The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 20

20 The Guardian Thursday February 8 2001 Reviews OLife's comic sadness in Gray's new play OU2 rocks the Astoria ODraw and drawbacks of early Miller play Dance Theatre as the new Nurcyev, is not so. He is tall and elegant, with an extravagantly arched line, but weaknesses in his torso and knees undermine his power. And the shy demurral of his stage presence is unsettlingly more reminiscent of Princess Di than of a ballet prince. Judith Mackrell Until February 17. lio.v office: 0S70 6063400.

Art captures the extremes of a man who knows that, in worldly terms, he is a failure but who has the private consolation of the heart's affections. And although Anita lacks the demonstrated inner life of the two brothers, Clare Swinburne does all she can to endow her with a sense of mystery. Even if the play is not vintage Gray, it reveals his comprehension of life's comic sadness. Michael Billington Until April 14. Box office: 020-79308800.

Pop Japes Theatre Royal Haymarket, London Towards the end of Simon Gray's new play there is a dyspeptic attack on the whole school of "in-ycr-face" drama. It's easy to see why: Gray himself operates on the behind-your-back principle in that themes and ideas creep up on you obliquely. And what he is really arguing for, in this emotionally conservative but fitfully enjoyable play, is the graceful acceptance of life's tragi-comic nature. Spanning 27 years in a Hampstead house, the play deals with an intense sibling relationship and a shared love for the same woman. Michael is the elder brother with the success gene who moves smoothly through the literary life to become a best-selling novelist.

Jason the Japes of the title was not only crippled in a childhood accident but has the marks of the accomplished failure: he writes ineffectually, drinks heavily and is eventually sacked from his teaching-post in Guyana. But although Michael marries his cherished sweetheart, Anita, it is Jason whom she really loves and who is the probable father of her daughter. In the course of a lengthy triangular journey, Gray makes many subtle points: not least that fraternal love can co-exist with a dark rivalry. Michael subconsciously knows, and stoically accepts, that his wife really loves his brother; but he takes a malign pleasure in stifling Jason's literary ambitions, correcting his misquotations and even encouraging his academic exile. Gray also observes the small-change of literary success and failure with a rueful comedy: Anita vividly describes the prospect of Michael returning from a pompously celebratory TV interview "humble and But, while Gray writes well about both emotional minutiae and the literary stock-market, his play has an oddly hermetic quality: confined to a Hampstead sitting-room, the play lacks visual excitement and leaves you wondering at the social cocoon in which the characters live.

And even when Gray in the final scene introduces an unexpected fourth character, it becomes the occasion for a rancid attack on sexually explicit drama and the world of youth-culture. Having sung the praises of emotional reticence and stoicism, Gray neglects to practice what he has preached. In Peter Hall's carefully calibrated production, the best parts of the play are those that explore the still sad music of humanity. Jasper Britton is outstanding as Michael, moving from the passionate naivete of the early scenes to the quietly wounded literary clubman who knows he has never been truly loved. Toby Stephens as Jason also vividly Chisinau National Ballet Hammersmith Apollo, London frfrfr The Hammersmith Apollo on a rainy night in February isn't ideal for any new Nutcracker.

Christmas is a dim, expensive memory, the Apollo isn't geared up for the grand illusion-spinning of classical ballet, and the Chisinau National Ballet, performing there for the next two weeks, do not have the resources to cast any compensatory magic. Chisinau the capital of Moldova has little cash or dance talent, and this Nutcracker is clone on a shoestring. It has a cast of just over two dozen, its tawdry cloth Christmas tree manages to hoist itself up only inches in the transformation scene and there are no stage tricks. The dancers, through no fault of their own, look desperately over -exposed, especially si nee London has already seen the more lavishly funded Nutcrackers of the Royal and English National Ballet. There were two attractions, however: this is a production by ex-Bolshoi director Yuri Grigorovich (the version he first created for the Soviet company in 1966) and two of the Bolshoi's current stars, Elena Knaizkova and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, have been lent for the season.

Generous gifts from the big guns but not, it turns out, entirely desirable. Even if you make generous allowances for a production pared down for touring, the staging looks parochial and heavy-handed. As in Grigor-ovich's other productions of the classics, the story has been squeezed to maximise opportunities for large-scale, athletic dancing. The Christmas party here is like a sparsely attended dance audition, the motivation for Drosselmeyer's magical machinations has been excised and there is no Sugar Plum Fairy to cast her benevolence over the last act. Grigorovich docs supply some wittily eccentric moves for minor characters, but where the choreography needs to fly it is too often lumpen and lazy.

