... The Marriage Of Figaro HARROGATE ANDREW Manley, the artistic director of the Harrogate Theatre, always looks for new ways of presenting a well established piece of Theatre. Therefore, when he decided to do a production of The Marriage Of Figaro by Beaumarchais he thought it would be a good idea to use some of Mozart's music from his opera based on the play to mark the bicentenary of the ...

... Beyond Reasonable Doubt COLCHESTER DISTINGUISHED barrister Sir David Metcalfe, chairman of the Bar Council, is on trial for the murder of his apparently-beloved wife. Already terminally ill, did she mis takenly take an overdose of medicine or, as her devoted housekeeper insists, was she deliberately overdosed by an ill-tempered, cruel husband? Jeffrey Archer's renowned thriller, Beyond ...

... Wretched Grooms BAC WRETCHED Grooms, the new production from Changeinspeak, is directed by its founder and artistic director, Simon Blake, as were the company's previous seven productions. It can be no mean feat turning out such highly individual theatre pieces, and an achievement that other media are starting to respond to. The play, rather than having some grandiose plot, works on and ...

... Royal Ballet School ROH TO TAKE the programme in reverse order, tribute was paid at the Royal Ballet School's annual matinee to the founder Dame Ninette de Valois through a commendably gripping account of her ballet Checkmate. tjuamy was evident trom trie tront curtain appearance of Dimity Harris and Spencer Soloman, whose chess-playing postures clearly indicated the symbolic factions of Love ...

... A Sleep and company rise to the occasion Savoy Triple Bill i civma 01 giamour, presuge, ana a gaia opening in ironi or me rnncess of Wales, it's understandable that English National Ballet should jump at the chance to reopen the Savoy Theatre. But the plain fact is that the stage is too small for ballet, and as a consequence the first item of a triple bill, the Grand pas Classique from ...

... Pomme D'Apl and One Education Manquee WISBECH UNE EDUCATION Manquee, a salon opera. The soiree atmosphere in beautiful Peckover House was a timewarp. The fireplace and grand piano were feet from my chair. I prepared to be intimidated at such close quarters, and hampered by my rusty schoolgirl French. I was utterly, wrong on both counts, from the entry of petite oriental accompanist Linda Ang, ...

... The Turn of the Screw Royal Northern College of Music THE ROYAL Northern College of Music has once again sustained its enviable reputation as a breeding ground for young musical talent with its latest production of Benjamin Britten's challenging opera The Turn of the Screw. Based on the dark novel by Henry James, the complex score, with libretto by Myfanwy Piper, requires not only a musical ...

... Don Giovanni Royal Opera House JOHANNES Schaafs 1992 production, for the ROH, of Mozart's Don Giovanni has suffered a fatal change upon revival. Peter Pabst's (designer) darkly inimical universe still impresses, with its pitch black walls, voyeuristic apertures and sulphurous, shifting cloudscapes. And Herr Schaafs staging of Act I still grips, the detail as arresting as ever: Lcporello ...

... Spring and Port Wine EASTBOURNE THIS is Bill Naughton's famous play which illustrates discipline within a family turning into total discord, and back again, all within the time span of four days in the mid-sixties. A vivacious selection ot busy char acters laugh, cry, sing, play piano, bully, borrow, love, hate, dream and lie as the family breaks up, partially disperses and then regroups. John ...

... Crimes of Passion NOTTINGHAM THE SET, sound and lighting (Marie-Jeanne Lecca, Mark Frisby, Davy Cunningham) are stunning. With no centre aisle and the stalls grouped in a claustrophobic huddle, we look into a massive tunnel, its upstage end closed by a ing iris, its walls encircled in a framework on which props and people can hang and move. Around the proscenium arch, four changing ...

... ENGLISH TOURING THEATRE A Taste of Honey IF THIS classic from the golden age of kitchen sink drama teaches us anything, it's the certainty that the world has moved on. 'ITiirty-six years ago, when the then unknown Shclagh Delaney wrote this, her first play, audiences were shocked by her subject matter teenage preg nancy, single parenthood, mixed-race relationships all served up in a low- life ...

... HAMPSTEAD Yvette Bozsik Theatre Company OFFERING a brief entree to the main work of the evening, Interiors featured a young woman (Yvette Bozsik) tossing on a double bed. She sits up clasping the sheet, and flops backwards. Defeated, or bored? Neither her finger drumming to LJgetti, nor her struggle to thread an imaginary needle to Chopin, readily clarifies her raison d'etre. More vigorous ...