Theatre
COELACANTH Quirky storytelling about love, loss and tree climbing 0000
If you're furiously furrowrng yow brow as; you attempt to say the name of this show. then let me enlighten you before you have an embarrassing scene at the box office: it's; pronounced 'see-Ia- kanth'. And yet further enlightenment will let you know that it's a fish. discovered in the 1930s. havrng s;ui'vi\.«'erl riflt) million years; refusing to evolve. v-rhicn makes; it unique and rather special. iirucli like this show.
I rom a love of competitive tree ciiiiibing to meeting and losing the love of his life. the show's writer and perforiirer Ben lvloor tells us his tale with entrancing stage pres 3nce and warmth. The text is poetically rich. never struaiidering a word. and every
line has meaning or humour or indeed humorous; meaning. And with such detail. at times; it's; a real challenge to catch the subtlety and brilliance of one line before moving ento the next. Although lvloor's; observatiOns brim with eccentric originality. they are presented will: comforting sincerity. making them feel familiar and personal. Erica V‘Jhyman's; discreet direction draws; out the quirky appeal of this; piece of creative storytelling that opens; your eyes; to a new way of looking at the world. and perhaps trees. Ilvlichelle Macintyrei
I Florisarice Courtyard. 5:36 (5:350. until 29 Aug. (3. lap/h. 58.504 9.50 “’7' f8)
AFTER THE END Apocalyptic now 0.0.
last lltf;l‘f.'1£tffjétklllg{Ill‘(X)ll(Ilil()llllIg unit. ll‘i a". t‘drixburgh finance firm was; treated as; a suspected (,‘heiiiical attack. A.“ aliirost laughable story. but one that was; treated with deadly s;e'.ous,ires;s; :i‘. this; climate of paranoia. And s;<, the opening premise of Dennis; Ket, ’s; latest play is; not as; iiiiplaus;ib|e as; at once may have secured. The itight after her leaving do. Louise iKerry Coiido'r comes; round to find herself sealed iii a nuclear bunker wrth Mark the office geek. He tells her the
Online Booking Book Festival www.edbookfest.co.uk
Fringe www.edfringe.co.uk lntemational Festival www.eif.co.uk Film Festival www.edfilmfest.co.uk
74 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE ’ ‘
City above them has been razed to the ground and they have two weeks to sit tight and surVive the fallout.
While the backdrop to Kelly's piece is one of global politics and terrorism. the real exploratron here is of obsession on a personal level and the fragile nature of trust between two peeple. As Mark. Tom Brooke superbly charts his character's descent from inSipid oddball to a man uncontrollany infatuated. while set desrgner Miriam Buether's starkly lit. white fallout shelter curves around both characters. adding to the increasingly claustrophobic text and context.
Paines Plough and the Bush Theatre's production is unsparingly confrontational at times. but it is; a credit to both actors that they still succeed in finding the somewhat perverse humour in their words. And even a slightly overlong ending does; not detract from what stands out as a darineg brutal piece of theatre. lCorrie MIHS)
I Traverse, 228 1404. until 29 Aug (not 75. 22/. times vary. H 7 (£4. 50438)
PETROGRAD Back in the USSR .00
The USSR is anCient history. declares; a pompOus lecturer in Van Badham's latest play. An inaccurately fair point. Less than 1:3 years after the Sovret Union disoanded. its memory seems orin to live on in a few self»consciously fashionable T-shirts. The Red Terror and Iron Curtain are part of an all too rapidly forgotten past. Using this; ha/y memory as a starting point. Petrograd introduces us to Ava. a young plays/right. who takes; on the insuriiiountable challenge of writing the past to life.
As; Ava tries; to recreate the turbulert history of Communist Russia. the
7?; Aag L’Iiiif';
DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT More than just light entertainment .00.
Director Annie Ryan’s latest show is an exercise in good timing. ln comic and dramatic terms, one cannot help but be impressed as eight actors play over 30 characters without missing a beat. But also, this collaborative script from Michael West is performed before Scottish audiences at a very culturally relevant point. As Scotland welcomes its first national theatre with a slightly awkward embrace, Dublin by Lamplight takes us back to the Ireland of 1904 and the shambolic opening of the ‘lrish National Theatre for Ireland’.
In spite of a misprint on the advertisement for his first play, Willy Hayes is proudly undeterred as he sets forth to make Irish theatrical history - that is, until he steps in dog shit. In an Ireland still forcibly tacked on to the United Kingdom, West’s script circles around the question: how can you have a national theatre, when you’re not a nation? However, this production from the Corn Exchange doesn’t allow semantics to take over the show. While the uncertainties of politics, art, and nationhood course through its scenes, the overall feeling is of overdone burlesque and music hall excess.
As soon as archetypal luvvie Martyn Wallace steps on stage the audience are drawn into the highly stylised world of Commedia dell’Arte. With a pan white face, thickly lined and overly rouged, he greets us with a permanent look of grotesque bewilderment. In spite of the cast’s fixed, mask-like make-up, they succeed in making each character both unique and expressive. None more so than Mark O’Halloran who, as Wallace, quotes Faust in the face of adversity and beams maniacally as the Irish National Theatre comes crashing down around him.
A special mention must go to Conor Linehan who, from a piano at the corner of the stage, punctuates and underlines the characters’ every line - evoking the theatre of early 20th century Ireland and bringing colour to each movement.
In the shorter second half, the pace begins to run a little faster than the plot itself. Stumbling on and off stage in a mad scramble to the show’s conclusion, the threads of stories become somewhat tangled, but the cast continue to maintain their break-neck character changes with impressive ease.
Unadulterated entertainment from start to finish, one can only hope that the National Theatre for Scotland will boast the same indefatigable and half-crazed passion of the hapless players from the Irish National Theatre of Ireland. (Corrie Mills)
I liar/(vse Theatre. 228 RIO-1. MK"! 28 zit/£1 “If” 75>- 791- W’If’fi WU}! 5‘75 1’5‘460—5‘92.
globgr politics. the cast don't quite feel in tune with the vision of this; piece. \“thle an ii‘teiligent look at the fictioi‘s that i'iake up history. this doesn‘t lxe up to the usual pi‘oiiiise of Badham's; ‘.'.:>ik. ‘(:t)'."(} Mills)
I f)."<.’«.'i‘i(lfltf(’ Courtyard 52:50 (55:50.
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script constantly shr ts; and plotiines; are pulled from beneath us; as; the audience are (les;tab:lis;e<i I)‘, I)|til'l.'tt} time periods; and characters. Unfortunately. the deft twists; and turns of Badha'n's; words; are SIltlf‘ib, lost on the actors; trons Prospek‘. Theatre. Just as; the characters; ‘.'.’|IIli'l
“If? Dilly grapple with the enoinirtres; o‘ 231550 i‘éifidr.