Wil l
Waspe
It is curious, but conceivably significant, that it is in the field of the arts (usually so devotedly internationalist) that opposition to our Common Market adventure has found a positive voice — albeit through the mouths of those borough councils that have declined participation in the Government's 05,000-a-day cultural celebration, Fanfare for Europe. This, along with all the opera and art, includes such elevating Europe-oriented television shows as Opportunity Knocks and the Women's Lib favourite, a 'Miss Europe' contest.
The attitudes of the subsidised theatre companies towards the occasion is also significant, they being hardly in a position actually to decline participation. The National Theatre offers one of its touring, fit-up productions (Twelfth Night), preceded by Lord Olivier reciting a token ode specially written by Christopher Fry (wot, no Betjeman?); while the Royal Court makes its own laconic comment with a double-bill of Samuel Beckett's non-plays, Not I and Krapp's Last Tape.
Confused
Some confusion at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, over the 'press night' this week for the Pulitzer Prize-winning American play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Two or three reviewers turned up, but most did not. The latter, it seems, had been tipped off that the play would be coming in to a handier venue, the Hampstead Theatre Club, in mid-November. • However, a visit to Guildford is always agreeable — if only to see the chortling incredulity on the faces of patrons seeing for the first time that extraordinary foundation flagstone with its petrified footprint and deadpan inscription: "Vanessa Redgrave stood on this spot . . ."
Wolfed
What mystic influence does Wolf Mankowitz wield over Bernard Delfont that has induced the impresario to offer the Mankowitz musical, Stand and Deliver, even for a fortnight at the Round House? This spavined entry, by The Beggar's Opera out of Loch Up Your Daughters, is almost certainly a non-runner.
Jinxed
Strange misfortunes seem to afflict players who snub the National Theatre's advances. Among those who have lately declined the company's offers are Eileen Atkins and Ian McKellen, the former in order to appear in the Duras play, Susanna Andler (which is unlikely to reach the West End), the latter to continue working in the ' co-operative ' Actors' Company, whose latest venture, Iris Murdoch's The Three Arrows, was coolly received at its Cambridge opening this week.
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