Theatre Fatherland, Motherland Wed 25–Fri 27 Apr, 7pm. £11 (£8). Work-in-progress from Nic Green, exploring her dual heritage – from Yorkshire on her mother’s side and Scotland on her father’s – and ideas of place, identity and authenticity. Part of Behaviour. 7 Day Drunk Thu 26 & Fri 27 Apr, 9.30pm. £11 (£8). Bryony Kimmings explores her rocky relationship with alcohol. Part of Behaviour.
■ CITIZENS THEATRE 119 Gorbals Street, 429 0022.
✽✽ King Lear Fri 20 Apr–Sat 12 May (not Sun/Mon), 7.30pm (Sat 5 May
mat 1.30pm). £12–£19 (£8–£16). See preview, page 112.
■ COTTIERS THEATRE 93–95 Hyndland Street, 357 4000. Comann na Comadaidh Fri 30 Mar, 8pm. £9 (£7). Community drama in Gaelic, organised by An Lochran. ■ EASTWOOD PARK THEATRE Eastwood Park, Rouken Glen Road, Giffnock, 577 4970. Ah, Wilderness! Wed 18–Sat 21 Apr, 7.30pm (Sat mat 2.30pm). £8–£10. Giffnock Theatre Players perform Eugene O’Neill’s coming of age comedy.
■ THE HUB Pacific Quay, thehub-pacificquay.com Booking via the Citizens Theatre, see above for contact details.
H T A E B C M N A M R O N
PREVIEW LUNCHTIME SERIES DEAR GLASGOW Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 23–Sat 28 Apr With the Syrian crisis showing no sign of abating, the human story behind the various conflicts and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa has seldom been so urgent. It’s an issue that David MacLennan, artistic director of Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint strand, is keen to explore with his latest special project, Dear Glasgow. Inspired by the reach and response of last year’s Reveal, in which the
National Theatre of Scotland and Òran Mór presented five Latin American plays adapted by young Scottish playwrights, MacLennan has turned his attentions to the Middle East and North Africa, commissioning a series of letters from some of the Arab world’s writers. Keen to deal with the here and now, the director explains he was
eager to find writers not plays, so new work was to the fore. ‘We wanted to give writers the opportunity to write a letter to Glasgow about the Arab world, responding to the current situation is their countries,’ explains MacLennan. ‘It’s an extraordinarily difficult time in that part of the world: the bloody ghastliness in Syria, the relatively successful transition in Tunisia, the curious situation in Egypt where resolution seems to have taken place but at the same time hasn’t really – the letters really reflect that.’
Syrian novelists Laila Hourani and Samar Yazbek, Palestinian
playwright Raja Shehadeh and Egyptian librarian Ismail Serageldin are just some of the writers taking part, in a stage project that will see different Scottish writers read the letters daily, including Liz Lochead, David Grieg, William McIlvanney and Alan Bisset. ‘I wasn’t expecting to get such a great variety,’ says the director. ‘Some are very directly political, accounting events; others go in a different direction, one, for example, is the very symbolic story of a garden’s tenacious caper bush, so each is very unique.’ MacLennan has also commissioned a filmmaker and composer to create a 50- minute video and soundscape to accompany the piece. ‘We may change the order and content every day, we’re still deciding but I think everyone will take something away from it.’ (Anna Millar)
114 THE LIST 29 Mar–26 Apr 2012
✽✽ Enquirer Thu 26 Apr–Sat 12 May (not Mon), 8pm. £15 (£5–£10;
previews on Thu 26 & Fri 27 Apr, all tickets £10). Journalists Paul Flynn, Deborah Orr and Ruth Wishart have interviewed around 50 people involved in the newspaper industry, from editors to readers and retailers, gathering responses to the ongoing events and revelations in the industry in the wake of the hacking scandal. Their words have been structured by the National Theatre of Scotland’s Vicky Featherstone and John Tiffany into a piece of site-specific theatre, which is being performed in an empty floor of the BBC’s Glasgow offices.
■ KING’S THEATRE 297 Bath Street, 0844 871 7648. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Tue 3–Sat 7 Apr, 7.30pm (Wed & Sat mat 2.30pm). £12.50–£22.50. Classic 19th-century-set musical, performed here by the Lyric Club. Girls’ Night Tue 10–Thu 12 Apr, 7.30pm; Fri 13 Apr, 5.30pm & 8.30pm; Sat 14 Apr, 5pm & 8pm. £13.50–£26.50. Five friends embark on a night of karaoke, cocktails and hilarious antics. Monkee Business The Musical Tue 17–Sat 21 Apr, 7.30pm. £19.50–£39.50. Jukebox musical combining an ‘Austin Powers-style’ plot and classic tunes from the first manufactured pop band. Rainy Days and Mondays – The Carpenters Story Sun 22 Apr, 7.30pm. £23–£28. Celebrate the lives and music of Karen and Richard with a full live band and video presentation. Dancing Queen Tue 24–Sat 28 Apr, 7.30pm (Sat mat 2.30pm). £9.50–£32. Four lead singers and 16 dancers take you back to the 70s. ■ LUSH 111 Buchanan Street, 243 2522. Booking via the Arches, see above for contact details. The Silence of Bees Thu 12–Sat 14 Apr, 7pm & 8.30pm. £11 (£8). This site- specific tale unpacks the stories of three women from different times but linked by business, blood and beekeeping. Part of Behaviour.
