... 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 ...

... Isolation A-Z THEATRE For Three-Stilling THE A-Z Theatre presents two plays by Bernard Rudden in the Nethcrbox Theatre called For Three and Stilling which are examples of the Theatre of the Absurd. Whatever virtue they have is due to the idiosyncracy of the playwright and something to the design of May Eakin and the lighting of David O'Neill. There is a remoteness about the set and its ...

... Love Songs NORTHERN BALLET THEATRE THE 150TH anniversary of the birth of the composer Brahms is being celebrated by Northern Ballet Theatre with the performace of a new work Love Songs. Specially commissioned from Andre Prokovsky, who has choreographed several previous works for the company, it received its premiere in the opera theatre of the Royal Northern College of Music. The music is ...

... Good, but could do better DANCE UMBRELLA Spiked Sonata EXTEMPORARY DANCE Theatre is still streets ahead of our other small dance companies, both in its thinking and its physical manifestations. Even so the performance at Riverside for the Dance Umbrella made me want to mark it down with a B+ : that is to say good, but could do better. It is a question ot energy combined with realisation, ...

... The Tales of Hoffmann ENO THE TALES of Hoffmann retains its haunting musical beauty and livelinrss, and any performance is bound to send ears home ringing with it. English National Opera's revival at the Coliseum certainly did that, the new Danish conductor Michael Schonwand taking expert and devoted care of it. It was a generally excellent performance of the edition by Colin Graham and ...

... From mediaeval liturgy to rock 'n' roll OLD VIC Blondel THE ANSWER to the question - can Tim Rice survive without Andrew Lloyd Webber? - is quite definitely yes, to judge by Blondel at the splendidly refurbished Old Vic. Stephen Oliver, a composer whose productivity equals his versatility, is an admirable collaborator, able to switch iiuiii uiuuiacvai liturgy iu iuck u run and, in the ...

... Just lacks heart CAMBRIDGE Dear Anyone DEAR ANYONE has been around for a few years. It was originally a record album, and later Hot Chocolate actually took one of the numbers, I'll Put You Together Again, into the charts. Presumably the album was always intended to be a sampler for a stage version, and at last it has arrived at the Cambridge, with a snappy. New York wisecracking book by ...

... Dressing up COCKPIT THE 1982 Theatre Company's contribution to the September in the Pink gay festival was a potted montage of male homosexual writing from the 17th century to the present day. Pouting and posing in Georgian garb and through to the simple tee shirt of Edmund White's America, the group's selection of prose provided some explanation for the horror of today's 'closet queen'. Is the ...

... Pre-pollution Rhine maidens WNO The Rhinegold WITH CONFIDENCE the Welsh National Opera have launched into Wagner's awesome The Ring Of The Nibelung. The epic cycle is to be staged over the next two years, and to judge Irom the production team's achievements in the The Rhinegold, which sets the scene for this tale of love and lust for power, there is much to look forward to. Not that ...

... Raising laughs in sculptured farce BRIDGE LANE Reproductions THIS IS not - as the title might suggest - an expose of the population explosion, but a highly amusing farce-like comedy. It makes no pretence of having a message or giving great character studies, but it is fun. The Birchall family have a valuable statue which they wish to sell; but to get maximum profit they plan to sell it twice! ...

... Dear Old Blighty O.DHAM DEAR OLD BLIGHTY is about the clash between veterans of different wars on the battlefield of an ex-serviceman's club in Lancashire which reflects not only the violent changes going on within it, but changes happening outside it, too. More deeply, Brian Thompson s play is about the longlasting effects war has on people how it ennobles and destroys, disillusions and ...