THEATRE PREVIEW
I Summer School Scottish dancers and choreographers with some professional experience are invited to register for a two-week summer school (£50/£30 cone) led by Sara Pearson (USA) and Patrik
Widn'g (Switzerland). Those
interested in attending the school which runs Mon 17—Sat 29 Aug should send a £10 deposit to Nikki Milican, Performance Director, CCA, 350 Sauchichall Street, Glasgow OZ 3] D. I New workshop A new group is meeting every Monday at 7.30pm at the Calton Centre. 121 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh, concentrating on improvisation, theatre exercise, play readings.
new writing and
production. All are welcome irrespective of experience. Details on 031 661 2750.
I Street performers wanted On Saturday 4 July. Edinburgh will be celebrating Britain's Presidency of the EC and if you are a street performer and you‘d like to help, you should call Nikki Tasker on 031557 0063.
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I The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre Ed. Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found (Oxford HB £19.95) Falling somewhere between the pacy Bloomsbury Theatre Guide and the discursive Cambridge Guide to World Theatre, this latest revised edition of a volume first published in 1972, takes in both the specific— actors. writers, directors— and the general — entries include ‘lnterlude‘, ‘Farce‘ and ‘Trickwork‘. lt steers clear of rising young stars- Alan Ayckbourn gets an entry, but you have to go via the Liverpool Everyman to find Willy Russell, and only long-dead Scots seem to qualify — but it’s reasonably strong on major theatre buildings and. by including entries on individual British cities, it covers much useful historical ground.
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V NEW PLAY
Death drama
ll Stephen Greenhom is part of that select band known as ‘Scottish playwrights’, then he is one ireed from any national imperative. His writing, less concerned with who we are than how we are, gains its substance from human behaviour, irom the psychologist’s perspective. No surprise, therefore, to discoverthat Greenhom studied Psychology and English at university.
‘Il’s not autobiographical, but it is a situation which I know,’ he claims oi his latest play, Deaths And Entrances. Set in an occupational therapy unit, it deals with the relationship between the patients and the stall, exploring the impact made upon their routines by the arrival oi an outsider.
‘What I deal with can be applied to llle in general,’ says Greenhom. ‘It's about the temporary nature oi things; the idea that life moves in cycles.’ Something oi a personal trademark, the same philosophy dominating his last play, Alter Icarus, in which an old woman’s recollections at a love aiialr are played against the ongoing troubles in her granddaughter’s relationship.
Although written tour years ago,
while Greenhom was an undergraduate ‘
at Strathclyde University, Deaths and Entrances has not lost any oi its topicality, dealing as it does with the ‘caring' proiessions. Greenhom denies, however, that he jumped on some kind oi anti-Social Services bandwagon. ‘l think the danger in dealing with such a topic is in being dishonest, and gratuitously having a go. There are certainly some uncomiortable questions raised about the way we treat old people, hiding them away and shutting them out, but I don’t ignore the strengths oi carers elther.’
Four years alter writing the original script, Greenhom admits that it needed some major cuts to ‘remove the dross’, and describes the updated version as more bitter and acerbic. ‘It was written more on instinct, whereas I tend to be
. more organised now, making sure the
structure oi my plays holds together. Ultimately i’m interested in writing the kind of plays that I would like to see.’ (Aaron Hicklln)
Deaths and Entrances, Drama Centre at the liamshorn, Glasgow, Mon 22-Sat 27 Jun.
Some like it
ott
Corning a wee bit too late after 1990 to prove how truly European Glasgow has become, but nonetheless doing much to push lorward the city’s international credibility, lit and Dtt is a new company made up oi German, Hungarian, Irish, Australian and English pertorrners. Brought together at Strathclyde University tor a production oi lonesco’s The Bald Prima Donna, which compensated ior the company’s lack oi common mother-tongue with a physical interpretation that led to its re-Chrlstening as The Balder Prima Donna, lit and Dtt (the name means ‘here and there’ in Hungarian) decided to continue its work and stay together ior at least one more production.
That production is Exercises in Style, the penultimate periorrnance in Tramway’s week oi innovative young theatre, Into The Blue. Following the lonn oi Raymond Dueneau's book oi the same name which recounts a short story in 99 dllierent ways, the play shows all the company’s talents by telling and retelling a tale ilrst as an opera, then as a iairytale, then as a TV show and so on through 19 dllierent styles. Switching sharply irorn mood to mood, the perionnance promises to be both an entertaining mixture and, more subtly, a commentary on the nature oi
ND; .
lit and Dtt's previous production, The Balder Prima Donna
communication.
‘We’re going to use all our languages,’ says Hungarian director Csilla Szabo. ‘Alter a while the audience will know exactly what that story is, so we can allow ourselves a law sentences in dllierent languages. This is very important in the book itsell
because it’s about how communication j
works. The whole thing is about a very desperate attempt to express anything - in this case the same story. By the end, the actors are playing against each other and trying desperately to attract the attention at the audience.’
Using Tramway’s cavernous gallery space, the promenade production will be presented like an exhibition - each ‘lrame’ oi pillars presenting a new picture and a new style. ‘lt’s going to be really dynamic,’ promises Szabo. ‘lt should have the eiiect oi a lirework.’ (Mark Fisher)
Exercises in Style, Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 19 Jun.
V WORLD
Fruit and nut .
Jarry’s 1876 surreal classic. Ubu Roi, is now more popular than ever. as companies across Europe exploit its clear and generalised satirical message amid post-Cold War disillusion. The production at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal in 1990 by Hungary’s Katona Jozseftheatre company made this clear: its portrayal of Ubu and his wife as a pair of gross and cynical plunderers cutting a swathe through Eastern Europe spoke for the political vulnerability of their people. NADA Theatre’s version. first put together in 1990 and touring constantly to massive acclaim ever since. is a simpler, more precise and less free-wheeling affair, as befits the cooler vision of the West.
But staid this isn’t. Although two human beings take the lead parts of Ma and Pa Ubu, NADA has recruited a full range of vegetables and fruit as extras. Gasp at the onstage decapitation of conspiring noblemen (hairy leeks)! Cringe as Pa Ubu feasts on the dead body of his predecessor (some rather nice black grapes)! Cower as Ma and Pa hurl tatties, cabbage and other engines-of-war in the battle to end all battles. Your correspondent was himself struck by several radishes at an early part of the evening. Not for the faint-hearted!
This Ubu is stripped down to its bones (lasting only an hour), is a conflation of Ubu Roi with parts of Jarry’s sequels (Ubu on a Hill, Ubu in Chains), and has its actors in white-face acting out the more pranksterish aspects of the school-boy’s plays. The fact that the dialogue is in French won’t be the slightest hindrance: what Babette Masson and Guilhem Pellegrin offer is a masterly display of off-the-wall puppetry and ventriloquism while dressed in black tights. Tramway won’t have seen anything quite like it. (Andrew Pulver)
Ubu Roi, Tramway, Glasgow, Mon 22—Wed 24 Jun.
Theatre Workshop, Edinburgh, Fri 14 Aug—Sat5 Sept.
“The List 19June—21uly 1992