The 53rd London Film Festival runs 14-29 October 2009. Today is the press launch, with speeches from British Film Institute (BFI) Director Amanda Nevill (www.bfi.org.uk/about/people/seniorstaff/amanda_nevill.html) and London Film Festival (LFF) Artistic Director Sandra Hebron (www.bfi.org.uk/about/people/seniorstaff/sandra_hebron.html). There's a screening of extracts from 34 of the films - features, shorts, prominent films, and the more obscure. There's no harm in having the UK's premiere film festival launched with a couple of extreme bonuses - one being two of the most outrageously attractive women in the arts in Europe presenting it (it's a wonder Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi doesn't find an excuse to pop over and launch Italy's entries), the second (despairingly, miles more important for anoraks) being the phenomenal technical quality of the venue.

It's big. This is annually perhaps the biggest press launch for any event in the country, with around 900 international journalists packed into the ground floor. Odeon Leicester Square can seat 1,679 people, making it by far the largest cinema in the UK, and about the second biggest in Europe (Paris Rex is top). Sound and optical quality is astonishing. Sound formats Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) and Digital Theater Systems (DTS) are delivered from sixteen JBL amplifiers through 30 or so speakers around the auditorium, with another 20 or so behind the screen. The crisp, full harmonic range is particularly evident today in Harry Nilsson singing Without You in 44 Inch Chest - it's studio quality (probably better, as the recording will have been remastered). Focus is pin-clear - Odeon Leicester Square and The Empire are London's two prime cinemas, both with engineers permanently on duty. The Odeon's throw (distance from projector to screen) is a very long 38 metres (125 feet) - long enough, you'd think, for the picture to be completely out of whack by the time it gets there. But focus is so sharp - it is tested by binoculars from the projection suite, or by an engineer standing at the screen - that text smaller than a fingernail can be read without distortion at the screen. Today's film comes from - by these standards - a pretty crude format: it's on Sony Digital Betacam (usually called Digibeta) tape. And it sparkles. Optical kit is serious stuff, two vast Cinemeccanica Victoria 8 projectors with a Christie platter; plus a Barco DP 100 digital projector. Technical manager is Mark Nice; his colleagues include Michael Swarbrick (many thanks to Michael for this technical information; any mistakes are ours) who is backstage today handling speech microphones. (Websites: official: www.odeon.co.uk/fanatic/film_times/s105/Leicester_Square/; external: www.odeonleicestersquare.co.uk)

Premier PR organises today's event; key staff include: Claire Gascoyne (account director); Mia Farrell (head of print press); Lucy McGill (senior publicist, broadcast & online); Simone Devlin (press accreditation); Lucy Aronica (press office & press screenings manager); Annabel Hutton (international press). Opening and closing nights are handled by Freud Communications: Sal James & Nik Selman (accreditation); Jo Fernihough (ticket requests).

Amanda Nevill (devastatingly chic) says that new financing from the UK Film Council and private investment will let the London Film Festival (abbreviated/edited notes of her speech:) 'grow in stature to compete with other festivals, and take the London Film Festival into the top tier. New and exciting developments this year include bigger budgets, thanks to (organisations including) UK Film Council finance and DCMS (UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport). We're pleased and proud that it's our 7th year with The Times as title sponsor, and we are renewing long term partnerships' - she lists many including London agencies such as the Mayor of London's Office, Film London, the London Development Office. 'A new partner is TalkTalk - which is sponsoring the Screen Talks; the Mayfair Hotel is the new official hotel. We're working with Vue Cinemas for the first time. Makeup is by Mac' - she lists many other sponsors and media partners including new media partner Screen International. 'We're putting Britain at the competitive edge of global film. Amanda Nevill speaks movingly about her own upbringing, and looks at what Britain does best, going back to Victorian times. 'I was brought up on the proceeds of Leeds industry - the steel industry. My brother now runs the family business.' The family fortunes were based on an invention by a recent ancestor: a chain-based device to extract material from quarries. She compares 'the essential cog, the link in the chain' to how industry, and the film industry, work. 'Film is a global business. We in Britain have the essential links - actors, directors, post-production (and others named). As a nation we ooze creativity, it's in our genes, we're drenched in it' - Heavens! this is naked patriotism - 'It makes us unique. The BFI and all its activities are part of this Great British (tradition).' She mentions the much-talked-about proposal to merge the British Film Institute (BFI) and UK Film Council (UKFC). 'The dynamic interplay of culture and industry generates Britain's competitive edge.'

Sandra Hebron (devastatingly chic plus naughty knee-high black patent leather boots) thanks the team who have put the London Film Festival together by name including programmer Michael Hayden. (abbreviated/edited notes of her speech:) 'In Ken McMullen's new film An Organization of Dreams, one of the actors says 'What is the cinema, if not dreams?'. We need films that appeal to our hearts'. She mentions films that do, statistics, and putting this year's festival together. 'At times, it began to feel like the return of the auteur, except that the auteur never really went away.' Gala screenings of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox and Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy book-end the festival. She mentions the children's programme, international collection, newly-restored gems including Anthony Asquith's Underground (1928), Trafalgar Square screenings, revamping the awards - including new ones - to be held on 28 October, new venue Vue West End, and that this year will see the 'biggest opening night gala ever'. There will be press conferences and photo opportunities for many gala screenings. 'The clip reel (compilation tape of clips from a selection of films) has 34 titles taken from the 194 features and 113 shorts in the festival.'

