THEATRE LIST
Heavy metal takes on a new meaning with the Bow Gamelan Ensemble. Over the last two years, Ann Bean, Richard Wilson and P.D. Burwell have been collaborating on their spectacular performances, fusing visual effects with music and sounds created from scrap metal and household junk.
Their instruments, made often from domestic and industrial machinery, range from washing machines to kettles—anything, in fact, in whichthey see potential. ‘We may find a thing lying around and have an idea fora i movement that will make a sound from i it. We find out what it will do well and i then develop it,’ says Burwell, who started out as a drummer 18 years ago. l ‘What is amazing is the beautiful, subtle sounds you can get out of things that look crude, metallic and industrial. We try to make sounds that
()pera Co. in Rogers and
I lantmersteins‘s popular musical.
0 LEITH COMMUNITY CENTRE New Kirkgate. 554 4750.
The Boxer Benny Lynch Fri 14 March. See Touring. Check on 041 339 1787. O LYCEUM STUDIO (irindlay Street. 229 9697 (or 7:84 Scotland 557 2442). Bar.
Moonzapoppin Fri 7 and Sat 8 Mar. 6pm. Sat mat 1pm. £2.25 (£1.75). An everyday tale of life on the moon'.’ Edinburgh Acting School in a production. directed by Audrey Tinline. of a play that follows what happens. when Sirius. ruler of the tnoon. decides to tnake an authentic Hollywood style horror movie. Polish and Cream Fri 7 and Sat 8 Mar 8.15pm. Sat mat. 3.15pm. Edinburgh Acting School in a production with more than a little contemporary relevance. A group of unemployed young people set up their own business as a shoe-shine company. Theme and lyrics are by Julie Longman. music by Alan Wilson. and Ruth Anderson directs. 0 NETHERBOW 43 High Street. 556 9579. Box office Mon—Sat 10am—4pm. 7—9pm perf. evgs. Cafe IE]
Ballista Wed l9—Sat 22 Mar. 8pm. £2 (£1). The newly-refurbished
Netherbow theatre is opened again
; with a production by the Netherbow
[Youth Theatre of a play by David
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; people haven’t heard before and create 3 visual effects that people haven't seen before.‘
Visual effects are just as much part of
the performance as sound, involving
fireworks and performance art— and
; also humour. Their aim to create a
; totally ‘new medium’ may be serious, 5 but it is founded on the basic principle that people love sound effects, and they approach their act with a pinch of
salt: ‘Our ambition would be to create a
: symphony fortwo factories and a fleet
of railway engines. . . In factit’s not that new — they used to do that in
Russia in the 1920s. We're pretty small
fry compared to that!‘ (Dowanhill
; Centre, Glasgow; St Mary's Cathedral, 3 Edinburgh; Theatre Workshop
Edinburgh) (Sarah Hemming)
(iourlay about a country ruled by a
female dictator. The cast includes
twelve young actors from the
I Donaldson School for the Deaf.
O PLAYHOUSE 18/22 (ireenside place. 557 2590. Box office Mon—Sat. 10am—6pm. Bar. Joseph and the Amazing
_ Technicoloured Dreamcoat Until Sat 8
Mar 7.30pm. Sat mat 2.30pm. £6. £5.
; £4. ()APs and children £1 .50 off all
prices. Bill Kenwright's much acclaimed production of the musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Jim Davidson Sun 9 Mar. 8pm. £5.50. £4.50. The cockney comedian in the company of Richard [)igance. Adults only.
0 PORTOBELLO TOWN HALL Portobello High Street.
3 The Boxer Benny Lynch Tue 11 Mar. See Touring. Possibly subject to change— tel. 041 339 1787 to
confirm.
0 ROYAL LYCEUM Grindlay Street. 229 9697. Box office Mon—Sat 10am—6pm. 10am—8pm on perfevgs. Bar. Rest.
A Streetcar Named Desire Until Sat 15 March. 7.45pm. £2—£5.
3 Theatresaver holders £1 off. Vivien
l
Heilbron and Ron Donnachie play Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams‘ play. see Review.
Mr Government Thurs 20 Mar ( Free
preview) until Sat 12 Apr. 7.45pm. £2-£5. Theatresaver holders £1 off.
A new play by Stuart Paterson about i a pair of lovers. brought together by their common isolation from a rural community between the wars. Directed by Hugh Hodgart.
O SPRINGWELL HOUSE Ardrnillan Terrace. Ciorgie.
Beneath One Banner'l‘ue ll Mar. 7.30pm. See 'l’ouring.
