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 ■ THE ARCHES 253 Argyle Street, 565 1000. Through the Looking Glass Thu 25 Aug, 6.30pm; Fri 26 Aug, 1pm & 6.30pm; Sat 27 Aug, 12.30pm, 3pm & 6.30pm. £9 (£7). Sonic Boom Theatre presents this celebration of the 140th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s classic sequel to Alice in Wonderland.
✽✽ Arches Live! Thu 22 Sep–Sat 1 Oct, times vary. Prices vary. See
preview, right. Euan Ogilvie: The Bystander Effect Tue 20–Sat 24 Sep, from 6.45pm. £3 (£2). Experimental performance testing the individual’s free will against their desire to fit in with those around them. Arches Live. Thom Scullion: Play (Station) Tue 20 & Wed 21 Sep, from 6.45pm. £3 (£2). An interactive installation where audience and artist share time together through the medium of computer games. Part of Arches Live. Vile Arts: Critical Confessions Tue 20–Wed 28 Sep, from 6.45pm. £3 (£2). Skinny performance critic Gareth K Vile, styling himself as ‘Mr Criticulous,’ invites you into his chamber of discernment to learn the vile art of Performance Criticism. Arches Live. Julien Lonchamp: Fall of a Window Cleaner Tue 20 Sep, 7pm & 8pm. £3 (£2). Composer and filmmaker Julien Lonchamp aims to recapture the excitement of the early days of cinema with this live event featuring the music of the Apostrophe Ensemble and a short film shot in The Arches. Arches Live. Kieran Hurley: Beats Tue 20 & Wed 21 Sep, 7.30pm. £7 (£5). Kieran Hurley presents a work in its early stages in which he explores the links between the outlawing of illegal raves in the early 1990s and the current government’s criminalisation of protest movements. Part of Arches Live. Peter McMaster & Nic Green: The Fire Burns and Burns Tue 20 Sep, 7.30pm. £7 (£5). An immersive and intimate exploration of ‘aliveness’ and the notion of the fire inside. Arches Live. Nichola Scrutton: Songs for a Stranger Tue 20 & Wed 21 Sep, 8.30pm. £7 (£5). Sound artist and vocalist Scrutton and vocalist Hänni improvise with fragments of text and extended electroacoustic techniques to explore the feelings of strangerdom.
■ BRITANNIA PANOPTICON MUSIC HALL 113–117 Trongate, 553 0840. Music Hall Memories Sat 27 & Sun 28 Aug, 1pm & 3pm. By donation. Re- live the Music Hall days. ■ CCA 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. Joyride (Tales of Magical Realism Park 1) Thu 1 & Fri 2 Sep, 8pm. £5. The first part of a planned trilogy from Cryptic Nights and Outland Productions, Joyride promises to be an immersive experience combining film, performance and installation.
■ CITIZENS THEATRE 119 Gorbals Street, 429 0022.
✽✽ Men Should Weep Fri 16 Sep–Sat 8 Oct (not Sun/Mon),
7.30pm (Sat 24 Sep & Sat 1 & 8 Oct mat 2.30pm. £10.50–£18 (£7.50–£15; previews on Fri 16 & Sat 17 Sep £5; Tuesdays all tickets £10). Graham McLaren directs a brand new production for the National Theatre of Scotland of Ena Lamont Stewart’s seminal 1947 play. 134 THE LIST 25 Aug–22 Sep 2011
The Johnny Thomson Story Mon 5–Sat 10 Sep, 7.30pm (Wed & Sat mat 2.30pm). £15.50–£31.50. Play telling the story of the short life of Celtic goalkeeping legend of the 1920s Johnny Thomson. Rock Around the Clock Tue 20–Sat 24 Sep, 7.30pm (Wed & Sat mat 2.30pm). £17.50–£35.50. Over 20 singers, dancers and musicians bring to life the music of the 1950s including Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and Elvis.
■ ÒRAN MÓR 731-735 Great Western Road, 357 6200. ✽✽ A Play, a Pie and a Pint: God Bless Liz Lochhead Mon 5–Sat 10 Sep, 1pm. £8–£12.50. A sequel to the legendary Highlands and Islands tour of Liz Lochhead’s Tartuffe, when the personal lives of the actors provided more drama offstage than on. See Hitlist. Ticket price includes a pie and drink. A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Angels Mon 12–Sat 17 Sep, 1pm. £8–£12.50. A new play by Ronan O’Donnell in which a lone-wolf security guard is hauled in for a Kafkaesque interrogation. Ticket price includes a pie and drink. A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Supply Mon 19–Sat 24 Sep, 1pm. £8–£12.50. A newly qualified English teacher meets more than his match in a class of S4 girls who have their own ideas about what they want to learn from him. Ticket price includes a pie and drink.
