... Trades Club Summer Spectacular 1995 Blackpool For the second successive sum- mer the show at the Trades Club, Chadwick Street has been handed over to the adventurous Jimmy i Nairn. And rather than play it safe with the usual wheel-'emon, wheel-'em-off collection of acts he has put together a themed produc tion which rattles along at a pace that shames bigger budgeted main theatre shows. ...

... Stan Boardman/ Eric Delaney Blackpool Sundays in Blackpool's Pleasure Beach Paradise Room sees a change of emphasis- with the Little and Large show taking a well deserved break. In their place is a lower profile double header featuring the Blackpool based Eric Delaney Band and Liverpool fun nyman Stan Boardman. At 71 years old, Delaney is nothing short of a showbusiness phenomenon. It is 61 ...

... Enjoyment at the right price Bournemouth The Magic of the Musicals Not a summer show, as such, this is an entertainment which features two well known singers fronting a five piece band. That it succeeded admirably in satisfying holidaymakers at the International Centre's Tregonwell Hall reflected the fine output of work from Jacqui Scott and Mark Rattray with musicians Julian Reeve (MD), Simon ...

... Tony Bennett Royal Festival Hall Watching Tony Bennett, the thought occurred to me that had he made his career in Britain he would not still be packing out the Royal Festival Hall only one year off the three score and ten. By and large, Britain does not cherish its great singers, whereas in the States they can go on work ing as long as they wish. But there is another reason for Bennett's ...

... Doppelganger Overseas House Steven Horrobin has written a stunning little one-acter in Doppelganger. Self-important Detective Inspector Claire, renowned for get ting confessions, is interrogating one John Smith about the suspi cious suicide of the man whose wife Smith is having an affair with. But instead of peeling away the layers of Smith's alibi to reveal his guilt. Claire finds himself ...

... Invasion of the Cathode Rays Pleasance Glitzy and satirical, this tribute to the worst excesses of the fifties American B-movie genre is an enter- tainine mismatch of ideas. In the smallest of the six Pleasance venues, an elaborate system of drapes, flats and plac ards showcase Vemon Grit and Nancy Damp, rising movie stars, as they prepare to hit our screens in the famous Irving Krud movie ...

... Fingy Southside Fingy is a little play with an enor mous appetite. Young writer/direc tor Mark Robinson and a brave team of students from Hull try to deliver two plots and a history of the world in 40 minutes, on a stage the size of a postage stamp. One of the plots could be dis pensed with. The mime/romance wavers uncertainly between slap stick and melodrama, and the soul ful acting of the ...

... Bondagers Traverse Glossary sheets distributed to the audience defined a bondager as a female farmworker supplied by a farm tenant in accordance with the conditions of his tenancy. This, then, was our introduction to the six female characters in the play, and an explanation as to why we first meet them sowing seeds in a field. An unusual hybrid style forms the basis of this production. There ...

... Violent Night Overseas House /Vhat is it about straignt men ana violence? Richard Turner takes two lightwatchmen: the hormonally chal- enged youth, Birkenhead (David Jttle) and more mature Taff (Griffin 'rice, who co-wrote the play) and eaves them to work through their nitial silence to a bloodletting finish. Although Little seems rather insure with his faltering young man, ie works hard with ...

... Realist theatre at its most real Traverse 20/52 Jeremy Weller, winner of three Fringe Firsts for Glad, Bad and Mad, returns after a two year absence with realist theatre at its most alarmingly real. Those who go to see 20/52 will know that the woman who stars as Stephanie Lightfoot-Bennett, lone campaigner for justice since her twin brother Leon died in cus tody in suspicious circumstances, is ...

... Klatwa Theatre Workshop Wierswzalin Theatre's Klatwa (The Curse), by Stanislaw Wyspianski, is one of those productions which make the Fringe such an exciting place to be. The Polish company makes no concessions to language for its Edinburgh audience and many of the cultural references are beyond our ken. Yet the product is so full and the acting so emotional that it gives you more than most ...

... Out of the Blue Pleasance Richard Hoehler's series of short monologues paints a vivid portrait of New York life in the nineties. Hoehler always chooses to play the little guy. whether the construc tion worker taking a break, or the receptionist at a catalogue company dealing with telephone queries. And rather than portray his characters as losers, he finds warmth and strong personal quali ties ...