... The Females TABARD AUTHOR Henry Jachimowski's introduction to his play explains that his Females are Revolutionaries, emerging from slavery some terrified, unsure, flattened on all fours, like bitches. Others burning with energy, bravely marching in the face of reality--and that would seem to be the nub of the matter. His women are unnamed, but the pro gramme contains clues to help ...

... Romeo And Juliet BRISTOL NEW Bristol Old Vic artistic director Andrew Hay has quite literally involved his audience right from the beginning in his helter-skelter first Theatre Royal production. For in consort with designer Mick Bearwish, a former colleague at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, he has sited bench seats for 30 or 40 spectators bang in the middle of the frantic action on stage. The ...

... Doctor Heart MANCHESTER THE British premiere of new musical, Doctor Heart is the Royal Exchange, Manchester. Starring Frances Tomelty as Momma, a wasted drunk and Andy Serkis as Doctor Jan Heart. Heart has invented a machine which makes the heroes of our imaginations real. Hence the play features Hamlet, Batman and Robin et al. The acting is generally inconsistent though Tomelty and Serkis ...

... Black Works ICA FIVE minutes after the advertised starting time, a girl comes on the vast bare black stage and begins to sweep up some white debris. Is this part of the show, you wonder, or a belated tidying up so that it can eventually begin? The girl is soon joined by two more performers spot lit in side lights. one is a man wno is inert and me other a woman who seems to be throwing him ...

... The Sisterhood CHICHESTER MOLIERK himself would surely be amongst those laughing loudest at the adaptation and translation of his play The Sisterhood by Ranjit Bolt at the Chichester Festival Theatre's Minerva Studio. The ideas expressed by Moliere reflected the intellectual women's movement of his own time and, in many ways, little has changed. Indeed, it is the modernity of the people and ...

... Starbrites TRICYCLE THEATRE THE INGENIOUS use of different-sized puppets creates a surreal sense of perspective in author/director Barney Simon's new play for the Market Theatre of Johannesburg. Unfortunately the script never matches the visual flair of this well- int 'ntioned Tricycle co-production with the London International Festival of Theatre. With corrugated iron city walls topped by ...

... The Soldier's Tale/Lucifer ALMEIDA WRITTEN by Diana Burrell for trumpet (Peter Lawrence) and violin (Madeleine Mitchell), Lucifer, an impressive new work, traces the fall of one once crowned with bliss. Intricate short violin passages inter weave with the trumpet, whose silvery sound declines into not musical notes but breathing, lost in pain. The infer nal one pops up again in Stravinsky's ...

... Too much effort, too little effect COLISEUM Ballet Nacional De Espana THE ensemble opening by the Ballet Naczional de Espana, as groups of dancers raised arms, walked and paused motionless--continuing the sequence until the stage was filled--was as effective as a first class chorus line, that compels with its precision, unity and zest. Called Ritmos, the piece developed into a display of fast ...

... Eugene Onegin METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE PROMOTED as the Bolshoi Opera's first new production ever to have its premiere abroad, the Eugene Onegin which opened the company's two-week season at the Metropolitan Opera looked suspiciously like a touring version. A semi-permanent set showing Mme Larina's house on two levels, looking a bit like a Victorian doll's house, did duty for the first four ...

... Tramway is back on the move GLASGOW Tramway Theatre will be reopening its doors this month after essential repair work with an impressive new £833,000 funding deal and exciting new season of conpemporary national theatre with companies from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. ...

... Scarred by the past GERARD VAN WERSON on emotional turmoil ROYAL COURT Beside Herself SARAH Daniels' wittily titled play begins with a tableau of wicked ladies in Hell, clad in scarlet leaning against supermarket shelves stacked with crisps and biscuits. This humorous opening, with its dreadful puns Can't Salome help? She got enough on her plate soon darkens as we see Evelyn (Dinah Stabb) ...

... Macbeth BAC THE SCOTTISH play is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy (2,106 lines to Hamlet's 3,929 and Lear's 3,328) so it is not easy to see why Jonathan Holloway in his revival for Red Shift Theatre Company felt it necessary to condense its two hour traffic to a mere 80 minutes with the Witches and the Porter being flung out with much else. It's an updated version with the company of five actors ...