Theatre
www.list.co.uk/theatre
REVIEW ADAPTATION THE SOUND OF MY VOICE Citizens‘ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Jun 0000
Most people live a life torn between the conformities of consumerism and some more primal urge for happiness, yet we only really notice this schism when a person goes off the rails. One such catastrophe occurs in Ron Butlin’s novel, here adapted by director Jeremy Raison, in which a man seemingly enjoying the good life bourgeois culture brings is caught at the end of an unravelling process that heavily involves the very material success he boasts in life.
Our protagonist, a successful executive working for a biscuit company (Billy Mack) is followed through a week of his life in which the patience and forbearance of his wife (Rebecca McQuillan), the bonhomie of his work colleagues and the adoration of his children all amount to nothing as he descends into an alcohol fuelled apocalypse. This is far more than a simple mid- life crisis; we watch as one increasingly nauseating all- day drinking schedule follows another and as delusion and hallucination create a series of increasingly
96 THE LIST 5; 1‘: Jan atria
alarming situations, some the product of his emotionally attenuated affluence, others relating to an unresolved relationship with his psychologically abusive father.
Raison’s production piles up the stress nicely in front of Jason Southgate’s mirrored wall design, complete with an appropriately dominant liquor cabinet. The Stalls Studio’s confined spaces work nicely with the relentless claustrophobia that is plainly the major psychological issue facing the central character. The sense of pure accumulation, as each drunken vomiting stupor is followed by more booze in the morning is powerful enough to put the late Boris Yeltsin on the Band of Hope — you’ll feel like, but be unable to take, a drink after this one, I assure you. More importantly, this piece questions many basic assumptions about the redemptive power of a Better Homes and Gardens lifestyle. It’s all set off by the desperate energy of Mack’s performance, with good support from McQuillan in a series of roles. You need to be ready for it, but this is a kind of Lost Weekend for the post- Thatcher generation. (Steve Cramer)
REVIEW l rot ()(IAt rsr {DRAMA THE FIRST TO GO
Benchtours' product
contrast to the otlrerx'ase xx'rtty. rernorseiet
REVIEW crrrroargrxrs lllt Arm LIAR
Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Jun, then touring 0000
Scottish travelling songs and family secrets are revealed together lll Davey Anderson's play for young adults. which explores the difficulties people have when they are regurred to tell the truth. On their first day of summer holidays. ten-year—olds er/re and Stevre spy a silver haired old woman wrth a caravan across the canal. The woman's unlikely appearance sparks l_r//re's curiosity. \‘JlllCll intensifies when her mother Sheila tells her not to go near the woman. Liz/re tells her first lie when she crosses the canal at the sound of .Jeanres singing. Other lies are told in succession as a relationship between L.r//re and Jeanie develops. and an old truth is eventually uncovered.
Narrated at an energetic pace. Liar focuses on the historical tensions betx'reen travellers and settled people. With such serious issues. Anderson chooses to challenge rather than merer amuse his young audience. llte full Scottish cast is accompanied by an a cappella trio who break into bits of song whenever the tension rises. Anderson skillfully matches the tenor of the music to the intensity of the dialogue. Images of canals. campfires and beaches are also expertly conjured on the blank stage. As Lr//re. Ashley Smith gives a buoyant and sincere performance. \.'.'hereas .er Sturgeon as both Stevie and LiX/re's dad provrdes the play's much needed cornrc relief. The audience remains captwated by the actors' constant rotation around the blank stage. as if to show all sides of the story Rarely has a play about dishonest; been so truthful about human behaxtour‘. Flheresa lvluno/f-
Tron, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Jun, then touring 00.
Seeing drsabied actors performing in a mainstream theatre is rare enough.
on of Nabrl Shaban's play about the treatment of the disabled lll Na/r Germany is doubly ground breaking in that it brings a marginalised atrocity before Scot :sh audiences in a pot'rerful. moyrag production.
Shaban's play portrays the horrors of tne so called ri' programme in ‘~.‘."li(Ill any person considered iv, the Na/rs to hate a hereditan, d'sease paras sterilised and later (}X(3(Ttll(}(lr through the story of three disabled friends, Siegfried rplayed by Shabanr. l lerdr illobyn Hunt: and l‘lelrnut rAlan Clayr. In one of the play's many rronrr: trusts. the trio's sympathetic nurse Brunlrrlde rCernre Burnell. rs also disabled. haying lost I>art of a lrrnb lll an accident.
fit his p; ssronate urge to teil this story. Shaban's script occasionally takes on the feel of a lecture. With members of the supporting cast intermittently popping up to precrs the x'xrder ltrstorrca' context. lhese segments are oyer'long and fall flat l.'l rs dialogue.
lhe most engaging scenes are those an t‘rhrch the three friends find escape through f;l()l‘,i(}lllllfl. spinning out a lllllll\ \.erled allegory about the ‘Bad Man'
ll lrtlen and his ‘l tar" r(‘toebbelsr. iherr shared humrl:atrons and srrrall triumphs, are so (:onyrncrngry (lt)pr<‘l(?(l Ill the writing and strong performances that rt makes the knot‘xledge of their impending late all the more upsetting. (Allan Radcliffer