THEATRE LIST
performance aspect of the Informal European Theatre Meeting, Gaby Agis, one of the country’s young choreographers presents some of her work together with her all-women company (See Feature, also Assembly Rooms.
0 GATEWAY EXCHANGE 2—4 Abbeymount, 661 0982.
The Commonwealth Tales Thurs 31—9 Nov. THIS SHOW HAS UNFORTUNATELY BEEN CANCELLED.
O KINGS 2 Leven Street, 229 1201. Box office Mon—Sat 10am-8pm. Bar. Rest. [D] [E]
Life of Galileo Until Sat 2 Nov. Mon—Sat, 7.30pm. Sat mat 2.30pm. £2—£5. Cones half price Mon-Wed. The Scottish Theatre Company in Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece about the great scientist, Brecht, portraying him as trapped between the scientific search for truth and the intervention of Church and State, raising questions about priorities and morals that remain as pertinent today. Tom Fleming plays Galileo Galilei, and Peter Dews directs (See review).
Coppelia Mon 4—Sat 9 Nov. 7 .30pm. Sat mat 2.30pm. SEE DANCE. Doctor in the House Mon 11-Sat 16 Nov. 7.30pm. Mon-Fri 7.30pm, Sat 5pm and 8pm. £2-£5.50 (Boxes £20, £16). Mon all seats half price. Tue, Wed, Thurs, Sat mat children, CAP and Unemployed half price. Much mileage has been had out of Richard Gordon’s hospital-based comic novel and one can’t help thinking that by now the jokes might be running out of steam. However the original on which this play is based is still the funniest of the ‘Doctor in . . ’ incarnations, and with the extremely funny Brian Play-Away Cant on stage, it should have the audience in the proverbial stitches (sick).
HETHEROOW 43 High Street, 556 9579. Box office Mon-Sat [loam—4pm. 7—9pm perf. evgs. Cafe E Strikers Fri 8 Nov-Sat 30 Nov. 8pm. £3 (£2). A new play by the well-known Scottish playwright Donald Campbell, whose recent play Howard’s Revenge won a Fringe First at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. Strikers, written during the miners’ strike brings together the issues of the strike and those of Premier Division football to explore changing attitudes across the generation gap. 0 ROYAL LYCEUM Grindlay Street, 229 9697. Box office Mon-Sat 10am—6pm. 10am—8pm on perf evgs. Bar. Rest. [D][E] The Nutcracker Suite Until Sat 2 Nov. 7.45pm. £2-£5. Theatresaver holders £1 off for self and guest. Last few days of the new play by Andy Arnold and J immy Boyle which uses Boyle’s own experience in Barlinnie Prison’s ‘Special Unit’ to open up questions about freedom, the possibilities of personal development and the interplay between external pressure and self-destruction. While it is scant in places and leaves many questions unanswered, the play’s combination of humour and strength and many fine performances under Ian
Wooldridge and Andy Arnold’s direction make for a powerful and absorbing production.
Hamlet .hurs 7 Nov (free preview). Sat 30 Nov. 7.15pm. Sat mat 2.15pm. Schools matinee 14 Nov 2pm. The Lyceum’s new production of what must be Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, with an extremely youthful Prince of Denmark in the shape of 27 year old Kevin McMonagle, whose former activities as a British Rail Red Star Clerk offer just too irresistible pun possibilities to struggling listings writers about stars speeding to overnight first class delivery . . . etc. Irene McDougall plays Ophelia, Tom Watson, Polonius, Patricia Ross, Gertrude and Charles Kearney, Claudius, while Hugh Hodgart directs (see panel).
0 THEATRE WORKSHOP 34 Hamilton Place , 226 5425. Box office Mon—Sat 9.30am-5.30pm. Bar. Cafe. [D] Young People’s Theatre Week Mon ll—Sat 16 Nov. As well as the theatre listed below, the Theatre Workshop’s special week of theatre by and for young people includes workshops, cabaret every night in the cafe, exhibitions and video screenings (for details of video and workshops see KIDS section). The productions listed below have been brought together with the aim of showing a wide range of good and interesting work by young people. Misfits Tue 12 Nov. 7.30pm. £1.50 (£1). Triple bill includes other 2 shows listed below. Theatre Workshop’s own Senior Youth Theatre in a production devised between them about prejudice. Bockshockshovrl‘ue 12 Nov. 7.30pm. Triple bill Part 2 (Tickets see above). East Lothian Youth Theatre present the second productions of the evening with a crazy show whose themes are described as being ‘Horror and Chips’ and whose plot covers the surprising events that overtake a young couple when they mistakenly arrive on a strange planet.
In Camera Tue 12 Nov. 7.30pm. Triple bill Part 3 (Tickets see above). The third in the triple bill comes from The Unaccepted Theatre Company who present Sartre’s classic play envisaging a claustrophobic hell in which ‘hell is other people’.
Bockshockshow Wed 13 Nov. 7.30pm. PART OF TRIPLE BILL AS ABOVE.
In Camera Wed 13 Nov. 7.30pm. PART OF TRIPLE BILL AS ABOVE.
