View From The Stalls

"Phèdre" (NT Live) - June 2009

2009-06-25T23:52:00.003+01:00

Here's something a little bit different. Tonight we went to see the National Theatre's London performance of "Phèdre" starring Helen Mirren in the title role... at the Glasgow Film Theatre. It's the first of a series of 'one night only' NT Live performances of National Theatre productions that are beamed simultaneously to cinema screens around the world. I have to admit to being a bit dubious as to if it would work, but there is no question in my mind now. It did work - brilliantly.

In a pre-show on screen chat it was explained that the performance was essentially taking place exactly as it has been each and every night and that the cast would continue to play to their real live audience in the National Theatre and not to the cameras (which are presumably unobtrusive on the auditorium). We certainly saw no indication of cameramen wandering around on-stage. Technically it was almost flawless - with only a couple of jumpy 'pull back' shots and a moment of jerkiness, although on a few occasions Waldorf found herself wishing for a wider shot of the stage.

Performances were all very strong with Dominic Cooper particularly impressive as Hippolytus who finds himself undone by his stepmother Phèdre's impossible lust for him. He manages to make the character's reluctance to reveal Phèdre's advances to his father believable - despite his knowledge of the likely consequences. Helen Mirren brings everything to the role that you would expect - strength, emotion and just the right amount of willfulness. Margaret Tyzack is the other standout of the night, as Phèdre's confidante Oenone, bringing out much of what little humour the piece allows.

But there were logistical problems with the event. We were told the performance would commence at 6.30 (with doors opening at 6.00) and that the run time for the show was two hours. However, on arrival there were notices saying the performance would start at 6.45pm and come 6.45 it became clear we had a further 15 minutes of 'chat' between director Nicholas Hytner and Jeremy Irons. And that 30 minutes makes a huge difference and must take a share of the blame for all those who had to avail themselves of the cinema's toilet facilities during the performance. It also has a knock on effect for those with dinner plans after the show. But regardless of that, the production needed an interval - the amount of fidgeting and watch checking during the last fifteen minutes made this abundantly clear as the show never actually dragged to any extent.

Tickets for the screening cost us £10 each. Would I rather have paid around £40 for a ticket to 'the real thing'? Possibly. Would I rather have paid £200 for tickets, flights and accommodation. Definitely not. This is genuinely a brilliant initiative from the National Theatre and I was really impressed with how 'theatrical' it felt. Waldorf was scathing of some of those around us who applauded at the curtain call, but truth be told I was half tempted to join in.

Phèdre continues its run at the National Theatre until 27th August. NT Live has performance planned of three future shows - "All's Well That Ends Well", "Nation" and "The Habit of Art".
Image by Catherine Ashmore used with permission.

"Cyrano de Bergerac" - June 2009

2009-06-22T23:20:00.001+01:00

Yes, we know this was last week's 'Corona Classic Cut' at Oran Mor, but we only saw it on Saturday and it was a busy weekend. We'll try not to let it happen again. Actually no, we'll not be seeing this week's play 'Romeo & Juliet' until Saturday and with another busy weekend planned you'll probably not see our thoughts on that until Monday night either. Sorry.

Selma Dimitrijevic has cut down Edwin Morgan's Glaswegian Scots translation of Rostand's classic tale to fit the 50 minute lunchtime slot by effectively reducing it to the relationship between Cyrano (Gary Collins) and Christian (Ryan Fletcher). Although the production also features Annie Grace providing a scene setting introduction and musical accompaniment, she's really rather wasted here. The brunt of making the production work falls on Collins and Fletcher who give excellent comic performances. The unfamiliar language simultaneously amuses and frustrates (even here in Glasgow) and I'm afraid I lost a good portion of the narrative in Cyrano's final speech. Dimitrijevic's direction works well for the most part, but the changes between scenes are often unclear and there's little indication of time passing or intervening events.

An entertaining way to spend a lunchtime but not one that we'll remember for any great length of time.

Cyrano de Bergerac has completed its run at Oran Mor. The Corona Classic Cuts series concludes this week with Romeo & Juliet.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

Edinburgh Fringe 2009 - First picks

2009-06-16T23:00:00.001+01:00

Since the Edinburgh Fringe Programme was published last Wednesday we've been working our way through it trying to make an initial selection of shows. While there's still plenty of time before it starts officially on Friday 7th August, tickets went on sale on Monday and we always try to get some of the more expensive shows booked up as part of the 2 for 1 offer many shows operate on the first Sunday/Monday. So here are the shows that have caught our attention so far, and a round up of some of the ones we've already seen that are being revived at this years Fringe...

Usually the first place we start when planning our opening weekend is the Traverse, partly because it can usually be relied upon for quality and also because its shows can be at the more expensive end of the scale. But this year we've been rather underwhelmed with their offerings and as things currently stand we won't be booking up for any of the Fringe shows at the Traverse this year. That may change as more info comes out and we get a better feel for the shows - at the moment details are sparse in the Fringe Programme and their website has no info at all. Perhaps this lack of a 'must see' show is a knock-on effect of the Traverse' involvement in the Edinburgh International Festival where they are staging "The Last Witch" at the Lyceum (which we will be seeing). There is one exception to our lack of enthusiasm for the Traverse Fringe Programme - "Midsummer (A Play with Songs)" which is being brought back after huge success towards the end of last year. Like just about everyone who saw it we adored it and anyone who wants to see a feelgood show has to fit this one in.

We're also having to come to terms with the loss of what has been one of the highlights of recent years at the Fringe. Due to work being undertaken at Rosslyn Chapel, Nonsense Room are unable to stage their show there this year and have decanted to the Scottish Mining Museum just outside Dalkeith with two shows. We'll be making an early visit to "Ae Fond Kiss" and may try to see "Treasure Island" later in the month. Even without the added attraction of a visit to the Chapel, Nonsense Room have proved to us over the years that their shows are always worth seeing.

But making up for those elements missing from this year's Fringe is the return of site specific specialists Grid Iron. We've not seen their work at previous Fringes but their shows "Roam" and "Yarn" both provided us with some fantastic theatrical memories. We've already booked up for "Barflies" at the Barony Bar and given the reputation this company has tickets will go quickly.

We like to dip our toes in the Comedy section of the programme and having enjoyed his campaigning TV shows we've booked up for Mark Thomas who is putting together a manifesto based on suggestions from his audiences. Sadly there's no new Rebus McTaggart show but there is a short run of the original show that we enjoyed so much.

Over the last two years with "Mehndi Night" and "Stolen Secrets" Fin Kennedy and Mulberry School have proved that a 45 minute show can pack in just as much as a three hour epic, and we're expecting something equally as delightful with this year's "The Unravelling". And another school group who we'll be seeing is Feltonfleet's "An Ofsted Inspector Calls".

The highlight of our theatrical year so far has been "Sub Rosa" and the driving force behind it, David Leddy, has two shows in Edinburgh this year. He has transferred his audio based show "Susurrus" and located it in Royal Botanic Garden, as well as premiering his new Japanese themed show "White Tea".

At last year's Fringe we enjoyed You Need Me's "How It Ended" despite it being located in the Dance and Physical Theatre section of the Programme. This year they return with "Certain Dark Things" which sounds similar in tone and style.

A week or so ago I read a review of "Kursk" down in london and thought it sounded fantastic so I was delighted to discover it as I flicked through the Programme. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with booking tickets for the show at edfringe.com. Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch and not a sign of a more serious problem with the plans for the show.

It's a book I've always had a lot of time for, so we've booked up to see EattheBaby's take on "A Clockwork Orange"
over the first weekend. But some other shows inevitably have to wait until later in the month due to scheduling issues, one of which will be Gregory Burke's "Gagarin Way" by the Comedians Theatre Company.

I think that's covered all the shows that we're immediately booking up for, but as well as our weekend trips through together, I'll be doing a few midweek visits on my own - flexitime permitting. Here's a quick run through of some of the other shows I'm hoping to fit in:
EGTG's version of "Antigone", Michael Frayn's "Audience" and a political take on Arthurian legend in "King Arthur".

Other shows appearing at this year's Fringe that we saw in the last year include - "The Year of the Horse", "Djupid (The Deep)" and "My Grandfather's Great War"

But there's still plenty of gaps to fill and we'll continue to follow up on some of the website links provided in the Programme and see what else grabs our interest. And of course we're always open to suggestions...

Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland

2009-06-15T00:03:00.003+01:00

Congratulations to all the winners at Sunday's ceremony for the CATS (Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland). The big winner was 'Interiors' which won Best Production, Best Ensemble & Best Director (for Matthew Lenton). Of the other winners the only one we managed to see was Matthew Zajac for Best Male Performance in 'The Tailor of Inverness', so we can't really claim to give a complete assessment, but we are dismayed that 'Sub Rosa' and 'Midsummer' left empty handed.

The full list of winners is currently available at The Stage and is soon to be posted on the CATS website which also details the nominations.

"Medea" - June 2009

2009-06-06T12:30:00.001+01:00

The only downside of Oran Mor's "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" seasons is that unless you wait for the reviews to come out, potential audiences have little to go on other than a line or two that often reveals little. As a result it can be a bit hit and miss - not in the sense of quality, more as to personal taste. But with their short season of Corona Classic Cuts the plays are cut-down adaptations of well known pieces, so you have a better idea of what to expect. This week saw the first of this year's four productions - 'Medea' by Euripides, translated by Alistair Elliot and adapted/directed by Paddy Cunneen.

Cara Kelly gives a wonderfully engaging performance as the mistreated title character as she wreaks a horrific revenge on her errant husband Jason, his wife-to-be and her father, King Creon. Kelly's ability to connect directly with each audience member makes Medea's justifications pretty convincing - at least until we are confronted by the shattering reality of her actions.

Candida Benson is tasked with playing all the male characters in the play - including Jason and Creon. When an actor is asked to play so many characters in a short period the easy option is to play it for laughs and exaggerate the characters, but Benson and director Cunneen choose the harder course and Benson pulls it off beautifully making each character fully formed and distinct. Kelly and Benson are accompanied by an effective chorus of the women of Corinth, played by students from the University of the West of Scotland.

With a run time of almost the full hour, this was considerably longer than most of Oran Mor's shows but it never felt it and I suspect over the course of the week some audience members may have found themselves explaining to bosses why they were late back from lunch! An excellent start to this short season which continues next week with "Lady Windemere's Fan".

Medea has now completed its run at Oran Mor.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

"Hoors" - May 2009

2009-05-31T23:13:00.001+01:00

I'm really not sure we should be writing about "Hoors" as there appears to have been some mistake in the production we saw. Gregory Burke has clearly written a nice little throwaway 45 minute play, perhaps for the next 'A Play, A Pie & A Pint' season of lunchtime theatre at Oran Mor, but somehow it has got lost along the way. It's gained an hour in length and has been transformed into a lavish production at the Traverse with a three week run (followed by runs at the Tron and the Theatre Royal Bath). How on earth did that happen??? Okay... it might have had something to do with Burke's last play.

The premise is actually a promising one for the 'black comedy' it's billed as. Wild stag weekend ends up with a dead groom being buried on his wedding day, while his wife-to-be Vicky is more relieved at getting out of marrying Andy than anything else. We meet Vicky (Lisa Gardner) and her sister Nikki (Catherine Murray) the night before the funeral as Andy's mates Tony (Andrew Clark) and Stevie (Michael Moreland) come round to pay their respects. Stevie has already slept with Vicky since Andy died and wants a future with her. Tony and Vicky have a past she would like to revisit while Tony fancies his chances with Nikki. And they work their way through a load of drink and drugs. Yawn.

There are undeniably some nice lines but they are few and far between - and the biggest laugh of the night was a cheap shot at the expense of Clark's height. Throughout the play there was sporadic laughter in the audience but strangely it only ever seemed to be a handful of different people laughing at different moments. There was never a sense that a line really hit home with a large section of the audience.

There are also indications that the play wants to be more than just a comedy. The set, the direction, the pace, the lighting all seem more suited to a serious piece of drama rather than comedy (black or otherwise). The production also features a revolving stage that makes an impact the first couple of times but which frequently irritates by shifting only fractionally (and very slowly) between scenes to provide a slightly differently angled view of the same room. Totally pointless.

Every so often it looks like it might have something to say, such as Vicky's comments about her apparent wealth being all built on a house of cards about to fall, but then goes nowhere with it. And the characters are so uniformly unpleasant that it's impossible to feel any level of empathy for them - even poor dead Andy lying on stage in his coffin is quickly shown to be not exactly undeserving of his fate. And I reckon that's the biggest mistake the play makes. Andy should have been the key to making it work and seeing/hearing his opinion on the actions of the others is where the humour should have come from - Desperate Housewives style.

The cast do their best but the play is pretty unsalvageable. Unless of course Burke wants to cut it down to the 45 minutes of decent material that's currently rattling around in there somewhere.

Hoors runs at the Tron until Saturday 6th June and at Theatre Royal Bath from 10th to 20th June.

"Oliver" - May 2009

2009-05-31T23:00:00.001+01:00

With Lionel Bart's Oliver! (exclamation mark compulsory) you know exactly what you should be getting. Lots of small loveable orphans and cheeky pickpockets, a thief with a heart and a right bad 'un. Oh, and some pretty well known tunes and an infamous request for a bit more grub. So with all this, what more does this need? That's right, a BBC Saturday night reality TV show to cast the leading lady. But how do all these work together in this revival at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane?

First off, the set changes worked rather well, in particular a rather nice raised stage section that allowed you to descend into Fagin's lair. However the stage itself seemed small from where we sat towards the side and back of the stalls. Perhaps just the number of cast and chorus that filled it at various points made it seem (intentionally?) claustrophic, but it lacked some of the scale and wow factor I expected.

There also seemed to be opportunities missed. Obviously licencing issues may have played a part, but in the middle of a recession some of the gags could have been tuned to the times. Rowan Atkinson as Fagin provided most of the comic relief, but as Statler said it was a little too much Mr Bean and not enough Blackadder. Jodie Prenger as Nancy performed her songs well, but the star song was "Who Will Buy" with Oliver & Company - and largely because of The Company.

The urchins, orphans, Oliver (Harry Stott) and The Artful Dodger (Eric Dibb-Fuller) were all suitably cute, but that contrasted with the horribly over the top bawdiness that was going on around them. The worst bits of Benny Hill going over the head of the remarkably well behaved younger members of the audience.

Was it an ok show to see? Yes. Was it a good use of £120 on a sunny Saturday afternoon in London? Absolutely not. Definitely more a case of 'Sorry sir, I've had quite enough'.

Image by Michael Le Poer Trench used with permission.

"What the Animals Say" - May 2009

2009-05-23T23:00:00.001+01:00

While the joy of the "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" seasons at Oran Mor is the variation in style and tone from week to week, there's always something a bit special about the ones that aim for pure comic entertainment. When they succeed, like "What the Animals Say" did, they send me back to the office with a grin that won't fade until three hours later when I hit the queues on the M8 on my way home.

David Ireland's comedy reunites two Belfast schoolfriends as they wait for the Stranraer to Belfast ferry. Both are now living in Glasgow, but under very different circumstances - Jimmy is a struggling actor waiting for his big break while Eddie has already made it big playing for Celtic. It takes a brave or foolish writer in his debut play to call to mind "Father Ted" and risk the inevitable comparisons, but here the reference works well in establishing exactly the tone the piece is aiming for - full of cuddly irreverence, physicality and playful obscenity.

The comedy is sustained throughout and rarely, if ever, misses the mark. It's just as well the audience at Oran Mor is willing to laugh at itself as both Glasgow and the theatrical community find themselves firmly in the firing line here. Other targets include their shared Loyalist background, the Beckhams and Mel Gibson. While much of the humour tests the boundaries of political acceptability, Ireland ensures that we are largely laughing at rather than with Eddie. Considered in isolation many of the laughs here shouldn't work half as well as they do, but there's such a momentum created that the laughs just seem to roll from one set piece to the next. Robbie Jack as Eddie and David Walshe as Jimmy make for a pretty spectacular double act and get every last laugh out of the material.

This is comedy at its best and if anyone out there is looking for a sitcom to go to pilot this would not be a bad place to start at all.

"What the Animals Say" has completed its run at Oran Mor.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

"Love's Time's Beggar" - May 2009

2009-05-23T21:40:00.001+01:00

Those who follow our posts closely, well the ones written by me at any rate, may have noticed that apostrophes can be an issue. But despite a title that sets my head spinning, we popped along to "Love's Time's Beggar" from Ankur Productions' Community Ensemble at the Tron. As always, please remember that we don't make allowances for this being a Community based piece - we treat all productions in the same manner.

The proposition is simple but immediately intriguing - five characters who have recently died are given the opportunity by their guides to the afterlife to record one memory from their lifetime to take with them to eternity - all other memories will be erased. Each then shares a memory which is portrayed with the help of the others in the 'waiting room'. It's a nice framing device that shares the burden of the narrative and allows each segment to set its own tone and feel, without overwhelming the whole.

It takes a while to warm up and in the early stages the performances feel rather 'forced', almost uncomfortable. The problem isn't Anna's tale of domestic abuse (the first we see), more the dynamic in the 'waiting room' scenes. Fortunately, as the show goes on the performers seem to relax into their roles and by the time we reach the more playful elements of Max's retreat into a virtual world, it has developed into a pretty polished production. But while each of the tales was sufficiently well crafted to keep my interest, and there were a couple of very nice moments, it never quite made the impact the concept has the potential to.

This was certainly a perfectly pleasant way to spend an evening, but I suspect those involved may have been aiming just a little bit higher.

"Love's Time's Beggar" has completed its run at the Tron.
Image by Andrew Wilson used with permission.

"Ghosts" - May 2009

2009-05-20T23:40:00.003+01:00

If you read reviews of this show elsewhere you'll no doubt read about how it's not a traditional production of Ibsen's work, but as far as that's concerned, I really don't care. We aren't talking "Romeo and Juliet" or "Pygmallion" where taking liberties will be noticed by a wider audience familiar with the classic interpretations of the tale, so I've little interest in comparisons here. All I'm interested in is whether I enjoyed what was put on the Citz stage in front of us.

Amelia Bulmore's version of the text is a thoroughly modern one - much more so than the period costumes and set would suggest. In fact I'm not sure it wouldn't have benefitted from being brought entirely into a present day setting to remove any lingering doubts as to its current relevance - the language used would certainly support such a staging.

And the issues addressed are certainly not ones in our past. The importance of reputation, the hypocrisy of the great and good, infidelity, deceit, duty vs self interest, and finally euthanasia. As you can see there's plenty to think about here... if only we had the time. There's a division of opinion on this at View From The Stalls with Waldorf liking the pace of events as an indication of just how quickly things can fall apart, but for me it was all too rushed. Not just in direction and pace but in the timing of events. With the action seeming to take place over a very short period it damages what is otherwise an entirely plausible chain of events. And it's so unnecessary, as there are natural breaks that would easily have allowed a suggestion that time had passed between events.

