... Soviet life, based as it is on Moscow's chronic housing shor tage. But the play's concerns are far from parochial. Exchange speaks with equal clarity to British audiences, as is proved at the Nuffield by Patrick Sandford's fine production of Michael Frayn's ...

... heritage tour. It stars Una Stubbs who, having stooped to acting, fares quite well as a pretentious gauche lady of the country speaking in an accent which is not dissimilar to that of the grocer's wife in Coronation Street. Andy Serkis as Tony Lumpkin brings ...

... newcomers, are past members of the company who have been specially invited to take part in this last production, and their speaking of the verse is most delightful to listen to. Paul Spence is a most noble Orsino and his growing interest in the disguised ...

... in her marriage while coping with massive change. A silly feud develops between the couple and Tom childishly refuses to speak to Alice until eventually he overcomes his feeling of rejection. Tim Brooke-Taylor delivers a strong and humorous performance ...

... Speaking For Myself EDINBURGH MAGGIE Kinloch, new director of the Byre Theatre in St Andrews, has chosen well in combining these two monologues into a thoughtful and amusing double-bill, and in Phil McCall and Alyxis Daly she has two actors who inhabit ...

... fascinating and amusing. The production makes us forget the play's central logical flaw (that the language the characters speak is im possible without the experience that gives it meaning) by offering us a convincing picture of humanity in its raw, wondering ...

... spotted dress who clearly has stepped out of the fifties and puzzle over the modern white socks, wideboy garb of the man. Both speak in South London accents while referring to each other as made moiselle and monsieur, another irritat- ting aspect adding to ...

... attractive though they may be. It is a comedy of pure situation, stretched to its absolute limits, which requires an exquisite speaking of lines that it does not quite get here. Keith Baxter is more of a jovial Elyot than one might expect, lacking something ...

... for Godot, performed in Korean, translated from the French original text. Through three semantic layers (for the English-speaking audi ence), nothing is lost. It is all there the humour, pathos and emotion need no language at all. The Korean Sanwoollim ...

... Some ten or more years ago I visit ed a company at the Fortune Theatre which comprised three performers two of whom were not speaking to each other, except on stage that is. I am sure purgatory will be something like that, with one vast dressing room for ...

... creatures devouring the limbs of a drowned suicide. This baldly specific section was for me the least effective. The choral speaking and chanting became more frenzied as they moved into the sinister third stanza of the poem, culmi nating in the use of large ...

... 'below stairs' lad, reminiscent in many ways of Gary Wilmot's stunning performance as Bill Snibson in Me and My Girl. ..and speaking of thumping good tunes, this pantomime was not too proud to include Ain't Misbehavin and Pick Yourself Up among its varied ...