... Notre Dame OXFORD NOTRE Dame, a new musical, or rather musical thriller, was premiered in workshop form at the Old Fire Station Studio Theatre, Oxford and a veritable Tosca of musicals it turned out to be. Gone are the cats, the trains, the chess-board and the phantom; here we have torture, a flogging, a hanging and a presumed suicide, all well inside two hours. Based on the novel by Victor ...

... Magic Box BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE THIS apparently aimless and artless short dialogue, written by Bertie, who plays the role of a cross-drcsser Claire, has something of the charm of an early hand-held camera surrealist short movie. Claire admonishes himself for neglecting to paint his fingernails and opens up a box, on a tablctop, which contains the head of his chum and confidante Thud (Helen ...

... Moliere NOTTINGHAM WITH the twin benefits of a synopsis and a very direct style of acting, this all-Russian play is surprisingly easy to follow, especially in the more active first part. In parallel with difficulties in his own time (and since) in Russia, Mikhail Bulgakov's play covers Moliere's last ten years. when his struggle with Church and State to pro duce his satire Tartuffe, ...

... Ambition pays off in Hoffman's masterpiece ROH Tales Of Hoffman OFFENBACH'S 1860 masterpiece--his biggest and most ambitious stage work--follows previous work based upon Hoffman's stories. Here the protagonist is the self-deluding lovestruck poet, unable to distinguish between the real and the fantastic. sung here by Alfredo Kraus making his debut in the role the singer, who ought to be ...

... Polyeuct GATE THANKS to the new sadly vanished Jonathan Miller regime at the Old Vic, Pierre Corneille (1606-84) is for London theatregoers something more than a familiar name from histories of French dramatic literature in which he occupies the status of father to French classic drama. But the revival in the Waterloo Road of Ranjit Bolt's translations of Corneille 's come dies, The Liar ...

... Hedda Gabler HARROGATE HARROGATE Theatre complete their current season with a stunning production of Ibsen's famous play Hedda Gabler, in a translation by Christopher Hampton and brilliantly directed by Andrew Manley. This is one of Ibsen's later plays and is about a woman who is trapped between her needs as a woman and her duties as a wife. In this production the action takes place centre ...

... The Village Fete SCARBOROUGH PETER Tinniswood's latest play, which had its world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, is a delightful piece of theatre, written in his own inimitable style, full of eccentric characters. He has created some splendid characters into whom we get a deep insight as they unfold their fears and reflections. The story surrounds the Epson family, the father, two ...

... Barnstorming killjoys HIGHBURY FIELDS A Midsummer Night's Dream THE INTERNATIONAL Footsbarn Travelling Theatre cheerfully tramples all over Shakespeare's text in its barnstorming approach to the Bard which opens the London International Festival of Theatre. Instead the emphasis is on gaudy surface trappings, while the protracted comic sequences provide a classic case of the actors having ...

... The Garden Venture The Judgment Of Paris/Echoes/The Panic RIVERSIDE THESE three brief pieces set their composers and librettists enormous tasks: who, apart from Puccini and a handful of names, has managed to be incisive and beautiful or memorable within such a short span? It is part of the fascination of these short pieces to watch the attempt. Perhaps the most successful is Paris (composer ...

... Margot La Rouge (Delius) Les Mamelles de Tiresias (Poulenc) GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DRAMA VISITTNG the Guildhall is always an adventure. The productions and repertoire rarely fail to interest. Their current double bill is no exception. Delius Margot La Rouge ts an oddity. Unlucky cop, Thibault, dis covers childhood sweetheart Marg uerite in a bar frequented by prosti tutes, only to be ...

... English National Ballet Triple bill COLISEUM ENGLISH National Ballet may be a company reborn under the directorship of Ivan Nagy but, to judge from the poor attendance at the Coliseum last week, it is not yet a company revitalised. New names and new works--irr a bill that included Ronald Hynd's Sanguine Fan, Vicente Nabrada's Our Waltzes and the company premiere of Anne Frank are not ...

... Summer madness NEWBURY Cold Comfort Farm HAVING seen Paul Doust's Edinburgh hit Lady Bracknell's Confinement, artistic director Jill Fraser commissioned him to adapt Stella Gibbons' famous work. Thoroughly ton-gue-in-cheek, his world premiere seems well suited for her little theatre and its delightful gardens (one duction set partially outside is, not sur prisingly, an annual occurrence ...