OUTSIDE EDGE

Last weekend in London, the main backstage studio at Sadler's Wells resembled the waiting-room at a mainline station. Empty crisp packets, polystyrene cups of coffee and Tupperware sandwich containers adorned the wooden floor, as over 100 children and their parents gathered for open auditions for the King's Head's touring production of Nol Coward's Cavalcade, which will be performed at the Wells in August.

Fortunately for the director, Dan Crawford, and his two assistants, Alex Cooper and Ann Pinnington, the children arrived in two batches: morning and afternoon. "Otherwise," Alex Cooper moaned gently, "it would be complete bedlam."

None the less, the prevailing atmosphere in the morning was not exactly tranquil. In one corner, little faces eyed each other up from behind mummy's coat. In the other, the stage school kids, in their uniform of grey sweatshirts, shiny black shellsuit bottoms and tie-up black dancing shoes, pranced around, practising their pirouettes and generally showing off. "He's already got a part in Oliver!," a little girl told me pointing at a tiny boy with dark hair, whose name, a label on his front revealed was Steve Ellis. "If," he told me (in a tone which meant "when"), "I get this, I'll start Oliver! afterwards in September." Stevie, it also turned out, was one of the oldest there - 13 - a fact of which he seemed very proud. Child- acting, it seems, is the one field in which it is advantageous to be physically immature.

And for this production, where the children have to resemble their grown- up counterparts - already cast - it was also mandatory to be white. About a quarter the children were from ethnic minorities and, frankly, they didn't stand a chance, except for a singing role. "You can't defy gravity," Dan Crawford shrugged, "but they can get parts in the chorus."

There were five main roles up for grabs; a girl dancer, a girl actor, and two boy actors and a boy singer. And Crawford wanted four lots of each since the show is running for three weeks. This meant that the odds on getting a part were better than usual - roughly 5:1 - although most of the parents of the non stage-school lot were pessimistic. "They don't really stand a chance," said Sarah Bottrill, the mother of Sasha - the pair had come up from Aylesbury, "but it's a good day out. I'm going to go shopping afterwards and tell my husband it took all day, even if it didn't."

Not all the parents are so laid back. "I can't see any at the moment," confided Fiona Griffiths, mother of the talented dancer Hayley who got the part of Fanny, "but you normally get one really pushy parent who's always jumping up and down, and continually brushing their child's hair."

Fortunately Mrs Kanarack, the mother of Charlie, 10, who burst into tears when she was not recalled to dance, was not one of those. "It's her first time, and I'm so worried she'll take it personally," she frowned. She need not have worried. The untrained Charlie from Archway is a natural actress. She got the part of Edith. And Steve Ellis? He was absolutely right to be cocky. He will be starting Oliver! in September.