... The Real World? SOHO POLY THE REAL World? deserves its accompanying question mark because Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay poses many questions but provides no answers. The English premiere at the Soho Poly is a new translation by Alison Kcan and Lisa Forrell, who also directs. The catalyst for the action is the play which young Claude presents to his mother in which he exposes his view of ...

... The Rape of Lucretia BRITTEN THEATRE CERI Sherlock's production of this strange work, a curious combination of the angular and the graceful the lyrical and the formal, brings out well the virtuosity of the score. The modern dress used for the chorus and for the entire cast during the opening and the closing sequences also effectively point up Richard Maxwell Aylwin's designs. As the doomed ...

... The Empire BRENTFORD STEVE Shill follows his acclaimed Ode to Sir. Cecilia, an award winner in the 1989 Sunday Times National Student Drama Festival, with a three-hander, daringly imaginative in its use of the kind of dream-into-reality which the cinema and television have mastered, but which proves elusive, in the mam, in terms ot theatre at Watermans Arts Centre. On a tight-rope of fact ...

... Show Boat STRATFORD RUSSELL Craig's glorious sets fill the stage of the RSC, unfamiliarly stripped back to its original thirties pros arch. Fretted wooden decking swings in from the wings to create the traditional superstructure of the Mississippi paddle steamers against an evocative backdrop of the grey-green river and distant horizon. Together with Alexander Reid's elegant and detailed ...

... Death of a Salesman CARDIFF IN THE 40 years since Arthur Miller's masterpiece Death of a Salesman was written, the power of his indictment of a basic tenet of the American Dream has in no way lessened. Indeed, the searing impact of the human tragedy resulting from Willy Loman's fierce belief in commercial success as the sole measure of a man's status in an uncaring society has, if anything, ...

... Smile Orange COCHRANE THEATRE PLAYWRIGHT Trevor Rhone's 1971 comedy about a Jamaican Fawlty Towers is the very stuff of farce. The cynical employees of the Mocho Beach Hotel exploit the ignorant clientele, one of whom has the bad taste to get drowned and cause mayhem. witn me action taxing piace in the kitchen, assistant manager's office and reception area on Sue Mayes' vivid two-tier split ...

... Unicorn Theatre for Children JACOB TWO-TWO ACTORS taking on roles as young children have a hard task establishing a balance between youthfulness of spirit and grown-up looks, and often they fall back on an embarrassing coyness and exaggerated expression. Becuase of this tendency, and an initial woodenness among adults play ing adults, I found the first act of Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded ...

... Petter, the boy next door hero SADLER'S WELLS La Fille mal gardee IF YOU have seen La Fille mal gardee countless times you tend to concentrate rather more on individual interpretations than the fact that, spreading out the sunniest view of the art by way of the happiest of stories, this is the most perfect ballet for winning converts. On the last night of the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet New ...

... The Nutcracker SCOTTISH BALLET THE FIRST snowfall of the season is always a magical experience, and the fact that, in Glasgow this year, it happened inside the Theatre Royal did not diminish one's sense of wonder. The Scottish Ballet's current revival of The Nutcracker, with choreogrpahy by Peter Darrell after Lev Ivanov and designs by Philip Prowse, is liberally scattered with moments of ...

... The Nutcracker NEWYORK MANY people thought it foolhardy of the Jeffrey Ballet to mount The Nutcracker in New York, where Balanchine's version for New York City Ballet has long been virtually sacrosanct. The new staging is very different and at least as enjoyable. Supervised by Robert Joffrey himself, it contains a lot of traditional Ivanov choreography and traditional Ballet Russe's staging, ...

... Seeing is believing PETER HEPPLE on the importance of reality COTTLESLOE Invisible Friends THERE IS a lot to be said in favour of a play with a strong narrative line, and looking at Alan Ayckbourn's Invisible Friends one speculates as to why this is a sine qua non only in children's plays. It is a long time since I went to a theatre wondering what was going to happen next- a reversion to ...

... Wife Begins at Forty HAYES FARCE is, perhaps, one of the most demanding forms of theatre to play effectively, and Bryan Hands, presenting this tour of the Ray Cooney West End stage hit, crafted by the Theatre of Comedy's leading light himself, alone with Arne Sultan and Earl Barrett, is indeed fortunate in his company as seen at the Beck. Deborah Watling as the wife, Linda Harper, most ...