... VALERY HOVENDENS current production of Macbeth at the Hovenden Theatre Club from Sunday to Friday of this week, prior to a special performance at the George Inn. Southwark, on Saturday afternoon, is virtually the same as that which gained acclaim during their Malta season last December. Inevitably there have had to be some cast changes, and this week sees Viera Shelley making her debut ...

... THOSE rare birds who have never had the pleasure of seeing Twelfth Night, and all those who have seen it seldom, will enjoy the current Old Vic production by Colin Graham, which is the same as last season but with a new young cast. They will find in Eileen Atkins, the Viola, a young woman of char acter who, with proper guidance and opportunity, should make the grade to an established ...

... YOU Won't Always Be On Top, first seen at the Royal. Stratford, some three years ago, arrived at Unity on August 12 wilh some songs by Barbara Chapman but with all the defects one noticed on the previous occasion. The chief fault is that Henry Chapman's work is not really a play at all. It is more akin to what the television people call a dramatised documentary, dealing as it does with what ...

... 'Love's Labour's Lost' FOLLOWING the slovenly misrepresentation of Henry IV at the Assembly Hall last week, the Bristol Old Vic production of Love's Labour's Lost came to the Edinburgh Lyceum on August 25 as a heart-warming reminder of just how effective a Shakespearean comedy can be when staged with understanding and intelligence. The verbal wit and visual humour are kept bubbling along ...

... 'A Man and a Circus Ring' A PRIZE for originality is deserved by the Theatre Group of the Royal College of Art, London, for eschewing the church halls of Edinburgh and performing their contribution to the Festival Fringe, A Man and a Circus Ring, in a maruuee disguised as a circus tent. The show, which opened on August 18, is an entertaining and noisy frolic with a serious core, an aspect ...

... by John Montgomery CASTING has started for The Password is Courage, which Andrew and Virginia Stone will produce and direct on location for MGM and Boreham Wood. Production begins February 12 on this true story about the courage of a prisoner of war in Germany. The atones are casting tne picture mcni- selves. The report that Connie Francis will arrive in April for a Metro musical is ...

... TO SAY AU REVOIR before embarking upon their American tour, the Royal Ballet are dancing in full force at the Royal Opera House this week and to celebrate the occasion the proscenium arch has been newly gilded and the dome brightened with a coat of sky-blue paint. Mar got Fonteyn graced Lea Sylphides with her presence on Monday last and translated the poetic ecstasy of Chopin's romantic ...

... pOMMLNTINO on the sudden termination of ihe season at the Westminster of Mal'hilda Beauvoir and her Haitian Voodoo Dancers. Richard Graham, who presented ihem in collaboration with Furndel Productions, stales that throughout the dispute he worked in close con sultation and collaboration with Equity, and that contrary to the impression that may have been con veyed, return fares to Paris for the ...

... by R. B. MARRIOTT YOU should not miss Peter Cotes's fine production of William Inge's A Loss of Roses, with its three brilliant performances in the leading parts, which opened at the Pembroke, Croydon on Monday last. Joan Miller has rarely been better, Jane Griffiths establishes herself as an actress of formidable talent, and Alan Howard gives an outstanding study of youthful frustration ...

... Marlene Dietrich MARLENE DIETRICH, the incomparable artist, casts a magic spell on audiences at the Lyceum this week, holding them entranced for sixty-five exciting minutes From the moment the celebrated figure appears on stage, a slender sheath of shimmering gold, we are completely captivated by every teasing note and gesture, as she weaves her dazzling way through a programme of eighteen ...

... by John Montgomery DIRECTOR JOHN GOLD is to make The Harp that Once lor Columbia Pictures, with Nicol Williamson starring. jJIKMAN COHEN is to star Ldith Evans in Crooks and Coronets the first of two l>!ms which he will produce for Warner Brothers-Seven Ails. Jim O'Con- nolly will direct his own screen play. IYANNY KAYE and Terence Stamp are lo co-star in Felinni's IV! m The Satyricon of ...

... by ANTHONY MERRYN MERRIE ENGLAND, that hardy stand-by of amateurs, had a lull and lavish profesional performance in Sadler's Wells on August 10. Edward German was no Sullivan, but he had a nonius and person ality of his own. which has caused (his work to survive on the sheer strength of his tunefulness, music- i.msh p and light touch. Otherwise (he rather naive plot, about Queen Elizabeth. ...