... The Rivals (Criterion) THE Criterion Theatre, which served during the war as a B.B.C. studio, has been released, and it is pleasant to enjoy once more the sensation of sitting inside a dainty chocolate box. Much less pleasant to wonder uneasily if the opening production will send many away under the impression (never perhaps to be obliterated) that The Rivals is a poor play. Sheridan's first ...

... Henry IV Part One (New) IN the last four or five years there have been some mighty fine revivals to beguile the sad time, but here is one which excels them all on three main counts --individual brilliance, satisfying team work and firm direction. Of the Falstaff it may be roundly said that nobody has in our time played the fat immortal so well as Mr. Ralph Richardson; and of Harry Hotspur ...

... Henry IV Part II (New) IT is generally agreed that in the Second Part of this play the Old Vic does somewhat less magnificently than it did in the First. There are miscastings which enforce severe penalties on important scenes and, perhaps because the company must have come tired to the final rehearsals, one or two easily remediable clumsinesses of stage grouping. On the first night some ot ...

... A Bell For Adano (Phoenix) THE church bell of the Sicilian village of Adano has made a great noise in the world. Novel readers, film-goers, theatrical audiences, all know the triumphant chime which symbolizes a community's well- being, and now if you happen to be passing the Phoenix Theatre at the right moment you will hear it echoing grandly along the Charing Cross Road. It brings down the ...

... Fine Feathers (Prince of Wales) ECONOMY is doing without something you want in case you may some day want something which you probably won't get. The man who said that lived at a time when there was some choice in the matter: you could, if you wished, choose not to be ruined; and the taking thing about Mr. Robert Nesbitt's new revue is the brave pretence it makes that we live in a world where ...