... Fidelio COLISEUM BROUGHT IN to fill the gap caused by the cancellation of ENO's planned Ken Russell production of Tannhauser, this revival of Joachim Herz's Fidelio, startling when first seen eight years ago, now runs more smoothly as staged by David Walsh. The setting by Reinhart Zimmerman is still a stumbling block literally so at times for it is neither suitably impos ing nor atmospheric in ...

... Swansong SADLER'S WELLS LIKE MOST OF Christopher Brace's ballets, Swansong can be seen in both general and specific terms. It is about hooliganism among corrupt authorities, about injustice meted out to the defenceless. It is spare and unadorned, with the visuality coming from its violence and strength of feeling, and it whips up enthusiasm among young audience members, who recognise its ...

... LABAN CENTRE Transitions IN A WEEK when every performance at the Spring Loaded season seemed dire, it was an unexpected bonus to trudge out to New Cross and the Laban Centre and discover that this year's senior students have produced a programme almost superior to those of many small-scale professional dance groups The cumulative ettect lor the audi ence, watching five pieces by five ...

... The Great Hunger DUBLIN TOM MacINTYRE's The Greatest Hunger is based on a poem by Patrick Kavanagh, but it is questionable how much of his work Kavanagh would recognise in this current Peacock production. The words are there often used repetitively but they tend to become lost in the frenzy of activity on stage. Only the carved wooden mother figure provides any static relief. The cast's ...

... Unhappy families Charles Spencer on Original Sin in the East End ROYAL COURT A Colder Climate KARIM ALRAWI's A Colder Climate is so earnestly well intentioned that one feels guilty about not admiring it more. But despite intermittent passages of gripping dialogue, moments when Alrawi shows himself to be a writer capable of both truth and tenderness, an air of laborious worthiness hangs over ...

... Three new dancers win Royal Ballet places ROYAL OPERA HOUSE Royal Ballet School MORE THAN any other performance at the Royal Opera House, the one given annually by the Royal Ballet School incites fervent anticipation. Has a Fon-teyn or a Nureyev been nurtured in Talgarth Road? On the strength of Thursday's showing, no one dancer eclipsed his or her counterparts, but several students ...

... Hare today LIGHT HAS been shed on the London theatre mystery of the Fox and the hare. Almost a month ago Anyone ror Denis? producer Robert Fox moved in to the Young Vic with a workshop musical version of Masquerade, the book puzzle which sent thousands of in tellectual masochists off in search of a golden hare buried by author and artist Kit Williams. Despite employing a prestigious ...

... Praise for socialist play CHICHESTER FESTIVAL Theatre director Patrick Garland has been prais ed for bringing a socialist play dealing with the political hot potatoes of economic crisis and unemployment to his bastion of middle-class playgoing. The 21st annual festival season opens with Bernard Shaw's prophetic On The Rocks, in which the unemployed pay an unwelcome visit on the Prime ...

... Evoking the memory of heady nights BRADFORD Bud 'N' Ches SID COLIN'S alternative version of the Flanagan and Allen story finally made the transition from screen to stage when it opened at the Alhambra. This fine old theatre easily evoked memories of heady nights at the Holborn Empire and the Palladium, but an undeserved abundance of empty seats left one in no doubt that this was only a re ...

... Spike PENTAMETERS DIRECTED WITH bags of shoestring energy by Stanley Morris and with felicitous periodic intervention from musical director Shaun Glanville at the keyboard, this lengthy stage biography by Roy McMillan and Donald Brown successfully portrays the dual nature of its inspired subiect. Lina Paola Ferraro's set is dismal though her costume designs are fun, and really with so much ...

... Love Matters 2 CANAL CAFE WITH A double-edged title and at least one audience participation chortle, this fast-moving extended cabaret show is ideal for London's other most lnteresting cafe theatre. The expert Libby Morris is vocal mistress of ceremonies, leading her attractive crew of comics, Cass Allen a dab-hand at the lyrics the ebullient and irrepressible Philip Lowrie and the wide ...

... Relatively tragic BARBICAN Three Sisters PETER HEPPLE on an atmospheric but low-key adaptation of Chekhov ALL THE FRESH insights into Three Sisters have been used up by now, the most we can expect are different insights. But there is no particular reason why we should expect any insights for Three Sisters at all, for it is a simple but subtle play that to an extent depends upon the ...