... achieved a striking piece of spectacular theatre, which must retain much of the style of the book, in which the young charac ters speak a strange Anglo-Russian language of their own, Nadsat, almost elegant and courtly in its flavouring, in contrast to their actions ...

... live up to expectations. And Edward York is the music master, Basilio, whose loyalty can be bought for a bag of gold, and who speaks in a series of musical metaphors: Get the toccata right and the fuge will follow easily! Beaumarchais' incidental music ...

... justify her claim as a choreographer and performer in her own right. Though in this performance there are many moments that speak memor ably about the loneliness of the indi vidual, undoubtedly one of the most powerful is when she slowly walks forward and ...

... fooled by such a seemingly sympathe tic villain. Olivia Birkelund is a suit ably young and innocent-looking De- sdemona. They speak their lines intel ligently, as if they came naturally. So do Craig Wroe as a handsome Cassio and Becky London as a warm, worldly ...

... performance as the quaint and shabby Cissy, as much a misfit as Rita Gayle's forceful Sharon. Corinne Skinner-Carter moves and speaks with great deliberation as the overbearing Pearly, stamping her feet with rage when she loses the struggle for Sharon's capricious ...

... need to be rooted in firm reality, in a context we are not given confuse the audience. Sex and sexual frustration are, so to speak, well- handled here but the uncertainties lie not in poetic indirection but in a rather unconvincing narrative lacking in dramatic ...

... work with Scottish Opera and at Glyndebourne. Scottish audiences class him alongside Ken McKellar and that kind of praise speaks for itself. This singer is very, very special in deed, but forget the image of the straight, concert type performance, although ...

... was supposed to be near New York in the 1930s we got a typically English coun try house setting. It all seemed a bit daft speaking in English accents about driving to and from New York when the distinct impression was given that you were in the heart of ...

... Walter van der Kaaij, lacked conviction. In the Prologue Michael Hordern's Major Domo was magnificent in his disdain when speaking to the 'theatricals' and commanded the house with unforced authority. The clowns led by Zer binetta were likeable and ch ...

... quality of writing does not stand the test. Sadly, neither do some of the per formances. Devon Scott is a convinc ing Alicia and speaks the lines well, but her mad scene is a difficult one to handle, Michael Goron avoids making a caricature out of Richard and ...

... Laughter is not, one feels, a play which courts easy popularity but yields up riches as hidden as the laughter of which it speaks, catching the resonances of the eighties and occasionally making us smile with recognition. Immaculately acted, it has fine ...

... Burrell's subtle strategy in this play, which blasts salvoes at misplaced pat riotism and racism, is to let the characters speak for themselves, so avoiding melodramatic soliloquies on the cruelty of war. Irony and the occasional onc-liner, whether about ...