Threatened with a lawsuit over performance rights, the Winthrop House Drama Society cancelled its winter production of "Brimstone and Treacle" last week after ten days of rehearsal.

Eames A. Demetrios '83, director of the play, said yesterday that Judy Daish Associates, a threatrical rights clearinghouse in London, had told him that a British film company had purchased exclusive rights to the play and would take the drama society to court unless it stopped rehearsals. Daish Associates, "an unfeeling lot," would not release the name of the film company, he added.

"There was no reason for us to suspect there would be any problem in getting the rights," Demetrios said.

About $100 had been spent for advertising and telephone calls before the play was cancelled last weekend. Phillipe E. Krakowski, the producer, said yesterday. He and Demetrios had considered finding another play that would fit the cast of two men and two women, but abandoned the idea because there would not have been enough rehearsal time before the Dec. 3 opening.