list.co.uk/festival Previews | FESTIVAL THEATRE
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SLEEPING BEAUTY Gritty bilingual reinterpretation of classic fable KLIP Death and despair and comedy fun
13 SUNKEN YEARS Multi-generational rural drama from Finland
‘I ended up putting myself at the centre of my own fairy story. What comes across in this show is me as a teenager, growing up in a broken home in Liverpool, and all these years later living and working as a puppeteer in France. How did that happen?’ Colette Garrigan’s own story – from Bootle via far-flung Réunion Island to actor and puppeteer in Normandy – is as striking as the age- old tale of Sleeping Beauty that she brings to life. But her Ken Loach-inspired reinterpretation deals with gritty issues of drugs, abuse and delinquency. ‘This is Liverpool in the 1980s, when Thatcher was in full flow. It’s about how a princess, in a kingdom devastated by famine and unemployment, can use her imagination so that rather than plunging into despair, she imagines better ways out.’
By inviting audiences to discover ‘what happens inside the head of a chicken’, among other things, Denmark's Livingstones Kabinet are claiming a surreal, comic high ground that trails back through British comedy. Pete Livingstone, co-founder and composer,
admits the company is rooted in the Dada style. But far from pastiche, Klip follows the spirit of anarchic live artists through a contemporary devising process. ‘The show was put together by playing parlour games to generate material,’ he explains. Director and co-founder Nina Kareis elaborates.
‘It is a real experiment! The reaction we have had so far is that some people find it hilarious, some find it very moving, but no-one has seen anything like it.’ Yet Klip isn’t a trivial bunch of sketches.
Garrigan’s one-woman bilingual production – with ‘We ended up with random juxtapositions which
a small amount of French, and a lot of blackly humorous Liverpudlian English – contrasts its dark storyline with the far brighter poetry of its puppetry and shadow theatre, where forks become forests. ‘It’s about using very ordinary objects that, like people, if they’re used in the right way, can blossom into something magical.’ (David Kettle) ■ Sleeping Beauty, Institut français, 225 5366, 2–25 Aug (not 11, 18), 1pm, £10 (£8). Preview 1 Aug, £5. we threw together,’ says Kareis. ‘We wanted to take random and not important elements and put them on stage. Then it is basically about the fragmentation of our day and age . . . ' Livingstone interrupts: ‘and the whole universe falling to pieces. And we are all fucked. But apart from that, it is a very entertaining evening.’ (Gareth K Vile) ■ Summerhall, 0845 874 3001, 5–24 Aug (not 11, 18), 5.20pm, £11 (£9). Previews 1–3 Aug, £6 (£5).
Fifteen years after moving to Scotland, Finnish- born director Maria Oller is bringing a piece of work from her native land to the Scottish stage. A co-production between Finnish National Theatre, Stellar Quines and Lung Ha, 13 Sunken Years is set in an isolated rural community. The story of three generations of women, it could just as easily be set in the Shetlands, Orkneys or Outer Hebrides as a Finnish village with multiple dots above the ‘A’s. Muriel Romanes of Stellar Quines suggested working with Oller on a Finnish play: after much reading and a couple of dry runs, the pair decided on 13 Sunken Years, named best play in Finland in 2012. It has been translated for this production by Eva Buchwald, a dramaturg at Finnish National Theatre who has adapted the script to incorporate the casting of two of Lung Ha’s disabled actors. What appeals, says Oller, is ‘the harshness of the
climate and nature, the way people in remote places are always dreaming but have to face reality’. Is the big, unknown world better than the restricted one at home? And are the ties of family stronger than the desire to break out and explore? These are universal issues, wherever they unfold. (Anna Burnside) ■ Assembly Rooms, 0844 693 3008, 11–24 Aug (not 18), 2.05pm, £13 (£9).
THE DIRTY TALK Two men dig deep into their secret selves
Michael Puzzo was already an established actor with the New York-based Labyrinth company when he finally turned his hand to play-writing. ‘The writers were always encouraging me to write, but I was worried that it would be shit,’ he laughs. ‘But every summer Labyrinth do a retreat. I went up there one summer. I was just coming off a horrible break-up. I found myself in a room and I thought: fuck it, I am going to write a play. I figured if I didn’t do it then, I never would.’ When the artistic directors Philip Seymour Hoffman and John
Ortiz saw the draft of The Dirty Talk, ‘they said: we are going to do a reading of it on Friday.’ And now the play makes its debut in the UK. Puzzo is good humoured about its success. ‘I say I am an actor and a writer,’ he explains. ‘It’s funny: when I was reviewed, some people called it a thriller, but I don’t think you can put a label on it. It is not a light piece – it is a lot about masculinity – but I think it is funny.’
Puzzo’s enthusiasm for theatre and his modest wit are reflected in the script, although his humour is never disruptive of the plot or the character’s gradual revelations. Revolving around the intense conversation of two men trapped in a cabin, The Dirty Talk has that serious comedy tone familiar from the likes of Sam Shepard, examining big issues with a subtle touch and an eye for powerful confrontation.
The two men – one seems on the edge of exploding, the other a mild-mannered internet addict – might be in a hunting cabin, but there is more to their meeting than first meets the eye. ‘I set out to write Long Day’s Journey into Night and then I show it to an audience,’ says Puzzo, ‘and it is a Jerry Lewis movie!’ (Gareth K Vile) ■ C, 0845 260 1234, 30 Jul–Aug 25 (not 12), 4.10pm, £9.50–£10,50 (£7.50 –£8.50).
31 Jul–7 Aug 2014 THE LIST FESTIVAL 81