... Macbeth ALEXANDRA PALACE THERE WAS a yellow flag flying from the topmost tier of the half-size reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre at Alexandra Palace. It didn't denote that the place was in quarantine, suffering from the plague, though from the absence of spectators it could well have been. The fluttering pennant indicated, as in Tudor times, that a play would be performed on ...

... Battersea Blues LATCHMERE BAD PLAYS on the fringe are legion. But Terry Gilbert's Battersea Blues is good, very good, because it sets out to be fast and funny and succeeds in being just that. If Hampstead is the London setting where the trendies usually live, he makes a transplant south of the river to Battersea, utilising all the current jokes from Filofaxes to Jeffrey Archer, edging in ...

... When seeing is believing Paul Chand sees a radio play successfully reincarnated on the London stage KINGS HEAD Artists Descending a Staircase IN STOPPARD'S fizzy, elegantly written radio play, now brought to the stage by director Tim Luscombe, misconceptions abound, easily aided by the fact that the central character, Sophie (Sarah Woodward) is blind. The three males, Martello (William Lucas). ...

... Noel and Gertie SYDNEY I'VE HEARD of out-of-town tryouts but surely Sheridan Morley has established unbeatable records with Noel and Gertie which has been seen in Hong Kong and Sydney. When it makes its West End debut in October the cast will consist only of Michael York and Patricia Hodge as the eponymous couple. Here in Sydney produced by Robert Morley's other son, Wilton we have seen the ...

... Hello and Goodbye ALMEIDA ATHOL Fugard said the two characters in this play, Hester (Estelle Kohler) and Johnnie (Antony Sher) would be an expression of moods and moments of beauty. Indeed Fugard's script is a master piece of thought, word and deed. But with such power and importance instil led into two characters living in a poor white area of South Africa in 1963, it is not only a very ...

... The Rivals HEVER JUDGING by his previous forays into Kent Rep, Ramsay Gilderdale's name signifies a joyous flamboyancy which is not as apparent in his production of Sheridan's The Rivals as it has been in his acting roles. This time, in his role of director at the Hever Castle Lakeside Theatre, he makes florid attempts at exaggeration which are neither grossly defined nor subtly gentle. This ...

... The Scatterin' DUBLIN JAMES McKENNA's rock'n'roll musical is set in the Dublin of 1958, but the dreams and frustrations of his working class Teds are curiously contemporary. Change the songs cover versions of hits by Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Elvis Presley and the costumes, and it could just as easily be 30 years later. Frank Hallinan Flood's excellent first act set suggests a Dublin of ...

... Playing against the odds PETER HEPPLE on a charmingly youthful musical revival REGENT'S PARK Babes In Arms THE MOST interesting feature of the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms is in discovering the context of some of their best songs. For example, My Funny Valentine, usually crooned by a male singer outside its original setting, turns out to be a song sung by a girl to a boy named- ...

... The Met Season NEW YORK NUREYEV'S Paris Opera Ballet was at the Met, he was also at the State Theatre (with New York City Ballet) and on tour with his 'Friends', and the Opera's ballet students were at Juilliard. It was a three-week feast of dance. The season at the Met began dis appointingly, with Isabellc Guerin, Laurent Hiiaire and seemingly most of the company off-form in Nureyev's ...

... Blood Brothers ALBERY WILLY RUSSELL'S musical--book, music and lyrics, all by Russell, has a smashing storyline, indifferent lyrics and an intriguing, irritating mix of music, so much so that I would think that with such a strongly invented vehicle on his hands, it might have been better for him to co-opt some other composer into the combine, we can't all be Sondheims or Porters, and I look ...

... I'll Be Back Before Midnight KESWICK A RARE opportunity exists at the Century, Keswick, to see Peter Colley's comedy thriller I'll Be Back Before Midnight. It is only the second time the play has been in repertory and the Century is the first to have toured with it. The play is set m the living room ot a country cottage somewhere in England. As the play begins all seems sensible and normal but ...

... Don-ing an ideal accent PETER HEPPLE sees Liverpool meet Naples LYTTELTON Napoli Milionaria IT HAS taken the National a long time to find another play by Eduardo de Filippo to follow Saturday, Sunday, Monday, but Napoli Milionaria looks set to repeat the other's success and may even be a better play. Set again in Naples, it predicates by 40 years the theme of Alan Ayck- bourn's A Small Family ...