THEATRE LIST
noon— H.3llpm. Bar (Open noon—l lpm Tue—Sat: lZ.3ll—-2.3llpm&(130—1 lpm Sun. Meals served). ('ale (Open
noon-~l lpm ). ID].
The Cheviot. The Stag and the Black. Black Oil Sat ‘).Iuly . .S’pm. £3l£l .5“). (ilengarnock Valley Arc Arts ( ‘entre in .Iohn Mc(irath's play about the ill~treatment of Scotland over the centuries that yy as an enorruotrs success
\y hen lirst toured round Scotland by 718-1 theatre company.
I PALACE THEATRE‘) (ireen Street. Kilmarnock.(ISM 235‘)“. Box Office Mon Sat Illam 5pm. ('al’e Bar Mon Sat lllant-Spm. [D] l
No theatre performances until end ol August.
I PAVILION THEATRE Ill Rertticld Street. 332 bur». Box ( )llice Mon-Sat Illam-Spm. Bar.
Robert Hafpern liyer‘y Wed-Sat from l3 .luly ~ lll Sept. "..‘~llprn. Wed £2.5llz'l‘hurs & l‘r'i £35”: Sat {-1. (ietting people todo dubious things under hypnosis.
I ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND DRAMA lllfl chtt'cyy' Street. (MI 333 505".
Focus on Dance Events 3 -Ill.ltll_\ . See Dance listings.
Season of Classical Concerts See ( ‘Iassical Mtrsic.
I THEATRE ROYAL l lope Street. 331 1234. Bo\ ( )llicc Mon-Sat loam-(rpm. ("..‘~llprrr on pert cygs). Bar. Bullet.
NOTZMon-I Sat‘).luly.".3llpm. \cdcr'lands Dans 'l'hcatcr. See Dance. Swan Lake Mon ll—Sat leuly . 7.3llpm. .-\ premiere from Moscoyy ('Iassical Ballet. Sec Dance.
I THIRD EYE CENTRE .‘willSauchielrall Street. 332 7521.(‘ale open I lam 3.30pm Inc In and during ey enirrg performances.
Focus On: Belinda Neave 'l‘hurs 'x‘July. 7..‘~tlpm. Part of the l-‘ocuson Dance season. Sec Dance.
Geographical Duvet Hi 8 a Sat ‘).luly. “.Sllpm. Sec Dance Listings.
Disastrous Peace Hi 15 July . 7.30pm. & Sat lthrly . 9.30pm. USINHNI). A neyy performance piece commissioned by the ‘l‘hrrd liyc (‘entre. from Barnaby Stone (best lsnoyy n as one hall’ol Ralf Rall'). (‘atherinc Jefferson and Mattheyy
Boyy y er. See l’artel.
I TRON THEATRE (i3 'l'rongatc. 553 4207 S. Box ( )tlice 'I‘ue-Sat Noon-Spur: Sun 13.3” llprn. (‘losed Mondays.
Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Ott'l'ue 2S June — Sun lllJuly . Spm. (Shoyy on Sundays. closed on Mondays). £4 non-members: £3 til ) members. (‘ommunicado 'l‘heatre ('ompany in their \ ibrant. punchy production of Liz I.ochhead‘s l-ringe l~‘irst yy inning play about the hapless queen and her Iinglish riyal. Recommended.
Five Past Eight Shows The 13— Sun 3| July. St lfipm. The return of the popular l-‘iye Past liight shoyy. See l-‘eature and ('abaret Listings.
EDINBURGH
I ASSEMBLY ROOMS 54 (ieorge Street. AIDS Benefit 'l'hurs 21 July see cabaret listings.
I BEDLAM THEATRE Forest Road. 235 9893. Mon—Sat Ilium-late. (are.
.\'o theatre performances until lidinburgh Festival.
I BRUNTON THEATRE Musselburgh. ()le 3711.
Dance for Peace Festival Fri S—Sun IllJuly. See Dance Listings for details.
I CHURCHHILL THEATRE Morningside Road
.\'o theatre performances until the lidinburgh l-‘estiy al.
I KINGS THEATRE 2 l.ey en Street. 22‘) lltll . Box Office Mon—Sat 10am—8pm. Bar. [1)]. IE].