Skippy choruses and heroic groupings impose themselves on music that cries for airy invention and the lovely grand pas de deux is thrown away. There is no emotional connection between the two principals, and the steps of the Fairy's variation are so wilfully at odds with the music that they are brutally hard to dance. Knaizkova (in the expanded role of MarieClara) certainly found them so. She may be a fine lyrical dancer elsewhere, but in the Nutcracker she is chafing at the logic of the choreography (and the peculiar speed ofSvetlana Pnpova's conducting). Tsiskaridze, touted by some Around Britain Kerry Stewart Tate, Liverpool krkil The Tate's ground-floor Project Space is all musty atmosphere and grave history.

Kerry Stewart's life-size dummies are wistful, naive, lightweight and obviously hollow. It's in their nature for her lone figures to look a bit lost, but here they look hopelessly so, against the stone slab floors, the warehouse columns and the giant weight of the Mersey drifting by outside. Stewart became noticeable in the mid-1990s when she was included in the touring British Art Show and Young British Artists exhibition at London's Saatchi Gallery. Seen amid the more sensationalist works of contemporaries, her simply modelled and coloured-in nun and pregnant schoolgirl appeared to cope with their vulnerability by drifting off into some interior and introverted world. In the Project Space, with no company but their own, her people look abandoned to their puny lineage.

In the centre is agreat craggy black-painted pile of silicon and glass-fibre titled Darkness of a Cave. The engagement with the sculptural presence of inverted or negative space is no more than a corny comic-strip joke. They Went on Holiday to France is a more engaging piece. Through an ornate, rusty grill, you sec the backs of two unremarkable tourists in ordinary slacks and T-shirts. They are faceless and silent, everyman and everywoman, sad but apparently content to be heading nowhere special.

It is Stewart at her restrained best, treading a narrow line between deep pathos and pathetic amateurishness. A few steps away, in the main room, is a featureless baby strapped into a chair and a girl with hands like flesh-coloured mittens. The flesh of Stewart's sleepwalkers is pink, straight-from-the-tin powder paint. Its anonymous rosy pallor holds in a life spirit constantly on the verge of disappearing into some distant vacuity or terminal apathy. There is something touching about her best works, but also something annoying.

I feel I am being confronted by non-individuals who maybe suffering some kind of profound melancholy but who have given in too easily. Robert Clark Until April 22. Details: 0151-702 7400. Sun hrs Rain Tomp'C in Woathor (day) Rain Leeds" 20" 004 11 Walking on water U2's charismatic frontman Bono enthrals hfanatthestoriajJ-omJo U2 Astoria, London Outside, Tottenham Court Road had ground to a halt. Those who had failed to secure tickets for U2's most intimate show in over a decade were offering ,800 for a pair of tickets distributed free to hardcore fans and competition winners.

By the close, 800 seemed almost worth it. It is easy to forget just how essential U2 are. They were simply magnificent. Madonna recently tried much the same tack with her show at Brixton Academy and she got away with half an hour of waffle, merely because her audience were delighted to be there. Last night, U2 eschewed irony and cleverness.

Ever aware of a chance to grandstand, they showcased their superlative new album All That You Can't Leave Behind. Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of epitomised all that remains right about them: a beautiful song kept away from the number one slot by the band Atomic Kitten, of all people, it was a languid, elegiac singalong. By contrast, Beautiful Day was an upbeat shoutalong even John Hurt at the front of the circle clapped along and the rumbling New York, all heroic backlighting, was evidence that they can stimulate mind as well as body. Some of the hits were there too: the opening Until The End of the World, a swashbuckling Mysterious Ways and even 11 O'clock Tick Tock and I Will Follow, songs older than many of the fans in the audience. Bono, part Elvis Presley, part Joe Strummer, part Dublin urchin, still hits charisma.

He is over-familiar by default, but close-up, when he steps into the crowd, giving all appearances of walking on water, he is mesmerising, interspersing snatches of the Pogues' A Rainy Night in Soho, Craig David's Walking Away, the Monkees' Stepping Stone and a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck a cappella Unchained Melody. When he is sincere, there are none better. Behind him, guitarist The Edge resembled the Village People's construction worker and sang high on Beautiful Day. get you going again. 300.

A A less than brilliant Miller play is still a pretty fine thing, however, and lack of familiarity adds to the enjoyment. David Hunt's production keeps you wanting to know what will happen, and some great moments include the scene in which Amos's hopes of becoming a professional baseball player are crushed as he discovers that the father who nurtured him has also inadvertedly crippled him. Hunt goes some way towards removing the play from the realm of naturalism, but he could be braver. Like the play, some of the performances need a sharper focus. But this forgotten drama is more than a mere curiosity, and although it may not count among Miller's finest, its freshness counts in its favour.

