... LIVERPOOL 'THE CANTRIL TALES' LAST CHRISTMAS the Everyman gave their version of the Canterbury Tales. This year, six living authors, all Liverpool born or based, answer back with The Cantril Tales, named after a fairly new suburban housing estate. No less bawdy (in fact, a good deal more so) than Chaucer, the tales are set up to enliven the Scabby Inn thereby involving the Company in a ...

... GREENWICH 'HARDINGS LUCK' ALTHOUGH one remembers the 1970 Dick Whittington as perhaps the most rewarding pantomime ever seen, since then Greenwich Theatre have put on less traditional shows for young people at Christmas. For 1974-75 there is a dramatisation by Peter Nichols of E. Nesbit's Harding's Luck. The two authors suit each other very well, but I am not sure if the audience is as ...

... GREENWICH MAX WALL ASPECTS OF Max Wall? How on earth can you hope to define them in words alone, for the essence of theatre is surely that it takes dead words and transmutes them into live entertainment, and that is precisely what Mr Wall is about-- live enter tainment. When Mr Wall played Archie Rice at the same theatre Greenwich recently, I felt that he was not credible as a fifth-rate ...

... 'OBJECTIONS TO SEX AND VIOLENCE' R. B. MARRIOTT REVIEWS Opened January 2 CARYL CHURCHILL'S Objections to Sex and Violence, at the Royal Court, is set on an attractive sandy beach where the sun is shining, except when a middle-aged couple appear, which is a signal for a shower. In June, a group of young people gather there, to discuss their ideologies and personal prob lems. They are escaping ...

... SHEFFIELD 'N0NG0G0' THE PLAY which completes the Athol Fugard trio at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield, turns out to be a gentler, less despairing drama than its fellows; there are no happy endings, to be sure, but the tragedy is less cosmic and less depressing in Nongogo than in either The Blood Knot or No Good Friday. Jimi Rand plays a table cloth, salesman, an innocent so transpar ent it ...

... OXFORD 'KISS ME, KATE' THE OXFORD Playhouse Company presented Kiss Me, Kate with all the vivacity, freshness and charm of a first performance. Cole Porter would have been proud of them had they been the original company in 1948 Right from the start when Veronica Clifford as Hattie led off with Another Op'nin', Another Show it was clear that this was going to be an evening to enjoy. The ...

... NEW LONDON 'DEJA REVUE' mm v m mm m Opened December in IN Deja Revue, at tne New London, we have a selection of items from intimate revue from the Thirties to the Sixties. It has been compiled by Alan Melville, himself a prolific revue contributor. Most of the items have lasted well; all were worth reviving. The show is entertain ing. But I think it may be enjoyed more by those who never saw ...

... NEW END 'LAURA' BACK at the Theatre at New End, the Close Company this time offer a variation upon The Father of Strindberg lasting a little over an hour. Adapted and directed by Steven Dartnell, Laura is claustrophobic in its effect a succession of hammer blows without relief of tension which cause one to switch off one's own concentration in sheer self-defence from time to time. It is ...

... GUILDFORD 'DEATH OF A SALESMAN' DEATH of a Salesman is surely Arthur Miller's masterpiece and the Patrick Lau production at the Guildford Yvonne Arnaud is both powerful and poignant. It runs until February 1 when the company take it to the Hong Kong Arts Festival. The play is primarily about people and it timelessly survives the generation since its first presentation. Elusive, infuriating, ...

... WARWICK 'BEAUTY AND THE BEAST' STRAIGHTWAY I have to confess that I have no idea what Neil Murray's conceptual intentions are in staging his new multi-media production by the Birmingham Arts Lab Performance Group of Beauty and the Beast, and hence I can only report upon its perceptual impact which, in many instances, is extre mely riveting. Indeed, whilst the performance which I saw at ...

... 'THE END OF ME OLD CIGAR' R.B. MARRIOTT REVIEWS Opened January 16 JOHN OSBORNE'S new play, The End of Me Old Cigar, at Greenwich Theatre, has at its centre, and radiating influences, instructions, demands and commands, Lady Regine Frimley, who comes from the darker parts of London, but has risen in the world, to become the wealthy owner of a very high class brothel in one of the best of ...

... COCKPIT DOUBLE-BILL PARADISE Foundry began their spring tour on January 13 at the Cockpit with a double-bill written by Gabriel Josipovici and directed by the company's new permanent director Barry Edwards. Dreams of Mrs Fraser was originally seen at the Theatre Upstairs: this tion is more stark and uses less tricks, thus increasing its effective ness. The part of Mrs Fraser, the ship ...