Theatre preview: Macbeth @ Tron Theatre, Glasgow

Published by Metro

29 November, 1.30pm & 8.30pm, £4,
Tron Theatre, Glasgow.
www.tron.co.uk

After Alan Cumming's one-man Macbeth bedazzled audiences at Tramway back in June, you might have expected to be waiting donkey's years for another intriguing spin on this classic tale.

But low and behold, Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' — which delves into themes of ambition, desire and the supernatural — is getting another modern makeover for one night only at Tron Theatre.

The dramatist's shortest and bloodiest tragedy is given a shorter and boozier adaptation by director Liz Carruthers, and stars Daibhidh Walker as a man who's stumbled into the Merchant City venue's bar after arriving on the mainland via ferry from South Uist.

As the wanderer captures our imaginations with tales of power, obsession and treachery involving the great and the good of Gaelic Scotland, we try to work out whether he's been driven mad by the demands of the woman he loves, or just drunk.

Commissioned by Glasgow Life as part of its Gaelic Drama Development programme, Macbeth features extracts in Gaelic courtesy of Ian MacDonald's translation.

And, at only £4, it shouldn't make a dent in even the tightest of Christmas shoppers' budgets.

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre review: Beryl @ West Yorkshire Playhouse

Published by The Arts Desk

Wife. Mother. Yorkshirewoman. Cyclist. Legend. Beryl Burton was perhaps the greatest sportswoman this country has ever produced, and we ought to be ashamed of the fact that many of us will have to Google her to find out what her achievements were.

Born in Leeds in 1937, she dominated women’s cycling in the 1950s, '60s and '70s – becoming five times world pursuit champion, 12 times national champion, and best British all-rounder for 25 consecutive years. She won nearly 100 domestic titles, and her 12-hour distance record – of a staggering 277.25 miles – has never been broken. While setting it, she caught up with Mike McNamara, who was hoping to smash the men’s record, and offered him a consolatory liquorice allsort as she whooshed past. (Apparently he was grateful.)

To manage such sporting success these days requires a lifestyle governed by trainers, nutritionists, sponsors, and maybe even PR people – but there was none of that for our Beryl. No, she funded herself by working on a rhubarb farm, wolfed down baby bottles full of homemade rice pudding during races, and led a very modest existence with her husband Charlie and their daughter Denise in Morley, West Yorkshire.

There was no financial backing for British cyclists in her day, when many of the country’s top competitors were struggling unknowns. However, Beryl was a star on the continent, where the public had greater enthusiasm for the sport – particularly in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The fact that the odds were stacked against Beryl from an early age made her international success all the more remarkable. In her childhood, she suffered a bout of rheumatic fever that left her with a weak heart, and doctors strongly discouraged strenuous activity. But she took no notice, determined to prove them – and her cynical schoolteachers – wrong.

“I’m going to make my mark!” says Beryl, in Maxine Peake’s debut stage play, adapted from her short piece that was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2012, and commissioned to tie in with the (incidentally all-male) Tour de France. “Doing what?” asks Charlie.

“I dunno, I'll find something!” says Beryl.

It’s a wonder Hollywood bothers writing feel-good sporting dross like Dodgeball  when it could just Americanise the hell out of this. Thankfully, Rebecca Gatward’s production tells the story of this incredible woman’s life with impressive accuracy and respect.

With a cast of only four actors, each adopting multiple roles, the play conveys the camaraderie and selflessness of the cycling community that helped lead Beryl (played by Penny Layden, pictured above) to her many triumphs – in the face of such prejudice, hardship and indifference. There’s also a good measure of dry Yorkshire wit throughout, and the brilliant Dominic Gately – who plays about seven different parts – is responsible for most of it.

Peake’s script follows Beryl until her last breath, when she died suddenly from heart failure while out delivering invitations to her 60th birthday party in Morley – of course, on a saddle. As her bike’s rotating rear wheel rattles to a stop, even those of us who have never previously worn lycra are moved to tears.

And then, as her mountains of medals, cups and trophies glimmer majestically under the stage lights and the audience stands and applauds one of our true sporting heroines, we are left wondering to ourselves: what are you going to do with your  life, exactly?

★★★★

Beryl  is at the West Yorkshire Playhouse until 25 July

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Theatre review: Blithe Spirit @ York Theatre Royal

Published by The Arts Desk

Some people say that, in the age of theatrical consultants, narrative deconstruction, and the so-called "multimedia performance", conventional theatre no longer cuts the mustard. But there are still those large swathes of any audience who love a smooth journey between a beginning, a middle, and an end. Who shuffle politely past others towards their seats, look expectantly towards the stage curtain, and know exactly what's coming. And then go home smiling rather than thinking afterwards.

Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit  is unapologetically a play for that public. It was mainstream before the word existed, becoming among the most successful shows that the West End and Broadway had ever seen when it was first produced in the 1940s. Even today, it is rarely far from view, as a concurrent West End production starring Angela Lansbury makes clear. In many ways the definition of the classic British farce, it features men sharing dry martinis and protracted anecdotes with women in ballgowns as they converge upon a comfortable Kent home populated by swells.