Extracts from 34 films are shown, about a minute each. (Main link for each film is to Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) page for film; LFF link is to page on London Film Festival 2009 website): (brief comments on clips - in order shown - as seen, rather than on the films they come from): Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) (LFF) - Animated puppets, possibly cuddly foxes, wide selection of characters; title: 'One fox you can't out-fox', lots of action. Nowhere Boy (2009) (LFF) - Great sound track: Buddy Holly 'That'll Be The Day', 1950s feel, photography across the Mersey river at Liverpool; boy, mother-like woman, headmaster; great earthy recording of Screaming Jay Hawkins's I Put A Spell On You; jukes boxes, banjo, Elvis Presley sound track, teddy boys. The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) (LFF) - A government project, psychic soldiers, George Clooney, title: 'You have to dream a new America', comedy. Bright Star (2009) (LFF) - A pretty young woman in lace, reading a letter with man's reading voice over; he stands by the sea; costumes rather like a box of Quality Street; then she's in a field of bluebells while children play. The Road (2009) (LFF) - Devastation, destroyed landscape; dishevelled American people, men with beards; Deliverance feel but no visible sodomy. The Boys Are Back (2009) (LFF) - Man on bed in what looks like motel; child in splashes in bath; man runs into bath room worried, then smiles; child dives into bath twice; and third time - perhaps doesn't re-surface. Das weiße Band (2009) (The White Ribbon) (LFF) - a carriage, probably a pony and trap, riding through fields; medium close shot of couple in late Victorian clothes; young man on left, young woman on right, her hair tied back in a bun; German, with English subtitles; Him: 'I have no improper intentions'; woman looks anxious; 'How can I disgrace my future wife?'; she still looks worried, but it's that he won't kiss her; they do kiss, she looks relieved. An Education (2009) (LFF) - A school room and a school girl is praised by teacher: 'Excellent as always Jenny'; looks 1950s; Oxford University mentioned as a possible destination for her; then she's flirting and spending time with an older man; including getting into his car. La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris (2009) (La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet) (LFF) - Behind the scenes and in rehearsal with a ballet company; wigs; photographs; rehearsing dancers; posters, costumes; French, with English subtitles. Sham moho (2009) (At The End Of Daybreak) (LFF) - titles: 'A little bit about regret, sometimes about lies'; English subtitles, no speech in the clip, music over; people loving and fighting. Kicks (2009) (LFF) - Two women outside, with a blazing brazier; they dance, drive a car, pick up a man. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009) (LFF) - A very fat woman is lectured by a social worker; she's pushed over; bullied; looks defiant; 'Everyone's good at something'. Le petit dragon (2009) (The Little Dragon) (LFF) (Shorts collection: I Fought The Law) - A kung-fu toy man is stapled to his box; he breaks his staples, presses his start buzzer, bursts out. Trash Humpers (2009) (LFF) - low-quality video effect; a man in an operating gown and low light talks about heads: 'It would be nice to live without a head / think how much you would save on shampoo / and hats'. Paper Heart (2009) (LFF) - A woman in glasses is making a documentary, travels to different cities round North America. Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh (2009) (No One Knows About Persian Cats) (LFF) - children, perhaps blind, mime playing guitar as a man sits and plays guitar to them. English subtitles Vihir (The Well) (LFF) - English subtitles; boys in class, and swimming backstroke. A Serious Man (2009) (LFF) - Larry, a serious man with glasses says 'I've had mental problems'; everything is going wrong in his life; 'Everything, I need help'; but the Rabbi is too busy to see him; 'He doesn't look busy'; comedy. Micmacs à tire-larigot (2009) (LFF) - French, with English subtitles; man with beard living rough in (?) Paris with others, feeding communally; accordion music. Bunny And The Bull (2009) (LFF) - 'This is your holiday, I'm just your wing man' says comedy actor Simon Farnaby's character to his male friend. Music; great montaging of images in trailer; comedy. Amintiri din epoca de aur (2009) (Tales From The Golden Age) (LFF) - Two comically-miserable-looking men; English subtitles; 'Welcome to our village'; sheep, cows, Comrade Mayor; animals, children and villagers meet them. Un prophète (2009) (A Prophet) (LFF) - Great music, epic beat; head-butting; French, with English subtitles; prisoners beating each other up; very violent. Balibo (2009) (LFF) - Man in shorts talking to microphone; outside; a village; hot country; he's Australian; mentions Indonesian Soldiers; commentating; explosions; all pile into Land Rover. Vincere (2009) (LFF) - Protestors, all men, advance from left in Edwardian clothes; a street; woman works her way through gives one a note; shouting; clash with police coming from right; fight. The Informant! (2009) (LFF) - Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) ineptly tries to bug colleagues to despair of listeners he is recording to: 'You don't need to narrate' at board meeting; comedy. Up in the Air (2009) (LFF) - Man (George Clooney) and woman compare cards the size of credit cards. Don't Worry About Me (2009) (LFF) - title: 'A Southern boy meets a Northern girl'; women look at a man; Liverpool; he's with a woman by a beach. Le père de mes enfants (2009) (Father Of My Children) (LFF) - French, with English subtitles; a woman, a man, two girls, in a middle-class house; he says to sullen-looking older girl 'I want you to decide to be happy'. Underground (1928) (LFF) - Black and white; London Underground; couple walk opposite ways on escalator to keep level with each other as man returns glove woman has dropped; then they linger. The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers (2009) (LFF) (Shorts collection: People Are Strange) - elaborately-costumed men (puppets or real) in lederhosen face each other across a table; a fairy sprinkles her stardust at them; decor is cartoon-like; she waves her wand; they get up and leave for the outside; she watches as they go off hand-in-hand; looks like a gay romance; title suggests otherwise. The Limits of Control (2009) (LFF) - A woman and man sit outside a restaurant; about to talk; waiter interrupts for order, then to pour drinks; English subtitles; modern clothes; woman wears gloves; she mentions Hitchcock. Double Take (2009) (LFF) - Alfred Hitchcock in prison-mugshot-like clip; gives name; voice-over reads Hitchcock's film titles as charges; Hitchcock admits to appearing on television. Chloe (2009) (LFF) - Older woman asks younger woman her name: it's Chloe, she's a prostitute; older woman wants Chloe to approach her husband. 44 Inch Chest (2009) (LFF) - A fairly portly-looking man with beard lies on floor in wreckage of a room as camera moves in; he looks dead, turns out to be alive; music is Harry Nilsson's Without You - sung with shocking clarity and with gale-force emotional impact; first thought is that it's Nilsson's story; he died of heart failure aged 53 in 1994; sadly it isn't, though Ray Winstone (who it is) could be the man for the job.

John Park - Odeon Leicester Square, 22-24 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7JY - Wednesday 9 September 2009 (c) www.fringereport.com 2009

Outside a fabulous storm is closing stations across the tube network, drenching office workers to the skin, and making runners who are sweating anyhow look even more smug than usual. Inside, Kit Marlowe's Rose Theatre shows The Genius of Christopher Marlowe a stunning new film starring the venue - with lots of help from Sir Ian McKellen (left) and fellow actors, legendary theatre animator Bill Dudley, director Paul Marcus, and conceiver of the idea Robert Pennant Jones.

Harvey Sheldon welcomes on behalf of The Rose Theatre Trust. He says the remains of the theatre were discovered in December 1988 while a 1957 office building alongside Southwark Bridge was being demolished. The Rose, he explains, was the first Elizabethan theatre in Bankside. Excavations continued till May 1989. In spring 1989 the Trust was set up, helped by the theatrical profession, with two aims: (1) That the Rose Theatre should survive, and be put on display to the public; (2) To try to return The Rose to being a place of theatre on Bankside. 'What we've tried to do is to get the door of this place open' he says. Bill Dudley and Ian McKellen produced a video, now a DVD, which they've been able to show to the public for the last 10 years. 'Since the mid-1990s, we've been able to mount performances, starting with Susannah York's The Loves of Shakespeare's Women at the Rose.'

The Rose was the star vehicle for playwright Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe (1564-1593). Gay? Quite possibly. How did he die? Conjecture of being stabbed in a pub. A Government secret agent? Boring sort of chap, predicable life? Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe) tells all. Kit wasn't a pipe and slippers man.

The modern reconstruction of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)'s The Globe Theatre is nearby. The Rose showed Shakespeare's work too: he and Marlowe were contemporaries and rival playwrights.

The Rose's foundations are preserved under water. The site is partially excavated, so there's more to come. A wooden platform covers the hidden part. It provides a viewing gallery of what's been exposed so far, a performance space, and the improvised cinema for today's event. Harvey Sheldon says 'We're going to ask to excavate the remaining third of The Rose. We want to recreate The Rose in sight and sound - here. And create a space for performance to restore the revived Rose - here on Bankside in the early 21st Century.'

The film runs at 35 minutes with a worryingly blank screen for the first five. Have the projection light fused? This is a venue with no lavatory (The Globe Theatre up the road kindly assists - Shakespeare taking the piss out of Marlowe in death as in life) so it's not out of the question. The sound track is fine - Sir Ian in strong voice - but no vision. A small figure appears on screen. Then a platform. Suddenly, the whole theatre. And lots of performances by some terrific actors - including Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Anthony Sher, Henry Goodman, Alan Rickman, Frances Barber.

Exhibition films can be fairly unimaginative - putting it politely. This one is super-smart. It features performances from each of Marlowe's plays: Dido, Queen of Carthage (c 1586); Tamburlaine The Great Part 1 (c 1587); Tamburlaine Part 2 (c 1587-1588); The Jew of Malta (c 1589); Doctor Faustus (c 1589 or 1593); Edward II (c 1592); The Massacre at Paris (c 1593). The theatre is shown in detail as it was using computer-generated graphics, with a real-life audience in Elizabethan dress blended in. Performances move from Elizabethan to modern dress; and sometimes the audience are absent, with performances to an empty auditorium. The actual remains in the venue have illuminated red lines on the floor, showing the in-the-round layout of the theatre and the stage as they were. The film has been designed so that - in the second part of the film project when funds have been raised - the performances in it will be projected onto where the actual stage was in the venue. People will once again be able to see The Rose of Marlowe's day come to life. And it was tiny - the size of a bigger fringe theatre now. A huge crowd on stage would be done by 15 actors, with the audience packed close together.

Robert Pennant Jones thanks the film's five key people (Ian McKellen, Sheila Pennant Jones (married to RPJ), Bill Dudley, Paul Marcus, Christopher Marlowe) and quotes a Marlowe line for today's event: 'infinite riches in a little room'. Bill Dudley (William Dudley) is the genius behind all the technicals. He explains how they tested out the geometry of the venue three months ago to check that the angles from which they shot the actors in the film would project them exactly on the original location of the (real life) stage when they complete the next part of the project. The software is Cinema 4D - modelling lighting animation software which he describes as 'very artist-friendly'. Bill Dudley did the animation for Carousel's recent run at The Savoy Theatre (London's first-ever theatre with electric light), and for the current production of Peter Pan in a tent in Kensington Gardens London next to where the fictitious Peter frolicked. Bill Dudley sees the huge international interest in how light falls on objects - light modelling - among 20-year-old computer enthusiasts round the world as a revival of modelling: 'Making Airfix models, when we had proper childhoods!' Some of his remarkable work is at http://bill-d.cgsociety.org/gallery/.

