... Hitler in search of a script FALCON THEATRE The Adolf Hitler Show DAVID PARKER'S new play The Adolf Hitler Show is one of those pieces which never quite decides which j way it wants to go. It opens with a long and passionate monologue from Hitler himself, de velops into a study of a struggling, drink-sodden actor intent on playing the part of Hitler in a fringe theatre production, and ...

... CROYDON Devil's Peak IN ONE sense, Allan Leas' new play at the Warehouse is straightforward polemic against South African ideology. The playwright himself takes the part of Alvin, a young soldier who deserts the army after witnessing the murder of a whole Angolan village. The programme points out that such an attack actually happened in 1978, and that last year alone 7,000 young men failed ...

... BLOOMSBURY Joel Hall Dancers WHILE ON paper the Joel Hall Dancers suggested themselves as a company specialising in jazz and contemporary dance, the level in performance came nearer the cabaret mark. Affected more than effective, it made the Bloomsbury Theatre an odd choice of venue. The company was founded in Chica go in 1974, principally to display the choreographic talents of Joel Hall, and ...

... CHESTER Othello PHILIP PARTRIDGE, artistic director of the Chester Gateway, made a wise choice in producing Othello. It is an 'A' level set text, it is the first time it has been produced at the Gateway and Partridge directs a compe tent company which is classically stylish and worthy of Shakespeare. The production marks a forward step in the significant contribution Partridge has brought to ...

... LEEDS The Amazing Dancing Bear BARRY L. Hillman's play The Amazing Dancing Bear, which won joint first prize in the Bristol Old Vic/Harris Trust playwriting competition of 1981, is now receiving its professional premiere at the Leeds Playhouse. Although the play is far from perfect in construction, being much too exposi tory indeed at times it is more like an illustrated lecture than a ...

... The Killing Of Sister George OXFORD PREPARING himself to see The Killing Of Sister George, the writer came to believe that he was the only person who had not seen the film starring Beryl Reid. Out of all the theatre critics who will review this production as it goes on tour, perhaps he comes to it with a greater degree of freshness than anyone. And this Ireshness is reciprocated by the ...

... Blood, Sweat and Tears TRICYCLE JOHN GODBER'S new play, inspired by judo champion Karen Briggs, is, like many of his pieces, set in a highly competitive sporting world. It concerns the transformation of Louise, sympathetically played by Jane Clifford, to reveal an underlying warmth, humanity, grit and determination, which sets the audience reaching for its hankies. It may be Cinders in the ...

... Faust YOU ING VIC MAGNA CARTA'S exhilarating production of Faust Part One surely deserves a larger theatre. Rarely performed this side of the water, one would deduce from the packed studio audience that there could be a large enough bunch of enthusiasts awaiting enlightenment to warrant such a move. tainly this particular production is in no way wanting in bustle and excitement. Opening with a ...

... Darkness behind laughter BLOOMSBURY La Finta Giardiniera MOZART was only 18 when he composed La Finta Giardiniera, yet the emotional range of the big arias and the psychological subtleties which the music gives to the main characters reveal a maturity few composers have ever matched. It was commendable that this Park Lane Opera production for the Camden Festival treated the work with proper ...

... My Fair Lady CHELTENHAM THE INNER city development project in Cheltenham which' submerged the Everyman Theatre for three years is, at long last, complete. On Thursday, March 20 the main auditorium opened with a production of Lerner and Loewe's musical My Fair Lady, adapted from Shaw's classic. Pygmalion. The formal reopening will be marked by a gala performance on April 8 which will be ...

... Rekindling the old hatreds WINNIE LEES on historic Scottish drama CUMBERNAULD Beneath One Banner SEAN MCCARTHY'S latest play, premiered by 7:84 Scotland at Cumber- nauld Theatre, becomes all the more interesting in the light of the actor/ playwright's recently announced appointment. From his base at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, he is to foster new writing talent for theatre throughout ...

... Proving mime is more than a load of LeCoq ICA More Bigger Snacks Now IN THE past I have always subscribed to the Alexei Sayle Theory of Mime. Put at its most simple, this influential law suggests that if you saw someone in the street attempting to escape from an imaginary glass box or sewing their fingers together with an invisible needle you would think they were mad. But when some wbey ...