Yet a week after United Nations sanctions against Libya were suspended in return for the handover of two men suspected of the 1988

Yet, a week after United Nations sanctions against Libya were suspended in return for the handover of two men suspected of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Colonel Gaddafi is facing the toughest challenge of his 30 years in power. When air and arms sanctions against the north African country, in force since 1992, are finally fully lifted - probably within three months - Libya will reveal itself to the world as a modern Muslim country.Alcohol is banned but women drive cars and walk arm-in-arm with their boyfriends. "Can't you flood the stage with blood red light?" "We can't afford red light," said the director. "We could overturn the grand piano." "Don't you dare," laughed the club manager.One of the teachers spoke interestingly about the themes of Mozart and Salieri "It's about ruined friendship," he said.Ruined friendship. Russia and the West are entering a new cold war over Yugoslavia and yet in the apolitical world of the arts, friendship goes on.

Now all Dmitry, Artyom and Jim need is a sponsor to pay their air fares to Edinburgh.. WEARING open-necked shirts, his head thrown back in laughter, Muammar Gaddafi towers above the people of Libya, on hand-painted billboards across Tripoli. The message to the capital's consumers seems to be that, in the sanctions war, the Leader had the last laugh. But has Salieri really poisoned his friend? "Genius and evil are two things incompatible," says Mozart trustingly.

Are they?I had some difficulty in recognising the English of Artyom, who played Salieri. By contrast, the Russians in the audience understood him but were thrown by the native intonations of Jim in the role of Mozart.Jim, who came from Edinburgh to study at film school here, said he had played parts in Russian - a collective farmer, a male prostitute - so he knew what an achievement it was for Artyom to act in a foreign language.After the show, some of the teachers from the audience gathered with the actors for tea and a talk about how the play could be improved. Everyone liked Artyom's Russian accent, as it highlighted the fact that Salieri was twisted and an outsider, but it was suggested that he speak more slowly for clarity.Someone said Mozart's death should be made more dramatic. While writing his Requiem, Mozart is haunted by a figure in black It is Death himself. "We have made a holy icon of Pushkin and are afraid to experiment with his work."The story of Mozart and Salieri is well known. "In England, you have done productions of Shakespeare on bare stages in 20th-century dress but this is something new for us," said Dmitry.

The only props were a grand piano, a wine bottle and a tape recorder into which the talented and hardworking Salieri poured all his jealous feelings about Mozart's superior genius. Perhaps the lack of scenery and costumes helped the director in his stated attempt to "make Pushkin contemporary".Jim and Artyom just played in the modern, black and white clothes they could find in their own wardrobes. She was worried that nobody would turn up, but the hall filled to half capacity with Russian teachers of English and their students.The programme explained that the cast had worked from "sheer enthusiasm" with a budget of "0 roubles, 0 kopecks". It was only when Dmitry met William Rowsey, a British drama student in Moscow, and read his translation of Mozart and Salieri, one of Pushkin's "Little Tragedies", that he saw the play might travel.The production had its premiere last week at the "Club on Yermolova Street", run by Yelena Usachova, a former atomic physicist who now offers culture to the young because she believes in the "saving power of beauty."With this awful war going on, it is very important not to break the threads of our cultural co-operation," she said. He thought it would be wonderful to take Pushkin there in the poet's anniversary year.But Pushkin is to the Russians what Shakespeare is to English speakers and it is not easy to translate a genius.