... The Plantagenet Saga NAG'S HEAD CONDENSING eight Shakespeare historical plays into an evening's performance is a feat achieved with exceptional success by Kenneth McClellan--a one-man dramatic compilation, coherently put together with great attention to detail, continuity and sustained erest for the Wandsworth Theatre Campaign, at the Nag's Head, Battersea. From Richard II, through the ...

... Jumpers LEATHERHEAD TOM STOPPARD'S play Jumpers, about gymnastics-- oris it about abstract philosophy, metaphysics, or theology, was well received at the Thorndike, Leatherhead. The audience guffawed without necessarily accepting the more obvious witticisms and laughed gently in case there was something in the abstract which, in any case, Frank Thornton made to sound, funny. He starts well ...

... GRAVESEND ASTUTE READERS will notice that both Gravesend and Dartford are presenting Cinderella this year, although the towns are only six miles apart. Dartford, as previously reported in The Stage, has taken the clash in its stride But for Gravesend, returning to panto after three years of Christmas Crack ers, it's a blow they could have done without. Producer Bob Bruce is still seething ...

... DARTFORD ONE of the most popular and oftenperformed pantomimes, Cinderella, was the choice of both the Orchard, Dartford, and the theatre at nearby Gravesend. A pity one of the two could not agree to give way and stage a different panto, since two Cinderellas in such close proximity cannot but have an adverse effect on the box office of each At Dartford Dickie Henderson (But tons) and ...

... LEATHERHEAD SPACE-AGE pantomimes have been shooting up in recent years and may one day out-distance the traditional Christmas show, although one suspects there will always be an element of the old tradition in the plot. Aladdin at Leatherhead was as flat as a pancake on the first night until blast-off of the Royal Palace. Then the show lifted as modern youth recognised the thrust that sent a ...

... BROMLEY THE AMERICAN musical, The Wizard of Oz, is the Christmastide show being staged by the Churchill, Bromley, until January 21 It is puzzling that the man agement chose to ignore the never- failing demand for traditional panto mime and put on a play that does not include audience participation and is not in a British setting. Popular comic actor Charlie Drake was completely wasted, ...

... POOLE RADIO AND television have now taken over from the pop world in providing new stars for pantomime, and at the Towngate this Christmas, both Sally James, the Tiswas girl from ITV, and Radio One disc jockey Dave Lee Travis have been making their pantomime debuts in Aladdin. Sally has the title role and very at home in the part she proves, estab lishing a quick rapport with the audience, ...

... Who's Playing God? BAR NET A SUPERIOR and' somewhat contemplative thriller, Who's Playing God?, shows that the Barnet Theatre Company, back at their usual home, Batnet College, after an abortive involvement with the proposed All Saints Arts Centre in Whetstone, is a group to be reckoned with. The company's artistic director John Sichel not only directs the play but gave the idea for it to ...

... Bits of Lenny Bruce EMBASSY IT COMES as something of a surprise to discover that the material of Lenny Bruce, so brave and shocking when the comedian was himself here in 1962, now seems, if not quite tame, at least acceptable. Danny Brainin s revue Bits of Lenny Bruce, a durable little pro duction which started at the Kings Head and then moved to the Open Space, is the inaugural offering in ...

... Better Days Better Knights BRIGHTON IT IS POSSIBLE to see what Stanley Eveling is getting at in this Better Days, Better Knights but less easy to see why. Presented in the form of an en counter between a knight errant on the point of superannuation and a Water Sprite who seeks to become mortal by marrying him, it conveys little more than a fairly trite comment on the human condition and ...

... On the Spot BROMLEY THE FULL-FLOWERING of the American gangster development of the thirties, as presented to the English in the novels, films and plays of the period, is being recaptured admirably in Edgar Wallace's On the Spot. But I wonder how the younger generation, who do not have that background to recall, are assessing the credibility of the play. Probably they are a little puzzled by ...

... Headstones ACTIVATE CALL YOURSELF a James Dean fan and you don't even know that his favourite book was The Little Prince? So sneers Matthew Solon contemptuously as the fan whose entire life is haunted by his dead hero. And the fury of dedication of prov ing yourself the truest fan and the one who really understands the soul behind the star is seen throughout Headstones, a captivating first ...