THEATRE | Previews & Reviews
PHOTO © BRINKHOFF MÖGENBERG 94 THE LIST 4 Jun–3 Sep 2015
REVIEW WEST END TOUR THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 18–Sat 22 Aug. Reviewed at Edinburgh Festival Theatre ●●●●●
Since its publication 12 years ago, Mark Haddon’s debut novel has become one of the best-loved modern works in publishing. And Simon Stephens’ stage adaptation – which first premiered at London’s National Theatre in 2012 – is reverent towards its source material, creating a play that, with the help of Marianne Elliott’s exquisite direction, sparks and soars in its telling. Christopher Boone – here played delightfully by Joshua Jenkins – discovers Wellington, his neighbour’s dog, dead with a garden fork stuck in his body. He sets out to find out who killed Wellington; but since Christopher is on the autistic spectrum, conducting his investigation and talking to strangers proves difficult. Yet, he handles it with aplomb – and uncovers some startling secrets on the way. Stephens has said that he wanted to recreate the feeling of being in Christopher’s mind, and the show certainly succeeds at that. That’s partly due to Jenkins’ wonderful performance; but Bunny Christie and Finn Ross’ set and video design almost steals the limelight. The stage is boxed in by tall grid-patterned walls that illuminate spectacularly. In part, it resembles graph paper brought to life; but it also looks like synapses in the nervous system. Both are appropriate, given Christopher’s love of maths and his struggle to deal with his disorder.
The ensemble cast are uniformly great; Stuart Laing is particularly impressive as Christopher’s father. There’s a blissful fluidity to their movements too, espcially Jenkins.
A couple of moments don’t quite hit the mark; the framing of the performance as a play based on Christopher’s writings, for example, feels jarring. But overall The Curious Incident is a wonderful show, with a positive energy that will charm theatregoers young and old. (Yasmin Sulaiman)
PREVIEW SITE-SPECIFIC THEATRE DRIFT Touring Scotland, Fri 26 Jun–Sun 9 Aug
Vision Mechanics, under the leadership of Symon MacIntyre, have a dynamic approach to theatre. Variously responding to specific sites – they have toured Scotland’s botanic gardens – and balancing between theatre and visual art, their performances incorporate a wide range of styles, from film through aerial to lectures. For Drift, MacIntyre was inspired, however, by the story of a shipwrecked Shetland crofter.
‘I heard the story of Betty Mouat and was inspired by her courage and fortitude,’ he says. ‘In January 1886, in a sudden storm, the captain and the crew of the Columbine were washed overboard. This left 60-year-old Betty, who was on a routine two-hour trip to Lerwick to sell her knitting, drifting off to Norway.’
Responding to the tale with a simple line drawn in a sketch book, MacIntyre quickly developed
a concept for the performance. ‘This was my vision of Betty, on a line suspended between the sky and the seabed.’ The audience move through a series of sculptures, ‘isolated by headphones’, listening to the specially composed music that follows Betty’s journey.
Drift is a typically ambitious Vision Mechanics’ project: intimate, firmly based in location, yet finding a way to combine the epic and the personal – and to cross simplistic boundaries between theatre, art and nature. (Gareth K Vile)
PREVIEW MAGIC SHOW ROBERT JÄGERHORN: WAITING FOR HITCHCOCK Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sat 27 Jun–Fri 3 Jul
Robert Jägerhorn admits that luck played a part in the development of his latest magic show. ‘My grandfather was an enthusiastic collector of movies,’ he says. ‘And somehow, by chance, I stumbled upon this lost film while going through his archive.’ The film in question, Alfred Hitchcock’s long-lost silent Number 8, can’t be shown as part of the performance, forcing Jägerhorn to use his own brand of theatrical magic to tell the story. ‘Admittedly, this is my version only of the story,’ he continues. ‘You really need to come see the show to be able to discover your own truth.’ Jägerhorn, part of a small number of Finnish magicians, has developed ‘situational magic’, a fusion of tricks and theatricality, that move him away from the predictable conjurer.
He explains: ‘It’s a concept within my magic where the magical sequences are part of the
situation that’s happening on the stage. In my situational magic, the magical sequences could, for example, be necessary to make the situation move forward. Or maybe the magic is just born out of the situation at hand. The magic becomes kind of more organic.’ Unlike more routine-based magic, situational magic is ideal for storytelling. And with the
promise of Hitchcock’s plot, and Jägerhorn’s attempts to woo the audience with clarinet playing, tea-making and emotional honesty, the only predictable feature will be the entertainment. (Gareth K Vile)