0 ST GILES' CATHEDRAL High Street. The Fall and Redemption of Man Wed 2—Sat 15 Mar. 8pm. Sat mat 2.30pm. Tickets at door and from Usher 1 Tall BoxOffice. 228 l 155. £2 (£1). A production for Easter by full-time drama students at the Telford
g College. Edinburgh ofJohn Bowen‘s f compilation ofcycles from the ; medieval morality plays. drawing on
the cycles from Chester. Coventry. Lincoln. Norwich. Wakefield and
York. translated into modern
English.
5 0 ST MARY'S CATHEDRAL Palmerston
’lace.
f Bow Gamelan Than 20 and Fri 21
Mar. 7.30pm. £2 (£1 ). Students £1.
2 UB40.childrenand()APsFree.
E Ticketsfrom Theatre Workshop.
Hamilton Place. 226 5425 and
Edinburgh [)istrictCouncil. _ Recreation I)epartment.l i
Cockburn Street. 225 2424 x 6625.
1 Also on the door on the night. Scrap
metal music fused with the comic and ;
- the unexpected from the weird and I wonderful Bow(}amelanEnsemble l
(see Panel).
0 ST MARGARET‘S HALL, ST - ANDREW'S COLLEGE OF EDUCATION. Craiglockart.
Not AboutHeroes Fri 14 andszit 15 Mar. 7.30pm. Tickets from L’sher Hall Box Office. 031 228’ 1 155. Glasgow Touring Company in Stephen MacDonald’s play about
i l l
f the meeting of Wilfred Owen and
Siegfried Sassoon in (‘raiglockart 1 Hospital — performed here in the
room where they actually met. See Touring. o THEATRE WORKSHOP 34 Hamilton | Place. 226 5425. Box office Mon—Sat 9.30am—5.30pm. Bar. Cafe. [DI The White Bird Passes Until 8 Mar. 1 8pm. £2.50 ( £2). Theatre Workshop Company begin their Spring tour of an adaptation for stage by Anne Downie ofJessie Kesson's novel. (See Touring). The Dragon Thurs l3—Sat 15 Mar. 8pm. .£2.50(£2).l (ielati !. who specialise in a colourful blend of improvisation. masks. mime and movement. in a production of Yevgeny Schwartz‘s ‘fairy story‘ — a political satire using the conventions of the fairy story turned upside down to illuminate tyrany. lGelati! Workshop Fri 14 and Sat 15 Mar. 10am—5pm. £7.50(£5 students, £2.50 unwaged). Max 30 a day. Book. [(ielati! (see above) give two day workshops about their techniques. Bow Gamelan Workshops Mon 17 and Tue 16’ Mar. l0am—4.30pm. £4 (£2 unwaged ). Max 8 per day. Book. The Bow (‘iamelan Ensemble give two one day workshops initiating people into the secrets of turning scrap metal and household odds and ends into music. (See St Mary‘s Cathedral. [Edinburgh and Dowanhill Centre. Glasgow for performances). Bring a kettle or two . . . O TRAVERSE 112 West Bow. 226 2633. Box office Tues—Sun 10am—8pm. Bar. Rest. Tickets also available The Ticket Centre. 22 Market Street. To Marie With Love Until Sun 9 Mar. 7.30pm. Theatre Upstairs. [icon stud. members £3.50. Full members £3. (iuests £4. Student standby £2.50 (members £2.) 10mins before perf. starts. A beautifully timed and intimate monologue about the life ofthe formidable
THE BOXER BENNY LYNCH
United Artists (Scotland) On Tour. E Frank Bruno wrote on the kitchen wall a l message for his mum - 1986 is to to be the year. The year for what? Perhaps, should he win his world title fight, it will be the yearthat as forThe Boxer Benny Lynch the battle with reality begins. Glasgowtook to Lynch with the i smothering adoration that Ireland has bequeathed to Barry McGuigan, but alas, he doesn't seem to have had the strength or artfulness to go beyond Round 1 with fame.
The play ends with the paralysed Lynch, down and out, watched with curiosity and nostalgic wonder by an anonymous crowd who know him. In life unable, Arnott suggests, to keep genuine friends, left deserted by his wife, now even his vagrant street sparring partner deserts him.
Leonard O’Malley plays the boxer with a slightly bewildered dignity, displaying the alcoholic symptoms of his tragedy. Arnott provides the character with a series of terse, not all bleak, scenes. Encounters with the people of the Thirties, none more delightful than Eamonn Angus‘s Irish
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boxing booth promoter, none more unlikeable than the well intentioned ; rich of London society. l
It’s an insistently interesting ; account, well performed, raises ' questions about the nature of a voyeuristic society, the poverty of the Thirties and the context of boxing. Only occasionally do you feel the genre has taken over at the expense of the man, psycho-sociology at the expense of the biography. (Nigel Billen)