THEATRE preview
PAISlEY
earthfall
TUESDAY 28 & WEDNESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 7.30PM £6l£2
SCOTTISH PREMIERE... AND ONLY SCOTTISH DATES!
Ranting, dancing, boxing, bleeding, laughing, cursing, singing - a flying performance of superb radical dance fused with exceptional live music.
“Sheer vitality, enormous energy. charged-up dance delivered at an adrenaline lick” New WELSH REVIEW, CARDIFF
BOX OFFICE: 0141 8871010
starring Una McLean & Russell Hunter
Friel
oyal yceum
17 Sept. - 2 Oct. (Tuesday - Saturday)
Tickets: £7 - £16 Students half price. Any seat, any night.
Box Office: 0131 248 4848
heatre ompany
82 III! LIST 23 Sep—7 Oct 1999
DISABLED THEATRE lrreparable Dolphins
Glasgow: Tron Theatre, Thu 30 Sep—Sat 2 Oct, then touring.
Gerry Mulgrew moving in new directions: lrreparable Dolphins
The issue of disability in theatre has recently been highlighted by the
generous injection of Lottery money to the Theatre Workshop, for the purpose of building a training programme for people with disabilities. One company that has been working with the disabled for over ten years, through the medium of music, is Glasgow’s Sounds Of Progress. Their latest production, lrreparable Dolphins, uses the personal experiences of members of the company to attempt to transmit what it's like to be different.
The cast comprises one of the company’s bands, an eight-piece rock group who've played several gigs around Glasgow, augmented by three other musicians/performers (George Drennan, Fletcher Mathers and Gordon Dougall from Stiffl). So, it's a The Commitments kind of thing then? ’No, it’s not like that,’ laughs director Gerry Mulgrew. ’Although they are very commited - and some of them should be commited!’ The songs range from ballads to atmospheric instrumentals to ’raunchy rock numbers’, and along with text, and possibly documentary images, will relate the extraordinary experiences of the cast.
ls there a danger that by stating up front that the cast are disabled, it will affect our perception of their performance? ’People will always have preconceptions,‘ states Mulgrew, ‘and we can either lie to them, or we can go along with it and challenge it on stage, and that’s what we’re doing. At the end of the day, it stands and falls on the quality of the music and the quality of the performance.’
(Kirsty Knaggs)
CONTEMPORARY DANCE Rococco Blood
Glasgow: Paisley Arts Centre, Tue 28 & Wed 29 Sep, then touring.
Boxing, bleeding, ranting and dancing, not necessarily in that order, are four of the adjectives Cardiff-based company Earthfall are using to describe their latest intensely physical work. Founded ten years ago, Earthfall have built a reputation for strong visual imagery and inventive use of contemporary music and are back in Scotland with their new and curiously titled piece, Rococo Blood.
Co-founder Jim Ennis sees the juxtaposition of the words of the title reflecting the contrast in ideas to be seen on stage: 'We're interested in investigating the fronts we build up to hide behind mentally and physically, like the elaborate facades of rococo design. The blood is related to the boxing and our blend of physical
HUGO GLENDINNING
Boxing on the hop: Rococco Blood
theatre and dance. Cardiff has a long tradition of boxing and the combination of physical and political ideas surrounding the brutality of the sport opened up new ideas for the company. We actually had a boxing coach working with us,’ says Ennis, 'and we’ve just kept an open mind about how we can create strong interest and a connection with the audience. We're not out to provoke, but to live through the intrusion of emotionality into extreme physical experiences. The brutality comes in making a statement in opposition to the moments of tenderness. A gentle physical contact can also be quite close to violence.’
As Muhammad Ali would have said, watch for the butterflies and the bees competing for space on stage; He would appreciate that there should be floating as well as stinging among the performers. (Don Morris)