... JOHN WHITING'S translations of two plays by Jean Anouilh. Traveller Without,, Luggage and Madame de make an excellent evening at the Arts. Mademe de ,based on a story by Louise dc Vilmorin, opens the programme with M. Anouilh in, at least tor mm, a mooa ot irivoi- ily. Yet underlying the story of Madame de and her precious diamond ear-rings, which is told with fine wit and technical ...

... A PERFORMANCE by the Studio Group at the Sigurd Leeder School of Dancing last Saturday revealed an ever-continuing progress among the senior students, both in dance arrangement and in the execution of their own and Otners cnoreograpny. Teachers and professional dan cers attached to the Studio Group contributed both choreography and performance to the almost entirely new programme. A notable ...

... 'TEDDY BOYS' PICNIC, at the Royal, Portsmouth, rather falls between two stools--a serious piece dealing with juvenile delinquency and a mystery thriller. A new parson at an East End Mission sets out to reform a Teddy Boy with a bad reputation and an unfortunate home background. TEDDY BOYS' PICNIC' Play by William Barrow. Pre sented by R. B. Cooper and per formed by the Hector Ro Resident ...

... TO KILL OR CURE. a new play by Frank Nolan, based on a Sapper novel. The Impassive Footman, poses the question. Should a doctor operate on a man when be is in love with the patient's wife? It was presented at the Pavilion Theatre. Brizhton, last TO KILL OR CUR Play by George Walsh. Presented by Frank Nolan at thhc Pavilion Theatre. Brighton, on December 2. Directed by Ins nam Bo u. ...

... MARGARET RUTHERFORD AT HER MOST BRILLIANT IN RODNEY ACKLAND COMEDY RODNEY ACKLAND, who adapted Farewell, Farewell, Eugene'' from a play by John Vari, has obviously made the work so much his own that the occasion of its production at the Garrick is practically a return to the theatre as a dramatist of Mr. Ackland himself I he basic story concerns a couple of middle-aged spinsters who live ...

... MASEFIELD POEM AS A PLAY \7ALERY HOVENDEN'S adar lation, which opened at the Hovenden Theatre Club on Sun day. of John Masefidd's narrative poem The Widow in the Bye Street into a two-act play is not ably successful in view of' the fact that unlike Under Milk Wood, the production pattern of which is loosely followed. The Widow was not written for performance. For this reason the narrator's ...

... 'A DREAM' FROM THE HEART OF TEXAS THE Texas version of A Midsummer Night's Dream'' which the drama group of the Howard Payne College, of Brownwood, Texas, are currently touring in this country under the auspices of the British Drama League, was previewed At the Christopher School, Shepherd's Bush, last Thursday. It cannot be said that this com pany have a similar, near-profes sional ...

... 'IN the Manor Born,'' presentee at the Prince's, Bradford, is a comedy of one of the stately homes of Old England which it falling into a dilapidated state owing to death duties and so on The action takes place in the study of Gilmore Hall, the home of Sir Francis Gilmore, who is hoping that by marriage to a tjch Ameri- can, Gloria Van Eissen, the place may be restored to something like its ...

... IN a Melange of satiric attacks right on the target and of wild shocks that completely miss, the Footlights Dramatic Club are presenting their Annual Review, Last Laugh at the Arts, Cambridge. The success of the evening is the orchestra, mainly composed of members of the Jazz Club and rather too brassy and noisv for some tastes, but playing under its director, Patrick Gowers, variations on ...

... ''NO Bed for Bacon, at Bristol Old Vic, is an unabashed musical skit on the Elizabethan Court in the time of Burbage and Shakespeare, and gives the company a chance to let their hair down The show makes its greatest im pact on the strength of its musical compositions which are lively, tune ful and witty. The introduction of the potato into England is the excuse^ for a potato song, the ...

... IF Method means an intenser way of projecting plays written in the realistic idiom. A Hatful of Rain is not altogether a happy example to choose tor demonstrating it to an English audience. We are told that it was specially written for the New York Actors' Studio to exemplify the Method. But its realism is the photographic, un- illuminating concentration on drink, pregnancy und ...

... 'T'HE enterprising Frinton Summer Theatre under Peter Hoar's direction arc again featuring a number of new plays. On August 7 they presented George Batson's BROOK HOLLOW Play by George Batson. in an English version by Peter Hoar and Gawa Grainger. Presented by Peter Hoar at the Frinton Summer Theatre on August 7. Joyce Jennifer Willis Simon Antrobus Richard Hart Kitty Collier Elizabeth Richman ...