THE WEEK IN REVIEW

THE PLAY

ORLANDO

Already a successful film, Virginia Woolf's 1928 gender-bending novel is now a solo show by Robert Wilson and Darryl Pinckney. Seen before with Ute Lemper and Isabelle Huppert, it now stars Miranda Richardson.

Paul Taylor was disappointed by the staging, which had "nothing to declare but its technique". "Although I found it coldly stylish, it certainly boasts a brilliant solo performance from the multi-faceted Miranda Richardson," declared the Guardian. "An extremely self-congratulatory affair ... one longed for a little bit of flesh and blood to warm the chill aestheticism," despaired the Mail. "If we could have bought Miranda Richardson: The Audiobook, we would not have lost all that much," sniffed the Times. "Numbingly pretentious," railed the Telegraph.

At the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-225 5756) until 21 Aug.

Stick with the book or see Sally Potter's imaginative film version with Tilda Swinton.

THE MOVIE LAST DANCE

Bruce Beresford directs Hollywood's latest death-row movie in which Sharon Stone plays double murderess Cindy (white trash with bad wardrobe) opposite Rob Northern Exposure Morrow.

Steven Poole noted Stone's "most credible bid yet for thespian recognition. This will have to mean bad hair." "There's damn-all tension ... Beresford directs like a man facing his own execution," announced the Guardian. "We end up not caring two figs whether Cindy [Stone] meets her maker," scoffed the Times. "Beresford, whose career has been skydiving ... plunges towards earth as the film's dramatic parachute stubbornly refuses to open," opined the FT. "Painfully earnest, painfully inadequate," yawned Time Out. "Almost unwatchable," agreed the Spectator.

105 mins, cert 18. On general release.

Who would you rather see in a death row movie: Sharon Stone or Susan Sarandon? Stick with the superior Dead Man Walking.

THE CONCERT OASIS

In case you have been in an isolation tank for a week, Oasis made front-page news with record-breaking gigs at Knebworth. Two hundred and fifty thousand went, three million applied for tickets.

Andrew Mueller revealed suspicions that "what Oasis do is, truthfully, a bit

average ... but any nagging doubts are, as ever, vanquished by the band's conviction of Noel Gallagher's genius". "A gig in a smaller space might change your life: Knebworth was too big," judged the Standard. "The musical equivalent of fast food - undemanding, unsatisfying and enormously popular," said the Telegraph. "Musically faultless ... but no matter how hard they tried, Oasis couldn't get Knebworth rolling," worried the Mirror. "Who cares when it feels this good," raved NME.

You want more? Join the band on their giant-sized American tour next month.

The Knebworth verdict? The front 10,000 had a great time ... If you ever saw them in a small venue, cherish the memory.