The story begins when novelist Charles Condomine (Andrew Hall) invites clairvoyant Madame Arcati (Nichola McAuliffe) to conduct a séance in his home, in a bid to gather material for his next book. Charles's idea backfires when the ghost of his first wife, Elvira (Amy Rockson), turns up and repeatedly attempts to disrupt his marriage to second wife Ruth (Caroline Harker), who cannot see or hear her. For the next two-and-a-half hours, key ingredients of the traditional British mad house - folly, clumsiness, accusations, stiff upper lips, and of course abundantly crossed wires - take shape alongside the plot's twists and turns.

One quirky element of the York Theatre Royal production, directed by Damian Cruden, is the use of a voiceover (by Blair Plant, who also plays Dr Bradman) to introduce each scene with Coward's stage directions. Yet for all the invention behind this witty touch, which the Master would surely himself have admired, the show somehow fails to produce the audience laughter it probably should. Granted, most things that may once have provoked uncontrollable fits of the giggles among the wartime public only get sporadic chuckles today. Still, more could have been made of the script's persistent humour.

That said, much of Coward's wisdom continues to pack a punch - "how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit?" being one particular gem that I'll be keeping between my ears for a while. And the cast are terrific, notably Rockson, who manages to be convincingly tormenting, flattering and insecure as the high-maintenance apparition that is Elvira. McAuliffe's Arcati as expected steals the show with her bombastic demeanour and bizarre rituals.

The time-honored British farce may never be the future of British theatre, and there's perhaps not much more juice to squeeze out of this 70-year-old play. But like a true classic, Blithe Spirit  will rarely disappoint its audience. There are plenty of warm smiles as we are led out the theatre's exit and I find myself making a mental note of a play that is of its time - that phrase "of its time" very much underscored in my head.

★★★

Blithe Spirit continues until 31 May

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Theatre review: Under Milk Wood @ York Theatre Royal

Published by The Arts Desk

A spiralling stage, horned with two raised prongs. A circular display, mounted on the back wall, which presents the buildings and coastline of a seaside town from a bird’s eye view. Subtle blues, yellows and reds that light up the stage to reflect the time of day. Spirited actors buzzing around like heated molecules in an educational science video as they each take on several roles.

If Under Milk Wood was exclusively “a play for voices”, as its author Dylan Thomas suggested, then such visual aspects of the classic Welsh tale would never have come into being. But here they are at York Theatre Royal, where Terry Hands’ stage production continues its major tour of the UK and the US. With stars including Game of Thrones regular Owen Teale and Torchwood’s Kai Owen, Theatr Clwyd Cymru's energetic revival of the play directed by Terry Hands marks the 60th year since it made its debut on BBC radio, and the centenary of Thomas’s birth.

Under Milk Wood was reportedly the Welsh poet’s attempt to create his own version of James Joyce’s Ulysses – taking in 24 hours in the lives of the residents of fictional Llareggub (read backwards for a smirk). Among the town’s more flamboyant characters are Blind Captain Cat, who dreams of dead former shipmates, Mog Edwards and his sweetheart Miss Price, whose romance only exists in the letters they write, barman Sinbad Sailor, who runs the bonkers Sailors Arms pub, bigamist baker Dai Bread, forever floor-scrubbing Polly Garter, Nogood Boyo, whose shenanigans cause mayhem in the wash house, and Lily Smalls, who longs for a more exciting life.

While the play is rich with anecdotal incidents, it lacks actual drama, and yet, as an inherently lyrical work, the action lies within the language itself. From when Teale’s First Voice says: “Listen! It is night. Come closer. Hear their dreams…” we are hooked from sunrise to sunset. Every line is delivered note-perfect, every word charged, every syllable treasured, every sound cherished to the last phoneme. Caryl Morgan’s spine-tinglingly evocative recital of an old woman’s dream about the Garden of Eden, and Richard Elfyn’s continuously impressive vocal range, make them highlights of a superb cast that carries no weak links.

Sometimes risqué, all times charming and cheerful, this relatively short piece moves quickly as Llareggub’s larger-than-life gaggle go about their existences – and we audience members wear warm smiles throughout as we become endeared to a simple way of life we can’t quite recall. It all ends just as it started, with each character encased in heavy sleep.

So then it’s our time to go, and leave through the theatre’s exit, emerge onto the lit street, and somehow try to relate what we’ve seen to our own lives. It’s not that difficult, I realise, as a friend bumps into me on my route home and suggests a drink in our local. It’s not quite the Sailors Arms, but it’ll do.

★★★★

Under Milk Wood is touring until 12 July

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Theatre review: Brassed Off @ York Theatre Royal

Published by theartsdesk

VIDEO: Brassed Off trailer




Only a particularly hard heart would fail to be moved by the sheer scale of community fragmentation around the time of the Miners' Strike – for many, the single most devastating period in the north of England's social history. But maybe, just maybe, this Brassed Off  play is not quite as stirring as it should be.

Adapted by Paul Allen from the classic 1996 film, the story about a colliery and its brass band has been revived at York Theatre Royal to mark the strike's 30th anniversary year. Pulling the strings is Damian Cruden, an award-winning director of such vision and skill that his involvement in something even slightly by-the-numbers is kind of surprising.

