NEW WORK. NO DEFINITION
"This isn't lust a token gesture,’ says lllkkl IAllican, Glasgow Third Eye Centre's new events organiser, of ‘llew Work, llo Definition’. A joint venture by the Third Eye and Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, the two month long season will be a malor step forward In making available to Scottish audiences recent developments In what has been known as ‘performance art', but which Increasingly, as the season’s title suggests, defies definition.
‘lt is to do with new innovations in performance areas and in challenging people's conceptions of theatre,’ says Millcan, also pointing out that the works will be challenging preconceptions of ‘perforrnance art'. Performance art is a term she tends to resist, as Itcan suggest to people something rather navel-contemplating and esoteric. The works on view will range from the funnyto the moving, from performances that simply use theatre more visually than verbally, to ‘instaliatlons', performances lasting many hours, that are more ofa living painting or sculpture, to be returned to again and
1' as:
Important step in developing the theatre's commitment to new work and to opening up new Ideas for British theatre: ‘The Traverse is involved with new work and this Is some of the most extraordinary. challenging
, new work I've ever seen. it
leans upon European visual traditions, whereas most of British theatre leans on verbal, literary traditions. A lot of the work we do concentrates on script, while most olthis concentrates on image. It's Britain’s loss that this has been subdued. It has always been marginalised - why should it be? I thinkthe Traverse's work is still going to be literary because the theatre is about
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we've programmed here Is definitely not esoteric. I think I would almost have a fight with anybody who said it was esoteric. Anybody who's ever been to an art gallery orto a movie witha lot of visual image could enjoy this.‘
Some of the work may be funny, some bizarre, some moving, some fairly challenging. ‘Audlences should not necessarily expect entertainment,‘ points out lllkki Milican. ‘They may be made to feel uncomfortable.’
Ideally that discomfort will be Inspirational. ‘There hasn't been a lot ofthis sort of theatre initiated in Scotland,‘ says Milican. ‘By importing it, we hopeto encourage it- it is already happening in the Glasgow School of Art. This season is lust a start. It's where to lump off.’ (Stephanie Billen and Sarah iiemming) flew Work, No Definition runs from 14 Oct to 6 Dec at the Third Eye, Glasgow and the Traverse, Edinburgh. 0n
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INSIDE 2 20 l. 27 GUEST LIST THEATRE MEDIA People making waves this Complete theatre listings This fortnight on the small fortnight plus previews and screen and in the Wireless 4 reviews. . box. 26 1 42 NEW WORK’ "0 Dance 1 BACKLIST DEFINITION ( As‘ ilasgowStvle' Wemeetsomeofthe ‘ ‘ i. . _ artists and performers in a CLlmeimm ““F‘ m“ . . V _ i y )f fortnightMartna m‘Um nc“ season ( ()‘Loughlin talks to young
experimental work on the borders of art and performance opening in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
6 HUE AND CRY
Alastair Mabbott meets Pat Kane of the successful band. and. in a second article. investigates the forces behind the present success of Scottish rock.
9 FILM
Edinburgh and Glasgow cinema listings
Classical 28; Folk 31; Jazz 32; Rock 34.
47 SPORT
Local sporting highlights.
46 KIDS
The young people‘s listing section.
40 ART
Comprehensive gallery guide.
Glasgow designers.
