... Barclaycard sponsors major live entertainment festival MOIRA PETTY reports A MAJOR NEW festival this summer will present a star line-up and live entertainment artists--at a cost of £250,000. Entitled Recro 80 and spon sored by Barclaycard, the event runs from August 1 to 10 at the National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, in addition to the evening enter tainment, it offers a ...

... Double Bill GLASGOW AUDIENCES at Glasgow's Athenaeum Theatre were divertingly entertained by final year students of the city's School of Drama in a double bill, directed in lively fashion by Eric Jones. This consisted of two English comedies--Vanbrugh's The Relapse or Virtue in Danger and Richard Cumberland's The West Indian. Vanbrugh's clever, ironical piece, with its two neatly ...

... Galaxy of top names lined up for Minehead Festival AN AMBITIOUS leisure experiment launched last year by a small Southern League football club is to be repeated this summer at a cost of over £100,000. Minehead Football Club is presenting 15 top stars and 30 support acts over a 15-day period. And with the experience of last year's event behind it, the aim is to learn from its mistakes. John ...

... NATTKE IN MEMBER 'POACHING' DISPUTE Entertainment union accused of 'discourtesy' JEREMY JEHU reports THE POWERFUL National Association of Theatrical, Television and Kine Employees has been accused of trying to put pressure on a tiny entertainments union by poaching its members. The criticism has been levelled by Ivor Gayus, general secretary of the 1,400-member National Association of ...

... The Barber Of Seville ALTERNATIVE OPERA CO. NEWEST OF the London showcase groups tor young professional singers, and with ILEA backing, is the one under the musical direction of Alan Hazeldine. For the first production at Islington Town Hall he mustered a double-cast of singers, the Orfeo Orchestra (which is posed mainly of music students) and the services of veteran producer Douglas Craig. ...

... Finian's Rainbow GUILDFORD A PROFESSIONAL attitude and youthful attack characterised the cast of 20 in Finian's Rainbow by the Guildford School of Acting. This famous Irish/American fantasy musical about a crock of gold has a compelling vein of reality running through it. There is the tion of greedy materialism versus the fellow who follows a dream and even a dash of the colour ques ...

... The Seagull GLASGOW ALTHOUGH there are several textually-supportable red herrings as to what the play is about, it is in fact most likely that Chekhov's The Seagull is about dedication to art. But the production directed by Margaret Gordon, and performed by mid-year stage course students of Glasgow's school of drama at the Athenaeum Theatre, did not quite come off. For Jacqueline ...

... Darpana Group SADLER'S WELLS COMPETITION from other dance events, both live and on television, may have deflected attention from the visit to London of one of the world's most notable dance figures, Mrinalini Sarabhai, whose Darpana group, founded over 30 years ago, has introduced the splendours and I mysteries of Indian dance to over 40 countries. It has been many years since she r last ...

... Sara And Jerry Pearson LABAN CENTRE AT THE END of their recent residency at the Laban Centre (where they proved tough and in vigorating teachers) Sara and Jerry Pearson gave a refreshingly light and entertaining performance. Sara is small, compact and vivacious, with an easy facility for speed, multi-turns and rapid swirls on her heels: though she is hindered by feet that do not point, and ...

... Social club alliance as cash to finance live shows hit BATTLE OVER INCREASE IN JACKPOT MACHINE DUTY MOIRA PETTY reports AN ALLIANCE of social clubs has been formed in a desperate bid to fight crushing increases in club jackpot machine duty. And the clubs warn that drastic economies in their entertainment programmes will follow if they con tinue to be drained of funds. They further claim that a ...

... Kiss Me Kate WEBBER DOUGLAS A GIRL'S hairdo is a small enough detail, but it can be a powerful one, too. And Ann Thornton s ornate, for ties style coiffure in the Webber Douglas production of Kiss Me Kate set this actress in a class of her own when it came to period-piece precision. As Lois Lane/Bianca, Thornton followed through her in itial advantage with one of those rare performances that ...

... Beiart Ballet COLISEUM IF YOU are accustomed to the delicate musical sensitivities of Ashton with Chopin's Variations Don Giovanni in A Month in the Country it is hard to be unbiased when another choreographer turns to the same music. Especially when it is Maurice Bejart and his Belgian let of the 20th Century (at the Col iseum) and the romantic lyricism of the music is ignored in ...