... PICNIC BRIAN E. COOK'S crop of second year drama students at Arts Educational distinguished them, selves in the production of Picnic' by William Inge at their Golden Lane Theatre. It was essentially a team effort by the cast of 11. but Katherina Fay's portrayal of the school teacher aunt deserves particular praise. Miss Fay was totally believable, and her tim ing and stage presence were excel ...

... PRIVATE DICK A PACKED first-night house acclaimed the brilliance of the latest transfer from the Edinburgh Festival, when Private Dick opened at Hampstead's New End Theatre. With a bevy of awards behind it and the company already, including a prestigious Edinburgh Fringe First expectations ran riign. we were nui disappointed. The low-key start, as novelist Raymond Chandler sketched in the ...

... SUNDERLAND THE magic of pantomime takes the stage for a season at Sunderland Empire Theatre with a commend-ably child-centred adaptation of Babes in the Wood. The co-opted characters of Maid Marian and Robin Hood and his merry outlaws havo been thrown in for good ure and the show offers a delightful blend of comedy, gaity, songs and dancing with Frank Ifield a firm favourite as principal ...

... STOCKPORT JERRY JEROME and Roberta Pett's Dick Whittington at the Davenport, Stockport got off to a flying start with a full house on its opening night. Stars of the show, the Rockin' Bernes, are well backed by the sup porting cast which keep the show going at a fast tempo. Cannon and Ball who quickly win the support of the children as Idle Jack and Tom Sausage provide most of the comedy in ...

... Romeo & Juliet GROVE IF THE idea of the tragic chapters of Shakespeare's greatest love story unfolding in the cramped upstairs room of a Hammersmith pub strikes you as a recipe for disaster or boredom or both, then think again. For the Grove Theatre's produc tion of Romeo and Juliet benefits from some intelligent editing and surprisingly strong performances so that some two hour's worth of ...

... Jubilee Too NEW END IT IS SMALL wonder that the natio nal tour of this new play by Stephen Jeffreys has been extended. It is a piece of absolute tension, created in the writing, the characterisations and the situations and then punched home in the production by John Edward Adams. The setting by Ber nard Culshaw a deformed cruci form tilt of khaki-green has the same element of surprise with its ...

... Angels Descend On Paris ALBANY EMPIRE WITH THE commercial theatre largely in the sickly grip of feeble revivals and even feebler new plays, it is once again left to the fringe to take the risks. That writer Noel Greig is not averse to taking a few risks is clear enough in this chilling evocation of life in Paris and Berlin, between 1934 and 1940, as the Nazi net tightens. And if Greig is ...

... HARLOW ITS NOT the most accurate title for this new thriller--what is under the television lens here is power. Joe Dunlop's second play to receive a national staging is a three hander. adequately directed by the producer David Kirk and very nicely designed by William Greer. We are in a luxurious-looking flat in central London only the block is due for demolition and this love nest for a ...

... BRISTOL RICHARD COTTRELL, whose five years as artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic are coming to an end, bid farewell to the Theatre Royal with a production of which was magical in every sense. This was easily the best Shakes pearean offering by the company for many a moon, midsummer or other wise. Cottrell and his engagingly young cast stressed the traditional view of The Dream, with ...

... MANCHESTER MIRACLES are just fables and sin is a banned word to the with-it Reverend Gavin Faber Rector of St Barnabas Without. That is until an empty fridge is suddenly filled with fish and frozen chips in time for the visit of the equally mad Bishop. When wine replaces mineral water the Rector is a changed man. That is the situation which John Mortimer contrives in The Bells of Hell ...

... Alice the Ripper YOUNG VIC UNDER THE pretence of providing a pound's worth of entertainment to the unsuspecting punter, and that (according to the press release) under the bawdy farcical format, there is a serious look at attitudes to rape a review might see a worthwhile show. But one is presented with a tatty non -script. It is a series of unimaginatively written songs which bear no ...

... Arthur FOOTSBARN THEATRE COMPANY OCCUPYING a few square feet of Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith, the Cornwall-based Footsbarn Theatre Company presented their only London performance of Arthur on July 7. It is an immensely enjoyable romp through the myths and legends sur rounding the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, whilst presenting us with a continual confrontation ...