The moment the Royal Court announced it was staging Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, the whole season sold out and a West End transfer was guaranteed. The drama is set on a farm in rural County Armagh in Northern Ireland in 1981, the year the hunger strikers died. A man, who has been missing these past 10 years, has been found dead, shot by the IRA, his body preserved in a bog. What should his brother (Paddy Considine), an IRA activist who defected 10 years ago, do? This powerful play, directed by Sam Mendes and extremely well acted, is a major theatrical event and comes strongly recommended.