West Side Story Mon 27 June—Sat ()July. 7.3tlpm. Wed & Sat mat. 2.30pm. £5—£8.5(). £3 off Grand Circle Stalls and £2 off Upper Circle. Mon—Thurs (except
POLES APART
Aboutthis time last year, Edinburgh audiences were treated to the first showing of a remarkable piece of theatre, telling a remarkable tale. Manfred Karge's ‘Man to Man’ portrayed a German woman who takes on her dead husband’s identity to try and secure work. It was given a stunning, and brave performance by the beautiful Tilda Swinton — a performance that has just won a Time Out award (Time Out being a London magazine apparently notdissimilarto The List. . . )
For director Stephen Unwin, the award and the critical praise heaped on the show has vindicated his enormous respect for Karge, and, he hopes, paved the way for another Traverse production of the East German writer‘s work—this year’s ‘Conquest of the South Pole’. This play, however, will be very different. Though illuminating in the same way the point where the political and personal connect, Unwin feels it is funnier, more straightforward in many ways, and tells the story of a group of people, rather than one woman. The group, all unemployed, become engaged in an imaginery journey to the South Pole.
‘lt‘s about four unemployed lads in Germany. And they're not just unemployed, they're kind ofterminally unemployed. They've never had a job. And really one of the main things it’s about is the kind of social dynamics of this group. It's about struggling for solidarity in a way. One of them is married to a woman who because she works all the time has political ideas. Whereas these boys just don‘t at all. It is like ‘Man to Man' in the sense that it’s about people who are not just working class, they're really underneath that and they can’t get out.‘
‘Man to Man' though, was a solo performance, highly theatrical and
Manfred Karge
partly concerned with the history of Germany and the fact that it is a divided country. ‘Conquest of the South Pole', Unwin feels, is broader in many respects, not least in the fact that it focusses on a problem by no means peculiarto Germany—that of the effect on people of becoming long-term unemployed and the growth of a new class of people trapped into interminable poverty. Karge clearly begins from a point of great concern, compassion and anger about this condition, but his writing, Unwin explains, is still rigorously objective.
‘He doesn't present these young lads sentimentally— like he didn't present Max Goerike sentimentally. By being oppressed and at the bottom they really are oppressed and at the bottom and they can't get together and they fight each other too much. They don‘t know who the enemy is.‘
Throughout the course of the play, Karge gradually makes clear who the enemy really is. The way in which he does this though is one of the most exciting aspects of his writing for Unwin, since it involves actors, directors and audience in making their own decisions: ‘There's a video of his production of the play which he won‘t let me see, because his whole thing is you have to make decisions about it. You have to participate actively and
make decisions —there are no question marks in the text, for example.
One of the most widely respected directors of Brecht in Germany, Karge has, Unwin feels, developed on Brecht‘s ideas: ‘What’s great about Karge is that from a position of understanding Brecht, he's taken it all a step further. . . It's always genuinely realistic in the sense that Brecht meant realism. It’s about getting underneath and showing how things get divided. So he creates very rich characters. And he doesn't just kind of show how the bosses oppress the workers. He shows how the workers are screwed up in a very very deep way. But he still relates it all the time to a very broad political point, and there are political answers being offered.‘
In that sense, Unwin feels, the play is in fact optimistic, since it does otter answers to a deeply worrying contemporary problem. ‘He‘s very tough, though, Karge. He says, well there is an answer, but you’ve got to work for it. He's not just overtly optimistic, there’s no kind of “We’ll just wave the red flag and it’ll all be alright."
‘The politics are quite straightforward in a way, though. It's about how people can get together and how to deal with the kind of divisions that come up. It couldn‘t be more relevant to the problems facing the Left at the moment. And then when you’ve got a common enemy, how to do something about it. By exploring this and the detail of it-what is this apathy that affects us all when we're out of work, when we’re depressed etc — by exploring it very deeply some kind of alternative is suggested. And so this play is very positive in a way.’ (Sarah Hemming).
The Conquest of the South Pole opens at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. See Theatre Listings.
Mon 3“ .lunc i. All seats hall-priccon opening night and all nratinces. lll’ 1 reduction parties ot It I or more (except Mon 37). One of the most popular musicals ol all time. Sondheim and Bernstein‘s updated \ ersion ol the Romeo and .Iulict story. Presented by Malcolm Knight.
StarlightSpectacular Mon llJuly Sat (l Aug. Mon -l'ri "..‘~llprrr: Sat 5 k S‘pm. £4.50 £75”. ('oncs £3.5Holl(irand (‘irclc Stalls and {I on l'pper(‘ircle
'I'ue -'l‘hurs; .-\|l seats hall-price Monday s at ".30 ck Saturdays at 5pm. l’at‘ltesollll or more lll’) reduction. The Kings embarkson its summer y'aricty sItoyy , \y ith a different special guest each yy L‘L‘Is. This week it‘s Ronnie (‘orbctr
I MANDELA THEATRE (iateyy ay lixchange. 2 «4 Abbey mount. on] WSZ. ('ale and bar facilities dtrring performances. Community Project Performance in 3 ts Sal UJuly . ".30 ‘)..‘~llpm. t1 (Slip). l'olloyying on the success of their recent perlormance project Ialsr't' Inglis. the Mandela present another comrntrnity perlormance project a double bill. Hie I'rsrun of (I .Ilmr l astagc adaptation ol ('rrmi'mrrl Plum/mien!) and The lip/c .S'Iort of .llrmk/ml l m)! the Peter Brookyct'siott . I.
