... A Murder Is Arranged WIMBLEDON WIMBLEDON Theatre continues its courageous fight for survival with Mark Furness' latest presentation of the ubiquitous Mrs Christie, packaged with a stylish Proscenium Publications programme, plentifully illustrated, containing an erudite and well-researched article on the thriller genre by David Cheshire called Be Thrilled Be Chilled, which is at least as ...

... The art of the matter GERARD van WERSON on an artist's relation to 'real life' ALMEIDA When We Dead Awaken IBSEN'S last play--famouslj acclaimed by the young James Joyce as his finest, and although dense anc packed with thought--It is just tt prevent excessive pondering that Ibser requires to be acted--is given a fine production here, with an arresting Expressionist set by Peter J Davison ...

... Othello OFF-BROADWAY WITHOUT gimmicks and with a virtually unknown cast, William Gas- kill has proved that, with the right direction, American actors can provide a satisfying and gripping production of Shakespeare. Othello, presented by Theatre for a New Audience mainly for schools at the CSC Theatre is staged in the round, with no scenery and minimal props, but with excellent costumes by ...

... You're Gonna Be Alright Jamie Boy ETCETERA SHARP Edge Theatre company is a newly formed group who specialise in turning profits into plays by deploying the proceeds of a retailing fashion business into shows like the British premiere of You're Gonna Be Alright Jamie Boy by Canadian playwright David Freeman--who is a cerebral palsy sufferer. The play caused a furore when it was first ...

... The Scottish Ballet GLASGOW ADDING to their Russian repertoire which includes Oleg Vinogradov's Petrushka and Divertissements culled from the Kirov, the Scottish Ballet presented Vinogradov's staging of Pa quita, in a triple bill at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. In an attempt to emulate the gran deur of the 19th century classic, the company has been subjected to several months of coaching by ...

... The Real World? SOHO POLY THE REAL World? deserves its accompanying question mark because Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay poses many questions but provides no answers. The English premiere at the Soho Poly is a new translation by Alison Kcan and Lisa Forrell, who also directs. The catalyst for the action is the play which young Claude presents to his mother in which he exposes his view of ...

... The Rape of Lucretia BRITTEN THEATRE CERI Sherlock's production of this strange work, a curious combination of the angular and the graceful the lyrical and the formal, brings out well the virtuosity of the score. The modern dress used for the chorus and for the entire cast during the opening and the closing sequences also effectively point up Richard Maxwell Aylwin's designs. As the doomed ...

... The Empire BRENTFORD STEVE Shill follows his acclaimed Ode to Sir. Cecilia, an award winner in the 1989 Sunday Times National Student Drama Festival, with a three-hander, daringly imaginative in its use of the kind of dream-into-reality which the cinema and television have mastered, but which proves elusive, in the mam, in terms ot theatre at Watermans Arts Centre. On a tight-rope of fact ...

... Show Boat STRATFORD RUSSELL Craig's glorious sets fill the stage of the RSC, unfamiliarly stripped back to its original thirties pros arch. Fretted wooden decking swings in from the wings to create the traditional superstructure of the Mississippi paddle steamers against an evocative backdrop of the grey-green river and distant horizon. Together with Alexander Reid's elegant and detailed ...

... On the straight and very narrow PHILIP ANDREWS mourns an apolitical Caesar BUXTON Julius Caesar THIS IS Tim Pigott-Smith's first full production as sole artistic director of Compass Theatre since the death last year of its founder, Sir Anthony Qualye, and the safe and uninspired choice of play reeks of compromise. i ne company wanted one play, tne Arts Council wanted another, and the result is ...

... My Name, Shall I Tell You My Name YOUNG VIC STUDIO AS ITS title suggests, this play deals with the kind of old-fashioned identity crisis with which everyone can identify. Only 70 minutes long, Christina Reid's drama began life as a Radio 4 play two years ago and contains just two characters. It's the story of the uneasy relationship between a diehard Ulster Protestant called Andy and his ...

... Love Story of the Century RIVERSIDE STUDIOS THIS unremorselessly depressing play lays bare a marriage tormented by the husband's alcoholism. Two actresses (Gillian Hanna and Mary McCusker) narrate the wife's suffering in an echoing and endless exorcism of pain, guilt and hate. We bear witness to a breakdown of a relationship taunted by its early prom ise to be 'the love story of the century' ...