But despite all those serious themes there's plenty of humour here - for the first three quarters at least. And it works really well, although as we overheard another audience member comment, Kevin McMonagle's Pastor Manders is "just a little too Reverend I M Jolly". But what the production does amazingly well is shift the tone from light to dark - without the continuing inappropriate laughter that so often accompanies such a change. Central to this success is Maureen Beattie's performance as Mrs Alving. Frequently playing straight man to McMonagle's more obvious comedy she delivers a compelling performance so when the time comes there's no difficulty in going with her to the play's tragic conclusion. The supporting performances are all strong but the show belongs to Beattie.

This is a production that is easy to like and enjoy, but to some extent that palatability makes it easy to dismiss without giving it the deeper thought that it should really provoke. But for those who do wish to examine the issues, for a play written in 1881 it remains remarkably relevant.

Ghosts runs at the Citizens until Saturday 30th May
Image by Eamonn McGoldrick used with permission

A moment of silence please...

2009-05-19T23:25:00.002+01:00

This evening we were dealt a body blow to our theatregoing experience in Glasgow. More often than not our trips to the theatre are midweek events, and managing to grab dinner pre-theatre was never easy. We were regularly reduced to a sandwich in the Citz car park to get us through the evening before picking up takeaway on the way home. But then we discovered Salsa on the south side of the Clyde...

Less than 5 minutes drive from the Citz (2 minutes if you catch the lights just right) serving great mexican food, with friendly service and ensuring a two or even three course meal could be completed in 45 minutes it was perfect for us. We became regular diners over the last couple of years and the staff would always ask what we were off to see that evening but on arriving this evening we discovered to our shock and dismay that it had closed down two weeks ago. In a bit of a panic we headed back into the city centre and managed to grab a quick main course in a nondescript Italian restaurant (leaving my shirt spattered with bolognese sauce) but we're now desperately on the look out for new places that are (A) easy to park at and with easy access to the Citz (B) we don't need to book for, and (C) can reliably turn us around in 45 minutes.

But that's for another day. Tonight we are remembering all the good times we've had in our favourite pre-theatre haunt, and wondering if we'll ever find anywhere that serves cinnamon tortilla chips with ice cream quite like they did. Salsa - gone but not forgotten.

Critics Awards shortlist announced

2009-05-19T23:02:00.001+01:00

Just a brief post to highlight that the shortlist for the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) were announced today. We were delighted to see "Sub Rosa", "Interiors" and "Midsummer" all receive a number of nominations but disappointed that "The Drawer Boy" and "4.48 Psychosis" didn't receive more than their single nomination each. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre on Sunday 14th June.

Congratulations to all those nominated.

"Waterproof" - May 2009

2009-05-11T22:10:00.002+01:00

This week's lunchtime offering at Oran Mor is Andy Duffy's "Waterproof" - a tale of two friends on a fishing trip. Ryan Fletcher's Alex is making the most of his new found freedom at university while Ali Craig's Gordon is still living with his parents and recovering from a painful break-up. Please be aware that my comments here give more plot detail than we normally do, so if you haven't seen the show yet you may want to think twice before reading on...

Duffy supplies Alex with some great lines but there are also several that fall flat, and after a while the character's cheeky persona crosses the threshold into irritation. Balancing this, Craig's Gordon is wonderfully deadpan and gives the impression that there is a whole lot going on below the surface. The banter between the two works well and gets (most of) the intended laughs but it comes at the expense of credibility. Yes, part of what's going on is clearly about friends drifting apart, but the 'banter' is at times so ferocious that there's little here to show a level of attachment - even one in the past.

The other problem with the banter is that it goes off at all sorts of tangents with anecdotes and mini-lectures that provide the laughs but do little to provide insight to the characters or advance the story. And I do mean all sorts of tangents - dead deer, linguistics, pederasty, an old bloke across the river, Thoreau's 'Walden', Byron, a visit to a prostitute, and instruments for stunning fish. Maybe Duffy is being very clever here and is intentionally playing with the audience, teasing us and making us think we know where this is headed - unrequited feelings of one for the other, blunt instrument introduced in Act one to be murder weapon in Act three, the suspicion of Alex having had a one-night stand with Gordon's ex Linda. But none of these are developed, and in fact nothing really happens at all - and the addition of a friend who never arrives leaves the whole thing feeling like a take on "Waiting for Godot".

Selma Dimitrijevic's direction keeps things pacy and ensures no side of the in-the-round setting feels neglected, but the use of a pop-up tent proves problematic for a period. It leaves the actors teetering around the edges of the raised stage - they seriously need either a smaller tent or a bigger stage before the inevitable happens.

Andy Duffy has created a pair of characters that certainly intrigue, and the performances bring them to life, but "Waterproof" feels like a chapter in the middle of a novel where the best bits have already been or are still to come. That said, while during the course of the play the muted laughter left me unsure how well it was being received, there was no doubting the very enthusiastic response at the end.

Waterproof runs at Oran Mor as part of A Play, A Pie & A Pint until Saturday 16th May.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission

Now Booking for Summer 2009

2009-05-10T15:30:00.002+01:00

There's still plenty of theatre left to see in May & June before July brings the calm before the storm of Edinburgh's Festivals. It's still some time until the Fringe Programme is published but here's a quick run through of what we'll be seeing over the next few weeks...

We debated for a long time about seeing "Ghosts" at the Citizens but at a recent 'Friends of the Citz' coffee morning we were given a look at the set design and a chat by Jeremy Raison that intrigued us sufficiently to make us want to see the real thing. At the same time we also had Guy Holland's talking about "Museum of Dreams" but sadly we don't think we'll be able pass convincingly as eight year olds. It sounded absolutely magical so if you have kids in the 6 to 8 age bracket it should definitely be worth getting them along to see it.

We've already caught "The Ducky" and "Interiors" elsewhere before they reach the Tron in the next few weeks but we will be seeing "Hoors" when it transfers from the Traverse and Ankur Adult Theatre Workshop's "Love's Time's Beggar" which features a very intriguing concept. It's great to see the Tron running throughout the summer so we'll also hope to catch their "Cooking with Elvis" in July and Scottish Youth Theatre's Pinnochio at the start of August.

While the Fringe keeps us waiting, the Edinburgh International Festival's programme has been available for a while. Ticket prices become a bit of an issue in August given our annual contribution to the Fringe economy, so we'll be limiting our attendance at the EIF where costs can very quickly mount up. We've booked for the Traverse's contribution to the EIF, "The Last Witch", which rather confusingly is at the Royal Lyceum Theatre and has very limited ticket availability already. We might also try and catch "Faith Healer" which is one of three Brian Friel plays on offer.

There are still a few plays left in this season's "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" at Oran Mor and they've confirmed that they are following on from last year's successful series of Corona's Classic Cuts. This year's classics are "Medea", "Lady Windemere's Fan", "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Romeo & Juliet". Unlike the regular lunchtime show it's likely that Waldorf will be joining me at the Saturday performances of these, so I'm afraid we won't be posting comments on them until after their runs have completed.

"The Ducky" - May 2009

2009-05-10T15:05:00.002+01:00

D C Jackson & Borderline Theatre Co have followed up their hugely successful 2008 show "The Wall" with "The Ducky". Set in the same Ayrshire locale and featuring three of the original characters, intellectual 'Bam' Rab McGuire is back from Cambridge, Michelle is home to visit her dying great gran, while Norma has never left and is receiving attention from Rab's brother Trevor and new local thug Cooney. But although "The Ducky" builds on the events of its predecessor it works perfectly well in its own right and no prior knowledge is required to find it hugely enjoyable.

Like "The Wall", events take place over a short period in the summer as outside influences take their toll on our young characters. Jackson retains a magnificent touch for producing one-liners, although in the early stages some of the comedy seems a little more forced this time round. But the heart and charm that made the original so affecting is undoubtedly present - the characters and the performances eliciting sincere "Ah's" from the audience at times. However, Jackson isn't content to give the audience an easy ride, and silences them with a marvelously effective piece of misdirection.

Sally Reid is in excellent form as Norma, making her significantly more than the caricature she could easily become. There's a real sense that the character has grown since we first met her, even if she's only a little wiser. Alan Tripney as Trevor and Jonathan Holt as Cooney do well with characters that are essentially two dimensional stereotypes - it's a pity they lack the depth Jackson has given the others. Hannah Donaldson gives a fine performance as Michelle, but it's Finn den Hertog who gives the outstanding performance of the piece in brilliantly managing to gel the twin aspects of the character.

Jackson's characters and their coming of age stories deserve to live on - both through further productions of "The Wall" & "The Ducky" and hopefully in future works. Given the opportunity, this group of young friends from Stewarton could become firmly embedded in Scottish theatrical culture.

The Ducky is on an extensive tour of Scotland until mid June.

Theatre Marketing - The Good & The Bad

2009-05-07T21:25:00.005+01:00

This is essentially a combination of two related topics that have been on our mind for a while - taking a look at the benefits of theatre "Friends" schemes and highlighting some of the more frustrating marketing methods currently in use. Last year I wrote what amounted to a fairly substantial rant entitled "Theatre is Killing The Planet" - but Waldorf wouldn't let me post it. However, after the excellent initiative taken by the Tron this week to reward regular theatregoers I think it's a good time to have a look at the best and worst practice we encounter in Theatre marketing and promotion...

On Wednesday night we attended a performance of "Bliss + Mud" at the invitation of the Tron theatre who provided us with complimentary tickets for the evening. At View From The Stalls we have a general policy of declining the press tickets we are often offered and prefer to support the artists and theatres that give us so much pleasure. We'd never trade on the fact we run this site to get free tickets. But this was different. We weren't offered tickets as 'View From The Stalls' but as individuals who (along with a large group of others) had been identified as regular attendees at the Tron in recent months. Yes, along with the drinks and canapes there was a gentle promotion of the benefits of signing up their new Patrons Scheme, but it was an absolutley inspired initiative by the Tron, and even for natural cynics like us it created a genuine feeling of warmth that our support is appreciated. So how do the "Friends" schemes and marketing methods used elsewhere measure up?

Even prior to the invite to "Bliss + Mud" we had already determined we would sign up for the Tron's new scheme. As soon as the leaflet came through the post it was a done deal. In fact, I had to read it several times before I was convinced there wasn't a catch somewhere that I was missing. From £100 annually, benefits include a pair of tickets to the opening night of Tron Theatre Company productions (with complimentary interval drinks and an invitation for two to the post-show drinks reception), an opportunity to attend supporter events and new Patrons will receive a bottle of whisky from Tron sponsor AnCnoc. So, needless to say we'll be signing up in the next few days.

We've been "Friends" of the Citizens for a couple of years now and spent a very enjoyable Saturday morning back in March at a Friends event with Q&A's with senior members of the Citz team. At £40 for annual joint membership we viewed this largely as a donation to the Citz and never took advantage of their "Friends Wednesdays" discounts as the Tuesday night £7 offer available to anyone was better. But there were occasions such as the Audience with Sir Alex Ferguson when the short period of priority booking was very handy. The Citz are conscious that they haven't quite made the most of the opportunity to build a wider community of supporters and the scheme is currently in the process of being revamped.

As regular readers may be aware, we aren't really fans of the Kings & Theatre Royal in Glasgow. Previous experience has made us wary of their touring productions and the comfort factor isn't great. Yet, you may be surprised to know that we are in fact currently members of their joint Friends of Glasgow Theatres scheme. It was certainly more by accident than design - when we booked tickets over the phone for "The Love of Three Oranges" we were asked to join the scheme - and by doing so we instantly saved more on the ticket price than the membership fee cost us. We haven't looked at the other benefits of the scheme but if you are planning a visit it's definitely worth looking at just how the finances work out.

Now given our somewhat ambivalent attitude to Opera we won't be signing up for the current supporters scheme from Scottish Opera, but the mailshot we received was so fantastically creative that we'd like to bring it to your attention as a model of making an impact (although disappointingly their website isn't half as pretty as the paper version).

But while some schemes are well organised others seem a little more haphazard. Cumbernauld Theatre's "Love the Arts" scheme is excellent in that it's free to join and gives considerable discounts on tickets, but its execution is rather cumbersome. When phoning to book tickets you have to be able to provide details for every member of the party who is a member of the scheme in order to get the reduced ticket price. It can easily turn what should be a two minute call into a five minute one. When it launched they also made a big deal about it reducing the amount of paper flyers etc they would send out as they would be focusing on using e-mail as a main method of contact. Sounds great - but it hasn't happened. And while many other organisations make excellent use of their websites/blogs and sending e-mail updates, it really doesn't seem to have reduced their paper output to any extent. Which brings me to the second part of this post...

As I'm still getting the hang of the whole 'blue bin' thing I can't exactly claim to be the most environmentally aware person on the planet but even I get upset at the amount of promotional material we get through the post from theatres and production companies. Of course we're happy to be informed about things we may like to see but not so much when (A) we get flyers from the production company and each of the several theatres the production is touring to (B) we've already had two letters from the theatre about other shows that week and C) WE BOOKED TICKETS WEEKS AGO. Not to mention the frequent duplication of letters that we get due to receiving a copy each, and at times getting multiple copies each addressed to variations of names (full name or initial) despite all being listed at the one address. I'm not going to name and shame as to be honest they are all at it - it would be unfair to damn the one that just happened to land on my hall floor this week.

I appreciate there are no doubt valid reasons that contribute to these problems - data protection preventing sharing of data etc but surely given the waste of resources (financial and otherwise) something can be done. More and more frequently theatres and companies are co-operating, so is it too much to ask for a centralised database where theatregoers can register to receive marketing that may be of interest to them.

Am I wrong in my thinking that theatres aren't really in competition with each other? We don't decide we're going out on a Friday and then decide what to see, if a theatre has a show on that is of sufficient interest to us we'll go and see it. I can't remember the last time we had to choose which to see on a particular evening/week (Edinburgh Fringe excluded). The more theatres can co-operate the better. Theatregoing is a habit and the more you can get people to attend one theatre the more likely they are to give another one a chance too. Theatres seem happy enough to carry each other's brochures in foyers - so is it really that big a leap to have combined mailshots sent out? The only time theatres are genuinely in competition in our mind is when we have a touring show visiting several local theatres where we have to choose which to attend - but more often than not our decision will be determined by external factors such as working patterns etc rather than being influenced by the theatre. So where is the harm in co-ordinating communications a bit better?

So what theatres have you found make good "Friends" and which organisations are pouring their funding through your letterbox on a weekly basis?

"Bliss + Mud" - May 2009

2009-05-07T11:15:00.000+01:00

The Tron Theatre Company brings us a double bill of plays as part of a new initiative known as "Tron Stripped" featuring "pared-back stagings". But there's little evidence on stage of much being pared back, other than the fact that the plays feature a relatively small cast of four and three respectively. There's certainly no lack of effort or attention apparent in the performances, direction, lighting or set design.

Caryl Churchill's translation of Olivier Choiniere's "Bliss" is undeniably a challenging piece of theatre (translation: it confused the hell out of us). But any difficulties are overcome by the fact that whether or not we understood all of it, we both agreed that we had unquestionably enjoyed it. I tend to like plays where things that seem unconnected fall gradually into place, but here the construction of the play seem designed to make things deliberately and unnecessarily awkward to piece together. And while I think I'm just about 'there' having re-read the blurb on the Tron website I can't help feel that the play would have been more successful with a simpler and clearer framing device. Pauline Goldsmith, Grant Smeaton, Gabriel Quigley & Mark Prendergast all give impressive performances as an ever-changing array of characters whose realities/fantasies blur into each other and there is poetic quality to the language.

Maria Irene Fornes' "Mud" is easily the more accessible of the two pieces and feels much like the evil twin of the Tron's production of "The Drawer Boy". It's beautifully directed by Andy Arnold, the lighting is striking and the musical interludes between scenes work wonderfully well. But while "The Drawer Boy" was a magnificently uplifting tale, "Mud" is unrelentingly bleak in its portrayal of America's underclass. Smeaton, Quigley & Prendergast are almost unrecogniseable from their "Bliss" characters (Goldsmith does not feature in "Mud") and it's a fantastic indication of the level of talent on display here. It's a miserable and rather horrible tale, but here it is told beautifully.

There are clear common themes between the two plays relating to the need to escape from a mundane or brutal reality through fantasy or struggle, but in tone they are so different that we weren't entirely convinced that they were a natural pairing. They are also both of sufficient length at around an hour that they are undoubtedly full plays in their own right and I'm still undecided if they added or subtracted from each other. However, it does mean that the Tron's marketing call of "Two plays for the price of one" is completely genuine.

While View From The Stalls has a policy of declining press tickets for events, for this production we were provided with complimentary tickets as part of a 'thank you'/marketing initiative for regular attendees at the Tron. This was not related in any way to our writing about theatre.

Bliss + Mud run at the Tron until Saturday 9th May.
Image by Richard Campbell used with permission.

"Parlour Song" - May 2009

2009-05-05T00:22:00.006+01:00

At View From The Stalls we always choose what shows to see carefully - particularly on our occasional London trips where the ticket prices can be a bit of a shock to our system. We'll check the cast, the writer's track record and even seat recommendations - all to ensure we make an informed choice. We'll even make an effort to balance a weekend with a mix of light and darker themed shows. We'd never book tickets just because we had dinner reservations across the road. No, no, that would never happen. That would be a ridiculous way to make such an important decision. Well, ridiculous or not, our unorthodox decision making process turned out to provide the highlight of our weekend.

Jez Butterworth's "Parlour Song" might not be groundbreaking as a study of domestic disintegration but it is beautifully executed. The dialogue is genuinely funny and the cast succeed in making the characters entirely credible. While Toby Jones and Amanda Drew give strong performances as troubled couple Ned and Joy, it's Andrew Lincoln's next door neighbour Dale who has the greatest opportunity to make an impact. Taking on the role of narrator and retelling events in flashback, he remains thoroughly engaging despite his casual delivery of a startling, if insignificant, revelation as the play nears its conclusion.

Director Ian Ricksen provides the production with the most effective use of both projection and a revolving stage that I think I've ever encountered - and at times the combination of both makes for a deceptively powerful way of setting up a scene. As a whole, the production feels thoroughly polished but more than that, it feels as though all those involved have a genuine affection for the work.

Parlour Song runs at the Almeida Theatre, London until Saturday 9th May
Image by Simon Annand used with permission

"Madame de Sade" - May 2009

2009-05-04T23:42:00.000+01:00

This afternoon while I was starting to mentally draft this post, there was the serious possibility that it may amount to simply – “The dresses were pretty.” Partly because I was struggling to gather the enthusiasm to put pen to paper but it was also due to the fact that I could recall so little about it. While I’ll often comment that a show is in danger of being forgettable, I do believe that this is the first time that a mere three days later I had absolutely no recollection of how a play ended (even after racking my brain for a good thirty minutes). I swear I didn’t nod off (sitting in the front row it was just too risky), and I gave it my full attention throughout. I suspect the reason I couldn’t remember is that even while I was watching it, I just didn’t care. I’ve since remembered the ending so no Postcards please – there is no prize!

