... Carmen Miranda. Tony Slattery is at the opposite end of the camp spectrum, so butch that imperish able lines like, If you dare speak to an officer like that, I'll scream the place down lose their limp- wristed edge. His finest moment comes with the best song ...

... Ophelia and the dashing Horatio of Ben Mangham, and the ghost scene is outstanding thanks to Middleton's reverberant verse speaking. Tim Seely's Polonius is a bit of a dry stick, but I enjoyed his droll Gravedigger acHibtwng through a first night hitch ...

... mime, impressions and illusion all in a very short space of time. I admit to 'reading' their act very carefully as, without speaking, they moved through their thoroughly enjoyable pro gramme. The very essence of an international act is that it could be produced ...

... fairly explodes with originality, danger and excitement. The dialogue, from artistic director Marcus Romer, is realis tic teen-speak but it carries the weight of emotional truth and has profound insight. Actors Michael Jameson and Sarah Turton each have a ...

... particular adopts an excessively enunciated actorish voice but slips into her natural Northern Irish accent according to whom she speaks. Why she had to modify her accent is beyond me, unless a northern accent is taken to signify lower class. In the same vein ...

... mud and monstrous anger of guns percolating the warmth and affection of the two best known war poets. The set is nothing to speak of but Nick Elsworth's direction is faultless. This is a curate's egg of a play but neatly constructed out of not much at all ...

... himself is a Scottish playwright sickened by the back biting and self-seeking he finds in the capital, pursuing truth and plain speaking with dogged deter mination and finding himself defeated by the rejection of an idyllic life with the woman he loves because ...

... value, there is not very much to Valley Song. But, it does possess one rare and valu able quality that it will continue to speak to you long after you have left the theatre. Phil Gibby ...

... separate monologues, we first meet the woman (Fiona Ramsay), an articulate neurotic with a cheerful, rallying sense of humour, speaking straight out to the audience about her homicidal daydreams and hinting at a dark history of mental illness. The man (played ...

... of production detail to make the time and place convincing, and girlish embraces and high hairdos are not enough. When not speaking a line, the rest of the cast is left hanging around trying to look sultry and Latin, and rarely succeeds. The great virtue ...

... little oppor tunity to escape hearing LJoyd Webber's pop tunes over and over again. Joseph really has no substan tial plot to speak of, so Ria Jones has the rather unenviable task of linking the endless songs with a desperately contrived sung through narration ...

... like something Boy Scouts build at their summer camp and never quite finish. Cruso, as he calls himself, hardly speaks, Friday speaks not at all because his tongue has been cut off. So when Susan Barton is washed ashore, she is the only one to carry ...