... The Thrie Estates' is back at the Edinburgh Festival TO BORROW the language of the film world, Sir David Lindsays The Thrie Estaites is something of a golden oldie of the Edinburgh Festival. It is fondly remembered as the big discovery of the early years when Tyrone Guthrie took post-war audiences by storm with his exciting presentations in the Church of Scotland As sembly Hall, ...

... Rabelaisian TO SET the scene for the evening's entertainment, members of the audience arriving for Russell Hunter's readings from the works of Rabelais in one of Edinburgh's most famous masonic halls, are plied with wine, bread, cheese and iruu. The programme note speaks of Rabelais' appetite for joy in living and the translator of his works is quoted on his out spokenness. And, in case ...

... Drums of Revolution THE STRUGGLE to survive, inequality and selfishness; the basic conditions of our lives, both personal and social. Of all playwrights, Brecht applied himself most directly to these issues, and Drums in the Night at Hamnstead Theatre Club until September 29 after a run at Edinburgh, is characteristic in its subject and its subtle treatment. The first of Brecht's play to ...

... Breughel Nightmare AND They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers, as directed by the author, Fernando Arrabal at the Open Space on September 12, turns out to be an essay in choreographing a Breughel nightmare for seven actors and a variety of properties. It is played with as much sincerity as the author brought to it in the first place, and most competently, but it is only fleeting images which ...

... DANCE 'Romeo and Juliet' GREAT ARTISTS such as Fonteyn and Nureyev never seem to exhaust the imagination they bring to even the most familiar of their roles, and in Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden on December 15 their dancing had a spontaneity which made the choreography seem freshly created. Juliet is still within Fonteyn's powers as a dancer and no-one else brings that magical blend ...

... Georgia at the Garden WHAT A SURPRISE to hear Georgia Brown in the august surroundings of the Royal Opera House, and what a success she is in the The Seven Deadly Sins, the Brecht-Weill moral tale staged by the Royal Ballet (July 19). She sings Anna, the daughter of an ambi tious Louisiana family who send her out in the world to earn money so they can build their own house, and she ...

... Bartok ballets THE ONLY REAL fault with the Hungarian State Opera and Ballet's first programme at the King's, Edinburgh, was the length of the interval between these two comparatively short works, Bluebeard's Castle by Bartok, and The Miraculous Mandarin, music also by Bartok, choreography Laszlo Seregi. It arrested the undoubted sense of satisfaction felt at the masterly presentation ...

... '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 ...

... '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 ...

... DANCE THEATRE COMMUNE THE MAIN trouble with the Dance Theatre Commune, as far as can be judged from their week's season at The Howff on their way to the World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin, is that they woffle unbearably. Woffle choreographically, theatrically and artistically, for they display good intentions by the stepful, but never a finished product, and two hours is at ...

... Ballet Gulbenkian at 'The Wells' THE REPERTOIRE of Ballet Gulbenkian, which plays a season at Sadler's Wells Theatre from July to 14. will be Handel's Messiah, cho reography by Lar Lubovitch: Milko Sparemblek's Passa- caglia, music by Webem; Ar chipelago III, choreography by Carlos Trincheiras. music by Andre Boucourechliev, scenery and costumes by Artur Casais; Symphony of Psalms, cho ...