... Lost horizons PETER HEPPLE on the man who would be king of his own castle GARRICK Fences WITH Fences, which won a Tony award in 1987, August Wilson, whose plays Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone dealt with quite specific areas of black American experience with a historic background, launched himself into drama on a scale akin to that of Arthur Miller or even Ibsen. ...

... Caprice/It's Impossible To Think of Everything ROSE THIS is an enterprising choice of two short plays by Alfred de Musset, presented by De Musset and Company, administered by Paul Spence and Clara Koenig. Given here in what are, I think, their first English productions, they are both delightful acerbic one act plays charged with subtle comedy and cruelty rather in the style of Marivaux. ...

... The Loss Almanac Dance Art Company THE PLACE ADVANCE marketing for this performance promised more than it delivered. For the leaflet, featuring four dancers frolicking, alongside part of a house and part of a naked woman, focused on strange juxtapositions of people and objects, which could have produced any number of interesting philosophical musings. But there was a shortage of any such ...

... Breaking Legs BROADWAY TOM Dulack'* Breaking Legs has been staged in San Diego and at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, is due to be directed by Alan Ayckbourn in Scarborough, and is directed at the Promenade, one of the best off- Broadway theatres, by John Tilhnger. In addition it has a cast headed by two of New York's best character actors, Philip Bosco and Vincent Gardenia. They are ...

... Le Malade Imaginaire PARIS MOLIERE visits Disneyland, in an unconventional revival of the French Bard's Le Malade Imaginaire (The Hypochondriac) at the Comedic Francaise in Pans Not only does guest director Gildas Bourdet give all the members of the cast Pinocchio noses, he also sets them down in a Technicolor decor and dresses them a la Snow White and Cinderella Bourdet says his approach ...

... Delights Down Under SYDNEY Low DANIEL Keene is surely the master of the rwo-hander. At least four of his works (including The Hour Before My Brother Dies-seen at the Edinburgh Festival last year) are variations on the form-not surprising, considering his works are invariably written for the Tide Theatre Co sisting of actors Rhonda Wilson and Lindzee Smith. The only surprise this time, ...

... Kurtz SYDNEY WHY try to rewrite Conrad's Heart of Darkness-especially when you lack Marlon Brando, pictures of dank jungle, several million dollars and an audience dying to be convinced that it is at war with an uncivilised people in Vietnam? Perhaps from an Australianvoint of view, the aspects of Conrad's novella concentrating on white colonial exploitation rang truest today and Larry ...

... Starkly haunting EXETER Macbeth JOHN Durnin's production of Macbeth takes place in a wooden circle, surrounded by a trough of water. Beyond ihe circle the stage is stripped to the wall, where the actors sit, huddled, waiting their cues. This certainly increases the theatrical effect, but disowns realism at a stroke. This is a very stark Macbeth with little scenery and few props. Flags and ...

... The Plough And The Stars MUSSFI BURGH SF.AN O 'Casey had the perfect cre dentials to write an account of the Easier Rising of 1916. Being one of the clandestine militiamen in the Irish Citizen's Army, he witnessed at first hand not only the passion and the loy alty of both sides, but also the hypocrisy and, ironically, cowardice of many of the participants. His skill as a writer enabled him to ...

... The Cemetery Club Lincoln THREE cheers for whoever had the brilliant idea of bringing together Millicent Martin, Anne Charleston and Judy Cornwell in the same play. Not only have they ensured an evening of sparkling entertainment but they have more or less guaranteed Houst- Hull sipns outside a dozen provincial theatres between now and the middle of May. The play is The Cemetery Club by Ivan ...

... Crossing The Line Richmond SAM Walters, Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre, has announced that the original venue, in the room above the public house, resumes full time operations with a professional repertory company with this production, directed by Dominic Hill, who a graduate of the Orange Tree's training programme. He was responsible for the recent excellent Three More Sleepless ...

... The New Apartment (La Casa Nova) Watermans Arts Centre THIS sparkling new translation by Robert David MacDonald of Gold- oni's witty comedy uses modern phraseology' to polish the delivery of this 1 8th Century masterpiece, competently produced by Judith Hibberd and meticulously directed by Guy Retallack, with an excellent set designed by Madeleine Morris, at the Watermans Arts Centre. Zoe ...