... 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 ...

... A Slice Of Saturday Night Colchester MICHAEL PALIN once said of this Heather Brothers musical that it should be available on the National Health. Having enjoyed the Mercury Theatre's faultless and exuberant production I can only urge the Government to consider the proposal. The setting is the Club A Go-Go, circa 1964, a time when young men and women still regarded each other as alien species ...

... Crimson Lizard Leeds THE CRIMSON Lizard is not that old but it looks and sounds curiously dated, almost as if the audience is watching a revival of a vaguely remembered piece from the sixties. It has some enjoyable moments but is rather too predictable and is some times quite tedious. The central character is Croup, a psychiatric patient who adopts various outrageous disguises and in the final ...

... The Taming Of The Shrew Leeds SELDOM can an audience have laughed so much and for so long when watch ing a Shakespeare play. This interpretation of The Taming Of The shrew is supremely, gloriously funny and is without doubt a theatrical gem. Jude Kelly, the director, has chosen to set her Shrew on an ocean liner with characters clad in bizan-e but effective costumes Hortensio is dressed like ...

... A Jovial Crew BARBICAN PIT THE RSC has an honourable tradition of rediscovering lost plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries and immediate successors in its studio theatres for which the Swan was expressly built. This production opened there a year ago and has now transferred to the Barbican Pit, arranged to accommodate its arena staging by Max Stafford-Clark who made his RSC debut with this ...

... The Happy Prince OXFORD RATHER like the tragic case of Dylan Thomas, the majority of Oscar Wilde's output was completed within a comparatively short space of time. Famous and infamous for his witty, satirical plays The Importance Of Being Earnest and Lady Windemere's Fan, Wilde was also capable of ing nis nana to sngnier tnings, sucn as the delightful and beautifully drawn tale ofThe Happy ...

... The Cemetery Club Lincoln THREE cheers for whoever had the brilliant idea of bringing together Millicent Martin, Anne Charleston and Judy Cornwell in the same play. Not only have they ensured an evening of sparkling entertainment but they have more or less guaranteed Houst- Hull sipns outside a dozen provincial theatres between now and the middle of May. The play is The Cemetery Club by Ivan ...

... Crossing The Line Richmond SAM Walters, Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre, has announced that the original venue, in the room above the public house, resumes full time operations with a professional repertory company with this production, directed by Dominic Hill, who a graduate of the Orange Tree's training programme. He was responsible for the recent excellent Three More Sleepless ...

... The New Apartment (La Casa Nova) Watermans Arts Centre THIS sparkling new translation by Robert David MacDonald of Gold- oni's witty comedy uses modern phraseology' to polish the delivery of this 1 8th Century masterpiece, competently produced by Judith Hibberd and meticulously directed by Guy Retallack, with an excellent set designed by Madeleine Morris, at the Watermans Arts Centre. Zoe ...

... I he Man in The English Lunatic Asylum/The Man In The Welsh Lunatic Asylum bTCETERA I HEATRE LLUB THESE monologues explore the lives of two loopy fellows raging against injustice and being defeated by systems much larger than themselves. The writer, Bedwydd Jones, has an exquisite line in humorous pathos little men who make us laugh so that we do not crv. The Englishman who goes under the name ...

... Living In Hope Hampstead HAVt you heard the one about the American, the Irishman and the Italian? The basic premises of Bernardo Stella's new comedy at the Jack Straw Theatre appears to be that although we all react differently to given situations according to our nationalistic traits, underneath the skin we are all similar human beings. His play concerns three men who have followed their own ...

... Don Giovanni Drill Hall MualC 1 heatre Ijondon s policy is to employ singing actors rather than traditional opera singers (often drawn from former exponents of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gilbert and Sullivan). Their opera in English productions employ new translations in what they regard as a sweeping away of 200 years of operatic convention, in the search for new audiences who might be alienated ...