Theatre
for GLASGOW THEATRE see non-festival magazine
CURRY TALES A little of what you like
Malaysian born Rani Moorthy promises curry delights and Cultural reawakenings. with her new site-specific show. And she's in fine company with Linda Berkoff's Women Marlowe at the directorial helm. Says Moonhy: ‘l have an hour to communicate something real about my culture. Linda is a wonderful catalyst for that. We are from different places geographically but we have the same pleasures and prejudices.‘
Any concern over the choice of location — the Raj restaurant in Leith - is dismissed with a hearty laugh: “It's not Ready, Steady, Cook. It may seem like a gimmick but it stands alone as its own very special theatre show.‘ (Victoria Hammett)
I The Ha] On the Shore, 87 Henderson Street, Leith, 0731 228 7404, 6—28 Aug, times vary, 29—877 (24-28).
LOVE AND DESPAIR: A COMEDY
Fn‘nge favourite returns with dark satire
Following the enthusiastic reception of his Fringe debut Slaves of Starbucks two years ago, Canadian comic Peter Aterman returns to Edinburgh with another wickedly funny, deadly dark satire about the state of the modern nations. Alterman's
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JUST IN TIME PRODUCTIONS AT THE FRINGE FESTIVAL
THE WAU WAU SISTERS
Sisters are doing it to each other
“‘Lascivious, foul-mouthed, sexually uninhibited,
exploratory, experimental, incestuous, smug”. But we totally disagree with that last one, and we’re going to write to the Times.’ That’ll be the New York Times, for the Wau Wau Sisters are sitting in a Brooklyn café, sipping margueritas. They’re telling me about their cabaret act, quoting their recent reviews, and taking it turn and turn about, with one quoting a keyword, and the other staring wide eyed at me. Out of costume the girls couldn’t look more different, with one brown haired and rather Aryan, and the other quite Italian looking. They swear, though, that they are sisters, in as far as they share the same father. They’ve been performing together since their childhood, though one hopes that this wasn’t the same act they’re
presenting now.
The girls are making their first visit to the Fringe after a long haul to their top billing position on the New York cabaret scene. And what should we expect? Well, they have a Catholic schoolgirls routine in which a crucifiction is enacted in underwear, for example, but the girls insist that there’s more to it than simple shock value. ‘I think there’s more going on than that. We named ourselves after a character from Brecht, Mr Wau, and I don’t think we’d have gathered the following we have over the last five years if it wasn’t something we took seriously. So the songs we play may parody the American blond country singing bimbo, but we like to think they’re also quite witty’, says Tanya, the slightly more talkative of the two. ‘We’re
a little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll’, she adds, never forgetting the kitsch element. Enjoy. (Steve Cramer)
monologue engaged with very contemporary issues — the worship of money, the idolatry of celebrity and his fast- paced follow-up is no less contemporaneous. interrogating as it does sexual dysfunction, collapsing empires. illegal weapons dealing and, erm, cannibal cops.
Having played stand- up and improv nights around the Big Smoke (where he picked up Hackney Empire New Act and London Comedy Festival Best Newcomer awards). Aterman returns to Auld Reekie armed with what promises to be painfully funny new material for
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this world premiere. (Miles Fielder)
I Hill Street, 226 6522. 6—30 Aug (not 16—7 8). 3.20pm, £8 (£7).
BIMA AND BRAMATI Norwegian troupe returns after Fringe triumphs
The troupe behind the 2001 Festival smash Like Thunder. Det Apne. stretches the boundaries of possibility both in the physicality of performance and the philosophy of the writing itself. As Ibsen Prize winners in 2003. they were catapulted into mainstream consciousness.
This year director
6TH - 29TH AUGUST
CITY 1 SWEET ON THE
GRASSMARKET
{TS/£6 7:I0 PM
FRINGE Ol3l 226 0000 SWEET 0870 24! 0I36
64 TNE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 5—1 2 Aug 2004
Franzisca Aarflot returns to the helm of the absurdly existential Bima and Bramati. Translated from Tord Akerbaek's Norwegian text. this is the stOry of two ageing amputee ward males who attempt a Surreal i0urney of discovery towards the window at the end of the corridor. Sugarlumps are their only partners in crime. (Victoria Hammett)
I Traverse. 228 7404. 77—72, 76. 77, 20—27. 25—26 Aug. times vary, £8 (£4.50)
FUSE
Lab rats save the world
Award-winning South African company Mouthpeace returns to the Trav for the first time since 2002. when its show The Well Being won massive audience and critical acclaim. Its latest production is set in a world ravaged by war and devoid of human population. In an underground laboratOry. two lab rats are saving the earth by performing tests on a cloned human, with explosive reSults. Examining the nature and importance of relationships rather than individuals. the show's co-creator and performer. Andrew Buckland. says: 'There is a strongly held ethic
amongst traditional African belief systems. Summed up by the word "Ubuntu". Without a literal translation. its meaning can be con‘imunicated by the phrase: “I am because we are".'
From an international company known for combining a strongly theatrical. highly comical performance style With a keen and critical eye for social comiiientaiy this is Sure to be a hugely imaginative and thought- provoking production. (Gareth DaVies‘i
I Traverse Theatre. 228 740-4, 6-28 Aug (not 76. 23). times vary. f.‘ l l/‘f8 (E450).
GONE BY GLYN CANNON
Spin and war with a classical parallel
Glyn Cannon was writing his modernisation of Sophocles Antigone during last year's Festival. HOStIIItIeS had ended in lrad. but the Situation was deteriorating rapidly. When the US released images of Saddam Hussein's dead sons. Cannon began to see the links between contemporary events and the Greek classic. 'I don't think you can write and not be influenced by that.’ he says. ‘I don't want the play to be a
case of this character is Blair. and this is Bush or whatever — that can be a turn off. But yOU just can't help reflecting what's geing on around you.’
In Gone. Cannon takes this archetypal political piece and throws it into the 21st century — “a world that is spinning itself out of control'. And. for all our Supposed advancement. his latest offering shows us that the fundamental issues remain as unchanged as ever. (COrrie Mills)
I P/et’isance Cavern. 556 6550. 5—30 Aug (not 70. 17). 3pm fQfiO—L‘? (87—28).
HEAD 8- PHAEDRA’S LOVE Acclaimed young company from Fringe 2003 returns with more Sarah Kane and a new
play.
Fail Better returns to the Fringe With two shows. followmg its highly- acclaimed and sell—out production ()f Sarah Kane's Crave in 2002. Phaedra '5 Love. also by Kane. is a brooding family tragedy drawing on classical Greek myth. and centring on one woman's obsession With her stepson. The second production is Head. a new play by Fail Bettor's associate artist Zoe Simon. It's a ferocious and emotive love story. set in a filthy London housing estate. exploring the unusual places in which love can thrive.
Director Jonathan Heron comments: 'We felt it was logical to follow Our previous Kane play With another. and I think that there are definite parallels running through our work.
‘l've alway s been very influenced by Beckett. as was Kane. as is Zoe. another yOung. female playwright who wrote Head. Thematicaiti, and stylistically. Head snares elements that also concerned Kane — brutality and love. theatre in relatioit to depression — so there are definiter real connections between the work of the company' (Gareth Dawes)
I Head: Underbelly 5—29 Aug (not 76:. (5:15pm; Phaedra 's LOW?) Underbelly: Thu :S—Stin 29 Aug (not 16/. 28:30—57. :30 l5‘7.5()-£‘(5.:30i 9pm.