THEATRE LIST
Theatre Workshop Christmas Show 1986 BA BA VAC A AN D 7.: '7 TI "5 M Aim: mingltf
A musical based on Russian Folklore 3N) By Anne bowie. Directed by Adrian Harris. .3. ‘ AWtMuydMflmgkllMWMIMco‘ommspectacle!
Saturday 20th — Wednesday 31st December Booking Now. rickets £2.80 / £1.50.
' ' , : ~ .0 Mmmluflywm Huck-Went“. [031) 2265‘25 ' Theatre Nutrition. 34 Mon Place. Edinburgh (03" 225 7942
Another great adventure story for all the family . . .
5 December - 10 January Booking now open
(031) 229 9697 for full details of
In performance times and prices.
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ING’S 'l‘ilEA'l‘RE (031) 2291201 EDINBI’RGH Monday 8th December 1986 Saturday let February 1987
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ENFORGETABLE PANTO MAGIC!
Nightly at 7pm Matinees at 2.15pm Tickets: 5 5.00 — $6.00
Generous concessions available
for children. Parties ().A.l"s
& Benefit (‘laimants
Box Office open Mon-Sat 10am-8pm
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DAME FOR A LAUGH
Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
(flizens’z Glasgo_w
Myles Rudge’s heart-warming pantomime is for kids and adults alike. This tale of Red Riding Hood includes the visit to Grandma, but presents the Wolf as a corruptive wealthy man, and adds an inventive blend of fantasy and dream.
The opening domesticity of the poor clockmaker’s family gives way to the magic of the wood and the horror of the wolf’s castle. The real mouse of the first scene becomes a six-foot, talking explorer, and Jeremiah the cuckoo is freed from his clock. A mood of magic is conveyed by the fluorescent skulls floating in the darkness, the ten-foot lizard, the giant puppet caterpillar and the music of percussion and piano.
Juliet Cadzow is hilarious as the rich daughtertrussed up in pink with ‘Spoilt’ embroidered on herdress. Iain Andrew makes a cheeky cuckoo and Maureen Carr and David McKay are a strong central couple with their child-like directness.
The well-structured play crescendos with the only song, led by the cuckoo, and the increase in audience participation, who must unite to redress evil by making time go backwards. Sweets are hurled into the audience and the house lights go up as
’ the evil governess chops up the magic
riding hood and scatters the pieces in their laps. The raucous ending is traditional, and the evil turn generous, the poor are rewarded and a party is in the air. Back in the normality of the kitchen there is still, however, a hint of magic —the cuckoo in your clock might be a Jeremiah. (Ness Raison).
Puerocums HILL
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flifltre Workshop LEdinburgh
Though this tale of Haisa and her magic doll was inspired by Russian folklore its origins could have been of almost any nationality, populated as it is with characters and themes that emerge in fairytales worldwide: the witch who eats small children, the wicked stepmother, jealous of her stepdaughter, the fight between good and evil and the equation of evil with greed and good with an affinity with nature. Those with a psychoanalytical bent could have a field-day considering the significance of these characteristics, all present in Anne Downie‘s adaptation. Meanwhile, her
play illustrates why such fairytales have universally endured - a combination of frighteningly murky truths that make a good, fast-moving story (and in this case a close-knit, colourful show).
In the absence of her father, Haisa is dispatched by wicked step-mum to the house of Aunty Baba (aka as Baba Yaga, the witch) — an unpleasant sort of a lady, who informs us with relish that she hasn't had a good lunch since
Bob-a-Job Week. Food features large in this late —the unnatural greed of Haisa's stepbrother and sister makes for plenty of comedy, while Raisa's own generosity with what little she has releases the magic that ultimately sorts the baddies out.
Anne Downie’s script is slightly skimpy, but it contains some good oneliners (striking a happy balance between olderand youngeraudience), and given a buoyant, polished production by Adrian Harris it moves along with great agility. The music, by Iain Johnstone is wonderfully matched to fit each occasion (funniest and best perhaps being a lugubrious solo by an ill-treated tree, and a Cossack chorus who appear, Gremlin-like from behind the nooks and crannies of the scenery) and among a good cast there‘s a smashing performance from Alyxis Daly as the stepmother. The witch could be more frightening, more could be made ofthe Russian setting, and the whole thing gallops a bit towards the end, when a Christmas suddenly and ratherspuriously appears, but otherwise it's an imaginative production and hugely successful participationwise with the small spectators the day that I was there. (Sarah Hemming)
Lheflicked Witch and the Wonderful ML)!
Cumbernauld Theatre
The Cumbernauld Theatre Christmas Show is Magic! Or at least it's magical, with a little help from the boys and girls, because the story of The Wicked Witch and the Wonderful Well is action-packed for the audience as well as the actors. Based on Scottish folk tales (adapted and directed by Nick
Fearne) it takes all the staple ingredients of panto and turns them into a lively show with a tartan flavour.
The big brightcharacters get the audience on their side — which is just as well because the not-very-bright and not-very-brave Prince Erin (William Elliot) and Stuart Hepburn's tongue-tied king, who turns into a lame duck, need all the help they can get to rescue the princess from the clutches of the Wicked Witch and the Nasty Knight, Red Hector. But even the villains are more fun than fierce. Annette Staines is the most stylishly wicked witch I’ve ever seen, and James Gibb as Red Hector is like Russ Abbott gone wild in kill and monkey boots.
The Cumbernauld stage is well used to make the audience part of the show and the story is told with some colourful pieces of theatre that
24’l'hc List 12 Dec—- SJan