THE WHITE BIRD PASSES

1‘5

3a-...«w’ it EdinburghTheatre Workshop Company. On Tour.

Memories ofthe1920s are notall gilded with gaiety. Jessie Kesson‘s novel. The White Bird Passes. adapted here for stage by Anne Downie. harks backto a childhood spent in a poor tenementin Elgin inthe20s Drawing on her own experienc. Jessie Kesson shows us the progress of a small. imaginative girl.Janie. from her deplorable background‘ into an orphanage.

Directed by Andi Ross. Theatre Workshop Company's production of Ms Downie‘s stage playfalls intobrief. vividly staged episodes. each one showingJanielplayed with courageous. slightly bewildered innocence by Maureen Carr) meeting the influential elements ofthis ‘background'.

They are nearlyallwomen—notably

the gossipy callous women on the stair.

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who are drawn with a great deal of humour by the cast (particularly Myra McFadyen who creates a series of wonderfully contrasted cameos) but whose wagging tongues cause much

real damage and heartbreak. In

contrast are the superficially dubious

but fundamentally kind —Janie‘s

mother among them. played with beautiful ambivalence by Donalda Samuel. Bitterlycynical. making her

money from prostitution. she

nonetheless cares for Janie with a gentle understated devotion. fostering

in her natural imaginative and descriptive abilities. though she

scarcely realises their implications. It‘s a production that occasionally

veers towards sentimentality and

predictability. but its strength is in its

humourand in some lovely

performances. among them Jenny

McCrindle who plays a series of

indestructible. odd-ball children.

awkward moral dilemmas.

Peri/'1 'Hieulr‘e 15ri 2S Mar Sat 12 Apr.

“.3tlpm. (Sat mat 2.45pm ). (V3S 311131.

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o Tourcontinues. Forfurtherdetails please contact venue or Company on 031225 7942.

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0 Tourcontinues. Fordetails offuture and above dates please contact United Artists on 0413391787(belore 6pm it possible).

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Theatre Royal. Glasgow

April lst~5th. 19wa: '1‘ie1x’ets from £2.50 Box Office lllam ~S’pm. th~ Sat: Tel: (141 331 3931

1* _“_i__

12 The List 21 Mar— 3 Apr