There's about 60 people at today's launch. They include: Pepe Pryke, operations manager, Rose Theatre. Henry Goodman, actor. Sir Ian McKellen, actor. Stephen Oxley, trustee, Rose Theatre. Harvey Sheldon, trustee, Rose Theatre. Susie Tullet, press officer of today's event. Bill Dudley, artistic and technical expert on the film. Paul Marcus, director of the film. Robert Pennant Jones, co-financier of the film, whose brainchild it is. Sheila Pennant Jones, administrator of the film.

The Genius of Christopher Marlowe, 10 July to 31 August 09. Monday to Saturday 18:00 (0:35). Rose Theatre. £4.50. boxoffice@rosetheatre.org.uk. More about The Rose Theatre and its programme of performances at www.rosetheatre.org.uk

John Park - Tuesday 7 July 2009 - The Rose Theatre, 21 New Globe Walk,London SE1 9DT - (c) www.fringereport.com

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London Bridge Festival Launch - Counter Street, Hay's Galleria, London - Thursday 2 July 09 - 18:30 (22:00)

[London Bridge Festival team: Left to Right: Greg Tallent, director; Victoria Silverman, head of communications; Daryl Folkard, director; picture Fringe Report]

It's the launch of the London Bridge Festival (it runs 10-25 July 09) and those invited have gathered in the arches outside Hay's Galleria to witness ZipCar Theatre, three short dramas, each performed in and around four cars.

Festival director Greg Tallent introduces the evening with the help of Suzie Bennett who is playing at the Wheatsheaf on the three Fridays of the Festival. She is, she says 'a Devonshire bird, and my idea of a good night out always involved wine, nibbles and cars' - so she's looking forward to this. Victoria Silverman, head of communications for the festival, explains how the evening is going to work.

I join a queue outside a line of four cars for Granny, Theft, Auto, together with students Christina Laftoweckyi and Jeremy Oakes. It looks like we three are going to share the experience here and we're a bit nervous as we clamber into the first car, where, as the door slams, a human spider wakes and makes its web, to a sound background of old ladies talking about their past. In the next car, we are offered a miniature cup of tea, and a song. In the third, we take part in a bingo game. In the last, we meet Granny, but we never do get to have our sing-song.

Granny, Theft, Auto is directed by Sarah Ruff and Martin O'Brien and performed by Ellen Cartledge (the energetic spider), Sophie Cairns, Bronwen Sharp, Constance Ruff (Granny, playing herself), Nicola Singh (the tea lady with the lovely voice), Jacky Ho, Chris Pilgrim, Helen Brignal, and Steph Taylor. Elizabeth Hirst and Agnus Anna Towers provided the voice recordings, Edward Currie is the sound designer and Shona Bland the costume designer.

Then it's on to the next performance, Four Cars and a Clown, but first I have a chat with Anna Maria Nabirye, who is performing Strong and Wrong with Dan Carter-Hope at the Wheatsheaf pub (10-25 July, except Mondays). It's a musical sketch show, and definitely for over 18s, she tells me.

There's a bit of a queue for Four Cars, but Tony (no surname please) who has been invited along as a local ZipCar customer, is having a good time and gives ZipCar some glowing praise - for the event and for the quality of their service. ZipCar is the event sponsor - they've lent the 12 cars used tonight - hence ZipCar Theatre. They're an international car club which has been in London for 2 years. Drew Post, an American who is their London marketing coordinator, says ZipCar is 'an international family now. Join once, and you have access to vehicles in New York and San Francisco, as well as London. We're an alternative to owning a car, and this is certainly alternative!'

Four Cars and a Clown is directed by Anthony Coleridge and features Tony Pamment, Tim Downie and Neil Henry - all of whom write and perform. Other performers are Melanie Fawcett, Simon Wegrzyn, Sarah Hazel Bryan, Sophie Dewey, Ryan Davenport, Michael Armstrong, Richard Maxted (Hildago Sanchez Lobo, dressed as a banana) and Ian Keir Attard. Jennifer Pearce is the producer, assisted by Sarah Dovey.

Four cars takes us on a surreal journey which includes a bank robbery, a man meeting his long-lost daughter, a middle-class couple discovering another side of sexual behaviour, and a couple of clowns. It is a breathless, slightly surreal experience, especially if you look outside and watch bemused office workers strolling by.

No time left to view the final production, Crashing the Party, but this is directed by Tory Sanders. Performers include: Charlie Atkinson, Sarah-Jayne Barrand, Zoe Bateman, Emily Dell, Joe Evans, Jenny Glithero, James Gorrett, Tom Kirk, Annie McMillan, Shabsi Rehman, Ally Sedgewick and Andrea Ware. The cocoon in the production is designed by Claire Dell

(c) Brent Crude - Thursday 2 July 2009 - Counter Street / Hay's Street / Hay's Galleria, London Bridge, London UK - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Camden Fringe Programme Launch - Camden Head, London - Tuesday 23 June 09 - 19:00 (23:00)

For a while it was Liberties, now it's back to its original (1787) name The Camden Head (www.camdenhead.com) and it's one of the venues of The Camden Fringe (3-30 August 09). Tonight's the programme launch hosted by Camden Fringe's joint directors, the equally-dazzlingly-gorgeous Michelle Flower and Zena Barrie.

Controversially as ever for these two feisty minxes of the fringe theatre and comedy world, the elegantly-designed printed programme bursts into life on the inside cover, where it points out that this is 'The only festival in London not run by public school prats'.

This is a complex reference for readers round the world as 'public schools' in the UK are actually private schools (literal public schools are state schools). But what do the ladies mean? Who can these public school prats be? It's therefore also necessary to know that Anthony Alderson (director of The Pleasance, a major Edinburgh Fringe and London Fringe theatre), William Burdett-Coutts (ditto, Assembly Edinburgh and Riverside Studios London), Martin Witts (director, Leicester Square Theatre), Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood (directors, Underbelly, Edinburgh and London), and others are all public-school educated - without getting on to many of the directors and staff of fringe venues in London, ditto.

Public school prats may also make up a large segment of Camden Fringe's potential audience, a lot (from the sound of tonight's accents) of its performers, perhaps a number of reviewers and their editors; and the public school prats' parents may perhaps finance many fringe productions. Phew! A provocative read - in the challenging tradition of the Gerald Ratner Prawn Sandwich school of reverse PR - and that's before getting to what's on.

Performances across Camden Fringe include James Haslam's Gays Upon Uranus, Verano Theatre Co's Leatherface, Mahny Djahanquiri's Blonde Compassion, Ten In A Bed Theatre's God Lost, Darren Hoskins's Soft Cabaret, Strange Ladies' Mascha and Vascha, Juliet Meyers: My Life In Your Hands, Lazarus Theatre Company's Oscar Wilde's Salome (at Roundhouse, echoing its legendary staging by Lindsay Kemp - who taught David Bowie how to use make-up - at Roundhouse in the 1970s), The Weird Sisters' Lady In Bed, Doggett & Ephgrave's Comedy Job Lot, Faultless and Torrance in A Night of Shining Armour, Chalotte Young's Twinless, Philip Lawrence's Breaking Legs, The Intimate Strangers - I am Sasha Fierce, Bruised Peach's Cleopatra's Gone!, Scott Capuro Goes Much Deeper, Robin Ince versus the Moral Majority, Con Ghiccio's Grimms, Sarah-Louise Young's Cabaret Whore, Scheherazade's Sinbad. Full details are here www.camdenfringe.org

The printed programme lists 118 shows at Camden People's Theatre, The Camden Head, The Camden Eye Performers' Lounge, Etcetera Theatre (which the two festival directors run throughout the year), Roundhouse Studio Theatre. The Roundhouse, a former Victorian locomotive shed - restored with the enthusiastic perserverance of actors and writers including Sir Arnold Wesker - is a fantastic addition to Camden Fringe's stable of venues.

