... Music and manipulation Prince Edward Mamma Mia! The fact that shows now have to be manufactured to fill large theatres has never been better demonstrated than by Mamma Mia!, which bears its marketing plan boldly before it; a couple of years in the West End, a long tour and perhaps a summer season at Blackpool Opera House. If this sounds cynical, it is because this is probably the most ...

... Whitehall Making Noise Quietly Oxford Stage Company has got off to a good start at the Whitehall with these three short plays by Robert Holman. Making Noise Quietly, the longest of the trio and which gives the title to the evening, in many ways sums up the writer. Holman is a quiet playwright absorbed not only in relationships but the background to them, in this case war, one the major ...

... Olivier Candide Because of its construction, Candide has been a notoriously difficult show to get right. Leonard Bernstein himself had trouble with it. But John Caird and Trevor Nunn seem to have hit on a style which seems as right as it can get, bearing in mind that this is not a conventional musical. In many ways, Bernstein's work is not a musical at all, but a play with songs, ...

... Hornchurch Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be Hornchurch audiences are always ready for a party, so this celebration of fifties Soho was an ideal excuse for a knees-up. The late Lionel Bart's tongue- s in-cheek view of a pre-Wolfenden f Report world has been revived by i Bob Carlton. Having consulted with Bart, he uses much more music and improvisation to extend the original show. Now we have ...

... Colchester Uncle Vanya If the Mercury Theatre Company continues to produce work of this quality, its reputation will soon be riding high. Class is stamped all over this near-faultless presentation of Chekhov's poignant comedy, directed by David Knapman and using the acclaimed Mike Poulton translation. Atmosphere is crucial in Chekhov, and Garry Spraggett's superb lighting provides some ...

... Bath Love Letters Michael Barry, founder/director of the Wessex Actors Company, has a strong track record for Thomas Hardy adaptations, and he has come up trumps again with this attractive stage version of one of the best-known of his short stories, On the Western Circuit. All the familiar Hardy ingredi ents of claustrophobic domestic life, doomed love, chirpy young girls and charismatic young ...

... Glasgow Patrick Newley The Caretaker Director Andy Arnold feels that Andrew Dallmeyer is the quintessential actor for the part of Harold Pinter's pervasive tramp Davies. It is impossible to disagree with him. For Dallmeyer's fantastic physical and vocal performance is at the heart of this Arches Theatre Company production. He is a richly detailed Davies, a rad dled riddle in ancient longjohns, ...

... Taste of sweet soul music Sheffield Sheffield Clubland Awards At the Dial House, the cream of South Yorkshire clubland gathered to see their favourite acts on stage. Sponsored and organised by The Mercury newspaper, it attracted a capacity audience and the choice of legendary Sheffield- based comedy act the Dtecoes to compere the event was extremely unusual, to say the least. It soon became ...

... Longbridge Mark Ritchie Austin Sports and Social Club Talent Final A capacity audience packed into Austin Sports and Social Club for the grand final of its annual talent competition, which is now well established as one of the leading events of its kind, and certainly the premier event in the Midlands. Nine acts appeared and with a £1.500 first prize it was clear immediately that the ...

... A mysterious, seminal Party Piccadilly The Birthday Party It is alarming to think that it is now more than 40 years since The Birthday Party received its London premiere at the Lyric, Hammersmith, being greeted with incomprehension from every critic except Sir Harold Hobson. No one would dare to say that it is incomprehensible today, and perhaps it is a measure of our maturity that this ...

... East from the Gantry Lion and Unicorn This exquisite cameo from Wales' young and vital Steel Wasp Theatre Company marries excellent and imaginative performances with a beautifully unpretentious, tight and varied script. Ed Thomas' play sees odd couple Bella (a poised Alison O'Connor) and Ron John (Nick Evans' loud but believable and unthreatening crackpot who prefers being called Ronnie) ...

... Bonded! Oval House/Touring The last two years or so have seen a remarkable coming of age of works that deal with the African-Caribbean experience as seen through European-based eyes, works that are consistently breaking down the 'ethnic' label. Considerations of industry dice aside, we should expect to see one of these take the West End by storm one day and Teata Fahodzi's Bonded! is the ...