... Giselle ROH WHEN Stephen Jefferies is cast as Hilarion in Giselle, the ballet becomes a genuine love triangle. Unlike most Hilarions, who are content to play the role for its stylised gesture, his movements have a sense of realism. Jefferies's Hilarion is not having a lingering love affair with the ballet's 150 year old 'origins, does not lean on history for its sentimentality; rather it ...

... Flying horse puts a stop to show PERFORMANCES of Carousel at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds had to be abandoned when faulty machinery grounded the show's flying horse. The mechanical horse takes the hero up to heaven, but difficulties with it during last Saturday's matinee led us installers to recommend it should be shut down on the grounds of safety until repairs could be made. The ...

... Treasury tax reforms are a turn for worse CLUB managers have complained to Parliament that they are getting a raw deal from the Treasury. The powerful Club and Institute Union, which has more than six mil lion members and 3,500 branches, says high tax and rates charges are threaten ing to send variety venues into immi nent collapse. It claims that recent protests over the effects of tax and ...

... Tape pirates are sunk TRADING standards officers in Humberside have cracked a black market operation selling thousands of pirate tapes of chart topping artists. Three men have now been success fully prosecuted, the British Phonog raphic Industry said this week. The trio were charged under the Trade Descriptions Act with a total of 27 offences of supplying counterfeit goods. One of the men, ...

... Night fever! BLUES In The Night star Miquel Brown had to take sick leave after a bout of 'spring flu' robbed her of her voice. The bug struck less than 24 hours after co-star Stephanie Lawrence was forced to quit the stage in mid- performance after complaining of throat problems. Nina Grant, the show's only under study, stepped in to fill the role. But disaster struck the next day when Brown ...

... Sick minds MAUREEN PATON on a healthy play which depicts a trashy society RIVERSIDE STUDIOS Blood, Sweat & Fears FANS OF Lenny Henry will be well aware ot his numerous campaigns on behalf of sufferers from Sickle Cell Anaemia. Now Maria Oshodi has written a play about this debilitating Afro-Caribbean blood condition that can lead to a very early death. The problem for the dramatist is to ...

... HAMMERSMITH Crux LYRIC STUDIO, THE FAUX-NAIF dialogue of April Dc Angelis's new play for Paines Plough takes a long time to reveal its buried treasures. This is an intriguing glimpse of hidden history with obvious modern parallels in the story of a women's refuge from medieval society; but there is a distinct whiff of indulgence about the non-naturalistic writing. True, hunger makes people ...

... As You Like It BARBICAN IF A LARGE part of the audience did, I suspect that their response to this mediocre production directed by John Caird and designed by Ultz, is due to the fact that during the past few years the RSC has educated many into accepting its declining standards. This superb comedy, shot through with its obsessive parent-child theme and its contrasts between pastoral Arden and ...

... Clampdown on 'fake' Drifters DERBY-based venue The Top Hat In Spennymore has agreed to withdraw its booking this month for a group billed as The Great Sound of the Original Drifters, following complaints from interna tional manager Faye Tread well. Tread well, who holds the rights to the hit group's name, threatened legal action if the rival band appeared as scheduled on May 26. The club has ...

... Time please CHANGES in Britain's lunchtime drinking laws could spell good news for thousands of variety entertainers. Working men's clubs throughout the country have reported a substantial drop in turnover since the Government agreed to allow all-day drinking in pubs. The change, introduced two years ago, has robbed many small scale venues of much needed lunchtime and evening trade, claims the ...

... Coriolanus BARBICAN DIRECTED by Terry Hands with John Barton, Shakespeare's ruthless study of power and self-deception is dominated by an appropriately strong performance from Charles Dance as the great warrior. Tall, golden-haired, and martial in aspect, he looks the living proof of the praise bestowed upon him by the consul Comimus (Frank Moorey), That valour is the chiefest virtue ...

... Too Little Toulouse WATER RATS THE DELIGHTFUL intimate music hall ambiance of the Water Rats Theatre is the perfect venue for Rhubarb Alley's production of Too Little Toulouse by Simon Towrtley and Gary Willis. Set at the turn of the century in the Naughty Nineties, this pastiche of Feydeau farces and romantic operettas of the time takes an amusing look at the hypocritical moral values of the ...