... through a trapdoor centre stage into the darkness beneath. In counterpoint to the bleak set and formal costumes, the cast, speaking in French, seem peculiarly expressive. Pierre-Alain Chapuis as Leontes raves elo quently, rolls on the floor and tweaks the ...

... well, with neither performer managing to convey any feeling on the subject, Aladdin failing to speak all the lines clearly and the miscast Princess who did speak her lines clearly, in a piercing voice delivering every line in the same fiat manner whatever ...

... Ukrainian, with only the barest minimum of information in English, this piece is not readily accessible to a non-Ukrainian speaking audience, but the company's aim of 'trying to show spectators a world in eternal harmony,' shines through with great sincerity ...

... man as on a bare stage dressed with only the minimum of props, carol singers become actors play ing a wide variety of roles speaking in turn both Dickens' wonderful narrative as well as their own character's words. Unfortunately in this theatre-in-the- round ...

... the music of the text, though Jason Furnival shaped Demetrius' speeches with considerable eloquence. In general, the verse speaking was rather rough and ready. After a sluggish start, Benjamin Luxon as Bottom was fully transformed in Act III. The braying ...

... audience. When the madly attractive Liz Muir arrives in Paris to escape the boredom of a 22 year marriage with no sex to speak of and no companionship either, anything can happen and does. After all this is Paris and there's the good looking young waiter ...

... who else? Perhaps Shonagh Price, the princess, and Robin Cameron, the pirate, could have put a little more fire in to their speaking parts, but the latter cannot be faulted action wise. One must give credit to Graham Hunter and his team for the excellent ...

... in sympathy as Stix trains Henry up as a salesman, they never gain much understanding of each other and often, literally, speak in two different languages. Henry's plan to work in the countiy boring for water is nothing more than a pipe dream to Stix ...

... mance as Snowman. With scarcely an utterance he mimes the part with broad and instantly understandable gestures. The long speaking part of the young boy James is clearly enun ciated by Jo Castleton, who smiling ly teaches Snowman about life in the home ...

... ties as, after a house fire, a 13- year-old girl is entrusted to the care of her two aunts. To their dismay, Mary- will not speak, but clings for comfort to her stuffed toy dog. Why is she mute? Is it the shock of the fire? Or does the trauma go much deeper ...

... were the Diane Bradbury dancers and babes from the Chesterfield School of Theatre Dance. They took on a variety of dancing, speaking and singing roles including wood land creatures, marching soldiers. and the all-important seven dwarfs Brainy, Batty, Sniffy ...

... through the floor boards. Michael Maloney contrives to look passably like the photograph in the programme of Lewis Carroll, speaking with a stutter and walking as he did with an erect stance and oddly jerky movement. It is an intense performance that conveys ...