■ ÒRAN MÓR 731-735 Great Western Road, 357 6200. A Play, a Pie & a Pint: The Last Great Dictator Until Sat 31 Mar, 1pm. £8–£12.50. A new play by Kieran Lynn about the final chapter in the life story of a great dictator. Ticket price for this and all the below Play, Pie & Pint productions includes a pie and a drink. A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Cold Turkey at Nana’s Mon 2–Sat 7 Apr, 1pm. £8–£12.50. Nana’s on a mission to rehabilitate Tony even when everyone else has given up in this play by Ben Tagoe. A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Forfeit Mon 9–Sat 14 Apr, 1pm. £8–£12.50. Lunchtime theatre from the pen of Alan Wilkins, in which three ex-con women meet in a pub halfway between Glasgow and Dundee. A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Would You Please Look at the Camera Mon 16–Sat 21 Apr, 1pm. £8–£12.50. Play by an anonymous Syrian playwright, cutting straight to the heart of the current maelstrom in the country. ✽✽ A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Dear Glasgow Mon 23–Sat 28 Apr,
1pm. £8–£12.50. See preview, left.
■ PAVILION THEATRE 121 Renfield Street, 332 1846. Gordon Smith: Beyond Belief Sat 14 Apr, 7.30pm. £20. Medium Gordon travels the world looking to connect people with their departed loved ones. Good Mourning Mrs Brown Mon 16–Sat 21 Apr, 7.30pm. £29.50 (£19.50). Brendan O’Carroll stars in the continuing hilarious tales of this typical Dublin Mammy. Singin’ I’m No a Billy He’s a Tim Wed 25 Apr–Sat 5 May (not Sun–Tue),
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.
✽✽ Kith/Kin Tue 17 Apr, 1.30pm. £3.50. See preview, page 111.
■ SECC Finnieston Quay, 0844 395 4000. Diversity Thu 29 Mar, 6.30pm. £21.50–£29.50. Street dance skills from the winners of the third series of Britain’s Got Talent who actually, believe it or not, have some of the afore- mentioned talent.
✽✽ Cirque du Soleil: Alegría Wed 11–Sat 14 Apr, 8pm (Sat mat 4pm);
Sun 15 Apr, 1pm & 5pm. £50. See preview, page 111. Derren Brown – Svengali Wed 18–Sat 21 Apr, 8pm. £30–£35. Derren Brown plays mind games with his audience and himself using psychology, illusion and showmanship – and then hopefully explains how he did it.
■ THEATRE AT QUEEN’S 170 Queen’s Drive, 423 6037. To Serve is to Resist Fri 30 & Sat 31 Mar, 2pm & 7pm. £6–£7. A play about the life of Jane Haining, one of the very few Scots to die in Auschwitz.
■ THEATRE ROYAL 282 Hope Street, 0844 871 7647. Long Day’s Journey Into Night Until Sat 31 Mar, 7pm. £15–£30. David Suchet stars in Eugene O’Neill’s tale about the Tyrone family, torn asunder over 24 hours as they battle their demons and each other. ✽✽ Scottish Ballet: A Streetcar Named Desire Wed 11–Sat 14
Apr, 7.30pm (Sat mat 2pm). £14.50–£37.50. See preview, page 110.
■ TRADES HALL 85 Glassford Street, 228 8000. William O’Connor: Psychic Psychic Fri 30 Mar, 7.30pm. £14.50. Open stage psychic event with guests Geraldine Russell and Steven Thomson.
■ TRAMWAY 25 Albert Drive, 0845 330 3501.
✽✽ Tightrope Fri 30 & Sat 31 Mar, 7.30pm. £8 (£5). See preview, page
111. The Making of Us Fri 20–Sun 22 Apr, 8pm. £5 refundable deposit. A chance to watch a series of films and become part of this performance art installation as an extra. Part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. ■ TRON THEATRE 63 Trongate, 552 4267. A Slow Air Thu 29 Mar, 2.30pm. £8. Family drama written and directed by David Harrower and brought to the stage by the Tron Theatre Company. I Was Always Behind You Thu 29–Sat 31 Mar, 8pm. £7. A play about love and foolishness from the Tron Young Company. Gifted Thu 5–Sat 7 Apr, 7.30pm. £7. New play developed in the Tron’s Skillshops classes, dealing with unwanted gifts. Weddings Can be Murder: Murder Mystery Dinner Fri 13 & Sat 14 Apr, 7.15pm. £25. Upstage Productions presents a fiendish mystery, served up over a three-course meal. Doris Day Can F**k Off Fri 13 & Sat 14 Apr, 7.45pm. £12 (£7). Find out what happened when Greg McLaren attempted to live his life as if in a Doris Day musical, breaking into song at every available opportunity. Kin Thu 19–Sat 21 Apr, 8pm. £10 (£7). An insightful exploration of middle-aged children and their feelings towards their ageing parents as they all face the future. Performed by Donna Rutherford with a cast including Alison Peebles, Tim Ingram, Richard Gregory and more.