... stereotypes as mouthpieces and they recite heartfelt views but this is not drama. They do not speak because they must, because they want or need some thing. They speak because they believe and by one of drama's paradoxical rules they are a bunch of crunching ...

... Zoe Duckworth as Debbie, who tries to convince herself that she has no feelings to be hurt but finally, ther- apeutically speaks out to the father who abused her and the mother who turned a blind eye. With strong support from the other five members of ...

... to be threefold: Belsen, Gormenghast and the witches of Macbeth. They seem not to belong to any time or age as they speak in solemn tones of Greek tragedy, chantering and tittering. When they break out into Sloane Rangerisms the course is set for ...

... zest, and if the opening finds some of them in the mood for exaggeration, they soon settle down into their parts, singing, speaking and dancing with charm. Ann Nugent ...

... not to feel a whole gamut of emotions while watching her. The moment towards the end of the play in which she attempts to speak is very harrowing; the guttural scream seems to come from the depths of her soul. Robert Hale plays her teacher/ husband. I ...

... coherence and unhurried i pace give the piece an overall symmetry I and elegance. The performers are versa- tile dancers who can speak and-twoof I them at least also play the pianos. For once Spink has allowed them a lot of dancing with eddies of gorgeous move- ...

... Relatively Speaking GREENWICH RELATIVELY Speaking was Alan Ayckbourn's first big success and, 21 years on, there is little doubt that the play is a classic. Like Goldsmith's She Stoops To Conquer, which in some way it resembles, I suspect that it will ...

... bonus in the shape of Cliff Richard, the real Cliff, that is, who plays Chris Wilder, the rock star who has been chosen to speak and sing on behalf of Earth at its trial. Unfortu nately his arguments, to this observer, seem to be far less convincing than ...

... is visibly changed in the second half m a tigerish detence ot her secret marriage. In Sean Bean she finds a Romeo who can speak the poetry of the lines with warmth and meaning yet not appear out of place in modern dress. Together they find an ardent ...

... language among a cast of modern soldiers, whether conversing or giving orders, is delivered in the modem style of controlled speaking, so that declama tory or even heroic speech is severely subdued; while such dramatic scenes as the appearance at the banquet ...

... players and their royal audience mak- ing-up and dressing before the play within a play. Otherwise he is content to let the play speak for itself, in a very full version lasting nearly four hours. Richard Foreman, on the other hand, has staged Havel's moving ...

... significant. More serious is a revised staging in Mary Tyrone's final made scene, which combines with Bethel Leslie's one-note speaking to make the character less obviously high and less moving than she can be. Jack Lemmon's unusually sympathetic James Tyrone ...