THEATRE | Previews Action Hero, Slap Talk
FESTIVAL BUZZCUT Pearce Institute, Glasgow, Wed 23–Sun 27 Apr
For the last three years, Buzzcut has championed visceral and intellectual artists from Glasgow and beyond. This year, the festival co-founded by Rosana Cade and Nick Anderson gathers at the Pearce Institute in Govan. As Cade and Anderson explain: ‘Buzzcut has grown in its ideas of how experimental performance might exist outside the city centre. Our programme of artists is roughly the same size (50 shows in five days) but this year we’ll be all under one roof!’
Buzzcut is an open-submission festival, and the pair insist that the focus of their decisions is on notions of strengthening community. There are no individual tickets, so it’s possible to go along for a day and experience all the work for free. ‘We were looking round the Pearce Institute last summer while trying to find a venue for the DIY workshop we were hosting with Imaginate,’ they continue. ‘We were struck by the size and number of beautiful spaces, as well as the history inscribed in the building, and thought it could be the perfect place for our festival. It has so many brilliant spaces, but we are placing the work almost entirely on the ground floor so that it is totally accessible to people with mobility issues. And we’ll also have a pop-up Stereo doing gorgeous vegan food and drinks.’
Among this year’s highlights are queer hairdressing organisation Open Barbers from London; Tom Frankland’s Small Things (the start of a trilogy following his real life journey of transitioning from male to female); and local artists FMIN’s live installation called Dyke, which explores representations of lesbian sex. Plus there are familiar proponents of mischief such as Eilidh MacAskill, Laurie Brown and subversive cabaret artists Figs in Wigs. In short, there’s something to inspire and provoke around each corner. (Lorna Irvine)
PERIOD REVIVAL THE LIBERTINE Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 3–Sat 24 May
Stephen Jeffreys’ 1994 play about the artistic and sexual appetites of John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, in free-living 1670s London was made famous in 2004 with a film version starring Johnny Depp. Yet surprisingly, this revival from Citz’ artistic director Dominic Hill will be its first major production since being originally staged. ‘The fact it’s a modern play set in a past time means we can have our cake and eat it,’ says Hill. ‘It has all the wit, banter and bawdiness of Restoration comedy and the relevance and accessibility of a contemporary play.’ It’s this contemporary relevance that, Hill believes, gives the production (starring Citz newcomers
Martin Hutson as Rochester and Gillian Saker as Elizabeth Barry) an edge. ‘For all its wit and bawdiness, it’s a play about something incredibly serious: a man searching for truth and meaning in a world that’s shallow and celebrity-obsessed,’ he says. ‘It’s about the role of art and theatre in life, a celebration of theatricality, and the Citz is a building that reeks of the joy and exuberance of theatre. It also has a history of presenting plays that are outrageous and visually striking: The Libertine has all those elements.’ (David Pollock) 90 THE LIST 17 Apr–15 May 2014
SECRETS AND LIES THE FORBIDDEN EXPERIMENT The Arches, Glasgow, Tue 22–Fri 25 Apr; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 1–Sat 3 May
Both Rob Jones and Michael John O’Neill – collectively known as Enormous Yes – ha ve plenty of theatrical form. O’Neill was one of the Traverse Fifty writers, and Jones has worked with the National Theatre of Scotland and Òran Mór. They have previously examined dishonesty and complicity in grassroots politics, and messed around with traditional theatre formats, staging one show in a boardroom.
The Forbidden Experiment began as a study of James IV’s 1493 attempt to discover humanity’s original language, through the unethical abandoning of two babies on the island of Inchkeith to grow up without hearing a human voice. Investigating the island, via a freedom of information request, Enormous Yes discovered that the Ministry of Defence also had an interest in the effects of language deprivation.
The pair’s interest in using theatre as a place for exploring ideas led Jones and O’Neill to decide to use their Platform 18 award – given by the Arches to outstanding emerging creators – to reveal some home truths about the home front during WWII. Although the company are unwilling to reveal more before the production, they promise a shocking story of counter-intelligence and confusion. (Gareth K Vile)
P H O T O © A N D R E W R O S S
NARRATIVE BALLET SCOTTISH BALLET: ROMEO & JULIET King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 19–Sat 26 Apr, then touring
Striking a balance between new work and well-loved classics is a challenge for any artistic director. Since Christopher Hampson arrived at Scottish Ballet in 2012, he’s overseen a glut of new creations – so, time to give an existing piece another airing. And few works in the Scottish Ballet repertoire come close to Krzysztof Pastor’s five-star version of Romeo & Juliet. Dramatic, stylish and with striking choreography, it’s easy to see why Hampson is taking the 2008 work back on tour.
‘It’s a beautiful production, and encapsulates what Scottish Ballet does brilliantly, which is tell stories in really interesting and innovative ways,’ says Hampson. ‘And Krzysztof’s choreography has got a grounding in classicism, which is really important to us, but with a 21st century freshness to it.’
It’s not just Pastor’s choreography that Hampson praises,
but also the staging. With 24 scenes, Shakespeare’s text is a challenge for anyone attempting to deliver the storyline with clarity. ‘Some productions can be quite clunky when moving between scenes,’ he says. ‘But Krzysztof hasn’t fallen into some of the traps that exist in Romeo & Juliet – he’s managed to craft the story so it has a really good linear line. He always brings a slightly quirky outlook to a story – and he’s certainly done that with this production.’ (Kelly Apter)