... Anglo-Indian 'Othello' rpHE Touchstone Thc.it re Com- pany, a group of amateurs with high ambitions, presented a production of Othello with Ranen Roy, an Indian actor, as the Moor at Unity, on August 30. Francis Butler's direction, especi ally on this small stage, was notable for its pace and breadth, although subtlety and a unifying style were lacking. Mr. Roy, tall and broad, looked an ...

... THOSE rare birds who have never had the pleasure of seeing Twelfth Night, and all those who have seen it seldom, will enjoy the current Old Vic production by Colin Graham, which is the same as last season but with a new young cast. They will find in Eileen Atkins, the Viola, a young woman of char acter who, with proper guidance and opportunity, should make the grade to an established ...

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... YOU Won't Always Be On Top, first seen at the Royal. Stratford, some three years ago, arrived at Unity on August 12 wilh some songs by Barbara Chapman but with all the defects one noticed on the previous occasion. The chief fault is that Henry Chapman's work is not really a play at all. It is more akin to what the television people call a dramatised documentary, dealing as it does with what ...

... 'Love's Labour's Lost' FOLLOWING the slovenly misrepresentation of Henry IV at the Assembly Hall last week, the Bristol Old Vic production of Love's Labour's Lost came to the Edinburgh Lyceum on August 25 as a heart-warming reminder of just how effective a Shakespearean comedy can be when staged with understanding and intelligence. The verbal wit and visual humour are kept bubbling along ...

... 'A Man and a Circus Ring' A PRIZE for originality is deserved by the Theatre Group of the Royal College of Art, London, for eschewing the church halls of Edinburgh and performing their contribution to the Festival Fringe, A Man and a Circus Ring, in a maruuee disguised as a circus tent. The show, which opened on August 18, is an entertaining and noisy frolic with a serious core, an aspect ...

... by John Montgomery CASTING has started for The Password is Courage, which Andrew and Virginia Stone will produce and direct on location for MGM and Boreham Wood. Production begins February 12 on this true story about the courage of a prisoner of war in Germany. The atones are casting tne picture mcni- selves. The report that Connie Francis will arrive in April for a Metro musical is ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... Rock Circus, 30 minutes, French subtitles THIS was a rock concert in a circus setting in the studio. Performances and music were good and the de signer particularly caught the eye. He used motor bikes and an Ameri can car with lighting and effects that were very imaginative. Producer and director had worked out a very good balance of material for what could have otherwise been a non-televisual ...

... Italy Celentano; fear of triumph, 51 minutes ADRIAN CELENTANO is said to be the biggest show business talent at the moment in Italy. In this rather pretentious pop-documentary we were frequently cut from one of his very successful outdoor concerts to him in his dressing room waiting to ko on and then to his discussion with a television reporter about his fear of such big crowds as he attracts. ...

... Bulgaria Elixir for All, 31 minutes A STRAIGHTFORWARD opera compilation with next to no linking and done in the studio in front of an audience, this had no place in a light entertainment festival. We asked how it had come to be admitted, but the chairman of the organisers said that he had referred it back to the originating company who said that it was what they wanted to enter and it had ...