... The Grapes of Wrath Finborough The Steam Industry does an admirable job in conjuring the yawning expanses of the American mid-west onto a tiny stage in Frank Galati's powerful, if occasionally unfocused, adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel. It is an ambitious ensemble piece featuring a 12-strong cast. They portray the lives of itinerant workers seeing the society and the identities they knew ...

... Deadly Manoeuvres Basingstoke Gerald Moon says he is delighted that his latest comedy thriller is getting its world premiere at the Haymarket. His first contribution to the genre, a murder mystery involving twins-more 'which-wasit' than 'whodunnit', opened here before conquering the West End. So fingers are crossed that fame and fortune will strike again. This time round he directs as well ...

... Cast revel in glorious music Roval Opera House Otello Great works which fetch up in other forms usually get the thumbs down. However, with Otello, Rossini did not set out, as did Verdi and Boito, to reproduce Shakespeare's tragedy-although Byron obviously thought so: They have been crucifying Othello into an opera. True, Rossini's superb Act III, launched with an offstage gondo lier's ...

... Newcomer has plenty of style Redruth Langford Productions Showcase Somerset' s Langford Productions is a relative newcomer to the showcase scene, but judging by this stylish presentation, at the Penventon Hotel, the company will be a welcome addition. Compering a showcase is hard work, but Stevie Young's friendly energy made him the right man for the job. His skill shone through in the first ...

... Snuffhouse Dustlouse London International Mime Festival: ICA How something can be so disturbing and yet so moving is only one of the contradictions that abound in this wonderful adult puppet show by Faulty Optic. Another Hes in the way it manager to draw an audience into a world so alien that to be anything other than an observer would be to go insane. That is partly due to the fluid, natural ...

... Hie Circus Space Cabaret London International Mime Festival: Circus Space If the bendy young woman on corde lisse falls, she will break her back. If the chirpy skinhead acrobat loses concentration for a second, her spiky-haired friend could be in a neck brace for weeks. For all the expressive elegance and daring involved in pushing the human body to its limits, this show is based on fear. ...

... Never Nothing from No One Cockpit It is not often that we get the chance to see contemporary Portuguese drama in the UK. Thus this fluid adaptation, by Eduardo Barreto, of a play by Luisa Costa Gomes is to be welcomed. Watching its examination of the possible roles for women in a modem urban society, it is not hard to imagine the impact it must have made in Portugal, where women first got ...

... Fame 2000 Dartford/Touring This new touring production may have been retitled to identify the passing of a new millennium but it knowingly retains all the traits of the 1980 feature film. Not least through Adrian Rees' design, which superbly captures the dilaidated environment of the New York High School for Performing Arts. Perhaps symbolic of this era of change is the fact that the ...

... Oreste Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House This English Bach Festival production of Handel's masterwork was the first since its premiere in December 1734, one of five operas comprising his first season at John Rich's recently opened Covent Garden venue. It is a 'pasticcio', an operatic concoction which recycles previously existing music to a libretto based loosely on Euripides' Iphigeneia in ...

... New twist for Japanese style Gate Ballad of Yachiyo Hawaii, 1919: Japanese immigrants, looking for work in the cane fields, turn on their American bosses. Alarmed by her boyfriend's involvement in the violent struggles, the young and beautiful Yachiyo (Inika Leigh Wright) packs her bags and makes for a nearby village to work for a Japanese potter, an artist keeping his ancient craft alive ...

... The Letter London International Mime Festival: Purcell Room/Touring Drama students will be familiar with the exercise of repeating a short scenario in a variety of styles to experiment with movement and gesture. Taking this simple premise to extreme lengths, Paolo Nani has produced a polished solo piece. Each vignette shares the same story, but they are preceeded by a sign post informing ...

... Gradiva London International Mime Festival: Purcell Room Total darkness is broken by a severe spotlight illuminating a cocooned figure with a giant, almost featureless head. The droning, monotonous, pulsating music begins and the figure starts to slowly move around the stage, attached to the lighting rig by an elasticated cord. The effect is frightening. Thus begins this exploration of the ...