The party, in the venue's upper room, is so popular that it spills into the downstairs bar and beyond into the street. People here include Rebecca Talbot, Greg Hull, Bradley Hull, James Haslam, Philip Lawrence, Mike Shephard, Annarita Mazzilli, Mary Mazzilli, Laura Bridges, Matthew Rose, Chris Markham, Sky Crawford, Steve Bennett, Penny Sims and many more.

John Park - Tuesday 23 June 2009 - The Camden Head, 100 Camden High Street, London, NW1 0LU - (c) www.fringereport.com

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The Pleasance 25th Anniversary - Pleasance Theatre Courtyard, London - Sunday 21 June 09 - 18:30 (23:00)

Tonight's party in the courtyard of The Pleasance Theatre London celebrates The Pleasance's first 25 years. The London theatre has shows round the year, and every August it decamps to the Edinburgh Fringe where it expands over a vast number of venues and stages to become one of Edinburgh's biggest operators. Founder the charming Christopher Richardson celebrates his 70th birthday the following week, so it's a double. Director of The Pleasance, the remarkably handsome Anthony Alderson hosts the event. The Pleasance is a registered charity, and trustees present include John Faulkner (Secretary) and Piers Torday.

Gorgeous Mariele Runacre Temple is producer of Wireless Theatre Company so usually wears the kind of clothes radio producers have to wear for their work - belted jeans and thigh-length leather riding boots (with spurs, without? - the radio producer's daily dilemma). Tonight Mariele looks fabulous in (very) figure-hugging short dress, very red lipstick, and a fetching tattoo. She shyly confides to equally gorgeous Evelyne Brink that there are more in concealed places. Though not keen on tattoos for herself, Evelyne reckons that a good place for ladies to tattoo is beneath the breast - when young, they can be flaunted; when old 'nature covers them'. Evelyne's in turquoise everything (in the visible zone) - pretty turquoise dress, turquoise woolly (chilly outside in June), turquoise earrings - and defiantly brown high heels and handbag. Her Edinburgh show Almost Like A Virgin (www.almostlikeavirgin.com) is produced by handsome and debonair London producer James Seabright, also here. But not here are Michelle Flower and her best friend Susan Turnbull who have gone to throw their underwear at Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree: M & S are life-long Blur groupies. Michelle's glamorous co-director of Camden Fringe Zena Barrie - looking divine - is here.

Among the 200 or so guests are: Charming Steve Bennett, the distinguished editor of Chortle. Producer and PR Flavia Fraser-Cannon. Producer Suman Bhuchar. Producer Louise Chantal. Astonishing actress (and Steven Berkoff's long-time leading lady) Linda Marlowe (Berkoff's Women). Playwright Glyn Cannon. PR Madelaine Bennett (Prospero Communications). PR Elin Morgan (Prospero Communications). PR Ben Williams (Prospero Communications). Doyenne of British comedy, flame-haired temptress Hils Jago (AmusedMoose). Ex-theatre-PR now press for British Red Cross Penny Sims. Comedy performer Chris Neill. PR Mel Brown (Impressive PR). The Pleasance's delightful head of press Cassandra Mathers.

There's a great exhibition of posters from right across The Pleasance's 25 years, with some striking early graphics reflecting founder Christopher Richardson's background as a Royal College of Art graduate. Lots of photos too, including a wall of celebrities by the fabulous Edinburgh photographer Stanley Reilly. And truly amazing food. There are huge slices of Battenburg cake, other cakes, seed cake - great school food and the half-expectation of being whipped by matron (sadly not); and lots of great barbeque food. In the courtyard there's a marquee with a band, and the party spills into the surrounding buildings. And for anyone feeling nostalgic, a little bit of Edinburgh - The Edinburgh Pleasance Courtyard's totem-pole signpost. As the party gets seriously underway (drink, and probably fornication), one man alone sits on the courtyard steps, memorising the contents of a shorthand pad. It's the top man, the Pleasance's delightful director Anthony Alderson - preparing for what will be an epic speech.

All about The Pleasance, London and Edinburgh, is here www.pleasance.co.uk

John Park - Sunday 21 June 2009 - The Courtyard, The Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, North Road, Islington, London, N7 9EF - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Hot August Fringe Press Launch - Royal Vauxhall Tavern, London - Friday 19 June 09 - 13:00 (13:30)

Today's launch is hosted by Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT) Hot August Fringe co-ordinator Catia Ciarico, and RVT's owner and freeholder Paul Oxley. Those present include: Simon Casson creator of Duckie (www.duckie.co.uk), a fixture of RVT on Saturdays. Bruce Alan 'Baylen' Leonard aka DJ Hey Baylen. The legendary Dusty Limits hosts the showcase which follows today's reception at 13:30. David Mills, performing at Hot August and at Camden Fringe. Simone Baird (Time Out). Luke Till (Boyz Magazine). Bibi Lynch (Grazia). Chris Fitchew (Lick And Chew, with Heather Pilkington). John Joseph Bibby aka La John Joseph. TV presenter Andi Osho (www.andiosho.co.uk). Transgender band The Delta Ladies aka Vicky Stone and Diana Stone aka Princess Diana. Hot August includes food fights by Bugaloo Stu and male burlesque from Dame Jayne's Den of Men.

Royal Vauxhall Tavern is perhaps the most famous original gay venue for performance in London - going back decades. Much has changed since then. The buildings around it were pulled down for redevelopment, but Paul Oxley bought it four years ago and has rehabilitated it, giving it back its soul. He explains that the area around RVT (built in 1865) was once Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, a destination for families. That was before the railway arrived - the main south west line from Waterloo passes in a massive bridge 200 metres from and above the pub. He says that local authority Lambeth Council wants to restore something of that in open land surrounding RVT, and RVT will play a part. With changes too in the acceptance of gay people, he feels - as a gay man - that gay people don't feel the need for a 7-day-a-week dedicated pub. So he describes it as gay at weekends and 'in the week it's an arts venue - we don't apply a term of sexuality'.

Details of RVT's Hot August Fringe, which runs 27 July to 28 August 09, are here www.rvt.org.uk. Scope includes stand-up, sketch comedy, bands, cabaret, magic, burlesque, dance, theatre. Up to four shows a night, 100 performances. Performers include Rosie Wilby, Shazia Mirza, Christian Lee, Dusty Limits, Faby Licious, Sarah-Louise Young.

John Park - Friday 19 June 2009 - Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 372 Kennington Lane, London SE11 5HY - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Per Kirkeby Exhibition Launch - Tate Modern, London - Tuesday 16 June 09 - 19:00 (21:00)

This private view to celebrate the opening of the exhibition of the works of Danish artist Per Kirkeby (b 1938) - organised by Tate Modern with assistance from the Royal Danish Embassy - starts on a sunny evening at Tate Modern. Girls, I'm worrying about not wearing the right outfit. And it's a confusing venue. Look, let's face it, it's not a work of art - it's an old power station. Whoops, sorry. Anyhow, you come in round the side and from beneath, kind of up its bottom. There's then a very big empty space where apparently they pulled out the old generators, and all the guard says is 'The art's on the fourth floor'. We go up, come off the escalator, walk straight ahead, go through a door and wander round quite an interesting and very very very large exhibition of Futurism. You could get lost, it's the kind of exhibition you need to take rations to. We're pretty much the only people there. All the pictures are from 80 or so years ago. Lots of them look familiar from books.

It's only after half an hour and being about to leave - maybe with a terse note to gallery director Sir Nicholas Serota that it's all very well calling it Futurism, but all the stuff is actually old. Then we realise we've been in the wrong exhibition. All the raucous laughter, drinking - and who knows, debauchery - are down the far end. And in this venue, that's several miles away.

Here the atmosphere is relaxed - suffused lights and people gathered together drinking all kind of drinks and eating huge olives and crisps. Not the most typical Danish delicacies, but very nice. Understandably, no drinks can be taken into the exhibition so some (quite a lot actually) (maybe even most) (we won't name anyone) people prefer to linger in nice chats and view the super view of the Thames from the terrace (sheer drop beneath). Are any of them talking about art? Shhh, secret. The whole evening is funny and unpretentious, with lots of remarkable people.

