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REVIEW MUSICAL
EVITA
Playhouse, Edinburgh, until Sat 21 Jun 0000
Performers bursting into song for no apparent reason is the slightly odd. but wholly accepted. calling card of musical theatre. But what better way to sidestep that moment of incongruity than to never stop singing at all? Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber saw the merit in this many years ago. and Evita is a prime example of just how well the strategy works. From the opening bars to the closing notes. not a word is spoken. only sung.
The success of this. obviously, rides on the voices doing the singing. Happily. this production of Rice/Webber's 1978 musical has vocal talent to spare. Louise Dearman is utterly believable as the political diva. Eva Peron. changing from a hungry teenager desperate for stardom. to a fragile 30-something facing her untimely demise. Seamus Cullen (of Any Dream Will Do fame) is equally strong as Che. the narrator who holds the whole show together.
The songs have turned up in so many places over the years. from Madonna's chart hit. ‘You Must Love Me' to ‘Another Suitcase in Another Hall' being used for the sing-off in I'd Do Anything, that it's great to actually hear them in-situ. And although fitting a major chunk of Argentina's histOry onto a musical postage stamp isn't easy. we walk away with the general idea.
Slick chorus numbers. the easy blend of personal/political storyline and. of course. the Rice/Lloyd Webber dream team score keep this show as fresh as the day it was born. (Kelly Apter)
REVIEW ourpooe PERFORMANCE THE WINTER’S TALE
East Quadrangle, University of Glasgow, Until Sun 22 Jun 0000
Back in the day. going to see a show meant turning up at your village green or hostelry garden. Things have moved on since the 1500s. and there's much to he said for modern theatres with their velvet upholstery. carpets and — a roof.
Sitting in the grounds of Edinburgh's Hopetowf House. being intermittently soaked by rain or devoured by midges. I'II confess to wishing for a proscenium arch and comfy seat. But only briefly. The rest of the time. the open air experience brings far more pros than cons. Performed on a small stage and catwalk. The Winter's Tale is the latest touring production from London's Globe Theatre.
Visiting outdoor locations across Britain. they aim to recreate the magic generated by Shakespeare and his pals. We can only guess at the standard of acting back then. given the dearth of drama schools available to foth century thesps. but today's Globe actors are superb. Sitting so close to such anguish and well-crafted wit makes the sodden clothes and insect bites worthwhile.
It seems wrong to single out players from such a strong cast. but Glasgow's John Dougall needs special mention. Swnching from the jealous King Leontes to the humble shepherd, he inhabits both men with astute authenticity. So too Michael Benz. who, in true Shakespearean style. plays both male and female characters with humour and gravitas. For sheer enjoyment of his (lewous merriment, however, Fergal McElherron steals the show. (Kelly Apter)
REVIEW REVIVAL LES PARENTS TERRIBLES Dundee Rep, until Sat 21 Jun 0000
The repression of our natural sexual urges was, in Freud’s View, a necessary step in the production of a civilised society. Mention this along with his theories on the Oedipus complex, and you can expect uncomfortable dinner party conversation. With themes of sexual infidelity and unusual familial bonding, Jean Cocteau’s tragi-comedy caused a similar stir among 19305 Parisians, and retains the capacity to cause more than a little uncomfortable seat squirming.
Twenty-two-year-old Michael’s (Kevin Lennon) unusually close relationship with his mother Yvonne (Ann Louise Ross) is tested when he announces that he has fallen in love with Madeleine (Emily Winter). Unfortunately for Michael, Madeleine is also his father George’s (John Buick) mistress, a fact that scheming Aunt Leo (Irene MacDougall) swiftly turns to her advantage.
Creating the role of Michael for his lover Jean Marais, Cocteau suffused his play with elements not only of Marais’ life, but also his own. After the death of his father, Cocteau’s mother became the dominant figure
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in his life, and it’s this sense of an overbearing matriarch that rightly dominates in Stewart Laing’s new production. Half-lit, Yvonne’s cluttered bedroom of expressionist greens and oranges evokes visions of Cocteau’s Orphée, providing the cloying sense of claustrophobia so necessary to this uncommonly close familial setting. So convincing is Laing’s design that it threatens to stifle the production, each actor straining with repetitive movements, willed to break through the restrictive balustrades that form imagined windows. And yet it’s the design that ultimatety triumphs here as Madeleine’s apartment — white, sterile and organised - is revealed.
The Kubrickesque simplicity of the SOs-styled flat allows Michael’s newly discovered freedom to wash away the memories of his mother’s sexually charged smothering, before he, like Orphée, must travel back to the intense underworld until he can finally be free. Kevin Lennon’s cheerful exuberance as Michael is matched by his creditable despair, but it’s Irene MacDougall’s turn as a Cruella De Vil-styled Machiavelli that thoroughly impresses in a funny, farcical and uncomfortable musing on sexual morality that’s well worth a look. (David Laing)
19 Juli IiJul 20081115 LIST 89