... GREENWICH 'THE BORAGE PIGEON AFFAIR' Opened May 14 THE REPUTATION of James Saunders, fostered a few years ago by Next Time I'll Sing to You and A Scent of Flowers, has not so far been greatly enhanced by the Charades season at Greenwich, which opened with his revision and completion of Vanbrugh's A ney to uondon in wnicn an ine uesi bits are Vanbrugh's. and now The Borage Pigeon ...

... SHEFFIELD 'THE BOMB IN BREWERY STREET' THERE are no solutions or indictments in Keith Dewhurst's play about the Army in Ulster, The Bomb in Brewery Street, which is being premiered at the Sheffield Crucible after being financed and rejected by television. In fact there are no political points at all (unless you count an assertion that the Irish are wogs in houses) except the crucial one ...

... CHICHESTER 'CYRANO DE BERGERAC' Opened May 14 THE SEASON opened at Chichester Festival Theatre with Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Christopher Fry and directed by Jose Ferrer with Keith Michell in the title role. I imagined the great piece of romantic tushery would suit the big open stage splendidly. In the event, it seemed that the work was crying out for the hot-house ...

... 'HOW LONG'S ALL WHAT BEEN GOING ON?' HOW LONG'S All What Been Going On? is a rather cumbersome if memorable title for the latest offering of the Exploding Trouser Company, alias Colin Wavell, John Lewis, Jan Peachey and Mike Harper, who perpetrated the whole thing. Judging by a Hoxton Hall performance on May 2 during the course of a London tour, the show is far better than the title leads ...

... R.B. MARRIOTT REVIEWS 'A TOUCH OF SPRING' AT THE COMEDY Opened May 13 SAMUEL TAYLOR'S A Touch of Spring, at the Comedy, is a witty, brilliantly devised, thoroughly entertaining tale about two people, Alexander Ben Claiborne, an American business man, and Alison Ames, an English actress who has achieved some note as a tele vision commercial performer, who are in Rome in search of the ...

... LIVERPOOL 'BREEZEBLOCK PARK' WILLY RUSSELL has done it again. Hotfoot on the tail of his John. Paul. George, Ringo and Bert comes Breezeblock Park at Liverpool Everyman. It is Christmas on a council estate where children go to court for biting a police dog and all the bickerings griping and solid bitchery of a family en fete crack through the saccharine veneer of peace and goodwill, ...

... Personality of the week LEIGH LAWS0N, who has made his first West End appear ance as the Roman fixer, Baldassare Pantaleone. in A Touch of Spring at the Comedy, has deservedly been acclaimed for a performance of exceptional brilliance. It is a performance of wit, style, charm and freshness which makes a considerable impact, not only as a characte risation but because of its techni cal ...

... 'SO WHO NEEDS MARRIAGE?' THIS YEAR'S Brighton Festival production at the Gardner Centre, part-financed by John Gale, who hopes to bring it to London, was So Who Needs Marriage1 a new musical written entirely, books, lyrics and music, by one man, Monty Norman. It was directed by Roger Redfarn. This amomous new worn, with its Jewish-sounding title, tack les the socially disturbing subject ...

... 'MAX' AS A bonne-bouche send-off to the Brighton Festival, which closed on May 17, the Gardner Centre presented on Sunday night for a single performance the premiere of a one-man show called Max .based on the writings of Max Beerbohm. selected by the writing-team of Sheilah Ward and Peter Ling. Dir ected by John Gorrie, with decor by Tim Goodchild. and costumes by Ray Hughes, Max is a ...

... DERBY 'TOMMY' THE BRITISH premiere of the rock opera. Tommy ,by PeteTownshend and The Who. is packing in an entirely different kind of audience at Derby Playhouse as the beat-rockpop fraternity of Derby go flocking to see and hear something which they, and the more regular Playhouse patrons, have never seen the like before. This is the last show in the old building that has been Derby ...

... 'WUSHU DELEGATION' AT THE COLISEUM R B MARRIOTT REVIEWS Opened May 19 THE Wushu Delegation of China with their production of martial arts, sport scenes and acrobatics, have come to the Coliseum, swords and daggers and fists to the fore. Tradition and history and social life among the masses are embedded in these various physical exhibi tions which are performed with wonderful precision, pan ...

... CARDIFF 'SNOWDROPPER' IT IS A matter of no little pleasure to Welsh theatregoers that a principal Welsh writer (books, television plays and stage work) has at last seen the production of one of his works in his home land. He is Alun Richards, whose political thriller Snowdropper was presented by the Welsh Drama Company at Sherman, Car diff. One wishes him well, he plainly is trying to say ...