Lyn Gardner Until February 24. Box office: 0114-249 6000. childhood sweetheart, Hester, the only thing standing in his way is her father. But Dad conveniently gets run over, leaving his daughter a 110-acre farm. Then Beeves, a gifted mechanic, has the chance to further his career by fixing the car of a local bigwig.

He works all night on the vehicle in vain, but as dawn breaks a stranger walks into the garage and immediately solves the problem. It is like being visited by a guardian angel. Beeves's golden touch does not desert him. While his brother Amos always their father's chosen one, trained since a boy to be a big league baseball pitcher languishes, 'Beeves gets richer and more successful. No sooner does he buy a rundown gas station than the local authority decides to build a major highway right past it.

But the luckier he becomes, Bassist Adam Clayton seemed to be faintly amused and Larry Mullen bashed his drum kit, the largest since Keith Moon's, as if possessed. U2 have been parodied, sneered at, mocked and misunderstood. However, when they are on this form, they are unstoppable. As good as they ought to have been. John Aizlewood Theatre The Man Who Had All the Luck Crucible, Sheffield David Beeves is a small-town Midas, a truly lucky man.

When he wants to marry his Weather 1 ID LJ LA Cold Morning? Car won't start? No you're a member of the AA. the more distrustful he is of his success. He begins to see his luck as a curse, and expects to pay the price imminently. Both his marriage and his sanity are put in jeopardy. This was Arthur Miller's first Broadway play and its closure after just four performances almost led Miller to turn his back on the theatre for ever.

Instead he went on to write All My Sons and Death of a Salesman, for which this play was clearly a model. It has Miller hallmarks but none of the clarity that you associate with the great American dramatist. There is a fuzziness about the play, as if even Miller himself isn't sure what it's about and how far luck, fate and hard work play their part in all our lives. The plotting also feels contrived. The overall effect is like seeing a pale imitation of a Miller play rather than the real thing.

Weatherwatch Autumn 2000 saw some of the worst floods ever recorded in Britain. The damage to property and losses to the economy were huge but one factor stood out. Despite such widespread flooding, no lives were lost as a direct result. The reason for this was that the various authorities involved, including Meteorological Office, now have co-ordinated early warning systems. These enable them to evacuate the most vulnera- 1 ble the young, the old and the sick, who are most likely to perish during a sudden flood.

