with an actress from the Playhouse changes his life forever, and his behaviour might just see him being banished from his beloved home country.