It feels as if everybody is waiting for something to happen, or someone to appear. We're hoping to have the chance to meet, even briefly, guests of honour Danish HRH Crown Princess Mary (I can do a really classy curtsey) and Danish Minister of Culture Carina Christensen - but not so lucky. They, Danish Ambassador Birger Riis-Jørgensen and his wife Karin Riis-Jørgensen meet with Per Kirkeby and exhibition curator Achim Borchardt Hume for a tour of the exhibition, then go to a private dinner even higher up Tate Modern at Level 7 - at which HRH Crown Princess Mary makes a speech.

We have the great luck to meet the lovely Press & Cultural Attaché, Head of Press, Culture and Information for the Danish Embassy. Those among the 200 or so present include Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate (mum's the word about his Futurism shortcomings); futurist Anne Lise Kjaer (www.kjaer-global.com) (she probably knew in advance which exhibition to go to); and lovely lively ladies from the Danish Embassy: Laura Engell Holm, Press Officer and Web Editor; Dorit Ahler Knudsen, Information Officer; Inge Henningsen, Cultural & Press Officer.

Per Kirkeby Exhibition is 17 June 09 to 6 September 09. It is supported by the Per Kirkeby Exhibition Supporters Group, The Danish Arts Agency and Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation. Per Kirkeby is curated by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Curator, with Cliff Lauson, Assistant Curator. Sunday to Thursday, 10:00-18:00. Friday and Saturday, 10:00-22:00. Last admission into exhibitions 17:15 (Friday and Saturday 21:15). Ticket prices Per Kirkeby £9.80 (Concs £7.80 / Senior £8.80 / Family £24.50 concessions). Free for Tate Members. Book online with Tate (www.tate.org.uk) or tel 020 7887 8888. Joint for Futurism & Per Kirkeby: Adult £15.00 / Concs £13.00 / Family £46.70.

(c) Caterina Bertone - Tuesday 16 June 2009 - Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Udderbelly London Launch - Southbank Centre, London - Wednesday 27 May 2009 - 18:00 (20:00)

'The moon shone so wonderfully on this last night,' purrs blonde bombshell and frankly outrageously sexy SouthBank headmistress Jude Kelly, 'and the rain's kept off.' Underbelly's executive directors Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood created inflatable-upturned-cow-venue Udderbelly for the Edinburgh Fringe. Since then it's done Brighton too, and now it's come to London - tonight's the first night. Joan Rivers cuts the ribbon: 'This is such an amazing event' she says. 'I hope London becomes twice the size of Edinburgh.'

It's an evening of lots of pert waiters and waitresses with canapés and very large amounts of free drink. Underbelly staff wear fetching agriculturally-themed uniforms, and there's a purple cow (human in costume - relax, Peta). Those here include: writer Ollie Hester, pretty venue director and actress Felicity Wren, truly well-hung James Wren, UK comedy doyenne and head of AmusedMoose Hils Jago, London Bridge Festival Director Greg Tallent, writer and former Tower Records Country Music manager Ruth Morris (her comprehensive Fringe Report article about Udderbelly's programme, top ten recommendations, web links, and how to get to the venue, is here), comedian and magician Jerry Sadowitz, comedian Reginald D Hunter, definitive international comedy publication Chortle editor urbane Steve Bennett, extremely gorgeous Prospero Communications director Madelaine Bennett, Canal Café manager and Rogues' Gallery Theatre Company producer Alexandra Smith, Underbelly non-executive director Tom Page, Underbelly Promotions executive director Brett Vincent, Soho Theatre head of press and public relations Fiona McCurdy, Prospero Communications PR Elin Morgan, Underbelly head of press Sarah Harries, Clout PR director David Burns, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge director of marketing Laurence Markham, Southbank artistic director Jude Kelly, comedian Joan Rivers, Underbelly executive director Ed Bartlam, Underbelly executive director Charlie Wood, comedian Vikki Stone, former Underbelly head of press now press for British Red Cross (sadly not in uniform) gorgeous Penny Sims (men probably kill to taste her legendary Baked Trout With Banana), rugged man of South West Scotland Alistair Twiname (it's said twy-name), producer Adam Spears, The Times writer Tobias Kelly, TheLondonPaper journalist and actress lovely Kat Brown, handsome chap Nick Brown, Clout PR director Kevin Wilson.

John Park - Wednesday 27 May 2009 - Jubilee Gardens, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Launch of Control Magazine Issue Eighteen - Rokeby Gallery - Saturday 9 May 2009 - 15:00 (17:00)

Rokeby directors Beth Greenacre and Ed Greenacre host today's launch. Control is an extraordinary publication, begun in the 1960s when editor Stephen Willats perceived a need for a vehicle to allow artists to explain their mission and purpose to one another. It was a time when the assumptions of the 1950s were breaking down and there seemed to be the possibility of a new start for the artist's endeavour. 'From this time on' he explained, 'art would be a community effort, a response to changes in society.'

Since then Control has been published infrequently, but whenever Stephen Willats and his collaborators felt the need to externalise ideas. Why an issue now? Artists (or perhaps conceptual designers, as Stephen Willatts once labelled himself) should be responding to the meltdown in international finance. 'Few are responding, but these are the ones represented in the pages of Control, Issue Eighteen.'

Control for the community of social artists, seems to have an almost legendary presence. Ed Greenacre told me 'There is nothing like it. Nothing else which focuses on the role of the artist and why and how artists can function today.' Among the landmark endeavours that Stephen Willatts refers to is the 1000 drawings project by Australian artist Peter Upward. He allegedly locked himself in a room with 1000 sheets of paper, and then, having taken acid, proceeded to fill them with drawings. 'They had no value. There was no representational effort. The idea was to question what art is or should be about.'

Issue Fourteen had its focus around a symposium held in Oxford. 40 artists came together for discussions and to mount projects in the local community, with many different art events happening in strange places. Among the artists to have featured over the years have been Joe Tilson and Anish Kapoor. 'Now, Control has gathered a group of subscribers from around the world,' Dr Stephanie Willats told me. 'There is much more energy outside galleries today, than within them.'

I met art publishers Anna Vicente and Ivan Richards who sell small, hand-crafted books which are also works of art (www.wotadot.com). They had met with Stephen Willats at an international alternative publishing exhibition. Anna and Ivan shared a view that art should inform and educate, and provide a perspective that other comment can not.

Control magazine is available from www.controlmagazine.org price £10.00. The website also features an interview with Stephen Willatts conducted by Dr Andrew Wilson, Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art at the Tate. Contributors to the current issue include Annette Krauss, Erwin van Doorn, Dan Mitchell.

(c) Brent Crude - Saturday 9 May 2009 - Rokeby, 37 Store Street, London WC1E 7QF - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work - Private View - The Gallery at BFI Southbank, London - Thursday 7 May 2009 - 18:30 (21:00)

BFI's Southbank Gallery is hosting a 3D season, beginning with a new video installation from Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. The video takes as its starting point one of the first 3D films ever produced, The Man from MARS, also known as Radio Mania. The original production was made in 1923, directed by Roy William Neil. Forsyth and Pollad have created a new film using the sound stage at Twickenham Studios, showing a new cast in rehearsal for a new version of the film. So, it's a strangely introverted experience, made even odder by the fact that this is a three-dimensional projection.

Walking in, you are handed a pair of 3D glasses with instructions not too put them on until inside, because it's dark, and dark it is, so much so that you bump into other viewers, some of whom are sitting on the floor. There are no chairs and everyone stands, sits or mills about in a rather random manner. Some settle down to watch the film, others move to different positions to check that their perspective of the screen is correct. (Are we really watching a film?) Others still turn round to watch the musicians (also on film and also in 3D). This is because the room has two screens.

One wall shows the video installation, a strange meld of what looks like a live performance behind glass, and traditional film performance. The characters should be able to step through the glass screen, your mind is telling you, and sometimes it seems as though they will. The fact that the production is a rehearsal, (or rather a film of a rehearsal) adds to the layers of complexity and confusion. Is it a film? Is it live or is it a rehearsal? And of course the answer is that it is all three in a sense.

The sci-fi substance of the film adds further layers of complexity. The actors talk about miracles of science actually being quite simple to achieve, but then the script has one of them fluff a line or make another mistake and the whole illusion dissolves (or is it reinforcing itself?). And so, because the artists have set about creating a contemporary adaptation of the silent movie, by staging a rehearsal and filming it, it is like a work-in-progress, which looks live but is actually stuck on repeat.

