... critical biogra phy of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell is taken from Orton's own laconic comment when magistrates imposed short prison sentences on the pair for stealing and defacing library books. The playwright's characteristic hon esty and cleverness make one pause, for not a word is mentioned in court about matters sexual and one wonders if it was an expression of homosexual paranoia which ...

... States to discover that the really big star from this side of the Atlantic, as far as the Americans are concerned, is Benny Hill, whose shows are regularly shown and re-shown on television stations across the country. But it should be no surprise, because, almost alone among British comedians, Benny Hill spotted the potentialities of television, tailored his own material, most of which he ...

... Level-headed Lulu will never be a has-been VW^ W Lohi: Her Autobiography (Grafton Books, £7.95) Lulu is one of the best examples of a sixties star who has survived, not in her case by continually trading on past glories but by developing her range, so that currently, for instance, she is proving a very worthy Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at the Prince of Wales. Somehow, however, she has ...

... dramatists rather than engaging at length the vexed and complex question of what kind of genre farce is. Aldous Huxley once suggested that Tradedy is the farce that involves our sympathies; farce, the tragedy that happens to outsiders, which is a neat summing-up. In his erudite and intelli gent essay, Feydeau and the farcical imperative, Michael R Booth contests Eric Bentley's famous view ...

... Writers stamp New British Drama in Performance on the London Stage 1970-1985, by Richard Allen Cave. (Colin Smythe, £161 The value of books like this is that they make us re-evaluate our initial response to plays that have been fairly recently produced, tracing as they do the work of the second generation of British new wave dramatists, though Harold Pinter, the subject of the first chapter, ...

... and Jacobean drama, from Shakespeare's early plays through Jacobean drama and edging into the Caroline playwrights Davenant and Suckling. An admirable bibliography is divided into three sections, historical and cultural background tneatre actors ana auaiences, ana gener al criticism of the period. Notes on the individual authors help fully provide a succinct guide for the student in need of ...

... Dear, dear Donald Rene Elvin on Donald Sinden's collection of straight-faced stories A Change of Scene: a Nostalgic Appreciation of Barrow's Theatres and Cinemas, by William M. Gibbon (from the author, 23 Lyndale Avenue, Barrow-in-Furncss, Cumbria LA13 9AR, £3.95) Two things are astonishing about this book. One is that the author is 17 years of age. The other is that it is a reminder of how ...

... with actresses, and one of the main impressions is of the varying routes these actresses took to reach what is in all cases an established niche in the profession. Only one, Eileen Atkins, had a mother who really wanted her daugh ter to go on the stage hui as a singer and dancer rather than a serious actress. Most of the others made a con- ?cious dedsior to gc into the theatre, out from ...

... An Affair To Remember: My Life With Cary Grant by Maureen Donaldson and William Royce (Macdonald, £12.95). Now let's make sure I've got all this straight, said 27-year-old Maureen Donaldson to Cary Grant soon after they met in 1973. You are 69 years old, your life is totally devoted to your daughter, and you have no room for anyone else. And you are an accused tightwad and homosexual. But ...

... File oa Dario Fo, compiled by Tony Mitchell; File on Shcpard, compiled by John Dugdale; File on Churchill, compiled by Linda Fitzsimmons; File oa Ayckbourn, compiled by Malcolm Page (Methuen, £3.99 each) Further titles in a useful and economical series, under the general editorship of Simon Trusslcr, which all follow the same pattern a biographical chronolo gy; details of the plays themselves ...

... A sound start for beginners Sound For Theatres A Basic Manual by Graham Walne A difficult task it must be to try and put into words the 'do's and don'ts' of such a wide-ranging subject. I was glad to see that Graham Walne does not try to tell exactly how the job should be done, but carefully lists all the different methods and equipment needed to reinforce or add to a performance. In this book ...

... compiler of reference books he is of course also the film buyer for Channel I Four Leslie Halliwell has recently been showing us that, while continuing in the film field, he is a writer of stvle. For instance, his recently published Seats in All Parts is a beautifully written recollection of childhood film memories in Bolton. as wi.il as an autobiography, and now here is a strongly researched ...