The production retains all of the film's best lines and makes much of its rugged humour – and that's just as well, because Mark Herman's original screenplay largely spoke for itself. A theatrical spectacle, though, this unfortunately is not. Too often does the emotion feel lukewarm, the scenes one-dimensional, and the plot rushed. This is particularly evident when conductor Danny (John McArdle) steps up to deliver an acceptance speech when his brass band of brothers triumphs at the national championships, soon after losing their jobs at the mine.

"I thought music mattered. But does it? Bollocks! Not compared to how people matter," is such a powerful and definitive line, and everyone in this audience knows it. After all, we sit a mere 40-odd miles away from the former mining village of Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, on which the fictional Grimley and its colliery band are based. We’re huge Brassed Off fans. However, McArdle's stoic delivery spoils it, compromising an otherwise solid performance by the former Brookside actor, and highlighting exactly how much of a difficult act to follow the late, great Pete Postlethwaite remains.

That said, there are some redeeming qualities in the rest of the cast. More remarkable are Clara Darcy's Gloria, James Robinson's Andy, Rebecca Clay's Sandra and Andrew Roberts-Palmer's Harry, while the dark horse of the show is Luke Adamson, whose role as Phil’s young son Shane – a fun-loving boy slowly grasping what is happening to his family’s livelihood in Grimley – is a key difference between play and film. Adamson featured prominently in last year's First World War outdoor epic Blood + Chocolate, and has the part of 'the honest lad' down to a tee.

Also noteworthy is Dawn Allsopp's evocative set design, and the large ensemble of local musicians, whose renditions of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and other numbers are very strong – however undermined by the pop music bridging each scene.

Brassed Off  will always bring the house down. There’s no doubt about that. Given its true-story against-all-odds struggle for the notion of community, it completely deserves to. And yet, despite having all the sadness, anger, despair, desperation, love, laughter and joy to play with, somehow this production lacks emotional punch.

★★★

Brassed Off continues until March 1

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Theatre review: Aladdin and the Twankeys @ York Theatre Royal

Published by theartsdesk

VIDEO: Aladdin and the Twankeys trailer



The best bit was the Wagon Wheels. Frisbeed, they were, towards the audience's outstretched arms and expectant faces, with the precision of a man who's been doing it for the past 35 years. With the assurance of a cult hero whose presence continues to dominate the York pantomime tradition.

They love Berwick Kaler here (seriously, how many local celebrities have much-admired ice sculptures of themselves in their city centre?) and the affection is mutual. "This isn't a pantomime, it's a family reunion!" declared the writer, co-director and indisputable star of Aladdin and the Twankeys, which is, remarkably, his fifth version of the classic tale, following 2005's The Lad Aladdin and previous productions in 1997, 1989 and 1981. As Britain's longest-serving pantomime dame had earlier quipped to a crowd member who claimed to have attended his shows for the past decade: "Oh, a newcomer, are you?"

Joining Kaler for this memorable festive knees-up were regular favourites Martin Barrass — who has spent much of 2013 appearing in the West End production of One Man, Two Guvnors — in the dual role of Wisehopper and Mankee, Suzy Cooper as Princess Peke-a-Boo, Sian Howard as the Empress of China, AJ Powell as the Genie of the Bling, Jonathan Race as the villainous Abanazer, and Canadian actor Alexander Braatz in the title role of Aladdin.

The two golden rules of pantomime — daftness and naffness — were impeccably observed, along with the cheeky puns and in-jokes that had our hands red-raw from all the clapping. There were, however, a few unexpected breaks with tradition. For starters, there was actually a plot, in which Abanazar seeks out China's oldest man to guide him to Aladdin, the Chosen One, whom he believes will lead him to untold riches - before discovering that Aladdin has an identical twin brother (who looks nothing like him), while the Genie of the Bling keeps knocking himself out and waking up thinking he's someone else. OK, a plot-ish.

Visually stunning costumes and surreal, anarchic sets were far, far too good, and several video montages of the cast's comical musical escapades around York made this certainly the first multimedia pantomime I'd ever seen. Plus, a camp-as-you-like cameo by Christopher Biggins — currently gracing Hull New Theatre's stage in Jack and the Beanstalk — simply cannot go without mention.

I suspect that if members of the audience were granted one wish, they wouldn't have changed a single aspect of this show. (In any case, I think I may have used mine to make myself invisible when Kaler began scouring the audience for a "volunteer".)

After one final sing-song, Kaler bidded his spirited followers farewell. "See you all next year!" he said, and they will — for this veteran entertainer's camaraderie with the cast, audience, venue and city adds an extra dimension to this seasonal treat of all seasonal treats. Across the country right now, homesick minor celebrities sit in dressing rooms, crossing dates off their performance calendars. Not here, not ever.

★★★★

Aladdin and the Twankeys continues until 1 February 2014

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre review: Blood and Chocolate @ York Theatre Royal (well, sort of)

Published by theartsdesk

VIDEO: Blood and Chocolate trailer



Never before has “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” been a more fitting opening gambit. This sprawling wartime spectacle knew few bounds as it marched across York’s cobbled streets for an evening that produced watery eyes, open mouths and, admittedly, tired legs.

