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Scotland
lain Heggie’s adaptation asks us how far we are from madness
Theatre Babe! have, by now, a well-earned reputation as Scotland’s leading classics revival company, but their skill in matching the right adapter to the right project is also quite uncanny. Earlier this year, we saw the successful pairing of David Greig, Tom McGrath and Liz Lochhead with three Greek Tragedies, one of which, Lochhead's Medea, amounts to a must-see for Fringe audiences this year. But Artistic Director Graham McLaren surely didn’t have to think long and hard for his adapter of the classic Nicolai Gogol short story, 'Diary Of A Madman'. lain Heggie has had previous experience of adapting for Babel, and the kind of earthy, low-life idioms which he used to such good effect in his Don Juan might well lend themselves to Gogol's Russian urban lumpen proletariat.
On the face of it, Gogol and Moliere might seem strange bedfellows, but each can adapt nicely to the bawdy colloquialisms of Heggie’s language, which, not to put too fine a point on it, puts the Anglo-Saxon back into Scots. Gogol's story of a delusional office underling, who, ridden with resentments and frustrations, begins to lose his grip on reality, is both chilling and comical. An extra dimension is added by
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Brian Pettifer goes one step beyond
the thought of Gogol's own mental health problems, which saw him, under the influence of a Russian mystic, burn a good deal of his work before it could be seen by the public. Among the victims of this was Dead Souls, perhaps the greatest incomplete novel produced in Europe, and only incomplete because of Gogol's pyromanic zeal.
The one-man show which will be performed by Brian Pettifer, one of Scotland's leading performers in stage, television and screen, is rendered more macabre for its pacing, and the quotidian nature of its central character's troubles. ’It happens quite gradually', says Pettifer. ’He moves slowly into a world of his own making, and his madness kind of creeps up on us. He worries about ordinary things we all worry about; his partner, his job, the people who are above him at the office. These are all very everyday, so we can relate to them, it‘s a case of just taking yourself a step further for a lot of people.’
But how do we make contemporary Scotland from 19th century Russia? 'lain Heggie's writing does it well’, says Pettifer. 'lt's to do with the strong language and his sense of real, everyday conversation in the monologue that makes it work.’ In contemporising the piece in this way, there should be plenty to disturb any of us, for we are all neurotics of one kind or another, only one level of elevation below the psychotic. Could it happen to you? (Steve Cramer)
For details, see Hit/ist, right
NicholaslParsons' Happy Hour
Cocktails and chat with Mr Smooth
Talking to Nicholas Parsons is a little like being soufleed to death by a slightly cruel yet eminently suave masterchef You want to ask him questions like 'How do you make the perfect creme brulee7' and 'Is this how you tie a cravat7' but instead it's all Festival schmoo/e. Nicholas Parsons’ Happy Hour Will be the great raconteur's mainstay during the festival, an hour of 'cocktails, chat, stand up, interplay and interactions with the audience, interwews and talk' The words 'frissance' and 'mettier' \.'.rere also used by this urbanite in trying to conjure up his show, but let's not go there
Parsons is a bona fide cult icon to the sort of student population who think that camp /()s celebrities equal humour, Parsons actually deserves a little more than this With a career that
includes hosting the long running radio show Just A Minute and quintessential cheesy quiz show Sale Of The Century, starring in the horrific Comic Strip film Mr lolly Lives Next Door and the reformed Rocky Horror Show, Parsons has never been a man to take himself too seriously While maintaining an air of pure professionalism he doesn't seem to mind wallowmg in the absurder end of the celebrity pool, either way it pays the dry cleaning bill 'We are putting together a package which at the end will feel and sound totally different from anything else he says Somehow you doubt it, but one thing is sure, it will be the smoothest show in town (Paul Dale) Nicholas Parsons' Happy Hour (fringe) P/c-asaiic'e (Venue 33) 556 6550, 9 28 Aug, 5.40pm, {850/[9 ([750/[82
Shows worth skiving off work for
The Erpingham Camp
Joe Orton's black comedy set in a 1960s holiday camp from hell is revived with Johnny Vegas as Chief Redcoat Riley See Johnny Vegas feature, page 12 The Erpingham Camp rFiinger Assembly Rooms iJ/eiiue 9/ 226 2428, 3 28 Aug (not Wed:
4 15pm [IO/{ll ([9/[10l
Splendour
Paines Plough explore the dark side of female friendship in Abi Morgan's neis.’ drama See pi'eVIew on l()ll()‘.'.’|ll(] pages Splendour (fringe-i l’aine's Plough, Traverse r‘/enue l‘w 228 I404, 4 26 Aug inot l/lorn various times {9 /{6/ Prey/(>173 Aug, / 15pm, {6 Il4i
Break!
Inn-— .V .
NOW York dancers ‘.'.'ho've pei‘foi‘iiied \‘.'llll the likes of Puff Daddy and Janet Jackson bring the best in breaking, locking and popping to Fdinburgh See preview on follc)\.viiig pages Break/ (Hingei Shakslin 8 Company, Dynamic Earth IJ/enue l81530 355/, 3 13 Aug,
4 30pm [8 ([6)
The King of Scotland See preView, left The King of 5c ot/ancl (Fringei Theatre Babel, Assembly Rooms (Venue 3i 226 2428, 5 28 Aug, 5. 15pm
[9/[ 70 l’f8/[9r
Blue Grassy Knoll & Buster Kea on On The Big Screen
Buster Keaton’s silent classic s get the all-new soundtracks care of the gypsy bluegrass troupe who won five star reViews from The List last year Buster Keaton On The Big Screen (Fringe) Blue Grassy Knoll, Club
Pleasanc e@Potterrow (Venue 23/ 556 6550, 628 Aug (not 8, 22' 5pm. [8/[9 rf7/[8l
MacHomer
The real Simpsons cast's one-off performance sold out in 50 minutes flat, but you can sample the next best thing as Rick Miller performs Macbeth in the v0ices of Bart, Lisa and the rest of the family I'Vlac Homer (Fringe) Rick lt/li/ler, Assembly Rooms (Venue .3) 226 2428, 4 28 Aug (not 7, l4) 5 30pm [9/[l0 ([8/[9l
.J to Aac; 2000 THE llST FESTIVAL GUIDE 41