Theatre
ReVIew lit it’l- ROAM Traverse Theatre. then Edinburgh Airport, until Sat 22 Apr .000
As you cross the bridge into Wyong, a sleepy little town on the coast between Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales. there‘s a cut off from the road leading to a picnic ground by the banks of the river, replete with the brick built public barbecues characteristic of a thousand country places in my home state. Why I should have dreamed of it, yet again, last night is still a mystery; it didn’t seem special when I last saw it, more than half my life ago. Yet the home of the mind, the place we retreat to, is really a pretty random affair, and perhaps, if you saw Grid lron's new piece last night, you were also afflicted with an equally inexplicable place of the mind by your unconscious.
For what Roam does, in as compelling a way as imaginable, is lead one to contemplate the randomness of that which the political world pretends to make so solid, the place you are from. For all the notions of nationalism, religion and race as identity imposed upon us by a profit hungry multinational bureaucracy posing as some comfortable place of the heart, our real home is something much less tangible than such exploitable
88 THE LIST IV." At" QCO'S
ciphers as Braveheart, the Scottish Parliament or lrn Bru. Less tangible than your passport, in fact.
You'll need this to attend the piece, for after your bus journey from the Traverse to Edinburgh airport, you’re taken first to the check in, then flight side to that world of boundarylessness that is the departure lounge. Through music, movement and dialogue we are taken through all of the anxiety, fatigue and officiousness that attends flying these days, then interrogated about the gap between what your passport says you are, and who you are. For, beneath all the mythic dreaming moments, where angels complete with wings attend us on our journey, this, beyond any previous Grid Iron piece, asks us questions about our arbitrary cruelty to those whose national and ethnic identity gives them a different, but equally random, passport.
Along the way we are asked what we should do were we to become the victims of civil strife, and Kigali, Sarajevo or Rwanda were Scotland’s places of refuge, rather than vice versa. There are also moments of splendid knockabout comedy and Phillip Pinsky’s music, along with two live musicians, serves it all up as a treat. Ben Harrison’s tremendous ensemble cast of ten - supported by community actors - create some real magic here, in a night that metaphorises some profound ideological questions through splendid entertainment. A must see. (Steve Cramer)
CLASSIC THE CRUCIBLE
actors at every leg of its tour.
THE COLLECTION Citizens' Theatre. Glasgow, Thu 20—Sat 29 Apr. then touring
‘3 U K to N v ,i I 1‘ z I‘i l ‘ I- ' .i. t l ‘.iht‘ r1 l2.\it .‘ 1| 9 it vv~\1 ~" V;_ l o to. " I’r ; ii i i n ,‘i l r l R if ‘ ‘9. i ,0. . the i ‘ii\ ' " it ’ ti” ' ° t‘t' . t; ""' it: t' ‘l'\".l,' ‘ .-_ ' ti"..iii"t‘ I: t' «hi ‘ t tt .i l t l i1 t w itt't I 'l‘." t ttil t
lili't‘T‘ \.'. .tlztl ill il‘i'
Wu 7‘ 't‘f§"!'.”_°‘l
? wt ‘lii'i Mafia-in
hulk!" ; or f‘ii- °~rniw l t‘ii- tint. thw :. Int- krhl it ii'a-lm Ti in " " «iiill‘t1"lif‘li'i’ il,"o ‘1'}.- it i, j H'll Tltt- f~li')‘.'.’ i‘~ it "itwh-mt
{i't'litiikhii tin .i trii» flu" ititili fril- ;‘ j (l? lit '1)? ill!" Til n.1ll‘tl'
(Lullirh's, iziiriti; l‘l‘lf i it Il‘t‘
(,\(.'(1['1\, 2‘." ti
ll;l\.i:':;t: ti tlt't iltlt.’ .lfll' 1'» the suicide of .i ‘..tttiiii it «tell tu'ii ini- iieiitiituitii t tilliat‘ti il“\ lllt‘ til i‘lli lt.‘ .ii i‘.'.l‘ Part llll‘lltrl. ii.iit existential .iii<;:.t titty. tlii;iii-<1»established(Luilt:ii tinti liltteitlé‘ ‘.'v.’l|il:l. thotlii'l‘ fill‘i' t‘ it:. l)l()(ltltlil()lt lit,- 'htitt llltlllll‘, llt'ifl‘ engaged ilf; .‘i wiltiii tit (llllli, tizli,-.iuiiiii realism. Artistii, tliii;i;toi l intiiis. .'.lir~ has tiiought ttl)<)tli ('l utnng tit l)l'f?lllltfl(:.‘3 of distinguished t lilltl‘m woik to Srottisah starter, .‘l‘i well a“. thi- kinrt ot modern .‘.’()."r\ from the USA 2w.-
lit'iw: (l (:i‘ying hian of. If} once {lilillli to tit: appreciate/l toi Till?) l(3\.’l\.’ill. lStei/o ()l't’lllltft'
Cumbernauld Theatre 20-22 Apr, then touring 0.0
With mass hysteria. sooal llijllSIlCG and perseCution dominating both the daily llt’;.’/‘, aer the daily diaries of the Bush Blair alliance. some would say we've not mine that far from the 17th Century Witch-hunts of Salem. Massachusetts. Originally presented as an allegOry for the injustices he lived through in his own time. Miller's play is transported across the Atlantic and half a century to arrive all but unchanged in a TAG Theatre Company CO-production With the NTS which includes a different group of (,(;lllllllll‘i.'.,’
An entire Village is hOOdWinked by a group of children whose fanciful minds; create a frenzy that swells until half the population is condemned to hang. Using the witch hunt as a means tOr seeking vengeance tOr old quarrels and past 'xirongs. a hysteria grips the community so tightly. that rational objectivity is impossible in all but a ten.
Directing 16 actors of varying ability. Guy Hollands succeeds in some ’lllll‘; ’1?fl",11|? blocking that prevents their sheer number from overpowering Moley Campbell's simple. rustic set. Samantha VOung leads the young girls in their mischief With a fierce lflTH’t’ilt/ and Own Gorman's ProctOr is suitably desperate in his bid to save his Ville from. the gallows. A mammoth undertaking by TAG and the NTS Learn to unite professionals and community partiCipants on the same stage in a three hour production that seeks to make no direct connection With any of the modern equivalencies of its theme. and there's no need; Miller's play is about as timeless as they come, (Eddie Thornton,