Theatre
Tennessee Williams
Revnew
Cl ASSIC
SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH Dundee Rep, until Sat 11 Nov 0000
Ladies, step this way. If you’re up for a sexual thrill, just check out the opening act of Tennessee Williams’ magnificent Sweet Bird of Youth and see Alan Turkington preening around in his pyjama bottoms, flexing his clean shaven chest and looking every inch the 29-year-old gigolo a fading movie star would want to find in her hotel bedroom after a night on the vodka and dope. Irene Macdougall, spilling out of her nightie as the clapped out Alexandra del Lago, can’t even mention sex without Turkington running his hands round his waistband as if permanently primed to leap into bed.
But wait! The clock is ticking against such simmering sensuality and Turkington’s Chance Wayne knows only too well he can’t trade on his good looks forever. He’s holed up in a hotel room in his home town of St Cloud, Florida in a last-ditch attempt to deliver on the good- looking promise he showed when he left a decade earlier.
If he can only patch things up with his teenage sweetheart, the once heavenly Heavenly, and blackmail Del Lago into giving them a leg-up into the film industry, there’s still a chance he can defy the laws of
86 THE LIST I” 'n’i Non 25/1";
time. Otherwise, he’ll be some washed up never-was, like a failed X Factor contestant from our own celebrity-obsessed era, and he’s not going to get any youngen
It’s with a sense of all-too-knowing horror in James Brining’s superb production that we watch Chance crumble from a soft-talking hustler to a fidgeting wreck of a man, popping pills with increasing frequency the more his ambitions look stupidly unattainable. The unexpected rise of the equally neurotic Del Lago, who discovers her career is no longer in free-fall, offers little solace: she’s merely an accidental beneficiary of the same superficial celebrity system that’s grinding Chance down.
Macdougall and Turkington give masterly performances, as nuanced and intelligent as they are painful to watch. Williams‘ unrelenting dialogue has a symphonic structure which they play with musicianly accomplishment. Their monstrous characters dominate the play, but there are strong performances throughout, notably John Buick as a hard-nosed spin-doctoring politician and Kim Gerard as a fierce and volatile Heavenly, her youth stolen by sexually transmitted disease. With the atmospheric waves of Anthea Haddow’s score amplifying the oppressive sense of sticky Southern heat, it’s a mature and confident production of a fantastic play that holds you gripped from languid beginning to vicious end. (Mark Fisher)
NEW WORK
the visit. (Steve Cramer)
THE PAPER NAUTILUS
Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 2-Sat 4 Nov, then touring
NEW WORK ALICE BELL Tron, Glasgow, Thu 2—Sat 4 Nov
Hope seems to be a commodity that much of our theatre is short of these days. particularly when there are political subtexts to be located in the work concerned. It's gratifying then that the English company, Lone Twin. should venture into something like optimism amid a lot of suffering in this new piece. which has already toured internationally.
The character of the title is an entirely fictional female. born into a vaguely defined nation violently divided. whose entire life story is non—chronologically told in this bit of avant garde narrative. The striking thing about the lady concerned is her optimism. and her joy at music and singing, a salvation for a troubled and sometimes lonely life. which seeks companionship where it can. All this. in spite of the fact that this protagonist is murdered. The piece boasts a five strong cast from an international array of countries and a variety of ages. It's already distinguished itself at the Battersea Arts Centre — and looks set to amuse and move here. (Steve Cramer)
One can never cease to be amazed by the human capacity for UFOJCCllOll. When we imagine creatures from outer space. they invariably seem hellbent on our colonisation and destruction. This might tell us more about ourselves than any putative ‘visitors‘. should. against all reason. they both exist and would be remotely interested in coming here. So it is. as well. that we often imagine the worlds at the bottom of our seas to be fraught with menace and danger.
So it's refreshing that Cathie Boyd's outfit. Theatre Cryptic, seem to be engaged in a project intended to expose the tranquil beauties of our sea floors. rather than undersea beasties with big teeth. All this comes from a collaboration between themselves. the contemporary serious music company Paragon Ensemble. and a biotechnology company called LUX. This latter bunch of boffins seem to have uncovered various forms of what's called ‘living light’. the luminescence created by organisms at the bottom of our deep blues seas. These colours and effects Will be incorporated into Pippa Nissen's design, and the whole shebang Will be accompanied by a libretto by poet Jackie Kay with text by the Lebanese writer Etel Adnan. Cryptic have pretty much cornered the market on these kinds of collaborations in Scotland, and if the results have sometimes been mixed. the final product is often interesting. With such pieces as Each and Every Inch to their credit in the past. their work here with GaVin Bryars' composition seems worth