list.co.uk/theatre PREVIEWS | THEATRE
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EPIC THEATRE LOST AT SEA Perth Theatre, Thu 25–Tue 30 Apr, then touring
Morna Young grew up on the north-east coast of Scotland and its landscape and Doric dialect informs her plays. Her work is tender and wry, with a bracing lack of sentimentality: Lost At Sea was inspired by the loss of her fisherman father and spans 40 years in the fishing industry. Originally commissioned for Eden Court in Inverness in 2014, it has now found a home at Perth Theatre with former Traverse Theatre artistic director Ian Brown directing an impressive cast of nine, including Andy Clark, Tam Dean Burn and Helen McAlpine.
'I had been talking about it with Eden Court's then-artistic director, Colin Marr, and we were talking about the epicness of the piece and how staging something so elemental can be tricky, and he suggested Ian Brown, mentioning his original production of Bondagers,’ says Young. ‘He represents a generation of Scottish plays that I think are quite epic, although that's a very different play – it's about the relationship the workers have with the land. I was lucky that Ian said, “I love it. Can I come to your village?” He needed to get a sense of place and that coastline.’ Young's work occupies a unique space, but she laughs when
the issue of working-class representation in theatre is raised. 'I never set out to be a Scots language playwright, or working- class voice, it's just that's my world. Because I had trained as a journalist, the obvious thing to me was to do interviews and collate that research. So my interest in the language side came from transcribing so many hours of audio . . . different cadences of voices, from one village to another. It's a big choral play, I spent a lot of time thinking how to capture the sea and the community around it. You can't really have that without the diversity of voices.' (Lorna Irvine)
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BIOGRAPHY CHIC MURRAY: A FUNNY PLACE FOR A WINDOW Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 9–Sat 13 Apr
When someone writes the definitive story of Scottish comedy, Chic Murray should find himself with a prominent chapter. This Greenock-born absurdist genius is the subject of A Play, A Pie and A Pint production penned and directed by Stuart Hepburn, and starring Dave Anderson as the eponymous wag. After its debut in 2018, Hepburn is determined not to lose the qualities which made that version work. ‘Plays are fragile beasts and you tamper with them at your peril,’ he says. ‘It was so well-received before by Chic’s family, the paying public and reviewers, that I observed the nostrum “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.’ In terms of where Murray resides in the pantheon of
the great comics, Hepburn sees his place as sitting way beyond the borders of his own nation. ‘For me, Chic is one of the great unsung heroes, not of merely Scottish or even British comedy, but internationally,’ he insists. ‘Comics such as Steve Martin, Billy Connolly and Robin Williams have lauded his surreal genius. His body of work survives the passage of time unblemished and still proves exquisitely drawn and flinty sharp. In his life he never had the full recognition I believe he so richly deserved, so in the centenary of the great man’s birth, I hope my play can in some small way redress the balance.’ (Brian Donaldson)
MINI-FESTIVAL MAYFESTO 2019 Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 1–Fri 31 May POLITICAL KARAOKE TURN THE NIGHT Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 10 & Sat 11 May
Now well established in the Glasgow theatre calendar, Mayfesto promises to engage with contemporary issues, emerging artists and new ways of making performance relevant and exciting. For 2019, the theme of escapology includes a reimagining of Dario Fo’s anarchic blast against capitalism, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay? from Glasgow’s champion of pantomime and cutting comedy, Johnny McKnight (now entitled Low Pay? Don’t Pay!), the return of Woke, Apphia Campbell’s Fringe-busting exploration of human rights across the generations, and Electrolyte, another Fringe success that examines mental health (see feature, page 36).
With two artists-in-residence – Eve Nicol and Andy Edwards – Mayfesto is dedicated to supporting new Scottish work, presenting brand new productions for the festival alongside a variety of scratch nights, works-in-progress and rehearsed readings that allow artists to experiment and audiences to experience something of the creative process in action. Mayfesto has, as Andy Edwards observes ‘dreams, plots and plans. Chances to escape what you already know, but can we return with fresh purpose, open hands, new ideas, ready to go again?' (Gareth K Vile)
‘I never imagined doing this when I was younger,’ Gav Prentice says. ‘I never attended theatre as a kid and it wasn't something that anyone I knew did either. The only thing I can offer theatre is that experience as an outsider.’ Best known as a musician – whether as half of pop mavericks Over The Wall, leader of the politically minded Ultras, or as a solo artist – a theatre show represents a new challenge.
Prentice has explored Scottish identity before, in his collaboration with Kieran Hurley on 2014’s Rantin. With Turn The Night – part of Mayfesto – the focus is on working-class urban communities such as the one Coatbridge-native Prentice was raised in. He wants to give an ‘honest explanation’ of these communities with all their glories and contradictions. ‘The best way to bring that out,’ he says, ‘was to show how a night out actually sounds to the vast majority of people in the central belt.’
Prentice takes the ritual of the karaoke night – usually 'American songs, washed down with absolutely loads of alcohol and with a bit of an edge of aggression’ - and transforms it through a series of characters who sing original songs about their lives. He pauses and laughs at the picture he’s painted. 'I should make it clear though that the show is also supposed to be funny.’ (Craig Angus)
1 Apr–31 May 2019 THE LIST 107