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IN MAY Poignant multimedia meditation on coping with cancer
T he Arches’ Behaviour festival has become one of Scotland’s most important celebrations of diverse and challenging performance. Driven by a commitment to multimedia collaborations, it is the natural place for the Scottish premiere of a piece that connects three artists who are already well known for their work in music and experimental theatre.
Neil Hannon is not an easy artist to pigeonhole or second guess. From his pithy, cinematic pop with the Divine Comedy, to working with Ute Lemper and Jane Birkin, he has straddled many genres. Now he has embarked on possibly his most ambitious collaboration yet: In May, a meditation on coping with cancer, in the form of letters from a son to a dying father. Teaming up with German theatremaker/actor Frank Alva Buecheler and Manchester-based director Matt Fenton, and featuring the Ligeti Quartet and visually ravishing projections by
88 THE LIST 20 Feb–20 Mar 2014
Imitating the Dog, it promises to be a moving and often humorous piece, blurring concert and theatrical performance.
Inspired by Buecheler’s friendship with a terminally ill friend, his original text, translated for the stage by Tim Clarke, explores our relationship with the disease. Having decided that an operatic form would be the most appropriate means of expressing the intensity of his text, Buecheler initiated the process of collaboration through his translator Clarke. With cancer the cause of one in four deaths in the UK, In May should prove a timely and poignant addition to the Behaviour programme, connecting both its presentation of original theatre and its active engagement with contemporary issues. (Lorna Irvine)
Tramway, Glasgow, Sun 16 Mar. See interview with Behaviour’s artistic director, Jackie Wylie, page 91.
HITLIST THE BEST THEATRE & DANCE
✽ Glasgow Girls Proving that musicals can be about more than romance and nostalgia, Cora Bissett and David Greig return with the tale of teenagers resisting the injustice of immigration laws. Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 20 Feb– Sat 8 Mar.
✽ Singin’ in the Rain It’s the 1940s, and the weather can’t stop the music. Classic old-school musical magic. Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 25 Feb–Sat 15 Mar.
✽ Private Lives More old-school fun from Noel Coward: a comedy of sex and
marriage made with aplomb and cutting irony. See preview, page 89. Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 8 Mar.
✽ Sister Two sisters get to grips with family, feminism and female sexuality. Bold theatre in the live art tradition of challenging, thoughtful honesty. Part of the Behaviour Festival. See preview, page 91. The Arches, Glasgow, Thu 6 & Fri 7 Mar.
✽ Dark Vanilla Jungle From the Fringe, Philip Ridley’s latest play inhabits his familiar,
uncanny and menacing universe. See preview, page 89. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 27 Feb–Sat 1 Mar.
✽ Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake Almost 20 years after it first premiered, Bourne’s flagship work still sells out and has the audience reaching for its collective tissues. See preview, page 90. King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 18–Sat 22 Feb, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 22 Apr–Sat 26 Apr.
✽ Northern Ballet’s Cinderella The latest work from the Leeds-based company, set in
opulent imperial Russia. See preview, page 90. Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 20–Sat 22 Mar.