Theatre Events are listed by city, then alphabetically by venue. Submit listings at least 16 days before publication to theatre@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Laura Ennor. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
GLASGOW
■ THE ARCHES 253 Argyle Street, 565 1000. On the Verge Thu 23 Jun, 6pm. £9 (£6). Students from the RSAMD perform new work. Tom Pritchard: As Yet Untitled Fri 24 Jun, 7pm. £3 (£2). The latest in a series of improvised dance pieces from one of the Arches’ current Associate Artists. Scratch Night Wed 29 Jun, 7.30pm. Pay what you can. Join well-known and up-and-coming performers as they get ten minutes to try out new ideas in front of an audience. Bard Unbound: Macbeth Tue 5–Sat 16 Jul (not Sun/Mon), 7pm. £10 (£7). Four hundred years after the Scottish Play’s first ever staging, immersive site- specific theatre specialists Bard Unbound bring the tragedy home to the centre of modern Glasgow.
■ BRITANNIA PANOPTICON MUSIC HALL 113–117 Trongate, 553 0840. Music Hall Memories Sat 25 & Sun 26 Jun, 1pm & 3pm. By donation. If you think entertainment in Granny and Grandad’s time was all prim and proper, you might get a surprise from the saucy singers, comics, jugglers, dancers and magicians strutting their stuff here in one of the world’s oldest intact music halls.
■ CCA 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. Glasgow Tango Studio: Tango Milonga Fri 24 Jun, 8.30pm. £10 (£6). Argentine tango with live music. ✽✽ Cryptic Nights: Inhabitants Thu 7 Jul, 8pm. £5. Chilling new
piece combining dance and film, choreographed by Dance Base artist in residence Abby Warrilow of Cagoule Productions. See caption, page 111.
■ CITIZENS THEATRE 119 Gorbals Street, 429 0022. Once on this Island Thu 23 Jun, 7.30pm. £8–£12. Students from the Musical Theatre course at The Dance School of Scotland perform their annual end of year show.
■ CLASSIC GRAND 18 Jamaica Street, 847 0820. Summer Night Sun 26 Jun, 7.30pm. £6 in advance; £8 on the door. Groups from Dance HQ take over the Classic Grand for a night of showing off their contemporary dance moves. Includes a performance of a new piece, ‘Uprising’, and another as-yet-untitled work from Blaze. ■ COTTIER THEATRE 93–95 Hyndland Street, 0844 395 4000. Singin’ I’m No a Billy, He’s a Tim Thu 23–Wed 29 Jun, 7.30pm. £12–£14 (£10–£12). Goldfish Theatre presents its take on Des Dillon’s dependable comedy of identity, bigotry and humanity. Part of the West End Festival. When the Clown Laughs Thu 30 Jun–Sat 2 Jul, 7pm. £10 (£8). A haunted house is the setting for this brand new musical, which describes itself as a cross between Beauty and the Beast and the films of Dario Argento.
■ THE DOUBLET 74 Park Road, 334 1982. FREE Pub: Drama Down Your Local Sun 26 Jun, 8pm. Final ‘episode’ of a live sitcom developed by innovative young Glasgow company Flatrate. 108 THE LIST 23 Jun–21 Jul 2011
■ GLASGOW BOTANIC GARDENS 730 Great Western Road, 334 2422. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Wed 22 Jun–Sat 9 Jul (not Sun/Mon), 7.45pm. £15 (£10); previews Wed 22 and Thu 23 Jun £12 (£8). Gordon Barr transposes Shakespeare’s magical woodland comedy into a saucy 1920s burlesque setting. Part of Bard in the Botanics. Hamlet Wed 13–Sat 30 Jul (not Sun/Mon), 7.45pm. £15 (£10); previews Wed 13 & Thu 14 Jul £12 (£8). Jennifer Dick directs as Bard in the Botanics takes on the Prince of Denmark’s tragedy for the first time, with Paul Cunningham in the title role. Part of Bard in the Botanics. Pericles, Prince of Tyre Tue 19–Sat 30 Jul (not Sun/Mon), 8pm. £15 (£10); preview Thu 19 Jul £12 (£8). In the Kibble Palace glasshouse, Gordon Barr directs one of Shakespeare’s most rarely seen plays. Part of Bard in the Botanics.
