... Henry IV (Part One) NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE IF EVERY production of Shakespeare must nowadays take a directorial line (I hesitate to say have a gimmick) then I suppose Tynewear Theatre's 'Henry IV (Part One) makes something of a thing about the regionaliry of the play. It may provide something of a frisson locally to have Harry Hotspur have a pronounced Northumberland accent. And if so, then ...

... Sibley: a real Cinderella ROYAL BALLET Cinderella ANTOINETTE SIBLEY is a phenomenon. Her performance in the title role of Cinderella, which rejoined The Royal Ballet's repertoire just before Christmas, gave the production back some of the qualities it has lost in recent Sibley, who has been through in juries, childbirth and retirement, grows younger and more radiant. Her dancing too has ...

... Benefits of professionalism London Studio Centre STUDENTS at Bridget Espionosa's London Studio Centre arc very thoroughly prepared for stage careers, for their curriculum is wide ranging and they are fortunate enough to have classes from many professional dancers. The benefits of professional expertise were emphasised by Beryl Grey in her address at the End of Term Demonstra tion, for, as ...

... Amonumental opera brought to life BARCELONA Carmen MOST ATTEMPTS to outclass the visual and aural excitements of the Abbado-Faggioni-Frigerio 1978 Edinburgh Festival Carmen were bound to fail. The new Barcelona Carmen that launched the Gran Teatro del Liceo season under French guest-conductor Jacques Delacote came close to echoing them. A major musical loss was the depar ture after the ...

... Recollections of charming Huck EMBASSY THEATRE Huckleberry Finn DAVID TERENCE'S dramatisation of the great American novel is a natural enough choice for Central School of Speech and Drama's '83 finals production. Though centred firmly on the recol lections of Huck a charming perform ance by Jerome Flynn the story teems with Twain's vivid characters and inci dents, enough good parts for all, as ...

... Opportunity Knocks MOONSHINE THEATRE CLUB FOUR YOUNG job hopefuls and a TV addict meet in the waiting room of a large factory. While they wait for the outcome of the job interview, each tells their story of life on the dole in 1983. Sound like a recipe for audience depression? Think again. The young multi-racial company who devised the piece (scripted by Penny O'Connor) scathe patronising ...

... GLC keeps its Roundhouse cash pledge JEREMY JEHU reports THE GLC has kept its £330,000 pledge to back the creation of a Black Arts Centre for London. A grant towards repairs and running of the Roundhouse theatre in Camden has been formally approved by the GLC's arts and recreation committee. The £330,000 matches the amount paid by Camden Council to buy the building after the financial collapse ...

... Heartbreak House NEW YORK THE PRODUCTION of Shaw's Heartbreak House starring Rex Harrison at the Circle In The Square Theatre on Broadway is not the one which played at London's Haymarket Theatre. The cast still includes Rosemary Harris and the director is still British, but it is Anthony Page, not John Dexter. A public controversy has broken out between the two directors about Page's ...

... Look at relationships YOUNG VIC STUDIO Tales from the Electric Zoo TALES from the Electric Zoo calls itself a comedic exploration of contemporary relations between the sexes. In fact it is two separate works from four pairs of hands. In Dairy Pifer's A Day at the Zoo three girls have shares in the same man. Gladys, Janice and Eunice meet at the zoo. Gladys has divorced duu ik siuo, ...

... BABRICAN Peter Pan WHAT A strange play Peter Pan is! And how greatly has it been illuminated by the Royal Shakespeare Company's production at the Barbican, which has returned for the Christmas and New Year season, with considerable recasting and John Caird taking sole responsiDMty tor direction. Though the additional material, which brings in a Barrie-like figure (Edward Petherbridge) as ...

... British humour NEW YORK And A Nightingale Sana/Bhutan A BRITISH writer and a British director have just contributed successful comedies to New York's off-Broadway stages. The late C. P. Taylor's And A Nightingale Sang is a slight and somewhat conventional slice of working-class life in World War II. Its stock characters, earthy humour and wartime nostalgia may seem more original and ...

... Quick wits at a premium in enjoyable evening MAN IN THE MOON Man Eaters SIX STORIES from diverse cultures-Scandinavian, Indian, Celtic, Polynesian- form an intriguing study of traditional feminine characterisations. The Man-eater Rona, who loves her daughter and male flesh with the same passionate hunger, is but one. The daughter's abhorrence, sharpened by her own lover's fate at her mother's ...