THEATRE REVIEW
imEVIE-lmm-
successfulon Tue lSJune.
I Salnsburys. purveycrs ofquality foods. are branching out into the arts. The Sainsbury’s Awards for Arts Education will provide cash to those who have excelled in performing and visual arts education. There is one grant of £100,000. one of£50.000 and five 0f£10.000 up for grabs. Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre is on the shortlist for one ofthe £10,000 awards in recognition of its Access Days events. Also in the running for an award is The English Shakespeare Company for their workshops on Shakespeare‘s Roman plays. All concerned will find out if they have been
I London City Ballet. who embarked on their current tour of Cinderella in the beliefthat it would be their last. have been given a reprieve. Assurances from the Arts Council and Minister for the Arts mean that the company will continue to operate until March 1992 when. it is hoped. the London City Ballet will become an Arts Council revenue client and therefore will be ensured ofpermanent survival.
I Scottish Youth Dance Festival There are still some places available at this year's festival which takes place in Dingw all 30 Jun—~7Jul. Designed for ll-ZS-year-olds. the festival features classes and workshops and a nightly programme of performances. Details front (flare Stewart or Karen Mitchell on (0381)
()1075.
I Poetry and Play Competition Li'n(lerstarirllng lilc ra ry magazine is offering £ 100
, for the best play it receives
by 15 ()et. lintry feeis £2.50per play andfurther
details are available from
Understanding. 30A Montgomery Street. Edinburgh EH7 51S.
I Company members wanted The Edinburgh YoungTheatre (‘ompany is always keen to hear from I l—lX-ycar-olds who would like to be involved in eitherperformanceor technical work. The company is appearing in Spring Hing. a major youth arts festival in Devon. and the ltdinburgh l'ringc. ('ontaet lan Dewar on 03] 33b 1th].
RALPH BLAIR
One in the eye for Pants Performance Assoc.
Four men, four chairs, fourtables and a gun. Pants Performance Association are working out some big boys’ games at The Third Eye Centre. Wrestling with snatches of tabloid journalism and second rate movies, they build a world that portrays four men lost in conflicting images. They might be on the moon. They mightjust be the last four suckers left at the end of an evening in a nightclub, dancing like big girls and feeling a bit sick. This is boys pretending to be men on stage. Democracy explores some strange and ritualistic patterns of masculinity. Using minimal props and significant objects, the company perform an intricate sequence of actions that refer
I,
' Boys will be boys
to games; sex games, drinking games, fighting games, and shooting games. What are the boys really up to underthe guise of the ‘New Man’ image? In Pants’ world they cheat, they laugh, they cry, they act badly, they are strangely obsessional about their bodies. And they play ‘Democracy’ - a game demanding commitment, skill, manhood and the ability to lie convincingly.
Pants' strength lies in their ease with
, each other as performers. Having
worked together for a number of years, this is the company's first residency at The Third Eye, which has produced their work in a co-commission with The London International Festival of Theatre 1991. An oddball mixture of highly talented individuals, on stage they catch each other with complete ease. Making theatre from the pickings of their culture, they construct scenes that are dangerous, comic and deadly serious at the same time. Pants are obviously there to worry each other as much as anything. In blurring the boundary between the real and the fictional, they produce a charged dynamic. Democracy is a glimpse of men— and their confusions— at the end of the 20th century. Some rough, tough games from boys too big to cry. (Andrea Phillips)
Democracy will be at The Third Eye Centre from Thurs 13—Sat 15 June.
Dot dash
In the Glaswegian vernacularthe phrase ‘see, that’s her’ can imply anything from disapproval to admiration. As the title of Dorothy Paul’s new one-woman show at the Tron, it represents a kind of triumph. After years of couthy caricatures and comic turns in stage and TV successes such as The Steamie and Paddy’s Market, the spotlight is now firmly on her, in a show based on the characters and experiences of her Dennistoun chfldhood.
‘I’ve drawn on a wealth of experiences of the marvellous, colourful people I’ve met, my mother, the neighbours, my aunties, going to school the first day and getting the strap, that kind of thing,‘ she says. ‘There will be a lot of recognition and identification from people who know that area of life and for people who don't, well, it's universal humour— if it’sfunny, it's funny.’
The show seems to fit neatly into the current theatrical trend of ‘real lite' stories of the East End in the 40s and 50s, which some have accused of sentimentality and cosy nostalgia, but Paul rejects being slotted into this category. ‘I'm a great believer that creativity means making your own
55'! he List l4—27June 199]
Dorothy Paul goes it alone
rules and I can’t really categorise this. There‘s a lot of harrowing stuff in mine —people will laugh, but I thinkthey’ll remember it was a sore time. But it‘s not a documentary, I'm not trying to put
. overa message, it's wait till I tell you
this, and waittill you hearwhat happened next, like the kind of stories you’d tell to friends’.
It the show doesn’t go down well, there’s always an alternative though. ‘It was either showbusiness or the Kraft cheese factory’. (Andrea Baxter)
See That‘s Her, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 25-Sun 30 June.
! v DRAMA
I Eyeight
! ."
Alan Lyddiard indulges in debauchery atthe Third Eye.
‘Basically the reason why audiences go to the theatre is to watch live people.’ says Alan Lyddiard. discussing his new project. ‘l)reams and Debauchery". at the Third live Centre. ‘lfyou put somebody on'a stage. shine a light on them and they‘re just standing there. existing. being. then that in itselfean be i beautiful. meaningful. it can sav something. l started on exactlythat premise. The people I'm working with are the most important thing:
*0
just in standingand being. Anything i
else they do over and above that — dance. move. sing. say lines — is a
know.‘
Although he is exploring the potential for performer-based theatre. Lyddiard will be far front idle during the six-month process which will eventually result in the presentation of a play in December. With designer Neil Murray. he has already settled on (‘as‘anova as the central character and has narrowed the subject matter down to a specific
period in the hon viveur's life.
"l‘he particular area that we‘re interested in revolves around a woman called Mme d‘()euf.‘ explains Lyddiard. "l‘his woman was about (it) and believed that she could be reborn as a man. She thought that ('asanova could impregnate her and
she would give birth to herselfas a man. (‘asanova led her on and said. "Yes that‘s possible. lean do that for you but we have to go through this incredible process and you've just got to trust me." So for five years. (‘asanova led this woman by the nose. conned her to go all over the world. to pay him money . to indulge his fantasies in whatever way he fancied and she accepted it. hook. line and sinker.‘
Lyddiard and Murray‘s project is just one of several new intiatives at the 'l'hird Eye over the summer. In July there is a dance and movement workshop with choreographger Laurie Booth. from July to August Nicolas Bloomfield and Leah llausman (from Neil Bartlett's (iloria company) will be holding a theatre school and. in September. David Dorfman offers a free. two-week course for professional
dancers. (Philip Parr) I )reams aml Debauchery will he at the Third [fye ( 'entre in December.
For details ofsammer schools contact Nikk t' .lltllcait or Steve Slater at the Third Iiye ( 'entre, (MI 332 752] .
1 bonus. 'l‘hat‘s the principle. whether i 3 it‘s going to work or not I don‘t