■ KING’S THEATRE 297 Bath Street, 0844 871 7648. Tell Me On A Sunday Thu 23–Sat 25 Jun, 7.30pm (Sat mat 2.30pm). £28.50–£31.50. Once-perennial television face Claire Sweeney leads in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s musical about an English girl seeking love and success in the Big Apple.
✽✽ Avenue Q Tue 28–Thu 30 Jun, 7.30pm (Wed mat 2.30pm); Fri 1
Jul, 5.30pm & 8.30pm; Sat 2 Jul, 4pm & 7.30pm. £27–£31. The hilarious musical
finally hits the road after tickling London’s funny bones for five years. A kind of x-rated Sesame Street, the show follows the inhabitants of a run-down area of New York as they struggle with life, love and what to do with your BA in English. See preview, page 106. Buddy Mon 4–Sat 9 Jul, 7.30pm (Wed & Sat mat 2.30pm). £21. Celebrate the man and the music as the touring production of the rock musical rolls into town again. ■ LA BODEGA Dance With Attitude Studios, 1120 South Street, 581 3401. A Cabaret Night with DWA Dancers and Guests Sat 25 Jun, 8pm. £9–£11 (£7.50–£9). Dance, singing and general showing off with the DWA performers. Part of the West End Festival.
■ MERCHANT CITY Various venues.
✽✽ Surge Mon 18–Sun 24 Jul, times vary. Prices vary. Festival of
challenging, surprising and above all entertaining physical performance taking place in the Arches and the surrounding Merchant City area of Glasgow, organised by Conflux. See conflux.co.uk/festivals for more information. See preview, below. Merchant City Festival Thu 21–Sun 24 Jul, times vary. Prices vary. A celebration of Scotland’s theatre, music, visual arts, comedy, dance, film,
literature, shopping and fashion in Glasgow’s trading and cultural quarter. As well as events in venues such as the Tron Theatre and the Briggait artists’ space, there is a busy line-up of street theatre and al fresco music. See merchantcityfestival.com for more information. ■ OLD HAIRDRESSERS Opposite Stereo, Renfield Lane, 332 4403. FREE The Visitors: A Wholly Healthy Glasgow Wed 29 Jun, 7.30pm. The Visitors acting and playwriting cooperative gives a reading, led by Mike Cullen, of Ian Heggie’s play. With the support of Playwrights’ Studio Scotland.
■ ÒRAN MÓR 731-735 Great Western Road, 357 6200. A Play, A Pie & A Pint: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Thu 23–Sat 25 Jun, 1pm. £8–£12.50. Shakespearean comedy, chopped and squeezed ‘til it fits into your lunch hour. Adapted by Andy Gray. Ticket price includes a pie and a drink. Part of the West End Festival. A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Don Giovanni Mon 27 Jun–Sat 2 Jul, 1pm. £8–£12.50. The latest of Oran Mor’s lunchtime ‘Classic Cuts’ is an adaptation by Mary McCluskey of Lorenzo da Ponte and Mozart’s melodramatic comedy. Ticket price includes a pie and drink.
PREVIEW STREET ARTS/CIRCUS FESTIVAL SURGE Various venues, Glasgow, Mon 18–Sun 24 Jul If you were out and about in central Glasgow last July, chances are you saw something rather special. Run by Conflux, the organisation set up to develop physical theatre, street arts and circus in Scotland, the Surge Festival featured a colourful array of dynamic performances.
new ground.’
Once again, a host of strange and wonderful work is in store, including the superbly titled ‘Salmon of Knowledge’, who imparts wisdom in exchange for her safe return to the river, a beatboxing brass band trio, a boxing ballerina duo, and a tent that eats people. Angela De Castro (of Slava’s Snow Show) will create a clown cabaret with ten Scottish artists, and last year’s popular Family Circus Days are back.
‘It was Scotland’s first festival dedicated to work of For the Conflux team there’s a real sense of building
this kind, and because everything was so new it felt like we had a lot of room to follow our instincts and simply deliver what we felt would be most exciting,’ says Conflux’s artistic director Al Seed. ‘In 2011 we’re reining things in a little and demonstrating what we do best – giving emergent artists the chance to break on last year’s success. ‘In 2010 we were very aware of the responsibility of championing work that, whilst thriving in many ways, is still to receive full recognition in wider Scottish culture,’ says Seed. ‘It feels that this year there is an audience that knows what to expect and is ready to go.’ (Kelly Apter)
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