... The Angel's Share Dundee/Touring There are two routes into Chris Dolan's new play, produced by Borderline Theatre and here seen at Dundee Rep. On one level, it is about the point of impact at which market-driven forces and modem technology lock horns with dusty traditions in that most hallowed of spots, the whisky distillery. The angel's share is a poetic term for the whisky that is lost ...

... Mistress of the Inn Perth/Touring This production of Carlo Goldoni's period piece will tour the Perthshire community after its run at Perth Theatre. Director Michael Winter has obviously had this in mind, as it will work better in smaller venues. As a big house production, it is very much a non-event. Peter Watson's new version is plain almost to the point of banality and there is a certain ...

... Ironmlstress Cardiff An imposing naked female figure, cast in iron, dominates the setting and action of this April de Angelis play. In its shadow, Martha, the widow of 19th century ironmaster Abraham Darby, fights to control her foundry in a man's world, gaining a reputation as an uncompromising ironmistress. But as she prepares her wilful daughter, nicknamed Little Cog, for marriage, ...

... Carmen Cambridge/Touring Sex and violence, passion in an exotic setting and irresistible tunes make Bizet's opera a favourite with audiences. From the opening bars of the overture, taken at a cracking pace by conductor Paul McGrath, this is an exhilarating production. Staged at the Cambndge Arts Theatre, it is costumed by Chrissie Madison in the latest clubbing fashions, sung in English and, ...

... The Cinnamon Veil Cochrane Presented with the chance to blend the rampages of proto-colonialism with Oriental fables, Sara Clifford has woven together an intriguing array of elements in this play, produced by Theatre Melange. Her ingenious allegory pits Vasco da Gama (Eliot Giuralarocca) against Sinbad the Sailor (Abi Gouhad) in a race around the Indian Ocean to be first to discover the ...

... Harrv and Me Croydon TV land fast, brash, self- absorbed and oblivious to reality. Ray Goodenough, the producer of The Harry Harrod Show, is the epitome of the programme he is so desperate to save. The critics hate the show, guests hate the show and even the production team hates the show. Ray (Ian Saville) will not be beaten. In a frenetic opening of bad tempers, profanity and spot on ...

... Hopeless Games Belfast Festival The vibrant dance-pictures created by the five dancers of the Russo-Geiman company Do/Fabrik are one minute lyrical, fluid, joyous and life-enhancing, the next violent, grotesque, jagged and macabre. I his was the Tirst time that the collaboration between Potsdam's Fabrik Theatre and the Do-Theatre from St Petersburg had come to Northern Ireland, but the ...

... Waiting for Godot Colchester A curved grey screen snakes its way at mid-height across the back wall of the Mercury stage, creating a false horizon on to which can be projected a moon and clouds. Trie bare minimalism of the set emphasises this stage's already echoing acoustic and heightens the significance or any thing on it a child's red scooter, Lucky's hat, all four bodies flat out. ...

... Accomplices Sheffield Can people still stand up for what they believe to be right or should they hide behind their net curtains and hope that the horrors on the street never invade their living room. Doreen the outstanding Anna Keaveney giving a powerful and moving performance tried to do the former and has paid for it ever since with her home constantly attacked and her family assaulted. ...

... The Lodger Lancaster Jack the Ripper's victims numbered far fewer than seen in the opening few minutes of most modem slasher movies five in total, slaughtered over a period of less than four months in 1888. Yet more than a century later he remains the most chronicled of senal killers in history. Marie Belloc Lowndes' best- selling 1913 novel on the subject inspired a Hitchcock movie but is ...

... Dog Well Done Finborough If you ever buy a hot dog from a street vendor, spare a thought for the web of vendetta and violence that might have provided seasoning. Potentially a microcosm for dogeat-dog capitalism, in Stephen Keyworth's play the sausage sandwich is more literally the focal point of a cycle of blood-lust perpetuated by the dog of war Grist a tyrannical bringer of economic ...

... Are Unheard Memories Sweet? Edinburgh/Touring Lung Ha's, the theatre company which provides opportunities for adults with learning difficulties, has stepped back from its large-scale productions of recent years for a more compact, touring show. Not that cc-directors and writers lohn Mitchell and Louise Ironside have compromised story telling or production values in any way. This is a ...