Recommendations

The best night out

The critics

THEATRE

Dealer's Choice (Vaudeville 0171 836 9987). Best first play ever seen at the Cottesloe, now moved into the West End: Patrick Marber also directs his searingly funny study of restaurant poker-players gambling with their lives and dreams.

Indian Ink (Aldwych 0171 836 6404). Stoppard's curiously under-rated latest, infinitely more accessible and user-friendly than his concurrent Arcadia, is a lyrical farewell to the Raj and a memoir across the ages of love in exile.

Skylight (National 0171 928 2252). David Hare's latest is one of his 'personals' rather than `politicals', but offers wondrously powerful roles for Michael Gambon and Lia Williams in two of the best perfor- mances in town, he as the man who can only love one woman, and she as the woman who can only love mankind.

Sheridan Morley GARDENS There is an embarras de richesse of rose gardens to visit in June. Best known, per- haps, are the National Trust's Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire, Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire. For a change, try Haddon Hall, near Bakewell in Derbyshire, winner of the 1994 Historic Houses Association/Christie's 'Garden of the Year'. The castle and terrace walls face south and west, and provide an excellent support for a variety of climbing roses. There are also beds of modern roses. The garden is open daily, April until Septem- ber, except for Sundays in July and August, (11 a.m. - 5.45 p.m.) Ursula Buchan

OPERA

Mahagonny (London Coliseum, 0171 632 8300, from 8 June). Declan Donnellan makes a welcome return to opera, directing a new production of the Brecht/Weill satire of capitalism's come-uppance. Lesley Gar- rett and Sally Burgess lead the cast, Sian Edwards conducts.

Garsington Opera (01865 361636, from 11 June). Fashionable garden festival, spec- tacularly located in the grounds of Ottoline Morrell's Elizabethan manor. Popular with merchant bankers. Heavily booked, but try the double bill of Mozart's Der Schaus- pieldirecktor and Strauss's lovely Daphne, in repertory with Haydn's La Fedalta Premiata and Rossini's La Cenerentola from 23 June. Rupert Christiansen

CINEMA

Bullets Over Broadway (`15', general release). A Woody Allen comedy that's funny and thoughtful and also a loving evo- cation of the Great White Way in its hey- day.

Little Women (`U', general release). Gillian Armstrong's remake of Louisa May Allcott's proto-feminist classic, with Winona Ryder proving that she's more than a Generation X slacker.

The Madness of King George (`PG', gen- eral release). Alan Bennett's play, Nicholas Hytner's production, Nigel Hawthorne's George III transferred to the big screen. Much better than at the National Theatre.

101 Dalmatians (`U', general release). A searing drama of refugees fleeing the coast of the former Yugoslavia. (Not.) Mark Steyn DANCE Rambert Dance Company. (Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 0131 529 6000, 28 June 1 July). Christopher Bruce's exhilarating Meeting Point is given its British premiere in Edinburgh, along with new work by Matthew Hawkins and Per Jonsson. The company, the hit of San Francisco's recent United We Dance Festival, has yet to per- form its new repertoire in London Nederlands Dans Theater 2: (Sadler's Wells, 0171 713 6000, 19 June -1 July). Jiri Kylian's junior company (14 dancers aged between 17 and 21) present two pro- grammes of works by Dutch, Spanish and Israeli choreographers — a potent brew.

The Turning World (The Place Theatre, Sadler's Wells and the. South Bank Centre, 0171 387 0031). Ten visiting companies show what's happening in contemporary dance in different parts of the world. Best bets are 0 Vertigo from Montreal (2 - 3 June) Compagnie Karin Vynke from Brus- sels (5 - 6 June) and Alias Compagnie from Geneva (13 - 14 June). Jann Parry

CRAFTS

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Chicago years 1887 - 1915. (Design Museum till 3 September). A fine selection of furniture, glass and met- alwork all seen in the context of Wright's marvellous Prairie houses.

The 1995 Degree Show at the Royal Col- lege of Art: Part Two — the Schools of Applied Art, Architecture, Interior Design and Furniture, (Royal College of Art, Kens- ington Gore, SW7. 8 June - 18 June.) One of the most exciting events of the design year. It amounts to about 20 shows in one and also includes industrial design and ani- mation and much more. A chance to see a whole range of magical objects and design solutions created by the young and gifted.

Japanese Studio Crafts: Tradition and Avant-Garde, Victoria and Albert Museum, till 3 September. Explains what has hap- pened to the crafts of Japan since the war and asks whether in pursuit of technical perfection the crafts of Japan have lost their soul. Tanya Harrod