Theatre
Stage Whispers
I Whispers has been there, done that, and been given the T- shirt free with the press release. But there was one occasion, a few years back, when Whispers was reduced to a giggling girly, when sent to interview his hero. The man was Augusto Boal, and the occasion was an exclusive Whispers had with him back in 2001. One could be accused 'of stalking for far less than the lengths i went to get a chat with him, but it was worth it, even if Whispers was a bit too nervous to speak.
This great man, now in his 703, is perhaps the most influential theatre theorist and practitioner in the world. The techniques laid out in such books as Theatre of the Oppressed can be a liberational experience, both politically and aesthetically for theatre professionals and the public alike. Now the man needs our help. His native Brazil, from which he spent a god deal of his life exiled for political reasons, is refusing Boal a pension, despite being the greatest practitioner of his craft that his country has ever produced. You can help by registering your protest at this disgraceful abuse of a man now in poor health by e-mailing anistiaemj.gov.br. You might also wish to cc your protest to enimoreiraeaolcom. Do it soon, - it’s the cost of an e-mail.
I And on the subject of South American victims of human rights abuses, actor Emilio Barreto will bring his account of his years of imprisonment and torture in Paraguay. The Art of Silence to The Arches Live festival. The actor's story, here translated by Jennifer Hartley is a disturbing story of survival in a society without civil rights is relevant to one and all, if a disturbing night of theatre. You can see the actor himself perform the piece at the Arches on Fri 23rd and Sat 24 Sep at 7pm. before the piece tours the UK.
Meanwhile, Nutshell under the direction of Kate Nelson, will perform a story of abuse much closer to home. Mark O'Rowe's Crestfall, telling the story of three psychologically and physically abused women in a small Irish town is catchable at the Citz until Sat 24 Sep. It's a narrative that. sadly. still has some relevance to contemporary British life.
MUSIC/M
GYPSY
Dundee Rep, Thu 29 Sep-Sat 22 Oct
I'm told the striptease rs an areane and drttrrgult to appreciate artt’ortrr. llrrs rrrrght sound like its the intellectual eonsolatron of some rnernlrer of the dirty rnar; brigade. hut when the name of Stephen Sondheim rs lent to the ease. there's a tut more eredrlnlrty to rt /\lt(l rt was hrs ("it-yer. witty Iyrrrjs that hrought so rnutgla weight to this tarnously successful rnusrrtal about the first exer steptease artiste. (‘rypsy Hose l ee.
It's not been rnur:h seer: in this country. so Its appearante as the season opener for [)undee Hep
seerns well worth the ,ourney With the
talented l rnrly Winter in the lead. this rs yet another rnusreal tronr Dundee ltep's adrnrrahle t;orrrparry who have shown therr versatrlrty with the rnusrral lorrn to a greater degree than an any other, Among the well known toe tapping numbers :n thrs prer‘e are ‘1 et Mel nter'tarn You' and 'l yerythrrrgs (Joining Up Hoses'. world \"\./(}£illll(?f)f5 and idealism
and the rvrrxture of
captured by the |yrr<;s ot the rest of the
songs rnrght (greate a spleudru illusion on any night lhere's always an extra edge to any Sondheim rnusrt‘al. and .7 this one rs less rrnrnedrately dense than. say. ()ornpant. there's strrl 'r‘ore to chew over here than rn the axerage preee ol West l nd fare (to see. (Steve (Zrarnen
(;()l l AHUHAI lVl l)/\N(Zl X FACTOR & TRAVELLER Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 29 and Sat 30 Sep
Choreographer ,Janrr‘e Parker has .‘rlways looked treyond the oliyrous. ()larnrng to he ‘r:onstanl|\, rnsprred hy the possibilities of the untrarned body. and the natural spontaneous gualrtres ot t)l(llll£tly’ people moving. she has -.'.t;rked tirelessly to ensure lhe reerprent of a ()reatrye Scotland Award earlier this year, l’arker has teamed up With lellow <;lroreographer Alan (lrerg to produce a new integrated produetron entitled Person or Persons Unknown.
l’erlorrned by tour nrerrrlrers ot X l aetor [)antte and tour rnernhers ol l’arker's (,orrrpany lraxeller. the show teatures
dance rs a(:(,essrlr|e to eyeryonrr
seven short films totjusrng on the .mork of learning drsalrled perlorrners. Mtltfll ol the (,lroreography has been inspired try
Revrew
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AS YOU LIKE IT coo
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until Sat 15 Oct
So much of our emotional lives, and for that matter, so much of Shakespeare, is about our struggle to rationalise the experience of love. Our attempts to make something empirical of the sublime usually leads to catastrophe, where we mistake love for a particular manifestation of power, and fritter it away. This is the danger, in one way or another, that threatens most of the relationships of As You Like It.
Mark Thomson’s production for the Lyceum makes a pretty good fist of developing this theme, as Rosalind’s (Emma Cunliffe) infatuation with Orlando (Donald Pirie) leads both into some recognisably human game- playing once they leave Gregory Smith’s black chrome and glass city landscape for a forest of Arden of the mind, where on shag-pile carpet barefooted actors play out their fantasy landscape of love. None of Jacques’ (John Bett) sardonic commentaries will, from this point, make an impact on the play’s multiplicity of couples.
There are some nice comic touches throughout, with the central couple sweetly endearing in their youthful passion, nicely supported by Eilidh Macdonald’s astutely observed Celia. Bett’s world-weary Jacques is also strong, while Fiona Steele’s splendid Audrey threatens to run off with the whole shebang, all boisterous innocence and burgeoning sexuality, and timed to perfection. But there are also some problems with the production. It’s too long by 20 minutes, and, perhaps more seriously, the always-vexed issue of the motivation of characters and actions in this play is not truly resolved to the satisfaction of a contemporary audience, a complexity added to by Robin Laing’s touchstone turning from effeminate gay man to randy heterosexual at some point during the intermission. It‘s actually a good performance, but impossible to fathom psychologically. Moreover, there’s a slightly mystifying finale to what is always a difficult narrative to pull together. All the same, there are so many beauties from moment to moment that this does amount to a good night out. (Steve Cramer)
the trlrns. With the rest (greated as the show evolves, 'We’re very much tryrng to work with the exrstrrrg skills the lrayelle! dancers have and rrrake rt truly rntegratedf explains (irerg. “Most of the work rs stirretured rrnproyrsatron It's very drtlerent from anything else we've done. hut I lllllll\ there are heautrtul rnornents Hi there (Kelly Apter)
82 THE LIST 2’2 Sep e ()rl you-3