... Jason's children. But for the most part, Lochhead's Medea concentrates on the brutality heaped upon the central character who speaks with the clipped, accented English of a refugee in a land where Broad Scots is the mother i tongue by the men who have power ...

... have contrasting strengths. Two comic characters or mad hatters with suits and bowler hats provide the slapstick comedy. They speak into teacups, cart wheel and somersault across the stage, climb ladders that go to nowhere and recite obscure verse. Other ...

... with great dynamics and giving the wonderful cast a lot of creative freedom. Consequently, Roy Barraclough plays the soft- speaking patriarch Rafe Crompton with Shakespearean magnetism opposite Anny Tobin's engaging Daisy Crompton. The entire cast, however ...

... But at the same time, it is a production which lacks a real heart and sense of awe. Part of the trouble for non- German speaking members of the audience is that the subtitles give the full, Shakespearean text, with no regard to the cuts or added asides ...

... intimacy of the venue. He struggled to stay in character and was only really comfortable when he had to do some big action or speak with raised voice. But he grew in confi dence as the play, directed by Joe Sumston, progressed. Its dramatic, open ending is ...

... feels less than at arm's length from the action. Maureen Beattie, in the demanding role of Hester, has a desperate way of speaking and holding her body to indicate searingly at times the hopeless ness of her character's situation and the nature of the ...

... Ariel as a wispy length of blue silk, a hermaphrodite with puppet head and arms manipu lated by Roman Stefanski, who also speaks the words. His gently smiling, mercurial figure will remain as my strongest memory nf this nrodnrtinn John Thaxter ...

... delivery means some resonance is lost, height ened by the fact that, at points, Gunstock trips over his lines and other actors speak above each other. Among other performances, Outreds petulant Ophelia develops into a moving study in madness and Michael McEvoy's ...

... by Polka Theatre and the David Glass Ensemble in the aptly-named Off the Wall. In little over an hour, sculptures move and speak, paintings talk, a Henry Moore spins upside down and computer generated graphics deconstruct abstract paintings. We have video ...

... story, subtly altering mood and tempo. He also excels at bringing the audience out of their shells for an en masse attempt at speaking like a ventriloquist. Wayne Grady ...

... keeps the flow going, but a flatness in delivery gives the impression rather of a mere vehicle through which the characters speak and, almost unforgivably, his island accents verge on parody. Additionally, the stated link of the piece to other disaporas ...

... of the programme, Forgotten Land, danced to Britten's Requiem and dating from 1981. Yet It is Paul Lightfoot's evoca tive Speak for Yourself, caught between the two Kylian pieces, which remains most in the memory. Inspired by JS Bach's The Art of Fugue ...