... Cottle shrugs off petition By Stage Reporter A PETITION signed by 5,000 local people opposed to the use of live animals in circuses was handed into Cardiff Qty Council to coincide with the arrival of Gerry Cottle's Circus in the city's Sophia Gardens. Leading the delegation of concerned residents was Labour Councillor Ian Brown, accompa nied by representatives of the newly-formed Animal ...

... Medea CARDIFF Will; TMHR Greek tragedy can be satisfying adapted to a contemporary domestic situation is debatable. The ancient mythologies, legendary characters, theatrical conventions, dramatic structures, do not lend themselves to modern intimacy and attitudes. To write a new play based on themes explored in a 2, 500-year-old drama surely stands greater chance of audience involvement. ...

... The Pied Piper BIRMINGHAM IN HIS new stage adaptation of Browning's poem. Anthony Clark strives too hard to impart a message about the haves and the have nots in society--a theme which is undoubtedly in the original more subtly and more obliquely presented. Alternatively he might have taken the direct approach with the bravura of Dickens, for example, and occa sionally a Dickensian touch does ...

... Comedian off the rails A BLACKPOOL summer star has apologised for a bad taste joke about children playing on tramlines. Members of North Pier's Merrie England audience booed comedian Franklyn James and some walked out following his gaffe the day after a Sheffield school girl died under the wheels of a resort tram. The Cheshire-based comic said he was not aware of the death of nine year old ...

... Rescue package saves City Varieties BRITAIN'S last standing Victorian music hall, Leeds City Varieties, has been saved from decay and the possibility of a private selloff by a £100,000 hand-out from the city council and cash from actors' union Equity. The City Varieties, home to The Good Old Days for 30 years, was bought by the city four years ago to stop it falling into private hands. But the ...

... Jazz in disarray as 'trail blazing' agency is sunk By HELEN GOULD BRITAIN'S jazz network suffered a swingeing blow this week when Eastern Jazz, the regional development agency covering the entire East of England, announced that it must stop trading at the end of the month because of lack of funding. The six-year-old regional jazz organisation, is one of only six which co-ordinate jazz ...

... Albania's leading musicians seek political asylum in Britain THREE of Albania's leading musicians, the first to be allowed to come to England for more than 50 years, have decided to seek political asy lum and artistic freedom here. Composer Thoma Simakv, 33, who has written many works, including a symphony.two concertos, two rhap sodies and music for six films, came to North Yorkshire four ...

... Don Giovanni ENO THIS was a most impressive revival of Jonathan Miller's production, with an almost completely new cast, Francesca Joseph reviving, and with Jerzy Maksymiuk making a memorable con ducting debut. The few cast changes worked well, with Jane Eaglen who previously sang Donna Elvira now singing Donna Anna, in good voice, as were the entire ensemble: one of the happiest many- ings ...

... Good enough! ROH Boris Godunov THIS was one of the best evenings at the currently much-maligned Royal Opera House for years--the orchestra splendidly conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, and a splendid revival by Irina Brown of the late Andrei Tarkovsky's 1983 production. What is so strikingly successful about the combination of lyrical sounds from the pit and again and again Rozhdestvensky ...

... Smart move for Orchestra By BRIAN ATTWOOD HALLE Orchestra general manager Clive Smart announced this week his company has slashed its deficit by more than a quarter of a million pounds in just one year. Figures out for the financial year to March 3 1 reveal that the Halle is now only £3,500 in the red, compared with £264,000 in 1989. This follows a massive boost to the orchestra's earned ...

... Magician hits out at Manning By HELEN GOULD STAUNCH Equity supporter Bernard Manning and his union have come under fierce attack from one angry Lancashire magician, who disputes claims that union members stand the best more chance of recouping fees for lost bookings. Manning last month warned acts to be wary of being fleeced by unscrupulous agents and venue managers in the recession, and ...

... The Turn of The Screw BIRMINGHAM IN HER new stage adaptation at the Rep Studio, Eve Lewis makes explicit what Henry James left clouded in uncertainty: that the apparitions of evil which the Governess encounters, and joins battle with, in her employer's house are the products of her overheated mind, created out of a repression of sexual longing It lessens the frisson of James' short story ...