... Arabella Glyndebourne Richard Strauss' last collaboration with Hugo von Hoffmannsthal is one of the most sophisticated of his operas, an involved and slightly ridiculous comedy which has a darker side than Der Rosenkavalier. It is also set in Vienna, the gaiety of the city being more muted, as befits a period when the empire was disturbed. Julia Trevelyan Oman's designs are opulent, the cos ...

... A scattering of comic games Belfast Stones in His Pockets Possibly suggesting a children's j game or something more serious in a house-breaking or street attack, no serious solution is prompted for the title or purpose of Marie Jones' new play Stones in his Pockets at the Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education. It is appropriate for its uneasy poise between two sides of the ...

... Beatrix Chichester There can be few who have not been introduced to the Beatrix Potter books when young- and most retain a warm affection for them throughout life. Beatrix, at the Minerva, is a reflection, mostly in the later period of her life, adapted from her own writings, by Patrick Garland and Judy Taylor. The action takes place in the kitchen of Hilltop Farm, Sawrey in Beatrix's ...

... King Lear Canterbury/Touring That game little company The Naked Pony created a memorable production of King Lear at The Big Top in the Westgate Gardens. With six cosmopolitan actors, a kitchen chair, a few slides and costumes seemingly from Oxfam, it proved that Shakespeare's words are as fresh and universal as ever. The production by Hadrian Garrard is a radical reworking of the famous ...

... Finessing the score Spitalfields Market Opera The Mother of Us All American composer Virgil Thomson collaborated with Gertrude Stein on two unusual operas, though today they might more accurately be called music theatre. The Mother of Us All centres upon the career of Susan B Anthony, a 19th Century feminist who fought tirelessly for women's suffrage. Thomson's score is suffused with the ...

... Madama Butterfly Clonter Clonter Opera Farm has already gained a considerable reputation as a training ground for young musicians and for providing a unique showcase for their talents in the most beautiful pastoral setting. This summer, Puccini's romantic opera Madama Butterfly is performed in the original Italian and once again designer Christopher Woods has risen to the challenge of the long ...

... A Perfect trip and wiser for it Leeds A Perfect Ganesh A holiday in India becomes a journey of serf-discovery and the perceived wisdom is that the effects of such a journey never quite wear off. The two New England housewives in Terrence McNally's A Perfect Ganesh, given its UK premiere at the West YorKsnire Kiaynouse, return mucn wiser. Problems and anxieties remain, but at least they will ...

... The Yellow Wallpaper/ Who Can Tell? Berwell/Touring If you want chill factor ten, two performers/directors will have you stifling your shrieks as they stray unwittingly into the supernatural. in me reuow waiipaper, a woman yields slowly but surely to the attic room prescribed by her physician husband. His shadowy presence, the dis- creetest manipulation, pushes her step by genteel step through ...

... Kitchensink Dublin Festival The sprawling limits of the Dublin suburbs are the subject of Paul Mercier's latest production with the Passion Machine Theatre Company, currently showing at Andrew Lane's Theatre. The stage is set with the cement brick outline of a house soon to exist, and it is this skeleton around which the drama revolves. Numerous characters visit and inhabit this house. It ...

... Anniversary well celebrated Frimley Green Wally Dent Entertainments To celebrate his 30 years in showbusiness, Wally Dent is staging two separate presentations of his artists. The first, held at the Lakeside Country Club, showcased 15 acts to the talent scouts. Compere Scott Chartton was not altogether comfortable weld ing the fragmented show together, but used the brief opportunities to ...

... Talk Entertainments Lowestoft The Brown Boat Suite at the Wherry Hotel was an unusual and sophisticated setting for a variety showcase. Not the usual dark, smoky club, but an enormous, magnificent conservatory perched on the edge of Oulton Broad. Each session of the show was opened by dancers from the Master Agency appearing as the The Viva Floor Show. A touch of glamour never goes amiss at ...

... The Cure at Troy Derek Smith Link Theatre Ireland's troubles have taxed and frustrated many great minds over the years, and many lesser ones, with parallels drawn with every recent event possible to try to make sense out of the embittered situation. Nooei laureate seamus Heaney leafs back even further through the history books and adapts the Sophoclean tale of Philoctetes and the stagnating ...