THEATRE LIST
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0 Sarah Jane Morris Sat 9 May. 10pm.
(To Be Confirmed — please check with theatre). Starting offthe Traverse’s new foray into cabaret is Sarah Jane Morris, best known as guest singer with The Communards, in an evening ofjazz-based cabaret songs with , azz piano.
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C The Warld’s Wonder A new touring production by Theatre Alba of a play by Alexander Reid. See Review. For further details contact Theatre Alba on 031 226 2427. Greenock Arts Guild Theatre, Greenock Fri 1 and Sat 2 May. 7.30pm. 0475 23038: Highland Tour 4—9 May; Bonar Hall. Dundee Mon 11 May 7.30pm. 0382 29450/23530: Cumbernauld Theatre. CumbernauldTue 12 May. 7.45pm. 02367 32887; Town Mill Theatre Strathaven Wed 13 May. 7.30pm. 0357 2941 1; Gregory Hall. Tayport Thurs 14 May. 7.30pm. 0592 756633. Tour continues. 0 Mugshot Cumbernauld Theatre‘s good-humoured entertaining spoof Chandleresque thriller. written and directed by Robert Robson. and featuring sleuth MacMarlowe as he prowls the streets of Glasgow. For further details please contact Cumbernauld Theatre on 0236 737235. Dundee Rep. Dundee Wed 6—Sat 9 May. 7.30pm. Sat mat 3pm. 0382 23530; Community Centres in Glasgow as part of M ayfest See Mayfest Diary. Tue 12—Thurs 14 May; Whitehill Ci vie Centre. Hamilton Fri 15 May 7.30pm. Hamilton 283281/282323 ext 241. Tour continues. 0 It’s Not the End at the World Theatre Workshop‘s new touring production. an adaptation by Jack Klaffand Bob Sinlield ofthe book Humanizing Hell by George Dell. The question the play asks is: are nuclear weapons illegal under International Law? See Review. For further details please contact Theatre Workshop on 031 226 5425. Tron Theatre Club. Glasgow Tue 28 Apr—Fri 1 May. 8pm. 041 552 4267/8: Cowane Centre, Stirling Sat 2 May. 8pm. 0786 71588; Shetland Isles Tue 5—Sat 9 May. 0 Skirmishes Focus Theatre Company starts a new tour ofa play by Catherine Hayes that has been much praised for its humour and honesty in exploring the relationship between a dying mother and her two daughters. Crawford A rts Centre, St Andrews Until Fri 1 May: Drama Centre. Glasgow (Mayfest) Mon 4—Sle 9 May; Markinch Centre. Markineh (Arts in Fife) Mon 1 l and Tue 12 May. Tour continues to the North.
0 Wallace- Guardian oi Scotland Theatre (To-Op in a new play by Patrick Evans that attempts to strip the legendary hero of his romantic status. but not his stature. Wallace emerges as a pugnacious. proud hard-man. a product and spokesman of his times and his divided. oppressed country. Through his story. narrated in short. punchy scenes. Evans paints in a picture ofa ' ravaged. ununified Scotland
THE GLASS MENA
The Glass Menagerie, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
There is something oi an overblown leel to the Lyceum’s production at The Glass Menagerie directed by Ian Wooldridge, in which its instrinsic delicacy has been diluted and dispersed. The play seems to have been rushed to a linal iorm without going through any ol the intervening stages.
Tennesse Williams’ intenselylragile play lull at large hopes and blinkered visions and the tamin rows which arise are wrought oi deeply held leeling. That the lamily’s dreams tail to contact with the real world or to coincide with each other lies at the explosive and oppressive heart olthe play, something which this production, though not unenioyable, tails to portray.
Amanda Winglield (Ann Scott Jones) is the mother ol the iamlly who loves but doesn’t listen, a combinaton made so oppressive in her extravagent, extrovent personality that her son Tom (Andrew Price) is ultimately driven to feel that it those are her terms, he’d rather not have herat all. Her insensitivity is excruciating yetAnn Scott Jones, though exuberant, does not really make us squirm with embarrassment. Andrew Price is a conlident Tom but his unease at living with his mother never seems to go beyond discomlort.
The heavy sense at heat at the coming summer bearing down on the stilling lrustration inside the lamily is never attempted.
Emma Dingwall as Laura the crippled daughter and sistersullers her disability nervously and when the prospect oi her gentleman caller’s aliections evaporates she ellectiver withdraws and wills. Her expression
rapidly switches lrom joy to despair, as hope is visibly switched all inside her.
