... A VIEW FROM THE BRINK. by David Campion, had its first performance at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, last week. From first to last, these three short plays are consistently funny, with a humour which brings Mr. Canvp- ton's points home with deadly accuracy. The author himself and David Glover appear as two all-too- familiar statesmen, conferring with the all-too-familiar goonery of all ...

... RICHARD GILL'S Travellers, presented by the Repertory Players on Sunday last, has for characters the circus and fairground folk with whom the author, now an actor, once worked. In consequence, the characters and dialogue have an air of authenticity which makes the unsua' and to some extent unfashionable theme dramatically exciting throughout the first act and even succeeds in holding the ...

... FOR as long as one cares to remember the work, of Gilbert and Sullivan has. apart from the D'Oyly Carte, been presented by amateur companies with hearty gusto and moderate finesse. There can be few who Have not joined in the fun on one side or the other of the foot lights, cherishing memories of harmonious music and worthy witticisms of an individual style which has no equal. One therefore ...

... 'The House of The Dead' LAST Friday evening saw the fifth and last production in the Prague Opera Season at the King's, Edinburgh, the British premifcre of Janacek's The House of the Dead. Written in 1928 to his own libretto adapted from Dostoevsky's Journal from the House of the Dead the work is a powerful evocation of the liv ing death of a prison camp in Siberia. Almost without plot, the ...

... MICHAEL CROFT's Youth Theatre production of Julius Caesar which began a short season it the Oueen's on August II. opens on a note of brilliant unconventionality with teenage Romans living in the streets to the strains of traditional jazz. And with thi^ Mr. Croft transforms v into a tale which b Tiding relevance to MoUcm-UiV ?.ire has often been i pon-- and more times tli. -vith gootl ...

... CRANKO'S COMIC BLOOD- AND-THUNDER BALLET by Eric Johns THE LONDON PREMIERE of John Cranko's music-hall burlesque of Sweeney Todd was given by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden on Tuesday evening last. With tongue in cheek Mr. Cranko has re-told the tale of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, using a highly eloguent dance vocabulary. Most ingeniously he has chosen movements which are the ...

... THE Brighton and Hove Repertory Company were in top form for the opening Ust week of The Gaye Affair, a comedy by J. Barry Roach which concerns a novelist, Gaye by name and nature, particularly where the ladies arc concerned. His generous use of sex and medium has put him in the best-seller class and his publisher as clamouring for the completion of his next novel. He choses a luxury hotel ...

... BERYL REID, heading the cast of Leonard Schach's revue, Something New, is the biggest box-office draw in Johannesburg. Following up her success at the Hofmeyr Theatre, Cape Town, she is now appearing at the Playhouse with John Boulter. Valerie Miller, Francois Swart, Eatelie Kohler and Ron Shelton as supporting company, and the dance trio of Janice Fellows-Smith. Jimmy BeH and Lucille ...

... WHAT she claims to be the first Welsh television puppet series is the creation of Jane Phillips. It all started, the says. when she gave a five-minute glove-puppet show in Welsh last Christinas as part of the BBC's Welsh children's magazine gramme. Telewek, which goes out in the mornings on Satur days. Following (he Initial ven ture, Ifan O. Williams, the pro gramme's producer, invited ...

... RICHARD MARKS, designer for ihe Liverpool Repertory Com pany, has excelled himself in the boiuifuHy s'.agcd and dressed pro duction of Glad Tidings, an American comedy by Edward Mably, presented on Tuesday last, at (he Liverpool Playhouse. The whole spirit of ihe play is gay and exhilarating, with wedJ- clched and well pUived charactci studies. Taking place on (he terrace of Steve Whitney's ...

... 'Two Plays' TWO one-act plays by the Polish author Slawomir Mrozek, were presented at the Traverse Theatre. Edinburgh, on August 28. The Party in its original language may have held some deep significance for Polish audiences, but it must be admitted that most of the audience at the Traverse at the opening performance seemed somewhat puzzled. Three young men noisily burst into a room, ...