Treading the ever-narrowing waters between theatre and cinema was a travelling audience that followed the action through the city centre while listening on headphones. From the starting point in Exhibition Square, where young lad George (played by Luke Adamson) and his sweetheart Maisie (Edith Kirkwood) were introduced in a flickering projection on the neo-classical De Grey Rooms building, to the stirring finish at Clifford’s Tower – every minute beggared belief.

This innovative collaboration between York Theatre Royal, Pilot Theatre and Slung Low builds on the concept of Mapping the City – a smaller-scale theatrical experiment that took place around Hull as part of the Cultural Olympiad – and of course last year’s remarkable outdoor Mystery Plays in the York Museum Gardens.

Blood and Chocolate’s cast of 180, boosted by the 600-odd volunteers, was what it took to make Anna Gooch’s mobile set as epic as Olivier Award-winner Mike Kenny’s script, which examines the First World War’s transformative effects on some of York’s residents.


“There’s nowt to worry about,” says George, as, preparing to join the front line in 1914, he tries to reassure his mother (Lisa Howard) about his safety. With the conflict looking like it will continue past Christmas, the Lord Mayor of York decides to send a tin of Rowntree’s chocolate to every serving soldier from the city. “It smells jus’ like ‘ome,” George giddily tells another Tommy, opening his tasty treat while bombs explode on distant battlefields.

Maisie, meanwhile, has found work in the chocolate factory, and waits for George to return home. And waits. But when he does, shell-shock prevents him from functioning in society. “I imagined myself taking care of his bairns on a weekend,” says George’s mother between teary gasps. “We’ll have to think of something else to do with the rest of our lives.”

Couples and families huddled closer in those final moments – and not entirely because it was 9.30pm on an October night. The past-present juxtaposition on the city-wide stage made this tale of human love, loss, strength and weakness in times of war particularly heart-wrenching.

It was touching just seeing these wartime friends, lovers and dreamers lining the same streets as their bemused real-life counterparts who, standing by at cashpoints and outside pubs, might easily have been part of the lost generation themselves. (Although, on the night, they might have been forgiven for confusing some of the actors for Freshers in fancy dress.)

The marketing buzzwords “theatrical experience” are a thousand miles from summing up the sheer impact of Blood and Chocolate, which, quite simply, needs to be seen to be believed.

5/5

Blood and Chocolate continues until 20 October.
All performances are now sold out.

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Edinburgh Festival | Theatre preview: Whatever Gets You Through the Night @ The Queens Hall

Published by METRO

Until 25 August, 7.30pm/10.30pm, £13.50-16.50, The Queen’s Hall (V72), Edinburgh.
Tel: 0131 668 2019. www.thequeenshall.net

VIDEO: Whatever Gets You Through The Night: Edinburgh Fringe 2013 (Trailer 3)



Worrying about the future. Reading books abysmally slowly. Subconsciously browsing the social profiles of people I never liked or barely knew at school. Dreaming about being in soap operas. Googling abstract nouns. Going to the bathroom every once in a while. Trust me – these days, what I get up to past my bedtime is about as uninteresting to you as sex is to pandas.

But there are other people with lives more remarkable than mine whose activities in the wee hours are the very focus of Whatever Gets You Through the Night – a multi-disciplinary live event taking place at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall this week.

Part of the 2013 Made in Scotland showcase, this inspired production incorporates music, theatre, cabaret and circus as it shines a spotlight on the country during its most vulnerable and revealing time – between midnight and 4am.

“We are really excited to be bringing Whatever Gets You Through The Night to the Fringe,” said writer and director Cora Bissett, who by the way is no stranger to festival success, having scooped every major award in 2010 with her sex-trafficking drama Roadkill.

She added: “It showcases the diversity and breadth of writing and songwriting talent across Scotland, as well as incredible acting, dancing and circus skills – all woven together into one big, gorgeous, complex, funny, touching tapestry.”

90 minutes is all it takes to portray the fantastic contrasts of this fair land in bedazzling fashion.

A heartfelt goodbye on the shores of Loch Lomond, a love affair between two people who’ve only met on Skype, a stoner going through a fit of paranoia, a man searching for a lover in the ‘palace of light’ and revellers getting their hands on treasured trays of chips and cheese are among the late-night tales told by a selection of lost souls, party animals and dreamers in this devilishly funny yet intensely moving spectacle.

“It's a show which is a huge sum of many parts, and reveals Scotland in its many different lights and characters,” said Bissett.

Featuring specially commissioned works by 'post-electro' trio Errors, theatre maker Kieran Hurley, writer Alan Bissett and many others, there are also live performances by the likes of vocalist Wounded Knee, beat-boxer Bigg Taj and alternative rockers Swimmer One.

Whatever Gets You Through the Night was a sell-out sensation when it ran at The Arches in Glasgow back in June, and it’s bound to become a highlight of what’s remaining of the Fringe (how quickly has this month gone?) before it goes on a nationwide tour.