Yukio Mishima's account of the lives of six women (some real, some fictional) around the Marquis De Sade wasn’t necessarily a bad one, and the play (translated by Donald Keene) certainly has some nice moments but it’s also terribly self-important and the execution lacks any fire. It never managed to be more than a curiosity piece and I had zero emotional investment in the characters.

But let's be honest, like the vast majority of the audience, we hadn’t come to see the play, we’d come to see Judi Dench. For me Dame Judi’s performance was fine, as were all the cast, however Waldorf wasn’t as impressed. And I can see where she’s coming from. The performances are hampered by a direction style that leaves characters frequently seeming to direct their dialogue at the audience rather than to each other, and there are a few too many knowing ‘turn to camera’ looks which give an almost pantomime or bedroom farce feel to the performances – particularly any scene with Frances Barber’s Comtesse de Saint-Fond.

It doesn't make for an unenjoyable evening - I certainly smiled on several occasions - but it lacks any kind of genuine impact and really just washed over us. And given the level of talent on stage that has to go down as a disappointment.

But oh yes - the dresses were pretty.

Madame De Sade is part of the Donmar West End season at Wyndham's Theatre, London until 23 May.
Image by Hugo Glendinning used with permission

"A Drop in the Ocean" - April 2009

2009-04-27T18:54:00.001+01:00

Okay, here's what I gather from the blurb for Dave Anderson's latest musical contribution to "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" at Oran Mor. "A Drop in the Ocean" is essentially a spin-off from his highly regarded "Tir na nOg" which was a sequel to his previous "Flowers in the River" and its prequel "A Walk in the Park". Confused? You won't be.

Given that I hadn't seen any of those I had some pretty strong reservations about attending this week, but after the rather serious set of shows last week I thought something a bit lighter might be just the thing. Yes, it's probably true that those familiar with the previous pieces will get a bit more out of it, but make no mistake, this is perfectly serviceable as a standalone piece.

With this being the 150th play since the start of "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" it's a little different from the usual lunchtime offerings at Oran Mor. Pies and Pints are to be consumed upstairs this week - so don't arrive at five to one expecting to gulp your pie and sip your pint during the play. Another reason to arrive in good time is to catch the RSAMD students that form the show's chorus providing some lively pre-show entertainment. Anyone with mobility issues may also want to have a word with the staff to see about ensuring a comfortable location downstairs - for the usual rows of seats are largely absent leaving many perched on benches or leaning against pillars. Although mostly staged in-the-round, at times this verges on being a promenade performance as audience members standing on the fringes are encouraged to get a little closer to the action.

Set in a bar at the bottom of the ocean the plot may be pure fluff, but Anderson's songs are razor sharp. Particularly effective are a bitesized take on 'Black Watch', a cutting reminder of those cast aside through industrial decline, and a warning of the dangers of searching for solace in a glass. Pauline Knowles, George Drennan, Onur Orkut and Anderson himself give strong performances but much of the energy and joy here comes from the substantial student chorus playing a variety of lost souls and a rather spectacular sea-monster.

A greatly enjoyable 50 minutes that feels as if it could happily be expanded to a full scale musical.

A Drop in the Ocean runs at Oran Mor until Saturday 2nd May.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

INK revisited - April 2009

2009-04-26T22:02:00.000+01:00

Back in January we posted about the INK event at the Tron where a group of writers were staging collections of short plays on a theme as rehearsed readings. Tonight we were through in Edinburgh for the last of the current series of INK events so it feels only right we should give it another mention...

Given the format we didn't feel it was appropriate to pass comment on the plays/performances so our January post was really just to highlight its existence as something that may be of interest to others. Since then, we made it along to February's Valentines themed evening at the Traverse but missed out on March's 'Breaking News' themed event back at the Tron as we found tickets were sold out.

We've certainly enjoyed our three evenings at INK and it's been interesting to see works in this shortened format and hear some of the writers' thoughts in the post show discussions. And we'd hope to see return in some shape or form in the future.

"Spoonface Steinberg" - April 2009

2009-04-26T21:30:00.001+01:00

Any play centering on an autistic child as she battles cancer is prime material for reducing an audience to tears, and Zoe Thorne's performance deserves to be recognised as one that may just become the stuff of legend. So why were we left unmoved by it?

Despite being in her 20's Thorne is unnervingly convincing as the eight year old Spoonface - but only a small element of what makes the performance believable is her petiteness. What makes the character credible is Thorne's perfectly crafted mannerisms, childlike expressions and the completely unselfconscious way she moves. And once you add in her distinctive use of language the character is unquestionably real.

Lee Hall's play makes no attempt to shy away from the bleakness of the situation or the less palatable elements that Spoonface has to contend with. However, there is also a lightness that comes from the character's openness and her observations on those around her that ensures the tone is not relentlessly depressing.

There were clearly several audience members in the Citizens Circle Studio who were profoundly moved by the evening - but our tissues stayed firmly in our pockets. Admittedly it does take something extraordinary to leave me biting my bottom lip in the theatre, but Waldorf is a soft-touch. So for a show about a desperately ill child not to have her in floods of tears indicates that something has gone wrong somewhere. We discussed afterwards why it hadn't quite 'got to us' and I'll do my best to provide the best explanation I have.

Part of the strength of Zoe Thorne's portrayal of Spoonface is that she endows her with a genuine sense of disconnection. It's a perfect choice for the character but serves to isolate us from her. The Circle Studio is a very small space and with the set against one of the two longer sides of the theatre the capacity was reduced to around fifty audience members. Yet we didn't feel played to. Any eye contact seemed almost accidental and those on the shorter sides of the space were largely ignored - Spoonface did what Spoonface does, and it really didn't seem to matter that anyone was watching. I've seen children (autistic or otherwise) do exactly this when asked to 'perform' in front of a group, so as a piece of characterisation it was spot-on, but it definitely played a part in reducing the impact it had on us. Although as I say, others were visibly affected.

So for us the evening didn't quite have the punch we were expecting, but that was clearly our personal response to it, and we're still not clear as to why that emotional connection was missing. Thorne on the other hand is clearly a talent to be reckoned with and given roles that she can get her teeth into will no doubt have an extremely bright future.

Spoonface Steinberg is a production by Beggars and Kings and completes an extensive UK tour this week with dates in Wick and Inverness.
Image used with permission.

"Wuthering Heights" - April 2009

2009-04-25T00:20:00.001+01:00

Classic fiction meets Bollywood in this production of "Wuthering Heights" from Tamasha at the Citizens' Theatre. So just how do you transfer a classic, complex tragic novel to an Indian setting with musical numbers? Intrigued by the possibilities this combination brought up we just had to go.

Taking the key elements from Emily Brontë's tale of wild boy and girl, of love declared then lost and turned sour we follow the tale of Krishan (Pushpinder Chani) and Shakuntala (Youkti Patel) to its inevitible end.

The first slight surprise was when we realised from the programme that the singing wasn't live, but in Bollywood tradition it was lip-synched to recordings from playback artists. Although we'd seen some of the publicity material that detail had passed us by. Statler felt cheated by this (this is from the man who had to be dragged kicking and screaming to musicals in the past), but I felt it didn't detract. The whole point of a musical is the complete suspension of disbelief.

And if you go with the intention of having a good night out at the theatre, that's what you'll have. You won't necessarily leave humming any of the songs, but you'll have seen an interesting adaptation with some particular high points. "The Camel Races" scene was classic Hollywood/Bollywood musical, very reminiscent of the Ascot scene from the film "My Fair Lady". And any scene featuring Ayah (Rina Fatania) was shamelessly stolen by her and her philosophy on life's ills being cured by sugar cane juice.

The tale goes along at a nice pace, although the first act does seem a little long. There were also some technical difficulties with the scenery at the performance we saw and at times the dialogue was a little muffled. Statler, watching with a more critical eye, felt a sense of scale was lacking and it wasn't enough of a spectacle. However, don't be put off by the fusion of East meeting West this is more than the novelty the concept might suggest.

Photo by Manuel Harlan. Used with permission.

Wuthering Heights is at the Citizens' Theatre until Saturday 25th April, then moves to the Lyric Hammersmith and subsequently further dates in England.

"The Angel and The Woodcutter" - April 2009

2009-04-24T22:49:00.007+01:00

Korean company Cho-In Theatre bring "The Angel and The Woodcutter" to The Tron. Starting off with its roots in a gentle folk tale, a woodcutter and his mother are living in harsh surroundings, but with obvious affection for each other. On spying an angel bathing, the woodcutter is smitten by her beauty and his devoted mother steals her wings and forces her to become his bride. Left there it would be a charming story, but it darkens into an brief history of Korea which disturbs and captivates.

Told mostly non-verbally by weaving together movement, expressions, music and sound; this is an incredibly physical piece which is beautifully executed. The interactions between the mother and her son, and the mother and the angel are particularly well done and are comedy of the highest order. The battle between the two women as they try to set the groundrules of their own relationship and stake their claims to the affection of the man they both love is wonderful theatre.

Abruptly and jarringly Korea's recent history intrudes on this gentle tale. The angel and the mother are left to fend for themselves after the woodcutter is conscripted into the army and is brainwashed into becoming the perfect soldier. We continue down this dark road and by the end you feel as drained emotionally as the perfomers must be physically. It is quite startling as to how complex a story can be portrayed without words.

At almost 90 minutes straight through it does struggle to maintain its intensity at times, but its strengths more than make up for that. One word of warning - although a lot of the publicity of the show mentions its use of puppets, that does not make it a children's show. A lot of the themes explored are very dark and adult, which could make for uncomfortable explanations.

"The Angel and The Woodcutter" continues at The Tron until Sunday 26th April.

Photo used with permission.

"Too Clever By Half" - April 2009

2009-04-20T20:44:00.003+01:00

Here at View From The Stalls we genuinely try to steer away from flippant remarks and waspish put downs. Our aim is always to try to give an honest response to a production that is very much our own considered, if at times uninformed, opinion. But every so often a writer puts words into the mouth of a character that just perfectly sum up our thoughts on a piece, and when these words are sufficiently repeated that they find a foothold in my head it can prove too strong to resist...

Especially when, as with Andrew Dallmeyer's contribution to "A Play, A Pie and a Pint", the play does little to merit further thought and the production is technically problematic. So, in what will hopefully be a one-off departure from our usual attempt to provide constructive criticism, I'll simply quote from today's dialogue - "Dismal to the end. Save your breath. No need for words."

"Too Clever by Half" runs at Oran Mor until Saturday 25th April.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

"Interiors" - April 2009

2009-04-16T23:37:00.002+01:00

We'd planned on catching this last week at the Traverse, however due to illness were unable to use the tickets we'd booked. Fortunately, we could still get tickets for when it reached MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling, and even though we ended up paying double, it was worth every penny. In fact my only regret is that we didn't get to see the show twice, because "Interiors" is a truly elegant piece of theatre that would benefit from multiple viewings.

The action is contained within Kai Fischer's stunning dining room box set. Solid on three walls, the fourth is glass/plastic that allows the audience to see in, but prevents sound from inside escaping - leaving us watching a silent dinner party (at least until the music gets turned up). What's impressive is just how effectively the cast communicate their situations and emotions - even before we get the assistance of our initially unseen commentator providing an insight into the guests at the table set before us.

Now, it would be fair to say that I'm a fan of shows with narration/voiceover and internal/external monologues so this was always going to be very much to my taste - and so it proved. Frequently hilarious, always compelling, the performances are impeccable. Elicia Daly, Sara Lazzaro, Myra McFadyen, Andrew Melville, Aurora Peres, Davide Pini Carenzi, Barnaby Power and Damir Todorovic make for what will surely be one of the finest ensembles Scotland sees this year. There are so many details to the characters and so much going on simultaneously that it's almost impossible to appreciate just how good they are in a single viewing - or to unravel the complexities of the characters. (Why doesn't Damir drink his shots?)

And right there is probably where anyone involved in the show may wish to stop reading... for much as I loved the show I can't help feel that it flatters to deceive. Strip away the narration and give the characters back their voices and I suspect we'd have something resembling a mediocre BBC sitcom. And I'm not sure that I should be quite so impressed by this form of theatrical alchemy - and just a little scared I might find myself tempted to try watching "My Family" with the sound muted. I'm also reluctant to reward the rather blatant emotional manipulation of the audience that comes as the evening reaches its conclusion. I don't mind having the rug pulled from under me but this smacked of overkill.

But there's no denying it makes for fascinating theatre and I was completely entranced by it. In the final moments our narrator/observer suggests she will move on to view other windows - the real shame is that we can't join her. Although, I'm finding myself more and more inclined to try and fit in a second helping when the show reaches the Tron.

Interiors is a co-production between Vanishing Point, Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, Mercadante Teatro Stabile di Napoli and Traverse Theatre. It continues its tour to Aberdeen, London, Glasgow and Naples.

Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission.

"Djupid (The Deep)" - April 2009

2009-04-13T20:45:00.002+01:00

The world of deep sea fishermen should be prime territory for drama – confinement, danger, family bonds, not to mention the whole man vs nature aspect. But sadly Graeme Maley's translation of Icelandic playwright Jon Atli Jonasson's “Djupid” does little more than hint at these.

In part its limitations come down to just how much can be realised in a forty minute monologue. Liam Brennan does well to give his lost colleagues a sense of being present, but it can’t match meeting them in person and witnessing the relationships and banter between them. As a result we don't really feel much attachment to any character other than Brennan's unnamed trawlerman who finds himself the last survivor when the boat goes down.

What didn’t help my enjoyment of this was that I spent the first half of the play mentally screaming “Please stop shouting” and looking for the volume control. To be fair to Brennan it was almost certainly a character choice rather than a misjudgement of the space - but it was nevertheless painful.

And with his character's re-telling of the final moments of the film “Titanic” for cheap laughs, any hope I had for the play sank beneath the waves. That said, there remained moments when it fights for one last breath and Brennan's description of his escape from his cot as the boat upturns is genuinely compelling.

But essentially his situation is largely irrelevant as the play disappointingly turns into a simplistic reflection on “If I just had one more day…” and then fails to bring any novel thoughts or attitudes to the table. There are few of his wishes and regrets that wouldn't feature on most people's such lists.

In the end, ironically, what the play lacks is depth.

Djupid (The Deep) runs at Oran Mor daily at 1pm until Saturday 18th April as part of A Play, A Pie & A Pint.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission

"Citizen Y: Nighthawks" - April 2009

2009-04-11T14:00:00.001+01:00

This latest offering from the Citizens' Young Company allows the audience a glimpse into the secret world of teenagers on a night out. We join their search for the mythical 'Nighthawks' nightclub - where only the elite make it past the door staff. As with all youth/student or amateur productions we comment on, we make no concessions - if they look for an audience and charge for tickets we treat them all the same. So please keep that in mind when I tell you that this production absolutely rocked the Citz Circle Studio.

Described in the programme as devised by professional playwright Peter Arnott and the Company and scripted by Arnott it perfectly captures several aspects of teenage life including the fleeting and shifting nature of friendships. The dialogue is blisteringly funny and rings entirely true to the characters created, but there's plenty of social comment here too - consumerism, families, restricted opportunities and a rumoured approaching apocalypse all feature.

Apart from a few lines delivered into the floor that don't quite reach the audience, the performances from the large cast are all strong. In "The Lads' Tale" Chris McCann's Pan-like Wittgenstein impressively commands the space and plays his comic relief wonderfully straight while Scott McKay's Kevin is a bundle of frustration and disillusionment. Keren McGill effectively leads "The Girls' Tale" with a convincing performance as abandoned birthday girl Karen. Other highlights include James Harkness as local tough guy Gary and a deliciously show stealing turn by Kelly Love as the club's 'Lifestyle Consultant'.

Neil Packham's direction keeps the action moving and there's some clever use of projection for a casino scene, but I'm not convinced that the soundtrack added quite as much to the piece as it could have.

In a small theatre space it would be easy to dismiss the hugely enthusiastic response of the audience as one of invited family and friends but I don't believe for a minute that to be the case. This is a quality piece of writing, performed by a cast full of talent and energy - and it deserves a wider audience than this short run can give it.

Citizen Y: Nighthawks completes its run at the Citizens on Saturday 11th April.
Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission

"Cabaret" - April 2009

2009-04-06T00:01:00.007+01:00

A combination of some Theatre Tokens burning a hole in our pocket, and a relative who had been hooked on BBC's "I'd Do Anything" (aka the "Nancy Show" in our house) meant a family outing to the Theatre Royal. Especially since Bill Kenwright's Production of "Cabaret" featured our relative's favourite from "I'd Do Anything", Samantha Barks as Sally Bowles.

Set in the seedy side of Weimar era Berlin of the early 30's, "Cabaret" follows aspiring American novelist Clifford Bradshaw (Henry Luxemburg) and his encounters with the sexually liberated denizens of the Kit Kat Klub. As musicals go, "Cabaret" is definitely on the darker side with its adult setting and its look at the rise of Nazism and the persecution of Jewish people and other "undesirables".

Despite the promotional material focusing on the casting of Wayne Sleep as the Emcee and the aforementioned Samantha Barks, the strongest performances come in the side story of Fraulein Schneider (Jenny Logan) and Herr Schultz (Matt Zimmerman) and Jenny Logan's delivery of "What Would You Do?" far outshone the big numbers of "Money", "Willkommen" and even the title song. Whilst "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" by the Company was both beautifully sung and sinister at the same time.

So what about the leads? For me Wayne Sleep's performance suffered from a lack of clarity during the songs. I'm not sure if the levels were off, but I struggled to make out the lyrics during a lot of his numbers. The connection to the audience seemed lacking at times, although there was a nice mention of the Theatre Royal's sister theatre and a strong final scene from Sleep. Samantha Bark's as Sally Bowles has big shoes to fill as Liza Minelli is always in the back of your mind. Her delivery of the musical numbers was good, but she lacked the charm and the steel as Sally that would have made her relationship with the sexually confused Bradshaw seem plausible.

Some impressive dancing by the Company, especially leaps from the staircase and a very strong last moment rounded off a mixed night for a production that was just a little too uneven.

"Lucky Box" - March 2009

2009-03-30T23:35:00.001+01:00

David Harrower's contribution to this season's "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" came with no advance indication as to topic or tone, so it was good to see a full turnout at Oran Mor on the Monday lunchtime - before any reviews are out. It shows just how much trust the audience are prepared to put in producer David MacLennan. And I'm pleased to report that their faith was well rewarded.

I'm afraid that this is another production where I think it's best to go in blind, so I'm not going to comment directly on the plot. I'd go so far on this one as to suggest that you avoid reading reviews elsewhere - just in case others are less circumspect. It's not that there is a huge twist or reveal at the end, it's just that for most of the play we're unsure what exactly is going on, and which of the two characters we should fear for. It's a long time since I've been in the theatre quite so uncertain and intrigued about the events in front of me. There are moments of pure electricity between Stuart Bowman and Scott Fletcher as the dynamic cleverly shifts between the two. Fletcher gives a carefully balanced performance allowing his character to be sympathetic and smart while retaining the potential for a darker side, whilst Bowman convinces as a man on the edge.

