THEATRE LIST
I Theatre is listed by city first, then by venue. running in alphabetical order. Cabaret and touring shows are listed separately underthe relevant heading. KEY: [D] tacilitlestorthe disabled. [E] facilities lorthe hard of hearing, usually an induction loop system. For prices. price in brackets eg (£1 .50) is the concessionary price.
I The Glasgow Garden Festival will also be hosting theatre events. Please see Garden Festival Diary for details of these.
I Many Edinburgh theatres are hosting Spring Fling events. These are given a brief listing below in those venues that are regular. Foriull details and for events in occasional venues being used torSpring Fling, please see Spring Fling Daily Diary.
3 GLASGOW
' I CITIZENS' THEATRE (iorbals Street. 42‘) 0022. Box Office Mon-Sat 10am-8pm. Bar.
Lady Windermere's Fan Fri h May—Sat 4 June. 7.30pm. £3. (‘oncs £1 in adyanee. free on the door. A rich. dark production by Philip Prowse ofone of Oscar Wilde's earliest comedies. Mrs Erlynne. a lady of dubious character. is trying to get into Nth-century London society again. to the distress of Lady Windermere. who considers her a bad woman. Little does she know. . . Wilde rcshapes and darkens the comedy slightly. there are some lovely performances. and London socialitcs parade across his sumptuous set like predatory peacocks.
Q umbemould
Why struggle with traffic and parking when these three brilliant evenings of music can be enjoyed at Cumbernauld Theatre?
Thursday 2 June 7.45pm ANTON KIRKPATRICK ln concert Instrumental guitar music Anton’s first appearance since his return from the Spanish Arts FesuvaL His new album, ‘Reel of Ghosts and Dreams‘, is now on release.
From the Glasgow Jazz Festival
Friday 24 June 7.45pm GRAND UNION JAZZ ORCHESTRA A multi-racial band with musicians from South and West Africa, India, the Caribbean, South America and Europe.
Tuesday 28 June 7.45pm NICKY HIND and Musicians Cross the musical barriers with a strong quartet. piano, synthesizer, percussion and improvising reeds.
Tickets: £3, concessions £1.75 BOX OFFICE 0236 732887
7W
THEATRE
| I DRAMA CENTRE 126 lngram Street. 552 5827.
Cabaret't‘hurs 2—.‘at 4 June. See Cabaret.
I DRAMA STUDIO West Quad. (ilasgow L'niyersity‘.
Sweet Bird of Youth Wed 25—Sat 28 May. 7.15pm. l‘ree. (iiasgow L'niyersity Theatre in Tennessee Williams' play.
I CUMBERNAULD THEATRE (‘umbernauld (I236 732887. Box Office Mon-Fri lllam-(ypm; Sat 10am-3pm; b-h’pm pert. eygs. Bar (ale.
Funeral Games and The Good and Faithful Servant Thurs 2o—Sat 28 .\lay.".-15pm. £2.50 ( £1 .25). .\'o Mean (‘ompany in a double bill of black comedy by Joe ()rton. Stanley Fri 3 ck Sat 4 June. 7.45pm. £3
(£1 7'5). ('unibernauld Theatre Company bring back their touring production oia new play by Nick liearnc about Stanley .a mentally handicapped adult trying to
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
TAG,0nTour Great Expectations is a production
which shows what can be done when
I theatre is injected with dance and * music. In John Clifford‘s adaptation of
the famous Dickens’ novel none of the main relationships or events are lost, but equally he never allows too many words to slow up the action.
From the start the pace is fast and the cast agile. The central character Pip is played by two actors Bruce Campbell and Alan Cumming, a device which
twins Pip as buy and young man and which emphasises him as the pivot for the events which unravel and connect throughout the story. Other actors in the cast take on two parts. James Durrell plays a gnarly old Magwitch and a dandiiied Herbert Pocket with great agility and Jane Scott Barrett does a swift turn from Chauceresque Mrs. Joe to disturbed Molly. Dancer Liz Ingram, with closely cropped hair and bound in veils, makes an unlikely, but believable Miss Haversham. Without exception all the young cast get to grips with theircharacters.
Smooth and sure direction by Ian Brown integrates the choreography of Glasgow-based dancer Gregory Nash throughout the production. This includes scenes— like the Richmond Ball -when all the characters on stage are involved in a simple, but highly effective set piece. However, the release technique which Nash uses in his own work underlines all movement in the piece, so that Molly’s despair is signalled by a repeated arm movement, Joe’s honesty is developed in his stance and Jaggers continually washes his hands. The non-dancers in the group are never uncomfortable- looking and movement is rarely superfluous to the action.
With Peter Salem's score for cello and keyboards giving definition to the production, Great Expectations unwinds with dexterity, a sprinkling of humour and clever and minimal use of
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EX l-‘ELiTAT IONS
C3 {KL/AT
re-integrate into society. See Touring. Shakers'l‘ue 7~Sat l l .lune.".-15pm. i Tue—Thurs £2.50 (£1 .25): Fri tk Sat L325 (£1.75). ('ocktail Theatre (‘ompany in a new production of the highly popular comedy Shakers. first toured by l lull Truck Theatre (‘ompany . about lite in a trendy cocktail bar.