50 BOOKS
Reviews
53 NIGHTLIFE
Dance the night away.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Publisher Robin Hodge. Editors Nigel Billen. Sarah Hemming. Associate Editor Allan Hunter. Design Simon Esterson. Advertising 3. Simulation Robin Hodge. Steve McCullough. Sheila MacLean. Accounts Georgette chwick. Richard Gray. Typesetting Jo Kennedy and Hewer Text. Production Editor Paul Keir. Production Assistants Sheila
Alice Bain, Books Alan Taylor. Classical Music Carol Main. Dance Alice Bain, Film Allan Hunter. Folk/Jazz Norman Chalmers, Kids Sally Kinnes, Nightlife (Edinburgh) Stuart Raikcr. Nightlife (Glasgow) Gordon Meil, Open Sarah Hemming, Rock (Edinburgh) Alastair Mabbott. Iiock (Glasgow) John Williamson. Listen! Alastair Mabbott. John Williamson, Sport Kenny Mathieson, Theatre Sarah
again (they are free) and encouraging young writers. absorbed. The broad But part of our policy has spectrum of work on show been to find the theatrical, will, the organisers hope, to explore what is really Illustrate something of the "108mm ""10! than What range of work going on on could be presented on TV. I the borders between theatre “09' "m "I" "I" m) mu.) .m complement our work.’ F0, Jammy mm" at m. liaison, too, insists that Traverse Theatre, the “‘0 '0“ '3 "0' "no" “pm...” an inaccessible. ‘The work
pages 4 and 5 we talkto some of the performers.
Robert Dawson Scott on keeping Jammy Slde up
You remember the one about how If you ever drop a piece of toast. It will always land marmalade side down? Sod's Law, we used to call it, or Murphy’s Law; there are probably other variations. It ls i suppose the one law of nature that we really can take for granted. Each time the world takes a couple more turns there‘s a new example of mankind’s (yes, and womanklnd’s, you’re not getting off that lightly) apparently infinite capacity to make a sow's ear out of a silk purse. With each new technological break- and i use the word advisediy- through, our Ingenuity in finding ways for It to go
wrong reaclies new heights. Why, no sooner do we get sufficiently used to clingfilm for It to become invaluable than we dlscoverthat it’s carcinogenic. No sooner do we sort out which aerosols to spray under our arms and which to clean the oven with (and goodness, that was a sticky patch we wentthrough before we leamedl) than the ozone layer takes a holiday.
The trouble with the toast and marmalade paradigm is that it's rather old-fashioned — a bit pipe-smokey and tweedy. It lacks that essential modernist edge. So the hunt Is on for a Sod’s Law for the Eighties, for the designer cock-up. For example, ‘whenever there's a quiet moment in the theatre someone’s digital watch will go off.’ 0r ‘however carefully you set the video it will always record The Price Is Itight.’ Should it perhaps be, rather than a rule of certainly, a rule of probability, more suited to these troubled times; ‘the greater the volume of food in my freezer the greater the likelihood of a power-cut while I’m on
MacLean. Mark Fisher. Rosemary Goring, Art
hollday.’ Or a sliding scale of disaster; ‘the volume of motorway traffic will always exceed the estimates of motorway planners and thus the capacity of the motorways they plan by a factor of 10% Irrespective of the number of motorway miles constructed.’
What makes this solemn quest more difficult than it might at first appear is that many new devices have the capacity to go wrong In several different ways. Considerthe electronic vending machine, that subtle temptress. First It’s the coins. Do you have the right combination? Does It give change? If it does, is the No Change ilght flashing? If It isn't flashing is it just the bulb that's failed? When you finally pluck up the courage to Insert the money, will it be beiched back at you through the returned coins slot? (Obviously It won’t be if you press the coin release lever; then the machine merely goes silent, smugly digesting its metallic meal). And if you’re lucky and it accepts your libation
Hemming. Camera Edinburgh Make-up
and you diallthe combination of bacchanalian delights your heart desires— freshly ground Arabica beans with just a hint of Smokey Mountain, a suggestion of sugar substitute and extra non-dairy creamer— there is still the agonising wait until you discover that the machine Is out of cups and your breakfast is splashing all down the front of your trousers.
Just to really confuse the Issue, manufacturers - who hitherto have been as confused as us by the unexpected capacity for disaster they have unknowingly built into their products— have started deliberater designing-in nonsenses. Thus the fastest growing sector of the drinks market- iager- now comes In bottles you can’t open. We have ‘dlsposable’ nappies which are about as easy to dispose of as nuclear waste, we have cars which talk to us while we're trying to concentrate on driving them. All in all toast and marmalade with a bit of fluff on it begins to look the least of our worries.
The List 16 — 2‘) October 1