THEATRE | Previews
P H O T O :
I
M H A E L A B O D L O V C
I
DRAG ALYSSA EDWARDS O2 ABC Glasgow, Fri 9 Mar; The Forum, Aberdeen, Sat 10 Mar; Church, Dundee, Sun 11 Mar.
Sure, it may be tough to make it all the way through the challenges, runways and lip syncs of an entire season of RuPaul's Drag Race to eventually snatch that crown but do you know what's harder? Nabbing the unofficial yet highly coveted title of 'People's Queen'. With her two separate appearances on the show, first on season five in 2013 and then in the second All Stars in 2016, Texas drag superstar Alyssa Edwards has done just that, becoming a firm favourite among fans of the reality competition / cultural behemoth. Edwards’ return to the Drag Race set for All Stars was chock-full of drama as she earned her way back into the competition after an early elimination, only to be knocked out once again by eventual runner-up Detox, who chose to save her pals Alaska and Roxxxy Andrews. But despite the premature exit, Edwards certainly came out on top, walking away as a winner in the eyes of many, as the subsequent torrent of love and support ultimately showed.
Edwards, whose real name is Justin Johnson, is known within
the drag community for being a fierce and fabulous pageant queen, having won various titles over the years including Miss Gay America 2010 and All American Goddess 2010. But when he’s not serving sickening looks and dropping unintentionally hilarious catchphrases as Alyssa Edwards, Johnson also owns, operates and teaches at the award-winning studio, Beyond Belief Dance Company, in Mesquite, Texas. The upcoming Secret is Out tour (a play on her popular YouTube
series Alyssa's Secret) sees Edwards in a one-woman show that promises plenty of laughs and over-the-top pizzazz in typical Alyssa fashion. So get ready for the return of the infamous facial expressions, tongue pops and death drops as Alyssa Edwards sashays her way to a city near you. (Arusa Qureshi)
P H O T O
I
: L N D S A Y R O S S
P H O T O
: J O H A N P E R S S O N
COMEDY THE BELLE’S STRATAGEM Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 15 Feb–Sat 10 March MONOLOGUE THE MATCH BOX Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Tue 13–Sat 17 Feb; Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 20–Fri 24 Feb
The Lyceum’s 2018 programme continues artistic director David Greig’s ambitious campaign to reimagine classic texts for the 21st century: while 18th-century comedy is frequently revived for its saucy humour and witty writing, The Belle’s Stratagem is an example of a distinctively female voice amid the roistering knaves and aristocrats of the 1780s.
Hannah Cowley’s script was written in response to another comedy of manners, Farquhar’s Beaux Stratagem, a piece that became an immediate success in its time, but offered a sardonic commentary on the role of women in marriage and seduction. Playing on the tropes of Restoration comedy, The Belle's Stratagem has a strong feminist theme from an age where Enlightenment doctrines of equality hadn’t quite reached the domestic sphere. Under the direction of Tony Cownie, The Belle’s Stratagem elegantly fits with Greig’s vision of allowing theatre’s past to reflect on contemporary issues: the belle maintains her virtue, but not without making the demands of romance on her suitor and, along the way, exposing the moral corruption of those dandies who triumph in a permissive society. (Gareth K Vile)
84 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 84 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018
For director Richard Baron, The Match Box retains a contemporary relevance to Scotland despite having been written in 2012 and set on a remote island where the heroine, Sal, reflects on her past. ‘It is a complete encounter with grief and the will to forgive,’ he says of Frank McGuiness’ monologue. ‘There are powerful resonances of recent Scottish news stories about gang-related shootings.’ Yet despite its theme of revenge, the script is full of humour and ranges across private and public responses to a tragic event. Produced by Borders-based touring company
Firebrand, The Match Box follows the events put into motion by the murder of a child. Sal has struggled with offering forgiveness but ultimately decides on placing herself outside the law and to take revenge. It’s a demanding study of a mother pushed to extremes, using the intimacy of the solo performance to address large subjects such as guilt and the lure of violence. Baron recognises traces of Samuel Beckett and Greek tragedy in McGuiness’ writing, investing the intimate production with a grandeur and intensity that promises to reveal theatre’s potential as a provocative location for examining the forces that drive people to a primal justice. (Gareth K Vile)
DRAMATISATION THIS HOUSE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 27–Sat 31 Mar
In the field of political re-enactments that shine a light upon the machinations of the great political pressure points of recent British history, 32-year-old James Graham has taken over from David Hare as the playwright of our times. Over the last 12 years, his plays have illuminated the 1970s anarchist terrorists (The Angry Brigade, 2014), the birth of The Sun newspaper (Ink, 2017), and the Labour party's divisions represented as a romantic comedy (Labour of Love, 2017). His highest-profile work remains This House, first seen in 2012. It tells of the aftermath of the first General Election of 1974, which had Labour governing on the tiniest of minorities. Yet it focuses not on big-hitting politicians like Ted Heath and Harold Wilson, but the backroom machinations of the whips trying to keep their government running. In his introduction to the play, Graham professes his fascination with research, and discovering the reality of what Alan Bennett called the time when history ‘rattles over the points’. This House is a dramatisation of reality, but, says Graham, ‘my only fear is that adding the necessary warning – “this is a dramatisation inspired by real events” – might lead an audience to think I had changed more than I have.’ (David Pollock)