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Theatre
PREVIEW COMIC FANTASY
SEX AND CHOCOLATE Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Thu
11 Sep
A 50th birthday. Alone. In your office while your colleagues are out on the razz. This tripartite hell sounds like the stuff of a depressing dramatic monologue rather than a fantasy romp. but life-affirming comedy is precisely the aim of writer Rona Munro and actress Fiona Knowles. who enjoyed sell-out success with their one-woman spectacular Sex and Chocolate when it was first performed in 2000.
Performer Knowles describes the need for an uplifting take on that dreaded watershed birthday. ‘The play is about a time in the central character‘s life when she goes. “Oh my God. my kids have left home. I've left an abusive relationship and I have to make a life for myself.“ The play features an injection of go-get-‘em spirit in the face of a youth-obsessed culture as we follow Jan's personal revelations. 'By the end of the play the protagonist recognises that she's become the woman she always wanted to be. and never realised that she was.' says Knowles.
Written to commemorate her own half-century, Sex and Chocolate is a particularly special piece for Knowles so she is thrilled to be touring it again. She does. however. have one word of warning for anyone planning to grab a ticket: ‘The audience will have to suspend their disbelief because I‘m 59 now,’ she giggles. (Natalie Woolman)
PREVIEW NEW WRITING FLEETO Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 9—Sat 13 Sep
The perceived increase in knife crimes on the streets of Scotland is steadily raising awareness of a deadly culture creeping through the nation’s young population. Knives continue to be used only in around eight percent of violent crimes, but it’s the use of these weapons by young gang members that has inspired writer and director Paddy Cunneen to create a tragic take on one boy’s descent into gang violence, set amid Glasgow’s so-called ‘knife culture’.
Struck by the diminishing wealth as he travelled outside one of Scotland’s city centres, Cunneen was moved by what he perceived to be an abandoned portion of society. It was this experience that inspired his central character in Fleeto. ‘For that young lad in our play, there is an exhilaration in being in a gang,’ he says. ‘There’s a sense of empowerment and a sense that all of a sudden you can have an influence on the world after years of living in conditions where you feel unnoticed, neglected and impotent, so it’s no surprise in some
PREVIEW REVIVAL
SUNSET SONG
His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, Fri 5-Sat 13 Sep; King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 16—Sat 20 Sep
Director Kenny Ireland is looking to instil some pride in the nation's literary heritage by bringing Lewis Grassic Gibbon's classic tale of community. national identity and sexual awakening back to the stage.
Set in an early 20th century farming community in the North East of Scotland. this familiar high school syllabus staple. which was voted Scotland‘s most popular novel of all time in 2006. still resonates for Ireland. “It‘s about a young woman. Chris (played by Hannah Donaldson, pictured) who is discovering herself. her sexuality and her relationship with the land. and she's being pulled in two different directions all the time,‘ he says. ‘We all have the feeling that we both like and dislike different things about Scotland. but it's important. as Chris shows. to know who we are. what we are and where we want to go.‘
Replacing some of the language that was stripped from Gibbon‘s original in Alistair Cording's stage adaptation, Ireland also hopes to put back some of the sense of scale produced by the novel without losing the audience connection. ‘We‘ve done qwte a bit of work in taking it further into the Scots. but if an actor knows what they're saying and invests it with that feeling then it doesn‘t matter what language they‘re using,‘ he says. ‘lt's not unintelligible. but we're aiming to put the Scots words back in and this language really helps to give it the big scale we need in this production: the kind of epic quality that Gibbon himself gave.‘ (David Laing)
respects that a gang holds an appeal for some people.’ Using a Homeric epic as a starting point, Cunneen is eager to dispel the glamour of gang membership. ‘The Iliad is basically a story that has been celebrated throughout history and is considered a great piece of literature. Fundamentally, it’s about a gang of Greeks that goes over and wages war against a gang of Trojans, yet somehow, that’s seen as strangely acceptable.’ Cunneen has also borrowed the epic nature of the Iliad, in an attempt to move his new work away from the domain of soap opera. ‘I thought it was important that everybody should speak in an epic way at particular times so I borrowed the Shakespearean iambic pentameter and mixed that together with what you might call Glasgow street speak,’ he says. ‘And because the actors are able to give an articulate, poetic account of themselves it makes you reconsider their motives and who they are as people, rather than just ticking the box that says ‘violent young man please ignore’. Cunneen’s hard-edged vicarious tragedy seems likely to provoke plenty of debate around a disconcerting subject. (David Laing)
4—18 Sep 2008 THE LIST 89