PROMENADE PERFORMANCE Monumental
Glasgow: Citizens’ Theatre, Tue l6—Sat 27 Mar.
The latest production from the Grid Iron company will take place in -- and even around — the Citizens’ theatre, as Monumental re-creates Moscow in the Gorbals. Writer Anita Sullivan is reluctant to reveal precrse details of how and where this promenade performance will be staged, but feels it’s a style perfectly suited to the piece.
'lt's always been an adventure story and a Journey, so movmg it and taking the audience into that Journey seemed like a very logical thing to do,’ she says The play centres on a young Glaswegian girl's search for her father, missing in the Russian capital, There she encounters an incarnation of the revolutionary poet Mayakovsky and the two guide us and each other through post-Soviet Moscow 'They’re two strangers to this city, in that she doesn't know the past and he doesn’t know the present,’ says Sullivan, ’and they explore it together: the history, the ideas, the pas5ion and the politics' Monumental has its roots in a trip the writer made to Moscow three years ago, when coming across a statue in a square had a profound effect upon her. ’lt was such a powerful statue that I investigated it: It was lvlayakovsky,’ she recalls ’I read his work, found out more about him, and I began to wonder
Statuesque: Grid lron's Monumental
what he might think of modern
Russia.’ Another aspect of the poet’s character lent itself to dramatic
interpretation, particularly once the writer introduced a teenager to proceedings: ’Old Vladimir l:ked young girls, and she‘s looking for a father figure, so .' (Rob Fraser)
LITERARY ADAPTATION The Grapes Of Wrath
Edinburgh: Pleasance Wed l7~tSat 20 Mar.
with news of a new gaffer at the Fringe (see Agenda page XXX) hitting the papers, the timing couldn't be better for outgoing boss Hilary Strong to say her farewells to Edinburgh and sirriultaneOusly resume her career as a theatre director Her choice of production, The Grapes of l/Vl't tli, could hardly be more ambitious: it is, after ali, a tale already told by two of the 20th Century’s great artists, John Steinbeck and John Ford
’l didn‘t know the book or the film before i started this l)l()jf:fl,' says $trong 'Beirig in that situation actually made it easier for Hit? to approach as a play, because I didn't have a pre- conceived Viev: of it I've actually put the actors off watching the film,
loads on the road: Grapes Of Wrath
because I think it's Illlt,(/lltillt for t'ne:ii to find the characters for tl‘t‘lll8{‘th‘S '
When it came to re—c'ieating Steinbeclc’s Vision of 30s Oklahoma and California an 90s Scotland, the director found her cast of seventeen amateur actors from company to be a valuable human resource. 'Erank Gelati, the book and directed it on Ei‘oadway,
the Arkle
who adapted
said that it could work on a wry simple 5
scale, and l tllll‘k that’s true. With such a large cast you can achieve a lot in terms of draritatec effect. We're also using sOme \".(.‘lt’ft'Ti‘lli .»\lTlf?th3lt mimic, a mixture -t toll: songs and
Copeland which really helps generate
atmosphere ’ With such distinguished
source
material and an (ls/C)\.‘Jirfl riitentioi: to
briiic out the cionteni )‘ll'll" relev.'ince
of Steinbeck's call for social justice, this may turn out to he a triumphant send off. (Rob Eraser)
previews THEATRE
publicity distribution Ior arts companies since 1987 Telephone (0131) 555 1897
I Tickets:. 0141 221 4001
The TRON Theatre in
association with the arches present
COMA
(Stories from the Edge...) By Improbable Theatre
the arches
27 April — 1 May
£7 (£4)‘
TRGN
Theatre Bar Restaurant
Jazz Dinners £17.95 (includes 2 course meal)
9 March
Linda Fletcher with The Billy Kettles Trio
23 March
Tom MacNiven with The Brian Kellock Trio
6 April
The John Goldie Trio
12 April
Per Husby, Karin Krog 8. Terje Gevelt
20 April _ Malcolm MacFar/ane, Brian Kellock 8. Kenny Ellis 4 May
Madeline MacDonald and The Jazz Mess
24 May ‘
The Yuri Honing Trio
Tickets: 0141’ 287 551 1
4—l8 Mar 1999 THE UST59