But going along with Harrower's relentless rollercoaster ride of a play has its problems. Much like watching a series of "24" once you understand what's gone on, many of the characters' actions in earlier episodes no longer seem to make much sense. It leaves the play as one to be greatly enjoyed in-the-moment but possibly not to be reflected on too much afterwards.

There are some nice moments of topicality that get some laughs, and some of Harrower's observations clearly hit their mark but the production suffers rather badly from a combination of the staging and Dominic Hill's direction. The catwalk stage set-up left many of the Oran Mor's regulars confused, and I know I wasn't the only one to circumnavigate the room trying to pick a seat with a good view before realising that all eight of them were already taken. The default positions of the characters on the stage leave much of the audience constantly facing the back of one of the two actors and I find it difficult to believe there wasn't a more adequate way of arranging the space. Perhaps this was designed with next week's performances at the Traverse more in mind.

But this firecracker of a play and its two performances are more than strong enough to overcome any flaws.

Lucky Box is a co-production between Oran Mor where it runs until Saturday 4th April and the Traverse where it runs from 7th to 11th April.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

"The Trial" - March 2009

2009-03-27T21:43:00.002Z

We've previously enjoyed Glasgow College of Nautical Studies drama students' productions, so when we found ourselves in the vicinity of The Citizens' and at a loose end on a Saturday afternoon we decided to catch a matinee of their production of Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Kafka's "The Trial".

Joseph K (James McSporran) descends into a bizarre world of beaurocracy, violence and confusion after being arrested for a crime that no-one is willing or possibly able to reveal to him. He wanders through a maze accompanied by a Greek chorus who take turns to play the other characters that are part of K's tale.

Perhaps deliberately you only get glimpses of these other characters and they seem superficial and two-dimensional. The comedic guards who initially interogate K, are reminiscent of the droogs in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, the lonely and needy Leni, the bailiff and his wife trapped in the system. The painter Titorelli is perhaps the strongest of these characters, probably due to his role in shining a light on the choices that face Joseph K in his struggle to clear his name.

It's very much an ensemble piece from GCNS, but Pamela Shaw as Leni and Sean Reid as Titorelli particularly stood out. And although I enjoyed our afternoon, there was also a strong element of confusion within the story that resulted in me losing track in places and lost me completely at the very end.

In some ways the issues in "The Trial" are more relevant than ever today, but that's perhaps its very weakness. When reality contains more absurdities than are presented on stage some of the strength of message is lost. It's no longer a warning about what might happen.

"Poem in October" - March 2009

2009-03-26T22:52:00.000Z

Stop reading now. Time is short. Rearrange your plans. Do what you have to do to see this lunchtime show at Oran Mor (until Saturday) or at the Traverse next week.

I'm actually going to say very little about this as much of the poignancy of the piece comes from watching it develop over the course of 45 minutes. Robert Forrest's play isn't perfect - it has two or three lines too many that take it past what should have been a powerful end point - but it's pretty damn close. Finlay Welsh's performance isn't perfect - it's better than that. Telling the story of Walt - haunted by lost love, lost independence and what may be the ghost of Dylan Thomas, Welsh's ability to switch characters is uncanny. Truly like watching a man possessed. Beautiful, sad, funny, upsetting, utterly compelling and unsettlingly real. Look past the absurdity of the conceit and Forrest and Welsh have created something with a real power to affect people - and make them think.

Poem in October is a co-production between Oran Mor & the Traverse as part of the A Play, A Pie & A Pint season.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

"Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness" - March 2009

2009-03-19T19:24:00.006Z

We'd passed on this one in our original plans as we'd had a mixed response to our previous encounter with Anthony Neilson's plays in "The Wonderful World of Dissocia". However, a couple of weeks ago Waldorf had her interest piqued by the blurb for it (forgetting about the Neilson connection) and as there were still tickets available for the Citizens £7 Tuesday performance we decided to give it a chance after all...

It's taken me a couple of days to write this up - largely due to the fact that I've struggled to get a handle on my response to it. Taking the form of a 19th century 'freakshow' but replacing physical grotesques with emotional traumas, Headlong and Nuffield Theatre's production looks sumptuous, but I found its delight in amusing the audience with 'gross out' humour deeply depressing. In fact, my initial comment to Waldorf on leaving the show was that I was unsure if I was more disappointed in the production or the fact that much of the Citizens audience seemed so amused by it.

One of the reasons I was so frustrated by the humour, is that underneath all the absurdity, blood and vomit each of the three tales has the potential to be genuinely touching. But despite the universally strong performances from Gant and his troupe (Simon Kunz, Emma Handy, Paul Barnhill & Sam Cox) I think much of the beauty and depth here is lost amongst the audience's gasps and groans.

What's also lost is the sense of accusation that seems inherent as the play progresses. The players debate amongst themselves as to what audiences want (and deserve) to see and while that of course remains a question for theatre I felt it required a more pointed nudge in the direction of the current state of television and "Reality" shows in particular.

And my confused attitude towards the show continues right to the end and its final 'reveal'. While I (and Waldorf) found it overly signposted there was clearly a good proportion of the audience taken by surprise, so I'm entirely unsure as to where to direct my frustration on that front.

While I don't think I can say that I enjoyed the show, I was always interested in it - and I guess sometimes that's more important.

Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness runs at the Citizens until Saturday 21st March and then plays Clwyd Theatr, Cymru and Soho Theatre London.
Image by Ellie Kurtzz used with permission

"The Pillowman" - March 2009

2009-03-14T12:35:00.004Z

'Black Comedy'. Two words that are almost certain to grab my attention. But far too often they are attached to something that turns out to be lacking in blackness or comedy - and frequently both. No such failings here, that's for sure. XLC's production of Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman" is as funny as you'd want it to be, and darker than is comfortable (which is exactly how it should be).

Writer Katurian finds himself in an interrogation room subject to some 'robust' questioning about the similarities between his gruesome stories and a series of child murders. In the next room his mentally damaged brother Michal is also being questioned about any involvement he may have had. What follows is a beautifully structured piece of theatre as we get glimpses of Katurian's writing along with elements from the brothers' childhood.

As Katurian, Kevin Mains transitions perfectly from confused to despairing but retains the character's quiet dignity throughout. It's a fully committed performance and the violence inflicted on the character has to take it's toll on the performer. As lead interrogator Tupolski, Richard Rankin gives a superb performance giving the character a smoothness which makes his playfulness all the more chilling. In contrast to Tupolski's calm control, the torture-happy Ariel is explosive, but Colin Harris effectively brings out the depth of the character. There's a dynamic amongst the three that I've been trying to put my finger on since seeing the show and it's something akin to watching Neo being doubleteamed by Morpheus and Agent Smith.

The middle of the three acts reunites Katurian with Iain de Caestecker's Michal and provides some of the play's funniest and darkest moments. Mains shines as we see him turn from suspect to interrogator while de Caestecker gives a genuinely childlike quality to Michal.

David Lee-Michael's direction impresses throughout with a great deal of creativity on display in realising the storytelling sequences. Two and a half hours is a long time to spend in the Citizens Circle studio so the decision to go with two short intervals was a welcome one and ensured the show never felt its length.

Thoroughly entertaining, thoroughly troubling. Great stuff.

Oh yes, a special mention for the way Colin Harris effectively dealt with the programme an audience member in the front row had inexplicably decided to place on the set's desk seconds before the start.

The Pillowman runs at the Citizens until Saturday 14th March.

"Kyoto" - March 2009

2009-03-10T21:05:00.004Z

On my way back to work after this lunchtime visit to Oran Mor's "A Play, A Pie and A Pint" I mentally prepared an opening paragraph about how my expectations were too high, possibly unfairly so. But after further thought I'm not prepared to accept that. Yes, as soon as the Season was announced David Greig's "Kyoto" was the one I was most looking forward too, but I'm afraid that by any standards this has to go down as disappointing.

We meet government negotiator Dan (Matthew Pidgeon) and polar scientist Lucy (Vicki Liddelle) as they stumble into a hotel bedroom during an environmental conference. It's an event they have circled around and anticipated at many such similar conferences over a number of years but the opportunities have gone untaken - until now.

While the performances from Pidgeon and Liddelle are perfectly fine and there are a few comic moments, the production feels somewhat unloved. Dominic Hill's direction seems entirely absent, sound and lighting are minimal while Greig's script feels like an early draft that's been fished out from the back of a drawer. The relationship has too many blanks that are never filled in - What finally got them through the bedroom door this time? And now they are here, why the hesitation? There are moments that are so bizarre that it makes the characters ridiculous, an overused running 'gag' that never has a pay off, an ending that left me uncertain - and if there was a message it escaped me.

And then we have the running time. While we've come to expect these lunchtime plays to fit comfortably within an hour they tend to be fairly consistent at 45-50 minutes but this was barely over 30 minutes. Of course quantity can't be equated with quality, but for the first time ever "A Play, A Pie and A Pint" didn't seem such great value.

Not a huge concern of course, I'll shrug it off and be back in a week or two. However, this is the first of five co-productions with the Traverse which will also be staged there starting next week. And that's a real problem, because if this was my first experience of "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" I doubt I'd be rushing back.

Kyoto runs at Oran Mor until Saturday 14th March and then at the Traverse from Tuesday 17th to Saturday 21st March.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission

"Five:15" - February 2009

2009-03-08T23:30:00.000Z

No, that's not a mistake - we did see this back in February (but Waldorf's been too busy to write it up). Although us giving opera a go this year was down to Bluedog, last year's original Five:15 show caught our attention but sadly too late to get tickets. So, how did we get on with this year's group of five new short pieces from Scottish Opera at Oran Mor...

Well, first up was "The Lightning-Rod Man" composed by Martin Dixon with Libretto by Amy Parker based on Herman Manville's story. Here, our narrator (Richard Rowe) and by extension the audience is asked to choose between faith and science. Should our Man (Daniel Keating-Roberts) rely on his faith in god to protect him from the approaching thunderstorm or should he buy from the Lightning Rod-Man (Phil Gault)? Set in America it had clear relevance in the continuing conflict between religion and science there as evidenced by the debate on Creationism, but I'm not sure it was much more than a joke at the expense of those across the Atlantic. And I do have to say that for a segment of a concept partly aimed at increasing the audience for opera including the line "To begin, our first character, a Man. I think of him as David Henry Thoreau, philosopher of peace and quiet and solitude. Or for those less well read than I, imagine him as a barn-raising, corn-fed farm boy" is hardly going to banish perceptions of intellectual elitism! But the performances were fine and the music was, well it was 'operatic' but I'm not qualified to say any more than that.

"Happy Story" composed by David Fennessy with Libretto by Fennessy and Nicholas Bone, after a short story by Peter Carey gives us unnamed He and She characters (Phil Gault and Lise Christensen). He is obsessed with wanting to fly and She sees his daydreams as a distraction that threatens their relationship - until she realises that she can be included in his dream. And it really is as slight as that. While Waldorf found it captivating and it certainly had an element of charm, I'm afraid for it lacked any substance and seemed to take a long time getting not very far. Again, performances and music were absolutely fine.

"White" composed by Gareth Williams with Libretto by Margaret McCartney was my favourite segment by a considerable margin. Set in a hospital where a foreign cleaner (Emma Carrington) finds a connection with a dying patient (Mary O'Sullivan) and her mother (Arlene Rolph). I'm pretty sure this is as close as I'm ever going to come to getting opera. Beautifully theatrically staged and lit this was a different beast entirely. While the other four segments all sounded similar (to my untrained ears at least) this was very distinctive with its echoes of hospital equipment and for the first time I felt that the music significantly added to the emotion of the piece.

Composed by John Harris with Libretto by Zinnie Harris "Death of a Scientist" based on the final hours of David Kelly who committed suicide after finding himself at the centre of a media storm over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Here Kelly (Rowe) is portrayed as being tempted into suicide by glamourous Harpies of War (Rolph and Christensen). Had this segment been entirely fictional I wouldn't have had a problem with it, but being based on a real-life tragedy we found it in dreadfully poor taste making it deeply uncomfortable to watch. While not necessarily a taboo subject for a serious drama I have no idea what possessed Scottish Opera to think this was appropriate. However, the performances were impressive.

And finally the Tales of the Unexpected style "Remembrance Day" composed by Stuart MacRae with libretto by Louise Welsh with performances from Carrington, O'Sullivan and Dean Robinson. This seemed the segment that made the greatest effort to break down perceptions and make itself of interest to a wider audience - including an ipod and swearing for amusement value. It also seemed to have the greatest content and actually moved along with considerable pace rather than the frequent (irritating) repetition in many of the other segments. This one had a story to tell and knew how to get us there with a considerable bit of humour thrown in for good measure.

So, what have I learned? Well, I can kind of see why some people can be enthusiastic about opera but I'm afraid I'm never going to be one of them. For me it will always remain a dreadfully inefficient way of telling a story - some of these segments of approximately fifteen minutes amounted to just three pages of libretto. It's all just so S-L-O-W and repetitive and with the exception of "White" the music was so generically 'opera' that it could have been almost interchangeable. And while I applaud any attempt to gain it a wider audience and make it accessible (in cost and perception) I'm far from convinced that their marketing is achieving this to any great extent. Never mind the impact our attendance had on the audience demographics, I'm not entirely sure that Waldorf's grandmother (in her 70s) didn't lower the average age.

That said, I'm genuinely glad we've given it a chance and if the Five:15 concept returns in 2010 we'll probably give it another one. So thanks again to Bluedog who has provided his considerably more informed opinions here.

Five:15 has now completed its runs at Oran Mor and The Hub.
Image by Richard Campbell used with permission

"Baby Baby" - March 2009

2009-03-08T21:42:00.004Z

Vivian French's play, based on her own novel, presented the audience at Cumbernauld Theatre with two fifteen year old mothers from clashing cliques within a school who find a common bond in their unintended pregnancies. "Baby Baby" isn't quite the challenging or perception altering play it wants to be, but it is a wonderfully stylish piece of theatre with two hugely impressive performances.

Cleverly structured and told in flashback Ashley Smith's pink haired goth Pinkie and Hannah Donaldson's label clad April tell their intertwined stories. In addition to voicing their own characters they each portray a multitude of characters that feature in the other's tale and both give hugely impressive performances in bringing them to life. French's dialogue for the teenagers rings true but there aren't enough moments of humour to significantly raise the entertainment level. Indeed, many of the show's best moments are unspoken.

Jemima Levick's direction keeps things interesting, Jane Howie's movement set pieces are delightful and Philip Pinsky's soundtrack is superb, but oddly the show seems simultaneously too long and too short. While never dragging, at just over an hour it felt closer to ninety minutes, yet it ended while it seemed it still had plenty of places to go. We don't get any real sense of the difficulties the future holds for the characters or more than passing references to the fathers.

And although I'm not unsympathetic to the seemingly central message that these girls made a mistake, and that we all make mistakes, I'd have liked there to have been an appreciation of the cost that mistake (and in fairness, the way society responds to it) will have on the baby. It's not that the play makes things seem too easy - it doesn't, but it does take a distinctly short term look at it.

Thanks largely to the accomplished performances and a clear stylistic vision for the piece, Stellar Quines and Perissology Theatre Productions have put together something that has definitely put them on our 'watch list'.

Baby Baby has been on an extensive tour of Scotland which it completes this week in Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy and Castle Douglas.
Image by Billy Fox used with permission

"Educating Rita" - March 2009

2009-03-04T22:43:00.001Z

When we listed our plans for Spring shows we were unsure about the Citizens' "Educating Rita". Willy Russell’s play about a young woman trying to gain an education from her disenchanted tutor didn’t hugely appeal but we said we would decide once we had cast info. Well, the reason we saw it last night was entirely due to the casting – but perhaps not in quite the way the Citizens anticipated…

One of the things that drove us away from the touring productions at Glasgow's Kings and Theatre Royal was the use of celebrity casts – and soap stars in particular. So when the Citz announced Charles Lawson for the role made famous by Michael Caine and promoted it as starring “Jim McDonald” from Corrie and Emma Cunniffe (from BBC’s The Lakes) I must admit that my heart sank. But a little research revealed that Lawson and Cunniffe both have considerable and impressive stage credentials so we felt obliged to give the Citz the chance to prove that this wasn’t a move towards “stunt casting”.

Fortunately Lawson and Cunniffe are quick to demonstrate that they are more than up to performing the demanding roles that see them sharing the stage for almost the entirety of its two hour run time (plus 15 minute interval). While Lawson is comfortable with the moments of Frank as comic drunk, they are actually fairly restrained and for the most part he makes Frank’s passion, enthusiasm and later his disillusionment the main focus of the character. Cunniffe effectively characterises Rita’s development and makes her believable throughout while retaining the charm of the character.

It would be fairly easy to dismiss Russell’s play as being 'of its time' and having little to say for itself, and to be honest immediately after the show I was left feeling rather underwhelmed by it. But actually, many of its themes kept coming back to me today, sharp reminders that several aspects still have a considerable bite. The questions of 'teaching to exams' and rote learning of facts are more significant than ever – in both our schools and further education establishments; and Rita’s discussion of the impact of her peer group in restraining her opportunities for learning first time round should act as a stinging warning for a generation who (we are told) recoil from intellectualism. Of course the show also has a particular resonance for our little blog here and our ongoing aim of ensuring that we give our own (considered) opinions on shows rather than be influenced by the reputation of a writer/play/actor or what others are saying. Few things set the theatrical blogosphere alight as much as the debate on the value of individual opinion vs ‘objective’ intellectual criticism, and what is 'Educating Rita' about if not that?

However the one element that seems out of place is the portrayal of Frank's alcoholism. While Lawson effectively brings out the character’s frustrations and the inevitable comic elements, there is a lack of appreciation of the damage that’s being caused to others. In the almost thirty years since it was written I think we have moved towards a culture where Frank’s drinking (discreet or otherwise) is less likely to be tolerated and it’s difficult to believe that Frank's students would be hesitant in having action taken against him if they felt they were not receiving 'value for money'.

Jeremy Raison’s direction works well during scenes, but the first act is seriously overlong and overly punctuated by breaks between scenes and I spent the final few short scenes of the first 'half' expecting each one to be the last. It’s a big ask for an audience – especially one with a number of school outings present (although infuriatingly many of them seemed to have come well prepared – share sized Doritos, family packs of Jelly Tots etc etc etc.) We also somehow seem to have acquired an awful habit of applauding at the end of each scene – which only adds to the sense that the action has come to a grinding halt (again). But Philip Witcomb's set is remarkable – I can’t remember a more striking one on the Citz main stage. The mahogany bookshelves and Gothic window are brilliantly atmospheric and the piles of books visible behind the shelves and below the stage are delightful flourishes.

