THEATRE PREVIEW
m NOW BOOKING — "W PM Sounds of silence MOBIL TOURING THEATRE Ed. D h b n J I“ K i tn urg - orn wr er ac e ay s CR UCIFER OF best known lor her award-winning l 6TH-20T H FEBRUARY poetry collection, The Adoption Papers, but she is also building a ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE COMPANY reputation as a talented playwright. Herthird play, Every Bit at It, currently TH E PRI M E OF on tourwith the Sphinx theatre company, stars Scots singer-actor M I5253 £_E7ATHNFE§FEEE;P I E Suzanne Bonnar (who portrayed Billie Holiday in I Cover the Waterlront) and Elizabeth Quinn (best remembered tor THE ACCLA'MED her performance in Children at a Lesser WEST END PRODUCTlON God) as two women who meet on a train and discover a shared obsession with SLREISUBT blues queen Bessie Smith. “ Kay has beena Smith tan all herlile, 2ND—6TH MARCH and in one sense Every Bit at It dramatises the importance blues ., ; 1 THEATR CLWYD music has held tor her, a black woman , Every Bit otlt \l OF A growing up ina predominantly white m 9 1 3 M society. But in addigon, Eliza'betll: Georgia has a brother in the play who TH‘ TH ARCH Quinn’s character, eorgia, as een took herto blues concerts and deal since early childhood, and thus described the music to her— the blues ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE the play becomes an exploradtiortiI nolt is wind at the top at a mountain, it's the only oi music's impact on in ivi ua inside at a black-eyed Susan- ON TH E DG E lives but ill sound, Silence. language capturing the rhythms by snapping his A NEW3g$zl VXRBCLAé—SS SESSIESDALE and meaning. d lingers, tapping his teet. Then alter I’d ‘ ‘l’ve always been inleresle in written about all that, I discovered that . dealneSS,' says Kay. ‘anllfl wanleg in ' Elizabeth Quinn actually did have a wllle Spmelhlng ll" 3 llea aelpf- ne 0 brother who took her to blues concerts, x BOX OFF'CE 041332 9000 the things I’m looking at is how limited which was very strange, but it did make TICKETLINK 041-227 551 l spoken language is, how much olwhat it seem thatshe was detinitetythe right A is meanlis hehinl'l‘wllalw: say. and person lorthe part.’ (Sue Wilson) 1 how somebody w 0 can't ear “ Eli __ experiences those kinds ot layers to Every Bit at It, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, lllings. Also. l was inlefeSle in 13—17 Jan and Traverse Theatre, T H E A T R E R O Y A L G L A S G O W exploring music through silence: Edinburgh, 19.23 Jan,
8, 9,10 and 1 1 februcary 1993 mm - Coming up wrth the woods
with a mix at excitement and trepidation. ‘There’s a massive risk involved,’ he says. ‘You have to have 75 per cent capacity to break even and Into The Woods doesn't have the huge popular appeal at Hammerstein pieces. The overall budget is about £18,000.‘
This buget will allow for ‘West End-style sound’, but while the complex reworking and integration oi several dilterent lairy tales which make
I - s . t Q up the piece are pertormed by an I ‘ Into the woods
ensemble of significantly smaller I proportions than the cast required lor The devil and Lloyd Webber might have E South Pacilic, the production all the best tunes, but most people 7 dilticulties involved are nonetheless . would agree that Stephen Sondheim , ennrmnns- '30 pel eenl pl llle has the best lyrics. He is critically ‘ Challenges we knew wllal's happening. regarded not only as one at the great 3 and llle plllel 20 pet eenl we lllinll we Big 5.0, in a Wee ptcmre creators ot musicals, butalso as the know what's happening,’ reassures . presents writer who has done most to break new Borthwick. ‘Obviously we’ve got ideas a ""e '°‘°'d'"9 i" ground with the lorm. Noted as the man about how we‘re going to create giants, " who put the psychiatric couch on the disappearing wilehes. and cows and - stage, his eclectic choice at subjects, , hens that run on and oil themselves. , “Whammy” ranging lrom Seurat to Sweeny Todd, is ‘ Before we started we asked ourselves » linked by interior, dislocated could we do it, since the roles W'TH ' narratives. themselves are very difficult. So 3 R U C E N i While the challenges at such subtle instead of holding auditions we asked For FREE tickets ltll out amt return the tour Olt slip below psycho|ogislng has inspired 'anafical peop'e we knew had the to do F>|easu send rrm tickets for the live recording ()1 Bruce Morton in Sin at tlin box a along, once we Rem” Fm“ “WWW 0” 4 Sondheim piece are trequentty had the nucleus at the cast we decided ; Date 15;! (:limm: ()r 12ml (:ll()l(:(} now we’ve our g Borthwick, director at Tempo Musical lingers efnssed-' (Stephen ClleSlel) Production's presentation oi Into The
i whonsand memhemtthestindheim lntotheWoods, Church HillTheatre, PLEASE SEND WITH SA E TO stm. PO BOX 175 0:; 7m) rw lst FEB Society, isapproaching this production l Edinburgh,Wed13Jan—Sat23Jan. ‘__J
58 The List 18 December 1992 — 14 January 1993