... Show Boat STRATFORD RUSSELL Craig's glorious sets fill the stage of the RSC, unfamiliarly stripped back to its original thirties pros arch. Fretted wooden decking swings in from the wings to create the traditional superstructure of the Mississippi paddle steamers against an evocative backdrop of the grey-green river and distant horizon. Together with Alexander Reid's elegant and detailed ...

... Equus Asinus THE PLACE IF THE idea that emerged from Equus Asinus (Donkey) ultimately was that the human race is in too great a mess for life to be other than a wearisome burden, the skill nonetheless with which it was communicated was so imaginative, so finely crafted, that this work by two Israeli dancers deserved to be counted among the more impor- tant artistic achievements of the year ...

... Land Rover Social Club BIRMINGHAM By BARRY BALMAYNE A HUGE £5000 prize money tag spread over four acts was all the enticement needed to fill a full bill of heats since June at Birmingham's Land Rover Social Club in Solihull. We must pay tribute to Land Rover, supported by the Birmingham bvening Mail, tor providing this vehicle for acts to be seen in the excellent sur roundings of a theatre ...

... Macbeth PENTAMETERS ACCESSIBLE, if not entirely successful, this is heavy metal Macbeth full of stagey aggression, mock malevolence, posturing and ridiculous costumes. With the exception of Rosse, who looked like Mad Max (if only Tina Turner could have been called upon to play Lady Macbeth), the outfits looked like the stage wardrobe of Judas Priest, hacked up by jealous fans and ...

... Theresa LILIAN BAYLIS THIS expressionist piece is an investigative play by Julia Pascal who exposes a nasty secret in British war history and one which I fear was repeated many times over, only to be buried by self-interest, guilt and shame. rascal, a journalist as well as a director and playwright, travelled to Guernsey to research the true story of Theresa Steiner, a Viennese Jew, betrayed ...

... Warriors In A Wasteland NEW END PRESENTED by Green Light Productions--whose aim is to link art with environment, and who were responsible for a dismally unfunny comedy shown here last year named Rissoles--this is yet another tract. It deals with the homeless, the dispossessed, the vulnerable, personified here in Debbie (Catherine Clarke) and her boyfriend J (Mark Monero). Debbie is staying ...

... This Democracy is surreally something Joseph Brodsky's one-act play set in Eastern Europe is full of symbolism but short of tension GATE Democracy IN A PALACE banqueting-room somewhere in Eastern Europe, the head of state and four ministers are dining like royalty on requisitioned delicacies while a stuffed Russian bear with a writing-pad and pen in its paws stands guard. Suddenly, a ...

... Prince of the Pagodas ROH KENNETH MacMillan's The Prince of the Pagodas, opening the 1990/91 Royal Ballet season, confirmed the impression made at the premiere earlier this year that this is a fairy story intent more on theatrical cleverness than on simnle magic. We watch as a series of spectacular events unfolds involving a battle j between good and evil and a curse I which causes the Prince ...

... In two minds about it MAUREEN PAT0N on a plot saved by the impressive packaging LYRIC STUDIO, HAMMERSMITH Hangover Square THE SEEDY bravado of the pre-war demi-monde is confidently captured in this powerful staging of the Patrick Hamilton novel. Its relentless attention to detail re-creates the ersatz glamour immortalised by the film of Brighton Rock, than which no higher tribute can be paid. ...

... The Letter WESTMINSTER CHILD abuse, for so long a taboo subject, is now out in the open exposed by the media, tackled by the social services and recently among contemporary playwrights has become the source of potentially explosive drama as they attempt to voice the physical and mental anguish of the victims. The horror, guilt and repulsion associated with the sexual abuse of children is ...

... The Man Who Ate His Brain CANAL CAFE BRINGING physical theatre to religious dogma and ecclesiastical careerism, Phoenix Beam's new show is not as astute as these off-the-wall comedy merchants would have us believe. With the old deck chair trick smuggled in for good measure it hasn't a hope. But handled with a really considered lack of taste by writer and soul perfor mer, Stephen Powell, The ...

... The Police SOHO POLY THIS 1958 play, first seen in Poland, is given its London premiere here by the company Skalbagge. Slawomir Mrozek's satire on totalitarian or Stalinist bureaucratic power, with all its attendant evils of secret police and lunatic conformity, is given a rather creaking production by Paul Dodwell. Mrozek sets up a state in which the entire population is so loyal that, as in ...