list.co.uk/festival Coni rmation | FESTIVAL THEATRE
D MINDS
5 MORE... THOUGHT-PROVOKING SHOWS
Plays tackling the big issues BLOOD ORANGE A frank exploration of the alarming rise of the new far right in modern Scotland. When his father’s business fails, a young man blames local Asian market sellers, forcing him to violently confront issues of race, religion, faith and tolerance in today’s society. Summerhall, 0845 874 3001, 1–24 Aug (not 11), 7.45pm, £14.50 (£9.50).
LAND OF SMILES Erin Kamler’s musical pulls back the curtain on the harsh realities of the trafficking of women in Thailand and examines the tangled moral, social and political issues which surround it. Inspired by interviews with sex workers, NGO employees and grassroots activists. Assembly George Square, 623 3030, 2–25 Aug (not 11, 18), 1.35pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £5.
FACTOR 9 Inverness-based Dogstar Theatre Company challenge the medical and political establishments with a tale of two haemophiliacs living with a potentially fatal disease, contracted through a contaminated prescription. Summerhall, 0845 874 3001, 5–24 Aug (not 11, 18), 1.55pm, £12–£13 (£8). Previews 1–4 Aug, £8 (£6). JONNY & THE BAPTISTS: THE SATIRIC VERSES Fresh from their Stop UKIP Tour, which caused a media storm when party supporters called for their shows to be discontinued, Jonny & The Baptists combine disconcerting Usher-esque dulcet tones with themes such as censorship, revolution and the sorry state of post- recession Britain. Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, 2–24 Aug (not 11), 9.40pm, £8.50–£11 (£7.50–£10). Previews 30 Jul–1 Aug, £6.
CHEF Sabrina Mahfouz’s new play uses expressive spoken word and poetry to tell the story of a woman who goes from haute cuisine chef to an inmate running a prison kitchen. Underbelly, Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, 2–24 Aug (not 11), 6.10pm, £9.50- £10.50 (£8.50-£9.50). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £6. (Maud Sampson and Colin Robertson)
31 Jul–7 Aug 2014 THE LIST FESTIVAL 77
realise that strength of conviction is the common thread of personal viewpoint. Everybody thinks they’re right to the same extent. There isn’t some kind of magical middle ground which is based on a series of absolute truths that if we all accepted we would somehow get along. It’s destabilising for me, as this guy who essentially wants us all to get along, because there isn’t any place for us to get along from.’
But, he says, that doesn’t make the outlook bleak: ‘If everyone’s facing those dilemmas then all you can do is make what you consider to be the right choices and i ght the ones that you consider to be wrong.’ That’s also been what Chavkin’s taken from the process. She says: ‘I think it ultimately offers a rallying cry for rigorous liberalism – it demands a sense of rigour that I think is often lacking.’
The show is co-presented by Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate, and audiences have reacted to Coni rmation’s pre-Edinburgh previews ‘very positively and complicatedly’ says Chavkin. And, coincidentally, one of the previews was held on the same night as this year’s controversial European elections.
‘I’m not going to pretend that didn’t give it an extra kind of boost in terms of how urgent
it felt,’ says Thorpe. ‘But this isn’t necessarily about UKIP [and] it’s not about religious fundamentalism of any kind. If it’s relevant to something that’s going on now, that’s great. But it will always be relevant to think about these things, because these are the constant processes that we live within, and we can only work against their negative effects if we put the effort in and recognise that they exist.’
It’s this recognition of coni rmation bias that is the piece’s central aim. ‘It actually achieves what is a really hard thing,’ explains Chavkin, ‘which is not just to talk about coni rmation bias but to actually make you aware of the phenomenon working in yourself over the course of the piece on multiple levels.’ ‘The last thing that I want this piece to be is a narrative retelling of my adventures with a Nazi,’ Thorpe adds. ‘Fuck that. It’s not about me wowing an audience with the brilliance of my insight because I’m really not into that. It’s about us all turning up on that day, at that specii c time, up for having a conversation.’
Coni rmation, Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 477 6630, 4–23 Aug (not 10, 17), 4.35pm, £14 (£11). Previews 31 Jul & 2 Aug, £11.