from all over Lothian Region. in Edward Bond's play based on

1 cruelty in mediaeval Japan.

Writer’s Cramp Mon 28 Apr-Sat 3

1 May. 8pm. £3.50 (£2.50). Mon: two for price ofone. Borderline Theatre

7 Company in John Byrne’s hilarious

comedy (See Touring).

O NETHERBOW 43 High Street. 556 9579. Box office Mon—Sat 10am—4pm. 7—9pm perf. evgs. Cafe [El Aida oi Leningrad Until Sat 19 Apr. 8pm. £2 (£1 ). Wholemeal Theatre Company in a play by Jenny Robertson about Aida Skripnikova who began her ‘subversive‘ activities at the age of 14, when she wrote a letter defending Boris Pasternak to Pravdaf McLeavy's Muse Thurs 24 Apr—Sat 10 May. 8pm. £3 (£2). Mondays half price. The Actors Company in a play by Maurice Fleming about the dubious rise to fame ofone Mary McLeavy. whose deathless verse finds its way to the public ear through the unlikely channels ofThe Jimmy Mack Show. Promises. appropriately. to be amusing.

O PLAYHOUSE 18/22 Greenside Place. 557 2590. Box office Mon—Sat 10am—6pm. Bar.

Doris Collins Thurs 17 Apr. 7.30pm. £4. The clairvoyant woman ofspirit demonstrates her unusual skills.

0 ROYAL LYCEUM Grindlay Street. 229 9697. Box office Mon—Sat

§ 10am—6pm. 10am-8pm on perfevgs.

Bar. Rest. The Beggar’s Opera or Peachum’s

Poorhouse Thurs l7 Apr—Sat 10 May. 7.45pm.TheatreSaverholders£l

off. Sat mat 7 May.3. 15pm. Free preview Thurs 17 April. (Production transfers to Kings Theatre. Glasgow from 12 May as part of Glasgow Mayfest). A new updated version of John Gay‘s classic 18th century burlesque satirical opera. which provided the impetus for Brecht‘s Threepemiy Opera. This is a new

venture for the Lyceum; a

co-production with Wildcat Stage Productions. David MacLennan has devised the new text. David McNiven the music and Ian Wooldridge directs. (See panel).

0 ST BRIDES COMMUNITY CENTRE Orwell Terrace. 346 1405.

You’ve Got to be Kidding Mon 25 Apr 7.45pm. £2.50 (£1 .50). Spare Tyre Theatre Company in an all-woman cabaret offering a comic look at the issues surrounding being. or not

.2IEE.A_TRE._LIS.T__--___

CLASSY SOUNDS

V ‘_t

town. Certainly with hall at London’s West End Theatres touting musical spectaculars and at least one iilm (which shall remain nameless. . .) revisiting the genre with new perspectives, the time seems right tor a new look too atthe original antidote to musical glamour; The Beggar's Opera.

There is a timeliness then to the new Lyceum/Wildcat co-production (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh) of The Beggar’s Opera, which updates John Gay's original eighteenth century double-pronged satire at high culture and contemporary government to the present day. The job of making the music work satirically for today has fallen to David McNiven: ‘The original is fairly inaccessible to people now because it was written as a satire on Walpole's government. We've kept all the original characters and the plot, which equates the government with the criminal classes—we’ve really just changed the terms at reference.

s j “Musically it was Handel he was the "3 : sort oi Andrew Lond-Webber oi the day -and it’s a piss-take of him. I haven't ' made it that specilic- it's not: here's a tunethat you might recognise. But

there are phrases here and there that are the kind ol thing that you might hear

1 in a trendy pub at about 5 o’clock, and

there are a couple at disco numbers. We really taken a cross-section oi the last five years’ worth at musical style, and shot them together.’

The new version is in tact set in a theme pub in Glasgow, and the satire ol super-trendlness continues with one song being a pastiche ol Kurt Weill, whose music partnered Brecht’s text in The Threepenny Opera, their1920's adaptation oi Gay’s original, and who has suddenly become vogue which, as McNiven points out, is highly ironic.

McNiven's own career started with a band— ‘we released three albums that went phut!’ - and developed into music theatre by way oi the Traverse, 7:84, and Wildcat, at which he was a founder member. He now works treelance, having been ‘tempted' into radio and iv to write for comedy series including Al Fresco, Laugh, lNearly Paid My License Fee, A Kick Up The Eighties and, most recently, Naked Video. Working in theatre again, comes now as a welcome, but exhausting change. ‘I really like working in studios and the whole production side at things. Working in theatre, though, is completely ditterent - it's a ditlerent discipline altogether. Staying up all night and things like that l'd iorgotten that!

