Theatre
Stage Whispers
I As Whispers writes, the International Festival is drawing to a close, and Brian McMaster’s swan song as director has produced a pretty strong theatre programme. In earlier years, not all the new pieces brought to the Festival worked entirely, yet there is a vision to the programming that is to be admired.
I David Harrower’s Blackbird is surely a piece we’ll see revived. This meticulous piece of naturalism is about a confrontation between a former paedophile and his victim of many years before. Yet things do not transpire quite as one would expect, and the audience is brought into a very strange psychological space as things progress. exploring the boundaries between personal desire and public and ethical responsibility. It amounted to an uncomfortable. but very strong, evening of theatre. with a denouement which will either leave you cold or excite you. Whispers was in the latter camp. with Peter Stein’s elaborately choreographed final struggle seeming to richly reiterate much of what had gone before.
I In terms of pure entertainment, it would be difficult to go past La Cubana’s Nuts CocoNuts. Jordi Milan’s wonderful, camp and kitsch piece saw a theatrical troupe of not the highest quality ending their variety act and packing up their set. This, some way into the performance, was where the fun began. On the way to the finale, the piece transgresses and subverts the fourth wall to hilarious effect.
I But not all the new work withstood such close attention. Yet Prayer Room. Shan Kahn’s political play. which has been much maligned by critics. was fascinating for what it set out to do. Addressing such contemporary issues as the current and often ignored sectarian divide between Muslims, Jews and Christians in contemporary Britain, this piece at least tried to go to places the British theatre has too often skirted around. There is the odd element of school play in some of the writing. yet the production seemed intent on cutting much good writing from the original text. making the play seem weaker for it. Overall. though. this was a strong final bow for McMaster. who deserves much praise for many years of good work.
Blackbird
82 THE LIST H- 7? 80;) 9005)
POLITICAL FARCE ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST
Tbunng
Recent events in London. after the failed bomb plots and the death of a young Brazilian. might stir uneasy collective memories in people who remember as far back as the many arrests that followed the Birmingham and Guildford bombings in the 70s. It is easy to criticise the police at times of great social upheaval. and any responsible member of a civil society must bear in mind the difficulties they face. In a society governed as ours is by the unnatural and non-organic laws of capitalism. we are bound to require police to uphold order. All the same. we are in great danger when we slip from this thought to the idea that the police must be above criticism.
Dario Fo. as those lucky enough to see him in the Book Festival this year will attest. knows about the corrosive potential of satire. and this famous old piece. based on a true event when an anarchist was killed by a couple of Italian policemen while in custody. exploits it to its full power. Borderline's revival of this very funny black farce comes at a timely moment for British society. and shows political nous on the part of the company. Anna Newell‘s production might well be anticipated as both entertainment and social commentary. and looks well worth a watch. (Steve Cramer)
DRAMA DAMAGES
Tbunng
The newspaper business — take it from me — is often a tough and unglamorous way to make a living. These days. I'm quite surprised by people's fascination for it. if the number of questions I receive at dinner parties from people not in the industry is anything to judge by. English writer Steve Thomson must have been aware of this when he penned this piece. which was first produced last year at the Bush Theatre in London under the direction
of Roxana Silbert.
In a sense. the play is an old fashioned thriller. but running along quite contemporary lines. In it. compromising photos of a prominent celebrity are sent to a red top. to leave the editor pondering on their veracity, while fighting deadlines and dealing with troublesome subs. panicking hacks and the inevitable megalomaniac publisher. Does he run them and risk the issue of the title. which alludes to more than the legal form of damage. or hold them and risk missing out on the story. This humorous and tense play featured such Scottish stalwarts as Phil McKee and John Belt in its original cast who played. by all accounts, with some distinction. lts tense satire is visited. for the first time in Scotland. where Michael Emans' production for Rapture is likely to tour to a venue near you. Catch it. (Steve Cramer)
Emma Cunliffe
Review
SHAKESPEARE AS YOU LIKE IT Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 17 Sep—Sat 15 Oct
The thing that sticks in my mind about artistic director Mark Thomson’s first season at the Lyceum a couple of years back was his comment that there had to be laughter in the theatre to make it whole. He’s remained true to his word, for alongside such powerful tragedies as last year’s Othello, there has been much greater emphasis on comedy, all of it funny. His own A Madman Sings to the Moon is perhaps the highlight of a strong tenure in the building, and a clue to the nature of this good humoured and Iikeable man. For Thomson is concerned with society, and comedy is the most sociable of dramatic forms in a most literal sense. Unlike tragedy, which tends to focus in on individuals and interiorities, comedy is about our social culture, the processes by which we get on with each other in communities.
The fact that, for all its complications, humankind is a social animal is beyond question, and As You Like It demonstrates this with a mighty cogency. Rosalind and Orlando’s difficult relationship, their escape to the fantasy landscape of the Forest of Arden, and their final reconciliation, alongside everyone else in the play, is all about social process. Ills have been committed within the state, and political and gender balances have been upset, and it’s the business of Shakespeare to reconcile the social order, not to destroy it as he does in Lear and Othello. Even the forest, plainly less a literal place than a psychological landscape where neurosis and social and sexual anxieties are explored, is less about individual psychologies than collective kinds. For here, we don’t witness a particular individual state of imbalance, but rather a collective hysteria visited on one and all.
Which makes the play sound awfully portentous. It isn’t. Above all, this piece is very funny. Included in Thomson’s cast are Emma Cunliffe, known for her television work in such pieces as The Lakes and Donald Pirie from River City, playing the leads. Thomson’s contemporary version should provide yet another night of laughter in the theatre. (Steve Cramer)
Rapture's Blue/Orange