Perhaps this isn’t a production that is going to indelibly etch itself in my memory, and perhaps it takes a bit of thought to identify its continuing relevance, but there is no doubting the quality. In future we’ll certainly give the Citz the benefit of the doubt regarding the use of well known faces – provided they continue to have the stage presence to back it up.

Educating Rita runs at the Citizens until Saturday 7th March
Image by Eamonn McGoldrick used with permission

"Year of the Horse" - February 2009

2009-02-21T12:08:00.002Z

Tron Theatre Company, Burnt Goods and Actor/Performer Tam Dean Burn have put together what is effectively an exhibition of the work of illustrator-turned-political cartoonist "Harry Horse". To accompany the fifty two cartoons published in the Sunday Herald, Horse supplied short pieces of text, and these are 'performed' by Burn in front of large projected images of the work. But make no mistake, Burn has ensured that Horse is very much the star of the show - I'm just not sure that it's the better for it.

While Horse's work clearly has considerable artistic merit, I'm afraid I found much of the political content disappointingly blunt. It probably doesn't help seeing cartoons that were published weekly in such a condensed format as the topics and targets quickly begin to feel repetitive. And while in some cases the accompanying text provides context, much of the topicality is diminished by the three years that have passed since publication - it feels a bit like watching old episodes of "Drop the Dead Donkey". But there are plenty of moments of incisiveness - a stinging analysis of David Cameron and a series focussing on environmental issues in particular.

The show is clearly one Burn is passionate about, and in the programme notes he makes a case for the recognition of Horse, but by confining itself to using Horse's text we never quite get a sense of enthusiasm for the work that could carry the audience with it. Burn clearly has the potential to perform a Steve Irwin or David Bellamy type role where he could make his own love of the work contagious and it's to the detriment of the piece that Burn isolates himself from the material. I desperately wanted to hear why each of the works had an impact on Burn, and what he took from them.

And rightly or wrongly, it's difficult for me to isolate Horse's work from the circumstances of his death - particularly given the sense of moral authority inherent in much of the political comment.

"Year of the Horse" is a creative and elegant tribute to Horse but lacks the effervescence required to fully engage a wider audience. The glimpses we get of the charismatic Burn are too restrained and while the intention of focusing attention on Horse is admirable, a little more of Burn would have been to the benefit of both - and the audience.

Year of the Horse runs at the Tron until Saturday 28th February with a 9pm start time

"My Clydeside Valentine" - February 2009

2009-02-15T00:50:00.004Z

We gave up years ago on booking a table in a restaurant on Valentine's weekend and suffering dreadful service and overpriced food at a table that has been squeezed in next to the toilets. But I think it was the Citizens Community Company's "My Bloody Valentine" in 2007 that made us realise that Theatre could be the alternative we were looking for. And this year they are back with a 2009 Valentine's week show - "My Clydeside Valentine".

Comprising fifteen short sketches, monologues and songs we get a blend of the comic, the tragic and the nostalgic on a Valentines theme. Over the last few years we've always found the Community Company's shows to been well written and performed but tonight felt even slicker and tighter than in the past, so credit to Directors Neil Packham and Elly Goodman. Yes, there are still some segments and performances that aren't quite as successful as others, but the Community Company is about developing skills over a period of time - not just for a single show.

A prime example of the benefits of this approach is Catherine Chan who over the last couple of years has progressed from playing relatively small roles to this evening where as a very confident young actress she was very much the star of the show -playing central roles in three of the segments. She also wrote "On the Spot" which was a nice moment of theatre brilliantly performed by herself along with William Shields and David Black. The couple's emergence from the audience and dispute with our usher was inspired and certainly had a few in the audience taken in - for a moment at least.

Another self penned highlight was Neil Bratchpiece's "The Wee Man's Date" in which he starred with Noreen Morton, Alan Ward and Evy Vourlakos. The clash of two very different romantic picnics was well performed by all four, and Bratchpiece has a talent for creating mental images that linger much longer than one would wish.

Frances Rose Kelly and Danny McGonagle's "My Clydeside Valentine" musical number was darkly comic and strongly delivered, while the ensemble songs all worked well with the live music being a great addition - particularly in "It Must Be Love". But the quieter moments also work, with Waldorf particularly enjoying "Looking Back" by Rena Hood performed by Patricia Preston and Eddie Donoghue while I was more taken with Anne Marie McLeod's "Beside the Clyde".

There are too many segments to mention them all, but each made an effective contribution to the evening, and Frances Rose Kelly's "The Rollerettes" made for the perfect end to the show with a level of genuinely enthusiastic audience involvement that is rarely achieved.

My Clydeside Valentine has now completed its run in the Citizens Circle Studio
Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission

"Fifteen Minutes" - February 2009

2009-02-12T22:59:00.001Z

Back at Oran Mor for A Play, A Pie and a Pint, and just as well I arrived early as those arriving later found there was a run on the pies! It's a testament to the quality of their productions in recent years just how much of an institution it has become, and even if this week's installment set at an "X Factor" style audition didn't blow me away, it was always entertaining.

In a 50 minute lunchtime play with the emphasis on fun, there's little harm in allowing your two lead characters to remain as caricatures, but here, in attempting to give them more substance writer Kim Millar resorts to some heavy handed audience manipulation. Admittedly this isn't exactly out of place in a parody of reality TV, but is nonetheless a fruitless exercise - and a pity as I'd much rather have seen the situation play out without the 'startling revelations'.

But there remains much to like about "Fifteen Minutes", not least two very strong central performances. Armed with some exquisite dialogue from Millar, Joyce Falconer as serial auditionee Jacqueline sneers her lines in a gloriously deadpan style, while Sarah McCardie is thoroughly believable as the younger Lynsey starting out on a reluctant first attempt to grasp the limelight. Indeed, McCardie's "audition" was worth the ticket price on it's own.

The essential problem is that it simply can't compete with the real thing - or at least the American versions that also reach our UK screens. Nothing here can compare to the fun to be had at the expense of the self-delusional wannabees, the drama of personal traumas being overcome, or the bitchfest and mental breakdowns that only Hollywood Week on American Idol can provide.

A fun way to spend an hour over lunch but, with the exception of McCardie's vocals, instantly forgettable stuff.

Fifteen Minutes runs at Oran Mor until Saturday 14th February.
image by Leslie Black used with permission

"Defender of The Faith" - February 2009

2009-02-11T00:01:00.002Z

The Tron's Artistic Director Andy Arnold brings us Stuart Carolan's study of an IRA cell haunted by suspicions of an informer in their midst. Set in 1986 at the height of 'the Troubles' it would be easy to dismiss as having little relevance or interest - but this isn't about the politics, it's about the people.

The first act that introduces us to the family at the centre of events suffers from teetering towards "Father Ted" territory as it plays up the humourous interactions between the characters - and the overuse of profanity for cheap laughs doesn't help matters. However, Callum Munro gives an assured performance as younger brother Danny, providing an intriguing insight into the clash of British/Irish cultural influences he faces on a daily basis.

For me, even when Martin McCardie's informer-finder-general arrives the tone remains fairly light and we don't quite get the sense of fear that we should, although Waldorf was more convinced by his quiet menace. But then the play shifts up a gear and for the next forty minutes is finally firing on all cylinders. The informer's confession is handled fantastically well, and the confrontation between father and older son Tommy (Lewis Howden and Martin McCormick) is one of the most tense moments I've had in a theatre for some time. Credit also to fight director Carter Ferguson for what I think was the most sickening on-stage violence I've ever witnessed.

And had the play ended at that point I'm not sure if I'd have sat in stunned silence or given a standing ovation - it had that kind of impact on me (although Waldorf was considerably less taken with the evening). But neither of those things happened. Inexplicably, to my mind, there is one final scene left to play out - the sole impact of which was to diminish the power of the previous scenes.

I'm still grasping for an overall sense of what I thought of the evening and I think it probably comes down to this - a strong production of a not-so-strong play.

Defender of The Faith runs at the Tron until February 28.
Note: In some performances the role of Danny is played by Jan Plazalski.
Image by Richard Campbell used with permission.

"Tam O'Shanter" - February 2009

2009-02-08T23:10:00.001Z

Perth is a fair trek for us, so it requires something a bit special to justify the effort involved, and although Horsecross' interpretation of Rabbie Burns' "Tam O'Shanter" had caught our eye it wasn't really in our plans. But how could we not make the effort to see a show whose promotional materials include a Government Health Warning: "This play may contain more than the recommended daily units of alcohol"? And that kind of playfulness pretty much encapsulates creator and director Gerry Mulgrew's take on Burns' classic tale.

Recognising that a simple presentation of the text would be rather slight, Mulgrew has built a framework around it utilising some of Burns' other works for inspiration and throwing in some theatrical in jokes and other delights. While not all of these additions are entirely successful - the puppetry and face mask segments seem stretched - others such as the church and drink ordering scenes significantly enhance the whole.

The eleven strong cast are universally excellent and all bring their own specialties to the table through dance, music, recitation and song. Andy Clark as Tam and Robbie Jack as Rab Ruisseaux both give impressively physical performances including a Delboyesque pratfall by Clark. Claire Benson's dance contribution is striking, Kirstin McLean provides amusement as poor Meg and Brian MacAlpine produces memorable turns as the Minister and others. But these are only my personal favourites - the whole ensemble are superb.

This is a fantastically creative and imaginative production filled with moments of genius - the storm outside, the eightsome reel, the versatile bar/pulpit prop and some inspired 'aerial work'. It's just an absolute blast of energy and inventiveness while serving as a reminder that Burns is more than a portrait on a shortbread tin. No pretensions - just joyfully tongue-in-cheek.

And although it was more than worthy of our journey to Perth Theatre, I would hope that there will be a further life for this production - it certainly deserves one.

Tam O'Shanter runs at Perth Theatre until Saturday 14th February
Image used with permission

"Dolls" - January 2009

2009-02-02T22:01:00.001Z

We'd debated whether to book up for this production of 'Dolls' that's emerged from the National Theatre of Scotland Workshop programme. In conjunction with Hush Productions and Tramway they've adapted the Japanese film of the same name by Takeshi Kitano into a theatrical piece. We weren't sure if it was really going to be our cup of tea, but decided that it was worth a try. However even sitting in the bar area beforehand I said to Statler that this would have to be not just good but something more than that to grab me after a long week at work. Fortunately it was.

Over the course of 90 minutes we span 35 years in three separate tales of love that are interwoven in their telling, but only minimally in their content. Visually stunning at times with strong imagery; the stories, although captivating, are almost secondary to the look, sound and style of this production. Director Carrie Cracknell has woven together different story telling techniques to make the piece come to life. For instance the story of Jacob and Ruth is almost entirely unspoken and told largely through dance and movement - and no less moving for it. We also have a live band, Zoey Van Goey (accompanied by David Paul Jones), in one corner who not only provide musical accompaniment throughout but take a role in one tale. That's not to say that 'conventional' theatre takes a back seat with strong performances from the ensemble.

Having not seen the film that was its source, I can't say how much of this is original and how much harks back to the film. It has obviously, in some aspects, been translated in time and place from its Japanese inspiration. It does however stand on its own. My one concern is that it was made clear in the post show discussion that they considered it still under development. I hope that in doing the fine tuning it doesn't lose its sense of wonder and magic. The perfect end to a very strong month of Scottish theatre.

Image by Eamonn McGoldrick. Used with permission.

"The Love of Three Oranges" - January 2009

2009-01-27T00:30:00.001Z

A couple of months back Bluedog made a post about attracting people to opera, and what more could be done to get opera novices through the door. We challenged him to find us something to go to, bearing in mind the rather hefty price tickets for Scottish Opera. He took us up on our challenge this weekend, and sent us along to RSAMD/Scottish Opera's production of Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges. And it was in French, with singing and supertitles. Now it's taken a lot of fast talking to get Statler to even try out musicals, and the thought of a production full of singing in a foreign language wasn't exactly filling him with joy. However we suprisingly both quite enjoyed our evening.

The story was completely absurd, and when I first read the synopsis in the programme I was completely lost by the third scene. However seeing it acted (sung) out over the course of 2 hours it did actually make much more sense. Well as much sense as a story involving a Prince falling in love with a girl who emerges from an orange (or in this case a Warhol-esque tin of Orange soup), could ever hope to make. The costumes and set design were extravagent and stylishly surreal with the "Empty Heads", rotating portraits, a villain dressed as a cactus and nice use of projection all adding to the spectacle. A special mention must go to "The Eccentrics", who not only provided amusement on stage, but also caused much mayhem during the interval.

What about the music? Well to be honest we're not best placed to judge (when has that ever stopped us before?). The cast was made up of a mix of levels of RSAMD students and visitors from the Rostov State Conservertoire, and a large number of RSAMD students were interspersed amongst the 'regular' Scottish Opera Orchestra and everything sounded fine to our inexperienced ears. The highly catchy March that makes an appearance at various points has earwormed us both, although for me it usually degenerates into Toreador March from Carmen and for Statler the Imperial March from Star Wars when any attempt is made to hum it. For a more informed opinion you're better reading Bluedog's views on it - he did get us into this in the first place.

Watching with supertitles wasn't a huge inconvenience, as there was plenty of time to read whilst the lines were being sung, although given our seating position I did feel like I was at a tennis match by the end. I also do know a little French so was able to fill in some of the gaps that the supertitles missed. Especially when Princess Ninette's place is stolen by the evil Smeraldine and the Prince expresses his horror at being made to marry the green-faced (remember the cactus we mentioned up there) substitute for his true love. A bit of Googling when I came home confirmed I did hear what I thought I had - the prince being horrified at being made to fulfil his promise to 'une negresse'. I'm probably making far too much of this, but I'm not sure whether I'm more irritated by the line being uncensored on stage or by its ommission from the supertitles, leaving a large number of the audience laughing along with an undeniably comic moment, but oblivious of its darker overtones.

Overall it was an enjoyable night, and we're glad we went along. Given the numbers involved and the obvious time and effort spent the evening was undeniably value for money at £20 a ticket. I'd definitely give more than a passing consideration to an RSAMD opera production again for the experience and undeniably clever staging - it's very much an 'event'. However I still can't persuade myself to pay the money for a ticket to a full Scottish Opera production.

The Love of Three Oranges moves to Edinburgh for two performances at the Festival Theatre (28 and 31 January).

"The Tailor of Inverness – Krawiec z Inverness" - January 2009

2009-01-27T00:10:00.001Z

Where possible we try to see shows early in their run, and as a general rule we try to avoid knowing too much in advance (or reading reviews). But Dogstar Theatre's "The Tailor of Inverness" was enough of a hit at last year's Edinburgh Fringe that we couldn't help but have our expectations raised and that's always a dangerous way to walk into a theatre...

And worryingly, about three quarters of the way through the show I did find myself wondering what all the fuss had was about. Undeniably Matthew Zajac's story of his father's journey from his birthplace in rural Poland to Inverness was an interesting one, Zajac's performance was impressive, as was Jonny Hardie's accompaniment on the violin. But it didn't stand out from a host of similar style shows we've seen in recent years.

Then suddenly the show shifts on its axis and it's no longer the story of the father, but of Matthew and his piecing together of his father's life. Everything that has come before is thrown into a different perspective and what follows makes for absolutely electric theatre. What had previously seemed at one removed is suddenly and intensely personified in front of us. So much so, that at times it heads into a territory that left us feeling a little uncomfortable and voyeuristic, but it is completely and utterly compelling.

I'm wary of saying much more, but it is thoroughly deserving of its considerable reputation and if you can catch it on its extensive Scottish tour it won't disappoint.

As an aside, without wishing to start a West End Whingers style campaign, the decision to have unallocated seating at the Tron was distinctly unwelcome - the foyer simply isn't big enough to comfortably contain the audience in an ordered manner, especially with 4 entrances into the auditorium. It just resulted in a bit of an unseemly scramble.

Full details of the tour are available on Dogstar's website.
Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission.

"Sub Rosa" - January 2009

2009-01-21T22:22:00.008Z

Ladies and gentlemen of a theatrical persuasion... can we please have your attention for a moment. It feels only fair to give advance warning for anyone hoping to impress us with a production in 2009 - "Sub Rosa" has just set the bar and it is very, very high. It is, quite simply, magnificent.

Staged in the backstage and unseen areas of the Citizens' Theatre, writer and director David Leddy's promenade production immerses the audience in the tale of Flora McIvor and the tumult that results from her arrival at 'The Winter Palace' theatre. In a series of scenes we spend time with members of the company and others as they tell us of the part they played in Flora's revolution.

The cast performances are as good as I'll see this year. In cramped spaces, this is theatre at its most up-close-and personal. There are no hiding places - every glance and movement will be noticed but here they are crafted to perfection. There is no fourth wall to break - and with a group size limited to fifteen, every audience member will have felt they were being given personal attention, and that it mattered that they were there to listen to the characters' tales.

It would be unfair to single out particular cast members - they were all marvelous - and it would also risk revealing a little too much. So I think well just say 'thank you' and 'well done' to Cora Bissett, Angela Darcy, Louise Ludgate, David Magowan, Alison Peebles and Finlay Welsh.

But don't get the wrong idea - the strength of "Sub Rosa" isn't just about the performances - David Leddy's script and direction are just as finely honed. The tale is part grotesque horror, part puzzle with a good measure of black humour and the visual delights include a fantastically memorable first sight of Vaclav the Strongman. But during a short pause between scenes, although enjoying the show immensely I suddenly suffered a moment of doubt. It was just all too good - it would take some ending to conclude the evening in a satisfactory manner. Well, twenty minutes later I exited the theatre by a fire exit - completely satisfied by the outcome.

This must be a hugely challenging show technically - there can be several groups wandering through the theatre at any given time, and the cast will perform their scenes 8 times an evening! And yet, thanks to careful planning and our effective guides we were almost totally unaware of anyone else in the building. Substantial contributions are also made by the atmospheric soundscape from Graham Sutherland and some stunning lighting from Nich Smith.

But there is one huge failing that the show has. We never get the chance to show our appreciation to those involved - it doesn't seem appropriate to clap at the end of each segment and there is no group finale. So, cast and creative team for "Sub Rosa", please consider this a standing ovation from View From The Stalls.

Sub Rosa is a co-production between Fire Exit Ltd and Citizens Theatre and runs until 31 January with performances commencing every 20 minutes between 7pm and 9.20pm. Book now - tickets are going fast!
Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission

INK - January 2009

2009-01-20T22:21:00.006Z

INK is an interesting concept. I'm very guilty of focusing on a piece as a whole. For me everything in a production should gel together; the look, feel and sound are all equally important and any one of those being off is a huge distraction. However in a monthly event alternating between The Tron (where we went tonight) and The Traverse, INK discards most of that by staging script in hand performances of short new plays with a common theme. Tonight, appropriately enough for the week before Burns' night, the theme was 'Scotland: An Alternative History'.

With five pieces performed in 50 minutes the plays are certainly short and it was interesting to see the diversity of approaches taken by the different writers to the subject in hand. Although the writing is put firmly centre stage here, it also gave a nice insight into the mechanics of building a production with the actors involved delivering the lines, not just reading it.

