2 SEPTEMBER 1972, Page 19

Arts choice

• Theatre: Pick of the London plays: National Theatre production of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night with Olivier, Cummings, Pickup and Quilley (Old Vic); two wry comedies about the personal-relationship troubles of university dons, he Philantropist, now starring George Cole (May Fair), and Butley, now with Alec McCowen, who used to be in the other one (Criterion);. Alan Ayckbourn's latest, Time and Time Again, Courtenay (Comedy); a spanking farce, Move Over Mrs Markham (Vaudeville); a superior thriller, Sleuth (St Martin's).

• Cinema: Current West End films worth your time: The Godfather, with Brando as the Mafia boss, though the Mafia is never mentioned (ABC 1, Empire, Paramount and Universal); John Huston's Fat City, see opposite page (Columbia); Cabaret, with Liza Minnelli as the new, musical, Sally Bowles (Prince Charles); The French Connection, fast-paced cops-and-druggers prize-winner (Studio One); Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show about the 'fifties catching up with a small Texas town (Times, Baker Street); Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, a many-faceted look at violence. (Warner West End). • Art: Lovely ladies of four centuries The Masque of Beauty (National Portrait Gallery); The New Art, which isn't that, but you'll probably have to see it to keep up with post-prandial conversation (Hayward); immaculate drawings, mostly of Brittany, by William Wilkins (Covent Garden Gallery); and opening next Wednesday is an exhibition devoted to the German romantic ,Caspar David Friedrich (Tate).

• Television: The Olympics take up most of the screen time, but there are other programmes. Among those to note are Aquarius (Saturday on LWT, Southern and Grampian) which is devoted to Mahler's marathon third symphony, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic; and BBC2's ' island ' night (Wednesday) which includes John Craven's investigation of The Island That Vanished — a search for the lost city of Atlantis in the Aegean — and a second showing of Inisfail — Isle of Destiny, a journey arolind Ireland by James Plunkett.

• Music: The pick of the week's Proms: NHK Symphony Orchestra of Japan playing Mozart and Brahms as well as Japanese works (Sunday); Colin Davis conducting Verdi's Requiem Mass (Tuesday); The RPO conducted by the Houston Symphony's Lawrence Foster with Korean violinist Kyung Wha Chung (next Friday); at the Royal Albert Hall, but all on Radio 3 as well.