Theatre
POLITICAL THEATRE
THE FEVER
Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Wed 5 Mar 000.
As I awaited the opening of Guy Hollands’ production of Wallace Shawn’s one man play in the transverse space of the Stalls Studio, I had an epiphany. The reviewer next to me remarked upon the attractiveness of a young woman sat on the bank of seats opposite us. I concurred. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t sleazy, but our sexual responses were frank. These days, there really aren’t too many issues concerning sexuality that we won’t discuss to death. No, what we repress today is politics.
We can chance the odd euphemistic remark to people we don’t know well, but really discussing politics is taboo, as deeply repressed as sex in Wctorian Britain. On Coco Hewitt's gleaming white, symbolically sanitised set (the overpowering smell of fresh paint made it an emulsional evening) which turns slowly to a decayed yellow as this 90 minute piece progresses, we witness a rupture of the ideological unspeakables of our day.
Stewart Porter plays a man whose life long privilege has left him in profound ignorance of inequality. Suddenly stricken with illness in a hotel room in an unnamed third world country, his fevered mind free-associates through a succession of reflections on the unspoken apartheid that is the class system. What is revealed is bigotry toward the poor, and an inability to understand why he so deserves to be hated.
The charcoal grey suited Porter gives a concentrated acting master class, allowing himself minimal movement from his modern white chair, using tiny actions and hair raising voice modulations to create effect. This character’s love of classical music and his mandatory attendance of The Cherry Orchard recalls George Steiner’s remark that the concentration camp guards also listened to Beethoven.
We are unredeemed by art and all else unless we realise the bigger picture of suffering we are implicated in, a timely point on the brink of a war specifically designed to sate the greed of a few. All of these themes emerge with real power, but there are downsides. I wonder whether Shawn’s script isn’t a little repetitious at times, and whether 20 minutes less would be so much more. All the same, this is an important and very timely piece.
(Steve Cramer)
Another disaster for Scotland
POLITICAL COMEDY
CAN’T PAY? WON’T PAY! Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Fri 14 Feb, then touring 000
I would like to repOrt that the first production of 7:84 's 30th anniversary year does exactly what it says on its soup tin publicity. But while the posters promise “lots of funny words by Dario Pd. 3 good many of the jokes. especially those on terrorist threats and Michael Jackson's children. are actually attributable to sources other than the author
And while poverty remains a real social issue. Fo's play — or at least 7:84 's production of it under the direction of Andy Arnold - is more concerned with sexual rather than economic politics. The supermarket coup by housewives who refuse to pay the escalating prices (Anita Vettesse. Michele Gallagher). taking what they want 'on tick'. then having to conceal their ill-gotten gains from their husbands (Vincent Friell. Ross Stenhouse) and the police (Andrew Dallmeyer). gets lost under a barrage of antics involving baby transplants and frozen rabbits' heads.
Farce-satire is certainly Fo's strength. and the play‘s moralising is. as one character says. ‘so right — terribly.
Not so souper
tragically right‘. But 7:84 '5 weakness — its Fo-pas. if you will — is in allowing the polemic to become by turns too concentrated and then too dilute. The sentiments are confused and unfOCUsed. when the politics should be stark and sharp.
You can see why a celebrated. celebrating company with a strong reputation should have wanted to reinvent a 30-year-old political satire. But 7:84 neglects what it does so well. and looks back into history when it sh0uld be casting f0rward to tomOrrow. Though highly entertaining. Can't Pay? Won 't Pay! has. sadly. all the dramatic impact of cold tomato $0up. (Gareth Davies)
62 THE LIST 13-27 Feb 2003
ADAPTATION
Citizens‘ Theatre. Glasgow. until Sat 1 Mar 000
We should relish the full Cit.‘ treatirreirt given this translation of Colette by Robert David MacDonald. adapted by director Philip Prowse. It's the kind of 'more camp than knickem‘ production were unlikely to see as much of after the departure of these two stain-.iar'ts. along with Giles Hayergal. later this year
Cheri tells a story of seediness among the tweediness of an aged
generation of wealthy 1920s Parisians
The title character (Seamus Whittyl has been filched from his scheming mum (Fidelis Morgan) by her friend Lea (Joanna Tope) at an age Just above legal on the paedorneter. and has transferred his Oedipal passions to her. Hawng reached the age of 2:3. he arranges a marriage to a younger woman (Estelle Morgan). and she seems more than Willing to let him go.
ALTERNATIVE CABARET KABARET UH HUI-l
Tron Theatre, various dates 0..
Arch for arts sake
But the erriotions inxolxed are more complex than the\ seem. as emotions are wont to be A rogiies' gailen. of superannuatetI baby dolls and lilase roues are introduced to l)lt);‘,t‘,t‘tllllt_ltl
Some of the playing from the ten strong cast is quite .iich. hutl suppose this is as it should he in the context. All the sairie. the highly stylised. iiiaiiriereil nature of the performance. both funny and lllt)‘.’lllt_] in places. may not he to all tastes. (Steve Crameii
Cabaret is a tricky busniess at the best of times. This version. all the idea of Ken Davrdson. that adventurous pioneer of innovative work. illustrates both the beauties and perils of the alternative version.
The cabaret promises to alter in theme and nature from night to night over its sporadic appearances at the Tron's tragically ll()ll~$;lll()klllg Counting llouse. so a review of one night is hardly representative. but on this evening. lain [)eaii Burn
presented an alternative Burns' night. His formidable talents were combined wrth
those of the equally impressive Cora
Bisset. in a succession of medals. songs and spots of iiiiproVised comedy and chat. Additional material by poet Jock Scott. a thrashing Celtic rock band and a
keyboardist made for variety.
A strong first half was followed by a slightly halting second. as Bum struggled to hold things together. unforeseen Circumstances haying pulled the guest list short. All the same. the gusto and enthusrasm of an evening in which Burns was revered. but without the usual stuffy trappings. made for a night out ‘v'JllKlll promised to improve in later episodes. (Steve Cramer)
DOMESTIC THRILLER DIAL M FOR MURDER
Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat
Mar 1 .00
It should be the perfect crime. Ex- tennis pro (Stephen Scott) blackmails old school-chum (Stephen Cavanagh)
into murdering adulterous Wife (Andrea
Hart). But ‘according to plan' is not in any crime writer's vocabulary and. happin for us. things go seriously
wrong. Enter Inspector Hubbard (Anne
Marie Timoney) and the Wife's sometime lover (Liam Brennan). and justice slowly unravels like a badly knitted tank top.
It’s a fair corpse, gov
Beyond the well-structured and intelligently deveIOped plot. Frederick Knott‘s half-century old text is by no means a ClaSSlC play. Director Kenny Miller and cast handle the obvious melodrama of the story well. the suspense and intrigue less so. but ultimately bring too little emotional depth to roles that hardly brim with potential. Ironically. possibly the least lifeless body is the one that crawls off-stage in the blackout. moments after being murdered.
Th0ugh some elements of the production suggest that a deeper reading of the text is DOSSlble. Such as casting the inspector as a female role. Opportunities for 21$t century psycho-sexual tenSions and ironic comments on the domestic thriller genre are largely missed. leaVing the audience unsure as to the purpose of the production. An evening class for dysIeXic would-be Wife-killers. perhaps.
If you haven't seen Hitchcock’s ClaSSIC cellulOid version. this is a Visually sumptuous rendering of a st0ry that should have y0u hooked like pigs in a butcher's wrndow. But for those who want mOre than stiffs and sleuths it could. perhaps unkindly. be more accwately dubbed Dial M for Mogadon.
(Gareth DavieS)