THEATRE PREVIEW
FESTIVAL ,
Winners and beginners
As opportunities for new writers to get a play on stage become increasingly scarce, it's reassuring to know that Scottish Youth Theatre is intent on starting them young. Fora good few
years. their Scottish Young Playwrights i Festival has allowed l6~2 l -year-olds to
develop their work under the guidance of professional playwrights. then see it produced by professional actors and directors. Past successes have included Lara Jane Bunting and David Harrower. whose Knives In Hem packed out the Traverse studio, and is now about to play London‘s Bush Theatre.
This year. four winning scripts will be
presented to the public. with themes ranging from incest to high-camp farce. and even one based on a country 'n' western song.
Billy Joe is written by the event's youngest participant Bram Gieben. and was inspired by Bobby Gentry's maudlin two-minute tragedy. ‘()de To Billy Joe'. Gieben describes it as 'a sort of kitchen sink drama which looks at events in a family after a suicide.‘
At the other end of the age scale. 2 l - year-old Douglas Maxwell wrote The Chameleon '3 Play as part of his English degree at Stirling University. ‘lt‘s like Six Characters In Search ol'xtn Author meets Mutiny on The Bases] Maxwell
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An early qulff of tame for Brain Gieben as an SYT actor
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says of his farce. which ha; a troupe of
actors plotting to assassinate ()scar
Wilde in order to raise money for their next project.
Both praise SYT for their support, and hope to take their work further. Both have acted too. (iieben at SYT Summer School. and Maxwell with his own company at Stirling. which recently performed his hi-tech version of llogg‘s ('on/es‘srmts otki Justified Sinner. That this might make for a future generation ofall-rounders is
significant. Let's not forget that many
playwrights once trod the boards. and
Used this practical experience to
breathe theatrical life onto the page. As Giehen puts it. ‘in an ideal world I'd like to write, direct and star in my own thing.‘ (Neil Cooper)
Scottish Young Playwrights Festival. ()lzl :ithenaeron Theatre, Glasgow. 'l'lturs /4 December:
Arches .. 1 Theatre Company-
CALIGARI
directed by andy arnold adapted by andreW dallmeyer
music by slam
Wed 22 Nov—Sat 9 Dec Tickets £6.00/£3.00'8.00pm
'baged on the classic horror film '
The Ticket Centre. Candleriggs 0141 227 5511 1;.The Arches, 30 Midland St, Glasgow 0141 221 9736
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v Buntesoue
Men behaving glamly
Ms Maggie Raye, aka Raymond, is the
only bloke to have featured as a Page Three stunna in your soaraway Sun.
Quite an achievement, not to mention
a courageous decision, but Raymond
is more than just a pretty face — he is also the man behind the newly revamped Picardy’s Burlesque Showbar. Five nights a week, all year
round, Raymond intends to inject a bit '
of glamour into Edinburgh with what
he reckons is Scotland's first full-time
transvestite cabaret bar.
The previously dowdy interior of Picardy’s has been gutted, scrubbed and dressed up in its best party frock. Dark crimson is the colour of the walls, the floor, the drapes and, of course, the barmen’s lippy. Adding to the sense of the theatrical are the cinema seats ranged in rows, rather than the little clusters of tables and chairs which are the norm for cabaret.
‘There’s no cabaret in Edinburgh apart from during the Festival,’ purrs Ms Raye, ‘and then we just overdose on it.’ Picardy’s hopes to redress the balance by displaying the kitschy talents of MC The Bizarre Tim Leith,
Dominique Chippendale, Nikki Pernod,
The Lovely David and Ms Raye herself in a two-and-a-half-hour burlesque drag show which will run until February, when a brand new line-up
will take over.
While the former Picardy’s was a gay bar, the new incarnation is aiming for a much more mixed crowd, with g tolerance as opposed to segregation i the dominant theme. High camp will certainly be pervading the 3 atmosphere, but the emphasis is on : the slightly risque rather than on turning the air blue. (Jonathan Trew) Mime’s A Ladysham, Picardy’s Burlesque Sho wbar, 2A Picardy Place. Cabaret begins at 8.30pm, Mon,
Wed-Sat. Free.
J995
SHOW
with life,
and plenty of
CHRISTMAS
umbernould
rnagic, bravery, knavery
comedyt
Thurs 23 November - Saturday 23 December Tickets from £3.20. Farriin Ticket £17.00
BOX OFFICE 01236 732887
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY SIMON SHARKEY
54 The List l-l4 Dec l995