THEATRE LIST
By PETER ARNOI'T and PETER MULLAN
CITIZENS’ THEATRE
GORBALS, GLASGOW
Tuesday 4 - Saturday 22 July BOX OFFICE: 041 429 0022
DIRECT FROM NEW YORK
Taylor’s Ballets- are
among the noblest and
“'ECFAUL UAYLOR
@ANCE
[3 0M PANY They
E defy ( gravity. ‘/ “...breathtaking ’ ...l'our human beings erupt . across the stage. flinging / themselves horizontally in and out of each other‘s arms. pirouetting and jiving at mind- boggling speed to an amplified wall-of-sound..." THE TIMES
most thn'fling works of ‘ our age, lifeaenhancing
and beamifigz ” I _... g ; fl CLEMENT career—r”? . . FINANCIAL Twas - ~ I
rues 4m Jury to Sat so: Janis: at 7.3Gpm. Sat. Mat. 2.3093: .~
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Human Step; NEW DEMONS
12-15 July at 8pm
MUSIC FROM NEW DEMONS by the West India Company is released on the Editions E G Label and available on CD (EEGCDbl),
LP (EGED61) and cassette (EGEDC61) from all good record stores.
Tickets from £3.50
041-331 1234/
26'l’hc List 3(lJunc — 13 July 198‘)
041-332 9000 E
TiCl LINK
ANTIGONE
.“Fmd-Jflvv'ot-H-M.‘
Seen alTheatre Workshop, Edinburgh. Ontour.
Robert Pickavance directs Antigone like itwas a film. His production for Communicado is all shadows, flames, low-key naturalistic acting and even taped musicforadded atmosphere. There are touches of Peter Brook with the rough floor. the flickering light and the sparse, straightforward reading of the text. Strangely there is only the occasional suggestion of Communicado‘s patent brand of stylised movement. notably in the slow introductory sequence and later on when the two women ol the chorus swing censors dervish-like about their heads
The central conflict is between Antigone and King Creon. Her brothers have both been slain in battle, one defending, the other attacking the city. Accordingly. Creon is prepared to give the firsta full state burial. while the otheris condemned to rot above the ground. Antigone, meanwhile. is torn between duty to the state and. more emotively, herfraternal obligation. The resultant tragedy stems from Antigone‘s split loyalties and Creon‘s inability to compromise.
At its best Sophocles‘ tragedy is about big people with big ideas. The tragedy only makes sense when we see the clash oftwo intransigentand stubborn characters both right in their own way. It is the lack of painless solutiontothe dilemma that makesthe tragedy. But rarely in Communicado‘s production are we made to feel that there is any compulsion forthe tragedy
; to take place. Pickavance pitches in at
one level and forthe best part olthe
i play staysthere. Onlytowardsthe end i do we feelthatthere has been anyreal 7 development. Untilthatclimaxthere is Iittleto convince usthatthisisnota
petty domestic squabble. but a debate
of crucial moral import.
The other problem is the music.
Adrian Johnston‘s score comes across
as a slightly jazzierversion ofthe stuff they use forNationaI Trust documentaries orLabourParty
broadcasts. Pickavance‘sattemptto
. emphasise the dramatic moments of
§ the play falls flat because the music undercuts and distracts from the flow of
f the action. It is something that works in
. tilm, but is perhaps too self-conscious
; on stage. It is almost as if
; Communicado cannottrustthe
; language to hold its own dramatic
; power. As a result the actors are
unnecessarily restrained from letting
7 rip withtheirpowerful material.
' The declamatory nature of Sophocles‘ theatre does not demand
‘ complex interactions between his
characters. but Communicado do not
make the relationships any clearer.
Creon (Gerard Mulgrew), for example,
has an oddlyflippant relationship with
the chorus (Maureen Carr and Myra
i McFadyen) who can‘t settle between
3 sombreness or comic relief and both
I ways lack cultural resonance.
Communicado tell a good story in a
i straightforward way, but in the end it is too moderate and temperate a production to be truly engaging. (Mark Fisher).