Can anybody recommend London interesting theaters/plays, NOT A BROADWAY SHOWS.

When are you going? The last week of June a new production of The Mikado opens at the Savoy. What could be more British than a rousing Gilbert and Sullivan?

I saw "Stones in His Pocket", a charming award-winning comedy with some serious elements. Minimalist set, and about a dozen different roles played by only two very talented actors. The story-line is 'hollywood movie productions comes to County Kerry, Ireland. The central roles are two chaps excited about working as extras in the film. Not avant garde, but very enjoyable theatre.

Leading theatres for new and interesting work are the Hampstead Everyman, the Tricycle, the Almeida, the Riverside, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Young Vic, and the Southwark. For most of these need you need not book from abroad. Rather, in a newsagents in the arrival concourse of your airport in London (or at Waterloo International) you can buy the weekly listings magazine Time Out, look at Fringe, and select. Then you can book by phone with a credit card. When booking you can ask about a meal before the show, as the box offices know of good places, cheaper than those in the West End.<BR><BR>The magazine reviews new plays each week, and gives brief notes on all plays. It also gives a Theatre Critic s Choice. This week it is<BR>Twelfth night at the Globe<BR>The Bacchai at the Olivier in the National Theatre to 12 June<BR>Shockheaded Peter at the Albery (not my cup of tea, I must say)<BR>Homebody/Kabul at the Young Vic to 22 June: see www.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,3604,720772,00.html.<BR>But you have probably seen it already at home.<BR>This is our Youth at the Garrick.<BR><BR>At the airport you can also buy a decent broadsheet newspaper. I take the Independent. This, too, gives a Five Best Plays in London. This week they list<BR>Homebody/Kabul (I am beginning to think you had best phone now to book that: 00 44 20 7928 6363, but not today Tuesday, a bank holiday)<BR>Vincent in Brixton at the Cottesloe in the National Theatre<BR>My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal (but that's a blockbuster musical, not for you or me)<BR>The Island of Slaves at the Lyric Hammersmith<BR>The Bacchai (again, I now think you should phone now for this one: 00 44 20 7452 3000. I have just checked, and they still have seats)<BR>To phone from overseas you call Monday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm British Summer Time (10 to 6 Greenwich Mean time), holding a credit card.<BR><BR>Your enquiry makes a refreshing change from questions about how to book Broadway shows in London. I appreciate your block capital letters. As somebody who likes to think, you might well enjoy visits to http://www.indiana.edu/~victoria/lectures.html and at http://www.npg.org.uk/, then Events.<BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome to London.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR>

I am grateful for your answer, Mr H--and is there a reason you don't include the Royal National Theatre? I've been so happy there whenever I've gone--with new plays and old.<BR><BR> I highly recommend Vincent in Brixton, which I saw week before last; Powerbook by Jeanette Winterson (at RNT) is interesting, fanciful and beautiful to look at, not exactly dramatic but like story telling and spectacle; Twelfth Night at the Shakespeare Globe I have read and heard is super-great.<BR><BR> I also saw Hinterland by Sebastian Barry at the RNT. While we didn't love it we agreed that it was a good effort and stimulating. If you know recent Irish history I imagine you appreciate it more, but it stands on its own as a play about a politician confronted with the consequences of hs life.<BR><BR> And Lady Windermere's Fan, with Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Joelly Richardson in it, was very satisfying--for one thing, just to see that fine play done competently--and the when Vanessa's on the stage the experience is quite powerful.<BR><BR> (We are from NY, if that gives you an idea of our frame of reference.)

Everybody, thanks for useful info.<BR>I am going to be in London from 6/22 to 7/7, which means, that I miss Baccai. Pity, it sounds as a play I would enjoy very much. Hopefully this production will make a trip to NY.<BR>Thanks for a tip about Independent, Ben. Their web site has a lot of links.<BR>Special thanks for link to indiana.edu I don't know if I will have a chance to go there, but just reading titles was such a nerdy delight.<BR>