THEATRE PREVIEW
October - December
Fri 22 8. Sat 23 Oct Apex Players TOE In TIIE IIIII'I‘ER by Derek Benfield
Fri 22 8. Sat 23 Oct (Studio) Golden Age Theatre Co IPIIIGETIIH III 'I‘tl II RI 3 by Goethe
Thurs 28 - Sat 30 Oct Royal National Theatre Mobile Production IIIOTIIER GOURIIGE MID IIER GIIIIDREO
by Bertolt Brecht Only Scottish dates!
Thurs 4 - Sat 6 Nov Flipside Theatre Co
IIIY IIEIIRT'S II
SUITCHSE
by Clare McIntyre Studio Theatre
Wed 1 8: Thurs 2 Dec Cumbemauld Youth Theatre
THE 'I'EIIPEST
from the play by William Shaltmpeare
Thurs 25 Nov - Fri 24 Dec Cumbernauld Theatre Co
R <( lll‘i l N l M M M)
by Matthew Costello
. & Liam Brennan wrth director Liz Carruthers
An exciting, fast moving
iamin Christmas show Family Ticket - £14.80
BM“)! III THE MIR
13 November
BIG TED'S PIIRTY
20 llovevnber
SOUI DRIVE
27 llovernber
TRUE GODS
18 December
THE "Ill HOG
BOX OfflGE 0236 132881
Take Courage
Mark Fisher talks to Ellie Haddington who takes the lead in the Royal National
Theatre’s Mother Courage and her Children.
There can be few stage roles for a woman as substantial and demanding as Benoit Brecht‘s Mother Courage. An epic tale of survival. greed and exploitation in the 30 Years War, Mother Courage and her Children takes us on a long and heartless journey through brutality and destruction, as 3 one woman. a small-time capitalist trader. attempts to ensure the safety of 3 her three children and the continuance of her business. In recent seasons in Scotland we have seen both Anne Myatt and Glenda Jackson tackle this enormous role, and now the small-scale touring wing of the National Theatre is ; bringing a newly-translated version ‘ starring Perthshire-bom Ellie Haddington. ‘1 find it a remarkable part. it‘s so energetic.‘ says Haddington. aiming for a raw. direct style of performance, ‘it amazes me how much energy 1 manage
. '.4'-' '
Ellie lladdington: ‘dnunming. walking. acting and singing all at the same time.’
to find in myself. You get onto this train and it takes you off— there's no way you can do it in a half-hearted way. There‘s a challenge to make contact with every single member of the audience.‘
Anthony Clark‘s production is helped in no small measure by a sprightly modern translation by Hanif Kureishi. he of My Beautiful Laurrdrette. Buddha of Suburbia and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid fame. ‘Kureishi’s adaptation is actually very humorous.‘ she says.
' amazed at the level of concentration she has found even with younger audiences. ‘That means with the tragedy element, you’ve got further to fall. but it also keeps it quite light and bubbly. I‘ve read three different
versions and it's just like a different play. it feels as if you're speaking in your own language. it's got a lovely flow to it.’
The production avoids ramming home the play’s contemporary relevance — ‘The danger is that you can exploit the current war.‘ says Haddington — but it’s impossible not to draw comparisons if you have the slightest awareness of world affairs. ‘1 find especially at this moment where war is coming into our living rooms in newspapers and television. there are so many lines that are more clear to me.‘ she says. ‘When you look at an area like Bosnia. you haven‘t got oil there like you have in the Gulf War; when you start to look at what one can financially make out ofit. it‘s quite frightening.‘
Moving away from the angular Germanic music of Kurt Weill. the songs in this production make use of more familiar harmonies but stop short of seducing us into a very un-Brechtian stupor by being scored for drums and vocals only. ‘There are some beautiful. tuneful. haunting songs and a lot of harmony work and then military kind of drumming as well.‘ says Haddington. ‘But that was quite something: drumming. walking. acting and singing all at the same time.‘
Mother Courage and her Children.
Ctmrbernauld Theatre. 28—30 Oct.
5 (Also the Mir/tings. lie/wick Upon
Tweed. 26—2 7 ON).
narra- Taking a . break
What have the canton crow, umbrellas ; in Blackpool, Ivor Cutler and Marvin
Gaye’s ‘l Heard it Through the Grapevine’ all got in common? Dance . Break ii, an out-ot-town, eclectic dance testival run by Paisley Arts Centre, that’s what. ‘There’s nothing within our walls that should not be seen by everyone,’ promises Steve Slater, Artistic Director, ‘because everyone will ilnd a memory or a movement that they have shared with the dancers who take part.’
Slater, also the programmer ot Dance Break ll, has assembled an impressive array oi dancers and companies ot all kinds. Glaswegian choeographers Rosina Bonsu, Marissa Zanotti and Vanessa Smith are all showing new work; Edinburgh’s last rising stars X- Factor premiere Suddenly; two relatively unknown companies trom the north at England, Iexus and Third Estate, sound interesting; and instead oi Scottish Ballet which pertormed last year, Dundee iiep Dance Company makes its Paisley debut.
Dundee liep Dance’s varied show includes Him by German chroegrapher, David Dortman - ‘tull ot ltew York punch,’ says Artistic Director, Tamara Mclorg - which introduces a new, highly-physical style to the company’s work. Dortman’s dance is about relationships, Its movement inspired by a mixture at sources including the scrums at American toothall.
Janet Smith, one of England’s most revered choreographers, has created Turquoise is Tender, also tor Dundee
} iiep. ‘Smith sees that we are 1 practically dominated by paper, j suitocated by it, and it leaves no space tor sell-development,’ says Mclorg, pointing out the etiect ot bureaucracy on the tree spirit. Starting with dance full of lyrical lilting sequences, the stage gradually changes as black-suit-clad dancers invade, while imperceptiny the individuals begin to look identical. Matching this, the movement becomes sharper, staccato and more robotic. “it’s about wanting something you never quite reach,’ says Mclorg about Smith’s other piece, I’ve liever Been to Blackpool. ‘You wait tor that wonderiul holiday in Blackpool but when you get there it pours with rain.’ This is where the umbrellas come in. The Dundee-based company, which is , presently in receipt oi the largest ' Scottish Arts Council contemporary dance grant, will also show Mclorg’s
. X‘s;
Dundee liep Dance Co: ‘new, highly-physical 31m, x
= own Duet. a twosome to Brahms’
Sonata he 3 in D Minor. They’ll finish with something ‘tast and lots of tun’ - linday ilop Bop by original jazz/live/tap dancer Warren liayes. The canton crew was inspiration to Debbi Purtill oi liexus in her ‘strong, dark and toreboding’ dance which shows people attacking a woman just when she is low and feeling insecure. Marvin Gaye was part at ilosina Bonsu’s adolescence, reflected in her Selected Tangents and Digressions, an autobiographical exploration. And where does Ivor Culter lit in among all this modern dance? ‘Joanna Bendi- Shaw trom New York uses the music at J. S. Bach’s cello suite in G Major to intact movement into his writings,’ the programme tells me. You’ll have to go and see it to ilnd out how. (Tamsln Grainger) Dance Break II, Paisley Arts Centre, Sun 31 Oct-Sat 6 ltov.
58 The List 22 October-4 November 1993