The music for this new production has been specially composed by Barry Adamson (a former member of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) and is being played - in the same 3D manner on a facing wall. Musicians featured are Nick Plytas, Johnny Machin and Iain Ross. The space for watchers is big, square and black with some dayglo strips on the floor to link the performance with the music, but it's odd, not the kind of space to comfortably watch a performance (of either music or film), but neither is it easy to stroll around in. Discomfort, of mind and body, seems to be an integral part of the experience.

Many of the cast of this new version of Radio Mania are here including Terrence Hardiman (perhaps best known for his TV role as The Demon Headmaster by viewers of a certain age) Kevin Eldon and Caroline Katz. The exhibition is supported by other events including an evening of works by artists and filmmakers admired by Pollard and Clarke (and including the 1973 Lindsay Anderson film O Lucky Man!) on 27 May. On 19 July 09 at 18.10, the artists will lead a post-screening discussion.

Radio Mania: A strange tale from space. 8 May – 11 July 2009. Admission free. Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00–20.00. www.bfi.org.uk/gallery. PR is Alison Wright (Alison Wright PR)

(c) Brent Crude - Thursday 7 May 2009 - The Gallery at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South Bank, Waterloo, London SE1 8XT - (c) www.fringereport.com

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London Bridge Festival Club - The Heeltap, Borough, London - Tuesday 21 April 2009 - 18:30 (22:00)

London Bridge Festival (LBF) runs 10-25 July 09. At present its website (www.londonbridgefestival.com) lists 59 artists, performers and promoters and 42 venues. So Edinburgh (2,100 shows) won't be worried yet.

Tonight is a kind of launch, though not exactly. Cleverly, the festival is evolving in a series of regular Club Nights in a cordoned-off area of Borough High Street's Heeltap Bar. This is an exceptionally smart pub, as pubs are in Borough. Karl Marx (1818–1883) might have scowled at Borough and its appealing middle-class market, as a festering cess-pit of the petite bourgeousie. But he lived in Soho, and Borough has lots more important people - William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Kit Marlowe (1564-1593), plus Chaucer, Dickens, Blake, Samuel Johnson (though obviously not at the same time) - and places such as Cross Bones Graveyard. It's a medieval burial place for prostitutes with its own website (www.crossbones.org.uk) and standard-bearer - a handsome chap called John Constable who's here tonight. John Constable is well-known in the area (more below) as the founder and leader of community arts organisation Southwark Mysteries (www.into.org.uk/SouthwarkMysteries). He's also a dead ringer for Clint Eastwood but don't mention it. Here tonight also is London Bridge Festival's handsome and urbane director Greg Tallent

People here include: Lynne Parker, producer of Funny Women (www.funnywomen.com). Charles Wahab, LBF. Mackenzie Taylor. Actor Jace Desay. John Davies. Brett Gowlett. Sarah Ruff. Martin O'Brien. Olga Generozova, managing director of Artstream (www.artstream.org). Selah Hennessy is doing the masters course in radio journalism at Goldsmith's College taught by international radio drama & journalism expert Tim Crook. She's recording a five-part radio show - three of which are about LBF - for London's arts radio station Resonance 104.4 FM (www.resonancefm.com). Tentative broadcasting start is late June 09.

Georgia Parris and Charlotte Smiley trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. They're acting (with Lauren Monaghan-Pisano) in A One-Way Street for three weeks at The Vaults at Edinburgh Fringe (www.EdFringe.com) 09, skipping down to London for a quick one-nighter of it at The Roundhouse for Camden Fringe 09 (www.camdenfringe.org, run by Zena Barrie and Michelle Flower) in the middle of the run, and previewing it at LBF in July 09.

Producer and writer Daryl Folkard, on the LBF team, is taking Generation F to EdFringe 09 for 8 nights at The Space - Royal College of Surgeons. Cat Duval, events and stage manager. Rosa Genchi, visual artist. Nessah Muthy is doing performance art at Central School of Speech and Drama. She's involved in The Accidental Festival (www.accidentalfestival.com) at The Roundhouse 22-24 May 09. Performer and actor Dan Shelton is a graduate of Central. The evening is being filmed, and radio interviews recorded, to document the build-up of the festival.

John Constable took a show to Edinburgh Fringe to The Hill Street Theatre in 1995, I Was An Alien Sex God, taking it first to Battersea Arts Centre (BAC). He's a writer, performer and 'purveyor of alternative-history walks', best known as the author of The Southwark Mysteries: 'It's a cycle of poems and mystery plays which we've done for the last 13 years - a vision of transformation - a contemporary Mystery Play.' A new production of the full work is planned for 2010, although parts of The Southwark Mysteries have been performed at venues in Southwark over the last 10 years. John Constable regularly performs his work as John Crow and every 23rd of the month, he organises a vigil at Cross Bones Graveyard, with 'poetry and songs and simple ceremonies to honour "the outcast dead".' (www.crossbones.org.uk)

Theatre In A Car is one LBF event. London car-club company Zip Car (www.zipcar.com) is lending 12 cars for a night. There'll be 15 performers over 60 minutes, with audiences - eg 3 at a time - sitting in the back. People confer in groups and there's an improvised showing of a couple of possible episodes.

2009 is the first London Bridge Festival. Greg Tallent says (approximately and edited): 'There's the South Bank Festival - that's big and every year. We're right next door to them. We welcome all artists and performers to show their work. London Bridge Festival is set to become the Fringe event of the year.' He's well-suited to being director of a pan-arts event. Currently a lecturer in the business school at London South Bank University, he's been a stand-up comedian, fashion photographer, painter (Chelsea School of Art and Design and Royal College of Art), and a jazz pianist. He'd like to see the event staying free of internal politics, and making enough money to ensure it can take place every year.

According to London Bridge Festival (LBF) organisers: LBF 09 will include: comedy, music, poetry, film, theatre, street shows, tours, art, photography. It is open to everyone - from first timers to professionals. LBF 09 will launch the Unnamed Awards for Best New Comedy Act, Best Short Film, Best Photography, and others. There will be social action strands including community regeneration, climate change, human rights, fair trade. The Festival Club for social networking and helping artists and performers to get to know each other is every Tuesday fortnight at the Heeltap pub at 18.30 from now onwards - next is Tuesday 5 May 09. Competitions in LBF include: Short Story Competition, 48 Hrs Short Film Competition, Photography Competition: Living London - from Glamour to Grime.

Web media links for LBF are Website (www.londonbridgefestival.com); Twitter (www.twitter.com/LondonFestival); Facebook (www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27984753705); YouTube (uk.youtube.com/LondonBridgeFestival); FriendFeed (friendfeed.com/londonbridgefestival); MySpace (www.myspace.com/londonbridgefestival); LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/pub/b/85/b98).

London Bridge Festival (LBF) runs 10-25 July 09. Website is www.londonbridgefestival.com. Director is Greg Talent. Contact email is: greg (at) londonbridgefestival.com. Fringe Report will cover London Bridge Festival with around 10 reviews.

John Park - Tuesday 21 April 2009 - The Heeltap (The Heeltap and Bumper), Chaucer House, White Hart Yard, London, SE1 1NX - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Rogues' Gallery Theatre Company Launch - Bungalow 8, St Martins Lane Hotel - Thursday 16 April 09 - 20:00

Rogues' Gallery Theatre Company apparently began (like all great ventures) in a pub. A group of actors and directors, tired of waiting for jobs to come to them, decided to create their own work. It started as a series of workshops and readings; they say they are now a collective of around fifty people. Photographers at tonight's launch at exclusive bar Bungalow 8 in London's Covent Garden snap guests including Old Vic artistic director Kevin Spacey; it's clear the company means business.

'Collective is one of our buzzwords', says Rogues' Gallery artistic director Oliver Rose, leaning in one of the bar's crowded passageways. 'We're a sweep of people.' He says they make decisions as a group, 'beautiful people who love talking.' Fundraising in hard times? 'Young emerging talent helping themselves is something that people can get behind.' It's borne out by a glittering crowd heaving in the club's darkened basement bar.

