... Given these momentarily con fusing exigencies, however, this production at the Drama Centre had quality. Everybody could speak verse intelligently and with beautiful clarity and pace. The two 'great and terrible figures' (Mark Blythe and Vanessa O'Neill) ...

... from a cocoon and a row of quivering, eye-rolling turnips waiting for the chop are especially memorable. The human characters speak in a weird language of guttural sounds and half sentences which detracts from, rather than adds to, the excellent miming skills ...

... people get confused all the time we are told, as well as: Nobody really knows what Hamlet is saying, because he tends to speak metaphorically. All this (rather nifty) irrever ence is embraced by a cast of excellent actors (particularly Roderick Robertson ...

... these different facets of the char acter were unerringly portrayed by Colin Maclachlan. It is Raymond, the elder son, who speaks the words about the river being full of dead fish and incurs his father's wrath by refus ing to follow in his footsteps by ...

... the actor's Dr Faustus, taking over the part to the extent of making the actor sign away his soul to the devil in blood. Speaking almost entirely in character, a double tension is built up as the actor begins to suspect that far from playing a character ...

... They never get any credit, and most theatregoers could past one by in the street without being any the wiser. Would English speak ing audiences have embraced Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist if it hadn't been for the flair of Gavin Richards? Is Brenton's ...

... Afterwards, however, he grew in stature as the play progressed to its brilliantly organised final duel. Showing an ability to speak the words with complete under standing, he invested the part with a blazing sincerity. As Claudius, Michael Cadman bestrode ...

... the performance of the evening comes from Ian Angus Wilkie as a mute yes-man and potential fall-guy, whose deadpan portrayal speaks volumes with a mere gesture. John Thaxter ...

... characters fitting into a carefully assembled jigsaw of hierarchies and relationships. There was clarity too, in the actors' speaking of the text, their phrasing making the meaning crystal clear. It was a production which holds the attention and offered many ...

... and comedy of manners. The trouble is that although the Cambridge University Marlowe Society's tradition of excellent verse speaking is maintained, Shirley's verse is basically undramatic, and no amount of restless pacing and fist clenching can energise ...

... trasts and jokes. Hermia and Lysander, excellently played by Charlie Fane and Gavin Miller, are young leather clad lovers who speak Shakespeare's professions of love beautifully. Ian Harris' Demetrius is a nerd in a ponytail while Ruth Bennett's endearing ...

... part. This also applied to Janet Dibley in her scene as Morris' mother, lying in a hospital bed fol lowing four strokes yet speaking in a voice as strong and clear as a bell! She also played the role of Normans wife Annie, but it was as Connie that she achieved ...