But go back less than 50 years, to the east coast floods of January and February 1953, and you find a very different story. During these terrible floods more than 300 people drowned, mainly in coastal areas of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. Around the world Weather Ajaccto Algiers 2170Fa 22 72 Sunny 17 63 Cloudy 711 52Ctoudy 16 "61 Sunny Tr7fTfliIf Florence Frankfurt Alicante Amsterdam Athens Auckland Glbrajtar Harare" Aires Bahrain 30 86 Fair 20 68 Sunny -3 27STifWty" "T6J61 Fair jT 18" ton "iT'6-Ctoudy Helsinki 2 Hong Kong 21 Innsbruck 14 Bangkok Barcelona fiojlnp BojgaHq Berlin Bermuda Biarritz Istanbul Jerusalem jo'burg K. Lumpur Karachi Kalhmandu Bombay Bordeaux 14 57 Cloudy" I 00 auimy Kingston Boston Larnaca 4 Fair Brussels 12 54 Farr Budapest "14 57 Cloudy Lisbon Cairo T8 64 Fair" London Calcutta Cape Town Caracas Casablanca 2577 Sunny 2475jSunny "29 84faif 16 '61 Ram Los Angeles 16 Luxembourg 10 Madrid 8 Majorca Chicago "0 3T5unny Malaga CTTrTstchurch 18 64 Fair Malta Copenhagen 6 43 Cloudy Mejbourno Mexico City" Corfu id pa sunny IS.Lar 5 7'i mnu Dallas 1BM Fair 2 Mombasa Montreal Dhaka 24 75 Sunny 13" 18 12 '20 JO "30 '27 IS 28 18 23 1 1 19 17 35 22 8 32 2 Uryvick 4 3 001 2-1 Snov; Lejichars 0 6 0 06 3 Snov London 5.2 0J39J.3 J9 Bright Lowestoft 7 Sunny Manchester 1 6 0 30 10 7 Showers Margate 29 001 11 8 Bright Nloreambe 0 0 9b 7 5 Rain Newcastle 0 "Rain Newquay Pi.IL? PJPJdv Norwich rl 12 7 Sunny Oxford .1 1 0 06 11 7 Shojveis Penzance iL.J)0.4JL3J5 Su Poole a Prestatyn Ross-on-Wye 4 7 003 12 4 Sunny Saunton 3 9 0 13 12 6 Sunny Scarborough 2 9 0.05 10 3 Engm Shrewsbury 3 6 0 17 11 7 Showeis Skegness ZJ.J? iiLJii Sunny SouttrencT 3 4 0 02 11 Southport 0C ,371 5 Ram Southsea wa SJIornoway 37 jO 05 312 Hail Swanage "'j 50qsji 7 Sunn, Teignmouth ,76 004 12 9 Tenby 5 6 0 08 1 1 8 Sunny Tiroe 6 7 020 5 2 Sleel Torquay 3 3 0 13 12 8 Bright Weymouth .4 70U)18 Eright Sun Rain Tomp'C Weather hrs In (day! Aberdeen 2 2 3 1 EiiaVt Anglosoy 0 0.4 7 8 5 Ram AspaWa 09 0 107 5 sWers Aviomoro 5 0 0 57 2 -2 Sunny Belfast 54 002 5 2 Shoy.crj Birmingham 00- 11 6 "Oriuh! Bognor Regis 6 8 0 03 9 7 Sunny Bournemouth na Bristol 4 8 001 13 9 Sunny Buxton l3.7Qn 9 5 Bngtit Cardiff 4 2 004 13 Sfowers Clacton L- ') Cleethorpes na CoiwynBay 0 4 103 10 6" Rain Cromer" 6.5 001 12 7 Sunny Eastbourne 8 Sunny Edinburgh 4 1 Singers ftkdalemuir 'o 4 Sleet Exmoulh Cloudy Falmouth 21 0 I2 8 Bright Fishguard "Folkestone 4 9 00b 1 9 BikjH Glasgow 6 2 Guernsey 4 7 0 01 13 10 Sunnyrii Hastings 36 q.03l 1 8 Junny Hayllng'l, 5 Sunny HerneBay 2 6 0.0r!n? Bnghl Hunstanton 2 0 11 6 Sunny Isle ot Man 0 1 001 7 5 Cloudy Isle of Wight 3 7 0.06 11 7 Sunny Jersoy 3 8 "ooQjCA ''l Kinloss 051 3 0 "Bnotit Air quality Tpday Tomorrow SO; SO, NO, Noon today: Low will move south-eastwards and fill. Low will drift eastwards.

Low will move eastwards and deepen. I Less than a year earlier, in August 1952, 34 people died in a single night, when heavy rains on Exmoor inundated the little Devon village of Lynmouth. In both cases, the early warning systems simply were not in place, and the communities had no warning of the impending calamity. But even these disasters pale into insignificance when compared with floods from previous eras. From the 13th to the 16th centuries the North Sea periodically inundated low-lying parts of the Netherlands and Germany, with a single flood in November 1570 drowning somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 people.

As a result, sea defences were strengthened permanently, and such disaster never occurred on the same scale again. Stephen Moss 57 56" Mist Cloudy Nairobi 26 79nny Naples" 64 Fan New Delhi 20 fa8 Sunny 54 Cloudy New Orleans 18 Now York 6 Nice 15" Oporto 1 2 Oslq" -8" Paris 10" Perth 24 Prague 9" Reykjavik -2 Rhodes T5" 64 Sunny 68 Rain Showers 43 uoudy 59 Cloudy 54 Cloudy 18 Snow 50 Ram 5Fan V8 28Sunny 6J Sunny 36 70 "5 Cloiidy Fail 1152 "68 247SL 86 "81 Fair Fair Sunny Cloudy Fair Rio de Jan. 21 0 Tair 66 Sunny Romo 16 61 Mist Sarajevo 1 4 5 jw St Potersb'g 0 32 fair' Stockholm 5 41 Mist" Strasbourg 14 57 Cloudy Sydney "25 "7 7 Cloudy Tel Aviv 15 59 Drmle 82 Showers Showers 64 73 Fair J457 Fair 52" Showers" 61 Cloudy 60 Rain" Tenerifo 22 72 Cloudy 3 37 Rain 46 Cloudy Tokyo 66 Sunny Toronto 0 32 Snow 176j 63" 9b" Showers Sunny Fair Tunis 18 64 Sunny Vancouver 39Sunny Venice lO bO Cioud) London Wales Gd Gd Gd Gd Gd" Gd Lonon SEng' Wales Gd Gd Go Gd Gd "Gd England Gd Gd England Gd Gil Scotland Gd Gd Ireland Gd "Gd England Gd Gd England Gd Gd Scotiand Gd Gii Nlreland Gd Gd We are dedicated to Join now on Option am ww thi 4th EMERGENCY tlii SERVICE Cold front Warm front Occluded front Trough Moderate (S3 Moderate Moderate i3 77ira Moderate Slight Situation at noon today northerly wind. Max temp 2-4C (36-39F). Coastal snow showers tonight.