Among the crush are Canal Café artistic director Emma Taylor, Prospero publicists Elin Morgan and Madelaine Bennett, designer Kate Guinness; Cock Tavern literary manager and Rogues' Gallery member Hamish MacDougall; London Bridge Festival director Greg Tallent. Launch organisers are The Supper Club, a networking group run by Tamsin Lonsdale, whose members here include actress Daisy Aitkens, artist Scarlett Clifford; and former broker, now writer and Spectator journalist, Venetia Thompson, whose book Gross Misconduct will be published in March 2010.

Fashions range from tasselled cowboy shirts to platinum blonde hair; food and entertainment are canapés and upcoming bands. Rogues' Gallery magician Sam Fletcher makes rubber bands disappear. James Yeateman, co-founder with Tom Ferguson of Kandinsky Theatre, drops dipping sauce onto a piqued waitress's four-inch-heels as he tries to balance two cocktails and a Chinese dumpling.

Twenty Rogues' Gallery members will appear in Dog in the Manger by Lope De Vega at Hoxton Hall, London 5-9 May. Tonight is part-launch, part-fundraiser for the show. Startlingly handsome actor Alex Marx plays lead role Teodoro. 'Rogues' Gallery is a place for us all to develop,' he says. Producer Alexandra Smith says that she hopes the company can expand to include comedy and new writing. 'Every role is understudied,' she says, 'so that if one of the actors finds paid work, they can leave and we just replace them.' Several members are exploring puppetry.

'They're all about twelve,' says Christopher Peacock, laughing. He's a former London Tonight newsreader who recently retrained as an actor, and appears in the show as the father. 'I had my first rehearsal today where I thought I'd be playing a grumpy old man, but it's too fast-paced to do that.'

Guests spill out from the bar to the Wonderland décor of the lounge upstairs - it's complete with giant chess pieces, gilded chairs, swathes of white flowers and AppleMac laptops. One seat is embroidered 'What happens at Bungalow 8 stays at Bungalow 8.' Kevin Spacey drifts by. Company members Charlie Billingham, Tom Shepherd and Cameron Harris, party on. (Information on Rogues' Gallery and Dog In The Manger is at www.roguesgallerytheatre.co.uk).

(c) Philippa Tatham - Thursday 16 April 09 - Bungalow 8, St Martins Lane Hotel, 45 St Martins Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4HX - (c) www.fringereport.com

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The Theatre Book Prize - Grand Saloon, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - Tuesday 7 April 2009 - 11:30

Things are going to the dogs. The clock in the magnificent Grand Ballroom at the Theatre Royal in London's Drury Lane is stuck at 11.45. The Society for Theatre Research (STR, www.str.org.uk) has fewer than 60 entries for its Theatre Book Prize for books published during 2008 – not much more than one a week.

Today's prize ceremony has the support of a few notables - including Julian Glover and Nigel Planer - and a sprinkling of the unusual and unexpected. Here are French lawyer Valerie Pelletier, invited through a connection with Drury Lane; and Charles Grant from St Paul's Cathedral. After all, both courtroom and Church are branches of theatre. But today is mainly for writers, popular and academic - and their nervous publishers, who have to sell the books.

Judges are choreographer and - stylishly kilted - theatre director Omar Okai; Professor Katherine Newey, University of Birmingham; Ian Shuttleworth, lead theatre critic, Financial Times. The judging panel is chaired by Howard Loxton for the STR, but he takes no part in the judging. Each of the judges talks about two of the books on the shortlist:

Shortlist: The Golden Generation: New Light on Post-war British Theatre, edited by Dominic Shellard (British Library). Stage Presence: The Actor as Mesmerist, by Jane Goodall (Routledge). A Strange, Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families, by Michael Holroyd (Chatto and Windus). Theatre and Globalisation: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era, by Patrick Lonergan (Palgrave MacMillan). Theatre of the Troubles, by Bill McDonnell (Exeter University Press). Verbatim: Techniques in Contemporary Theatre, edited by Will Hammond and Dan Steward (Oberon).

Producer, director and actor Steven Berkoff announces the winner. He has fans, and the opposite, but it has to be said that he's an epic self-publicist. While awarding The Theatre Book Prize to Patrick Lonergan for Theatre and Globalisation: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era, Steven Berkoff doesn't fail to notice that his (1988) Dublin production of Oscar Wilde's Salomé isn't in the book's index. Patrick Lonergan duly acknowledges in his acceptance speech that he now has the subject for his next book.

(c) Brent Crude - Tuesday 7 April 2009 - Grand Saloon, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Foyle Young Poets Of The Year Award - The Sage, Gateshead - Tuesday 3 March 2009 - 16:30 (19:00)

The Poetry Society Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2009 launches today at The Sage, Gateshead - the first time it has taken place in the North East of England. Online entry is at www.foyleyoungpoets.org. Deadline is 31 July 2009. Those present include: Bea Colley, education manager of The Poetry Society; WN Herbert (Bill Herbert), poet; Judith Palmer, director of The Poetry Society; Caroline Bird, a previous winner; Richard O'Brien, a previous winner; Lucy Macnab, SouthBank Centre; Katrina Porteous, poet; Jill Davidson, Prudhoe Community High School.

Peter Andrews reports in detail on tonight's launch here: Foyle Young Poets Of The Year Award 2009

(c) Peter Andrews - Tuesday 3 March 09 - The Sage Gateshead, St Mary's Square, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 2JR, UK - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Poetry Night at the Mumford Gallery - Thursday 19 February 2009 - 18:30 (21:30)

Every Thursday night, in the intimate space of the Mumford Rooftop Gallery (www.mumfordfineart.net) on D'Arblay Street in Soho, there's a small gathering - a salon if you like. Those attending - not just invited guests, anyone can come - have the opportunity to view the art on display and to chat. There's entertainment too. Tonight, it's poetry night. Susan Johnson Mumford, who runs the Gallery, is an American. She's been running art shows in the small space among Soho's rooftops for over three years. Despite the recession, she's managed to make a success of selling art both from the Gallery and at art shows. She also represents the estate of the British sculptor Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993).

Among the audience is American post-graduate student Rebecca Pohancenik. Rebecca is researching aspects of the history of science, particularly those related to the development of clocks. She is also promoting an exhibition at the German Gymnasium from 5 March 09 - The Art of Lost Words (www.dexigner.com/graphic/news-g16886.html) - which she has been organising with her husband, designer and typographer Andreas Pohancenik. Also attending are writers Laura McGowan, Sally Crawford and (Joel says) would-be rock lyricist Joel Rockman. The poets reading tonight come from a range of directions, delivering work from the cerebral to the impassioned.

Ben Gwalchmai, a slight man with self-deprecating style, reads his slight lyrics almost apologetically from his poems, stored on his mobile phone. Ben is also putting together the first London School of Economics (LSE) Literature and Arts Festival at the end of February 09. There's a pause - and more wine - then Ricky Burns. Bearded, personable, he reads with a lot of energy and verve, and his A to Z poem shows an intense concern for words and their potential. Mary Edwards is a sort of rock and roll romantic, but think determination, rather than lassitude. Her poetry paints small, intimate pictures, as though you are looking at yourself passing a shop window - and you might not recognise what you see. Last is Si Baker, life coach and poet, who also runs the Tavistock Writers Group, a self-help, self-critical group of published and aspiring poets, dramatists, fiction writers and journalists. He reads quietly but sonorously, before ending the night with a slightly scurrilous description of physical love. That sends some in search of another glass of wine, and others thoughtfully home through the Soho streets.

Thursday Night at the Mumford Gallery is a regular, informal, gathering. Future dates include 26 February 09, 5 March 09.

(c) Brent Crude - Thursday 19 February 09 - Mumford Fine Art, Rooftop Gallery, 12 D'Arblay Street, Soho, London, W1F 8DU - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Fringe Report First Monday Drinks - Monday 2 February 2009 - 18:30

Today London stopped. Why? It snowed. Reading the papers, you'd think the world had come to an end, that snow had never happened in London before, or that this amount of snow was unimaginable. The reality was snow about a foot deep, hardly Iceland. But Transport For London made the baffling decision to cancel all its buses throughout the day (a few ran in the evening), effectively cancelling London. Trains didn't run, businesses closed early.

