FESTIVAL
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Ee by gum, it's grim up north. There’s smog in the air, slag on the hillsides, trouble in t’pit and up at manor, the old world order is crumbling.
Those in the audience expecting 90 minutes oi undiluted titillation to enliven their evening were in tor a disappointment because this adaptation, like the novel, is as much about class wariare and industrial unrest as sex. This, in itselt, is not a iault but the piece as a whole suiiers through sticking too closely to the text. Although there is intelligent use at sets and lighting, it does not seem to be as much a dramatisation as an enaction ol the novel. The scenes tollow the shape oi the book regardless oi whether they are necessary to the dramatic
5PI/6PM
coherence oi the play.
Unfortunately this means that the play takes on board all ol Lawrence’s attitudes, good and bad. The tedious dinner party arguments about Bolshevism remain without comment and the sex scenes, though touchingly done, now seem antiquated ratherthan shocking. Without modernisation or thematic development the periormances seem curiously static. Nicholas Scovell as Clitiord Chatterley does his best to humanise Lawrence’s heavy-handed symbol at bourgeois decline but Alice Ouill has an uphill task injecting personality into the cipherthat is Constance Chatterley.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a good amateur production with some amusing and even gripping moments but it is overshadowed by the more inventive and prolessional productions on the Fringe. (Frances Corniord)
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Fringe) Renegade Theatre, Chaplaincy Centre (Venue 23) 650 8201, until 29 Aug,
| 5.50pm, £4.50 (£4).
V THEATRE
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You expect better irom a pairing oi such i WI") 3 "halal draught 0I woe-iS-me
respected talents as playwright John McGrath and actress Elizabeth MacLennan, co-lounders ol the Scottish 7:84 company, than this over-extended, unimaginative meditation on the dilemmas of the post-Cold War socialist. It's an important subject- someone has to try and rescue the S-word and the many honourable aspects oi its beliel system irom the triumphalist war at attrition currently being waged by right-wingers - and as such deserves more thoughtiul treatment.
Employing the character oi an ex-Iabour-movement activist, now in late middle age and running a 8&8 to earn a crust, having been edged out at teaching and broadcasting work thanks to her political ‘unsuitabllity’, the play contains a good deal oi angst-ridden breast-beating, screeds oi undigested iacts and iigures about post-World War II history and worldwide capitalist exploitation/oppression, washed down
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I polemic about the state oi modern
Britain. What it’s short on is any kind oi penetrative analysis oriresh ideas— anyone can recite a roll-call oi depressing statistics about the world, but it’s much harderto go beyond that and suggest something that people can do with, or in spite, oI the inlormation. MacLennan's character is agonising over precisely that question - at what to do, where to go, as a committed left-winger in the New World Order 90s - but an hour and a quarter’s agonising which basically ends where it began doesn’t make for very interesting or entertaining theatre. There’s little to iault in MacLennan’s performance, but with this kind at material she‘s carrying out a pretty thankless task. (Sue Wilson)
Watching For Dolphins (Fringe) Museum Kaleidoscope, Royal Museum oi Scotland (Venue 43) 225 7534, until 29 Aug, 5pm, £5 (£3.50).
71‘s FREELDAD fir
ON THE
i‘: FESTIVAL vi‘r
Your chance to see some of the best shows in this year's Festival! You may claim as many different offers as you wish, but only one pair oi tickets per voucher, on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis.
Please take the whole magazine along with you each time. All offers are subject to availability and the individual management's decision is final. ENJOY THE SHOW!
FILM FESTIVAL
A pair oi tickets for one oi the iolIowlng screenings: EMMA AND ELVIS on 28 Aug, MUSIC FOR THE MOVIES on 30 Aug, CHAIN OF DESIRE on 30 Aug. Tickets should be picked up irom the Filmhouse Box Oitice irom 12 noon on 28 August.
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MAMBO INN
The first ilve people (+ one guest) will receive tree entry to the MAMBO INN (at the Playhouse) and a tree CD oi Kar Kar by Mellow Malian singer Boubacar Traore on Sun 30 Aug (11.08pm).
HENRY V
Five pairs of tickets to see HENRY V - LION OF ENGLAND on 28 Aug at Marco's, (6.00pm). Tickets should be picked up irom Marco's on 28 Aug.
BRUCE MORTON
Four pairs oi tickets in total to see SIN on 28 8: 29 Aug at the Rifle Lodge (10.45pm). Tickets should be picked up from The Fringe Box Office on the morning of the show.
HILL STREET THEATRE
Four pairs of tickets to see SLATZER'S BOUQUET on 27 Aug at Hill Street Theatre (9.15pm). Tickets should be picked up from Hill Street Theatre on the morning at the show.
SANDRA BERNHARD
Three pairs of tickets to see SANDRA BERNHARD on 28 Aug at the Playhouse (7.30pm). Tickets should be picked up irom the Playhouse Box Office on the morning at the show.
The List 28 August — 10 September 1992 27