Therefore, it’s your duty to catch this masterpiece while it’s on your doorstep.

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Edinburgh Festival | A Laughing Matter @ theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

Published by METRO

Until 10 August, 5pm (not 4 Aug),  £6 (£4.50 concessions), theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (V53), Edinburgh. Tel: 0131 510 2384. www.thespaceuk.com

I used to spend a lot of time considering what my deaf father isn’t able to do. He’ll never know what my voice sounds like, for instance, or how a Scottish accent differs from an English one. He’ll never hear birdsong float in through the kitchen window while his morning cuppa brews. He’ll never be moved to tears by a piece of music.

These days, I try to focus on what he enjoys to the full – and value the things we can do together. Thanks to Hush Theatre’s A Laughing Matter, this now includes going to the Edinburgh Festival.

“The nature of A Laughing Matter is a comic performance which delivers a near-comparable experience for the deaf and able-hearing,” said actor Lewis Gadsdon.

Taking place at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall until 10th August, the show explores the art of the comedy double act. Tickets start at just £4.50, for which you’ll be lucky to get two lattes in some parts of town this month.

“We use clowning techniques with a twist and squeeze of classic silent comedians such as Chaplin, Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy,” Gadsdon added.

“We’re intrigued to bring this production to the Fringe as we’ve genuinely never seen anything like it before. We can’t wait for the audience’s reactions and feedback.”

So it looks like me and my old man’s first Fringe experience together is just around the corner – will you be joining us?

———

Click here for more Comedy

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre preview: Dìreach Dathan Dealrach / Bright Colours Only / Dathanna Geala Amháin @ Tramway, Glasgow

Published by Metro

7-8 June 2013, 7.15pm, £6-£8, Tel: 0845 330 3501 www.tramway.org

Contrary to popular belief, not all of Scotland’s Gaelic speakers reside in the Highlands and the Western Isles. There's a community in Glasgow that is thriving beyond the bilingual name-boards at its subway and railway stations.

In February, it was announced that the city’s second Gaelic school was to open in the Pollokshields area as part of the Scottish Government’s five-year plan to revitalise the language. Now, just down the road at Tramway, one of the country’s most popular plays of the past decade is marking its tenth birthday with a unique translation into Scottish and Irish Gaelic.

Bright Colours Only is an interactive one-woman show that takes a darkly comic look at death. Set in a Belfast living room, it examines the wake ritual, as mourners are offered tea, sandwiches and whisky before attending a funeral procession.

Having began life at Tramway in 2003, this hilarious and heartfelt piece went on to tour the world from Northern Ireland to Brazil – memorably, in a hearse.

This anniversary production is performed in Gàidhlig and Gaeilge by Muireann Kelly – who last year won critical acclaim for her work in Tron Theatre’s production of Ulysses – and in English by writer, director and creator Pauline Goldsmith.

It's yet more evidence that Glasgow’s celebrated South Side venue simply doesn't do run-of-the-mill – only challenging, innovative, and ultimately unmissable.

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Festival preview: Outskirts @ Platform, Glasgow

Published by Metro

20 April 2013, 3.30pm - 10pm,
£7.50-£10 (w/ transport links),
£12.50-£15 (w/ transport links and food),
Tel: 0141 276 9696 www.platform-online.co.uk

If you thought the closest you’d ever get to the east of Glasgow was the Barras market, where you bought that cheap bike five years ago, then I’m afraid you’re mistaken.

Taking place at arts centre Platform in the city’s Easterhouse suburb is a mini-festival that is Outskirts in name, place and theme. The event, now in its second year, celebrates works that lie in-between the conventional artistic pigeon-holes of music, literature, theatre and visuals.

Among the highlights on the bill is Xana Marwick’s interactive piece You Suffer, But Why?, which – inspired by a 1.3-second song by death-metal group Napalm Death – offers audience members the chance to direct a 1.3-second film starring the artist herself.

“It’s all very playful and light-hearted, but I find it interesting how people engage with the set and props they're provided with on different levels,” said Marwick.

Then there’s Greg Sinclair’s Sonata for a Man and a Boy – the story of a cello lesson that becomes an adventure involving music, conversation and movement.

“My show fuses sound and physical theatre to create a hybrid art form, making it a perfect fit for Outskirts,” he said. “And I’m very proud to be staging it at Platform for the first time.”

Helping to make up an international presence at the festival is avant-garde composer and performer Jaap Blonk, whose appearance as fictional professor Dr Voxoid merges voice and live electronics.

The list goes on. Easterhouse will be radiating talent from home and abroad this Saturday, so you might not need to bring your hat and scarf with you – just an open mind.

———

Click here for more Dance

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre preview: Museum of Postmodern Art - Oblivia

Published by Metro

Wednesday 10 April, 7.45pm, £8-£10,
Tramway, Glasgow. Tel: 0845 330 3501.
www.tramway.org

VIDEO: A discussion about Museum of Postmodern Art




There’s a bit of a buzz over at Tramway. Apparently Postmodernism has had its day, and the next big thing will be unveiled at the Glasgow venue this evening.

