THEATRE new shows
edinburgh university theatre company
presents
a new production of the classic restoration farce
She Stoops To Conquer b Oliver Gblldsmith
£4/ £3.50
Tuesday 24th —- Saturday 28th November
Doors 6.45pm Start 7.30pm
at the bec-fzam Forrest Road
Information 0131 225 9873
ITIENSTTE
m the Stud/.08 www.crtz.co.uk
The Citizens' Company presents
The Killing of
Sister George by Frank Marcus 3 - 23 December lhe WeII-onetl eItIerIy district nurse from a long-running soap opera has to the. Times change, ratings count. She's got I() gt).... , "lnnocuousl They're trying to kill me and you call that innocuous. Somebocly's leakecl it to her - another Australian probably. The place is rampant with them: they’re multiplying like rabbits. "
summit Conference
by Robert David MacDonald 2 - 23 December
,'\\ HitIer and Allussohni carve up Europe in the next room, their mistresses, Eva Braun and Clara Pelacci, stage their own conference of war.
"Who am I? fraulein No-l’rivate—Lil‘e. My
friend promises me when the war is over'
I shall go to Hollywood to play myself in the film oi’liis life - but they will probably
say I am too tall for the part. " 0141 429 0022
88 THE “ST 19 Nov—3 Dec 1998
theatre
new shows
REVIVAL
Summit Conference
Glasgow: Citizens' Stalls Studio, Wed 2—Wed 23 Dec (free preview, Tue 1 Dec).
It’s said that behind every successful man there’s a strong woman. If Summit Conference is to be believed, the adage holds true for fascist dictators. Robert David MacDonald's play, which he is directing for a new studio production, depicts a meeting between Eva Braun and Carla Petacci, held while their significant others - Messrs Hitler and Mussolini — were busy carving up the world in the next room.
Written and first performed in the mid-70s, the play is a slice of historical fantasy, inspired when MacDonald was translating Schiller’s Mary Stuart. ’The central episode is an entirely fictitious but dramatically necessary confrontation of the two main characters,’ explains MacDonald. 'Elizabeth never met Mary — and nor, to my knowledge, did the two women in Summit Conference.’
Of course historical accuracy is hardly the point. ’lt’s more about sex than it is about politics,’ says MacDonald. 'It’s about peOple being coerced into behaviour that they would normally commit; and how the Alice In Wonderland logic made people into things that they were probably not by nature.’
Those currently fulminating about gay cabals in Government should note that the heterosexual libido is equally vulnerable to such coercion. (Andrew Burnet)
MODERN CLASSIC
The Killing Of Sister George
Glasgow: Citizens' Circle Studio, Thu 3—Wed 23 Dec.
Most people WlII know The Killing Of Sister George in its film version, which
.43
Robert David MacDonald in the Citizens' production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
? starred Beryl Reid as the volatile actress whose world crumbles when her character
E cheered and laughed as a vicious I campaign of Violence and vandalism ; was unleashed against the Jewish 2 community throughout the country.
recent play takes these events, known
is due to be axed from the soap opera which made her name. in Frank Marcus’s play, George was a radio performer but Kenny Miller, who is directing and deSIgning a new production for the Citizens’, has followed the film in giving her television personality status. In a neat example of life imitating art, Citizens' regular Anne Myatt, who also stars in Scottish Televrsion’s High Road, will play George,
This is the fifth play Miller has directed at the Citizens’, where he is more usually renowned for his striking set desrgns. He has modernised the text, removing the 60s references to place more emphasis on the central destructive relationship between George and her younger girlfriend Childie.
’lt’s a good experience for me to get into the psyche of the power struggle between women rather than the LiStial man and woman power struggle,’ says Miller. ’There are very few plays as powerful as this that have really strong
women’s parts. I hope people view it as a human condition rather than a kitsch ,
period piece ' (Fiona Shepherd)
AMERICAN DRAMA
Broken Glass
Glasgow: Ramshorn Theatre, until Sat 21 Nov. East Kilbride Arts Centre, Fri 27—Sun 29 Nov.
In November 1938, German citizens
Set in Brooklyn, Arthur Miller’s most
as Kristallnacht, as the starting pomt for an exploration of American JeWIsh identity. Like all Miller's work, it tackles public iSSLies through an intimate personal crisis. Syvlia Gellburg loses the use of her legs in response to Krystallnacht: this in turn reveals devastating flaws in her marriage,
Crystal nightmares: lnnes West and Aileen Waite in Broken Glass
Broken Glass was performed in Glasgow by the Royal National Theatre in lvlay I 1995, but the play's f:rst Scottish production opens this fortnight, directed by
Michael Emans for Rapture Theatre Company. ’The staging is very minimal,’ says Emans 'I want to get fluidin between scenes and let the text breathe and take flight '
Emans believes this simple approach \VIII release the play’s ’difficult emotions’ and symbolic content. ’SyIVia has been livmg a lie for so many years, but she can‘t
' T'Jll away from her marnage,‘ he says ’Her physical condition is the end result of that.’ (Andrew Burnet)