... A Christmas Carol Liverpool After three years of darkness the refurbished Playhouse opens with a prestigious, heart-searching production directed with sensitivity by Richard Williams. The tableau, where the poor and dejected stand on different levels before huge, towering build ings (designed by David Collis), is filled with a swirling fog. A single beam shines down on Scrooge, while his ...

... Dick Whittington and His Cat Basingstoke Glitz is there, thanks to the sparkling costumes, the glamour is there, down to Ana Boulter as Dick, and there is plenty of humour, compliments of veteran pantomime writers Christopher Lillicrap and Jeanette Ranger, but there is a distinct lack ot momentum in this production at the Anvil. Rodney Bewes as Sarah the Cook is not as quick off the mark as ...

... Cinderella Yeovil Pantoni choreographer Rita Proctor has a notable directing debut in this production at the Octagon Theatre where she has crafted a traditional pantomime treat. By the first half closer featuring a glitter coach and Shetland ponies, grown-ups have recognised the enchantment of Cinderella pre sentations long past. Yet David Lees original music and script plus high-energy ...

... Salient points among laughs Donmar Warehouse Helpless If Dusty Hughes is to be believed, Tony Blair's greatest achievement has been to antagonise both the followers of Thatcherism, presumably by appropriating many of its policies, and the quasi-revolutionaries of the sixties. Helpless is an amusing generational play which has quite a number of salient points to make in between the laughs, as ...

... Dealer's Choice Belfast Patrick Marber's award-winning play may be nearly five years old but its Northern Ireland premiere, by Prime Cut Productions, breezes into the Lyric like a breath of fresh air Not that the air is exactly fresh around its ensemble of six characters, whose existences revolve around nail-biting poker games played out in the gloomy basement of a London restaurant. Each ...

... The Rivals Basingstoke Director Alasdair Ramsay and designer Elroy Ashmore have done to Sheridan's play what many try to do to Shakespeare and fail. To inject some variation into a well tried and tested play is always a risk and to mix tradition with contemporary art is often an interesting combination. Costumes are traditional, but with a quirky addition. Each character wears the bouffant ...

... Snapshots Manchester Sibling rivalry taken to the extreme and viewed through a series of snapshots is the main theme of this new work at the Royal Exchange Theatre. Written by Fiona Padfield, it is an adult play which concerns two sisters. Catherine and Lian. They are embroiled in a confused relationship of love and hate. Jessica Lloyd and Amy Marston give fine performances as the sisters, ...

... The Flag Chelmsford/Touring Alex Ferguson's free adaptation of Robert Shaw's post-First World War novel is Northern Touring Theatre Company's spring show. As Ferguson notes, Britain had then become a vast psychiatric ward, through which the victims of Armageddon wandered raving neglected, unknown, until they died. A seven-strong cast play out the drama on Cath Young's bleak scaffolding ...

... Bath The Free State Janet Suzman's play at the Theatre Royal, in which she stars, as well as co-directing with Martin L Platt, is described as a South African response to The Cherry Orchard. It is actually a close adaptation, transposed to South Africa with inserted sequences of political discussion to illuminate the play's application to its new setting. The Ranevskys are now liberal white ...

... Taut study of sexual ethics Edinburgh Parsifal Scottish Opera has created a magnificent version of Wagner's work, the first in Scotland for 30 years. Director Silviu Purcarete has organised a stately, timeless feel to the production, but the real applause should go to music director Richard Armstrong whose conducting brings the opera to life. As the stage fades from grey to reveal the ...

... Oliver and Cinderella Hackney Empire/Touring Panto has come early, in a way and Blue Mountain Theatre is packing them in as usual, this time for a remarkably unsentimental version of the Cinderella story set in Jamaica. You may have already guessed that Cinders (Denise Pitter) is hardly a happy girl, incarcerated as she is as the maid in her step-family's home. Help comes in the form of not ...

... Money from America Pentameters The themes of this new play by Tom O'Brien recur obsessively in Irish theatre: the conflict over land, the scars the Irish diaspora left on those who went away and those who stayed behind, the baleful influence of whiskey and porter. O'Brien at first handles them deftly, but loses credibility when the plot turns into a simplistic whodunit. Phil Newman's smoke ...