... Ballet at Horsham GALA BALLETS, under the artistic direction of Rovi Pavi- noff and Catherine Weeuelin. have enlarged their repertoire and this Friday and Saturday at t)ie Capitol, Horsham are in cluding Act II of Swan Lake, with Rovi Pavinoff as Prince Siegfried and Wendy Lewin as Odette. Mela Carter has choreographed a new bal let, Pied Piper with Clive Lewin in the title role, and Va ...

... Good spoofs I LIKE MY SHERRY DRY, but found Bristol Cream, the Bristol University revue which uncorked itself in the Little after several libations on the Edinburgh Festival fringe, very much to mv taste. It is sophisticated, in the best possible sense, slick and polished to a fine professional gloss. Best of all, the lesson keep it short has been well and truly taken to heart, then put into ...

... Brilliant Chinese acrobats WHEN THE CHINESE Acrobatic Theatre from Shanghai opened their all too short season of eleven nights at the Coliseum on July 3 it seemed that every Chinese man and woman, not to mention a lot of their children, were in the dience and one wondered at the fate of anybody fancying a Chinese meal in town that night. But there were plenty of British natives present as ...

... o'Casey masterpiece Sean o'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, one of the greatest plays of the century, has a somewhat subdued yet deeply moving production at the Mermaid, the wonderful woman of the title being portrayed with rare understanding and depth quite without the aid of spec tacular show, by Siobhan McKenna. The production was to have been directed by Sean Kenny; when he died shortly ...

... Brecht 'Mother' ANYONE UNCONVINCED of the genius of Bertolt Brecht should go and see The Mother, which opened at the Round House on July 2. Certainly not as sophisticated or as celebrated as his later plays, it's deliberately a very limited piece of Communist pro paganda. celebrating the ef forts of certain small-town Russian agitators in the period leading up to the 1917 revolu tion not, ...

... Jets and Sharks again THE REVIVAL of West Side Story, produced and directed by Bill Kenwright at the Collegiate on July 3, is a worthy effort in several ways. It is alive with enthusiasm; the dancing is very good indeed; the orchestra, under Ed Coleman, plays well. But the tragic story of the New York slums, where the natives, in the form of the Jets, and the interloping Sharks, battle ...

... Durrenmatt Strindberg THERE'S A PROVERB about rolling stones gathering no moss, and a poem with a phrase about a green thought in a green shade. Bernard Culshaw's designs for the Tyneside Theatre Company's production of Friedrich Dilrrenmatt's Play Strindberg at the Hampstead Theatre Club on July 3 were as sylvan as the play is urbane. It is a gloss on The Dance of Death, but Ga- reth ...

... 'Absurd Person Singular' fun and chill by R. B. Marriott ALAN AYCKBOURN'S latest comedy. Absurd Person Singular, at the Criterion, is very well designed for popular laughter, technically and verbally, yet has a chilling element which produces a feeling of sadness. His characters, or caricatures are three married couples who spend three successive Christ mas Eves together, party fashion. ...

... Last takes over from Jenner DESMOND KELLY has a presence which exudes nobility and his dancing of prince roles is, in this respect, unmatched by anyone in the Royal Ballet. At Covent harden on July 12 he danced nis first Prince Florimund in The Sleeping Beaty. giving the role his customary unhurried elegance, positive reactions, clear mime and in valuable assistance in lifts. It was hard ...

... ABBEY OPERA DISASTERS, they say, come in threes. So apparently do revivals of Iolanta, the Tchaikovsky one- act opera about the blind daughter of that mythical-historical King Rene of Provence who provided one unfortunate queen for England and numerous libretti and plots. The Camden Festival revived Io lanta in the early sixties and the English Opera Company are about to add it to their ...

... Poor Gulbenkian A SECOND LOOK at Ballet Gulbenkian did nothing to alter one's first impression that this is a company without any genuine creativity, despite the presence of talented dancers and good presentation. The two new pieces introduced on ?iuiy it at saaiers wells Theatre both showed up the absence of a true company style, and in both instances the experimental side of the work was ...

... Institute of Choreology THE INSTITUTE of Choreology is a fast-growing organisation and at the annual demonstration and award of diplomas on July 6 the chairman of the Council, Nicholas Dromgoole, remarked on the increasing demand for choreologists and the consequent need for larger premises. These may soon be available in a South Coast town, though this will mean splitting the work of the ...