For one night only, Finnish performance group Oblivia presents an intelligent, funny, and bold new production about, well, kind of everything.

The specific details are anyone’s guess. There may be audience participation, there may be dancing. Heck, there may be strobe lighting, multimedia displays, and bubbles. Free wine is unlikely.

What we do know is that Museum of Postmodern Art is precisely that – a fictitious exhibition, which serves as a vehicle for communicating profound observations on popular culture, asking a series of existential questions about humanity, and exploring the complex issues of past, present and future.

In spite of the question marks regarding the show’s content, we should probably trust Tramway’s judgement here. After all, the South Side venue is nationally renowned for staging challenging and purposeful works that will always be worth the subway ride (and a bit of a walk) from Glasgow’s city centre – or even Edinburgh's for that matter – to enjoy.

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Festival preview: Behaviour 2013 @ various venues, Glasgow

Published by Metro

3 Apr - 11 May 2013, various dates and times, Festival pass: £45/£35, Day pass: £18/£12,
Tel: 0141 565 1000 www.thearches.co.uk

Today is a great day. Not only is it World Party Day – positioned rather awkwardly in the middle of the working week – it’s the start of The Arches’ Behaviour festival.

Until 11th May, Behaviour’s programme of original live performance will see a rich variety of Scottish and international talent take the stage at The Arches, Tramway, and some unusual spaces around Glasgow – including, for Nic Green’s waste-themed piece Shadowlands, an operational landfill site.

Other highlights are #Torycore – an absolute must-see for anyone who’s ever wondered what George Osborne’s budget speech sounds like performed by a death metal band – and Kieran Hurley’s part-gathering, part-gig, part-play, Rantin.

At the heart of this year’s event is the Auteurs Project, in which five works-in-progress by the country’s most exciting artists are showcased as part of a new partnership with National Theatre of Scotland.

With festival passes from £35 and a few individual shows free of charge, this is the most affordable opportunity to feast your eyes on some of the world’s most innovative theatrical creations this side of the Fringe.

———

Click here for more Dance

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre preview: Do You Nomi? @ Tron Theatre, Glasgow

Published by Metro

20-21 February 2013, 7.45pm, £7-£12,
Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Tel: 0141 552 4267
www.tron.co.uk

Imagine a skinny Penguin from Batman, with vocal skills, in the weirdest dream you’ve ever had – and you’re still a million miles short of Klaus Nomi. The German performer was one of the most outrageous stars of New York’s avant-garde scene in the 1970s and 80s, when he became known for his operatic falsetto voice and synthesiser-heavy new wave music. Seriously, YouTube him.

In 1983, at the height of his fame, Nomi’s life was cut tragically short by the then-misunderstood AIDS virus. We lost a good one back then, but tonight we’re gaining a suitably lively theatrical tribute.

Do You Nomi? weaves a poignant narrative around dance and theatre in an emotionally driven journey into the life, mind and times of this enigmatic icon who hid behind a stage persona as the western world stood on the brink of change.

“It was in the Tron Theatre bar that myself and choreographer Alan Greig concocted the idea for the show,” said director and co-creator Grant Smeaton. “So we’re excited to bring it to Glasgow, and the Tron, where it all began.”

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre preview: In An Alien Landscape @ the Arches, Glasgow

Published by Metro

11−13 February 2013, 7pm, £6-£9,
the Arches, Glasgow. Tel: 0141 565 1000
www.thearches.co.uk

Tommy McHugh was a Liverpool builder who, following multiple brain haemorrhages, became a prolific artist – creating acclaimed works in a variety of media that continue to astound the medical and art worlds. He died last year.

This month, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company – in association with the Beacon – is touring a production based on Tommy’s inspiring life. In An Alien Landscape tells the story of Albie Quinn, an ordinary man whose own brush with death unleashes a torrent of creativity. Showing at the Arches for the next three nights, the play explores the continuous white noise rushing through Albie’s head as he feels compelled to paint after waking from a coma.

In An Alien Landscape is penned by Danny Start – an award-winning writer renowned for his work with charities supporting people with neurological conditions and his commitment to disability arts. Tuesday night’s performance is BSL-interpreted.

We’re all a little short on inspiration this time of year, so it’s your duty to catch this truly hilarious and uplifting piece of theatre while it’s on your doorstep.

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre preview: Into the New 2013 @ The Arches, Glasgow

Published by Metro

14-16 January, various times, Day passes £5-£7, The Arches, Glasgow. Tel: 0141 565 1000.
www.thearches.co.uk

VIDEO: Into the New 2013 — meet the performers



So you can graze on popcorn at a cinema, sip a latté as you shuffle around an art gallery, force down some pork scratchings before a sweaty pub rock band – but what about when watching a play? As the new year holds so much mystery for all of us, it seems that the big question of 2013 so far is this: who out there is making the theatre, tastier?

The Arches is on to something. For the next three days, audiences in the Glasgow venue’s café bar will be able to feast on a scrumptious three-course meal (for just £9.95) as they take in some exciting works by Contemporary Performance Practice students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly RSAMD).