I EAST KILDRIDE VILLAGE THEATRE Maxwell l)riye. liasl Kilbride. (BS 52 48669.
East Kilbride Arts Festival Fri 2“ .\la\ Sun 5 .lune. Please call theatre for details
I KINGS THEATRE Bath Street. Boy ()l'fice. Mon-Sat noon-opin. 4 bars. [l)]. [Ti]. l’hone bookings. Ticket (critic. ('andleriggs. Mon-Sat Ill..‘~llain-o..‘slIpni. 0412275511.
Little Shop of Horrors Mon ifs-sin 2s .\lay. 7.30pm. Sat mat 3pm. £2135”. Lorraine (‘hasc takes the central part in thistouring production of the spool horror musical. Touch and Go Mon 3n .\lay ~ Sal lSJiinc. 7.30pm. Sat mat. 3pm. £4. £5. {(1. Jimmy Logan stars in this larce by Derek Benlield about marital infidelity.
I MITCHELL THEATRE (iranyille Street. 2213198. Box()flice Mon—Sat noon ()plil. Bar. (‘ale [1)]. Tickets also ayailablc from the Ticket (‘entrc. ('andleriggs. 22“ 551] Mon-Sat Ill.3llani-(w.30pm.
props (though the shuttered wall seems on the small side). The ending seems abrupt and not as ambiguous as it might have been, but overall this is an inventive, entertaining show. (Alice Bain)
ROCKOF AGES
Annexe Theatre Company, On Tour
At Edinburgh‘s St Brides Centre, the audience of Edinburgh grannies held its breath: they were here to see a Western. 0n the stage before them lay the parched Arkansas desert, a dying soldier-blue, and a dead injun. They didn’t get a Western, but they did get Robin Lindsay Wilson’s sharply observed play about racial genocide in the Wild West of 1865.
The soldier, Dutton, is dying as a result of a shoot-out with his half-indian son, who he has in turn killed. As Dutton lies dying in the desert he becomes feverish, and in his dream-delirium his dead indian wife and hall-breed son come back from purgatory to accuse him and all white men of wilful ignorance and savagery. In the distilled moment of suffering and repentance before death we are shown
I
the Paisley Fillieelcl‘iations the‘()ld
Skeeter and the Boy Sat 4 June.
‘ how simple and essentially kind people '
fl Men Should Weep Tue 24—s‘ai 28 May. “.Fllpm. Sat mat 2..‘~(lpm. £3. Pantheon 'l'heatre ( ‘lub in lina Lamont Stewart's \yonderl’ully funny and moy'ing play about lite in a (ilasgow tenement. Gerry Sadowitz Sat 4 June. See Cabaret. Dazzle Thurs 0 Sat ll.lune. 2.3llck "Fllpin L3 ( f; l .5”) (ilasgow Schools Youth Theatre in a musical. I PAISLEY ARTS CENTRE New StreetfiST llllll. Box ( )llice open'l'uc-Sun riotiii-S.3llpiii. Bar (Open noon-l lpm 'l tie-Sat; l2..‘~ll-2..‘~llpni ck n.3u-l 1pm Sun. \leals sery ed ). (ate (()pen noon-l lpin ). [i)|. Shanghaied Sat 2.\ May . " _‘~llpm.£~1(t.'2). Borderline 'l'hcatrc ( ‘onipany in Liz I l ochhead‘s funny and popular children‘s play about lotii children oi different backgrounds Ilttoyyil together when they are ey acuated during the ( ‘lydcbank Blitz. Ship of Fools 'l ue 31 May. "..‘~llprii. “(12) l he ( ~loyy ii .leys els in a tale about the sea from the depths ol the ocean lolhe
deckchairs on the strand. l-‘or children and adults alike
Tannahill Play in 3 lune. ".Rllpm. l’artol
l’aislcy Society ' in an eyennigol enlctlainnicill looking at the life of Paisley poet “'l'annahill‘,
wsllpin. L4
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ruin each other's lives. Willie, a young ‘
boy-farmer who comes upon Button in the desert. istheapotheosis of i
goodness warped by religious and
cultural intolerance.
There is rather a lot of preachitying in
i the line of Christian colonists not
i necessarily being more civilized than
i the noble savages. and lots of
references to one-ness with rocks,
clouds, sky and the Great Spirit. The i squaw alternates between doe-eyed, ’ ‘ dumb suffering, and laughing and
singing like the innocent moonbeam ; she is.
Cankered familial love-rivalries worthy of Eugene O‘Neill are agonised over in the eternal father-mother-son triangle. All strong meat, but clumsy directing from Maggie Kinloch lets the acting slide into histrionics, although the charged confrontations between father and son had us all sucking hard on our boiled sweeties. The director might have also kept a tighter reign on the pacing of the play. Strong acting from all four of the cast pulled the play through. The son (Laurie Seth Yates) gave a particularly fine performance. (Margaret Mallon)
18The List 27 May—9Junc 1988