... 'Hansel and Gretel' IN HANSEL AND Gretel, staged by the Harlow Ballet Club at The Playhouse, Harlow, on October 29. Janet and Leo Kersley provided an ideal leading role for their guest artist, Wayne Sleep. Admirable as he was, however, offering all the virtuoso brilliance one expects from mm plus a convincing characterisation, there were other points of interest about the production. The ...

... 'Molloy' a JOHN MOLLOY'S one-man show, Molloy, at Dublin Eblana, is a compendium of events in his life, both personal and theatrical. The personal includes a stint in the Navy, invalided back to Dublin, periods in tubercular hospitals. The theatrical takes in touring with the fit-ups, Shakespeare and films. Mr Molloy's artistry is in mellowing the sacred and profane of each, in articulating ...

... On the rocks IT'S A BIT of under the greenwood tree, who loves to lie with me at the Bush, where the double-bill from November 5 to 17 began with Christina Brown's Under the Bamboo Tree. This is a half-hour three-hander about a marriage which may, or may not. be on the rocks. The incumbent wife has invited the incipient one to dinner they take their roles very seriously, but all the man ...

... 'Hasty Heart' revival THE SCOTS have a reputation for being dour and independent, but added to these, would it be possible to have a man who was also cold, rather insensitive to the feelings of others and very stubborn? This is the part that Richard Todd plays in The Hasty Heart by John Patrick, who wrote it in 1944. and the fact that Mr Patrick is a US citizen could have something to do ...

... SPECTRES OF MIDDLE-AGE IN 'CHEZ NOUS' by R.B. Marriott IN CHEZ NOUS, Peter Nichols' new play, at the Globe, Dick and Diana, on the strength of money brought in by Dick's best-selling book on child care and treatment, have bought an old house and its big bam in the Dordogne region of France. They are joined by old friends, Phil and Liz. All are in early middle-age, apparently happy and ...

... Scarborough 'Just Between Ourselves' WHEN Alan Ayckbourn's latest play, Just Between Ourselves, was given its premiere at the Library. Scarborough, on January 28. the audience was highly delighted with it. although some were heard to say that it is like a number of the playwright's earlier efforts. That may be true but it does not detract from the enjoyment one gets, for in this play Mr ...

... Rock Garden 'What' I'M NOT AT ALL certain what extremes of emotional reaction in the audience Paul Marcus and Colin Ludlow were attempting to produce with their What at the Rock Garden on February 1, but they were successful in driving four members of at least one audience away. I stayed, determined to discover what the many surprises and. it is hoped, some delightful ones were ...

... Bush 'German Skerries' THE BUSH Theatre's commissioned play by Robert Holman German Skerries turns out to be a winner. It runs for about an hour and a half, concentrating on four precise times in a 1 9-day period, high on a cliff jutting out into the North Sea at Teesside. There are four and they could so easily be types, mouthpieces for the author's theo ries rather than flesh-and-blood ...

... Richmond Fringe The Island' JAMES SAUNDERS' latest play at the Orange Tree, Richmond, is an odd mixture of nonsensical comedy; and philosophising, a sexy variation on Robinson Crusoe and The Admirable Crichton, with a dash or two of Huxley and Orwell for good measure. Womankind has how to reproduce herself without male intervention (though the lower orders of mammals are not as self ...

... Drury Lane 'A Chorus Line' I HAVE an inestimable advantage over every other critic in London in that I never saw A Chorus Line before. Some years ago I had the pleasure of Donna McKechnie's Company and wot a performance. to quote Sid Field, which makes it easy for me to why such another outsize talent as Elizabeth Seal might have tilted dangerously the fine balance of this latest All ...

... Soho Poly 'Gimme Shelter' TWO SHORT PLAYS by Barrie Keeffe. Gem and Gotcha, have now been summed-up in a third. Getaway, and the completed trilogy is currently on show at the Soho Poly under the collective title Gimme Shelter Both Gem and Gotcha are familiar from lunchtime perfor mances. The first deals with Kev, an extrovert young trades unionist who makes a token stand against ...

... CENTRAL SCHOOL IMPROVISATION is a recognised form of artistic discipline in the curricula of most drama schools nowadays, but it is rare for the end product thus evolved to be put on display to the public at large. Yet that is just what happened with Something Rich and Strange. juiiiv. vi where third-year students of the Central School of Speech and Drama collaborated with the theatre design ...