... A Skull in Connemara Manchester/Touring Public parks usually house family- geared productions like Robin Hood or Alice in Wonderland. But Rocket Theatre Company has added a new dimension to open air productions with Martin McDonagh's macabre tale performed in Heaton Park. The content of this adult entertainment is dark, the humour black, and the language frank. The scene is set when a lone ...

... Libera Me Edinburgh It was not the wisest decision to stage the Flying Splinter Group's new production during Edinburgh's Hogmanay street party in the dying moments of the last millennium--most revellers looked briefly and wandered past. But when the repeat performance packed out George Street on New Year's Day, the full glory of the piece showed that little else was wrong. Devised around a ...

... The Fox Rosemary Branch Based on a short story by DH Lawrence, this singularly inadequate production is dramatically inert and devoid of emotions. It is the sort of evening in which you imagine that you can hear the sound of bluebottles buzzing in the unscheduled silences. Only Deborah Mason, as Nellie, survives it unscathed. The beginning, at least, is auspicious. Vanessa Steven's set design ...

... Children of Eden Landor This musical has been radically revised since its brief 1991 West End run, and is now an entertaining, thought-provoking and often exuberant piece. John Caird's book traces the Biblical story from the Creation to just after the Rood. That period during which Adam (Ian Brandon) and Eve (Melitsa Nicola) leave the Garden, Cain (Stephen Lloyd- Morgan) slays Abel (Joseph ...

... The Authorised Version Etcetera Andrew Cowie's latest play is a slick and fast-moving comedy of manners which unfortunately suffers from an excess of style. Trying too hard to be structurally interesting, it ends up feeling clever-clever and wastes a good deal of witty dialogue and competent acting in the process. Instead of a love triangle, we have a love quadrilateral with two warring ...

... The Fall of the House of Usher Oval House On stage, on screen and on radio, there must be hundreds of adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, some pushing plot, others mood. Disabled company Graeae has opted for the Steven Berkoff version, which attempts a psycho logical blend of both. Elements of Poe's macabre classic lurk here man in spooky house has unnaturally ...

... Paperchase Pleasance Unicom Theatre for Children's empathetic expertise is again used to exquisite effect in this hour-long celebration of a child's imagination. Or, at least in director Sue Buckmaster's production, a puppet made to look like a child. The pint-sized mannequin carted around by Adam Bennett, Peter Savizon and Stephen Tiplady is a demanding little tyke called Callum, who wants to ...

... Likeable tale of young love Sheffield/Touring As You Like It Can Shakespeare be genuinely funny, sexy and magical? It can when it is directed by Michael Grand age. Last year's Twelfth Night set a standard which seemed hard to top, but this delicious production at the Crucible is probably even better, filled with memorable images and great performances. Grandage takes the story of love and ...

... Of Mice and Men Bradford/Touring Nothing less than a frank and honest review will do for the Mind the Gap company's actors. They have earned that consideration. mis production, premienng at the Alhambra Studio, is the company's first attempt at staging a well-known story and is a remarkable theatrical achieve ment. Powerful and daring and intensely moving, it is a mighty leap forward. Its ...

... She Stoops to Conquer Huddersfield Oliver Goldsmith fretted over the audience reception for his play in 1774 -- unsurprisingly so, for this is as much a play ahead of its time as it is nostalgically reliant on the flirtatious charm of Restoration comedy. Less contrived or debauched than the plays of that earlier era and more eloquently refined than farce, which it precipitates, the play is a ...

... Meets every expectation Leeds Great Expectations Stefano Giannetti's first choreographic effort for the NBT as the company's artistic director was indeed eagerly awaited. With his international team he, however, pays tribute to two of the greatest English classics by setting Dickens' story to Elgar's score arranged by John Longstaff. In his reading of the text, Giannetti focuses on Pip's ...

... Towing a popular line Line dancing remains as popular as ever, with millions of people throughout Britain enjoying the hobby. Nita Pearson, of the British Western Dance Association, explains its appeal Line dancing has been popular in Britian for much longer than many people think. In fact, there are theories that it has been part of the UK dance scene for several decades. However, most will ...