Keswick MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION by George Bernard Shaw Theatre by the Lake In rep to 26 October 2001 Runs 2 hours 25 minutes. One interval. TICKETS 017687 74411 Review Timothy Ramsden 8 August Some punches connect in revival of hard-hitting Shaw. A pastoral peace pervades Shaw's opening scene and it's well caught in Martin Johns' idyllic backcloth. But Shaw's characters soon bring their moral detritus into this Eden of late Victorian Surrey. What's a well brought-up Victorian girl to do …
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London PINOCCHIO IN THE PARK by Michael Rosen. Music by Ben Glasstone Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. In rep. to 31 August. Rune 2 hours 5 minutes. One interval. TICKETS 020 7486 2431 Review Timothy Ramsden 6 August 2001 Tale of the wooden tearaway falls between too many stools It's an excellent idea of the Open-Air to mount a young people's show. This Pinocchio is aimed at 6+ and plays Monday-Wednesday and Friday afternoons at 2.30 plus Saturday mornings at …
Touring till November 20th 2001 Black Umfolosi Tour Info: Adastra, 01377 217662 Runs: 2 hours, one interval Review: Rod Dungate, 3rd August 2001, @ mac, Birmingham Delight in every moment This is a potent mix of black African vigorous dance and hypnotic song. Black Umfolosi is a politicised group of entertainers. They see their songs as 'vocal newspapers' and the aim of their work 'to revive Zimbabwean culture and introduce it abroad.'
London KING LEAR by William Shakespeare Shakespeare's Globe Theatre In rep to 21 September 2001 Runs 3 hours 15 mins. One interval. TICKETS 020 7401 9919/ 020 7316 4703 Review Timothy Ramsden 5 August. A clear account of a mind moving to madness dominates this Celtic season Lear. Rough planks turn the Globe's ornate features into a primitive stockade for a production distinguished especially by Julian Glover's Lear, a confident old man who smiles on complacently when Cordelia (Tonia Chauvet) …
RSC KING JOHN by William Shakespeare Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. In rep to 13 October 2001 Runs 3 hours. One interval. TICKETS 01789 403403 Review Timothy Ramsden 4 August 2001 Rare chance to see Shakespeare's cartoon history play, with humour accented. Two Shakespeare kings receive French ambassadors. Henry V dispatches his with panache. In Gregory Doran's new production, Guy Henry's John turns up late, twitches his fingers throughout, then chases after the departing diplomat with the killer line he couldn't think …
RSC. A RUSSIAN IN THE WOODS by Peter Whelan. The Other Place Stratford-upon-Avon. In rep to 10 October 2001. Runs 2 hr 50 min One interval. TICKETS 01789 403403. Review Timothy Ramsden 3 August. Hot passions in Cold War Germany eventually ignite into explosive drama. When the RSC's smallest theatre stops presenting plays in October, it's to be hoped they find some other place for new writing as urgent as this season's three works, diverse in style and approach but …
London A LIE OF THE MIND by Sam Shepard Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden. To 1 September 2001 Runs 2 hours 55 mins. Two intervals Tickets 020 7369 1732 Review Timothy Ramsden 2 August 2001 Bravura performances in classy Shepard revival. The supercharged reality of Shepard's America is a world as distinctive as those of Jacobean tragedy, melodrama, or film noir: A Lie is full of crime genre trademarks. Its acts have in turn an urgent 'phone message about a presumed …
Royal National Theatre THE WINTER'S TALE by William Shakespeare Olivier Theatre. In rep to 16 August 2001 Runs 3 hours 15 mins. One interval. TICKETS 020 7452 3000 Review Timothy Ramsden 2 August Final clutch of performances for Nicholas Hytner's brilliantly perceptive Shakespearean romance. Leontes, King of Sicilia, has everything; luxury penthouse, beautiful wife, a son he dotes on, a second child on the way. His best friend Polixenes of Bohemia's visiting: a photo of the two as children dominates …
London WHERE'S CHARLEY? by Frank Loesser and George Abbott Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. In rep to 16 August Runs 2 hours 20 minutes. One interval. TICKETS 020 7486 2431 Review Timothy Ramsden 1 August 2001 Director Ian Talbot proves musicals can be a summer night's dream in the Park The delightful Open Air Theatre offers a rare chance to taste this musicalised Charley's Aunt. The farce is clearly recognisable but refitted, losing one of the Oxford students in love …
London. MACBETH by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in rep to 22 September 2001. Runs 2 hours 5 minutes No interval. Tickets 020 7401 9919/ 020 7316 4703. Review Timothy Ramsden 31 July. Tragedy scores more strongly on images than poetry in Southwark. Tim Carroll's production has been slaughtered like Macbeth's victims. His mistake is performing in English. The verse speaking is awkward, with words swallowed and rhythms mashed. There have been higher definition productions. Macbeth only faces one ghost …
