... Decaying London UPSTAIRS Sleeping Policemen DOWN IN Peckham, two short plays were written by Howard Brcnton and Tunde Ikoli, and were further made fit for dramatic presentation by a group of actors and director Roland Rees. The collaboration, bleeping g Policemen, is now at the Royal Court Upstairs, presented by Foco Novo, a S: vivid, fascinating, penetrating picture :$of life in a decaying, ...

... '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 ...

... Woven thematic thread GATE THEATRE Gardenia JOHN GUARES Gardenia premiered here, is an oddly beautiful flower. It tells of the attempt of four American civil war veterans to establish an ideal socialist community on Nantucket Island. We first meet them in crisis; Joshua's (Blain Fairman) manuscript returns re jected from the publisher; Lydie (superbly acted by Lynn Webster) decribes a ...

... A message with play OVAL HOUSE Virgin on Disaster THE TITI.K of this plav seems to have little to do with the plot if the stringing together of vaguely related sequences can be called a plot. It is not a plav with a message but rather a message with a plav. This is unfortunate, for the message is one which should be given. It concerns the treatmcnl of prostitutes by the law and with subtlety ...

... The Devil Rides Out Again BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE NHW THEATRE'S founder directors, Michael Birch, Susie Baxter and Jude Kelly are this season joined by Alan Cowan and Thomas Hcnty in the work begun by Battersea Arts Project, pro viding workshops in the local communi ty as well as producing a range of shows in the centre. The Devil Rides Out Again, the first of these, is a ghastly melodrama ...

... NEW YORK CITY OPERA Turandot NEW YORK City Opera's new production of Turandot continued the season's success. In very spectacular but thoroughly tasteful sets and costumes by Beni Mon tr esor, the production looks gorgeous. It is staged by Jack Eddleman as a kind of superior oriental musical comedy, com plete with tumblers, stylised balletic processions, and 'shadow figures' behind Ping, ...

... Ostentatious title for mixed event COLISEUM Great Ballet Gala THE OSTENTATIOUSLY titled Great Ballet Gala, at the Coliseum, began late with the terse announcement that Carla Fracci and Gheorge Iancu would not appear because they had not been able to rehearse. Clearly there were tensions enough backstage to unsettle any audience, and no explanation was offered at the moment when Anthony Dowell ...

... Eagling blessed by his three beautiful muses ROYAL BALLET Apollo APOLLO BY the Royal Ballet showed a marked improvement, after a 12-month absence from the repertoire. Balanchine's choreography now seems to have become a part of Wayne Eagling's sub-conscious; golden haired and fair of limb there was such detail and understanding in the roundness of his classicism, against the taut ...

... Checkpoint HAMPSTEAD IT MUST have something to do with NW3, the reason why I find I don't enjoy The People Show when they play Hampstead. yver in in i at tne King s Head, Islington, I thought their cabaret was hilarious. Down SW1 way, at the Royal Court, a previous show, the one about flying, was moderately amusing most of the time. But last time they played Swiss Cottage I felt distinctly ...

... False Admissions LYRIC STUDIO THE SHARPLY yet gently thoughtful Marivaux, with his elegant style and exploration of interior feeling, is given an excellent showing by Snared Experience in their production of False Admissions (Les Fausses Confidences), translated by Timbcrlake Wcrtenbaker. at the Lyric Studio. The shining ebony mirrored setting by Paul Dart and his bright black costumes ...

... 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 ...