FESTIVAL PREVIEW
FESTIVAL THEATRE
CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS
oranges and tatcakes Irom a stall by a taxi-rank. Here, with two otherwomen, she Iinds the cameraderie that will contirm her strength as a woman up againstthe regime which has also separated hertrom her husband.
The Players have had a chequered past struggling to get the play togetheron no money. Now playingto packed houses and in association with the Market Theatre ol Johannesburg, they are looking Iorward to extensive tours in England. Europe and America. “It isa way oI letting people know what happens.‘ they say. ‘We had a lot otwhite audiences in South Atrica and itwas something new lorthem.. ltwas sadto watch them crying because they Ieel guilty they haven‘t gotthe powerto change anything.'(Stephanie Billen)
0 You Strike the Woman... Vusisizwe Players. Assembly Rooms. (venue 3),226 2427/8. 7-29 Aug. 8pm. £4.50 (£3.50) [Fr]
EDUCATION
The University olBradtord Drama Group take on CLASS ENEMY, a play Iirst staged atthe Royal Court, London in 1978. With guidance Irom playwrightAIan Ayckbourn. they will present an unvamished and Irank interpretation ot an already candid original. In the unattended and undisciplined classroom ot a South London comprehensive. irresponsible and destructive egos begin to play among the pupils.
The highly popular Hull Truck Theatre Company- whose previous productions have brought them a strong reputation on the Fringe- presentJohn Godber’s latest play. TEECHERS.
The plight ot a teacher seduced towards a better equipped and more lucrative post and the ensuing lamentations ol his pupils is its central concern. Godber, who was himsell a teacher belore turning to writing. reters to ‘the strong auto- biographical elements' within the play: ‘In many ways it is a very direct and real adaptation ot the time I Spent in education.‘
The seduction ot talent
within education and the seemingly arbitrary
limitations stamped on state schools won‘t be underplayed, explains Godber, but ‘any political pill will be considerably sweetened' by a coating oI engaging irreverence Irom the pupils.
0 Class Enemy, Bradtord University Drama Group. Roxburgh Theatre, (venue 27). 225 7294. 10-22 Aug. 1.30pm. £3 (£2)
0 Teechers. Hull Truck Theatre Co. George Square Theatre, (venue 37) 667 3704. 7-29 Aug. 10pm. £4.75 (£4).
INCEST
Every year the subjects that emerge in Fringe plays reveal a great deal about which issues have been topical that year. Thistime, as well as a host ot plays about prisons, there are several on incest and child abuse:
0 KISS PUNCH GOODNIGHT is an all-woman play using mime and shadow playto show the ordeal at an incest victim. Strip Search, Celtic Lodge (venue 6), 225 7097.24-29 Aug. 12.15pm.
, £2.5o(£2) [n1 ! I . WHEN THE eouou BREAKS‘
* shows2 sisterscoping withthe release olthe lather
who abusedthem. Rose Brutord College, Celtic Lodge (venue 6) 225 7097.11.14. 18, 22 Aug, 12.15pm. £1.50 (£1) [Fr]
0 CROSS MY HEART
AND HOPE TO DIE
gives voice to child abuse victims. Works Theatre Co-Op, Chaplaincy Centre (venue 23),10,12,14,17, 19, 21,24, 26, 28Aug. 6.45pm £3.50 (£2.50) [Fr] 0 RIGHT OF ASYLUM also locuses on child abuse. Whey Theatre Co, Theatreworks. (venue 114), 557 5151, 18-22, 26-29 Aug. 2.10pm. £2.50 (£2) [Fr].
CENTRAL AMERICA
Several productions this year hope to throw some dramatic light on the vast changes and inherent inIIuences atwork in Central America.
Guanaco-Teatro el Salvador present IN THE KINGDOM OF CHACHAMUCA, an allegorical insight into Salvadorean history which hopes, simultaneously. to sustain a distinct pertinence to contemporary events.
