Almeida Theatre

This Islington hot spot may seat only 350, but it ranks among London's most prestigious and buzzy theatres, akin to the Donmar Warehouse in that it juggles revivals of major or obscure dramas and modern works, with comedies not normally on the agenda — a policy consistent with the theatre's lapses into worthiness. Eclectic but consistent, the programming has featured works by Pinter, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Ostrovsky and O'Neill as well as Rattigan, Albee, Odets, Neil LaBute and Caryl Churchill. Opened in 1980, the theatre has a fringe feel while occupying a lovely, quaint and reinvented mid-19th-century building, complete with two bars and ample space for mingling, cruising and people-spotting (including the famous) before the performance and during the interval. Just across the road in Upper St is food mecca Ottolenghi [see entry]. Tube stations: Angel and Highbury & Islington.