www.list.co.uk/theatre
Events are listed by city, then alphabetically by venue. Submit listings at least 14 days before publication to theatre@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Laura Ennor. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
Glasgow
■ 77 TRONGATE 77 Trongate, 552 2442. FREE Dance House presents Dance Juke Box! Sat 24 Jul. 1–4pm. An exciting and novel event brought to you by Dance House. In the street outside the building (but indoors if wet), several dancers follow instructions for various moves chosen by members of the audience in a variety of dance styles. Part of the Merchant City Festival.
■ THE ARCHES 253 Argyle Street, 565 1000.
✽✽ Surge Until Sun 25 Jul. Times vary. Prices vary. Physical
performance festival taking place in and around the Arches. Surge: Cabaret Club Nights Fri 23–Sun 25 Jul. 10pm–3am. £5. Nights of dark cabaret as the physical performance festival showcases Dresden-based company Dramaten with Freak Show. Surge: The Venus Labyrinth Until Sun 25 Jul (not Fri). Thu 6pm–midnight; Sat & Sun noon–6pm. £11 (£9). Performance installation in which
audience members travel through some of 28 different rooms, each inhabited by a different woman and each corresponding to a different part of the human brain. Each journey lasts around an hour and audiences should enter via Midland Street. Surge: Red Bastard Sat 24 & Sun 25 Jul. 9.15pm. £9 (£7). Monstrosity, clowning and buffoonery from Eric Davis. And be warned: it’s an interactive show. Ages 18+. Scratch Night Thu 29 Jul. 7.30pm. Pay what you can. Join well-known and up-and-coming performers as they get ten minutes each to try out new ideas in front of an audience and seek feedback. Markus Makavellian’s International Order Sat 31 Jul. 7.30pm. £6 (£4). An hour of commentary on contemporary life from New York performance poet Markus Makavellian, aka Drew Taylor. Quality Control Tue 3 Aug. 7.30pm. £6 (£4). New poetic black comedy from proudExposure, written and directed by Drew Taylor. ■ BLACKFRIARS 36 Bell Street, 552 5924. An Accent Waiting to Happen Sat 24 Jul. 8pm. £6 (£5). Richard Strange looks back over his career with readings, songs and clips from his past. Part of the Merchant City Festival.
■ BRUNSWICK STREET Brunswick Street, www.merchantcityfestival.com
REVIEW CAMP FARCE VALHALLA! Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 24 Jul ●●●●●
Paul Rudnick’s Valhalla! interweaves the coming-of-age stories of notoriously eccentric 19th-century monarch Ludwig II of Bavaria (Johnny McKnight) and a teenage tearaway named James Avery (Mark Prendergast) growing up in 1930s redneck Texas. While the burgeoning sexual awakening of these two boys-who-like-boys forms the backbone of the narrative, Rudnick’s play is essentially a celebration of the delights of high camp and an excuse to parody everything from Rebel Without a Cause to Anchors Away and the monumental excesses of Wagner’s operas.
In an effort to wring the maximum enjoyment out of the text director Andy Arnold has assembled a fine cast, including River City’s Joyce Falconer, James Anthony Pearson and Grant Smeaton, who tackle a plethora of comic roles and numerous costume changes with gusto. Kenny Miller’s half-finished set, meanwhile, underlines the play’s total rejection of realism. The humour in the script is shamelessly lewd and crude, without even the filter of the double-entendre to spare our blushes, and while the scenario is for the most part genuinely laugh-out-loud funny there are moments in this production where the cast appear to be having more fun than the audience, creating a fleeting sensation of having arrived late at a party.
Still, it’s unbelievably refreshing to see unapologetic gay characters right at the top of the dramatis personae, and any initial reservations about the high concept silliness of the play are quickly swept away on a tide of gleeful laughter. (Allan Radcliffe)
FREE nutkhut Dance Sat 24 & Sun 25 Jul. 1.45pm, 3pm & 5.15pm; 1.30pm, 4pm & 5.45pm. An outdoor Bollywood- inspired ensemble piece. Part of the Merchant City Festival. FREE Underground Sun 25 Jul. 1pm, 3.30pm & 6pm. Four dancers from Motionhouse explore the crowded, bustling experience of modern train travel through a performance of physical theatre, dance and aerial encounters within a rocking tubular structure. Part of the Merchant City Festival. ■ BROOMIELAW QUAY PONTOON Off York Street, 559 4928. FREE SURGE: Tide Machine Fri 23–Sun 25 Jul. 8–9pm; 6–7pm. The power and movement of the tides is captured in physical performances and kinetic sculpture, created by Oceanallover and presented as part of Surge. Part of the Merchant City Festival.
