Theatre
R E N B U H K E C A J
PREVIEW NEW WORK THE CITY Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 19 Feb–Sat 6 Mar
It is in the nature of cities, capital cities in particular, to juxtapose the trivial with the weighty. As city dwellers we are at once individuals with worries about bus tickets and groceries, and also part of something much bigger – the city itself and all it represents. And if that city is somewhere where laws are made and wars declared, so much the greater is the absurdity that springs from worries about the daily commute mingling with decisions about life and death. Just such an absurdity is at the heart of Martin Crimp’s latest original work, The City, which Tron artistic director Andy Arnold is bringing to the Tron’s intimate Changing House space this fortnight. The play follows the increasingly surreal confrontations between a dysfunctional couple, their sleep-deprived neighbour and a mysterious child in an unspecified
city in a place that feels a lot like a version of modern day Britain with its levels of alienation cranked up to 11. Arnold is in thrall to the imaginative power of
Crimp’s brutal juxtapositions and the bitter sort of wit with which they are thrown together: ‘You’ve got one person talking about major, global things, and the other talking about not being able to find the right meat in the frozen section and having to go to the counter . . . It just goes from one thing to another. The stories in there are just fascinating – that’s what’s really captivating.’
Against suggestions that Crimp’s work can be somewhat elusive or even overly enigmatic, Arnold is staunchly defensive. ‘There’s a definite story there, there’s a definite relationship between a husband and wife. It’s more about what is not said than what is said, but it’s a fascinating character study, certainly, and totally absorbing.’ (Laura Ennor)
REVIEW MONOLOGUE PROMISES PROMISES Currently touring throughout Scotland. Seen at Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 6 Feb ●●●●●
It’s no mere nod and a wink to lovers of Muriel Spark that the school teacher protagonist of Douglas Maxwell’s gripping new monologue is called Margaret Anne Brodie. The character herself may claim not to have read Spark’s famous novel of sex, power and religion, but the playwright undoubtedly has. Like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Maxwell’s script is dense in ideas about traditional power structures as well as the corrupting nature of religious and personal dogma. The play centres around the
exorcism of a six-year-old elective mute Somalian girl by ‘community leaders’ in Miss Brodie’s classroom, an event that provokes a startlingly violent reaction in the jaded, twice ‘retired’ teacher. Gradually we learn of the deep-rooted inner fury that lurks beneath her smart exterior, her neuroses dating back to a vicious power struggle with her strict Scottish Presbyterian father. The fact that Miss Brodie unfolds her story out of sequence, piece by piece, in a tone that moves seamlessly from sardonic comedy to toe-curling horror, renders the piece all the more riveting. Maxwell’s monologue exhibits a lyrical quality that produces a wonderfully heightened atmosphere while the nuances of the writing are complemented by a simply mesmerising performance by Joanna Tope as the troubled teacher. (Allan Radcliffe)
PREVIEW REVIVAL THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, Fri 19 Feb–Sat 13 Mar
‘Someone said to me once that Ireland just skipped the 20th century and went from the 19th to the 21st,’ muses Scottish-born, Irish-bred actress Cara Kelly when asked about the ‘Irishness’ of her current role, in Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane. And, while generational differences have been the source of frustration and amusement the world over since time immemorial, there’s no denying that the play’s setting in remote, rural County Galway at the turn of the millennium can only have made those differences more marked. McDonagh’s debut, showered with awards when it was first performed in 1996, tells the
story of a 40-year-old spinster, Maureen (played by Kelly), stuck in a life of subservience and bickering with her manipulative old mother, Mag, and ready to jump at a chance for love and freedom. With an accuracy that Kelly can only put down to a ‘profound talent’, McDonagh wrote these mature female characters as a 25-year-old man. Known for combining black humour with a real brutality and violence of both the
physical and emotional variety, McDonagh (who also wrote and directed 2008 film In Bruges) certainly doesn’t make it easy for his leading lady: the cast have been struggling to keep straight faces at times in rehearsals and the challenge for Kelly is to carry a tragic story through the laughter. But the task is a welcome one: ‘[The play] is so rich and multi- layered as well, so it doesn’t make it easier, but it’s a different challenge and it’s a challenge I much prefer.’ (Laura Ennor)
82 THE LIST 18 Feb–4 Mar 2010
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