Choice: Theatre

Shining Souls, Old Vic, London SE1 (0171-928 7616) 7.30pm

Talking to a stranger at this year's Edinburgh Festival (as you do), I recommended she read Chris Hannan's glowing play Shining Souls. A few days later, I received a letter from her, proclaiming it the most moving play she had read in years. Coming from the literary manager of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, one of New York's most prestigious theatre venues, that's high praise. Hannan's play first saw the light of day at the Traverse Theatre during the 1996 Edinburgh Festival in a production that emphasised the script's barefaced hilarity, but left some of the play's moving depths undiscovered. With Hannan himself (above) now directing, the balanced should be restored.