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EILEEN NICHOLAS
Since Eileen Nicholas first
performed Franz Xaver Kroetz’s
Request Programme during this
year‘s Edinburgh Featival. she has done over fifty gruelling
performances — gruelling. because
the one-woman play. taking you through an evening in a lonely
woman‘s life in total silence. makes I extraordinary demands on her . emotions. skill and concentration.
But she has lost none of her enthusiasm for the play. whose haunting and moving portrayal of loneliness has been highly acclaimed. bringing her a Fringe First. accolades in the press but. most importantly perhaps. tremendous response from her audiences.
‘In Edinburgh there was one amazing day when one woman was sobbing — real sobs from her guts — and the whole audience and I all became as one because of this. It was extraordinary. I wouldn‘t like to go through it again though. it was too overwhelming.‘
Audiences haven‘t only responded
with sadness though; Eileen is
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surprised and pleased that many people have approahced her. angry about the play’s ending. ‘I think everybody experiences something of themselves in it and then they quite angrily reject the ending as the logical step. That‘s good — it makes the play much more positive.‘ Having played both the tiny Donmar and Bush Theatres in London, she is looking forward to the Edinburgh‘s Traverse Theatre ‘it has the intimacy but also the space.‘
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She is also looking forward to doing another play — preferably one involving words and other actors . . . ‘I'm not tired ofit and I don‘t feel it‘s played out in any way. I am longing to do another play though. to see how this one has affected me. because it‘s so radically different. I think what I do after this is quite important for me.‘
Request Programme is at the Traverse. Edinburgh. 11—16 Nov.
— ALEX cox
In movie parlance. this man is bankable. He‘s made two feature already this year and is working on a third to commence shooting in January ‘87. He is Alex Cox of Repoman fame. and resplendent in Sandinista T-shirt. red bandana and Zapata moustache. he sits cooly sipping mineral water at the bar in Edinburgh's Cameo Cinema where Sid and Nancy. the first of those three projects. opens on Friday 31 October.
The movie is a hard-hitting and uncompromising portrayal of the ill-fated. hero—fuelled relationship between Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend. Nancy Spungen. Despite claims of factual inaccuracies. Cox hopes that it is ‘faithful to the spirit. ifnot the letter. of all that Punk stood for. although it‘s not meant to be like the definitive history of Punk music. and is much more ofa love story . . . the drugs did have a lot to do with it but here you had two people who were just hooked on each other.‘
Also in the can. but not released yet is Straight to Hell. a spaghetti
Western shot in Spain during August with Joe Strummer. The Pogues. and Grace Jones involved in a story of violent but comic revenge. ‘Some of the actors were a little bit worried.‘ Cox comments. ‘that things were going too far. that it was just a bit too insane. but I've seen the rough cut and although there are these terrible things happening from beginning to end you do come out uplifted.‘ Moviegoers will be able to judge for themselves when the film opens early next year.
Cox's Edinburgh visit comes just before jetting back to LA to continue preparation for William Walker. the true story of an American marine who. with fifty-six of his compatriots. proclaimed himself President of Nicaragua in 1855. ‘We‘re trying to make a film that‘ll be important and say something to people. yet which will be crazy and enjoyable too.‘ is how Cox sums it up. As he adjusts his bandana. you get the feeling that whatever Cox does it will at the very least be crazy. (Trevor Johnston)
PLACIDO DOMINGO
()ne ofthe unlikeliest cinema trends of the Eighties has been the emergence ofthe filmed opera. The latest example of the genre is Franco Zeffirelli‘s lavish version of Verdi‘s ()Iello. Placido Domingo stars as the jealousy-racked Moor. repeating a collaboration with Zeffirelli that first bore fruit at La Scala. Milan in 1976.
“is director has taken some liberties with the original material but Domingo defends the need for changes in the translation from stage to screen. ‘Real opera lovers may question some of the cuts but most filmgoers will only see the film as it exists. It is a film. not an opera film. If you take away the sound you can still understand what is going on in between the first and second acts. In the cinema you can show this and avoid repetition. Franco used his fantastic sense of timing and. ifVerdi were here today he would have said. “Yes. these cuts are right for the movie.“ Never for the theatre but yes for the cinema.‘
Following on from his performances in La Traviata (1982) and Carmen (I983) Domingo has become a strong supporter of the filmed opera. ‘()tello is my third and we learn a lot from one film to another. There is a need for these films to happen and dramatically they make ideal subjects for the cinema.‘
()tello was filmed in Crete and at the Cinecitta studios at a cost of approximately fifteen million dollars. Despite problems with the weather and illness. Domingo feels
3 that it is still the technical side of
film-making that poses the biggest
headache. ‘l.ip-synching is the most difficult part.‘ he says. 'Sometimes your best dramatic shot is ruined because you are out of synch.‘
The latest project for Domingo is a version of .‘llllu' to be made in Egypt. ‘()nly certain operas can be filmed.’ he explains. ‘But there are still five or six possibilities that would interest me.‘ (Allan Iltmter)
()tel/o opens at the xi 1% ‘. .S'uue/iiehull Street in ( ilasgow (m 7 .'\'m'enz/>er.
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The List 31 ()ct — 13 Nov 1