Min temp -4 to -2C (25-2810-N Isles, Isles, NW Scotland, NE Scotland: Heavy showers of snow and hail are expected. Inland parts of the mainland will see sunshine. A fresh northerly wind. Max temp 1-3C (34-37F). Further snow showers tonight.

Min temp-9to-7C(l6-19F). Outlook: Coasts of north-east Scotland and East Anglia will see snow showers ebb on Friday. Elsewhere it will be dry after a frosty start. Met Oliire report Inr 24 hours to 5pm yesterday Sun and moon WT" Sunrises 0726 1 Sun sets 1705 Moon sets 0826 Moon rises Full moon February 8th High tides 00 area number Caithness, Orkneys 4 Stiel2ft 14 Northern Ireland Sunny spells and coastal snow showers in the north. Cloudy with rain in the south.

Cent SE England, London, Anglia: A cloudy day with rain. A light and variable wind. Max temp 6-8C (43-46F). Rain turning to sleet and snow before dying out tonight. Min temp 0-2C SW England, Channel Is: It will be a cloudy and damp day with light and intermittent rain.

A gentle northerly wind. Max temp 6-8C (43-46F). Becoming dry tonight. Min temp -1 to 1C (30-34F). Wales, Midlands, England, Lines: It will be a cloudy start with light rain.

A gentle northerly wind. Max temp 5-7C (41-45F). Frosty tonight. Min temp -4 to -2C (25-28F). NW England, IScotland: All parLs will have a dry but chilly day with long periods of sunshine.

A gentle northerly wind. Max temp 3-5C (37-41 F). Frosty tonight. Min temp -7 to -5C (19-23F). NE England, Yorks, Ireland: Sunny spells.

Snow showers are likely near the coasts but they should be mainly light. A moderate Dover 2322 69m LiahtinauD "9.7m iigiiiuigHf Greenock 0022 3 T2T7T5lTi Belfast iZJ? Hull 061287m 1827lTlm Birmingham 1709 to 0733" Avojmouth 0706 l7m Bristol 1715 to 0733 Penznco 04285 7in 1654 Glasgow 1708 to 0753 Leittl 02 IS 5 7m i437s7m London to 0724 Weymouth 064T 24m 1939T1i7i Majichostor i708 to 0738 Aberdeen 13T8 "4 Gm Newcastle 1 700 to 0739 Belfast 1058 3 7iii 1 4m Nottingham 1 705 to 0732 Harwich 1139 40m Weathercall 0901 471 National 00 Lines Htimtioiside 1 3 1 13 Grealer London 01 DyfedXPowys Kent, Surrey A Sussex 02 Devon. Cornwall 04 Wilts. Gloucs. Avon.

Som 05 Gvyynedd Clywd NoMh West England West's, South North East England 15 J6 Yofks. Oales 17" 18 Berks. Burks. Oxon Deds.Jleits, Essex 06 07' "08" CumhnaakeDjsmct South West Scotland West Cential WoililWealheicall 1 0 DAY NATIONAL FAX FORECAST 09065200535 0901 calls cost 60t'm. 09065 calls cost 1 50m (Mar 19991 Weatherrjilisa oioductoHISLtd.

ffiCuardlan jo-INTERACTIVE Vienna 8 46Jdir Warsaw 9 48 Fair Washington 5 4 1 Wellington. 6Hair" Zurjch 12 54 Ctalily Reports ior noon yesterday (previous day in Ihe Ameriras) 1966Sunny 72 Sunny" 46 Mist 28 Snow -16 3'Cloudy 19 jo Scotland" Cdm, ite. Lolhian. Borders, 22 tast 4 Central Scotland 23 Grampians Highland 24 North WesTscotlaiuf Glamorgan, Gwent 09 Shrojis, Herelord. Wnics 10 Centra) Midlands 11 Tast Midlands 12 Moscow put.

Faro 4 jy nam 15" 59 Cloudy.