This particular event, entitled Language at the Edge of Sense, is one of the charms of Into the New 2013 – a festival in which these emerging artists introduce their own pieces that challenge and explore the world through physical theatre, new writing and solo performances.

A woman who enjoys “girly” things starts to question her feministic principles (What a Fanny by Leyla Coll-O’Reilly), while two young explorers require the audience’s help to find what they’re searching for (Rosie Reid and Peter Lannon’s Lookout: The Expedition) in just two of the nine innovative shows staged here, as Scotland’s most thrilling theatrical minds express themselves in bedazzling fashion.

So come on, why not begin the year doing something original? With day passes from a fiver, this won’t bother even the most traumatised post-festive wallets.

———

Click here for more Theatre

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Twitter

Click here to follow clarkspeak on Facebook

Theatre review: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof @ West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

Published by theartsdesk

VIDEO: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof trailer



It’s not easy bringing the Mississippi delta to Leeds city centre – yet here its hanging moss and tea-coloured waters fill out every inch of the expansive Quarry theatre stage. Indeed, all that’s missing from Frances O’Connor’s remarkable set is a hungry alligator or two, though in the drama for which it provides a backdrop – Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about death, desire and deceit – the human characters are capable of inflicting quite enough damage on themselves.

The fragmentation of the cotton-rich Pollitt family is presented with brutal clarity, beginning with the fractured marriage of the attention-craving Maggie the Cat (Zoe Boyle) and her husband Brick (Jamie Parker), an injured ex-football player who’s taken to alcoholism following the death of his best friend Skipper.

Parker, fresh from starring as Henry V at the Globe, rises to the task of playing Brick. With each line of Southern-drawled melancholia, frustrated hobble towards the liquor cabinet, and reckless swill of bourbon from his tumbler, the deep-seated torment of this tragic individual is brilliantly captured by the Middlesbrough-born actor – and particularly impressive as his first major stab at the American repertoire.

Brick spends his days searching for the “click” that sends him into a drunken oblivion, where he is completely indifferent to his wife’s needs. Perhaps better known for her television credits – including Lavinia Swire in series two of Downton Abbey – Boyle’s Maggie commands the stage with more strop and swagger than you’d probably expect for this female lead.


As the ceiling fan above Brick and Maggie’s bed slowly revolves, it appears to embody the perfunctory nature of their relationship. “Living with someone you love can be lonelier than living entirely alone,” the frustrated Maggie is left to muse, a solitary saxophone melodising her situation, “if the one that you love doesn’t love you.”

Things aren’t – or rather, ain’t – more pleasant anywhere else in the Pollitt household. On the 65th birthday of Big Daddy (a perfectly cast Richard Cordery), the family gathers in Brick and Maggie’s bedroom to celebrate. However, unbeknown to the self-made patriarch or the adorably feeble Big Mama (Amanda Boxer), he’s dying of cancer, and his children and their partners are privately concerned with securing their share of his 28,000-acre plantation.

The pervading “mendacity”, involving not only Brick and Maggie, but Brick’s older brother Gooper (Benedict Sandiford), his wife Mae (Hannah Stokely) and their gaggle of “no-neck monsters”, is unearthed across three emotionally charged acts – a vivid interpretation by director Sarah Esdaile that draws from both the 1955 original text and 1974 revision.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the first Tennessee Williams play to have been produced by West Yorkshire Playhouse since it moved to Quarry Hill 22 years ago, and the meticulous detail it achieves is worthy of such a homecoming. Maggie’s appropriately feline stance throughout owes much to the influence of movement director Etta Murfitt, whose extensive work with Matthew Bourne makes her an unusual, but inspired, choice. The jazz score accompanying the background skyline’s seamless transition from sunset to moonlight, as the Pollitts’ hidden tensions are thrashed out, is a medley by Leeds Improvised Music Association, recorded alongside the cast’s early rehearsals.

The production’s exotic setting is so convincing, in fact, that it should probably carry a warning – as it’s a rather rude surprise to suddenly find yourself navigating the busy city traffic upon exit. Like the bourbon of which Brick consumes such impossible quantities, this masterpiece just gets better with age.

4/5

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof continues at West Yorkshire Playhouse until 27 October

Theatre preview: Hitch/Crunch @ Platform, Glasgow

Published by METRO

Saturday 13 October, 7pm, £3.50—£8,
Platform, Glasgow. 0141 276 9696.
www.platform-online.co.uk


Two of Scotland’s most exciting young theatre performers have been very busy this past fortnight.

While you spent your October evenings arguing over whether it was time to start putting on the central heating, Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair were touring Hitch/Crunch nationwide.

This challenging double bill – a pair of critically acclaimed solo shows – arrives at Platform in Glasgow’s Easterhouse tomorrow night for its final curtain call.

Hurley’s autobiographical piece Hitch deals with themes of protest and change as it takes us on an inspiring ride from the Weeg to the Italian town of L’Aquila, where the G8 summit was held in 2009.

‘It’s been great showing an old work to new audiences,’ said Hurley. ‘Hopefully the gig in Easterhouse will be a continuation of that, maybe with some familiar faces in the crowd, too.’

