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CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER RECONSTRUCTED Celebrating an unpredictable and hidden theatrical legacy
H aving already presented two shows this year, Untitled Projects are racing into the past to investigate a mythical lost theatre genius, Paul Bright. Confessions of a Justified Sinner Reconstructed explores a series of performances purportedly staged by Bright during the 1980s and reflecting the creator’s wayward brilliance. Director Stewart Laing, alongside playwright Pamela Carter and with help from 85A Collective members Jack Wrigley and Robbie Thomson, assembled scant documentation of Bright’s work to create something that feels part archaeological exhibition and part biographical monologue.
‘I never saw any of his work in the 1980s,’ confesses Laing. ‘A couple of years ago when I found out about Paul and how he had managed to slip through the cracks – he was active for four or five years then just disappeared – I became interested in somebody making theatre who was art-school
trained.’ It appears Bright’s work was far from untroubled: Laing explains that the final performance, ‘sort of fell to bits in the middle. There were two halves, and the second half didn’t happen.’ Yet it was a bold attempt to understand a novel that, with its fearsome philosophical sensibility, has become an iconic Scottish text. Bright had little interest in the predictable: he marketed the finale as a rave in the Borders. ‘This was an artist making visual theatre for his own entertainment without too much thought about who might go and see it,’ Laing elaborates. Dispatching the myth that Glasgow theatre was invented by 1990’s City of Culture status, Confessions connects Untitled’s approach to a hidden legacy and celebrates art that is simultaneously chaotic and coherent. (Gareth K Vile)
Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 14–Sat 29 Jun.
HITLIST THE BEST THEATRE & DANCE
✽ Cannibal Women of Mars Sci-fi action meets musical theatre in a tale of naïve young men and their ambitions to find love with Amazonian princesses from outer space. See preview, page 100. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 5–Sat 20 Jul.
✽ Being Tommy Cooper Tom Green’s play goes back to Cooper’s
first failure: Las Vegas, 1954. His show is about to be cancelled, he is at war with his manager but there’s still a promising contract and the promise of the next drink. Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 24 Jun.
✽ Complete Works of Shakespeare The
other RSC (Reduced rather than Royal) canters through the Bard’s hits (and misses), finding the comedy in the tragedies, the serious themes in the comedies and the sport action in the history plays. Macrobert, Stirling, Thu 20 Jun, Brunton, Musselburgh, Sat 22 Jun.
✽ 100 Stark Theatre present a metaphysical drama in the appropriate setting of a church. If the afterlife is a single memory, which one would you choose? The Mackintosh Church, Glasgow, Thu 27 Jun & Fri 28 Jun.
✽ Blood Brothers
Political and serious musical, that has been touring long enough to be a national treasure. See preview, page 100. Playhouse, Edinburgh, Mon 24–Sat 29 Jun.
✽ Confessions of A Justified Sinner Reconstructed
The great lost hope of Scottish theatre is chased by the NTS and Untitled Projects, reconstructing the ambitious project that became his downfall. See preview, left. Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 14–Sat 29 Jun.
13 Jun–11 Jul 2013 THE LIST 99