people on stage, but one remains speechless throughout - in itsell an eloquent statement about the relationship portrayed. Yolanda is a middle-aged Italian living in Scotland. We meet her visiting her husband, who has succumbed to an ailment which is never explained but which leaves him prostrate and openmouthed in a hospital bed. Neither his condition nor the gradual accretion ol absurd instruments around him appearto deter Yolanda who carries on talking at him, regardless. There’s a touch ol Dario Fo aboutthe delightful absurdity ol the whole situation, and you keep expecting it to spin oil any minute into larce. But the restraint in Maggie Kinloch’s production is what makes it. 'The element at black comedy stays lurking in the background while Yolanda gradually recounts her lile. Yolanda’s anecdotes accumulate Di Mambro builds up a vivid picture of Italian tamin tile, and also of the loneliness and confusion sullered by this woman, married at the age of sixteen into a foreign world. It is a common history and Di Mambro puts into the mouth at her forthright and tunny character, played with engaging down to earthness by Alyxis Daly, the experience ol a whole generation of downtrodden immigrant women trying to weld together two cultures. Meanwhile Matthew Costello's performance as the passive and impotent husband is a tour de lorce in lying doggo. (Sarah Hemming).

THE COUNTRY DOCTOR

Merry Mac Fun Co. On Tour.

The Merry Mac Fun Co had a wild success with their comedy I Love You Baby But I Gotta Bun during the Edinburgh Festival. For this latest show they venture into larce, and the result is funny, but less at a Bull’s Eye.

Duncan MacLean’s comedy takes some basic ingredients ol larce - ghastly cock-up leading to mistaken identity leading to a tissue of lies leading to an inextricany complex mess lorthe central character—slips them into spool small-town Scotland and adds allectionately sent up country and western music.

Dur hero, an inellectual country vet, appears to inadvertently do in his strikingly-visually-similar, but ellicient, country doctor brother. Rather than conless he gets horribly tied up in a web at deception to the doctor's colleagues and nearest and dearest, two at whom happen to be his estranged wile and son.

The action spirals into the absurd and lrantic with breaks into Singing Detective-like lnterludes ol country and western song. Yet the main problem with the production, at the outset of the run at any rate, is that the absurd and the frantic happen too soon. The whole thing begins at such a pitch ol excltement that there is nowhere tor it to go - none ol the lun essential to larce

ol watching it gradually teeter over the edge trom reality into ridiculousness - and the style soon grows stale. There are some good jokes and crisp, witty dialogue, and should the production pace itsell better, it could be well on the way to achieving the dllllcult and

delicate style of larce. (Sarah llemmlng)

THEATRE LIST

The lll Guldmlther Tue 10 Nov. 7pm. £1 (50p). A workshopped production by Edinburgh Playwrights’ Workshop of a new play by David Purves— an adaptation for stage of an ancient West Highland tale about a cruel stepmother. Purves wrote the highly successful The Puddok an’ the Princess, and this latest play explores the themes ofcrime. punishment and responsibility that occur in this and many other folk tales. Followed by a discussion.

The Bobo Girls Fri 30 & Sat 31 Oct. 10pm. See Cabaret.

The Nice People Fri 6 & Sat 7 Nov. 10pm. See Cabaret.

o TRIANGLE ARTS CENTRE West Pilton Bank, 332 0877.

O WILKIE HOUSE Cowgate.

Jelly Babies Until Sun 1 Nov. 7.30pm. Fri 30 Oct 9.45pm. £3(£2). £7.50 (£5) for all three plays. Further details and advance bookings from Theatre Co—Op, 11a Forth Street, 558 1610. The first in a new season of previously unshown plays, organised by the Theatre Co-Operative. This play by Ann Downie handles the

difficult subject of abortion and is set in a gynaecological ward. See Review.

Dundas: Or Now I Murdered Robert Burns Thurs 12—Sun 22 Nov. 7.30pm. Fris 9.45pm. Prices as for Jelly Babies. Alistair Campsie’s play taking a fairly sour view of Dundas, one of Edinburgh’s founding fathers. Campsie suggests that Dundas was involved in a scheme to rid the city of. the outspoken and therefore undesirable to some Robert Burns.

TOURING

O The Steamle Wildcat Stage Productions return with Tony Roper’s wonderfully funny play about four Glasgow women in a communal washhouse. Superb stuff if it comes near you and there’s a ticket left, go. For further details please call Wildcat on 041 954 0000. Moffat Town Hall Fri 30 Oct, 7.30pm. Tickets 0683 20809; Theatre Royal, Dumfries Sat 31 Oct, 7.30pm. Tickets 0387 54209; Bonar Hall, Dundee Mon 2-Wed 4 Nov,7.30pm. Tickets 0382 23530; Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock Thurs 5 & Fri 6 Nov, 7.30pm Tickets 0563 23590; Airdrie Arts Centre Sat 7 Nov, 7.30pm. Tickets 0236 55436; King’s Theatre, Edinburgh Mon 9—Sat 14 Nov 7.30pm, 031 229 1201 ; Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh Mon l6—Sat 21 Nov, 7.45pm 031 665 2240. End of tour.

0 The Country Doctor Following on the success of their 1 Love You Baby But I Gotta Run The Merry Mac Fun Co present a new comedy set in rural Scotland and using ballads and country and western music. See Review. For further details please call The Merry Mac Fun Co on 031 556 8897.

