THEATRE PREVIEW

FESTIVAL ,

Winners and beginners

As opportunities for new writers to get a play on stage become increasingly scarce, it's reassuring to know that Scottish Youth Theatre is intent on starting them young. Fora good few

years. their Scottish Young Playwrights i Festival has allowed l6~2 l -year-olds to

develop their work under the guidance of professional playwrights. then see it produced by professional actors and directors. Past successes have included Lara Jane Bunting and David Harrower. whose Knives In Hem packed out the Traverse studio, and is now about to play London‘s Bush Theatre.

This year. four winning scripts will be

presented to the public. with themes ranging from incest to high-camp farce. and even one based on a country 'n' western song.

Billy Joe is written by the event's youngest participant Bram Gieben. and was inspired by Bobby Gentry's maudlin two-minute tragedy. ‘()de To Billy Joe'. Gieben describes it as 'a sort of kitchen sink drama which looks at events in a family after a suicide.‘

At the other end of the age scale. 2 l - year-old Douglas Maxwell wrote The Chameleon '3 Play as part of his English degree at Stirling University. ‘lt‘s like Six Characters In Search ol'xtn Author meets Mutiny on The Bases] Maxwell

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An early qulff of tame for Brain Gieben as an SYT actor

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says of his farce. which ha; a troupe of

actors plotting to assassinate ()scar

Wilde in order to raise money for their next project.

Both praise SYT for their support, and hope to take their work further. Both have acted too. (iieben at SYT Summer School. and Maxwell with his own company at Stirling. which recently performed his hi-tech version of llogg‘s ('on/es‘srmts otki Justified Sinner. That this might make for a future generation ofall-rounders is

significant. Let's not forget that many

playwrights once trod the boards. and

Used this practical experience to

breathe theatrical life onto the page. As Giehen puts it. ‘in an ideal world I'd like to write, direct and star in my own thing.‘ (Neil Cooper)

Scottish Young Playwrights Festival. ()lzl :ithenaeron Theatre, Glasgow. 'l'lturs /4 December:

Arches .. 1 Theatre Company-

CALIGARI

directed by andy arnold adapted by andreW dallmeyer

music by slam

Wed 22 Nov—Sat 9 Dec Tickets £6.00/£3.00'8.00pm

'baged on the classic horror film '

The Ticket Centre. Candleriggs 0141 227 5511 1;.The Arches, 30 Midland St, Glasgow 0141 221 9736

a‘.- i f " .i 9 .

v Buntesoue

Men behaving glamly

Ms Maggie Raye, aka Raymond, is the

only bloke to have featured as a Page Three stunna in your soaraway Sun.

Quite an achievement, not to mention

a courageous decision, but Raymond

is more than just a pretty face he is also the man behind the newly revamped Picardy’s Burlesque Showbar. Five nights a week, all year

round, Raymond intends to inject a bit '

of glamour into Edinburgh with what

he reckons is Scotland's first full-time

transvestite cabaret bar.

The previously dowdy interior of Picardy’s has been gutted, scrubbed and dressed up in its best party frock. Dark crimson is the colour of the walls, the floor, the drapes and, of course, the barmen’s lippy. Adding to the sense of the theatrical are the cinema seats ranged in rows, rather than the little clusters of tables and chairs which are the norm for cabaret.

‘There’s no cabaret in Edinburgh apart from during the Festival,’ purrs Ms Raye, ‘and then we just overdose on it.’ Picardy’s hopes to redress the balance by displaying the kitschy talents of MC The Bizarre Tim Leith,

Dominique Chippendale, Nikki Pernod,

The Lovely David and Ms Raye herself in a two-and-a-half-hour burlesque drag show which will run until February, when a brand new line-up

will take over.

While the former Picardy’s was a gay bar, the new incarnation is aiming for a much more mixed crowd, with g tolerance as opposed to segregation i the dominant theme. High camp will certainly be pervading the 3 atmosphere, but the emphasis is on : the slightly risque rather than on turning the air blue. (Jonathan Trew) Mime’s A Ladysham, Picardy’s Burlesque Sho wbar, 2A Picardy Place. Cabaret begins at 8.30pm, Mon,

Wed-Sat. Free.

J995

SHOW

with life,

and plenty of

CHRISTMAS

umbernould

rnagic, bravery, knavery

comedyt

Thurs 23 November - Saturday 23 December Tickets from £3.20. Farriin Ticket £17.00

BOX OFFICE 01236 732887

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY SIMON SHARKEY

54 The List l-l4 Dec l995