... 'Scrap entry restrictions'- agents NEW SUPPORT for the campaign to dismantle Equity's entry restrictions has come from a select and influential group of agents and casting directors. The association, known as 12, has called on the union's council to enforce immediately a controversial motion which will allow a newcomer offered a first theatre job to become a provisional member. A select ...

... THE OTHER PLACE Volpone BILL ALEXANDER uses the theme of disease, which lies at the heart of Ben Jonson's satire on human avarice, to great effect in his production. It's immensely effective, creating an almost tangible odour of rottenness; Volpone announting his face with sores, lovingly applied from his makeup box, Mosca's shimmering, meat-fly appearance and his cunningly devised sound ...

... Climbing with Cora LYRIC STUDIO Cora CORA PEARL, the Plymouth lass who became a celebrated Paris prostitute, is the subject of a solo musical, Cora, by Julian Sluggett with music by Alastair Collingwood, which makes a mildly entertaining event as a late-night show at the Hammersmith Lyric Studio. Those who know nothing of Cora will find more interest than those who do, for the script is ...

... HARLOW The Three Musketeers PHIL WOODS has adapted Dumas classic adventure story with a tongue-in- cheek afection which is slightly reminiscent of the Lester films. And director Alan Cohen and designer Peter Ling certainly demonstrate that small can also be magnificent. This, to sum it up, is what community theatre should be. It's fun, it's very well acted, it's extremely imaginative, and it ...

... Lunacy and clarity creating a balance OVAL HOUSE Going Away For Good LUCY IS Going Away For Good she has been committed to a mental asylum and this short play (one-and-a- half hours) shows how she reacts to that committal. It is a confusing play, at first intriguing but by the end rather pointless. Lucy enacts her nightmares using dolls which come to life as the asylum warden, her father, ...

... BRIDGE LANE The Durhess rvf Malfi THIS IS an attractive production of The Duchess of Malfi in modern (fifties style) dress, directed by Jonathan P. Holloway. The set and costumes, designed by Charlotie Humpston, give the atmosphere of a Marlowe detective movie, which unfortunatetly is lost in the complexities of the story. Not an easy play, the Red Shift Theatre Company do a good job. The ...

... NORWOOD A Day at the Opera and a Night at the Races SLAPSTICK OF the Marx Brothers genre is unique and sadly missed these days by the many who enthused over their antics. For them it is good news that a new play with their fast-moving humour has just had its premiere at the tiny Bell Theatre in London's Norwood. The ambitious South London Theatre Centre running it has now been established 16 ...

... ALBANY EMPIRE Othello and the Cunning Whore of Venice GORDON MCDONALD'S new work for the Combination is a deliciously gooey mesh of intrigue and assassination. Iago's treachery is well to the fore and Desdemona's part is enhanced to make her the whore of his title. Of course the point is she is not a whore and Othello's unwillingness to unmask Iago as the devil he really is makes his fall from ...

... KING'S HEAD The Harrv Lime Stories AT THE King's Head The Harry Lime Stories were good on atmosphere, on arch Americanisms and gangster warfare, but low on intrigue. Intrigue was there, of course, but not so that you'ld want to linger on it, not in the way of Graham Greene. Naturally there was that most whistlable of tunes to give it all credence, but do you know Greene's name never came up! ...

... Almeida strikes blow in protest THE FIRST blow in what could become a massive arts protest over the abolition of the Greater London Council has been struck by a new North London venue which will be killed at birth if the plan goes ahead. The Almeida Theatre in Islington, which is currently undergoing £200,000 worth of building works before reopening full time in the spring, has organised a ...

... Speaking for itself with a serious social comment HAMMERSMITH LYRIC The Relapse I THINK that serious social comment in Vanbrugh's The Relapse can very well speak for itself, without being stressed or singled out The selfish, anti-social characters are plain enough, the vulgarity of a Sir Tunbelly is instantly apparent, Foppington proclaims himself by his name. In his production at ...

... CHEEK BY JOWL COMPANY Vanity Fair THE NARRATIVE style enables unwieldy pieces like Vanity Fair to be adapted for the stage, but the burden of carrying the story like a series of announcements needs careful planning and rehearsal. Cheek By Jowl have an inspired director in Declan Donnellan and an ingenious designer in Nick Ormerod, but their combined talents cannot keep this piece on the ...