... THE HOWFF 'THE LAST LUNCH BUT ONE' IT IS pleasant to be able to say that theatre is on its way back to The Howff, one of north London's better ideas as far as an evening of entertainment is concerned. Preced ed by Patsy Fuller, a young singer who performs her own material to the guitar, though as yet without the ability to project words as well as music, the play was John Lawrence's production ...

... 'HENRY THE FOURTH' PART 2, AT STRATFORD R.B. MARRIOTT REVIEWS Opened June 24 TERRY Hands's production of the second part of Henry the Fourth, now in the repertory at the Royal Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, is excellent on the comedy and domestic sides and has a warm, robust Falstaff in Brewster Mason. The politics and the scenes with the nobles and at the court of the dying king are ...

... COLLEGIATE THE Abortion Law Reform Bill is exciting dramatic as well as other comment, and a meeting about it at the Collegiate on June ll was enlived bv West London Theatre Workshop's short The James Whiter Than White Show. which was based on a script by Bruce Birchall and directed by Rob Walker. Songs and sketches illustrated their thesis that it is up to the individual woman concerned to ...

... KING'S HEAD 'SWEET TALK' Opened June 26 THE HARD life of black immigrants in Shepherds Bush is shown in Sweet Talk by Michael Abbensetts, at the King's Head Theatre Club. But along with the story of Tony and Rita Fletcher from this aspect there is a deeper, more personal drama, of the love and sorrow of this young married couple. They may bicker and misun derstand; Tony may make rac ing ...

... NEW LONDON 'THURBER' Opened June 23 WILLIAM WINDOM'S one-man production, Thurber, at the New London, consists of stories, fables and anecdotes by the celebrated American humourist. Thurber gently satirises middle-class, middle brow thought, habits and beliefs as he weaves his patterns of words, patterns as adoitly creat ed as the lines of his drawings. And Mr Windom performs with ...

... SCARBOROUGH 'BEDROOM FARCE' ALAN AYCKBOURN, resident director of productions at the Library Theatre. Scarborough, and now a popular playwright, has scored another success with his latest comedy Bedroom Farce. It follows five plays he has running in London. One thinks of farces as swift moving comedies with actors chas ing each other from bedroom to bedroom, but Ayckbourn does it his way ...

... ACT INN 'THE FIRST NIGHT OF PYGMALION' NOTHING much in the world changes, least of all theatre As Richard Huggett's The First Night of Pygmalion at the Act Inn so clearly demonstrates, if we now see less of the theatrical bad manners which permitted Mrs. Pat Campbell to chat gaily to her friends in a stage box during someone else's scene, actors who forget their lines, ad-lib, and make sure ...

... PITLOCHRY 'THE MASTER BUILDER' IT IS Michael Meyer's translation of Ibsen's The Master Builder which Pitlochry Festival has brought into its repertoire (June 9), and as with Mr Meyer's previous work seen at Pitlochry, it is a stunning success. The promise of the programme notes by Mr. Meyer, that symbolism should be allowed to stand without commentary like a runic inscription, leaving it ...

... LITTLE 'GODDESS IS DEAD' YOU CAN hardly call the two plays on between June 10 and 21 at the new Little Theatre Club a double- bill. Barry Hines's Billy's Last Stand comes from the Forum Billingham and Kingston Over ground; Peter McGowan's produc tion of Taggart Deike's Goddess is Dead is a premiere. The former is a stark drama about a coal shifter up North who is manipulated into taking on ...

... 'WALKING LIKE GEOFFREY' ONE way and another, the perky talents of Ken Campbell, Dave Hill and Andy Andrews have proved stout supports in the Nottingham Playhouse rostrum for the city's Festival. The ebullient Mr. Camp bell's road show has enlivened the small hours late at night, and he is responsible for the children's pro duction Skungpoomery. Every night of the Festival has been zipped up ...

... Personality of the week THERE ARE actors who seem to get so close to Shakespeare, indeed get so much into the soul of his work, that one could almost believe they actually worked with the man, learned from him, centuries ago At the same time, they have a lively outlook, belong to the freshness of the present, and can stretch their talents into all kinds of other plays Such an actor is Sydney ...

... ISLINGTON FACTORY THE THAMES Television £10,000 community arts award has now reached the stage of being narrowed down to five contenders. One of these is the Islington Dance Factory, who would use it to develop the premises it inhabits on the top floor of the old school in White Lion Street that serves as the neighbourhood youth centre. With the money, it would be possible to install ...