Touring LOVE & OTHER FAIRY TALES by Nick Revell Scarlet Theatre to 17 November Runs c70 minutes Review Timothy Ramsden 28 July at Coventry Belgrade Scarlet's new show proves issues makes their mark in a context of character and story It starts like a convocation of silly walks. Then you realise these medievally-garbed actors are miming riding. They're pilgrims and the bloke who keeps trying to get their wandering attention is Master Chaucer. A pilgrims' revolt against his tedious tale …
Newcastle-under-Lyme BY JEEVES: Alan Ayckbourn & Andrew Lloyd Webber New Vic: BO 01782 717962 Runs: 2 ¾ hours, One interval, till 11th August 2001 Review: Rod Dungate, 27th July 2001 A suitably over-the-top production A highly energetic, highly stylised and highly camp piece of nonsense and none the worse for that. Alan Aykbourn and Andrew Lloyd-Webber's frolic of a musical based on the works of P G Woodhouse is given a suitably over-the-top production by Gwenda Hughes in this UK …
Julius Caesar: William Shakespeare RSC, Main House, Stratford Upon Avon BO: 01789 295623 Runs: 2 ¼ hours, No interval Review: Rod Dungate, 26 July 2001 Hall's no messing production has much to offer Edward Hall has taken some big, bold scissors to Shakespeare's text - gone are the tiresome citizens who dash about at the opening, gone are the tiresome battle scenes that usually ensure productions totter to a conclusion. Left is a play leaner and fitter and more fitting …
St. Andrews PARKING LOT IN PITTSBURGH by Anne Downie Directed by Ken Alexander Byre Theatre. To 11 August 2001 Runs 2 hours 20 minutes. One interval. Tickets 01334 475000 Review Timothy Ramsden 20 July Sisters fall out over inheritance in new comic, unsophisticated drama. After a long closure St Andrews' Byre has re-opened with a sleek foyer and box office, plus a bar and a classy eaterie on its lower level. The new auditorium has ten rows of comfortable, high-backed …
Jubilee: Peter Barnes RSC, The Swan: Stratford Running Time: 3 hours, One interval Review Date:12th May 2001 Review By: Rod Dungate An open-top bus tour of the all-for-profit Shakespeare industry In 1765 Shakespearean actor David Garrick was given the freedom of Stratford and celebrated this with a Jubilee. Peter Barnes has used this to take a healthily cynical look at Bardolotry. His broadly comic, satirical and rather ramshackle play is a kind of open-top bus tour of the all-for-profit Shakespeare …
Manchester THE FALL GUY by Georges Feydeau Translated Braham Murray & Robert Cogo-Fawcett Royal Exchange Theatre. To 11 August 2001 Runs 2 hours 30 minutes. Two intervals TICKETS 0161 833 9833 Review Timothy Ramsden 18 July Updated Feydeau offers a measure of laughs. Following a farce of the '60s permissive society (Joe Orton's Loot) the Exchange offers further summer fun in a Paris updated half a century from Feydeau's1900s. His outer acts show the walls of conventional behaviour bursting and …
Chichester IN CELEBRATION by David Storey Minerva Theatre To 4 August 2001. Runs 2 hours 55 minutes. One interval Tickets 01243 781312 Online www.cft.org,uk Review Timothy Ramsden 25 July Homecoming brings on the agonies in semi-successful revival. One of the earlier plays in the Storey series directed by Lindsay Anderson at the Royal Court, London, in the late '60s and '70s, In Celebration shows three middle-class sons arriving home in Yorkshire to celebrate mum and dad's 40th wedding anniversary. Dad's …
Chichester MY ONE AND ONLY by George and Ira Gershwin, Peter Stone and Timothy S. Mayer Festival Theatre. In Rep. to 22 September 2001. Runs 2 hours 45 minutes. One interval Tickets 01243 781312 Online www.cft.org.uk Review Timothy Ramsden 24 July Flavin and Dee lead a first-rate company in Gershwin musical. The Stone/Mayer storyline may be from the 1980s but the Gershwin's music and lyrics date back to the '20s, especially the 1927 musical Funny Face which is the real …
Ayot St Lawrence SHAW BIRTHDAY PLAYS Shaw's Corner To 29 July Runs 2 hours 5 minutes One interval Tickets 01494 755572 Review Timothy Ramsden 27 July Two more nights at 6.30 to see Shaw and Barrie in idyllic setting. Bernard Shaw lived at this house (now owned by the National Trust) in a Hertfordshire hamlet, where the aptly titled Ayot Productions offer professional open-air productions of his and associated writers' plays over the weekend nearest Shaw's birthday. Audiences bring their …
by Terence Rattigan Festival Theatre, in rep to 4 August. Runs 2 hours 50 minutes. One interval Tickets 01243 781312 Online www.cft.org.uk Review Timothy Ramsden 25 July 2001 Classy revival of major 20th century drama. In the Labour landslide, ration-book England of 1946, Rattigan could have basked imaginatively in a warm Edwardian glow. Not a bit; the Winslow girl is a suffragette, there's war brewing, trouble in Ireland and a fight, against a secretive establishment shocked to find a mere …