... The Orphan GREENWICH THE ORPHAN was written circa 1678, when Orway was 26 years old, some four years before his best-known play, Venice Preserved. This superb production almost disguised the poverty of Otway's linguistic achievement but points up to the strength latent in The Orphan's dramatic structure, which blazes out in two scenes of extraordin ary power. An old nobleman, Acasto ...

... The Boys in Autumn NEW YORK THE BOYS in Autumn, the final play of the official Broadway season, is a mystery. There is no mystery in the plot; indeed there is no plot, just a rambling dialogue between George C. Scott and John Cullum as an ageing Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer meeting for the first tune since their boyhood. There is not much mystery about why Bernard Sabath wrote the play; ...

... Cuckoo GUILDFORD EMLYN Williams is back again direct ing fellow actors after many years working on his one man shows based on Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas. His return could hardly be more wel come, for not only did he bring his great sense of theatre back to the boards but he also graced them with Cuckoo, a play he wrote 30 years ago. Dust settled on the script after Williams was advised ...

... Ghosts SOUTHAMPTON TO GET the measure of the acting in the Nuffield Theatre's production of Ibsen's Ghosts, you need look no further than the eyes. John Woodvine's twinkle kindly or open wide in shocked incomprehen sion. These and dozens of other little movements are used by this accom plished actor to telegraph the message that Pastor Manders is a silly old duffer. Angela Thome as Helena ...

... Significant Others COVENTRY AMERICAN WRITER Charles Dennis' latest play (premiered at the Beverly Hills Playhouse last year and receiving its first European production, directed by Robert Hamlin, at the Belgrade Studio) is unusual in several respects. It is a play about a much neglected subject, friendship, and furthermore, friendship between two women, one of those supportive, enduring ...

... Double Bill OLD RED LION I'VE BEEN Running and Candy and Shelley Go To The Desert--the first English, the second American--both deal with the subject of Running. In one it is the jogging variety, in the other it is running away from the city. But in both cases the running is seen as a means of escape and, as is so often the case, the problems behind the flight actually end up being carried ...

... The Act MANCHESTER RUNNING in repertoire with Behind Heaven is The Act by Richard Langridge, one of the short-listed plays in the recent Mobil playwriting competition which is being given its premiere at the Royal Exchange. Highly imaginative in its theme and at times almost painfully realistic, we are only progressively and slowly made aware of what is actually taking place. Two vaudeville ...

... Prairle Du Chien/The shawl ROYAL COURT MY NORMALLY perceptive colleague Oleg Kerensky poured scorn on this David Mamet double bill when it was chosen to open the Mitzi Newhouse theatre in New York's Lincoln Center earlier this year. I am at a loss to know why. It is true that these two short plays lack the bite and the balls of Mamet's full length works like American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen ...

... Top Girls TAURUS THEATRE IT HAS taken a while for the Peacock Theatre Company's production of Top Girls to see the light of day, but it has certainly been well worth the wait. There's not a rough edge in sight, and director Catherine Wigglesworth has carefully drawn out all the many facets of Caryl Churchill's fine play The play delves into the life of Marlene, a high-flying employment ...

... Long haul after Wall Charles Spencer on the success and failure of a Beckett double bill RIVERSIDE Krapp's Last Tape/Endgame I hose seeking maximum value from this Samuel Beckett double bill will leave at the interval. Krapp's Last Tape is one of the author's shorter and more humane works and Max Wall's performance offers the moving spectacle of a great entertainer in complete command of his ...

... Agnes of God NORTHAMPTON INCREDIBLY niuve or genuinely insane? Innocent young man or crazed killer? These are the questions that face court psychiatrist Martha Livingstone u she tackles the profoundly disturbing case of Sister Agnes in the powerful drama by John Pielmeier, being given its regional premiere at Northampton's Royal Theatre. The plot, having been established in the first few ...

... State of Affairs WARWICK GRAHAM SWANNELL'S bleak little quartet of one acters takes a wan look at our sexually liberated society where there is a word--and an aid--for every sexual manoeuvre, where you can bet on form and score a run of successes as long as you are not foolish enough to mistake all this healthy indoor activity for love. Those who do are the victims in SwanneU's sharply ...