The post show discussion with the writers of tonight's works was an added, unexpected, bonus. An enjoyable evening and well worth catching at least once - for £3 you really can't argue.

Plays:
Armenian Reading by Alan McKendrick
Heretic by Andy Duffy
The Advert by Lewis Hetherington
Diamond Brooch by Joshua Makaruk
The Elvis Monologue by Oliver Emanuel

Performers:
Scott Hoatson
Jenny Hulse
Natalie McConnon
Jeremy Reynolds
Owen Whitelaw

INK will be at The Traverse 15th February and 26th April, and The Tron 24th March.

"Be Near Me" - January 2009

2009-01-18T20:21:00.002Z

We've been fortunate enough to see the Donmar's productions of "Othello" and "Twelfth Night" in the last year on our trips to London, so the potential of their collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland was enough to see us driving down to Kilmarnock for the evening - despite forecasts for gale force winds. Yes, we could have waited for it to return to Scotland after its run in London, but the draw of seeing Ian McDiarmid's adaptation of Andrew O'Hagan's novel about a troubled priest staged in its native Ayrshire setting was too strong to ignore.

In a production so strongly focused on a central character it can often be to the detriment of the whole, and having the writer (or in this case adaptor) also playing said character is unlikely to minimise this. No doubt the novel gives the peripheral characters more depth, but here they appear to have little life beyond their interactions with Anderton.

In truth I suspect many of the issues I have with the play stem directly from the source material in Andrew O'Hagan's novel. Even before the events that drive the plot towards its conclusion, the relationship between a priest approaching sixty and a teenage couple going off the rails is pretty far fetched. In this adaptation there simply isn't enough indication of him either earning their respect and trust, or of his friendship being sufficiently advantageous to them to make their interest in him believable. While of course such things can happen, it lessens the impact on the audience when it can be dismissed as an aberration without any wider significance.

McDiarmid's performance is thoroughly engaging but is also problematic. While the character is clearly intended to be flamboyant, he is portrayed in a style that is considerably more 'performed' than the naturalistic approach taken by the rest of the cast. In fairness this may be intended to be indicative of the character's life being an act but it remains a jarring contrast for the audience.

Blythe Duff impresses as housekeeper Mrs Poole but can't overcome the feeling that a lot of character development has been lost along the way, leaving the characterisation somewhat condensed, while Benny Young and Jimmy Chisholm give eye-catching performances but are given little to work with. It's left to Richard Madden and Helen Mallon as Mark and Lisa to give the stand-out performances of the evening with Mallon in particular delivering a potentially career enhancing 'on-screen' appearance and showcasing a beautiful singing voice.

But despite an able cast, some sublime moments of direction from John Tiffany as scenes transition and Davey Anderson's musical contribution, the show feels overly long (as evidenced by the gentleman in the audience who had to be woken after three loud snores). At a run time of two and a half hours (including a 15 minute interval) it feels like closer to three, and could really be cut to two. A good start could be made by jettisoning a prolonged dinner party scene laden with heavy handed political comment and the many sectarian references that seem overblown considering that we see little direct evidence of it being an issue which affects the characters.

Much will be made of the potentially controversial nature of the tale and its moral complexity but in fact the play is fairly clear in how it expects us to respond to its characters and the lines are nowhere near as blurred as they could/should be. It does however offer a provocative view of the characteristics we demand, and those we exclude, from our idea of a Scottish identity.

This is an entertaining evening but lacks dramatic power due to an overwhelming sense of inevitability and I'm also somewhat fearful that many of the show's best moments rely on cultural references that may not be as well received outside Scotland.

Be Near Me has completed its run at Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock and will now play at London's Donmar Warehouse before touring to Glasgow, Inverness, Edinburgh, Perth, Salford Quays, Leicester & Truro.
Image by David Eustace used with permission.

"Alien Wars" - January 2009

2009-01-13T23:18:00.001Z

Billed as "a terrifying total reality experience" Alien Wars at The Arches takes small groups of visitors on a tour to see an alien spaceship that has been discovered in the basement of the venue. The original 'Alien War' experience at the Arches in 1992 is the stuff of legend and is still spoken about in Glasgow with a great deal of affection... and more than a little fear. Its reputation at the time was for seriously pushing the buttons of participants - so much so that I was always otherwise engaged when friends suggested I join them for a trip. Almost 17 years later I'm feeling much braver...

No spoilers here, the fun is all about the unknown, and while they do vary the experience it's best you know as little as possible in advance. But it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the tour doesn't run to plan.

But let's get to what you really want to know... will it scare you? Well, maybe. We certainly saw other people who were genuinely quite distressed but for us it remained more of a curiosity with an occasional jump rather than generating any real element of fear. We couldn't quite commit enough to the experience to overcome our knowledge that in reality the environment was tightly controlled.

At 15 minutes in length, although clearly quite sufficient for some of those in our tour party, it would have benefitted from at least another 10 minutes to ratchet up the feeling of confinement that the venue can clearly provide.

It's certainly a good bit of fun and the 'cast' performances work well, but it isn't as far away from an old school 'ghost train' as it could (should) be, and the £10 ticket price seems towards the high end of reasonable. That said, the group before us clearly loved it and were already asking when the next 'change of scenario' would be so that they could come back again.

But I'd suggest that if you want to get the most from it, you drag along someone you know will be easily freaked out. That way even if it isn't enough to scare you, there will be sufficient amusement value to make the experience memorable.

Note: While it is the normal policy of View From the Stalls to pay for tickets, our tickets for Alien Wars were won in a competition in the Sunday Herald newspaper.

Alien Wars runs at The Arches until 31 March.

Review of the Year - 2008

2008-12-30T23:40:00.002Z

It's reached that time of year again where we look back on what we've enjoyed, and with over 100 productions to choose from we shouldn't be short of a few highlights...

Back in May we really enjoyed "The Drawer Boy" but I commented that 'by next week it will probably be a vague memory of having had an enjoyable night at the theatre' - yet I was completely wrong and months later it is still vivid in my memory. Beautifully written and directed I think it was probably my favourite play of the year - Brian Pettifer, Benny Young and Brian Ferguson were simply phenomenal and delivered three of the best male performances we saw this year.

Other male acting highlights included the masterful Will Lyman in "The Patriot Act" and Stephen Hudson's breathtaking performance in "Zero".

Another show that made a big impression early in the year was Borderline's production of D C Jackson's "The Wall" - a beautifully observed comedy of teenage angst. It also gave us one of the best female performances of the year from Kirstin McLean.

Indira Varma's performance in "Twelfth Night" was another highlight - as was Cora Bissett in the delightful"Midsummer [A Play with Songs]" which proved to be our most out-and-out enjoyable show this year.

But many of this year's high points can't exactly be called 'enjoyable' due to their content. Sweetscar's production of Sarah Kane's "4.48 Psychosis" was an unforgettable experience and Waldorf raved about "Deep Cut" for which I couldn't get a ticket. But I only have myself to blame for missing another show which she considers to be her favourite show of the year - "Amada".

There have been many shows that contained moments of theatrical magic that will be burned into our memories for years to come - the final moments of "Restitution", the 'Munchkin Strike' segment of "Wicked Christmas 3" and the incredibly powerful moments in "The Caravan". We've also been left with very fond memories of "Sunshine on Leith", "Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off" and "Heer Ranjha (Retold)".

But if we are talking about sheer entertainment value there isn't any doubt about my highlight of the year, and to be honest I'll consider myself hugely fortunate if I ever have more fun in a theatre than I did at "An Audience with Brian Blessed".

And yet, even as 2008 slips away, we've already got high hopes for 2009.

"Hamlet" - December 2008

2008-12-30T23:29:00.005Z

It's been a couple of weeks since we didn't see David Tennant in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet (if you've been living on the moon he's got a bad back and any rumours that he went into hiding to avoid us are just pure speculation). So did a matryoshka doll-like cascade of understudies harm the production when it moved to the Ivor Novello Theatre?

Just to clear things up, so there's no confusion, Hamlet was played by Laertes, Laertes was played by Guildenstern, Guildenstern was played by Lucianus (the poisoner in the play) and Lucianus was played by Fortinbras. Hope that's nice and clear.

What we did get was a very polished production (literally in the case of the set) despite the re-arrangement of cast. Patrick Stewart as a very statesman like Claudius was magnificent and Edward Bennett stepping into Hamlet's jeans/tux (no doublets and hoses here) certainly didn't cause the production to be any less enjoyable. At his best when interacting with others as a slightly whiny brat; his verbal bullying of Polonius (Oliver Ford Davies) was a delight.

The interplay between Polonious, Ophelia (Mariah Gale) and Laertes (Tom Davey) as fatherly advice is dispensed was also wonderfully done. For the second time in two days I found myself laughing out loud at a production of Shakespeare.

In a tragedy it's obviously not all laughs. Penny Downie as Gertrude developed as the production went on from a rather unsympathetic woman who'd hurriedly re-married in order to maintain her position to a woman genuinely torn between her new husband, her son and her grief for the old.

Was it perfect - no probably not. The opening scene with the guards using the highly reflective floor to bounce their lights off to illuminate the faces of their compatriots instead of using the stage lighting should have worked well, but the constant switching between faces ended up just being irritating. The mirrored backdrop was put to particularly good effect in 2 scenes, although the latter of those was so nicely done that I did spend the next 15 minutes wondering quite how they'd done it, thus distracting me from the main event. But then I'm a geek at heart. However it did have the best use of a slinky in dramatic arts this year.

I sat through a year of Hamlet at school. Even now I could probably rhyme off a dozen quotes to scatter through an essay on the subject. But did I enjoy studying it? Hell no. Now I don't know how much of that was due to me being 16 or having the world's worst English teacher. But having now seen Shakespeare performed in a number of quality productions I firmly believe that we did it no service by the way I was taught it in school. I just hope it's taught a little better now.

Hamlet continues its sold out run until January 10.
Photo by Ellie Kurttz. Used with permission.

"The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe" - December 2008

2008-12-29T22:20:00.002Z

For our final show of 2008 we headed through to Edinburgh for the Lyceum's adaptation of CS Lewis' novel. And with Christmas being a time for family and all that we brought a few members of the extended Muppet family along with us - all of whom seemed to greatly enjoy the afternoon.

Opening with a fantastic set piece that sees the children evacuated from the city, through clever direction and lighting we follow their train journey through to their arrival at their temporary home. And even though entirely unspoken, the performances are so well crafted that they serve as a good introduction to each of the characters.

The four children are played by Scott Hoatson (Peter), Jenny Hulse (Susan), Neil Thomas (Edmund) and Amy McAllister (Lucy) who despite the inherent difficulties in playing characters obviously younger than their years, do an excellent job of bringing them life. As the White Witch, Meg Fraser provides just the right level of threat while Daniel Williams makes for an impressive Aslan and the rest of the cast provide strong support.

With a considerable younger contingent in the audience it's clearly an advantage to limit the run time (just over two hours including an interval) but as a result the story does seem somewhat rushed, and characters don't always get sufficient stage time to really make the impact they should - particularly Aslan, Peter & Susan.

While the show perhaps lacks the sparkle to make it truly memorable, that shouldn't take away from what is an effectively told tale that kept the audience enthralled throughout.

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe runs at the Lyceum until 3rd January.
Image by Alan McCredie used with permission

Now Booking for Spring 2009

2008-12-21T21:09:00.008Z

Over the next couple of weeks there will of course be lots of running around and last minute Christmas shopping (and then the January sales), but there will also no doubt be the quiet days spent recovering from over-indulgence. And it's a great opportunity to catch up on all those Spring programmes for the theatres that have been dropping through the letterbox amongst the Christmas cards. Here's our round up of our current plans for the first half of 2009...

The Citizens' was one of the first theatres to launch their programme and we've quickly booked up for a couple of shows and we plan on booking a few more once we have a better idea of our other plans. "Sub Rosa" from Fire Exit & the Citizens is a site specific piece which will promenade around backstage areas in the Citz and is 'not for the squeamish' (review now posted) and we've also booked for Tamasha's Bollywood style take on "Wuthering Heights" (review now posted). At the moment we don't plan on seeing "Educating Rita" but that may change once casting is announced (review now posted), and we'll need to give a bit more thought before deciding on their production of Ibsen's "Ghosts". We'll have already seen the National Theatre of Scotland & Donmar Warehouse's "Be Near Me" before it reaches the Citz (review now posted) and we enjoyed NLP's "Singin' I'm No a Billy He's a Tim" at Cumbernauld earlier this year. But we do plan to book for the Citizens Community Company's "My Clydeside Valentine" (review now posted) and the Young Company's "Citizen Y" nearer the time (review now posted).

As well as "Be Near Me" the National Theatre of Scotland has also grabbed our attention with the intriguing "Dolls" based on a Japanese film at the Tramway at the end of January (review now posted).

In 2008 the Tron's programming really worked for us, and their Spring 2009 shows look like maintaining our interest. We've booked up for Irish 'Troubles' set thriller "Defender of the Faith" (review now posted), Tam Dean Burn in "Year of the Horse" (review now posted) and we'll also catch a couple of shows we missed at the Fringe in "The Tailor of Inverness" (review now posted) and "The Angel & The Woodcutter" (review now posted). I'm also quite keen to see "Do I Mean Anything To You Or Am I Just Passing By?" but it could prove tricky to fit in.

Glasgow's Theatre Royal has lured us back with the touring production of "Cabaret" but in truth the attraction is that it stars Sam Barks who was our household's favourite in the BBC's Search-for-Nancy show (review now posted).

Over in Edinburgh at the Lyceum they have several shows of interest but their ticket prices make us wary of taking a punt on shows in advance of seeing a positive review or cast information. However if flexi-time permits I may be tempted to give a midweek matinee a go on my own for "The Mystery of Irma Vep" and "Copenhagen" as Waldorf isn't particularly keen.

In May we're back down to London for "Madame De Sade" starring Judi Dench (review now posted) and "Oliver" with Rowan Atkinson and the Search-for-Nancy winner. We'll also hope to fill a Saturday night slot that weekend with something that catches our eye in the next few months.

One other show we'll definitely be booking up for when tour dates are published is Borderline's production of DC Jackson's "The Ducky" ( review now posted )- a follow up to 2008's award winning "The Wall".

And while we are still working out the best way to take up Bluedog's challenge of giving opera a chance (without breaking the bank), we're dipping our toes in with this year's "Five:15" from Scottish Opera - a performance of five new fifteen minute operas (review now posted).

We haven't seen details of the Traverse programme yet, and we'll hopefully find some shows to see at Cumbernauld Theatre, and we will update this post with details when we get them. And I'll be making a renewed effort to get along regularly to Oran Mor's 'A Play, A Pie & A Pint' lunchtime series.

And as always, we're happy to hear about any other shows we haven't spotted that you think we might enjoy.

"Sunshine on Leith" - December 2008

2008-12-21T14:09:00.004Z

All last year I was skeptical about the whole concept of Dundee Rep's musical based on the songs of The Proclaimers - it just seemed too daft to work. Even when the glowing reviews were pouring in and the show received a number of CATS nominations I couldn't quite bring myself to believe it. So when the show was revived for a 2008/2009 tour we had to book up to see for ourselves if we had written it off unfairly. We had.

"Sunshine on Leith" is in every sense 'the real deal'. It's a grand, epic West End style musical , but with a distinctively Scottish flavour. Writer Stephen Greenhorn has managed to effectively weave the songs into a coherent story of three couples, and not only do they work as the stories of the individuals, he has also managed to retain some of the social and political themes inherent in the songs.

The six central characters are all brought vividly to life and the audience is quickly emotionally invested thanks to a very strong cast. As parents Rab and Jean, John Buick and Anne Louise Ross really pluck those heartstrings - particularly with Ross's rendition of "Sunshine on Leith". Gail Watson gets the chance to shine vocally as daughter Liz while Kevin Lennon gives a fine acting performance as her boyfriend Ally.

However, the couple the audience are pulling for most are son Davy (Keith Fleming) and girlfriend Yvonne (Denise Hoey). They have a tremendous chemistry on stage, combined with impressive vocals and beautifully nuanced portrayals of their characters. But it isn't just the six leads that make the show work - there is a massive contribution from a substantial ensemble who give the show its scale, and many get their own memorable moments along the way. And James Brining's direction keeps the action moving along and despite a run time of 2 hours 40 minutes the show simply flies in.

Sadly we did have a fairly significant problem with the sound levels and while it didn't spoil the show, it certainly hampered our experience. We were centrally located in row H of the stalls and in the more upbeat group numbers many of the vocals were in danger of being drowned out by the band to the extent that it was impossible to pick out lyrics - and it wasn't down to our west-coast ears. And disappointingly, on speaking to friends who had seen the show a week previously they had encountered the same problem. As a result we recommend picking up the cast recording CD at the performance for a bargain £10 - it gives you the opportunity to appreciate the lyrics you missed first time round. It's also just a brilliant set of songs and hasn't been out of our CD player since we got home.

Sunshine on Leith is a brilliantly entertaining piece of theatre, and even on a matinee performance managed to get the diverse audience suitably enthused. On leaving the show we overheard a group of teenagers who had clearly loved the show including one who hadn't wanted to come but thought it was "really brilliant" and another group who left singing the songs all the way down the road. And while the midweek matinee was an easier option for us, part of me does wonder if we missed out on what must be a pretty incredible Friday or Saturday night atmosphere.

Unfortunately the production may suffer from one of the issues raised within the show. While its Scottishness is a hugely integral part of its charm and heart, it is also what may limit its long term viability. It certainly has the quality in writing and cast that it could potentially command a wide audience around the UK, but I'm not quite sure Londoners are ready to take it to their hearts. It will certainly be interesting to see how the audience responds when the tour dips its toes south of the border with a short run in Coventry.

If you missed out on seeing it last year, don't make the same mistake again. Leave your skepticism behind and give it a chance - I find it hard to believe anyone leaves the theatre disappointed.

Sunshine on Leith runs at the Festival theatre, Edinburgh until 3rd January 2009 and then tours to Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow before finishing in Coventry at the end of February.

Image by Douglas McBride used with permission

"Twelfth Night" - December 2008

2008-12-19T23:01:00.000Z

It was a fortunate accident that saw us at "Twelfth Night" as part of the Donmar's West End Season. When we managed to get tickets for "Hamlet" on the Monday night it just so happened that our trip coincided with a Sunday performance of "Twelfth Night" - and there were still tickets available.

And our luck held up as we were rewarded with a simply wonderful piece of theatre - enthralling from start to finish with a pace that never flags. With gorgeous sets and costumes it just screams quality, and most importantly the cast live up to all expectations. While Derek Jacobi is very much the face of this production, Malvolio is a fairly peripheral character and as a result its heart and soul lie elsewhere. Yes, he delivers some wonderful comedic moments but these are more a series of cameo set pieces than a truly substantial performance.

