The Spectator's Arts Round-up
FESTIVALS
Edinburgh: the 25th Edinburgh International Festival opens on Sunday, August 22, with the Scottish National Orchestra (with Yehudi Menuhin, John Shirley, Quirk and the Festival Chorus) conducted by Alexander Gibson in the first performance of a specially commissioned Te Deum by Thomas Wilson at the Usher Hall. Highlights of the festival include the Prospect Theatre Company's King Lear at the Assembly Hall; The Sinner's Tale (adapted from James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner) at the Lyceum; the Young Vic at Haymarket Ice Rink; Scottish Opera (first week), Deutsche Oper Berlin (second week) and Royal Danish Ballet (third week) at the King's; the London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony and other orchestras at Usher Hall; Military Tattoo on the Castle esplanade; etc. The festival ends on September 11. Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral, August 21-27, devoted to choral, orchestral and instrumental music. The festival is held in turn in Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford Cathedrals. A notable feature of this one will be the cathedral organ, re-built at a cost of £35,000, on which Simon Preston will give the first performance of a specially written concerto by Peter Dickinson. Pendley Shakespeare Festival at Pendley Manor, Tring Hertfordshire, August 26September 4, under the direction of Dorian Williams. As You Like It and Richard II are this year's plays in repertory.
THEATRE
Opening in London : National Youth Theatre's summer season at the Shaw Theatre (Peter Terson's Good Lads At Heart from August 23) and the Jeannetta Cochrane (Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday from August 25; The Black Theatre of Prague return to Sadler's Wells for two weeks from August 23; The Father, Strindberg's play performed by the company of the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, on a one-week visit to the Old Vic, August 24-28; Jump!, a new comedy by Larry Helbart, with a cast including Warren Mitchell and Sheila Staefel, at the Queen's August 26.
BALLET
London Festival Ballet returns to the Royal Festival Hall for a five-week season from August 24. Programme: The Sleeping Beauty (August 24-28 and September 6-11); Gisetl, Le Beau Danube (August 30-September 4); Scheherazade, Spectre de la Rose, Petrouchka (September 13-16).
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