... Charley's Aunt CHESTER SUE WILSON, artistic director at the Gateway, Chester, made a wise choice in Brandon Thomas' farce Charley's Aunt as the opening production for the autumn season. Wilson obtains a superb response from her company with Malcolm McKee in full cry as Jack Chesney, the instigator or perhaps perpetrator of the central theme, with able support ftom Iwan Thomas (Charley ...

... Our Kindness to Five Persons EDINBURGH A PLAY which deals with the cohesion and tensions among a group of friends at a re-union party gets a more vivid playing from the students of the Queen Margaret College Drama School than the evidence of the plot justifies in Tom Gallacher's play, Our Kindness to Five Persons. The party-goers, in their maturity, discover a renewal of the influence ...

... Heartbreak House DUBLIN JOE VANEK'S pale, scanty set gives a sepulchral tone to this Gate production of Heartbreak House, and Patrick Mason's direction confirms the theme of mourning. The pace is as slow as a funeral march, and the Shavian humour is frequently overshadowed by a sense of doom. Individual performances are plausi ble. Ingrid Craigie is very fine as Ellie Dunn, and Alan ...

... POOLE The Last of the Mohicans STAND by, theatre-goers, the New Vic is on the war-path with its very individual presentation of James Fenimore Cooper's classic, The Last of the Mohicans. Remember the 1936 film of this story of courage and bravery, starring Ran dolph Scott and Binnie Barnes? Forget it. The New Vic's is about one Geoffrey Winthrop, secretary of the Sons of Hiawatha (Indian ...

... Hollies star gets behind Chicken Shed By RICHARD BALLS HOLLIES STAR Francis Haines is putting the final touches to a unique album featuring disabled youngsters from the London theatre group Chicken Shed. The flourishing theatre workshop group, who now have more than 250 members and were recently featured in a TV documentary Another Side of London, are preparing to take one of their shows to a ...

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... A spiring drama SONNING Charley's Aunt THE ANCIENT spires ot academic Oxford set against an imprinted frieze of the city initially create a far stronger impression of the aristocratic atmosphere in this Mill at Sonning production than the entrances of its two main characters and this saving grace by designer John Elvery allows us to temporarily find some solace until the momen tum of the ...

... The Bevellers EDINBURGH THE LYCEUM seems to be attached to the seventies this season. After the success of The Comedians, the company has now revived another play in which flapping flares and mohair coats are de rigueur. The Bevellers is the story of a run- of-the-mill working day in a bevelling factory. An explanation of the craft is slipped in incongruously as there is a new boy on his first ...

... Talk about it WATFORD The Picture Of Dorian Gray THERE is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about-says Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Palace production of the play deserves and will be talked about. For an evening of satisfying theatre look no further than Watford's Clarendon Road. Wilde's way with words demands complete ...

... Therese Raquin LEICESTER In his time limile Zola was branded a pornographer for his explicit coverage of matters considered to be taboo. Certainly his books were powerful pieces ahead of their time. None more so than Therese Raquin, a tale of lust, adultery, murder and an overwhelming sense of guilt. Yes there was plenty there for director Julia Bardsley to work on in her adaptation of the ...

... Twisting the knife FARNHAM Ding Dong Dead JUST when you think you have seen every twist and turn of the thriller world along comes another who-dun-it to prove you wrong. Such an one is Ding Dong Dead by Robert Thomas, adapted by Mawby Green and Ed Fielbert. The set by Janey Gardiner is the liv ing room of a lonely house in the Chevreusc Valley in France. The empty room is in darkness until a ...

... We've been tricked HUGH HOMAN discovers Christie's play is more misery than mystery WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA Witness For The Prosecution WITNESS for the Prosecution is better than most of the other Christie dross. The first act is quite tightly and economically written, sketching in the characters very neatly. Act two is set in the Old Bailey and the courtroom virtually sets its own dramatic pace. ...