Theatre
POLITICAL SATIRE A’BODY’S ABERDEE Dundee Rep, until Sat 24 Nov 0..
DAVID LEDDY
O N 1.. H E E D G E
Radio daze
We're all familiar with the skulduggery associated with local councils. Whether your own city is run by a Stalin manque or an Al Capone imitator, there's a good deal of rapacious self interest and brutal ambition among our local service controllers. whose jiggery pokeries have been so routinely exposed by the media in recent years. Don Patterson's black comedy has many targets to aim for. Perhaps too many.
In it. Jim Hughes (Keith Fleming) is appointed as a PR officer for a fictitious Scottish city not entirely unlike Dundee itself. He soon learns that the shots are called by local media magnate Sir Menzies McManus (Alexander West) whose wife
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22-24 NOVEMBER
7.30pm £6I£4 BOX OFFICE: 0901 022 0300* Bizarre. stylish. comic. but most importantly — a great night's elite/fainn'ienf' EVENING STANDARD
ACIClEI'I CllAVCl
Frl 9th - Frl 16th Nov (not Sun 11th Nov) @ 8pm
Actual Theatre
Seven Against
World Premiere
Thebes
by Anton Arrufat translated by Mike Gonzalez
Tickets Mon/"Tues ESQ Wed - Sat £8/4 Ticket centre 0141 287 5511
Sat 17th Nov @ 7pm
Primo Levi: The Man and His Work
My Name is 174517
Teatro Dell Angelo and Celtelleiia Einstein
Tickets 28%
Strathclydo Theatre Group pre
World Premiere
sents British Premiere
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Mona (Ann Louise ROSS) has Quite a hold over the Grand Poobah of the local c0uncil Les Spankie (John Ramage). The latter‘s name is all yOu'Il need to know about his particular vice. Jim finds himself hung out to dry with the local media by Spankie and McManus. and his life is made more complicated by Lyn Lathen (Meg Fraser) his ex, with whom he rekindles a relationship. Fine and dandy. but she's leader of the opposition. and spends a good deal of her time exposing the schemes of McManus. to which such local services as hospitals. railways and
SChOOlS fall victim.
It‘s all very grotesque and cartoonish. and Patterson's script spends a lot of time identifying the pure. empty greed behind the much-touted public/private partnership craze. Sandy Neilson directs well, and there are some grand performances, particularly from Ramage and Fraser. who look like they are thoroughly enj0ying themselves out there. But the script becomes diffuse. with so many strands of satire that some of the effect is lost. There's also a tendency to ‘do anything for a laugh, which isn‘t always the best principle for well-structured comedy. For all that. there are plenty of laughs to be had. and this piece shOuld please crowds with an interest in these matters. (Steve Cramer)
DANCE
RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 23 Nov 0.
Alston goes back to square one
Richard Alston, veteran British
Lacnrymae. Benjamin Britten's Orchestrations of a John Howland song. dates from 1994. Three couples in costumes suggesting Ye Olde English tradespeople. shift in and out of gently magnetic duets. Their dynamic impetus. however. stems too strictly from the music. Here. too. Alston's emotional restraint strays into vagueness.
Strange Company is set to Robert Schumann's Opus 6 Davidsbt‘ind/ertanze. played live by pianist Jason Ridgway. This new. full- company dance is loosely based on the composer's creative fantaSy of a dual self. The result is lyrical barefoot balleticism featuring Alston's trademark right-angled arm movements and costumes like yOur grannies
Wed 21st - Sat 24th November 2001 @ 8pm. ‘ choreographer, is a craftsman whose tablecloth. Still. the three leads in this I work can be enormously artful. muffled love triangle acquit themselves Tickets: Wed £5 2Thurs - SM [8.4 Advanced Booklng:0141 548 2558 2 Unfortunately that was not the case well. “Mm”... . E with his latest programme. seen in Dancer Jason Piper brings god-like “332$” SIG} 1 London last month. It was a verve to another new work, Water iiii IRI "‘ °“‘”“‘” ‘ disspiritingly bland. old-fashioned MUSIC. The stately majesty of Handel's
Mon 26th - Tue 27th November GD 7-30
St. Josepth's Academy. Kilmarnock
by Jane Austen adapted by Open lvlacKichan and Martin Milla.’ directed by Bert Davis Tickets 535/3 Ticket Centre 01111 78/ r’»‘~.11
62 THE LIST 15,
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evening.
Composed of clean lines and slow rolls. the short. timeless solo Soda Lake (1981) occws in silence on a stage shared with Nigel Hall's SCquture
created on teenage Michael Clark.
score is given a caSual spin via midriff— baring costumes in summery hues. Meant to be a celebratory dance. it comes off as uninspired and shows Alston to be pretty much back at
u g h m ' WM, of standing hoop and monolithic black square one with ten mostly adequate W “gr'm‘gr' 5 30th 2 pole. Lithe Amanda Weaver is and new-to-him dancers who have yet H” im-L ‘s ""°“' 5" ’“° mm watchable rather than riveting in a role to forge a strong group identity.
(Donald Huteral