Marianne Faithfull: Berliner Ensemble, Berlin

THE SET IS SIMPLE: black curtain, grand piano, chair and table, snifter of brandy and pack of Marlboro Lights. She’s nervous stepping on to it, as her accompanist and musical director bangs out the percussive intro to the ‘Alabama Song’. Moving oddly across stage in a black skirt slit to mid-thigh – "flounce" is the word that springs unkindly to mind – she looks suitably ravaged for a song of such worldliness, and hits a bum note or two for good measure.