Cumbernauld Theatre,

C umbernauld Tue 3 Nov. 7.45pm. Tickets 02367 32887. HarbourArLs Centre, Irvine Thurs 5 Nov, 7.45pm. Tickets 0294 78167; Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association Fri 6 & Sat 7 Nov. For details contact 0387

63822; New StreetArts Centre, Paisley Sun 8 Nov, 8pm. Tickets 041 889 3151 ; StAndrews High School, West Douglas Street, C lydebank Mon 9 Nov 8pm. Learney Hall, Torphins Wed 11 Nov, 7.30pm; Dalrymple Hall, Fraserburgh Thurs 12 Nov, 7.30pm. Tour continues to North of Scotland. 0 Cowboys and Indians TAG Theatre Company in a new comedy by Gurmeet Mattu. Jog Khalsi, a young unemployed graduate, tries to help his father’s corner shop business back onto its feet through a new sales gimmick. See Panel. For further details ring TAG on 041 429 2877. Portobello Town Hall, Edinburgh Mon 2 & Tue 3 Nov, 7.30pm. Tickets 031 225 2424 ext 6633; Airdrie Arts Centre Thurs 5 Nov, 7.30pm. Tickets Airdrie 55436; C umbernauld Theatre, C umbernauld Fri 6 & Sat 7 Nov, 7.45pm. Tickets 0236 32887; Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Tue lO—Thurs 12 Nov, 8pm. Tickets 031 225 3614. Tour continues.

OABARET

GLASGOW

0 CUMBERNAULO THEATRE Cumbernauld, 0236 732888. Box Office Mon—Fri 10am—6pm; Sat 10am-3pm; 6—8pm on perf evngs. The Wildest Night of the Year Sat 31 Oct. 7.45pm. £2.75 (£1.50). A Hallowe’en cabaret with The Alexander Sisters, who take a comic and highly individual approach to Scottish country dancing, and the Red Ferrets, who do sketches and songs often with a polical bent.

0 PAVILION THEATRE 121 Renfield Street, 332 1846. Box Office 10am—8pm Mon—Sat. Bar.

Ben Elton Sun 8 Nov. 7.30pm. £4.50, £5.50. More live than on Saturday Night Live, the man who did for plastic framed glasses what Tommy Cooper did for hats. See Guestlist and Playhouse, Edinburgh.

0 SHAKESPEARE STREET YOUTH CLUB

Maryhill.

Women’s Cabaret tor llallowe'en Sat 31 Oct. 7.30pm. £1 .50(£1). Women only. BYOB. Busy Low Theatre Coop in a night of Women’s Cabaret - music, folk-dancing, poetry reading and disco. Contact 041 339 6185 for further details.

EDINBURGH f

O MANOELA THEATRE Gateway Exchange, 2—4 Abbeymount, 661 0982. Café and bar facilities during performance.

John Sparkes and Wray Gunn and the Rockets Thurs 29 Oct. 8pm. £3.50 (£2). John Sparkes, a Perrier Award nominee at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, and probably best known in the guise of the uncouth Siadwel from the Welsh valleys, joins Wray Gunn and the Rockets, a band of rockabilly buskers from Glasgow, in an evening of cabaret.

All Scottish Cabaret Evening Thurs 11 Nov. 8pm. £3.50 (£2). An evening showcasing some of Scotland’s up and coming cabaret artists. Those appearing include The Alexander Sisters, larger than life ladies who

take on The Dashing White Sergeant with more force than finesse; Stuart MacDonald, a stand-up comedian from Edinburgh, and The Kiltless Jocks, whose sketches and songs dispel Scotch myths. O PLAYHOUSE Greenside Place, 557 2590. Box Office Mon—Sat 10am—6pm. £5.50, £4.50. Den Elton Sat 7 Nov. 7.30pm. See Guestlist and Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow. 0 THEATRE WORKSHOP Cabaret Nights Thurs 5—Sat 7 Nov. 10pm-Iate. Free in the bar. 0 TRANSPORT HALL Annandale Street, off Leith Walk. Benellt lor Denellt Part 2 Fri 30 Oct. 7.30—Iate. £4 waged (£2 unwaged). Advance tickets from Virgin Records. An evening of cabaret presented by Lothians Oppose Social Security Cuts and The List. Those appearing include The Comedy Casuals, Goodbye Mr McKenzie, Hope Augustus, Red Music, Alto Cirrus, Christine Kydd and others. See Preview Panel. 0 TRAVERSE THEATRE 1 12 West Bow, 226 2633. Box Office Tue—Sat 10am—8pm; Sun 6—10pm. Bar. Rest. The Dobo Girls Fri 30 & Sat 31 Oct. 10pm. £3 (£1.50). A pair oflikely ladies and a piano with a comic line on yuppie lifestyles. The Nice People Fri 6 & Sat 7 Nov. 10pm. £3 (£1.50). The Nice to Be Naughty People, carrying on back to Edinburgh with their Festival success, The Wobbly Spanky Botty Show.

THEATRE COMPANY

JUNGLE BOOK

4 - 14 November at 7.45pm

An adaption by Stephen MacDonald based on Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book” Stories Directed by Charles Nowosielski Music composed by Richard Chems

Tickets: Full Price: £3.75 Concessions: £2.25

*10% discount on Party Bookings of 10 or more *We accept payment by ACCESS or VISA

( BOX OFFlCE: 031-665 2240 ,

The List 30 Oct - 12 Nov 21