AK47 Theatre Co-operative, meanwhile. have recently come togetherto pertorm Peter Campling's HEY NICARAGUA. Premiered In its present torm at this year's Festival, the play essentially locuses on the
‘79' revolution but, in a stylised way. incorporates
overtour hundred years oI Nicaraguan history. An ex-member ot the National Youth Theatre, Campling hopes to capitalize on time recently spent in the country to inlorm what is an ‘introductory and provoking' drama. In SURVIVORS, Loco Theatre Company look at contemporary Nicaragua and its political complexity with the aid oI humour.
0 In the Kingdom at Chachamuca. Guanaco- Teatro Salvador, Theatre ACT, (venue 101). 557 1785. 10—23 Aug, 5.15pm. £3 (£2). [Fr]
0 Hey Nicaragual, AK47 Theatre Co-op, Mandela Theatre, (venue 79),17-29 Aug, 4pm. £2.50 (£2) [Fr] 0 Survivors, Loco, Calton Centre, (venue 56) 10—22 Aug 9.15pm. £3 (£2) [Fr]
FIGURE THIS
An exotic assortment ot controversial ligures are treading the boards at this year's Fringe. Emma Goldman, turn-ot-the- century Jewish anarchist is the locus at Howard Zinn's REBEL IN PARADISE
Meanwhile TERRORIST by Dhalian Kirby explores more recent history. concentrating on the kidnap otAmerican millionairess Patty Hearst
Two at the most remarkable productions however must be MARILYN MONROE'S SHOES and HOURS BY THE WINDOW. Administrative Director at Red Rose Theatre Company, Margaret Eddershaw, explains that the Iorrner play ‘is looking atthe Monroe myth and why she still Iascinates people today, 25 years alter her death, and why people need idols.’
Margaret Douglas‘s ‘Hours By The Window' depicts the extraordinary love story ending in thejoint suicide pact ot Cynthia and Arthur Koestler. journalist, authorot “Darkness At Noon' who recently tunded a new parapsychology department to Edinburgh University.
0 Rebel in Paradise. Moving TargetTheatre, Southside lntemational (venue 82) 667 7365.10—29 Aug 7.25pm. £4 (£3).
0 Terrorist, Foundation Touring Co, Edinburgh College otArt (venue 73). 10-22 Aug Noon. £2.50 (£1.50).
0 Marilyn Monroe's Shoes. Red Rose Theatre Co.
(venue 80) 556 4386.10—15 Aug 8.15pm; 17—22 Aug 2.15pm; 24—29 Aug 6.15pm. £2.50 (£2).
0 Hours By The Window, Mermaid's Leg, Calton Studios, Calton Road (venue 71) 556 7066.10, 12, 14. 18, 20, 22Aug 7.30pm. £2.50 (£1.50).
VENUE 35 CAMBRIDGE STREET (BEHIND USHER HALL) 8—29 AUGUST
Communicado Theatre Company presents
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
World premiere of a new play by Liz Lochhead A unique and powerful blend of text, live music, choreography and image . . .
8—22 AUGUST AT 9.00PM
WORDS BEYOND WORDS Presented by Tom McGrath
New theatre writing in Scotland New plays, new approaches.
I I-29 AUGUST AT 7.00PM AND
MONOLOGUES
Solo voices, solo performances — constantly changing programme — a relay of performers stand up to the audience.
I2—29 AUGUST at 5.3OPM
TAG Theatre Company presents OTH E LLO by William Shakespeare
TAG promises high emotion, evil scheming and bloody deeds . . .
I4—29 AUGUST AT 2.30 PM
Communicado Big Bang Orchestra
STRANGERS IN PARADISE
Wild jazz music and theatre — parodies, burlesques and satires . . .
I4—29 AUGUST at I IASPM
Performances Monday to Saturday
Book in person or by post from *The Fringe Office, Royal Mile *Royal Lyceum Theatre. Grindlay St *Lyceum Studio, Cambridge St Call
— (031) 229 4353 or (car) no me a“— E 13.
Licensed bar for every performance
SEE INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
The List 7—20 August 19 ‘