BOMBSHELLS Chicago star’s multiple monologues 0000
Caroline O'Connor is fit She'd have to be to perform the climax of this show. a dance routine that's as hilarous as it is acrobatic. Crossing as it does Andrew LIOyd Webber With Isaac Hayes. Scripted fer the star of the Broadway productiOn of Chicago by Joanna Murray- Smith. this show has O'Connor delivering four monologues by four women at different stages in their lives. Skipping from eager young bride to harassed houseWife to lonesome Widower to aspiring dance student. the lithe performer SWitches costumes and accents. transforming herself from yOLithful firecracker to Wise woman and miXing comedy and pathos With conswnmate ease. (Miles Fielder)
I Assembly Rooms, until 30 Aug (not 16).
7. 70pm, ElO—ll
(f9— 70).
PHAEDRA’S LOVE
It's a family affair O...
The Greeks certainly knew how to push family dysfunctionality to its extreme. Phaedra. Theseus and their respective offspring Strophe and Hippolytus were certainly in keeping with this classical tradition. Incest. murder. infanticide and suicide for good measure. Not even a few stern words from Trisha COuld have helped this lot. Sarah Kane's revision of Phaedra and her love that tore a family limb from limb is delivered With all the paSSion it deserves. Her lines crackle and spit from the actors' mouths from start to bloody end. (Corrie Mills)
I Smirnoff Underbelly. 0870 7-15 3083. MW 29 Aug (not 76). 9pm. 97.50—98.50
($6.504: 7.50l
SISTERS SUCH DEVOTEb SISTERS
Drag queen humour and horror 00.. The power is in the pauses. Russell Barr‘s one man show has a
SHIMMER
Subjectivity and redemption in the Highlands 0..
Of recent years, the Traverse has been inclined to look to the countryside for its inspiration. Outlying Islands, Dark Earth, The Nest - all seem to seek out a mythic ethos far beyond urban and contemporary Scotland. I wonder sometimes whether we can't ask ourselves fundamental questions just as effectively on Clyde or Princess Streets; there's no shortage of folk in touch with their primality (perhaps too much so) on these landscapes, too. But Linda McLean's latest is set somewhere on the road to Oban, seeking its poetry in the rhythms of falling rain of yet another place on the west coast,
way back of beyond.
Here three generations of women — a grandmother (Una McLean) a mother (Hilary Lyon) and ailing daughter (Lesley Hart) - find themselves seeking shelter from the torrential downpour at the home of Jim (lain Macrae). It’s a 8&8, as luck
peouliar and quite ghastly effect. creeping up on you With a series of familiar enough stories abOut the roughness of the Weegie world. which stop y0u in yOur tracks suddenly as revelations of violence. sexual Or psychological abuse Suddenly emerge from an apparently comic narrative. The story of a drag queens upbringing and experience among a violent bunch of Similarly inclined geezers. the piece is Superbly timed and performed. bringing its horrors out WithOut apology. and leaVing
OliiIeBookinq
sexual. class and gender theinatics for us to Chew over uncomfortany Strong meat. but well \.'l.'orth the ticket. lSIGVO Crainer.
I Traverse Theatre. 828 7-104, unfi/ 28 Aug. 10pm. El .7 $413048»
TEATRO DELUSIO
Touching and hilarious mask performance behind the theatre curtain 0000
Have yOu ever unendered wnat goes On iust behind the theatre curtain. .n the world of stage managers. techriiCians and props people?
Book Festival www.edbookfest.co.uk
Fringe www.edfringe.co.uk International Festival www.eif.co.uk .Film Festival www.edfilmfcst.co.uk
74 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 5—72 Aug 233-1
would have it, with an old builder (Finlay Welsh) and a young climber (Paul Rattray) in residence. All of these characters are entrapped within their own subjectivities, caught up in private grief of one kind or another. Each seeks a symbolic gestalt, a means of getting beyond their sense of loss through spirituality, a tough commodity to find on any landscape. McLean’s poetic discourses, her rich and rhythmic language is shown to good advantage, but Lynne Parker’s production, though observant, is way too long for its own good. Una McLean draws wit and vigour from her curmudgeonly
grandmother, and Lesley Hart times her dying young student
If‘E)—-.‘ '4'. :30
Fainilie Flo/ has.
The outstanding German rnask theatre (ZOllltthl‘, creates a tremendousl, ‘;.itii,. affectioi‘iatt: armi rernarkatfl‘. tl;:;j"r:it;ali, accomplished ilfltity’: the dreams ar‘rl l’é:.£lllf$ of the peouié: an: essential tr; the slim. but who we timer set: on the stage. You“ be .iinamri that it‘s av performed :1, just three peopie ’.'."l£t""< Brown I S? Stephens. 5'35 anti" :2 p0: r. (5.301)”: : 'L‘ :' '7}. DODDERSKRATT Wonderful theatrical ritual in music and song .00.
Doderskratt. or the Cackle at the End 3‘ the Road. a deeply ambiguous notcn from Swedish folk CbllL/E. ls
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FUSE
Physical theatre satire from South Africa .0.
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beautifully. For these two alone, and McLean‘s language, it’s worth a watch. (Steve Cramer) I TNT/ti'fit,‘7"t3<’1?.’f?, .’.‘ 310-1. ../:.‘”./
HUNTING DIANA Lady Dies 00.0