... Mother Goose WATFORD THE BIRD is big, soft and fluffy, Billy is really silly, and Mother Goose has more than a little trouble with her knicker elastic. In other words it s panto time at the Palace again and, oh yes, the first night audience had a rocking time. In fact it was hard to say who enjoyed Mother Goose more, the actors or the audience. That's one of the beauties of Roy Hudd becoming ...

... Aladdin WORTHING THE MAGICAL splendours one always associates with a stag ing of Aladdin are fully realised in Worthing C'.onnaught Theatre's production of the pantomime quick-fire dialogue, exotic costumes conceived and designed in the grand manner and attendant scenic effects all contributing to die overall impact of the show. The fact that the Connaught is playing to capacity houses ...

... Jungle Book WYTHENSHAWE I HE FORUM Theatre in Wythenshawe, which was forced to close because of lack of funding, was able to open its doors to the public once more over the Christmas period thanks to commercial sponsorship. The production they chose for the occa sion was Neil Duffield's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book which Roger Haines has directed with style as well as composing ...

... 'ABSENT FRIENDS' AT THE GARRICK PHILIP GLASSBOROW REVIEWS Opened July 23 THE TWINKLE in one of Alan Ayckbourn's eyes is deliciously offset by the jaundice in the other, and his comedies usually mix compassion and cynicism with an exquisite deftness. But in his new play, Absent Friends, at the Garrick, the bitter seems to have all but overwhelmed the sweet. To be fair to the play, I feel ...

... COLCHESTER DOUGLAS WATKINSON'S first stage play, Let's Do It My Way, was loudly applauded on the opening night of its premiere at Colchester's Mercury. Deservedly so. for after a rather slow start the comedy builds up and is sustained until the final curtain. The play is set in the weekend cottage of young William and Nancy Walker. Nancy is a dra gon when she's roused, but adores Willie ...

... 'IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS' OPEN SPACE THE GOETHE Institute helped considerably by patronage to bring to the Open Space John Prudhoe's Manchester produc tion of Iphigenia in Tauris, in the director's translation. With the drama of Iphigenia's period at the hands of Thoas, King of Tauris, Goethe presents an exa mination of moral principles in an abstract way. This provides an interesting ...

... 'ROHAN AND JULIE' E15 ANDREW DAVlES's Rohan and Julie, another variation of the Romeo and Juliet story, takes place in modern Belfast; he is a Protestant. Rohan Morrison. She is a Catholic, Julie Cafferty. The hot sun of Verona is here the bomb-scorched pave ments. the elegance of rapier and dagger has become the flick of a sharpened knife and the blast from an automatic pistol. Women in ...

... BUSH 7:84 THEATRE Company are very clever; they have a play bv a white liberal on the problems of race and colonialism that makes its point in something less than twenty min utes. They then persuade an au dience to pay up to 90p to sit in acute discomfort for three hours and mesmerise them into applaud ing exactly the twisted morality apparently deplored by using one superb actor, Roger Sloman ...

... MOUNTVIEW AS HARRY in the Mountview Theatre School production of Staircase, Chris Lovegrove gave a performance on April 14 which, although it could have afforded to be more restrained, was subtle enough to arouse a degree of intelligent interest in the character The mis chievous delight he took in the preparation of a sickly concoction for Charlie deserved a more imagi native response from ...

... The Kids from 47A I ATV, August 22, 4.50 BINNY'S NOVEL, by John Kane, provided an enjoyable half-hour's viewing. It was interesting because although presumably directed to all children, this episode was a story for girls. This is unusual in that, over a lengthyperiod of intermittent viewing of children's programmes it is tne rirst time l have ever come across a drama designed in the ...

... Spokesong TOURING ACTORS, a pianist, a handful of flats, and an assortment of bicycles provided me last week with the most enjoyable evening in the theatre for a long time. The occasion was the King's Head Theatre production of Stewart Parker's Spokesong at the Warwick University Arts Centre. The play is set in a bicycle repair shop in Belfast in the early seventies with flashbacks to ...

... DO YOU REMEMBER that child hood dream in which heaven was an everlasting box of sweets? Do you even remember that scene in ''I'm Alright, Jack'' in which the unwilling management trainee disgorged the result of his conducted tour into the machine productions next weeks miv 1 1 iwv. 1 1 h i v pi ...