Theatre
BILL FINDLAY
The loss. unexpectedly and at a relatively young age, of Bill Findlay. a Scottish poet, translator and scholar of rare distinction. is one that will be felt by anyone With an interest in the theatre in Scotland. Findlay. who passed away, aged 57, after a brief illness, on Sunday 15 May, Wlll be best known for a string of acclaimed translations of Michel Tremblay's work into Scots. The Guld Sisters, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer and. more recently, If Only were but three of his distinct translations, in combination with Martin Bowman. of the Quebecois giant’s work. It was unquestionably Findlay's sensitivity to colloquial idioms which gave these pieces their rich humour and humanity.
But there was far more to Bill Findlay than this. His career in writing was kick-started when he won the McCash prize for poetry, and his verse has continued to be published since, As a scholar, his many publications included A History of the Scottish Theatre (1998). still possbly the best book produced in the area and a standard for academics. students and the public alike. His teaching, to which he brought rigour and senSitivity, made him popular with both staff and students at Queen Margaret University College's drama department where he spent the last decade of his lecturing career.
Bill was one of those people who everyone liked. Without exception. His intelligence and fundamental seriousness about the theatre was plain for all to see, yet this was tempered by an impish and begwling sense of humour, and a pure human warmth that vou could feel Within a minute of meeting him There was a tw1nkte in this man’s eye that only hinted at his propenSity for practical iokes that would both astonish and delight its Victims. I can think of several occasions in his company when my own ill humour was transposed into something much lighter by Bill's quietly surreal sense of the riSibIe. He will be missed by his Wife Jessica and his two daughters, as well as all who knew him well.
Bill Flndlay’s and Martin Bowman's If Only
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CLOSE ENCOUN l‘ERS Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow. 81' May & 4 Jun
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Review
Love‘ SHACK 000
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toast under it. and if this example is not quite feelgood, it’s at least feelmiisn’tgrumble. In Kim Gavin's version of Daniel Peak’s musical we’re treated to three survivors of past young people‘s popular beat combinations. Jon Lee, Fay Tozer (Steps) and Noel Sullivan (Hear’say) rendering a bewilderingly eclectic selection of pop songs pretty competently in front of a story of hardly Derridarean complexity.
If you need to know this, Sam (Lee) has decided to abandon bachelor life for main squeeze Jo (Emma Barton). His letchy Welsh mucker Will (Sullivan) isn't keen on the idea, but her pals Bonnie (Tozer) and AJ (Kelly Ryan) get to planning the wedding. The course (or perhaps in this case coarse) of true love never runs smooth; it is generically incapable of doing so in mustcals, so a stag night contretemps looks like spoiling it all. But you don‘t need to be the Oracle of Delphi to predict the reconciliation.
As With any form produced for a mainly female audience, men are pretty liberally labeled as bottom feeders for a couple of hours before Beauty gets her Beast, and there‘s some slightly dodgy stereotyping of both sexuality and race as things proceed, but it’s all pretty harmless stuff at the wind up. Meanwhile, the teeny bop trio in the leads are all pretty good in their posts, and if Barton needs instruction in how not to smile in the sad bits. she sings pretty well. Ryan is particularly splendid as her grungy friend, Singing and moving with real style, though one is a bit mystified by the casting of a total hornbag in the role of frumpy mate. With music that runs from the title indiepop number through to easy listening it’s all very entertaining, recapturing the spirit of the student party in all but the pile of Sick in the corner and the dodgy dude looking for a girl who’s drunk enough to jump. Even the odd bit of corpsing among the cast is, for once, endearing rather than irritating. No great contemplation is required, but this is kinda fun. (Steve Cramer)
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PHVSKTAI Tl‘t A‘i’t THE JUDAS CRADLE CCA, Glasgow, Tue 1 & Wed 2 Jun
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