... An Inspector Calls SHAW Opened January 16 BUILT LIKE a well-engineered detective story, the plot of J B Priestley's An Inspector Calls holds together this somewhat mystical moral tale and makes it all seem credible. Memories of the Old Vic production of 30 years ago, with its starry cast headed by Ralph Richardson, make the present com pany at the Shaw a trifle underpow ered, though James ...

... Cabaret MONTROUS REGIMENT MONSTROUS REGIMENT-- militant but nice with it, is a company of nine sisters plus two men thrown in for equality, committed to improving the status of women. In Floorshow, directed by David Bradford at Stratford East recently, it left no male dominated stone un turned, but projected anxious messages of grim protest with such humorous candour, and tongue in ...

... SPELLBOUND ADULT illiteracy is a problem in this country recently and deservedly given publicity and incurring sympathy through a controlled period of emphasis in the media. To the best of my knowledge, however, only one of those theatre groups usually set together under the adjective miueo nas lacKiea me issue in dramatic form. This is Common Stock with Spellbound. Alan Passes' script is ...

... We All Fall Up ROBIN WHITEMAN has apparently written the first part of a trilogy in We All Fall Up which Box Theatre Company premiered at the Round House Downstairs recently. Un happily. I left not in the least anti cipating with pleasure the next in stalments but rather recalling the murkier days of the fringe theatre movement way back in the Sixties. One can only call this retrograde ...

... Summit Conference GLASGOW WITH Summit Conference, Robert David MacDonald's brilliantly challenging sixth play, the Glasgow Citizens Company has struck a rich vein of dramatic gold, to top the news that the District Council is to stump up the first instalment of £500,000 from the Common Good Fund for the re- equipment of its beautiful, century- old Victorian home in the former Gorbals ...

... The Wonderful Palace of Nod CHAT'S PALACE THE FASHION to create a new Christmas show within the traditional panto framework but using a polygamy of stories rather than just one takes a new turn with The Wonderful Palace of Nod. Free Form, based on the East London community arts centre of Chat's raiaceiwnicn was xormeriy a puDiic library), is an artistic combine which includes experts in ...

... DOWRY WITH TWO WHITE DOVES DEMOLITION and disbandment threats not withstanding, Theatro Technis have embarked on an ambitious repertoire programme which includes favourite productions from recent seasons as well as new plays. Dowry With Two White Doves was originally written by Nick McCarty as a radio play; it is a social tragedy stemming from the Turkish take-over of northern Cyprus al ...

... Says I, Says He THEATRE UPSTAIRS IT IS unreasonable to expect every Irishman to have the gift of the gab. Obviously quite a number of them must occasionally, at least, descend to lyricism on the level of: Come away, my love, with me, to the station lavatory. Equally, it is patently absurd to expect them all to give expression to their sense of the con trary in terms as deft and refined as ...

... DECENT THINGS BRIGHTON ACTORS' WORKSHOP has a cosy venue for its lunchtime theatre performances; a large first- floor room in the Marlborough pub just across the main road from the Royal Pavilion. It has been in operation there for several months, giving work to professionals in the area and receiving financial help from the South East Arts Association. Latest production is Richard Crane's ...

... THE BRIDE AND THE BUTTERFLY HUNTER PAINIINob based on plays, poems and novels abound; I wonder if Nisim Aloni's The Bride and the Butterfly Hunter is the first example of a play based on a picture. In this case, it is Yosl Bergner's surrealist painting which has spawned the Israeli play directed by Raphael Nathan at the Theatre at New End. Moshe Mussman has decorated it prettily with a ...

... THE PHILANTHROPIST THE Philanthropist by Christopher Hampton was given an admirable performance by Central School Students recently. It was expertly directed by John Jones and designed by David Lewis, both with an eye for detail. And it is the detail of the play that delights the audience. The philanthropical philologist Philip, no accident of language, loses his fiancee after a dinner ...

... THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ALMOST EVERYBODY THE Life and Death of Almost Everybody by David Campton is a peculiar choice of play for a drama school, but Webber Douglas Academy chose it for their students. It gave little opportunity to most of the performers with only two effective characters in it. One is a sweeper in a theatre who finding himself with an audience, decides to play creator and ...