... Bobby Roberts Super Circus Glasgow Celebrating its tenth winter season at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, the Bobby Roberts Super Circus well merited the adjective super, in terms of both quality and quantity. Including opening and finale there were no fewer than 25 fea tured items, with some 30 human performers in the closing parade. The boss, Bobby Roberts Jnr, presented three ...

... John Ellis Big Bang Liverpool The John Ellis Big Bang is the sort of band which boldly goes where no band has gone before. To this end, it began its set with the theme from Star Trek and, it has to be said, turned in a stellar performance producing a full, rich sound from its modest ten piece instrumentation. Although there is an element of showbusiness about the band, it plays honest-to ...

... Simply weird and wonderful Purcell Room Hic Hoc When the renowned French artist Jerome Thomas introduced his Compagnie's show Hie Hoc, he was so personable that I was keen to like it, though it was evident that a juggler/choreographer taking part in the London International Mime Festival would not just juggle. First seen at the Festival de Danse Contemporaine in Le Creusot and divided into ...

... Nicol Williamson Pizza on the Park Nicol Williamson is still not a familiar figure to theatregoers under the age of 40, but for many of those buying tickets in the sixties and seventies he will always be remembered for his performance in John Osbome's Inadmissible Evidence and as one of the best Hamlets of his generation. A great classical actor then in all respects, and yet where do we ...

... International Showcase Dublin Bad weather and a veil of secrecy which surrounded this circus prior to opening at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, con spired to keep attendances low during its first week. And organis ers Edward and Robert Fossett had other problems to overcome the set didn't fit. the contortion ists couldn't get work permits and the aerial acts struggled to fix their ...

... Love Life Leeds Ever adventurous, Opera North has just staged the European premiere of Love Life, the unnerving and revolutionary masterpiece created by Kurt Weill and the 29-Year-old Alan Jay Lemer. Excoriating vaudeville turns anatomise the marriage of Sam and Susan Cooper (1790 to 1948), played out in intervening scenes, as it founders upon the reefs of industrialisation (Pro gress) and ...

... A Night at the Cotton Club Blackpool Converting the Grand Theatre in the middle of 1996's bitter winter into Harlem's Cotton Club in the middle of a 1930-something's steamy summer is not as difficult a task as it may at first seem. Take Harry Strutters Hot Rhythm Orchestra eight veteran British musicians pretty well steeped in all forms of jazz, the Jiving Lindy Hoppers six young British ...

... Dark laughs in delightful tale Purcell Room The House of Bemada Alba Take a tale of oppressive matriarchal dominance, add the directorial skill of mime artist and clown Nola Rae, shake it up with the seven-strong Theatre Manjana and a touch of brooding Spanish guitar. The result is a memorable lesson in how to turn one of ature's darkest tragedies into a laugh a minute. Could it be possible ...

... The Butlin's Story London Palladium Butlin's is so entrenched in the history of the British holiday industry that many people are surprised that it is only 60 years old, having begun with that pioneering holiday camp at Skegness three years before the outbreak of the Second World war. As far as showbusiness is concerned, the Butlin's Story, which will tour the five major Butlin's sites ...

... Le Fou de Bassan Oueen Elizabeth Hall That the French have a way with circus has been demonstrated once again by the delightful Cirque Rasposo. Its show Le Fou de Bassan is a painstaking recreation of 18th Century circus theatre, including acrobatics, static/swineing trapeze ing, clowning, balancing, corde lisse and some superb juggling. Though its inclusion in the London International Mime ...

... Snowshow Hackney Empire Slava Polunin returns triumphantly to Hackney Empire with a new show and a new sidekick--Brazilian bom Angela de Castro. You might well be taken by surprise when you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a winter storm, which engulfs the audience as well as Polunin and even blows him halfway up the aisle. The storm scene is an amazing piece of theatre which alone is ...

... Startime Variety Show Exeter Exeter's newest nite-spot, Time Out Cabaret Club, was the venue for a Startime Variety Show for which all the artists gave their time to provide funds for the British Heart Foundation charity. The evening was sponsored by the Express and Echo and attracted an appreciative audience who came to see and listen to eight acts. Before the show began, and again in the ...