■ PAVILION THEATRE 121 Renfield Street, 332 1846. Peter Powers Fri 26 Aug, 7.30pm; Sat 27 Aug, midnight & 7.30pm. £11–£14. Hypnotist act from Powers, who has been called ‘the Ali G of stage hypnosis’. Please note the Fri show is a ‘Family Fun Night’, Sat 7.30pm show is ‘Anything Goes’ (safe for teens) and the Sat ‘Midnight Madness’ is over 18s only. Ladyboys Of Bangkok Tue 6 Sep, 7.30pm. £20 (£18). The infamous troupe return with more colourful theatrics in their spectacular new cabaret show. Dancing Shoes – The George Best Story Tue 13–Sat 17 Sep, 7.30pm (Sat mat 2pm). £15–£19.50 (£16.50). Musical based on the turbulent life of one of the world’s greatest footballers, featuring the songwriting talents of Glasgow’s JJ Gilmour (The Silencers) and Belfast’s Pat Gribben (The Adventures). Singin’ I’m No a Billy He’s a Tim Wed 21–Sat 24 Sep, 7.30pm (Sat mat 2pm). £17.50. Goldfish Theatre presents its take on Des Dillon’s classic anti- sectarian play. ■ PLATFORM The Bridge, 1000 Westerhouse Road, Easterhouse, 276 9696. Calum’s Road Fri 2 & Sat 3 Sep, 7.30pm. £8 (£3.50–£4.50). A chance to catch a first glimpse of a new piece from the National Theatre of Scotland: David Harrower’s take on the true tale of a man on the Isle of Skye who, faced with council indifference to his remote village’s isolated plight, built a two-mile stretch of road himself.
■ THEATRE ROYAL 282 Hope Street, 0844 871 7647.
✽✽ Legally Blonde The Musical Until Sat 3 Sep (not Sun), 7.30pm
(Thu & Sat mat 2.30pm). £18.50–£39.50. The 2001 Reese Witherspoon film takes to the stage. Journey’s End Tue 6–Sat 10 Sep, 7.30pm (Thu & Sat mat 2.30pm). £13.50–£27.50. RC Sherriff’s critically- acclaimed wartime drama following Captain Stanhope and his young band of men as they await an enemy attack in the trenches. Directed by David Grindley. Dreamboats and Petticoats Mon 12–Sat 17 Sep, 7.30pm (Thu & Sat mat 2.30pm). £8.50–£39.50. Jukebox musical based on the songs of Roy Orbison, The Shadows and others.
PREVIEW THEATRE FESTIVAL ARCHES LIVE! The Arches, Glasgow, Tue 20 Sep–Sat 1 Oct
As Edinburgh’s yearly festivities wind down, Glasgow’s Arches steps up with another packed out schedule of new, challenging theatre and live art. Often regarded as a platform for exciting young Scottish artists, 2011’s Arches Live! programme is the biggest yet with over 30 performances.
Stef Smith, the writer behind last year’s much-lauded Roadkill, is
trying out a rehearsed reading of Jamais Vu (pictured), a script developed with the aid of the Playwright’s Studio Scotland. Inspired by the real-life case of Andrea Yates, an American woman who drowned her children in a bathtub, we see the character of Cassandra becoming unstable after losing her job. ‘You go on this journey with her as she tries to grasp on to things
within her life to stay buoyant,’ Smith explains. ‘Mental health is one of the last taboos because people don’t talk about it. The reason I want to make this kind of work is that I want to make people feel less alone.’
Ross MacKay’s The Medium, developed with the National Theatre of Scotland, is anything but a traditional magic show. ‘I’m looking at famous mediums that were around in the Victorian times, leading up to a recreation of the séance itself with the audience,’ says MacKay, better known for his work as part of theatre collective Tortoise in a Nutshell.
‘For me, what’s most interesting about “modern” magic is that it blurs the line between what’s illusion and what is reality,’ he continues. ‘With Derren Brown, it’s no longer this Paul Daniels-style magic trickery. It’s looking at what is reality and how that can be manipulated and Arches Live! is a great opportunity to experiment.’
Cara Berger, the director behind Backbone and Navel #3, agrees: ‘Theatre is a place where people come together to speak about their cultures and their lives and open up new perspectives on issues.’
Berger is working alongside Glasgow collective Flatrate to reimagine the Genesis story as direct image theatre from an environmental and feminist perspective, inspired by philosopher Helene Cixous. ‘The problem is that the common reading of Genesis positioned women as sinful. Adam is given the right to govern over nature and the woman because of her sin.’
For full details of all performances visit thearches.co.uk.
(Lauren Mayberry)
■ CORINTHIAN 191 Ingram Street, 552 1101. Midweek Magic Wednesdays until 23 Nov, 7.30pm. £10 or £25 with dinner and wine. Douglas Cameron performs mind reading, illusion and conjuring. Over 18s only. ■ COTTIER THEATRE 93–95 Hyndland Street, 248 8330. He Was Happy Wed 31 Aug–Sat 3 Sep, 7.30pm (Wed & Sat mat 2.30pm). £12 (£10). Studio 16 Productions presents a
new play by Gabriella Baronello proffering a hard-hitting insight into the much misunderstood condition of depression. ■ KING’S THEATRE 297 Bath Street, 0844 871 7648. Calendar Girls Tue 30 Aug–Sat 3 Sep, 7.30pm (Wed, Thu & Sat mat 2.30pm). £11.50–£27.50. The show about the Women’s Institute fundraisers who stripped for a nude calendar returns with a cast led by Lynda Bellingham, Jennifer Ellison and Jan Harvey.