... Linda Davis LABAN CENTRE THERE WAS an attractive ability and confidence to Linda Davis and her solo recital Dancc in Dialogue at the La-ban Centre. There was too an appealing nicety about this American dancer's approach and an honesty that did not hide difficulties caused bv a body not naturally easy in dance, with broad shoulders and a torso slightly too long for the legs. But how ...

... Swan Lake ROYAL BALLET WITH THE RETURN of Swan Lake to the Royal Ballet's repertoire, and with the approach of the com pany's 50th anniversary, I think it is time to have this most essential classic re-designed. I know it is fashionable to look on Leslie Hurry's war-time de signs with hushed reverence, as if they are as vital to the ballet as Tchai kovsky, but the heavy lines of castle ...

... Kris Donovan and Michael Finnissy NORTH LONDON POLY AT THE Polytechnic of North London Kris Donovan (choreographer/ dancer) and Michael Finnissy (composer/pianist) presented a recital to challenge the theatrical, structural and technical possibilities arising between dancer and musician. Kris Donovan has an attractive per sonality and moves well in an explora tory manner, but the interest ...

... La Finta Simplice OPERA ITALIANA GENIUS, even when its name is Mo zart, is not always consistent and this is particularly true of early work. Nevertheless, the succession of arias and ensembles by the 12-year-old com poser forecasts what is to come with Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. At the exquisite Adam house of Os- terley Park, we heard Dr Bernhard Paumgartner's realisation ...

... Jubilee GUILDFORD ACTOR-TURNED-PLAYWRIGHT Gawn Grainger based his latest offering Jubilee on an experience he had at the time of the 1977 celebrations. Two women arrived at his local pub in Islington dressed as the Queen and Princess Margaret. Audiences at Guildford are the unfortunate recipients of the resultant pretentious debacle. We learn from the press release, [hough not immediately ...

... Cabaret Weill LA BONNE CREPE THANKS TO generations of theatre intellectuals projecting Brecht and Weill as the thinking man's Batman and Robin, one's normal reaction to the prospect of an evening of their work has been concern not to get killed in the rush for the door. Both were brilliant artists without a doubt, but theatre's nasty habit of creating gods where mortals will do is one for ...

... Other Women LEATHERHEAD STEPHEN WAKELAM'S FIRST stage play Other Women had its premiere in the small Leatherhead Cas- son Room where two bedrooms with double beds and a kitchen complete with running water sink and coke stove were accommodated. Other Women is set in a Yorkshire mining town in 1942 and the nine scenes revolve around the three acting areas. Director Joan Macalpine deserves ...

... Wolf Children UNICORN THIS NEW PLAY by Penny Casdagli for the slightly older age range takes serious themes and deals seriously with them. Predominating is that of the outsider within an ordered society, even if (as here) it is one surviving on the brink of chaos after some tional cataclysm. The ending is superficially a conven tional and happy one; but how one would like to eavesdrop on ...

... Strange Fruit SHEFFIELD CARYL PHILLIPS' first stage play is too long, too wordy and too self-conscious. It is also a bit old-fashioned, a three-act drama complete with comic neighbour and a fifties-ish emphasis on the tirade as chief means of dramatic expression. But it has a passion and depth of vision that mark its author out as one to watch. It concerns a black family in Leeds. The mother ...

... Do Not Disturb CARDIFF FOR THEIR EIGHTH show since their formation five years ago. Hesitate And Demonstrate have built a most elaborate setting. Do Not Disturb, as the hour-long entertainment is en titled, takes place in and around an English family home converted into a country house hotel. Hie cast of three Geraldine Pil grim, Lizza Aiken and Alex Mavroco- datos, plus a trio of small ...

... Operatic wedding M STEWART TROTTER, director of Iproduction for Opera 80. found Itime before the company's tour to Imarry ROSEMARY CLAIRE LISTER ?at St Saviour'* Church, Warwick lAvenue, W9 on November 8. The entire company attended the wed- Iding and tome sang in the service. IStewart Trotter has recently been 'appointed artistic director at the INorthcott, Exeter but will continue to work ...

... LCDT ladies take a break in New York ANN NUGENT meets Linda Gibbs and Kate Harrison of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. NEW YORK is the most amazing place for dance and there's so much you can do that it tears you apart trying to fit it all in, say London Contemporary Dance Theatre's Linda Gibbs and Kate Harrison in talking about their visit earlier this year. Both, though, are loyal ...