Unlortunately however no real iondness is established between brotherand sister and Tom‘s poignant and heartfelt recall oi his sisterat the end oi the play seems to come, like so much at the production, irom no believable impulse. (Sally Kinnes)
THE WARLD’S WONDER
Theatre Alba, On Tour
With Charles Nowosielski’s latest production Theatre Alba continue to imaginatively explore the power and scope oi imagination, as itappears in
the guise oi magic. A lively, aImOSt pantomime-like telling oi Alexander Reid’s witty almost pantomime-like Scots lairy tale, it nonethless pays lull respect to the heart at the play; Reid’s semi-serious, sterm admonition oi the prosaic and doctrinalre.
In the kingdom ol Dubbity, the beautilul young Jeannie (Anne Lannan) is in love with an equally moonstruck shepherd lad Jock (Robin Cameron). Her stepiather, the Provost, however (a wondertyully churlish perlormance irom Steve Owen) having made tree with the city coliers, has other ideas and plans to hitch her up with the altogether less appealing but rather richer Laird. But he reckons without the power at imagination. When Meg gains the conlidence oi the mysterious warlock Michael Scott, ‘magic’ soon pulls the wool overthe mean’minded and mundane Provost and his entourage. Meanwhile, Michael Scott uses the occasion to instruct his newly acquired apprentice in the rudiments oi magic— starting with never accepting as absolute the received answers to things northe imaginative restrictions
oi dogma and rules. The lessons at Alice in Wonderland are not laraway and Reid incorporates a wise caution about arguments that run ‘For the greatergood . . .’
A lovely double act is established between apprentice (Garry Stewart) and master Sandy West, who combines mystery with mischeviousness and being knowledgeable with being endearineg know-all. (Sarah Hemming)
IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD
Edinburgh Theatre Workshop, On Tour Jack Klail, co-writer with Bob Sinlield oi this nuclearwar, nuclearlamily comedy drama, is probably best known lor his solo shows which have been seen at both the Edinburgh Festival and Mayiest. Brilliant tours de lorce, these shows combined politics, history and philosophy with a humanity represented by Klalt’s ability to create a multitude at real characters on stage irom exact but economic gestures, accents and nuances oi expression. While the comedy is sharp, and the issues well thought through, it is this mix which is missing in It’s Not The End Of The World. The live actors playing the tour members at the iamlly and the son's girllriend can only create representative but unreal characters. It
is a iamlly divided over the issue oi nuclear weapons. The younger generation's submerged terror oi the bomb (ci Martin Amis) ilnds an outlet in the study oi international Law. Gradually the exploration oi the issues, depicted as a kind oi legal detective work, opens up splits in the whole iamlly and the play ends on a iamlly instability echoing the tight rope oi nuclear danger which dominates the world.
The legal points are very interesting li a little too complicated to be satislactorlly presented in a play which, directed by Bryan Elsley, determinedly doesn’t lose a lightness oi touch. However, the iamlly somehow Isn’t quite plausible -too many points oi view have lorced in. The lather is, lor instance, a senior policeman (who back in is youth arrested his wile in a San The Bomb demo). He is given a very strong speech which deiends the history at nuclear weapons and nicely gives the impression oi a genuine, out at court debate. But then, as he worries about his son’s attitude he turns physically violent, in short, hand-making all sorts oi points aboutthe dangers oi nuclear weapons which ellectiver he is not allowed to question. Later still, he somewhat ‘miraculously' decides to do an intellectual volte lace and argue with his iamlly lor disarmament.
Interestingly, a recorded telephone conversation allows a distinguished American proiessor at law to make a ‘personal’ appearance as himsell. it completely jars the stage illusion, makes the proiessor implausible and leaves you wishing lor the clarity oi drama that Klail liltered through his own perlormances. (Nigel Billen)
LASHINGS 0F MERRIMENT
Merry Macs, On Tour The Merry Mac Fun Show are back, with a new collection oi songs and sketches, MACLASH, which will be passing through Maylest as part at their llghtn.ng tour at central Scotland (see also Maylest Daily Diary). Packaged in their lamiliartartan but sporting new Wild West designs, this show lashes out at Scotland’s mid-Atlantic world oi tourists, multinationals and supermarkets (‘You have nothing to lose but your chain stores!) and locuses particularly on the plight oi Scotland’s unemployed - ‘A show written by dolers and about the dole’. The bar oi Edinburgh’s Theatre Workshop was packed out tor a brlel preview oi MACLASH, suitably tailored iorthe venue, but the comedy, politics, satire and improvisation were all there in iorce. Speaking aiterthe show, the Winners oi the Street Theatre Entertainers oi the Year title at Covent Garden, London, agreed that audiences should expect something a little ditterent lrom past shows. Their previous work has tended to locus on the stereotyped images at Scotland abounding south olthe border and along the East Coast. MACLASH is a iirm and hilarious step into the mire oi Scottish politics. (Ben Simms)
The List 1— 14 May 35