These characters - us in extraordinary mould - speak for us in those two hours that id=5 we are sharing the act of theatre; we asp?conf asp?conf asp?conf id=5 should say, `yes' confrances we have thought that, `yes' we have felt that, `yes' we would like to scream like that; in doing it for us, the characters allow us to also experience the scream Hugely cathartic, hugely important Classless, timeless, placeless "n For details, see listings below. Tammis Day makes no secret of the fact that the issue that det drives her new play, Eclipse, confrances is painfully close to home. det Katherine, id=5 the heroine, battles with alcoholism and is determined to stay sober. She has made a new life for herself on an island off Maine and is holding conf herself together with simple tasks and confrances conf det simple pleasures. But when she is visited by her old friend, fellow lesbian and former drinking partner Helena, she finds her citadel stormed. Helena is clearly still hung over from the Sixties, still living det and loving dangerously (she brings confrances conf det with her a frighteningly self-confident confrances Australian loverand has put away the best part of conf a bottle of vodka before Katherine has had time to grind a coffee bean). The play has all the values and drawbacks of any piece that comes from the heart. It id=5 has an emotional honesty and directness that is very appealing; it can also conf asp?conf id=5 be asp?conf cloyingly earnest at times.

Kate Crutchley's production (on Amanda Fisk's atmospheric set) plays up its virtues, emphasising the comedy and the changing relationships between the four women characters. She has a strong cast: Mary McCusker as the brittle Helena, Sladjana Vujovic as her predatory lover, Ursula Jones as the well-meaning neighbour, and Hazel Maycock giving a lovely, open performance as Katherine You sip your interval drink rather sheepishly.. A quick glance at the Young Vic's current programme suggests that the theatre is playing safe, hosting two productions of major classic texts. In the main house is Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in the Studio Chekhov's Three Sisters But look again. Closer scrutiny reveals that both these productions are anything but orthodox - these versions by performance-based groups both use the texts as launching pads for pieces of physical theatre that explore the plays' themes.

Scarlet Theatre's The Sisters disposes with Chekhov's men and focuses solely on the female characters and the relationships between them; Insomniac Productions' If We Shadows disposes with the forest, the framework and the chronology of the Dream to create a new piece. In Pete Brooks' response to Shakespeare's original, Puck (Mark Whitelaw) is a kind of cynical time-bandit in a sharp suit who pitches up at a wedding party and hijacks proceedings.The couples here slip from one theatrical reality to another, so that any character can suddenly find themselves cast in the role of Helena, Hermia or Lysander, lusting, fighting or spouting blank verse. The fairy world is a druggy haze of sexual urges, into which they stumble uncertainly, and Laura Hopkins' impressive set of huge wooden panels wheels around to make a maze of towers and walls through which they pursue their confused desires at great speed and with little thought. This dream is a nightmare of rampant gratification that generates an air of general misery, menace and loneliness. In the end, it doesn't add up to anything more than an unsatisfying regurgitation of the Shakespeare's themes; it certainly seems less than the sum of its parts. Brooks has done many beautiful pieces of theatre; it is a shame that his gamble with the main house of the Young Vic is less successful than many of his previous works.But is is still a gamble worth taking.