Indeed I suspect in 20 years time I may recall this performance as being the first time I saw Dame Indira Varma on stage, before wondering if that was the one that had Derek Jacobi in it as well. Varma is a joy to watch and even from the very back of the stalls her performance was beautifully expressive without losing any subtlety. Victoria Hamilton also excels and her scenes with Varma and Mark Bonnar's Orsino are played to comic perfection; while Samantha Spiro's Maria is delightfully impish as she orchestrates Malvolio's comeuppance. The male cast members all give sterling performances with Ron Cook's Lord Toby a highlight along with Jacobi, but in truth the ladies have the plaudits sewn up here.

Magnificent.

Twelfth Night runs at Wyndham's Theatre, London until 7 March 2009
Image by Hugo Glendinning used with permission.

Handel's Messiah - December 2008

2008-12-19T22:02:00.002Z

Okay, so we've strayed away from our usual territory but indulge us a little... But first it seems only fair to confess that the whole Messiah thing was really just an added extra for us. We had discussed some time ago when watching the Last Night of the Proms on TV that we'd quite like to see something at the Royal Albert Hall someday, so when we had a free evening on our London trip that coincided with this performance it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up - particularly when we could get decent-ish tickets for £14.50 and a tour of the venue costs £8!

Now of course given that we know even less about classical music than we do about theatre, we're in no position to comment on the quality of the playing or the singing (especially as we were seated side-on to the soloists and beside some of the choir), so lets just leave it that we were perfectly happy with the performances from all involved. For the record, details of the choirs performing along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra can be found on the Raymond Gubbay website.

But our visit was really about the venue and it really is something to behold. Yes, if you look at the detail closely enough it's in need of some attention but the scale and atmosphere in the place is truly phenomenal. I'm not sure that we would rush back for another concert, but given the opportunity to see something theatrical staged here I think we could definitely be persuaded to make the effort if we could combine it with other shows in London over a weekend. We don't quite think "The King & I" will be enough to lure us back but the Royal Albert Hall is now firmly somewhere whose listings we will keep a close eye on.

And that's despite the fact that even a classical concert at such a venue doesn't appear to be immune from morons in the audience - who required a ticking off from Waldorf at the start of the second part of the performance. They then continued to chat to such an extent that rather than my usual ploy of escorting Waldorf to the exit quickly at the end of the show for fear of further 'incident', I tapped them on the shoulder myself and gave them a mouthful. I mean really, what is the point of clapping at the end of a show that you've shown no respect for throughout the performance - despite the fact that some of the choir were sitting literally two feet away.

Image by... em... us. Used with permission

"Framed" - December 2008

2008-12-19T21:31:00.000Z

We'd booked up for "Framed" by Visible Fictions because of its concept of Scotland's youth having something to say, and with plenty of previous positive experiences with theatre involving young people, we were happy to give this a go - particularly at £4 a ticket. But perhaps that should have been a warning sign that things were not quite as they at first seemed.

Digging a little deeper prior to the show it became clear from Visible Fictions' website that the production was possibly more about developing the young people involved than about producing a piece of theatre for public consumption (with the Prince's Trust Scotland being involved). In truth we debated whether or not we should be posting comment on it but felt the decision had to be made prior to seeing the show, and on the basis that the Tramway website in particular was promoting the show strongly, we felt it demanded the same attention we would give any production seeking an audience - and as always, we don't make any allowances for age, experience etc - all performances are considered in the same way as if they were professional.

At the performance it fairly quickly became clear that we wouldn't be seeing a constructed narrative with central themes or issues to raise - this was very much a show made up of individuals each telling elements of their own (and possibly their own) stories. Yes, Visible Fictions have added an impressive technical polish and some very effective visuals but the same effort didn't appear to have been expended on focusing the content.

While there are some powerful moments, the applause at the end seemed perhaps more supportive than appreciative. This shouldn't detract from what are no doubt significant individual achievements from those participating in reaching a level of confidence where they could perform - but I do think it raises questions as to whether they should really have been exposed to the wider public as opposed to an invited audience. This is clearly a valuable project but without further development and focus it runs the risk of being unfair on both its audience and participants.

Framed has now completed its run at the Tramway
Image by Douglas McBride used with permission

"Wicked Christmas 3" - December 2008

2008-12-11T23:10:00.000Z

While all around, theatres invoke the festive spirit and preach goodwill to all with family friendly shows full of cheer, we knew we could rely on the Citizens Community Company's "Wicked Christmas 3" to deliver a sharper glance at our modern Christmas.

This year's show contains twelve short acts in a variety of styles and tones - from an amusing group song to hard hitting looks at exclusion and loss. There will always be hits and misses in such a show, but often that's more to do with personal taste than any lack in quality. And while neither of us were particularly taken by the 'Tree of Life' segment this was in part due to the decision to thread it throughout the evening rather than perform it as a single piece.

Anne Marie McLeod's "The Poor Philosopher" gave us a sombre look at the commercialisation of Christmas from someone on the outside and an image that will haunt my remaining Christmas shopping trips, while Kathleen Harrison's tale of family grief brought a lump to even a cynical throat. But for sheer entertainment Neil Bratchpiece's "The Wee Man v Santa" and "Munchkin Strike" are hard to beat. The Glasgow 'ned' is in danger of being overexposed these days, but when he's as well written and delivered as this it's always going to hit the target in home territory. But in the "Munchkin Strike" he gives us something that is little short of genius and provided one of the funniest five minutes I've had in a theatre this year - worth the ticket price alone. Other particular favourites of Waldorf were Patricia Preston's "Angela's Story" and Rena Hood's nostalgic "Christmas Adventure".

For those theatre addicts like us who don't really do the whole Panto thing this is a great way to stave off withdrawal symptoms with an entertaining and thoughtful evening.

Wicked Christmas 3 runs at the Citizens until Saturday 13th December
Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission

"Spectacular" - December 2008

2008-12-06T09:26:00.001Z

It's the morning after our visit to Forced Entertainment's "Spectacular" at the Tramway, and Normally by now we'd have had our thoughts on the show posted several hours ago. But there's something different going on with this one. And Normally we'll have spent a fair bit of time comparing our thoughts on a show before one of us will type something up, but tonight we only exchanged a couple of sentences before realising that we were singing from the same hymnsheet. Maybe it was down to the rather odd ten minutes we spent before the show in the Tramway's exhibition space that made it different... or maybe it was the fact that "Spectacular" has provoked the worst reaction we've ever had to a show - including our experience with "Waiting for Godot".

And the evening had such promise - the blurb for the show had really grabbed my interest -
A lone performer takes to the stage, explaining that the show we're watching is somehow different tonight. The atmosphere is different, his entrance was off, the lights are wrong, some scenery is missing, some performers are absent. The tone is all wrong. Things are somehow falling to pieces, or maybe things are just now falling into place. The audience reaction, our protagonist says, is not quite what he expected, not quite what he's used to. Perhaps the fact he is dressed as a skeleton has something to do with it.

And although I'd avoided reading reviews I'd seen enough 'stars' plastered over the Tramway walls to have my expectations raised. And let me tell you, it's difficult as a theatre blogger to come home and write up your thoughts when you know they are going to be overwhelmingly negative - especially when you know there are very positive reviews of the show by professional critics. And that's when the doubts can start to creep in. Am I the right person to be writing about this show? Or should I leave it to one of the theatre students that seemed to make up half the audience to give their thoughts instead? In admitting my dislike for the work am I showing a lack of understanding on my part? Will I be the little boy shouting from the crowd or will I be the unclothed King?

Normally about this time in a 'review', even one of a show we haven't enjoyed, I'd try and find something positive to say about it - perhaps a performance, or the lighting, or set. I've tried hard and I'm afraid I really can't - although Waldorf has just said she liked the curtains. Right now I'm thinking that there was perhaps, somewhere at the beginning of the process that brought this piece to the stage, a neat gem of an idea about the thoughts that go through an actor's head whilst on stage but it's been drowned out by everything else that the production has tried to attach to the concept.

And at this bit of our 'review' I'm thinking about how far I can go. I'm thinking of describing the central character as the bastard son of Jimmy Carr & 'David Brent' but I doubt Waldorf will let me. Now I'm recalling that there were a couple of moments in the show where I felt something was about to change, moments of anticipation that all the tedious (and only partly successful) audience manipulation would be revealed as just the foundation for something more. And then the sickening disappointment as I realise there isn't anything 'more' - just more.

Normally it would never cross my mind to leave during a performance (we didn't but it was a close call).

And then, just at the end of a show, regardless of how little I've enjoyed it I will Normally applaud out of respect for the effort of those involved. Normally.

Spectacular runs at the Tramway until Saturday 6th December
Image by Hugo Glendinning used with permission

"Otter Pie" - December 2008

2008-12-04T23:35:00.002Z

Theatre company Fish & Game have put together an affectionate (well most of the time anyway) take on classic Scottish novel "Sunset Song" (okay, I've never read it but Wiki was my friend). While the play's moments of absurdity won't be to everyone's taste, and you probably need to be in the right mood to appreciate it, as time went on I found any initial frustrations evaporating and I left with a smile on my face.

I'm keeping this pretty brief as I think much of the fun would be spoiled by knowing the details in advance. It feels very much like a show from the Edinburgh Fringe with a simple set and a playful approach to theatricality. At times it feels a little self-indulgent in the first half and some of the set pieces are stretched too far, but the pay-off as the 'performance' deteriorates makes up for any flaws. Helped by a strong cast the play successfully asks some pointed questions - both about how we live now and how we view the past.

With an extensive tour including some high profile venues "Otter Pie" is perhaps punching above its weight for a show that still feels a little thrown together. But for me that's the most exciting thing about the evening - finding a young company with the ambition, drive and ability to make it all happen. And tonight their efforts were rewarded with a Tramway venue filled with a very diverse audience - including a crowd of young theatregoers sitting near me who were genuinely enthusiastic about what they had just seen.

Otter Pie runs at the Tramway until Saturday 6th December and has sold out all performances.
Image by Robert Walton used with permission

"Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us" - November 2008

2008-11-27T23:32:00.003Z

In the final play of the National Theatre of Scotland & Traverse's 'Debuts' season Paul Higgins has successfully created three fully rounded and engaging characters who have brought to life by three strong performances. The problem is, 'Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us' is a play with five characters - and the final two drain the play of much of the strength it would otherwise have had.

John Wark plays younger brother Patrick who has surprised the family by returning home from Seminary a week earlier than expected. It's a well pitched performance which effectively conveys both his character's intelligence and his ignorance of life in the real world. On his return he finds older brother Johnny (Ryan Fletcher) caught up in some bother and desperately trying to raise some cash in a hurry. Fletcher plays Johnny with just the right level of gallusness but with the underlying knowledge that his life is a disappointment. Higgins, Wark & Fletcher have created a believable dynamic between these two and it's responsible for many of the plays strongest moments. As sister Cath, Carmen Pieraccini shines brightest when she is alone, particularly in a delightful scene in candlelight, and throughout the play genuinely inhabits the body of someone with a painful skin irritation.

Unfortunately the depiction of the adult characters fails to match the high standard of the children. Susan Vidler's 'Mum' makes little impact and I found it difficult to envisage her as part of this family set-up. But for me the real problem lay with Gary Lewis's alcoholic 'Dad' who is a fraction too close to Rab C Nesbitt to be taken as seriously as the character should be - particularly once he utters a line dangerously close to Rab's catchphrase. As a result I'm concerned that many of the laughs that the performance generated in the audience were simply of the lets-laugh-at-the-west-coast-scum variety.

Now I have to be fair here and admit that we deprived ourselves of what could have been one of the play's most powerful scenes. We were struggling with the play so much by the interval that leaving was a genuine possibility, so script book in hand I flicked to near the end to decide if it was worth staying for. Sufficiently intrigued we stayed - but we had been spoiled for a revelation that was handled rather nicely.

Even John Tiffany's direction is frustrating with characters spending considerable periods of time in static positions - and as this is staged in the round it leaves sections of the audience seeing the back of character's heads for far too long.

But there are moments that show that Higgins has significant potential as a writer. The relationships between the three younger characters are thoroughly convincing and there are some interesting ideas in the play - the concept of good deeds as currency and the way the family look down on the inhabitants of nearby Stonebridge provided something worth further thought.

Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us runs at the Traverse until Saturday 29th November
Image by Pete Dibdin used with permission.

"4.48 Psychosis" - October 2008 (revisited)

2008-11-23T20:52:00.008Z

We originally posted very brief thoughts about SweetScar, Tramway and "Cumbernauld Theatre's production of "4.48 Psychosis" back when we saw it at Cumbernauld Theatre at the end of October. As part of the impact of the production was the journey into the unknown we didn't want to lessen that by being too detailed in our comments. Hence we've delayed publishing this until its run finished, and as a result we're also going into a bit more detail than usual.

The first surprise of the evening was that instead of entering through the usual main doors of the theatre we were taken into its bowels in small groups, past the costumes for their upcoming panto and backstage. Where we were led into a pitch dark theatre by ushers wearing night vision goggles. We were then seated individually, and in splendid isolation with at least two seats between you and any other audience member. All the while the sounds of a streetscape assault your senses. Traffic passing, children laughing and playing, birds chirping. You struggled to get your eyes to adjust to the darkness but it was largely impenetrable, and your imagination started to play tricks as you tried and failed to rationalise the very indistinct shapes you (think) you could make out. Even when the performance started the lights came up only for brief periods and it took you time to completely piece together what you're seeing.

Sarah Kane's last work wasn't produced until after her death, and the script gives directors complete carte blanche as there are no character names just lines of dialogue that can be allocated completely freely to the undetermined number of cast members. Director Adrian Osmond cut through this potential tangle by having only one cast member visible on stage - Keith Macpherson. And even then the dialogue actually spoken by him is limited to a few lines near the very end. Instead a host of disembodied voices represent the hundreds of individuals who are affected by mental health issues or are involved in their treatment. The speakers were positioned so close to you that you were enveloped by the sound. I even had to double check that it was actually a recording and not someone standing over your shoulder.

Staged in the round you felt like a voyeur as the set is the studwork of a room which goes from completely minimalist to semi-furnished is some hugely impressive transitions performed again in complete blackness in which furniture and other items appear and disappear in very short periods of time. The technical team of Kirsty Mackay (Designer), Kenny MacLeod (Sound Designer) and Kai Fischer (Lighting Designer) have shown here how simple and well thought out design elements can elevate a production.

Although technically polished your full focus was on Macpherson's performance as he conveys a variety of emotions and frustrations in an incredibly vulnerable, physical and exposed performance. He becomes the physical representation of every one of the disparate voices you hear, whilst remaining an individual whose journey you follow to its end. It's a journey both in time, and through the progression of his mental illness. In an hour of theatre I don't think I've ever felt so exhausted simply watching. Osmond has produced an intense, and emotionally draining experience.

Sarah Kane's own personal experiences with the mental health system obviously influenced her writing, and her negative experiences of it as a patient are evident. However one of the most powerful parts for me was the disembodied voice of a young psychiatrist simply reading out the case notes of a patient she knew the system was failing.

A beautifully constructed production.

"Heer Ranjha (Retold)" - November 2008

2008-11-22T12:05:00.001Z

Ankur Productions have relocated a classic Punjabi folk tale to modern day Glasgow with a mix of Bollywood glamour, local patter and bags of style. Rather than a haphazard attempt to outline the tale, I think I'm safe enough in saying that it's a typical girl-meets-boy, family-don't-approve type scenario with added religious complications.

Despite impressive performances from Nalini Chetty as socialite Heer and Taqi Nazeer as the troubled Ranjha I found it difficult to buy into the early stages of the relationship, but once they are a couple I became suitably convinced. Indeed, the production is full of terrific performances with Amerjit Deu and Michael D'Cruze as Heer's father and uncle being highlights.

Shan Khan's script has plenty of humour but also addresses some of the issues facing Glasgow's increasingly multicultural young people and the generational divide found all communities. He and the cast also manage to create peripheral characters that ring true to the extent that you actually feel they exist outwith their contribution to Heer & Ranjha's tale.

The movement set pieces are incredibly well put together - the 'dust up' kitchen scene is quite a spectacle, Heer & Ranjha's 'dance' against the wall is stunningly beautiful, and the large scale dance sequences are impressive (helped by some wonderful costumes and music).

But there are problems with the production, some significant. While it didn't feel over long, it often felt slow - in part due to scene changes where any sense of urgency seemed entirely lacking but there also just seemed to be a general lack of tempo for the dialogue scenes. And while there's plenty of energy and passion displayed on stage it never seemed to break down the barriers and infect the audience to the extent that feet were tapping or heads nodding. That's partly due to the extensive width and depth of the stage area at the Tramway which combined with the rather sparse set results in a clinical feeling and keeps the audience one removed from the characters. I'm not sure how flexible the space at the Tramway is but if they could have staged this in-the-round I think it would have drawn the audience in to a much greater extent.

The production doesn't quite reach the heights it has the potential to, but it's certainly an entertaining piece of theatre with some magical moments. And unlike the similar tale of 'Romeo & Juliet' it didn't have me thinking 'Oh, get on with it and die already...'

Heer Ranjha (retold) runs at the Tramway until Sat 29th November
Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission

"Under My Skin" - November 2008

2008-11-18T20:00:00.007Z

My visits to Oran Mor's "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" Autumn season haven't been as frequent as I would have liked, but of all the short blurbs they provide about the shows this was the one that had most grabbed my attention back in September - so I wasn't going to miss it. Written by Ali Muriel this co-production between Oran Mor and Paines Plough is set in a Glasgow morgue where a young medic is about to perform an illegal autopsy under duress - as a police officer with a vested interest looks on.

I can't remember the last time I was so simultaneously impressed and disappointed by a play. One one hand the scenes between the policeman and the rather animated corpse are brilliantly written and performed by John Kazek and Gabriel Quigley - producing some powerful moments and a surprisingly beautiful final scene. But the scenes between Kazek's Inspector and Martin McCormick's medic were a real let down for me, and I don't feel the acting was at fault. They appear to be written and directed to be played for laughs, but it's so over the top that it diminishes the impact of the scenes with Quigley's Shona. Had the bullied young medic character been replaced with an older doctor willingly helping out the Inspector as a favour then I think this might have been one of the most moving pieces I've seen this year. As it stands it's too uneven in tone to deliver the substantial blow to the gut that it has the potential to do.

I'm also not really convinced by the use of the 'haunting' music, but Muriel certainly deserves to be praised for giving an impressively accurate account of the forensic investigation of death by hanging, yet making the procedures sufficiently accessible for the audience to follow.

For those like me with a low tolerance for heavy handed humour the whole may prove unsatisfactory, but its moments of brilliance may haunt the memory of those who see it.

Under My Skin runs at Oran Mor until Saturday 25th November
Image by Leslie Black used with permission

"The Dogstone" / "Nasty, Brutish & Short" - November 2008

2008-11-16T17:17:00.002Z

The second event in the National Theatre of Scotland's 'Debuts' season at the Traverse is a double bill of new plays directed by Dominic Hill. There's nothing like a fun night out at the theatre... and this is certainly nothing like a fun night out at the theatre...