■ EASTWOOD PARK THEATRE Eastwood Park, Rouken Glen Road, Giffnock, 577 4970. Twinkle Twonkle Fri 23 & Sat 24 Jul. See Kids listings. ■ FORT THEATRE Kenmure Avenue, Bishopbriggs, 772 7054. Daisy Pulls it Off Sat 24 & Sun 25 Jul. 2.30pm (also Sat 7.30pm). £12. Enid Blyton meets St Trinians as spirited Daisy Meredith enlists the help of her pal Trixie for a quest to find some missing treasure that could save their exclusive school.
■ GILMOREHILL G12 29 University Avenue, University of Glasgow, 330 5522. Branches Thu 29–Sat 31 Jul. 7.30pm. £6 (£3). Innovative theatre work created by members of Solar Bear’s deaf youth theatre exploring encounters between strangers in a mystical forest.
■ GLASGOW BOTANIC GARDENS 730 Great Western Road, 429 0022.
✽✽ Twelfth Night Until Sat 31 Jul (not Sun/Mon). 7.45pm. £15 (£10). The
classic gender-swapping, mistaken- identity romp in which the boy finally gets his man and the fool ends up in yellow stockings. Titus Andronicus Until Sat 31 Jul (not Sun/Mon). 8pm. £12 (£8). Shakespeare’s gory tale of Romans versus Goths gets an outdoor showing courtesy of Bard in the Botanics.
■ MERCHANT SQUARE 71–73 Albion Street, www.merchantcityfestival.com FREE Underground Sat 24 Jul. 1pm, 3.30pm & 6pm. See Glasgow, Brunswick Street. ■ MUGDOCK COUNTRY PARK Craigallian Road, Milngavie, 956 6100. Blast from the Past Sun 25 Jul. See Kids listings. Susie and Simon’s Summer Surprise! Wed 28 Jul. See Kids listings.
■ PARNIE STREET Parnie Street, www.merchantcityfestival.com FREE The Harry Stork Cabaret Sat 24 & Sun 25 Jul. 2pm & 4pm. Street cabaret, and all the barminess that entails. Part of the Merchant City Festival.
■ PAVILION THEATRE 121 Renfield Street, 332 1846. Jukebox Memories Thu 22–Sat 24 Jul. 7.30pm (Sat mat 2pm). £13–£16 (£14). Comedy musical featuring Christian, Dean Park and The Swingcats, drawing on the music of the 60s and 70s with hits from the Drifters, Neil Sedaka, Connie Francis, Chubby Checker, Elvis and more. ■ RAMSHORN CHURCH YARD Ramshorn Theatre, 98 Ingram Street, 341 0844. FREE The Russian Play Sat 24 & Sun
Theatre
25 Jul. 3pm. A romance based in Stalin’s Russia from playwright Hannah Moscovitch, performed in the graveyard. Part of the Merchant City Festival.
■ RSAMD 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. FREE Beg, Borrow and Steal: Dramaworks Performance Fri 23 Jul. 3pm. The results of a five-day summer drama course for 12 to 14-year-olds exploring the potential of objects to inspire and aid performance. Project Y – Y Dance Wed 28 Jul. 7.30pm. £6. Scotland’s best young dancers perform in this brand new programme from Scotland’s National Youth Dance Company. FREE 5 Days: Dramaworks Performance Fri 30 Jul. 3pm. The culmination of a week of drama workshops for 15 to 17-year-olds. ■ SCOTTISH YOUTH THEATRE The Old Sheriff Court, 105 Brunswick Street, 552 4267. Adventures in a Norwegian Wood Thu 29 Jul–Sun 1 Aug. See Kids listings. Jerusalem: The Song of Deeds Mon 2–Sat 7 Aug. 7.30pm (Sat mat 2pm). £10.50 (£6.50; family ticket £30). Travel back to 1095, and the preparations for the first crusades, which were undertaken in an attempt to hold Western Christendom together. Follow Mira and Parzefal as they try to make sense of the impending chaos.
■ SLOANS Argyle Arcade, 108 Argyle Street, 221 8886. Performance Banquet Sun 25 Jul. 7.30pm. £15 (inc two-course meal). Highlights from the performance aspect of the Merchant City festival including Mischief La Bas, The Devil’s Chauffeur and many surprise guests – all that, and a curry to boot!
22 Jul–5 Aug 2010 THE LIST 85