... 'T'HE dodo was a clumsy. very curious bird that couldn't get off the ground. Flight 447 Delayed (A-R November 9) was a dodo- This exercise it cannot seriously be termed a play-- was prob ably as interesting to students of television as the dodo was to ornithologists for, like the dodo, this species of television was thought to be extinct. Flight 447 was in fact, a valuable object lesson in How ...

... FINE SINGING IN GUNTHER RENNERT 'DON GIOVANNI' ANTHONY MERRYN AT GLYNDEBOURNE GUNTHER RENNERTS production of Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne has side entrances and exits in front of the proscenium-- a little fussy, perhaps, but preserving the intimate atmosphere this opera house so admirably offers for Mozart In general it is effective, with scenery suggestive rather than realistic, though ...

... ANGLIA'S first contribution to the Little Network in the Thirty Minute Theatre series (Wednesday, 7th Novem ber) was an excellent combina tion of crisp writing, sensitive acting and skilful direction. June Howson, one of Britain's youngest drama direc tors at 28, was clearly attuned to the striking possibilities of Lynne Reid Bank's play, which possessed the unpredictable qualities of an ...

... We have been so used to sec ing The Second Mrs. Tanqueray performed in ele gant settings that the somewhat spartan on in-the-round at Perbroke the Croydon which opened on Monday comes as somethinc of a shock. But there arc some at': _: esses, a few uncommonly handsome pieces of furniture and. of course, there is the play itself, which. after nearly seventy years, still remains .vless ...

... THE PROGRAMME states that The Island of Sugar is an entertainment based on a play by Jobn Hales. The initial inspired concept of taking a play dealing with the ideals and corruption of revolution and political manoeuvering and presenting il as a series of games and fantasies played by children, belong to the producer, Noel Greig. But there is no room for doubt thai the actors and the ...

... THE LITTLE Theatre Club presented two plays by Alan Pearce, judiciously directed by Joan Campbell. In the first play, Love Talk, a suitable marriage is finally fixed after the casual preliminary, approaches have been related to the audience by fragmentary but repetitive dia logue between each party and an olf -stage friend. Peter Sheridan and Mary Sheen took turns with the spot-light to ...

... Good opportunity is missed in Stiffkey Scandals of 1932' by R. B. MARRIOTT WHAT A PITY that the opportunity of creating a good, fascinating London musical has been missed in The Stiffkey Scandals of 1932, which opened at the Queen's last Thursday. It is hot often, I think, that such a true storv. of Stiffkev's wavward rec tor, offers itself so readily to treatment as a musical, as a serious ...

... The dance puppets of Alwin Nickolais by ERIC JOHNS THE DANCE THEATRE of Alwin Nikolais, who made their London d6but at Sadler's Wells on Monday, consists of a troupe of ten dancers who owe their entire artistic existence to Alwin Nikolais. He creates their choreography; he stages their dances; he designs their cos tumes; he composes his own sound scores; and is responsible for all stage ...

... Fonteyn and Nureyev 'THE performance of Swan Lake, danced at Covent Garden last Thursday, must be acclaimed as the finest this new production has yet enjoyed. And not for many a month have the critics been stirred to write with such a decree of unanimity when concerning the merits of the interpretations of M argot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. The only defect to mar this truly bejewelled ...

... Thomas More documentary ACCORDING to the programme note by the author. Jean Claudius, every word of Thomas More, presented by the Lambeth Players at the Tower of London on September 16 was compiled either from historical accounts or from the literary works of More himself. This, while ensuring historical accuracy allowing, of course, for the author's admitted chron ological licence taking ...

... 'Rheinaold' VITAGNER'S Der Ring dcs Nibelungen grows in popularity, judging by the number of young people quite a number of them actors-- at Covent Garden on September 11, when the first of this year's two cycles opened with Das Rheingold Tho sheer length and scope of this epic drama demands a religious devotion, or in some cases, amused tolerance, from its audiences who nowadays are ...

... npHE PERFORMANCE of Die Walkiire on September 12 was in almost every way the best at Covent Garden for several seasons, wirh Solti urging the orchestra to magnificent heights of aural excitement in the three preludes, the inexorable urgency of the strings and the rasping brass in the firs* immediately set ting the tone of a performance which started off well and grew progressively even ...