Crunch – written and performed by McNair – is a thought-provoking live experiment that questions the value of money through a five-step programme designed to liberate ourselves from the stuff.

Missing out on just one of these bold works of purpose and cohesion would be a shame, but you’d be a downright fool to miss out on two.

Theatre preview: Lifeguard @ Govanhill Baths, Glasgow

Published by METRO

Friday 5 - Saturday 27 October, 7.30pm (matinees 20/27 Oct 2.30pm), £12 (concessions £9), Govanhill Baths, Glasgow. 0141 565 1000. www.thearches.co.uk


Swimming pools — you know, those places that charge money for the apparent pleasure of sharing a well of chlorinated liquid with a bunch of people you wish weren’t there — are about to get more interesting.

Specifically, one of them is hosting a piece of theatre this month, as Arches Artist In Residence Adrian Howells presents a bold new work at Govanhill Baths in Glasgow.

Incorporating movement, projection and sound, Lifeguard examines our psychological relationship with water — a substance that inspires both comfort and fear — and evaluates the positive role swimming can play in our lives.

If that isn’t original enough for you, audiences are encouraged to come along to the show in their swimsuits (however nippy it is outside). They can even have a dip, if they want to, while Howells and actor/dancer Ira Mandela perform a scripted splash-about.

Complementing this theatrical experience is an art exhibition entitled Water Water Everywhere, which is created by children at primary schools across Glasgow’s south side.

Yes, you really are reading these words. No, you are not in need of more coffee. This is, quite simply, a unique event that needs to be seen to be believed.

Theatre review: The York Mystery Plays

Published by theartsdesk

Continuing until 27th August
at York Museum Gardens

VIDEO: The York Mystery Plays — cinematic trailer



Is it the greatest story ever told, or the most indulgent nativity ever staged? The return of the York Mystery Plays — this summer’s blue-ribbon theatrical spectacular in the North — beguiles upon entry but bemuses by exit.

In between is a sacred tale about the eternal battle of good and evil, from Creation to the Last Judgement. The show’s subject matter is as epic as its telling, which involves more than 1700 volunteers (including 500 cast members) and takes place in the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey. It’s the UK’s largest outdoor theatre production this year.

The timing of this showpiece alone is enough to make its mark on a 700-year-old heritage in York. As birds flutter over a pink, cloudless sunset, a sense of history is not lost on a crisp-crunching, wine-guzzling audience, who take their seats, prepared with blankets for the evening.

The Plays were once paraded through the streets of the medieval city, the earliest known performance dating back to 1376. For hundreds of years, they were a method by which Christian messages were transmitted to the public, continuing until the early Reformation. Since the revival of the tradition in 1951, there have been regular stagings of the Plays, the most previous falling during the Millennium celebrations.

Directed by Paul Burbridge and Damian Cruden, this latest addition to the cycle — performed at York Museum Gardens for the first time since 1988 — has been adapted by Mike Kenny, the man who put his hands to 2011’s Olivier Award-winning The Railway Children. Ferdinand Kingsley, son of Sir Ben, plays God and Jesus, opposite Graeme Hawley — former Coronation Street villain John Snape — as the Devil.


The bespoke, 1400-capacity auditorium houses a multi-layered set of smoke-billowing trapdoors and spotlit platforms. Kingsley takes to the stage a few minutes early, with the final few arrivals still finding their seats in the crowd, and his eagerness doesn’t let up — growing, in fact, into a fiery-eyed, hyperbolised portrayal of the Creator. Hawley encounters no obstacles as Satan. Though, despite his experience playing bad guys in soapland, his performance here never quite manages to draw blood.

Some minor pyrotechnics, a 97-strong choir and an array of giant balloons guide us through the opening scenes — including the Garden of Eden, which features dozens of merry hedge-trimmers along on bicycles. Christopher Madin’s cinematic score is perfect acoustic foil for the melodrama on stage, and, at times, the choreography and general direction is bedazzling.

The costumes are undeniably impressive, too. Mary wears a headscarf and Joseph a flat cap as the biblical narrative sets itself in post-war Yorkshire. Lines like, ‘Nae Noah, I am not best-pleased,” provoke echoes of elderly laughter.

Yes, visually, it is stunning, majestic, superb. But there comes a time when, perhaps as the midges begin biting your skin, you realise that any sort of intellectual stimulation just isn’t going to happen — because this is a summary of the Old and New Testaments, and not much more. That these Plays — going right through when Jesus made the blind man see, the last supper, the crucifixion, and… well, you know what happens next — are a bit much at over three hours long.

There’s also something formulaic about the way in which the large swathes of cast are assembling and then dispersing en masse at the end of each scene, and a lack of chemistry between some of the performers — whose hundreds of names run four pages in the programme.

And yet, in the end, the colossal effort that went into this production — the 2500 people involved, the hours of rehearsal time, the 1400 metres of cabling required — is mostly let down by the greatest story ever told itself. The dialogue offers little to engage a modern, secular audience, and, even accounting for the Yorkshire-tinged embellishments in Kenny’s script, fails to build on your prior impressions of the Bible.

For all the seductive grandeur of this project (more shows to be staged here, please) it feels like an opportunity missed.