Misfits Wed 13 Nov. 7.30pm. PART OF TRIPLE BILL AS ABOVE. That’il Teach You Thurs 14 Nov. 5pm. 75p (50p). Theatre Workshop Junior Youth Theatre (9-14 years). A show written and directed by Eva Laeverenz about revolution in a clowning class.
Work is a Four-Letter Word Thurs 14. 7.30pm. £1 .50 (£1). Double bill includes tickets for second show. Telford College Drama Course in the first show of a double bill - this production examines with humour the nature of the work ethic and its importance (or otherwise) nowadays.
The Offence Thurs 14 Nov. 7.30pm. Second part of double bill - tickets as above. Friction Theatre Company present John Hopkins’ examination of the gradual disintegration of a man under the pressure of the accusation of murder.
Theatre Week Continues 15 and 16 November.
0 TRAVERSE 112 West Bow, 226 2633. Box office Tues-Sat 10am—9pm. Sun 12.30—9pm. Bar. Rest.
Hogg - The Shepherd Justified Thurs 7 Nov—Sun 1 Dec. 8pm (not Mon) £4.50. Members £3/£3.50. Guests £4. Student Standby £2.50, members £2. Frederic Mohr’s play about the ‘Ettrick Shepherd’, James Hogg, reaches the Traverse after its tour throughout the Borders as part of the James Hogg Festival celebrating the 150th anniversary of the writer’s death. This chamber play exploring the life and background of the man behind the work is directed by Morag Fullerton with Donald Douglas playing Hogg himself (see panel).
Playreading: Busted Sun 3 Nov. 5.30pm. £2 (50p). Edinburgh Playwrights Workshop present a new play by John Mackenzie. Playreadlng: A New Play Sun 10 Nov. 5.30pm. £2 (50p). Another in the series of pIayreadings of new plays by the Edinburgh Playwrights Workshop, this one by Jessie Mac Murray. The name is for real!
Twelve Chairs Sat 2 Nov. 2.30pm. Workshop performance of a play by Grigori Gerenstein, a Russian writer living in Britain; the play is set in Russia just after the Revolution.
0 ORUHTOH THEATRE Musselburgh, 665 2240. Box office Mon—Sat 10am—8pm. Bar. [D] [E]
The Cry of Spain Until Sat 2 Nov. 7.30pm. Tickets from £1 . Final stop and final few days of Winged Horse Touring Productions’ drama about life for the Spanish people during the civil war. Written by Robin Munro the play uses original documentary material and many different dramatic techniques to portray the struggle.
Oliver! Thurs 7—Sat 23 Nov. £1 .50- £3.75 depending on night and concessions. Brunton Theatre Company in a new production of Lionel Bart’s highly successful musical version of Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
TOURING
0 Life of Galileo The Scottish Theatre Company in Brecht’s classic drama about the dilemmas faced by the great scientist (see review). Edinburgh, King’s Theatre until 2 Nov, 031 229 1201. Glasgow, Theatre Royal 1 1—16Nov,041 331 1234.
0 it's a Free Country Wildcat Stage Productions present their autumn tour, a musical cabaret comedy investigating the state of Mrs T’s Britain in songs and sketches presented with Wildcat’s customary measure of satire.
Edinburgh Theatre WorkshOp Until 2 Nov, 031 226 5425. Glasgow, Moir Hall 4—9 Nov, 041 334 4866. Gorgie, Springwell House 12 Nov, 031 337 4866. Portobello Town Hall 13 Nov, 031 225 2424/6672. Westerhailes Community Education Centre 14 Nov, 031 442 4217. Tour continues. 0 The Cry of Spain Winged Horse in Robin Munro’s drama about the Spanish Civil War. Musselburgh,
; Brunton Theatre Until 2 Nov, 031 I 665 2240.
POLONIUS AS PERFORMER
Tom Watson - who once pretended to
be an American from Bismarck, Dakota ; to get a film part, is now injecting a new ;
life into the character of Polonius in Hugh Hodgart’s production of Hamlet opening attire Lyceum on 8 November (see listings). lie is detennlned to strip his part of its well-wom senile image. ‘because of his long-winded ioquaclty he is often played as an Interfering grandfather', Watson says, “but people forget that he has a teenage daughter and a son just out of university. ills pedantry stems from his
! job as a top bureaucrat. I sort of see I him as head of the Elsinore Secret ’ Service and as more of a sinister force
than the usual doddering balloon.’
in Hodgart’s production set in a loosely modern European context with Gothic overtones, characters are continually eavesdropping and spying on one another and privacy is a luxury no one can afford. A bed which remains centre stage until the gravedlgging scene emphasises the point that even the most intimate places are under scnttiny, and no character is more ubiquitous than Polonlus who hovers almost continually about the stage. ‘He is like the faceless man at the top of the airplane steps . . . you don’t know who he is but he is always around’, Watson
says. But what about the humour? Watson
5 believes that in scenes such as the 5 ‘Very like a whale' exchange with
Hamlet, Polonius is dimly aware that a game is being played and that his oily sycophancy is tempered with a desire to perform well. ‘My theory is that he nurtured a lurking ambition to be an actor; he gets very excited when the players arrive and proudly lnfonns everyone that he once played Julius Caesar at university.
18 The List 1-14 November