THEATRE LIST

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PREVIEW

This issue Mark Fisher discovers a new theatre in Glasgow (below), Joe Roe findsTAG in the Middle East and Ballet Rambert go to Glasgow (overleaf).

LISTINGS: THEATRE 44 CABARET 52 DANCE 54 REVIEWS: 50

Home for Panto Cats

Wildcat’s two-year search for a new i . base has finished in Clydebank ' H where Mark Fisher finds the ' " " musical touring company in a promising new venue.

I first visited Clydebank‘s new Clyde Theatre a

few weeks ago. when renovation work on this old Singer Factory Social Club was still under way. Despite the painters. scaffolding and bare walls. the new base for Wildcat Stage Productions was already shaping up as an exciting and welcome addition to the West Coast theatre scene.

As well as rehearsal and changing rooms. a big car park. wardrobes and office space. the new venue boasts the largest sprung dance floor in Europe. It is good to see the place being put back into active service some ten years after Singer pulled out ofClydebank. adding considerably to local unemployment. Many residents have fond I memories of the ex-club and the new theatre space should prove adaptable enough to cater for

Here’s one I prepared earlier. a wide range ol'entertainment. What with the highly successful UCI multi—screen cinema down the road. Clydebank is becoming the place for new palaces ofentertainment.

The theatre itself has a capacity to hold up to 900 people (including a couple of hundred on a relatively small balcony). but for the sake ofextra

comfort. it will normally be designed to hold

closer to 7()(). But flexibility is the name of the game. and the large space will have no difficulty adapting to theatre-in-the-round. rock concerts or promenade performances. As it is. the theatre‘s inaugural performance. Wildcat’s The Greedy Giant. will be performed in the conventional proscenium arch format. no doubt making much use of all the shiny new gadgets like the slick trap-door beneath the stage. It‘s the right time of year after all.

The whole venture has been made possible by Wildcat‘s long-running partnership with The Scottish Foundation. which exists to provide resources and training for charities. community programmes and volunteer groups throughout Scotland. The Foundation raises its money from both the public and the private sector and it will benefit directly from this new venture by securing office space for some of its personnel as well as added scope to develop new community-based projects. Wildcat. meanwhile. will launch each of its tours at the theatre, which should soon be established as a major receiving venue on the touring circuit.

The Greedy Giant plays at the Clyde Theatre. Boquhanran Road, Clydebank from 27 No v—6 Jan.

Quixotic Lorca

‘It might upset Lorca fans, because he was a very serious man,’ speculates Colin Teevan about his new play which centres around the last hours of the Spanish poet and playwright’s life. It's not that Teevan's intentions are glib, just that his vision of Lorca centres as much on his interest in surrealism as it does on his more commonly supposed interest in tragedy. ‘lt’s a tragi-comedy,’ Teevan explains. ‘lt’s funny. The last line is funny, but in view of the fact that Lorca gets murdered and of what happened in Spain afterwards, it is also a tragedy. Lorca wrote fifteen plays and the last three he wrote are taken to be great naturalistic tragedies. They’re actually surrealist, especially the last one. Bernada Alba is about fascism and what was going on in fascist Spain.’

Teevan’s play takes place in the first month of the Spanish Civil War, as Lorca, in hiding from the Nationalist

V CABARET

Stand-up Shopping

comedy throughout Scotland

j The Shelter in the centre of G

Lucy Hoare‘with side order offish.

authorities, decides to enact Don Quixote. The balance tilts towards absurdism as other characters, notably two detectives, are drawn into the performance, blurring the boundaries between the real world and the world of Don Quixote. ‘lt’s an ideological detective story,’ says Teevan. ‘lt's about the tremendous bullshit of the idealism surrounding the Spanish Civil War that has overshadowed Europe for 50 years. (Mark Fisher)

The Murder of Frederico Garcia Lorca is at the Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, 5-!) Dec.

outside Scotland to perform,

a huge waste of talent.’ The Comedy Shop is stagin opening overtwo nights (7—8

Karen Koren’s personal crusade to spread the word about stand-

up a gear— next week sees the opening of her new venue The Comedy Shop at

Building on the success other Festival cabaret and subsequent two- at the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh, Koren aims to broaden her horizons. ‘We want to set up corresponding nights in Glasgow and Edinburgh as part of a genuine comedy circuit in Scotland,’ she says. ‘We want a place where we can bring comics from

to act as a platform for Scottish comedians—there‘s still hardly anywhere to perform and there must be

December): among others appearing will be John Sparkes, Mark Miwurdz.

up is moving

1"4 1/1/91} Norman Lovett, and the Panic Brothers. The glittering line-up will be complemented by homegrown comics Stu Who, Phil Kay and Fred McAuley. Koren is hoping that the Glaswegian sense of fun will support and sustain the venue: ‘Glasgow is a city with a strong sense of humour, which makes it an ideal venue for stand-up comedy— and Culture Yearwill make it buzz. I would like fellow comics to come and watch things, to make a place where they can meet and talk. But more than that, it will be a place where you can, as Fred says, go out and have a bloody good laugh.’ (Andrew Pulver)

The Comedy Shop opens at The Shelter, Glasgow on Thurs 7 Dec and second night is Fri 8 Dec. See Cabaret Listings lorfurtherdetails.

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The List 24 November 7 December 1989 41