... becoming a promenade production and fits between the two disciplines. The audience becomes involved with the action as the actors speak directly to onlookers in a narrative and switch, incredibly smoothly, back to performing within the play itself. Similarly ...

... to compete with disturbing outside noise, but survived largely due to a Juliet (Amy Lloyd) as good as one could wish for, speaking the lines we all know by heart as if she had just made them up. The balcony scene is exquisite, and Lloyd gives full value ...

... and there are not that many laughs on the way. The audience needs to get used to the officialese dialogue, the characters speaking like instructions in training manuals. The shock effect diminished since the sixties, we are instead dealing with the bare ...

... shocks when she dons a light robe for her model's break in the middle section. The tools of her trade put to one side, so to speak, Jodie is now free to talk more of her private life. She recalls her childhood in South Africa, since the body is South Af ...

... production. It is loud brash and belligerent, but far too concerned to bully meaning out of the text instead of letting it speak for itself. Brett James' production has relentless noise and commotion. Actors constantly shouting their speeches may tap into ...

... Alcibiades, while Richard McCabe (Apemantus) gives his accustomed perfor mance as a shoulder-shrugging cynic. Indifferent verse-speaking and 'acting' characterise other roles. The production entertains when it should excoriate. David Blewitt ...

... undertones while being a little less successful in simple story-telling. Under Jenny Sealey's direc tion, the cast of three speak Berkoffs stage directions while following them, creating an ironic distance and a disjointed, shifting reality that fits Poe's ...

... resolved in either woman's life, but both are better prepared to cope with the decisions and difficulties ahead. The programme speaks of analogies to Alice in Wonderland and Theseus in the Underworld, but what comes across most strongly is the relationship ...

... singing talent. Philippa Stanton as Little Voice achieves the difficult balance in a convincing perfor mance that quietly speaks of the girl's unhappiness and conjures up her knockout singing voice. But other characters threaten to swamp her. Ray Say ...

... com manding Prospero in this Heartbreak production. Rarely off-stage, he manipulates or watches the action throughout. He speaks the verse crisply. Posy Miller plays his daugh ter Miranda and carries a floaty white-robed, silver-headed puppet around when ...

... optimistic search for work. But forced to wave goodbye to her friends and animals, the heartbroken Matilda makes a vow never to speak again, which soon leads her into trouble with a tormenting bully (Danny Charles) at her new city school, and she runs away ...

... of younger female roles, coping as well as can be expected as Adele, given the ghastly 'Allo 'Allo French accent she has to speak in. Armen Gregory bumbles around engagingly as a number of old men. Poor Ben Tumbull has the misfortune of making his professional ...