FESTIVAL 1 PM I3PM
ITLIS
Kathleen Morgan suggests what shows
I should be worth skipping lunch for. ' I Monk ll Bud Based on the friendship
ofjazz piano giants Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell. this play by Lawrence Holder throws the spotlight on a memorable partnership.
Monk N Bud (Fringe) ()mnifit‘ent Ink Prodta'tions. Gilded Balloon Theatre (Venue 38) 226 215/. 12 Aug-3 Sept.
1. 15pm. £5.50 (£4.50).
I The llaked Brunch Besides the free soup. daytime television‘s Sally and Bob will serve up an orgy of music. interviews and some tasteless morsels. The Naked Brunch (Fringe) ()ne Boy And His Tiger. Gilded Balloon ll. Stepping Stones. Main Theatre (Venue 5/) 12 Aug—3 Sept. l.l5pm. £5 (£4). I She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain The triple NSDF award- winning show directed by John Wright. sees a last tango danced among 5000 shoes. Stirring stuff. She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain (Fringe) Backstairs Influence. Southside Community Centre (Venue 82) 667 7365, l2—14 Aug. 2.25pm. £4 (£3); 15—27 Aug (not Tue 23), 2.25pm. £5 (£4). I Sexual Perversity In Chicago/See This Play The double bill kicks off with David Mamet‘s disturbing yet amusing study of relationships. followed by a new short comedy by Zack Lehtinen. exploring the bond between actor and audience. Sexual Perversity In Chicago/See This Play (Fringe) Absolute Banana Theatre C ompany. Theatre West End (Venue [26) 228 9292. 16. 19. 22. 25 Aug. 2.30pm; 22. 25 Aug. 12.30pm. £4.50 (£3.50). I Auld lieikie Performing in the eerie setting of the Marlins Wynd. Bruce Morrison pumps blood into 18th century Edinburgh streets. rogues and scandal in this energetic dramatisation of Robert Fergusson's 1773 Scots poem. Auld Reikie (Fringe) Bruce Morrison. Tron Kirk. High Street (Venue 5) 11—27 Aug (not 14. 21). 1.30pm. Donations to leukaemia Research Fund.
Knee-deep in Lochhead
Busy stamping her identity all over this year’s Fringe, Glasgow poet and playwright Liz Lochhead steps back from the limelight long enough to speak to Ann Donald.
Deep in the labyrinth of rooms that constitute the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. a burly woman. oozing vitality. delivers her patting shot to a huddle of actors in a rehearsal room resembling a Sunday Post-type Scottish sitting room. ‘lt could be potentially wonderful.‘ she shouts with a grin. before heading out into the daylight for lunch. The words of encouragement emanate from Liz Lochhead in her first role as director — that is if you discount the Brownies holy play she directed back in l957.
Apart from directing her own translation of Moliere's 'litrtufle. Lochhead is making a megalomaniacal bid to make her presence felt in other spheres this Festival. Her bitter sweet play Quelques l-‘leurs sees a revival at The Gilded Balloon as does a selection of her poetry with Lochhead performing alongside John Hcgley in Radio Four's Poetry Please.
THEATRE/DANGE/COMEDY/IilDS-
9" i ' z , r -‘ o .1» ~’
Liz Lochhead: Byron, Buns and her granny
However. 'Iartujje is the project currently keeping her awake at night. It was first performed by the Lyceum back in 1986. when the critics gushed royally about Lochhead's earthy. inspired use of Lowlands Scots and Glasgow patter that imbued this story of sex. greed. guilt and power with its rollicking potency. Given such a successful first production the obvious question seems to be: what is the attraction of directing your own work“? ‘Became.’ answers Lochhead matter— of—factly. ‘the actors know they‘re dealing with the horse's mouth and not the horse‘s arse.‘ Despite respect for a handful of directors gamered in her fifteen years of theatrical experience. she feels there is a mental gulf between actors and a director that can be overcome by combining the role of
writer/director in one harassed person.
