critical list

Lindsay Kemp is here as part of the London International Mime Festival, but all thoughts of po-faced clowns should be banished. As lush as Ernst Lubitsch, Cinderella - A Gothic Operetta opens on Tuesday for two weeks. Kemp's darkly extravagant co mbination of dance, theatre and music drives purists to distraction, but he cannot be ignored.

It's a good week for comedy. The Cheek By Jowl As you like it opens on Wednesday for three weeks, and from Thursday, The Merry Wives of Windsor takes the stage at the National. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is at the Theatre Royal Glasgow from Tuesday in a production by David Levaux. The title role is played by Paul Whelan, whose performance in Khovanschina more than confirmed the promise he delivered at last year's Cardiff Singer of the Year. In London, the Unicorn Arts Theatre presents a small-scaleproduction of The Magic Flute arranged by Joanna MacGregor in a translation by Jeremy Sams, whose lyrics are the jewel of The threepenny opera at the Donmar Warehouse.

Whit Stillman's debut feature film, Metropolitan, won him serious critical attention. Five years later, Barcelona opens on Friday trailing excellent notices in the United States.

William Trevor's magnificent Felicia's Journey has already picked up the Sunday Express Book of the Year and the Whitbread Novel Award. Will it win the Whitbread Book of the Year on Tuesday? Here's hoping.

Sadler's Wells: 071-278 8916, Albery: 071-867 1115, National: 071-928 2252, Theatre Royal Glasgow: 041 332 9000, Unicorn: 071-836 3334