Kenny Lindsay's "The Dogstone" is a two hander told in flashback comprising scenes that take place over a period of years between alcoholic father Danskin (Andy Gray) and his son Lorn (Scott Fletcher). Known for his comic performances, Gray may be seen as a surprise choice for the role, but after seeing glimpses of it in previous performances we've been very keen to see him in a darker role - and it was worth the wait. He's entirely convincing in the many elements of the character - doting father, unpleasant dunk and pathetic human being. And while Fletcher may be a newcomer to most, his assured performance came as no surprise to us having highlighted his potential in his student performances of 'Teechers' and 'The Shewing Up of Blanco Posnet' in recent years. But I don't think even we expected to see him in such a commanding role on the Traverse main stage quite so soon. Yet he appears to be absolutely in his element here portraying the character between the ages of 8 and 17 and is impressively engaging when addressing the audience directly as the older Lorn.

However, despite the strong performances I'm not entirely convinced by the play. It just lacks a reason to exist - it's simply too bleak to offer much entertainment and offers little in the way of wider message. I'd be perfectly happy to read it in a collection of short stories but attending the theatre requires more effort on my part, and the reward here simply isn't enough - even as part of a double bill.

Which brings us to "Nasty, Brutish and Short" by Andy Duffy centering on troubled teenage couple Luke and Mary Jane (James Young & Ashley Smith) and Luke's older brother Jim (Martin Docherty). Like "The Dogstone" while the cast do well in bringing its intensity to life it's just not got a great deal to say for itself and seems to want to be unpleasant for the sake of being unpleasant. And it's hampered by a soundscape that's more irritating than anything else and a completely pointless and distracting set that leaves the cast performing in three inches of water. There are also a number of references that seemed so incongruous to the characters that I found myself frowning at them as I watched (Liberace, Schrodinger & Rod Stewart). Sadly there's just nothing here that you can't get from reading the papers or watching the news.

The Dogstone / Nasty, Brutish and Short have now completed their runs.
Image by Pete Dibdin used with permission.

"The Tobacco Merchant's Lawyer" - November 2008

2008-11-13T22:35:00.007Z

Having missed this earlier in the year when it premiered at Oran Mor we were pleased to see it picked up by Retrograde for a short run at the Tron. Set in Glasgow's Merchant City in 1780, as told by the titular character Enoch Dalmellington, the tale takes place literally yards from the theatre - which adds something a little special to the piece.

Benny Young takes over the role in the revival of this one man show, and having enjoyed his performances recently in 'The Drawer Boy' and 'Six Acts of Love' we had high hopes for the evening. But while Young's characterisation as he inhabits the many participants in his tale is excellent, I'm afraid there were just too many stumbled lines to overlook - even for a first night performance (although not a Preview). Add in an unfortunate, but deftly handled, on-stage spillage and Mr Young was not having a good night - and his appearance at the curtain call suggested he had enjoyed the evening much less than the audience had. For despite its flaws this remained an enjoyable evening that was well received in the packed auditorium.

Ian Heggie's play is an amusing but slight piece of theatre that benefits from pushing the buttons of the local audience - much like watching 'Taggart' to spot the filming locations. And I have mixed feelings about one of the play's devices - the pronouncements of the local fortune teller on what lies in store for Glasgow of the future (our present). On one hand it's certainly effective at generating the laughs but it's just too easy - the scriptwriter's equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel, and seems distinctly tagged on to the main plot. Although quite how these elements will go down when the show plays at Edinburgh's Traverse in December I'm not at all sure.

The other problem I have with the play is seemingly trivial but hugely significant - the name given to the Dalmellington's daughter who causes him so much fretting. Early on in the piece the character's deadpan delivery and morose disposition will evoke memories to those of a certain age of the late great Rikki Fulton's 'Reverend I M Jolly'. Naming the daughter 'Euphemia' (Jolly's wife's name) makes the comparisons inevitable, and while they can be sustained for a few minutes, over the course of an hour it can only compare unfavourably.

An entertaining enough evening but not one that will be featuring in our end of year highlights.

The Tobacco Merchant's Lawyer runs at the Tron until Saturday 15th November and at the Traverse from 11th to 13th December.

"Midsummer [A Play With Songs]" - November 2008

2008-11-10T00:15:00.004Z

Traverse Theatre Company's "Midsummer [A Play With Songs]" is not a musical, let's get that out of the way right at the beginning. It's not. No I'm actually not being facetious. It does what it says on the tin; it's 'a play with songs'. David Greig and Gordon McIntyre have meshed together theatre with music in an almost cinematic way - the music forms part of the soundtrack of the story. It's not just an incidental but integral part of it but without the full on inate ridiculousness of a song and dance extravaganza.

A story of a chance encounter between Helena (Cora Bissett) and Bob (Matthew Pidgeon), and the resulting weekend spanning Midsummer 2008 in Edinburgh (although possibly an Edinburgh in a parallel universe as 24th June is a Saturday, not a Tuesday, in this one). Chock full of references to the city that is its setting we Weegies probably only got half of, however at no point did we feel like we were sitting in the middle of a private joke.

The story of Helen and Bob, and the characters that weave in and out of their weekend is filled with joy, absurdity and heartache. The fourth wall doesn't so much as come down, but is non-existant from the start as the audience becomes confidante to both characters. The interaction between those on stage and those watching is as important as what is happening to the two protaganists. With some lovely set pieces you're drawn into the tale that's unfolding in front of you. An ingenious set designed by Georgia McGuiness completes this visual feast. The devil is in the detail, with a programme that's supplied with a random vinyl record (ours was Don't Make My Brown Eyes Blue by Crystal Gayle), a code to download a couple of the songs from the show and a link to Medium Bob's Flikr Photostream. The only thing missing was one of Traverse's ubiquitous script books.

In an hour and 45 minutes Bissett and Pidgeon produce two excellent performances in demanding roles that require a huge amount of physical acting and the ability to sing and play guitar. Their performances and a clever script charm you into liking two people who with all their flaws you really shouldn't. I came out grinning, and will look back on the show with a warm glow similar to what "Venus As A Boy", "Molly Sweeney" and"Amada" have left.

Photo by Douglas Robertson. Used with permission.

"Zero" - November 2008

2008-11-09T22:50:00.002Z

Theatre Absolute & Warwick Arts Centre have come together to bring "Zero" by Chris O'Connell to the Citizens Circle Studio. Set in 2028 it takes place in Camp Zero - a detention centre for the interrogation of 'The Others' - perceived threats to the Global Economic Alliance. While the play does ask us to consider the ethical implications of torture, its real core is the impact that witnessing it has on camp translator Alex.

O'Connell's decision to move the setting on from the present day is a clever one. There is nothing here that could be called futuristic and the issues are very much of the present. But he enables us to jettison the baggage of our current conflicts and the simplicity of the fictional conflict provides little distraction.

As Alex, Stephen Hudson delivers a phenomenal performance as we see him deteriorate from someone very much in control to a man on the brink. Not an uncommon event in theatre, but what makes his performance so extraordinary is that O'Connell's script and Matt Aston's direction calls for scenes in different timeframes to be quickly intercut. Daniel Hoffman-Gill as army grunt Tom also handles the demands of the script well, although the character's journey is perhaps not so far as Alex's. It's largely the relationship between these two characters and the performances of the two actors that make the play work so well.

O'Connell's use of language is impressive including powerful moments when detainees are read their non-rights. There are also a number of effective set piece moments in here - particularly the DVD messages home and the impressively portrayed scenes where Demissie (Damian Lynch) is interrogated. But there are other aspects that didn't quite work for me such as the relationship between interrogator Helen and the commander (despite good performances from Kate Ambler & Adeel Akhtar).

As an 'issue' play it doesn't attempt to offer any answers, or even ask any new questions, but as a character study this is a forceful piece of theatre.

Zero has finished it's run at the Citz but moves on to the Tristan Bates Theatre in London from 11th to 29th November
Image by Andrew Moore used with permission

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" - November 2008

2008-11-03T23:25:00.000Z

The National Theatre of Scotland and Catherine Wheels have come together to produce Ray Bradbury's adaptation of his own novel, and with some very strong press reviews and an audience response at the curtain call to match, you'd expect to be reading a very positive post from us. I certainly expected to be writing one. But I'm genuinely sorry to report that this left us cold.

We had significant difficulties engaging with the show. It's. Just. So. Dreadfully. Slow. Elements which take up a good deal of stage time (such as the Lightning Rod Salesman and Most Beautiful Woman in the World) may be significant in the novel but here the pay-offs simply don't justify the time spent on them. Yet, unless I blinked and missed it the fate of Will's mother was never resolved but the boys seem to run happily home without further thought.

The other major difficulty is caused by the 'oversize' casting of the two young characters of Jim & Will (Patrick Mulvey & Michael Gray). By going with performers so far beyond the (almost) 14 years of the characters, combined with the wholesome fifties dialogue it's difficult not to find oneself thinking in terms of the Comic Strip's "Five Go Mad in Dorset". It just made it too hard to suspend disbelief in a coming-of-age story.

Further flaws include the failure to even attempt to reduce the visibility of the harness for the admittedly impressive aerial work by Jennifer Paterson; having the equally impressive Jonothan Campbell acting as counterbalance in full view of the audience at the side of the set (fascinating but hugely distracting); a closing song that seems dreadfully out of place; and live musicians that may as well have been recorded.

To be fair it did a very impressive job of keeping the attention of the large number of young people in the audience. Waldorf feels we needed to channel our inner child and then perhaps it would have worked better for us, but I'm not convinced. However, there are elements that worked - even for us. Andrew Clark gives a suitably Dark and dangerous performance while Graham Kent impresses as Will's father, as does Antony Eden as Cooger. The video/projection elements are wonderfully done and the carousel and mirror maze scenes are striking.

But, what do we know... the closest feeling I have had to seeing this show was our disappointment at "Peer Gynt" - which went on to win numerous awards.

Something Wicked This Way Comes has now completed its run.
Image by Douglas McBride used with permission.

"4.48 Psychosis" - October 2008

2008-10-31T22:37:00.003Z

SweetScar in conjunction with Tramway and Cumbernauld Theatre have produced a very strong and challenging production of "4.48 Psychosis". The play tackles mental illness and suicide from the inside - the playwright, Sarah Kane, having had a very tragic and unsuccessful battle with depression.

With that in mind you're not going to have an enjoyable night at the theatre. However I doubt you'll see a more thought-provoking, or technically accomplished piece this year.

Normally we'd write a fuller review of this, but we feel that there is little we would be able to say without spoiling it too much. Part of the power of this production is the voyage into the unknown. So rather than compromise that we're going to hold off on posting our thoughts until after its run completes. If you've reached here by Googling for reviews for it before booking tickets - stop looking, just go.

We do strongly recommend it - and if you go you'll see why we wanted to keep you in the dark.

4.48 Psychosis completes is run at Cumbernauld Theatre on 1st November before moving to Tramway from 6 - 15 November

Fuller thoughts now published.

"Like the Rain" - October 2008

2008-10-29T23:09:00.000Z

This grouping of three short plays by Tennessee Williams is being performed in the Tron's studio space as a companion piece to his "Suddenly Last Summer" which is playing in the main house. Rather cleverly it isn't on at the same time and instead follows on after the main show finishes using the same cast (with a nice ticket offer for those booking for both shows). It's a great concept which allows audiences to choose how long they wish to make their evening and it's something I'd certainly like to see more of.

"Hello from Bertha" is an effective little piece of theatre where we witness the final days of ailing prostitute Bertha (Muireann Kelly) as she is 'looked after' by Goldie (Jill Riddiford) who is balancing doing what's best for Bertha with the need to move her on from the brothel if she can no longer bring in an income. While the performances are strong the play simply isn't hard hitting enough to land more than a glancing blow on the audience.

On the other hand, "This Property is Condemned" pulls no punches in it's tale of a young girl literally on the wrong side of the tracks. Clare Yuille's portrayal of Willie is amusing and distressing in equal measures as we learn how she has inherited the interest of the many men who had previously enjoyed the company of her older sister. As she plays childishly on the rails in a dirty party dress, wearing costume jewellery and carrying her doll, the contrast with her tales of her admirers makes for devastatingly uncomfortable viewing.

Sadly, "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen" concludes the evening on a rather unsatisfying note. Ross Stenhouse and Anita Vettesse give perfectly fine performances but the text seems thoroughly self indulgent and verges more towards poetry than anything dramatic or theatrical. It's also hampered by coming at a point where the seating is reaching the limits of remaining comfortable. If this had been dropped in favour of "A Perfect Analysis by a Parrot" which was performed as a curtain raiser to "Suddenly Last Summer" it would have finished off "Like the Rain" perfectly (although I guess they would have had to rename the collection!)

Steven Bain's soundscape and Malcolm Rogan's lighting design add brilliantly to Kirsty McCabe's design and Andy Arnold's direction. Despite the three distinct elements it does feel very much as one production, and while some parts are stronger than others, the whole is a definite success.

"Like The Rain" is part of Glasgay! and runs at the Tron until Saturday 8th November.

"Suddenly Last Summer" - October 2008

2008-10-29T23:06:00.003Z

Perhaps this wasn't the significant piece of social drama I was expecting from a Tennessee Williams play but anything it lacks in depth it makes up for in character. And the Tron Theatre Company's production has brought it to life in lavish fashion with two central performances that are electric.

The focus of the play is an informal family inquest into the death of Sebastian Venable, as his mother gets an account from his cousin Catharine who was present during his final days. However it quickly becomes clear that Mrs Venable doesn't want to hear what Catharine has to say.

As Sebastian's mother, Morag Stark gives a wonderfully vicious performance as the Matriarch left holding the family pursestrings (although her swipes with the cane need to be delivered with a great deal more conviction). Clare Yuille is equally impressive as Catharine giving her a balance of strength and vulnerability. In truth, there's little for the rest of the cast to work with but what there is, is done well.

Jessica Brettle's garden set is a wonder and is beautifully lit by Malcolm Rogan, but Steven Bain's soundscape was a little too prominent and proved rather distracting to me at times - although Waldorf thought it nicely atmospheric. The performances make for an entertaining production but the play's grotesque reveal is perhaps a little too "Tales of the Unexpected" and acts as a deterrent to giving the play much further consideration.

A nice touch was the inclusion as a curtain raiser of another short piece by Williams - "A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot" - which featured delightful performances by Muireann Kelly & Anita Vettesse. And the cast of the main show can also be seen in "Like the Rain" - three short Williams' plays staged in the Tron's studio theatre immediately following performances of "Suddenly Last Summer".

"Suddenly Last Summer" is part of Glasgay! and runs at the Tron until Saturday 8th November.
Image by Richard Campbell used with permission.

"Locked In" - October 2008

2008-10-25T21:53:00.006+01:00

We'd enjoyed playwright Fin Kennedy's work with Mulberry School for Girls at the Edinburgh Fringe, so when we saw that Half Moon were touring widely in Scotland with "Locked In" we had to book up. Even though the tagline of "a hip hop drama" might have made us more reluctant if we hadn't been familiar with Fin's other work.

Set almost entirely in their pirate radio station 'studio' on top of a tower block friends, DJ Riqi (Lee Hardy) and MC Blaze (Ashley J) broadcast to the nation (well, East London anyway). Their different backgrounds, cultures and religions initially seem to cause few problems to them, but we become aware of increasing pressures from outside as their own 'clicks' frown upon it. The addition of Zahida (Ambur Khan) to the mix is the catalyst that causes the cracks to surface.

By delivering a lot of the play in hip hop rhymes we learn a lot about all three characters very quickly and revealing as they verbally spar. Although it's not a music style that I particularly like, it's so effectively used to tell the story you find yourself caught up in it. It certainly doesn't prevent the story from being accessible, even to those who are perhaps a little older than it's main target audience. Close your eyes, take away the back beat and have the characters speak in Elizabethan English instead and you wouldn't bat an eyelid.

All three actors bring energy to their roles; delivering the sometimes complex lyrics/lines with both humour and attitude accompanied by an infectious soundscape. Half Moon have produced a very technically polished play, with everything hitting the mark. Even to replacing the traditional paper programme with a CD that includes the music that was the back beat to the performances.

An effectively told simple tale of the pressures that surround young people, especially in the inner cities. Highly topical given a summer news cycle that's been dominated with stories of gun and knife crime - particularly in London. Unfortunately the audience at Cumbernauld Theatre was dissapointingly small on a very wet and wild Saturday night, but it was certainly well received by those who had ventured out. It does deserve a larger audience, and hopefully will receive it as it continues it tour.

A highly enjoyable evening which rounded off a successful week of theatre-going.

"Locked In" continues its tour in Scotland - visiting Paisley, Glasgow, St Andrews, Stirling and Galloway before returning to England.

Photo by Patrick Baldwin. Used with permission.

"Cockroach" - October 2008

2008-10-25T12:48:00.001+01:00

For the first of the National Theatre of Scotland's short "Debuts" series of plays by new writers, Sam Holcroft has written an impressive piece of theatre - for the first three quarters at least. It's full of energy, humour and has a depth to it, but towards the end it suddenly decides it needs a more dramatic conclusion. Sometimes more is definitely less.

Set in a world of after school detentions the audience will be quickly taken back to the world of John Hughes' bratpack films of the 80's. And it's a comfortable place to be, both for audience and writer. The classroom antics ring true and the characters are quickly filled out to the extent that we're interested in the dynamics between them - although I'm not sure it extended to actually caring as much as it possibly needed to.

Slowly we realise that outside the classroom the country is in the grip of war and we watch as it gradually impacts on our characters. The biology revision sessions work well as the central framing device on which a lot of the play's focus hangs, thanks in part to an excellent performance by Meg Fraser as the teacher. The young cast all do well in portraying the frustrations and impulsiveness of teenagers with Ryan Fletcher's Davey and Helen Mallon's Leah particularly impressive.

Vicky Featherstone's direction is at times stunning - particularly the initial confusion as we enter the transformed Traverse 1. Incredibly she manages to make the 'open walled' classroom feel claustrophobic and oppressive at times, really adding to the tensions, while also allowing us to depart the room entirely for a wonderfully imagined scene between Mallon and Frances Ashman's Mmoma. The pacing works well and it held my attention throughout - although as a whole it felt longer than its 1 hour 50 minutes, and comfort-wise it would have benefited from an interval.

The issues and questions raised by the piece are intelligent ones and I felt it a shame that Holcroft wasn't quite brave enough to let them stand on their own. There's a point in the play about 90 minutes in where we have a speech about it being "a weak man's war" and this seemed a very natural place to end but instead we have a final 20 minutes of melodrama that adds little. And I'd have liked to see a little attention paid to what we have lost in previous wars - genetically and culturally.

But this was never short of entertaining and a great start to the "Debuts" season - the others now have a good deal to live up to.

Cockroach runs at the Traverse until Saturday 1st November.