In five years the number of resident breeding female hen harriers rose from two to 14; that of peregrines doubled, from three to six. One of the bodies funding the research was the RSPB, which naturally took a close interest.The study proved beyond doubt what the keepers had been saying all along: that raptors are deadly on grouse. And there is one famous moor on which – it is already certain – not a single grouse will be shot in 1999, and that is Langholm, in Dumfries- shire. For the last nine months this property of the Duke of Buccleuch has been the focus of acrimonious debate between shooting men and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
In 1992 the Duke offered the 12,000-acre moor as the site for a study designed to settle the key question: do birds of prey such as hen harriers and peregrine falcons make serious inroads into grouse stocks? Under the auspices of Scottish Natural Heritage, the Government’s advisory body, researchers from the Game Conservancy Trust and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology monitored the estate as its five gamekeepers went about their normal business, burning heather to bring on fresh growth, and culling foxes and crows, but leaving protected hawks strictly alone.
Numerous owners cancelled early shooting days because the birds were either too few or too late-maturing. Edinburgh Festival Theatre Edinburgh (0131-473 2000) Mon to Wed, 7.30pm. On many a grouse moor in Scotland and northern England, the Glorious Twelfth came and went this year without a shot being fired. Everything is fragmented and fitted together again in often unexpected ways – even the music, which consists of Bach’s Chaconne in D major, freely varied and modified at the piano by Eva Crossman-Hecht. Favourably remembered for their contribution to the Van Manen celebrations at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, they should do full justice to Forsythe’s characteristic mix of movement, music and space. Now it has its first British performances, given by the Dutch National Ballet. One of William Forsythe’s first big creations on becoming director of the Frankfurt Ballet 15 years ago, Artifact is a full-evening work in five movements that helped reveal the way he was heading towards changing the face of ballet.
This year’s Southend-on-Sea Carnival boasts many top-drawer events, such as the Carnival Fair in Chalkwell Park, Westcliff-on-Sea, which will be welcoming visitors all week between 2pm and 10.30pm (not Sunday), and a mile-of-coins fund-raising fiesta starting today from outside Radio Rentals at 9am. But the highlight of the week surely takes place on Friday with the Carnival All Sorts Dog Show in Priory Park. Sources reveal that the Dog In The Best Fancy Dress and the Most Attractive Dog and Child events are both wide open.
Southend-on-Sea’s tourist information centre (01702 215120). Saskia Wickham’s wittily redoubtable Gwendolen is matched by splendid Rebecca Johnson as Cecily, and Patricia Routledge’s marvellously upholstered, stone-faced Bracknell works up hilarious variations.PT.
In rep.PTThe Importance of Being EarnestHaymarket Theatre Royal, London SW1 (0171-930 8800)You may be utterly seduced by Christopher Morahan’s refreshingly “straight” account of this comedy, in which the subversive subtext is allowed to gleam through the poised, dextrous delivery of Wilde’s artificial wit. Peter de Jersey leads a strong black cast which rises to an almost impossible challenge, but they and the beautifully atmospheric staging cannot entirely disguise highbrow hokum. But this Sophocles-and-slavery mix is sometimes hard to watch with a straight face. The play now feels a shade more melancholic, but you also more fully appreciate the undeceived wit as Bernard hurtles towards his ruin.The Darker Face of the EarthCottesloe, National Theatre, London SE1 (0171-452 3000)Rita Dove, the US’s first African-American poet laureate, has relocated the Oedipus story to a plantation in pre-Civil War South Carolina. Infectious fun.Jeffrey Bernard Is UnwellOld Vic, London SE1 (0171-494 5372)The return of Keith Waterhouse’s excellent 1989 play about the writer of the infamous Low Life column in The Spectator once again stars the incomparably and glancingly tragic Peter O’Toole, who veers brilliantly between the rackety and the fastidious and looks like a unmade bed.
No, not Clinton: this delicious comedy was written in 1931 by the Gershwins. Jonathan Best’s low-budget, high- energy production has plenty of fizz, a 23-strong cast having fun and excellent choreography by Stephen Mears, a talent to watch. Of Thee I Sing
Bridewell Theatre, London EC4 (0171-936 3456)
A musical about an American president who has abandoned principles to get elected, runs into a sex scandal and is threatened with impeachment. Having been institutionalised in Kew for a year, it’s like a breath of fresh of air.” Especially as there’s not a single mention of the word “restructuring”.`Kew Gardens: Paradise Pruned’ on C4 tomorrow night. In institutions like that, everything gets blown out of all proportion.”The producer is relieved that her next assignment is rather less pressurised “I’ve been filming in an old people’s home.