... 'The Overbury Scandal' THE OVERBURY case is one of the most fascinating of 17th century stories, a phantasmagoria of court intrigue, sexual passion, dubious medicine and downright sorcery. For City Lit students, George Pensotti has devised a play within a play--The Overbury Scandal is supposed to have been written by Francis Bacon for production by his own theatre company, the Lord Cham ...

... La Fin du Jour ROYAL BALLET Premiere KENNETH MACMILLAN'S La Fin du Jour, which was premiered by the Royal Ballet on March 15, challenges convention through its defiant air of sophisticated idiosyncracy. Set to Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major the work is without a plot (and indeed the title is of little importance), and mixes athleticism and decadence in surrealist vein! The curtain ...

... Romeo and Juliet THE ROYAL BALLET is cautious, not to say over-conservative in its casting policy, causing an impression of predictability with little room for surprises. In Romeo and Juliet on Febru ary 20 there were, indeed, few sur prises, but those that occurred helped to make it an enjoyable per formance. So setting aside the predictability of Gerd Larsen's over-busy Nurse, Derek ...

... THE PLACE THE CAN OPENER' Onpnpd October 17 THE CAN OPENER by Victor Lanoux. in an English version by Charles Wood directed by Walter Donohue, is currently being presented by the KSC. at The Place One wonders why. This is the type oi one-m-ic. extended to a full length pUy which was intensely fashionable in London some fifteen years ago; so fashionable in fact that there was a plethora of ...

... YOUNG VIC TOM THUMB' Opened October 15 THE YOUNG Vic are giving the first professional production for almost two hundred years of Henry Fielding's 'The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great. While Fielding's satire on stage styles and Royal George now cannot much intrigue us, there is sufficient material in the story of Tom Thumb and his exploits with the royal ...

... TERRACE SUBTITLES can be very revealing: Royce Ryton's The Importance of Being Neutral is subtitled A Charade in Three Acts and charade it most certainly was. The first act was a iine-for-line parody of Wilde's (rather more important) tance; the second act was Derek Fowlds trying to be Tqm Courtenay; and the third act was nobody's business, arbitrar ily springing off into travesties of ...

... Personality of the week AUDIENCES for Die Fleder- maus at the Coliseum are cur rently finding the production has an enjoyable bonus in Brian Casey, whose performance as Frosch the gaoler may be a long way from Strauss's Vienna, but in its outrageous style of music-hall comedy is absolutely right for London His drunken, good-hu moured reactions to both people and objects are brilliantly ...

... Period of Adjustment KING'S HEAD Opened April 27 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS is not everyone's idea of a load of laughs, but his plays are not without humour and at least one, Period of Adjustment. has moments of high' comedy, though. Williams being Williams, at root it is a psycho-sexual drama. This play, last seen in London at the beginning of the six ties. is well worth the revival Robert ...

... Playin' Porter CORK NOEL PEARSON'S latest presentation Playin' Porter is a musical entertainment based on the life and music of Cole Porter. Devised by Fergus Linehan and Jim Doherty. it links the story of the rich boy who made good with more than forty of the songs that Cole Porter wrote, all the way from a Yale college ditty to Kiss Me Kate. Tonv Kenny, Rosaleen Linehan. Emma Angeline ...

... Twelfth Night OLD VIC Opened April 24 AS YOU TAKE your seat at the Old Vic for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. the back wall of the bare stage, painted green and embellished with titles of Prospect productions, is the only bit of decoration to be seen through the pros arch. And then just before the performance is due to start, actors wander on to the stage waving to friends in the audience, ...

... A Cool Million OPEN SPACE YOU can't generalise safely about anything in the theatre and especially you can't generalise about second thoughts being--or not being--best. In particular when I have a shrewd feeling that Robert Walker's A Cool Million (by courtesy of Nathanael West's original and Andy Smith's catchily vamping score) is a third thought at the very least. The author's revised ...

... DEAD GENERATIONS MAYDAY'S researches into some of south-west London's less savoury political and financial past are obviously pretty thorough--its latest touring show for older schoolchildren, youth clubs and adult audiences in its preferred non- theatre venues comes apparently in several editions and is historical both in subject and in presentation. Dead Generations is about Batter- ...