“Whereas last autumn at least had the commercial transfers of Rock ‘n’ Roll and Frost/Nixon to set pulses racing, this season is offering retreads, however fresh, of familiar territory: even All About My Mother, like Elling before it, comes to us already a cinema brand name. Not for the first time, one is reminded of the large-scale, commercially viable new play as an endangered species, which is another way of saying that you can’t rely on Alan Bennett and Tom Stoppard to keep theatre afloat every year.”