... William Soutar PERTH WITH HELP from George Bruce, Tom Fleming devised William Soutar, 1898-1943 from the words of the Perth poet, and presented it as moving tribute at the Edinburgh Festival of 1978. Revived at Perth Theatre in Burns' week, the piece has even more impact, with Fleming sure in speech and inflection, and the references to Perth people and places more, strikingly significant to ...

... The Golden Ass INCUBUS IF THERE were awards for energy and enthusiasm Incubus would win hands down. The Golden Ass owes more to Olsen and Johnson than to Lucius Apuleius; an epic of bawdiness, bad taste and black humour. It uses the framework of the old Roman tales to work out a stream of gags, often very funny, but coming so fast that the duds are gone with just a passing groan. The first ...

... Beecham APOLLO THE Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin Beecham, at the Apollo, might fairly be described as a documentary on the great conductor which has play-scenes and some revue attributes. It is constantly interesting, amusing, instructive and enjoyable. Sir Thomas Beecham, grandson of the mighty pill man, rose to become a man of formidable power and authority in the musical world, in concert ...

... Mutiny On The M1 ALBANY EMPIRE DEPTFORD WITH THIS immensely entertaining production the Albany's resident company, the Combination, has bravely set itself a number of problems-- and come up with some ingenious solutions. Director Sue Parnsh and music director Paul Sanders have worked closely together to weld a composite of 22 scenes including flashbacks and monologues and 12 songs into a ...

... Decade CARDIFF IT WAS entirely apposite--and a neat twist of dramatic irony--that such a punchy and explicit show as Decade, should have its run in the dockland night club, the Casablanca. For the club is a converted chapel where Cardiff-born composer Ivor Novello was christened. The groups involved in this pro duction were Moving Being, Chapter Arts Centre, Jumpers, Cardiff Com munity Dance ...

... Midland Management Showcase SILVER SKILLET, MAIDENHEAD THE MIDLAND Management Showcase at the Silver Skillet, Maidenhead on February 6 gave a generous allotment of time to one of the stable's hottest tips for stardom, Tom Bright and Suzy Breeze, the husband and wife team who started last mer in their home town, macK- pool, at the Diamond Horseshoe. The 50 minutes or so was well justified, ...

... Rospel Artistes Showcase LA TAVERNA, EPPING ROSPEL ARTISTES held another showcase at its Epping home, the hospitable La Taverna last week, showing off eight acts, some already prominent on the club scene, some well on their way, and some fairly new. All the acts were either musical or comedy specialists did not get a look in on this occasion. Rospel had invited along a fair number of ...

... Doctor And The Devils MANCHESTER MANCHESTER Contact Theatre Company are giving the first performances of The Doctor and the Devils which has been adapted for the stage by Charles Causley from a film script by Dylan Thomas, with music by Stephen McNeff. It is based on the old story of Burke and Hare, the Edinburgh bodysnatchers, which became a popular Victorian melodrama and was made into an ...

... The Summer Party SHEFFIELD IT IS always a bad sign when the star turn of a play is its design. Roger Glossop's set for The Summer Party, Stephen Poliakoffs new play premiered at the Crucible, shifts dramatically from a tree-shaded private recess in the parkland setting of an all-night open-air festival to the festival's stage where magical things are made to happen and the evening's few ...

... Ladybird, Ladybird BRIGHTON PAM GEMS' heartbreaking glimpse into the reality of life for so many women, Ladybird. Ladybird, is the most moving presentation seen at the Brighton Actors' Workshop theatre at the Sea House in Brighton for many months. Concerned with a mother de pressed to the point of physical ill ness. it is written with an authen ticity and insight that sets the observer ...

... Gone With Hardy NOTTINGHAM NO DOUBT with the idea of tracing the elements which shaped Stan Laurel before he met Oliver Hardy, David Allen's Gone With Hardy splits what must always be regarded as the complete set. Laurel and Hardy were a precious pair. Take one away and the magic flounders. If David Allen last year voted Australia's most promising playwright had plotted the course of Ollie ...

... Viaduct BUSH PAUL COPLEY'S Viaduct, at the Bush, is a strange chilling work, set in a cold, lonely atmosphere, the characters flickering with life in a kind of dim isolation. There is the rather bullying hus band of a young woman of contras ting gentleness; a loner odd-job fel low casts shadows. At the core moves Emmerson, a tramp or drop out possibly, but certainly a symbo lic figure hiding ...