... PLYMOUTH Elizabeth's Last Stand AS NIGHT falls Betty, a drab mouselike eccentric, is transformed into the resplendent Virgin Queen, ruling over kitchen and country. Mime artist iNola Kae gave an im aginative if slightly tedious perform ance as the eccentric who fall under the spell of the ghostly good Queen Bess. The pedantic attenuon to detail at the start of the show, combined with the ...

... LEATHERHEAD Doq Days TO WRITE to a high degree of literacy and then to follow it up with the artistic ability to use the words in a high degree of acting is the ambition of many but the accomplishment of only a very few. Without doubt John Kane deserves to enter that double hall of fame for his one man play. Dog Days seems rather an unexcit ing title for a work that describes with much ...

... Played with underlying sensuality NEWBURY Rosmersholm IBSHN's controversial social comment and psychological, symbolic prose provided a feast for the analysts but perhaps his plays were, to a greater or less degree, autobiographical. He had known social disgrace and poverty after his father went bankrupt. He had made a servant girl pregnant when he was 18. He became increasingly disillusioned ...

... Congress in lvon mm m J ^rmm FRANCE: The Seventh Congress of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People was held recently in Lyon. Delegates from over 40 countries, some represented for the first time, were present. An ASSITEJ Congress, held every three years, contains all the elements of a festival, a conference and an Annual General Meeting. The festival was the ...

... Relative calm GERMANY: Spared the controversies of 1980, when the jury were blamed for their timorous selections, the 1981 festival of German-speaking theatre in Berlin passed off in relative calm. Apart from the world premiere of Peter Greiner's Keitz (from Cologne) and Thomas Bernhard's The Do- Gooder (from Bochum) the entries lack ed any real social topicality, though all bore witness ...

... Chess PLYMOUTH PRIDE and passions are pawns in the political game played out in the smash hit musical Chess, now updated for its current national tour. The Tim Rice/Benny Anderson/ Bjom Ulvaeus musical, which ran in the West End for three years, has been modified to take account of Glasnost. And now the emphasis has been shifted from political to personal and profes sional rivalry. But alas ...

... Flarepath BIRMINGHAM THIS revival, directed by John Adams, offers the chance to see Terence Rattigan's war-time tribute to Britain's bomber crews. The Rep production enlarges the play with every feat of modern theatre technology. Paul Pyant's lighting cre ates the flarepath stretching away into the distance and the shadowy bulk of a Wellington bomber looms towards us behind a back-lit drop ...

... The Boys From Syracuse SHEFFIELD THERE'S a strong element of pantomime about Clare Venables' Crucible swan song. There are at least three helpings of brokers' men, a chorus of pastel-frockcd ninnies, a pretty princess, flashes of smoke everything, it seems, but the song sheet. There s an even stronger element oi parody. Eittlc and Large, Nora Batty, Norman Wisdom, Tommy Cooper practically all ...

... She Stoops to Conquer HEVER CASTLE AMANDA POINTER in the ritle role of this second production in Kent Rep's summer season is a forthright and strong Kate whose playful inde pendence is not only one of the main strengths but also provides a large slice of the comedy in her scenes with Young Marlow. Impersonating the 'poor relation' and 'barmaid', give her some of the best scenes in the play. As ...

... Chapter Two COLWYN BAY FOR THE first play of his six week repertory season at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Colwyn Bay director Gareth Owen chose Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical comedy. George Schneider, successful spy novelist, failed serious writer, is trying to get over the death of his adored wife. His younger brother Leo fixes him up with dates but girls called Bambi don't really help. ...

... The Little Foxes PITLOCHRY THE CURRENT summer season at Pitlochry has been chosen with the accent on plays dominated by women and Lillian Hellman's story of greed, selfishness and relentless ambition in America's steamy south fills the bill perfectly. Written in 1939, it does creak occa sionally but Clive Perry's taut direc tion keeps the melodrama firmly in check and capitalises strongly on ...

... The Adventures of Tom Sawyer GLASGOW POCKET Theatre Cumbria brought to Glasgow's Tron Theatre a wealth of talent and versatility in the four strong cast who Jeature between them no fewer than 11 pars in an intriguing production of Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom himself, that lovable scamp with taste, either for schooling nor the stiff formalities of life, is ably taken ...