... A Slice Of Saturday Night Colchester MICHAEL PALIN once said of this Heather Brothers musical that it should be available on the National Health. Having enjoyed the Mercury Theatre's faultless and exuberant production I can only urge the Government to consider the proposal. The setting is the Club A Go-Go, circa 1964, a time when young men and women still regarded each other as alien species ...

... Crimson Lizard Leeds THE CRIMSON Lizard is not that old but it looks and sounds curiously dated, almost as if the audience is watching a revival of a vaguely remembered piece from the sixties. It has some enjoyable moments but is rather too predictable and is some times quite tedious. The central character is Croup, a psychiatric patient who adopts various outrageous disguises and in the final ...

... The Taming Of The Shrew Leeds SELDOM can an audience have laughed so much and for so long when watch ing a Shakespeare play. This interpretation of The Taming Of The shrew is supremely, gloriously funny and is without doubt a theatrical gem. Jude Kelly, the director, has chosen to set her Shrew on an ocean liner with characters clad in bizan-e but effective costumes Hortensio is dressed like ...

... A Murder Is Arranged WIMBLEDON WIMBLEDON Theatre continues its courageous fight for survival with Mark Furness' latest presentation of the ubiquitous Mrs Christie, packaged with a stylish Proscenium Publications programme, plentifully illustrated, containing an erudite and well-researched article on the thriller genre by David Cheshire called Be Thrilled Be Chilled, which is at least as ...

... The art of the matter GERARD van WERSON on an artist's relation to 'real life' ALMEIDA When We Dead Awaken IBSEN'S last play--famouslj acclaimed by the young James Joyce as his finest, and although dense anc packed with thought--It is just tt prevent excessive pondering that Ibser requires to be acted--is given a fine production here, with an arresting Expressionist set by Peter J Davison ...

... Othello OFF-BROADWAY WITHOUT gimmicks and with a virtually unknown cast, William Gas- kill has proved that, with the right direction, American actors can provide a satisfying and gripping production of Shakespeare. Othello, presented by Theatre for a New Audience mainly for schools at the CSC Theatre is staged in the round, with no scenery and minimal props, but with excellent costumes by ...

... You're Gonna Be Alright Jamie Boy ETCETERA SHARP Edge Theatre company is a newly formed group who specialise in turning profits into plays by deploying the proceeds of a retailing fashion business into shows like the British premiere of You're Gonna Be Alright Jamie Boy by Canadian playwright David Freeman--who is a cerebral palsy sufferer. The play caused a furore when it was first ...

... A Jovial Crew BARBICAN PIT THE RSC has an honourable tradition of rediscovering lost plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries and immediate successors in its studio theatres for which the Swan was expressly built. This production opened there a year ago and has now transferred to the Barbican Pit, arranged to accommodate its arena staging by Max Stafford-Clark who made his RSC debut with this ...

... The Happy Prince OXFORD RATHER like the tragic case of Dylan Thomas, the majority of Oscar Wilde's output was completed within a comparatively short space of time. Famous and infamous for his witty, satirical plays The Importance Of Being Earnest and Lady Windemere's Fan, Wilde was also capable of ing nis nana to sngnier tnings, sucn as the delightful and beautifully drawn tale ofThe Happy ...

... The Three Sisters GLASGOW TWENTIETH Century artifice and invention are used to create a new perspective for the Wooster Group's version of the Anton Chekhov classic The Three Sisters at the Tramway Theatre, thus part of the modern miracle envisaged by Czarist battery commander Lt Col Alexander Vershinin is seen to come to pass. The concept of having the char acters speak some of their lines ...

... Women Of The Dust Bristol THIS joint production by Asian theatre company Tamasha and the Bristol Old Vic was commissioned by Oxfam to mark the charity's 50th anniversary and looks at the plight of migrant women workers in India. Not a theme, at first encounter, to set the theatrical blood racing. But author Ruth Carter has cleverly focussed on one extended family, grub bing a living on a ...

... New Voices ROYAL COURT UPSTAIRS THE YOUNG Writers' Festival, presented by the Royal Court Young People's Theatre is 20 years old this year. Although the Festival can now be enjoyed outside London as well, seeing showcase tions like the three given unaer tne New Voices title in the Upstairs Theatre at the Royal Court where so many previous writers have gone on from promise to achievement has ...