... Keepers Hampstead Theatre Are humans the cruellest animals on the planet? In Michele Winstanley's debut play, which is set in an underfunded zoo, Maggie--one of the keepers--finds in her relationship with a female chimp a shared emotional language, something mat is missing rrom ner loveiess life. Like Doctor Dolittle. she talks to the animals, and they talk back even if it is in sign ...

... Child star truly comes of age Vaudeville Madame Melville While Hollywood visitors regularly reshape their reputations on the London stage, it was bold to cast the untried, former child star Macaulay Culkin in a major West End role. But Richard Nelson's new play and production, if not the Vaudevilles wide open spaces, are perfectly tailored to his talents as a likeable 20-year- old with ...

... Two Women Soho Theatre Not to push a major analogy, but it has always struck me how Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series studiously steers clear of the areas we now term 'urban' or 'youth'. Of course this has never been his brief, sticking to what he knows, and so it is intriguing to see how rising playwright Debbie Green pushes out the frontiers of the format in the third of the theatre's ...

... Sparkleshark Derby/Touring Image is everything at school and geeks are top of the list for bullying. They come no geekier than Jake, the central character of Philip Ridley's outstanding play for young people, directed for the Touring Partnership by Suzy Graham-Adriani and based on the original National Theatre production. Jake (Ali Sichilongo) is black, bespectacled and blazered. A school's ...

... God's Gift Dublin Theatre Festival: O'Reilly Theatre Novelist John Banville turns to the stage and offers a new version of the classic comedy Amphitryon, performed by Rarabbas the company After the battle of Vinegar Hill in 1798, General Ashburningham (Paul Meade) returns home to his loving wife only to find there has been an imposter in his bed. Not just any imposter but Jupiter him ...

... Doctor Dolittle Glasgow There is something strangely satisfying about seeing one of Britain's best-loved comedians being thoroughly upstaged by a giant slime-exuding snail. It is a phenomenon which persists throughout Leslie Bricusse's musical. The animals are the stars from beginning to end. An exhaustingly joyous show, it boasts catchy numbers familiar from the Rex Harrison film of the ...

... The Man with the Absurdly Large Penis Young Vic Studio Rob Young's one-hour mono- drama uses the plight of the title character as a vehicle for exploring the range and nature of human sexuality. Cursed with a fictional condition that makes his organ half the size of his body, John (Laurence Harvey) must take great care to avoid arousal, since the rush of blood from his brain is life ...

... Local Boy Hampstead Theatre One of the highlights of this venue's A4E season has been the quality of work commissioned for young people. Following in the footsteps of Philip Ridley and Simon Block comes Roy Williams, whose Local Boy tells a 70-miniitp stnrv nf the trials and tensions affecting west London's Juventus All-Stars five- a-side football team. As their coach, Donna, rallies the ...

... A Summer's Day Old Red Lion Slawomir Mrozek s 1983 play, in a new translation by director David Graham-Young, is a wry and comic survey of topics from sexual politics to existential angst, dressed in the deceptively light guise of a comedy of manners. Two men meet in a deserted park, startled to discover that they both have come to commit suicide. One is a perennial loser fed up with being ...

... Electric Lipstick Dartford/Touring We are told to get it on and enjoy the party, as this glam-rock spectacle at the Orchard sets out to scandalise and shock but most importantly satisfy our need for those classic tracks from revered bands such as T-Rex, Slade and Sweet. But although songs like Cum on Feel the Noize, 20th Century Boy and Let's Stick Together get the mainly fortysomething ...

... The Stratagem and Other Stories Hampton Wick Now known as the Rose and Crown Theatre and with the newly- formed Horla group in residence, this venue retains the legacy of Horia's forerunner GRiP Theatre, which gave its present incumbents the opportunity to develop their nresentational skills. Horia's opening production, on a flagstone setting by Tracy Waller, is an exercise in white- face ...

... Emma Northampton Vilma Hollingbery and Michael Napier Brown's remarkable new adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, at the Royal Theatre, has succeeded in bringing every character to life in such a way that you feel you know them personally. Ray Lett's very contemporary staging features huge white gauze sheets, and his use of the stage revolve sits comfortably with this delightfully humorous 19th ...