Fringe Report's regular venue for the First Monday Drinks, the Coach & Horses Great Marlborough Street, had to shut at 6pm so staff could get home, and we're very grateful to the Coach's ace manager Neal Ladd for letting us know as soon as possible on the day and putting up posters in the window at night to direct people to the new venue. We don't like cancelling events and felt that - particularly as an organisation involved in theatre - the show must go on. The nearby Star & Garter pub at 62 Poland Street W1F 7NX generously and at just a few hours' notice stepped in to host the event. Fringe Report would like to thank landlords Angela and Kelvin for doing this, and for their kind hospitality.

There were a few less people than the 170 who came to the January event, but what quality! Fringe Report salutes: Christiaan Oranje, Linda Landers, Steve Newton, Elcid Asaei, Shannon Conley, Ben Murray-Watson, Barry Eccles, Suman Bhuchar, Michael Katz, Mark Cooper-Jones. Heroes of the blizzard.

John Park - Star & Garter, 62 Poland Street, London W1F 7NX - Monday 2 February 2009 - (c) www.fringereport.com

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The Stage New Year Party - Friday 30 January 2009 - 12:00 (15:00)

Gorgeous Catherine Comerford, Mary Comerford and Frank Comerford and other members of the Comerford family (owners of The Stage) host The Stage's annual New Year Party at Theatre Royal Drury Lane today. It's the theatre and entertainment business's focal social event of the year, with around 450 people drinking with purpose and dedication in what is perhaps London theatreland's most elegant - and certainly grandest (looks like the Palace of Versailles) bar. The Stage's legendarily pretty Cyrila Pereira plans and executes the remarkable logistics of getting the entire machinery - front-of-house, back-of-house, flat-on-the-floor-of-house, actors, producers, directors, prs, technicals, journalists, agents, cruisers (the kind that go on ships) (and others), famous, infamous, everyone - of UK show business from end-of-pier to West End and beyond into one room on a single day. There is an enormous, bottomless well of champagne. It's possible to read these sentences together and draw conclusions.

Town crier Alan Myatt introduces the charming and debonair editor of The Stage, Brian Attwood, who makes the keynote speech. He says (condensed, not always his exact words, hopefully accurate in sense, any mistakes are ours): 'The Stage's emphasis this year is a symbol of our confidence in and commitment to this industry. 2008 box office sales for London theatre have been good. It's likely there's a harder twelve months ahead. We make most of our money from the print version of our newspaper. We can never afford to take our paying public for granted. We're looking at ways to help the industry. The Stage will shortly introduce a website to do for entertainers what Spotlight has been doing so well for actors - we're not competing with them, it's a complementary service. The Stage Archive will be reaching into schools and universities, spreading the word about the industry to new generations. In addition to keeping our existing awards to young people, we are announcing two new performer bursaries for this difficult year. And in November 2008 we became, with others, a sponsor of Theatrecraft Day (www.masterclass.org.uk/theatrecraft.php) which promotes training and recruitment backstage. It's for young people with an interest in working in theatre and puts them in touch with experts. I'd describe it as - evangelising for the theatre. We hope to continue sponsorship in 2009. We're primarily about activities - we aim to provide a bridge between branches of the industry, and between the industry and the public. From this year we shall in association with Adam Street Club, London, present round-table discussions organised by Alistair Smith, news editor of The Stage on crucial topics for the industry. They'll be called The Stage At Adam Street, with publication in The Stage of the discussions. They are about stimulating debate in the industry, and showing both the good the industry does in the community - and how much good there is in the industry. I'd like to thank Cyrila Pereira and her staff for organising the event, the Comerford family, and the staff at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. I wish you a happy new year and credit-cruch-free 12 months.'

Guests include Tufty Gordon, Chris Grady (chrisgrady.org, programmes Musical Theatre @ George Square), Anthony Alderson (artistic director, The Pleasance), Christopher Richardson (founder, The Pleasance), Susan Jamson (press, Chickenshed Theatre), Penny Horner (general manager, Jermyn Street Theatre), Gene David Kirk (artistic director, Jermyn Street Theatre), Lisa Martland (journalist, The Stage), Stuart Piper (agent, aka Mr Robyn North) and Robyn North (aka Mrs Stuart Piper), Alexandra Smith (Canal Café Theatre), Emma Taylor (artistic director Canal Café Theatre and producer, Newsrevue), Anne Mayer (pr), Daniel Bee (pr), Imogen Lloyd Webber (producer, Touched, featuring Sadie Frost), Malcolm Sinclair, Richard Stirling, Mel Brown (ceo Impressive PR), Chloe Chubb (Impressive PR), David Johnson (producer, and The Pleasance trustee), Gilda Frost (general manager, Leicester Square Theatre), Suzanne McDougall (The Theatres Trust), Ryan Petersen, Tim Foster (architect, senior partner, Tim Foster Associates), Francesca Whiting (The Stage), Melissa Gerbaldi (Arthur Leone PR), David Bradbury (Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG)), Charlotte Twining (ATG, Richmond Theatre press manager), Mark Jones (ATG), Joanne Beaney (ATG), Lalayn Baluch (The Stage, news journalist), Roger Wright, Callum Gill (press and marketing executive, E3 Group), Dan Kujawski (senior entertainment agent, E3 Group), Allan Glen, Gerald Berkowitz, Nick Awde, Thom Dibdin, Katie Plews (Upstairs at the Gatehouse), producer James Seabright.

John Park - Grand Saloon, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street, London, WC2B 5JF - Friday 30 January 2009 - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Lost And Found - Private View - Rokeby - Thursday 8 January 2009

For four weeks, Rokeby in London's Store Street - directors are Beth Greenacre and Ed Greenacre - is hosting an exhibition of Korean artists titled Lost and Found. Tonight was the opening, a misty, cold night which contrasted with the flood of light coming from this intimate gallery, already crowded when I arrived.

Curator Jiyoon Lee explained that the artists represented were some of the new generation of Korean artists, emerging in this century with new ideas, fusing elements of traditional Korean art with ideas and techniques from the European tradition and creating something entirely new; many Korean artists today have rediscovered their pride in, and respect for, traditional values and aesthetics. The exhibition was designed to examine how forgotten elements of traditional art have been re-deployed to create a vibrant new aesthetic.

The star of the show was (unquestionably, I think) Lee Lee Nam's video installation, The Kumgang Mountains, a work which is unashamedly based on a traditional painting by Chong Son (1676-1759), a mountain landscape painting of the kind which you might have found reproduced on mass-production ceramics or fabric. Lee Lee Nam has taken this image and animated it in a way that is both charming and slightly alarming at the same time. In the 'new mountains', daylight fades, cranes swivel, snow falls, waterfalls run, and then night comes and changes the scene totally, with skyscrapers and neon signs illuminating the valleys.

Perhaps it's fair to say that a lot of the exhibition is interesting, but - The Kumgang Mountains excepted - not very deep.

I met fashion designer Robert Clayton in front of two works by Hong Young In, both of which used textiles to refresh the ideas found in traditional portrait paintings. We were joined by Canadian film-maker Daryl Gold, just arrived in England for the London Short Film Festival (more about Daryl's Hard Liquor and Porn Festival here: http://punktv.ca/news/105/ARTICLE/2882/2007-11-02.html).

Artist, graphic designer and entrepreneur Jiyeon Yeom, was at the exhibition to find new ideas and to refresh her connections with fine art. Jiyeon is a Korean national who has been living in London for some time. You can see a glimpse of how Jiyeon blends fine and commercial art at her website which sells shoes in small sizes, an idea inspired by her own difficulties in finding the choice she wanted - www.pretty-small-shoes.com

Lost and Found. Rokeby, 37 Store Street, London WC1E 7QF, tel 020 7168 9942. 8 Jan 2009 to 7 Feb 2009. Tuesday to Friday: 11.00-18.00. Saturday: 11.00-16.00. Lost and Found curator Jiyoon Lee is leading a symposium on the artists featured in the exhibition at the Courtauld Institute in March 2009.

(c) Brent Crude - Thursday 8 January 09 - Rokeby, 37 Store Street, London WC1E 7QF - (c) www.fringereport.com

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Marriages & Engagements 2009

Will be here