stage

archy and mehitabel, as you may recall, was the sad story of a cockroach who lived in a newspaper office and crawled out at night to type his life story and the multifarious songs of mehitabel the cat ("wott'hell archy wott'hell there's life in the old girl yet" being in my recollection her favorite) on the newspaper's typewriter but being a cockroach was too weak to press down the shift key. no capitals, that meant. theater two is putting on a "back-alley opera for children which starred carol channing off-broadway," set in shinbone alley and starring cats and cockroaches and bugs and so on. opens saturday at 2:30 at theater two, 196 broadway.

If you bring a green plant to Theater Two tonight, they'll apparently let you in free to see Swallowed, which is four one-act plays about people being swallowed. That's how I interpret their press release, anyway.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Dale Wasserman, is still playing in Boston, and it's probably still as exciting as ever. It's about an inmate rebellion in a lunatic asylum, I guess, but it's got enough jokes and high drama and Christ symbolism and whatnot to hold your interest even if that doesn't immediately exalt you 7:30' at the Charles Playhouse in Boston.

The Loeb's appearance of The National Folk Ensemble of Nigeria has been cancelled. On the other hand, if you wait till next week you can see Classics from the Russian Ballet, and if you call 547-3629 between 6 and 11, they'll evidently tell you about some mime workshop based on the techniques of Jacques LeCoq.

I think Jean Anouilh's Waltz of the Toreadors is still playing in Boston; I've heard conflicting reports, but the reviews were good, for whatever that's worth, and Anouilh is a pretty good playwright.