‘I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I am going to be a tutor in Creative Writing at a summer school, but otherwise I don‘t really know, and I’m not too worried, because I've been irantically writing for the last 6 months, and I’ve tairly used up all the ideas—l need to stop and learn a new chord!'(8arah Hemming)

being. a mother. Bar. and women‘s cabaret from 10pm. (See Touring). O THEATRE WORKSHOP 34 Hamilton Place. 226 5425. Box office Mon—Sat 9.30am-5.30pm. Bar. Cafe. [D] Once in a Night-time Thurs 17 and Fri 18 Apr. 5pm. Sat 19 Apr. 2pm. 75p (50p). Theatre Workshop Junior Youth Theatre present the fruits of

several weeks of labour: a show written and directed by Eva Laeverenz and performed by the children (aged 9—12) about what Polly and Tom discover about their toys' night-time world. For children and adults.

Our Day Out Thurs 17 and Fri 18 Apr. 7.30pm. Sat 19 Apr. 3.30pm. £1.50

'2 V ' (£1):T'histimeit‘stheturn of

popular playwright Willy Russell's comedy. that makes its social

ensue when a class of 14 year-olds

o THOMAS MORTON HALL Ferry

Apr. 7.30pm. Tickets £2 (£1 ) tel: 225

: Kard Box. 74 Great Junction Street, Goldenacre Post Office or Dept of

j floor). Bristol Express Theatre ; Company in an irreverend version of g The Bands play (see Touring).

available The Ticket Centre. 22

; Kora Fri 2 May—Sun 25 May. Preview

: Thurs 1 May. 7.30pm. Temp

members £4.50; Econ members £4: Full members £3.50; Student. OAP.

Reductions for more than one play = ofseason booked. A new play by Tom McGrath launches the

Theatre Workshop Youth Theatre the elders to present the show they‘ve been working on over weeks. A group of 36 thirteen to fifteen year-olds have worked on all aspects of this production ofthe highly

comment through the antics that

are let loose on a day out.

Road. Leith. Elsie and Norm's Macbeth Thurs 17

2424 and ask for Eileen Rae. or visit

Recreation 249 High Street (Third

O TRAVERSE 112 West Bow. 226 2633. Box office Tues—Sun 10am—8pm. Bar. Rest. Tickets also

Market Street.

UB40£2.50(members £2). Students now bookable in advance.

Traverse‘s 1986 season ofentirely new work: three world premieres of new writing from Scotland. and two British premieres to follow.

' McGrath's play. a black comedy, is : described by the director as ‘Dario

F0 in a housing estate' a comic. incisive look at bureaucracy.

Directed by Jenny Killick and

designed by NCII Murray.

0 TRIANGLE CENTRE Pilton.

Elsie and Norman’s Macbeth Fri 18 Apr. 7.30pm. Tickets tel: 332 5764 and ask for Barbara ()rton. Bristol Express Theatre Company in an irreverend version of the Bard‘s play (see Touring).

TOURING

Please check all venues it possible they may be subject to change after press date.

You've Got To Be Kidding Spare Tyre. a three-woman cabaret company first inspired by Fat is a Feminist Issue in a comic musical look at the

choice to be. or not to be. a mother.

SCOttiSh Theatre Company

DIRECTOR: TOM FLEMING

DONALDA SAMUEL - PAUL YOUNG

ALL S ATS £2 (Concessions) Box Office: 041-429 0022/8177

i CITIZENS’ THEATRE, GLASGOW i Fri 2-Sat 24 May 1986 (MAYFEST) Evenin s: 7.30 m. Matinee: Sat 24 May at 4.30pm (Eve: 8pm)

ROBERT BURNS

byJoe Corrie

IAIN ANDREW - KENNETH BRYANS - ANDREW BYATT ~ ROY HANLON ALEXANDER MORTON - EILEEN NICHOLAS - CAROLINE PATERSON - ALLAN ROSS - PATRICIA ROSS DAVID WALLACE - JULIA WALLACE ° TOM WATSON °

Director: DAVID HAYMAN, Designer: KENNY MILLER, Lighting: GERRYJENKINSON

ON TOUR

ADAM SMITH THEATRE. KIRKCALI)Y 26-31 May PALACE THEATRE, KILMARNOCK 3-7 june KING’S THEATRE, EDINBURGH 9-14 June

- ISABELLA jARRETT

FINLAY WELSH - CAREY WILSON

‘IO'l-‘ih—Sljst lSApril— I May