Tyneside Theatre Company/Northern Sinfonia Orchestra Co-Production.

John Milton's

COMUS

Masque of debauchery

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may........300 years ago John Milton offered this advice in Comus.

And last night at the University Theatre, Newcastle, with the help of a superb performance by Alan Howard, that suggestion was given relevance for modern man.

The masque of Bachanalian debauchery written for a Welsh Border earl in 1635 to be performed against the backdrop of Ludlow Castle, has been revised in an imaginative and daring production by the Tyneside Theatre Company and the Northern Symphonia Orchestra.

Milton has long been relegated to the nit-picking of the A-level English Literature syllabus. But in spite of the archaic language and outdated allegory this new version by Alan Fearon, Gareth Morgan and Keith Statham is an excellent piece of theatre.

Susan Durkan