... Jack and the Beanstalk CLEETHORPES A FEW years ago someone had the germ of an idea of turning the Memorial Mall in Cleethorpcs into a venue for professional entertainment. Here we are some years later with another pamo success and just as that germ of an idea has grown into a mueh bigger operation so the beans in this year's panto presented bv Nelson Firth and Mark Andrews have blossomed ...

... The Jungle Book SOUTHAMPTON THE NUFFIHLD Theatre continues its seasonal tradition of lively adaptations of popular classics with an inspired stage version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book N'uffield artis tic director Patrick Sandford may have added some new songs (music by Neil Brand) and some groan-inducing jokes, but the show sticks fairly closely to Kipling's original talc. An energetic ...

... Goldilocks and the Three Bears SCUNTHORPE WHILE it may not have boasted a cast of household names, and there wasn't an international celebrity to be seen, this winter's offering at the Plowright, Scunthorpc--the theatre we used to call the Civic--was real family entertainment. Goldilocks and the Three Bears was the eighth pantomime presented at the venue by Maidstonc-based John Spillers, and ...

... Whose Life Is It Anyway? CROYDON WITH the funeral taking place the same day of Liverpool soccer fan Tony Bland, who had been in a coma since the Sheffield disaster of 1989 and was only allowed to die after protracted legal action, nothing could be more topical than this 23-year-old play by Brian Clark. It started life, it that's the word, as a television play and in 1978 was adapted for a ...

... Dangerous Obsession HORNCHURCH SHELAGH Keegan's visually attractive and airy conservatory set has a stimulating artificiality in this Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch production of Dangerous Obsession, with complementary performances from a trio of well-known television faces. The artificiality is a curious fac tor. As playwright, N J Crisp, him self says, his thriller shows the con frontation of ...

... The Comedy Of Errors MANCHESTER DIRECTOR Gregoy Hersov has imbued this play with a refreshing vision. The pace is frenetic, the comic delivery fulsome. Hersov takes many modem situations and grafts them onto the text with ease. There are scenarios based on arrivals at airports, strippers in cos lusted at by furtive men in macs, even remote control television switches. Throughout the action ...

... Then He Kissed Me NORTHAMPTON NORTHAMPTON'S Royal Theatre has built up a remarkable reputation for the quality of its studio theatre productions in recent years, also the theatre's adventurous spirit in staging material of a contentious nature. The latest studio production, a world premiere of Philip Goulding's Then He Kissed Me, continues in the same vain with a play about Aids. In Then He ...

... Rudra Béjart SADLER'S WELLS TO PUT it bluntly Sissi Anarchist Empress was as memorable as Mr C was dismissible: and there you have it, the highs and lows of Bejart are with us again. I refer of course to the much trumpeted two new works with which Maurice Bejart chose to present his new based company to London. The start of this brief season reas sures us that despite the succes de ...

... All My Sons SALISBURY HIDEOUS truth erupts through a veneer of sham that shocks and mesmerises in this impressive production. And while the storyline writhes with lightning speed amid bur densome loyalties and sudden ter rible rows, it is the steady hand of director David Massarella that lets the fearsome tension mount at the right pace. Each time the plot takes the strain of another twist, ...

... A Midsummer Night's Dream SCOTTISH BALLET SCOTTISH Ballet's new version of A Midsummer Night's Dream got off to a tentative start, but looked more secure, if no less relaxed, by the end of the evening. The company is understandably nervous. As a classical ballet company, it is taking a calculated risk performing a piece created by one of Martha Graham's greatest exponents. After too long a ...

... Private backers leave Welsh arts high and dry PLANS for a new large scale concert and opera theatre in North Wales, capable of hosting Welsh National Opera, collapsed in disarray after news that private sector backers have pulled out. The new 900-seat venue, which was to be part of the Abcrconwy Conference Centre in Llandudno, may have been up and running next year. It would have finally met a ...

... Thanet loan guarantees Royal's future A £50,000 loan from Kent County Council makes a £300,000 package that will ens ure the future and freehold of Margate's historic Theatre Royal. Negotiations are now going on that will see the present management of the Georgian hall, led by Jolyon Jackley, continue to operate the the atre through a preservation trust. The KCC loan is the latest in a mix of ...