... The House That Jack Built MANCHESTER PLAYS FOR CHILDREN of the sort that can be staged at Christmas in lieu of the usual pantomime are in such relatively short supply that a new one is to be welcomed. For its Christmas nroduction at the Library, Manchester, the Library Theatre Company has been fortunate enough to find new material in The House that Jack Built from the pen of its associate ...

... Sprightly play dedicated to the gaiety of actors OLD VIC Trela wny of the Wells THERE IS still a lot of sprightliness and charm about Pinero's Trelawny of the Wells, a play dedicated to the proposition that actors are just like children really but we need them because of their gaiety and indomitability. It is not perhaps a concept that will commend itself to the serious-minded modern actor, ...

... Shadow Play KING'S HEAD ALMOST 45 years ago when it was first produced in To-Night at 8.30 at the Phoenix, with Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence in the lead, Shadow Play was wonderfully fresh, original, witty and touching. And it is so today, in a revival at the King's Head, with John Standing and Estelle Kohler. The funny, wry sometimes pathetic story of the marriage of Simon and ...

... Le Cirque Imaqinaire RIVERSIDE LE CIRQUE Imaginaire, the Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thierrte show from Paris which is at the Riverside Studios for a Christmas season, is a joyous array of fantasy and pantomime, fun and lore. It embraces tightrope walking, juggling, a multi plicity of trickery, serious and comic, a remarkable drama with fans and one with fishes, and lots of other ...

... Man with a mission at Watford Palace MICHAEL ATTENBOROUGH removed two tangerines from his brief case and snapped shut the lid. Do you mind if I eat them while we talk--I don't smoke. He neatly removed the skin from the fruit. AUDREY HENDERSON talks to Michael Attenborough the self-confessed calculated experimenter in charge of the Watford Palace Theatre He is a neat man. Very friendly, but ...

... Massive petition to save Gaumont A BIG campaign has been launched to save the Gaumont in Ipswich as one of East Anglia's largest live theatres. The Rank organisation, owners of the 1,600- seat theatre, have applied for a gaming licence and planning permission to use the Gaumont for bingo. News of Rank's plans has sparked a storm of protest from local people who see the move as a threat to live ...

... Spiralling artists' fees scare a top Midlands showman away from presenting live artists MOIRA PETTY reports BIRMINGHAM'S longestestablished club operator has resigned himself to dropping all live entertainment by the end of January. Eddie Fewtrell's chain of clubs, built up in the city since the early sixties, is currently reduced to two venues. Now Fewtrell has placed the Cedar Club on the ...

... Recession bites in Southampton SOUTHAMPTON'S leading cabaret room nightclub, Sextons, has drawn the curtains on live entertainment because of the economic recession. The club has been presenting cabaret acts on Thursdays, Fridays and Satur days and has built up a reputation in the local entertainment scene. But new proprietor June Sexton said the club has to axe cabaret for at least a few ...

... Militants call for clamp-down on unlicensed agents THE DEPARTMENT of Employment has come under fire from militant agents who are considering action which has been vetoed by their own official representative body. Epping-based agent Tony Baxtei claims that the DOE is con spicuously failing to clamp down on unlicensed agents and he added thai the Department expected agents tc do all the ...

... Cabaret 'risk' at new Filey venue MOIRA PETTY reports A MAJOR LIVE entertainment development in the small Yorkshire town of Filey marks the most important venture to date for a new local agency. More than £20,000 is being ploughed into a former cinema at Filey to turn it into a mini version of the Wakefield Theatre Club, with a year-long policy of cabaret attractions. When the Brig Theatre Bar ...

... UN blacklist for S Africa visits MOIRA PETTY reports SHOWBUSINESS STARS who work in South Africa may find themselves on a blacklist compiled by the United Nations. The announcement, made in London last week by the chair man of the UN's apartheid com mittee, could draw top stage names into the political con troversy now engulfing the sports world. The list of personalities who have ap peared in ...

... Virgin boss Branson buys his way into Heaven VIRGIN RECORDS boss Richard Branson has bought himself a slice of Heaven for a cool half a million pounds. And although the West End disco will continue to operate as a meeting place for the capital's gays, Branson is cur-, rently engaged in discussions with one of the leading figures on the London alternative cabaret scene. He is Richard Strange, ...