THEATRE
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INTERCITY
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l I - 26 August
Come to the Cultural Capital of Europe for 233 FREE shows over l5 days
Human Firecrackers Australian Stiltwalkers Flower Pot Families Cascading Sculpture
Red, Yellow, Blue & Green Frenchmen
Arctic Explorers
Fantasy City
Brochures available all around the City or
Tel: 04l - 204 4059
Funded by Glasgow District Council Festivals Office and Strathciyde Regional Council
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Funded from Glasgow District Councal's Festivals Budget.
group all the way from ROstov on Don returns to Glasgow with its toe tapping repertoire of song. music and dance.
I Glasgow Street Band Buchanan Street/Sauchiehall Street/St Enoch‘s Square. Noon-2pm. The Happy End bring together 20 local musicians to create a week of lunchtime music for Glasgow‘s shoppers.
I Mike Rowan Buchanan Street/Sauchiehall Street. Noon—2pm. Scotland‘s very own Big Rory performs his final lunchtime show.
I The Natural Theatre Company Glasgow City Centre. Noon-2pm. England‘s Natural Theatre Company mingle with the shoppers in a series of brief scenariosthat turn the city centre into a hilarious stage.
SATURAY 13
I IOU Theatre: Full Tilt George Square. 1.30pm. 45-minute show featuring a playpen for adults and by the sounds of it lots of audience involvement.
I The Natural Theatre Company Glasgow City Centre. Noon—2pm. See Fri 17.
I Collectii Organum High Street/Duke Street Wasteground (next to High Street Station). 9.30pm. Large scale puppetry and illusion from a French company which has been preparing on site for the past week. Only British appearance ofthis engrossing piece of theatre.
I Glasgow Street Band Buchanan Street/Sauchiehall Street/St Enoch's Square. Noon-2pm. See Fri 17.
MONDAY 20
I llotopie: La Mousse in Cage George Square. Noon—2pm. Debut performance in Britain for this French company which plans to emerse itself in congealing foam while being trapped in a cage. Surreal.
I The Samande Jugglers Buchanan Street/Sauchiehall Street. Noon-2pm. Juggling. unicycling and jokes from British duo.
I Stalker Stilt Theatre Buchanan Street. Noon & 1pm. Weird and wonderful Australian company makes its British debut with live percussive music and elegant stilt choreography.
I The Whalley Range All Stars City Centre/Buchanan Street/Sauchiehall Street. Noon—2pm. Two hopelessly off-course Arctic explorers get lost around the streets of Glasgow.
TUESDAY 21
I llotopie City Centre. Noon—2pm. Weird French company in a lunchtime performance specially designed for the streets of Glasgow.
I The Semande Juggler: Buchanan Street/Sauchiehall Street. Noon—2pm. See Mon 20.
I Stalker Stilt Theatre George Square. Noon & 1pm. See Mon 20.
I The Whalley Range All Stars City Centre/Buchanan Street/Sauchiehall Street. Noon—2pm. See Mon 20.
WAR AND PEACE
Shakespeare’s last tragedy,
Coriolanus is traditionally seen as the dilemma oi a man oi action who cannot adapt to change when his military skills are no longer required; hailed as a hero in wartime, when peace comes he is despised as a high-handed authoritarian by the plebs. Stung by their rejection, the proud general
: deserts to the enemy and leads an
attack on his own people, thus setting in motion his inevitable downiall. The new production oi the play by the National Youth Theatre plays down the epic militarism oi previous productions, however, in iavour oi a more caring, sharing New Age treatment which emphasises the coldness oi Roman society.
1 more and more think that it’s a love story’, says its young director Matthew Warchus, ‘and that has been a dominant idea ior us. I think perhaps Shakespeare was writing a play that was a comment on the lack oi love in society and to communicate that he
wrote a play that was barren oi any successiul love relationship — everything disintegrates- and it was in a way a cry tor a change in society because it shows society so empty and desolate.’
The theme oi shitting power relations -who has it, who doesn't and how it deiines people's roles in society— seems to have a particular contemporary relevance in a world which is struggling to come to terms with a new era oi international politics. There may well be a tow redundant Cold War warriors who lind themselves in Coriolanus’ position. ‘Nis only meaning in liie is as a warrior and when, at the end oi the play, he discovers the notion oi mercy, very shortly aiter that he dies, possibly suicidally. He cannot live in a world once his role in that world has been redeiined . . .' (Andrea Baxter)
Coriolanus is at the Tramway, Glasgow, Tues 214m 25 Aug.
94 The List 17 - 23 August 1990