... Personality of the week JENNIE STOLLER. who has gained such excellent notices for her work in Sam Shepard's Action at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, is a good example of the intelligent and aware young actresses who abound in the theatre these days. Such artists are interested in the theatre not only as a means of expression but in its social rele vance and in new forms of theatrical ...

... 'THE CASTAWAY' MOST of us probably know William Cowper as the author of John Gilpin and unless we have studied his work, very little else. Yet a one-man show around his life and work entitled The Castaway was dramatised and performed as part cf the Merton Festival at the Ken neth Black Memorial Hall by the actor. David Gooderson. on May 16. It was an unusual performance. Beginning with ...

... HAMPSTEAD 'BODYWORK' BODYWORK by Jennifer Phillips, first seen at the Leicester Phoenix in 1972, has turned up at Hampstead Theatre Club. The production is worthwhile only for performances by Polly Adams and Joanna Dunham. Bodywork is a vapid play about two les bians: Milly, vulnerable and cringing, Sarah, domineering and sadistic. The play begins with them on holiday in the ...

... DANCE Her acting is shown through dance, not in facial expression and as Odile she revealed her duplicity with nuances of movement based on echoes of the lakeside duet, while retaining strong individuality as Odile. Boris Akimov, too, made Von Rothbart's malevolence ap parent through movement, and his invisibility to Siegfried was justified in the climax, where his evil power was shown ...

... 'Flamenco Puro' PACO PENA's Flamenco Puro, back at the Queen Elizabeth Hall for two weeks from December 26, is a far remove from the flashy showbiz side of Flamenco as staged for tourists on Spain's popular costas. Devoid of excess frilly glamour and exaggerated movements, Paco Pefia's show gives an impression of authen ticity in its interpretation of this unique form of music which is ...

... Scottish Theatre Ballet THE FULL-LENGTH production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker has proved to be an admirable Christmas programme at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. Scottish Theatre Ballet are to be commended for this glittering formance, which has all the story-book ingredients for the festive season. It begins with an elegant Christmas party in the grand manner that leads in the dreams ...

... London Festival AFTER Nureyev's version of The Nutcracker, London Festival Ballet's appears quite traditional, though it is now in need of a firm guiding hand to give the production some consistency. Even the once neatly-designed costumes for the divertissements have in some instances been changed for some tasteless creations, the worst on account of overwhelming numbers be ing the ...

... Natalia Makarova NATALIA MAKAROVA's guest appearance with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden on December 19 included her debut here in a modern work, MacMillan's Concerto, in addition to the more familiar Don Quixote pas de deux. In this latter work she was part nered securely by a somewhat subdued David Wall, though his masculine sturdiness complemented her brasher style. She is ...

... 'THE GROUSE Moor Image is one of William Douglas Home's less inspired plays and it is distinctly unfunny. It is slow and almost laboured in parts and though the talented cast at Billingham Forum tried hard, the play never really got going. The plot is flimsy in the extreme, and though this can be said about many brilliant comedies, the plot of The Grouse Moor Image is not only flimsy but ...

... 'SEX AND CONSCIOUSNESS' SEX AND CONSCIOUSNESS is the blanket title for the new Ambiance season at the Almost Free (October 21) and the first play, Angela Wye's The Rialto Prom, is a real stunner. An all-women production, it shows a quartet of Liverpudlians preparing to take the floor at the local Palais, but with malicious intent over and above the usual predatory activities. All four ...

... Waltz of the Toreadors' is a reminder of a lost art By Lisa Gordon Smith IT IS HARD to realise that it is eighteen years this month since Anouilh's The Waltz of the Toreadors was first seen in London but the revival at the Hay market on February 14 proves it to have lost none of its impact and freshness and serves by contrast to demons trate that valid dramatic writ ing has become ...

... Melville comedy ALAN MELVILLE may have another hit to his credit, if audience reaction to the Northampton Repertory premiere of his comedy Oops is any criterion. Melville himself is appearing as guest artist in this production. Witty dialogue, abounding in topical allusions, is the hall mark of the new comedy, based on the French farce Tchao by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon. Some of the scenes, ...