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CIRCUS COMES TO COMMUNITY
Despite the unsightly end otthe Easterhouse iestlval, community arts continue to be all the rage. Currently underway is the Wester Hailes Festival, which has its Gala Day on Saturday June 28 at Hallesland Primary School, Edinburgh, where the theme will be ‘Roman’, with chariot
the Roman theme, the Edinburgh Festival has announced its contribution to Community arts with the setting up this summer ot a circus in Pilrig Park, just oil Lelth Walk. Edinburgh District Council have made it known in the past thatthey would appreciate more eiiort to lnvlove the comunitles in the
Festival, and since they put up a goodly amount, their wishes have been taken note oi.
Entitled the Silver Dome, the venue is designed to be the locus rather than the headquarters oi community arts in the city and will play host to more than one hundred pertormers. Circus UK, whose Circus Senso Show has played to large and appreciative audiences in London seem set to be one otthe biggest
The idea ior his latest play came to John Cliitord during rehearsals ior his recent Losing Venice. The designer showed him some bizarre Spanish paintings at saints — one with a hatchet through his head, another with her breasts on a plate, a third with her eyes on a plate. Their strangeness caught his imagination, and Lucy’s Play, about to be staged at the Traverse, Edinburgh (See Theatre) was the result.‘l thought, well, breasts, you know, not very easy to stage — eyes possibly easier. . .‘
He looked up the story oi St Lucy, and iound both her and it intriguing enough to form a plot around. Set in Syracuse in 386 AD, his play itseli sounds iairly oitbeat, described in the publicity as ‘Asterix meets the Drestia'. ‘lt’s a similar sort oi period to that oi Losing Venice. It’s set at the time oi the tall oi the Roman Empire, a time when one set oi values was in decline and a new set oi values was just beginning to emerge. liind that interesting because I think it’s what's happening to us at the moment.’
Losing Venice itseli had a great deal oi success. Alter its premiere at the Traverse, it went on to win a Fringe
CONTRIBUTORS
Publisher Robin Hodge. Editors Nigel Billen, Sarah Hemming, Glasgow Editor Graham Caldwell. Associate Editor Allan Hunter. Design Simon Esterson. Publications Manager Sally Kinnes. Advertising Bill Gordon.Circulation Suzie Paterson. Accounts Richard Gray. Typesetting Jo Kennedy and Hewer Text. Production Editor Paul Keir. Production Assistants Alan Gordon. flAlice Bain. Books Alan Taylor.
_E All
i I g
racing, spear throwing etc. Carrying on
t“ “ attractions at the Dome which will also ieature such acts as the Covent Garden Street Entertainers, the Takeda Marionette Theatre oi Japan and circus workshops.
Although it is the primary venue tor the community side oi the Festival, acts appearing there will also appear at
PLAY TIM E M c I A
j ~’
First Award at the Edinburgh Festival last year, travelled to Perth Festival in Australia and has only recently been transmitted on the radio. Its success is all the more impressive given that Cliitord had not written, or at least had pertormed, a great many plays betorehand. On leaving university he embarked on a thesis about the Spanish writer Calderon, but it was ten years beiore he iinished it, becoming in the meantime a bus conductor and training to be a nurse. He went back to it because, he says, he had to write. When he did startto write drama the
’ Classical Music Carol Main, Film
Allan Hunter, Trevor Johnston, Folk/Jazz Norman Chalmers, Kids Sally Kinnes, Media Allan Hunter. Sally Kinnes, Open Richard Norris, Rock (Edinburgh) Alastair Mabbott. Rock (Glasgow) Andrea Miller,Stuart Spence, Sport Graham Caldwell, Theatre Sarah Hemming, Photos Chris Hill, Graphics Graham Johnston, Diilce Lynn Spowart. Camera Darien Printing Co.
Cover: Gloria Gaynor.Cover Design Simon Esterson.
CHRIS HILL
venues such as Wester Hailes, Craigmillar, Leith and Gorgie. The Festival have pointed out that they have not had as much iunding tor the community programme as they would have liked, but at a basic cost oi £15,000, the Dome looks as it it could be money well-spent.
- A ' work he did on Calderon had a proiound
iniluence on him; ‘The thing about Calderon is that he had a tremendously
mixed audience. So he wrote these
wonderiul multi-Iayered scripts. I want my scripts to work like that, lthink this division oi theatre into popular and quality is just so destructive and unnecessary. lsuppose the kind oi stage I really write tor is the kind Calderon wrote tor-and Shakespeare!‘
Certainlythe sense oi scale, humour and sheer iantasy oi these writers is present in Cliitord's plays. Fantasy played a large part in Losing Venice, and it is something that Cliitord thinks is an important element in everybody’s liie, though oiten submerged these days. Watching his young daughter reinlorced his ieeling that story-telling is a basic human activity, and one that should be iostered: ‘What I am interested in istelling stories. That's what I most wanted to do with Losing Venice —tell a story and concentrate on telling it in the most eitective theatrical way possible. Once you get that right,
and tell a good story, you leave the
audience tree to take all the rest on whatever level they want.‘
Published by The List Ltd. 14 High Street. Edinburgh, 5581191 and 13 Bath Street, Glasgow 332 3393.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
£15 per year. £8 for 6 months.
payable to The List Ltd.
I Printed by Dunfermline Press Ltd.
Issue no 19 27 June—10 July 1986
Cover
Gloria Gaynor.
2
Gloria Gaynor Stephanie Billen talks to the disco star.
4
Runaway Train Allan Hunter interviews the Soviet director of the Oscar nominated film.
6
Working Class Heroes
The List looks at Community rock
music.
8 Rod Stewart
Alan 'l'aylor on Music‘s biggest lootballtan.
Listings Full guide to events this fortnight.
Theatre 10 Dance 12 Classical Music 13 Folk 14 Jazz 16 Rock l7 Film 20 Art 2‘) Sport 1‘) Media 27 Open 33 Kids 26
35
Backlist 35
Sally Kinnes on contraception for men. 36 Books
Food
l
The list 27 June — lilJuly1