Previews | THEATRE
POLITICAL THEATRE THEATRE UNCUT Summerhall, Edinburgh, Fri 15 Nov
‘Emma Callander and Hannah Price established Theatre Uncut in response to government cuts to arts budgets in 2010,’ explains Carol Hayes. ‘The aim was to make theatre accessible to everybody regardless of money and resources.’ Inspired by a 2012 production of David Greig’s Dalgety and Fragile, Hayes and Damhán McLaughlin are hosting an evening featuring the plays commissioned by Theatre Uncut and some of Edinburgh’s liveliest companies. Each year, Callander and Price commission new plays from well-known writers and make
them available, free of charge. This year’s commissions include scripts from TV funnyman and left-wing agitator Mark Thomas, Scotland’s Davey Anderson, Kieran Hurley and Tron associate artist, AJ Taudevin. McLaughlin elaborates: ‘The plays are written to encourage debate and political action. This year, they explore what happens to our political views under an age of austerity and the issues around Scottish independence.’ While none of the scripts are simplistic tracts, they connect with a wider theatrical interest in political matters.
‘The way Theatre Uncut is set up meant that we could put something on without needing a big arts organisation to fund us,’ Hayes continues. ‘We were able to start a conversation about politics using theatre instead of just moaning about the state of the world.’ With Edinburgh stalwarts Bedlam and edgeeradica on board, Hayes and McLaughlin curated a spectacular evening of engaged, intelligent theatre.
‘Initially we thought we might just put on something in our front room: but so many
people came forward that it’s grown into what should be a fantastic evening at Summerhall. There’s a really diverse range of performers: community, student and professional theatre groups. There are so many talented people in Edinburgh.’ (Gareth K Vile)
1970S DRAMA SHANG-A-LANG Albert Halls, Stirling, Fri 15 Nov; King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 19–Sat 23 Nov
Rapture Theatre, under artistic director Michael Emans, has a strong claim to being the hardest- working touring company in Scotland: Shang-a- Lang is their third production this year. Like previous offerings The Sash and The Collection, Shang-a- Lang is determinedly populist but with a dark turn. Following the adventures of three middle-aged women on a mission to revisit their adolescence during a weekend at a nostalgia music festival, this play is clearly more than an exercise in sentimentality
for Scotland’s original teen idols, The Bay City Rollers.
‘Although it's by Catherine Johnson, the same person who wrote the book for Mamma Mia, we
don’t burst into song,’ says Julie Duncanson, who plays the ‘sex-mad and gallus’ heroine. ‘It’s got a great soundtrack, though. It’s very human and a bit of a laugh, but it packs a bit more of a punch. It’s not fluffy!’ Duncanson’s enthusiasm for the script (and ‘the fantastic title: everyone knows what it’s about
straight away’) is for its humour and willingness to present ‘three women with a past’. As they hook up with two musicians, the drama centres on the women’s friendships and rivalries. ‘But it is still uplifting and funky and fun.’ (Gareth K Vile)
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SEASIDE COMEDY SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 25–Sat 30 Nov
John Godber was one of the UK’s most performed playwrights during the 1990s. His blend of bittersweet comedy and recognisable characters has ensured an enduring popularity and Bouncers is still being put on at least once a week somewhere in the world.
But even when first staged back in 1983, September in the Rain was a slice of nostalgia, sentimentally recalling a generation who holidayed in Blackpool and the era of donkey rides, difficult deckchairs and saucy postcards. Godber acknowledges September in the Rain as both
looking backwards and intensely personal: the inspiration for the holidaymaking couple came from memories of his grandfather. The married couple Jack and Liz (Claire Sweeney AKA Lindsay Corkhill from Brookside, and John Thomson from The Fast Show and Cold Feet), were played in the original production by Godber himself and his future wife, Jane Thornton. Less an acerbic swipe at traditional values than a warm memory of old-fashioned fun, Godber regards the play as being about the value of love, burnished by time and shared experience. Jack and Liz remember past holidays – from their honeymoon to old age – and despite the disasters of weather, bad accommodation and emotional constipation, they represent a bygone vision of marital happiness. (Gareth K Vile)
CRIME DRAMA GUILTY Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 18–Sat 23 Nov
With Ian Rankin recently having made his playwriting debut, why shouldn’t dramatists get in on the crime thriller scene? A new miniature two-hander from Rona Munro, one of Scotland’s most prolific writers for the stage, promises more than just a procedural. ‘There are two women in Guilty,’ says Munro, ‘a police inspector and a woman from whom she’s taking a statement. It’s a dark comedy based around themes of family and jealousy. A woman has disappeared. Where to and why?’ With this season of A Play, a Pie and a Pint productions
touring to Aberdeen, it’s also a chance for Munro to reconnect with the city of her birth. ‘It gave me an opportunity to write something specifically for two of my favourite actors who are also fellow North-Easters: Louise Ludgate and Lesley Hart. As a writer, there’s nothing quite like the joy of anticipating what a skilled performer is going to bring to a part and they’re even better in the rehearsal room than they were in my head when I was writing it. I think audiences will be in for a very funny, very disturbing 50 minutes.’ (David Pollock)