Theatre HITLIST THE BEST THEATRE EVENTS
The Guid Sisters The Scots version of Michel Tremblay’s play features Karen Dunbar and Kathryn Howden among the cast. See preview, page 86. Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, Fri 21 Sep–Sat 13 Oct; King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 23–Sat 27 Oct.
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Ménage à Trois Claire Cunningham scrutinises society’s perceptions of the onstage aesthetics of the body. See preview, page 88. Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 24 & Sat 25 Aug; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 19 Sep. Arches Live The annual bonanza of experimental theatre returns to the Arches, with work from Lou Prendergast and Wild Card Kitty among many others. See preview, right. Arches, Mon 17–Sat 29 Sep.
The Barrowlands Project The Olympics may be over but the Cultural Olympiad continues apace with this special piece of dance created by renowned Scots choreographer Michael Clark together with local people. Barrowland, Glasgow, Sat 8 & Sun 9 Sep. My Shrinking Life Multi-faceted picture of actress, writer and director Alison Peebles’ life with multiple sclerosis and how it’s affected her and those around her. See preview, right. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 8–Sat 15 Sep then touring.
A Play, a Pie & a Pint: Dead Famous Òran Mór’s award-winning lunchtime theatre series returns to keep Glasgow audiences warm throughout the winter, with Keith Temple’s play about a psychic trying to resurrect the ultimate ‘celebrity’. Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 3–Sat 8 Sep.
The Mill Lavvies/She Town The contemporary classic set in a Dundee jute mill is revived alongside Sharman MacDonald’s play about a group of women in the ‘backies’ of Dundee in 1936. Dundee Rep, Thu 30 Aug-Sat 29 Sep (Mill Lavvies); Wed 12–Sat 29 Sep (She Town).
NEW WORK MY SHRINKING LIFE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 8–Sat 15 Sep
Scotland has the highest levels of multiple sclerosis in the world, and one of the country’s most high profile sufferers is lauded actress, writer and director Alison Peebles. Peebles, who’s won acclaim in the past for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth and for her own films, discovered she had MS while rehearsing for David Greig’s 1999 play The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman he Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union. In 2005, she made a BBC Scotland documentary about her experience with the condition called Multiple, which went on to win awards across the world.
My Shrinking Life will be her first theatre work about MS. This National Theatre of Scotland production will be performed by Peebles, along with three dancers – Katie Armstrong, Thomas J Baylis and Hanna Stanbridge – and two children, who will play her younger self. Their agile movements will contrast with Peebles’ declining physicality, to represent the changes in her life since her MS diagnosis.
My Shrinking Life – which will later tour to St Andrews, Edinburgh and Inverness – is directed by Belgian theatre-maker Lies Pauwels, whose adaptation of David Harrower’s Knives in Hens for the NTS shocked and intrigued audiences in 2011. For the performance, Peebles has collected interviews with a range of figures, including family, friends, work colleagues and medics. So the play promises to be a multi-faceted picture of the actress’ life with MS and how it’s affected her and those around her. (Yasmin Sulaiman)
NEW WORK FESTIVAL ARCHES LIVE Arches, Glasgow, Tue 18–Sat 29 Sep
When she speaks to The List in anticipation of this year’s Arches Live festival, artistic director Jackie Wylie is immersed in the Edinburgh Festival, at which her theatre is presenting a couple of productions. One that comes up in conversation is Kieran Hurley’s Beats, a show that has magnetised awards and good reviews since it was originally staged at Arches Live. It is, says Wylie, a prime example of the type of work the annual emerging artists’ festival is seeking to uncover: ‘something which looks hard at different ways of thinking about the world.’ Wylie flags up the sheer wealth of varied new work on show every night and mentions a few of the more attention-grabbing pieces: Victoria Bianchi’s ‘God Loves a Trier’, which, inspired by the idea that society is obsessed with quick fixes, sees the actress try to complete all the past endeavours she gave up on: deaf youth theatre Solarbear’s collaboration with Tigerstyle about being inspired by music through sensation rather than hearing, a modern Evelyn Glennie with a hip hop soundtrack; and Harry Giles’ ‘What We Owe’, a ‘one-on-one counselling piece’ that invites the participant to examine the debts in their life – the financial, the personal and the emotional.
‘We didn’t intend it this way,’ concludes Wylie, ‘but there’s a lot of political work this year, or at least ‘little p’ political in that they deal with identity politics and how they relate to wider issues, rather than big ideological statements about left and right. There’s definitely a sense of disillusionment amongst the young artistic community, which is now resulting in a lot of work that’s really quite angry about the situation these artists have inherited.’ (David Pollock)
23 Aug–20 Sep 2012 THE LIST 85