... Songs From A Locked Box BRISTOL AFTER the horrors of the Waco massacre in Texas, the world of the bizarre religious cult would seem to be fertile ground for an adventurous playwright with the contemporary touch. Uublin-bom Jane Buckler has cnosen it lor tnis cnaneng- ing piece, developed on a workshop basis by Public Parts Theatre Company and produced in association with the Bristol Old Vic at ...

... Veterans' bid to save the show A TRIO of veteran performers are making an 11th hour bid to save Blackpool's smallest theatre. Eccentric entertainer Ray Smith and his two variety group partners Wally Raye and Maureen Stevens have challenged television personality Anneka Rice to rescue The Queen's Theatre on Coronation Street. The intimate theatre was recently sold for just under £300,000 to a ...

... The Cholmondeleys In Cold Sweat QEH A BONUS of a Cholmondelcy performance is that long afterwards the interpretative possibilities of the images and the incongruities keep reassembling in the mind for further exploration. Cold Sweat at the Queen Elizabeth Hall continues the tradition of this all-women group and moves it I on; there is the emphasis on gender, i but a smarter style of dress ...

... Get your gown and tickling stick here KEN Dodd has plans to open an Academy of Comedy based in his home city of Liverpool. I think comedy can be taught, says Dodd. Partic ularly if young comics have the proper enthusiasm. Dodd, who is currently set on playing every single theatre in the British Isles, believes that comedy is a science, just as significant as physics or biology. And he ...

... Ah, they remember it well That's not entertainment! GOVERNMENT inspectors must act now to crack down on Yuppie party promoters who make thousands of pounds as unlicensed entertainment agents, say angry musicians. The demand follows a complaint to the Department of Employment agency licensing department from a bandleader furious with firms who have exploited out-of-work players. He tipped ...

... The Orange Penguin THE ROXY IN THIS Oliver Twist fur Modern Times, the Artful Dodger isn't much different real ly, while Sykcs becomes a flash leather jack eted boy, desperately clawing his way on the bottom rungs of the petty crime ladder. I he targets however are new; Thatcherite values, Canary Wharf, the trappings of Yuppie cul ture and beaded car seat covers all fall before some brilliant ...

... A Hope For This World RANDOLPH STUDIO THIS tale of the ultimate marketing scam is certainly not a laughter puller but in look ing at the power of television, the massive worldwide arms trade and the human fail ings of greed and gullibility this made a powerful satire. A stark theme, it had a stark setting of a prison cell where Annie is confined for hav ing tried to kill Samson Gross. As the ...

... Ubu THEATRE WORKSHOP THE acclaimed Nada Theatre from France brings this incredible adaptation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu to Theatre Workshop and, with a cast of thousands--two humans and throngs of fruit and vegetables, it has to be seen to be believed. Actors Guilhem Pellegrin and Babette Masson are brilliant as Ma and Pa Ubu, he petulant as a gross delinquent child, she a plumed termagant in ...

... Brilliant Traces RICHARD DEMARCO'S GALLERY HENRY chooses to live by himself in the wilderness of Alaska. His solitude is broken when Rosannah stumbles in out of a white- out. This sudden meeting, the certainty that they will be trapped together for a long time gives both of them the possibility of facing truths they've spent their lives ignoring. The bareness of the set speaks volumes about ...

... The Flight Of The Snake THE CHURCH OF THE GERMAN SPEAKING CONGREGATION THE POET wars with the world but spout ing many idealistic notions for improving humanity's lot. But his target is humanity in the abstract rather than the examples he lives with or has dirty financial dealings with. Aiding and abetting him in his determi nation to lead a free life are his first wife Harriet and his second ...

... Julius Caesar SCOTTISH OPERA JULIUS Caesar has been given a brand new production, a collaboration between Scottish Opera, Theater im Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafen and L'Opera de Montpellier. Handel's graceful baroque music is wonderfully complemented by a truly original and thoroughly 20th century production. The opera tells the story of Caesar's love for Cleopatra, and the intrigues and battles ...

... The Rake's Progress GLYNDEBOURNE TOURING OPERA JOHN Cox's famous production of The Rake's Progress has been revived by Glyndebourne Touring Opera's Artistic Director Aidan Lang. The production is a must-see if only for David Hockney's designs. Although originally for the 1975 Glyndebourne production, they are as freshe innova tive and as exciting as ever, and trans form Stravinsky's rather ...