THEATRE PREVIEW
1 Ready Captive comedy
Tramps, rag-and-bone men, drunks and ; loudly about lniustlce, his lite and his
layabouts are a part of the comic 5 woes. ‘It isn’t all funny,’ says Fisher, tradition. And the comedy throne has i who un-llesbitted wears denim and been firmly slouched upon by the 905 rugby tops. ‘lt’s lost as important to
upholder of that tradition, a certified i see liesbitt up against the wall as it is
long-tenn unemployed, a life-time i to see him with his balls caught in the . doley. These days nab C. llesbltt is l toaster.’
bigger than Jagger, selling out venues ouite. out both sound painful. It’s 3 down south where the ilolllng Stone 1 this mixture of funny and sad which : struggles. makes ilesbitt so endearing. The blue . In his latest caper, the man in the 3 rinses, the Bryl-creamed, the blow- L vest Ianguishes in iail for drunk and 2 dried and the pig-tailed all find him ‘ disorderly behaviour. At lier Majesty’s T hysterical, and the more misfortune 3 Service is the first one-man show and misery, the better. ‘Some people , actor Gregor Fisher has ever do have a hell of a life,’ points out , ' performed. With a script by iiesbitt’s Fisher. ‘That’s what we’re focusing on. 3 creator, Ian Pattison, nab is caged and 2 out we’re not here to make huge i angry, locked up and lonely, spouting ' points. This is no drama-documentary,
,, ,, ,_, this is a comedy show.’
' Currently petrified at the prospect of almost two hours alone on stage, Fisher looks weary. lie has been an actor for over twenty years, but nab C. is his big success. ‘I still enioy it,’ he says through clenched teeth, ‘he’s still good tun’. And as for the two month tour? ‘l’m not a stand-up comedian, I’m an actor. You have to walk on V NEW PLAY
bollock-naked and hope people like
over clutching a can of super-
lager and as Charlie Chaplin found
ggtli'trey’ll give you a medal. (Beatrice
making the whole thing not only At Her Majesty’s Service, Pavilion
shockingly accessible but also very v s... v - 4 Theatre, Glasgow, Mon 1-Sat 13 Mar Mark Fisher talks to
funny. liard cell: Rab c. llesbitt inside and on tour. l d C ‘. , , ‘ ()pera (‘ircus's latest show, edtre e Oinp "lie 5
.S'liumelessf. is based on two Brecht “ME- Simon McBumey about short stories, and integrates traditional gurreal “aging Of the
opera music from Rossini, Verdi. I . Mozart and Monteverdi with new lyrics SiOFlSS Of BI'UHO SCl’lUlZ.
and specially written music. Evidence
Shameless in the days when opera was opera, there were fat people and foriegn lyrics, and fora ticket costing the equivalent of a year‘s Income Support you could be assured of a socially elevated night out. Nowadays. there are people like ()pera l’actory. doing soap operas about vampires. and Opera Circus, who have people doing acrobatics, indulging in various aspects of buffoonery. and
of the company's iconoclastic like the Cholmondeleys, Fuga is an i I Performers in the world of mime and
tendencies can be found in the Slavic ail-woman company which shot to t ' physical theatre are reading an
Tango which concludes this ‘comic prominence on the back of one hugely important messsage from recent
satire' of gigolos. repressed widows successful dance. nuieto Fuego won developments at the Royal National
and doting wives. the first prize in the 1991 Madrid Theatre. No longer solely a bastion of The show is directed by mime anist Choreography competition for its the British literary tradition, the NT has
David Glass, but the cast of four are all radical re-interpretation of traditional started to make room for noted ‘visual
professionally trained opera singers. Spanish dance. ‘This dance is my way theatre' practitioners such as Robert
‘lt‘s incredibly difficult to change of looking for the essence of Lepage. with the muddiest version of/i
disciplines from singing to physical Flamenco using contemporary dance,’ Mid-Vilm'nel’ Nix/113‘ Dream [hill CVCF
there was. and Theatre de Complicite. the multi—national troupe of Lecoq- inspired surrealists which has built up
theatre.‘ says performer Tina lillen Lee, explains Deborah Greenfield, Fuga’s ‘although to do both is possible. it takes half-English, halt-American artistic an awful long time to do so. and we‘re director and choreographer. ‘liot
only just beginning to understand the attempting to use Flamenco at all, but an enthusiastic following as Europe‘s
complexity of what you can do trying to find the idea of that style.’ leading exponcnl 0i PhYSiCi’i theatre-
togcthcn you might think that an all-female Complicité's latest show. The Street of ‘At the very end of the Tango I must group must be making some sort of Cmcudiles. was developed and devised
at the National, where it opened to
say we are gasping for breath. Trying to statement, but Greenfield claims that considerable acclaim last summer.
get the words out while doing forward the company was not so formally
rolls while beating each other up is , conceived. ‘l’m not overtly interested « ~ From director Simon McBurney‘s difficult. but we never use the i in being politically explicit,’ she says, as an influence in one of my works. point of view. this collaboration is part difficulties as a reason for not doing 1 ‘I don’t think that works artistically.’ this is a contemporary company of a decade-long association that goes something.‘ She does admit, however, that her own absolutely: back to workshops and studio
While Opera Circus's ‘physical opera‘ solo A Dress to Die For, which she 30 an audience that comes expecting experiments commissioned by Peter is vastly less remunerative than i choreographed ‘a long time ago’ in puteiy spaniehqnseited dance might Gill in the mid-80s, but he traditional opera. it does have its New York and is one of three pieces on we" he surmised, panteuiatiy hy the acknowledges that the National still advantages. as Lee explains. ‘No one show in the “IRS liew Moves, is not company’s thin] and most ambitious took some time to get used to his wants to knock the larger opera without a political slant. ‘It’s live piece, fleeende Le Nada, 0' Denying company's unorthodox way of working. companies, but quite often the rehearsal minutes long and a rather ironic, the Void_ ‘tt uses the first halt hour of ‘There was a whole negotiation about period can be quite tedious and romantic portrait of a woman from a Mozart’s Requiem and is my response whether we‘d be able to work in the uninspiring. whereas as our rehearsals slightly feminist point of view.’ to that music and to the “tee of death way that we wanted. within the are great fun.‘ And importantly for the Originally invited to Spain to teach, and how it drives us to behave” constraints of the National.‘ be socially depressed. the fruits of this fun Greenfield took the chance to enrich pmmtees ateenttetd ominous". explains. ‘For example, we don‘t can be witnessed for around six quid. her work with traditional dance toms. (13min Grains") produce a model of the set before Day (Stephen Chester) ‘I thought it was an opportunity to Fueee outete, fleeamte La hada and A One of rehearsals — well in fact we did, Shameless.’. Opera Circus. 27 Feb—l 7 study Flamenco,’ she says, ‘but i press to me For, och, ateseew, Thurs but we scrapped it! We told them there Mar. 0/: Tour. haven’t done much at all except use it Hat 5 Met. wasn‘t any point in making it, but they
44 The List 26 February—l 1 March 1993