Though happy with the Lyceum's version, she felt the Scots language had not achieved its full potential. ‘1 don't think this version of 'Iitrtuffe has ever been on a journey based on the language,‘ she observes. ‘The Scots language has a great capacity for drama and humour. There's a great relish in rhyming and shifting of registers.‘
Lochhead's rhyming translation captures the biting satire and crudity of Moliere‘s bawdy original in a language which is her own ‘theatrical Scots' invention. ‘lt's slangy. couthy. cliched. catch-phrasey and vulgar; it‘s based on Byron. Burns. Stanley Holloway. Ogden Nash and George Formby. as well as the sharp tongue of my granny.‘ she writes in her introduction to the play.
As well as the headache of directing. Lochhead has gone the full hog and allotted herself a small acting part. ‘This will be my comeuppance.‘ she laughs. obviously delighted to be knee- deep in tension and drama. As to what Moliere would have thought of this boisterous version. Lochhead has no qualms. ‘l'd have thought he'd prefer it rather than the play going fusty.‘ she says.
I Guelques Fleurs (Fringe) Nippy Sweeties. Gilded Balloon ll. Stepping Stones. (Venue 5 l ) 225 6520. Aug l4—3 Sept. 2. l 5pm. £6 (£4.50).
I Tartufte (Fringe) Nippy Sweeties. Glided Balloon (Venue 38) 226 6500, Aug 14—3 Sept (not 16. 30) 5pm. £5.50 (£3.50).
I Poetry Please (Fringe) Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, 22 Aug. lptn. free.
mil-12:11- Stephen Dinsdale
You’ve probably not heard of Stephen Dinsdale, but you will soon. He wrote Anorak of Fire, last year’s Festival hit which detailed the sad, lonely life of Gus Gascoigne, trainspotter extraordinaire. The show did well in Edinburgh, moved to the West End and the sitcom version should appear on the nation’s goggle sets in the future. llot content to rest on his laurels, Dinsdale is back at the Festival this year with two new plays - llightshift and a hefty contender for the longest title of the Fringe award: Gee! Wow! The Life And Times Of Clive lleon: Warhol Superstar.
Both shows explore the possibilities offered by the one-performer play but in widely differing ways. llightshift marks a move into slightly more sombre territory than is usual for Dinsdale. Maisie the mini-cab
controller is alone and terrified by
I 1 ‘.:./I 5,253, ' Stephen Dinsdale looks a scream
dlsturblng phone calls. ‘like many of us, she tries to talk herself through her fears and emotions, but her isolation serves only to exacerbate her worst thoughts,’ explains Dinsdale. Back on more familiar ground, James Holmes, who played Adrian Mole before assuming the anorak of Gus
4‘
Gascoigne, is Clive in Gee! Wow! The idea for the show sprung from Dinsdale and liolmes’ fascination with Andy Warhol. Apparently the silver- haired, bespectacled 60s star had a series of impersonators carrying out his lecture tours and other onerous duties when Warhol couldn’t be bothered lacing his public. Blinded by admiration for their hero, his fans would recognise the trademark silver hair and shades and immediately assume they faced their mentor. Dinsdale has taken a bored Brummie and transposed him into the glittering and somewhat bizarre world of Warhol’s Factory. Apparently, when kitted out in a wig and specs, Holmes is a dead ringer for Warhol. Or maybe he’s the spitting image of a Warhol doppelganger. We shall never know. (Jonathan Trew) Nightshift (Fringe) Gilded Balloon Studio Theatre (Venue 38) 226 2151, 13 Aug—3 Sept, 2.30pm, £5.50 (£4.50). Gee! Wow! The life And Times 0! Gllve lleon: Warhol Superstar (Fringe) Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, 12-18, 21 Aug, 2pm, £5.50 (£4.50); 19, 20 Aug, 2pm, £6.50 (£5.50).
24 The List 12—18 August 1994
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