The Anatomy of Doctor Dean't‘hurs l4 & t-‘ri 15 July. S. 15pm. Fly on the Wall theatre company in a black tarce by 1 larry ()‘Neill. taking up the popularthemeol’ the corrupt doctor. Here we meet the duplicitous Doctor Dean. involved in
dubious dealings yy ith the abbatoir next door. Not for children or the yery squeamish.
I NETHERBOW ARTS CENTRE 43 l ligh Street. 550 957‘). Box ( )llicc
lllam «1.30pm. 7 9pm pcrl ey gs. ('al'e. [D] llil
Lunchtime Theatre: Ball Boys \y'eds () Sat r) July. lpm. £1 .5“ ( Ll ). ()yygen l louse theatre company bring back their enterprising lunchtime shoyys. the first one being a topical one A Day id l".dgar‘sshort play about fun tennis ball-boys and the yyay they get back at two tennisstars. Street Theatre ( )utside on the Roy al Mile cy‘ei'y day (>33 .Iuly (excluding Sunday ) from 13 noon. .»\n Iidinburgh Iegerrdon legs: (‘aptain l’orteous. captain of the lidinburgh ( iuard. brags about his deeds and misdeeds to the unsuspecting public. The Rowan Tree than 7- Sat l) July. 7._‘sllpm. Sat mat 3.3Upm. £3 ( £2 ). The Forest Minstrels in a compilation ol‘songs. sketchesandstories by Robert Burns. James I logg. .lohn Wilson andJohn Btrclrand. first shoyy n as part of the I987 Borders l-‘estiy al of Ballads and Legends. Making Noise Duietly Weds l3—Sat loJuly. lpm. i l .51) ( Ll ). Another lunchtime show from ()xygen House. this time Robert llolman's play about what happens is hen Helene. a middle-aged (ierman business yyomarr forms a relationship with Alan and his dtrrnb son Sam.
Dick Turnip— Highwayman Wed 13 at Fri 15
July. 10.30am. £2 (child £1.50). No itisn't
a typing error l’aul llansard‘s Puppetsdo present the C\plolls ol the \\ lL‘ls'L'tI Dick 'l'urnip as part of a season of children‘s theatre. Syrsw . Spellbound'l'hurs l4 ck Sat loluly. Ill..‘\llarn. £3 ( {1.50). More lrom l’aul llansard's l’uppets in \y hrch the \y rckcd yyitch. jealous at not hay irtg been my iled to the princess’s birthday party . castsa spell oy er hernl-‘or Syrs ‘. Rough forTheatre l and Rough for Theatre ll Wedlll- Sat Illuly. lpm. Ll Silt Ll l. ()xygcn Theatre in a double-bill of Samuel Beckett at his briclcsl and most enigmatic. Dance Along With Mr Boom \y‘etl 3n Sat :3 Jtrly. 10.30am (Sat also 2.3llpm ). £2 (i I .5”). Mr Boom brings hispopular one-man band shoyy to the \c‘lltc‘r'boys. l'ior3y‘rs ‘ Join Mr Boom‘s Band ‘I uc l‘) l'r'i 22July. 2.3U74pm. {1 Super \sorlsshop. lnlormal musical ysorkshops yy ith Mr Boom for 4 S year olds. I PLAYHOUSE IS 32 ( irccnsrde Place. “3! 557 2590. Who Dares Wins l-‘ri SJtrly . “.Stlpm. £4. £5. £6. See cabaret. I PLEASANCE THEATRE (ill'l‘he l’leasance. The Heart ofMidlothian \y’ed l.‘~ Sat 33 July . 7.30pm. £4 (£3.50). 'l'icketsayailable in ady'ancc'lrom Netherboyy .-\rts ( ‘entrc. High Street. “3] 5509579. ()ltl limtl Theatre in a neyy adaptation by play yy right Donald ('ampbell ol Sir Walter Scott's noy‘el. telling the tale of the courageous Jeannie Deans. \y ho journeys to London
The List s — 21 July was 23