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CONTEMPORARY DANCE
New Moves
Glasgow: Tramway & CCA, Fri I3 Feb—Sat 21 Mar.
Old friends will be joined by fresh ideas at Glasgow’s New Moves festival, which makes its eleventh outing this fortnight. Among the innovations is the subtitle, New Territories.
'It's more about the work than geographical boundaries,’ explains director Nikki Milican, though the programme features performers from no fewer than twelve countries. ‘We're not making compromises in the choice of programming,’ she adds. ’It’s the usual mix of unknowns and groups we've worked with in the past.’
The injection of National Lottery funding has, however, allowed her to ‘create a buzz about the festival', partly manifested by a kick-off at Tramway with Jean-Pierre Perreault.
Les Annees De Pelerinage (The Years Of Pilgrimage), his new piece, is a series of emotive duets. The score is classical — a first for Perreault - and designed to promote what he calls, 'a sense of suspension of time and travelling'. Like earlier pieces, it's high on visual elements - a result of Perreault's painting and
Time and travelling: Lucie Boissinot and Sylvain Emard in Les Années De Pelerinage
architecture background.
Last seen in Scotland at the 1994 Edinburgh Festival, Perreault is well known for his large-scale works, but says he wanted ’more intimacy with the dancers' and has been searching for agreater humanity in his work. This makes him a good match for Milican — she has an enthusiasm for performers who are willing to go beyond a brief visit, participating in outreach events throughout the year to place their work in context.
A strong theme of community and co-operation runs through New Moves. Collaborative efforts involve Scottish companies and Peter Boneham’s Dance Lab in Ottawa, Canada, where Perreault first entered the dance world in the late 19605. ’The future lies with
building audiences and connections with other companies, cities and countries,’ he says. For this reason, he is eager to bring new work to audiences familiar with his earlier output. 'The first time people see my work there's the surprise - my dancers look the least like dancers and they're not costumed like dancers. The second time, people don't have the surprise and so they see the work,’ he explains.
Perreault may be the big name, but watch out too for his Quebecois compatriot Sylvain Emard, who delighted Glasgow audiences in 1994, and the return of Provisional Danza from Spain, a hit at New Moves in 1996. Just two of the acts promising to brighten up the winter nights ahead. (Don Morris)
IRISH CLASSIC Juno And The Paycock
Edinburgh: Royal Lyceum Theatre, Fri 13 Feb~Sat 7 Mar.
Lambasting the Irish male: Mark Lambert directs Juno And The Paycock
62 THE LIST 6—19 Feb 1998
’There's plenty of comedy, but it shouldn't distract from the i‘ealness.' So says Irish actor/director lvlark Lambert, whc is back in Edinburgh to direct Juno And The Paycock, followrng his acclaimed Lyceum production last year of Brian Friel's Traris/arions'
Lambert brings a lucidin to O'Casey's ClaSSIC which augurs well for the production This tragi—comedy of poverty and misogyny, set in Dublin during the Irish ciin war, will be directed unobtrusively, allowing the text to breathe ‘Juno \Nlll always be done,’ claims Lambert, 'because it's the greatest Irish play of the century. It‘s got such breadth and power that it's really Ireland's Hamlet '
Lambert sees the iriisogyny of the Irish male as the central issue. 'All the men in the play are appalling sluts,’ he says. 'They’re peeple entirely ‘.‘./ltlTOUi redeeming features. O'Casey writes a remarkable play for its time, dealing with illegitimate children, and suggesting that it’s better for a child to have two mother's than a mother and father All this at a time when feminism
wasn't seen as an issue.‘
Scots actor Roy Hanlon plays the family patriarch Captain Boyle, a Victim of unemployment and a heavy drinker who brings endless vexation to his long-Suffering Wife Juno (Ann-Lomse Ross). ’We're meant to find Boyle a great character early on, but he's really a great character down the pub; while at home he’s a selfish man who doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself,’ explains Lambert.
The lead performers Will be familiar to Edinburgh audiences, but Lambert has also brought actors from Ireland for several parts, Among these are Kate Binchy and Vincent Burke, who has jUSf finished a long stint in a Dublin version of’ EastEnders. ’Scottish and Irish actors really seem to spark off each other,’ says Lambert. The play is as relevant to a Scottish audience today as it ever was in Ireland, he adds; ’There were — and are still — people livmg in Just the same poverty in these old Georgian tenements in Scotland.’
(Steve Cramer)
ADAPTATION Mr Punch
Edinburgh: Bedlam Theatre, Tue IO— Sat 14 Feb.
Like disclosing a fetish for donning women's underwear, owning up to a comic collection can amount to social sUiCide. But anorak-free English Lit
student Simon Muller is risking all to pay homage to his superhero, cult graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, With an adaptation r of the comic book Mr Punch for Edinburgh University Theatre Company
Set in the run-done amusement arcade of a once-bustling seaside resort, the action finds the SO—something central character, Boy, catapulted hat I. to the scene of his childwiorl when a Punch and Judy man arrives in town Far from an idyllic mix of sandciastles, donkey rides and 99 cones, his reminiscences are a closet full c;l skeletons
'It looks at the way you reconstruct your life as an adult, piecing the hts of your childhood together and putting a different slant on things,’ explains ' Muller, who is also directing the production Trying to male some sense of his severely dysfunctional family, headed by an over-sexed grandad, Boy is more than a tad sc ff‘VH‘tl‘Ul) Ashe proiects his own life onto the Pun: h and Judy show reality and fantasy blur, .‘rrth disturbing results. .
Transforming a c_om:c sc ript into a full length play demonstrates the student company’s healthy ambition, but Muller believes the strong plot-line and complex characters of Mr Punch make it v.'ell Suited to the stage. "y‘i'e did have trouble With the encling,’ Muller concedes ’But it was just like reversing the process of film-making What we've done here is start \Vllfl the storyboard and build up a bigger picture around it '
The show seelis to emulate Gaiiiian's impressionistic approach, rising a I‘il()till(f of boxes and suitcases a'. a setting, and embracing grotesque puppetry, a minimalist sounclscape and abstract images [)TOJOCICd onto two sc reens
'It is an unusual and ambitious piec e { for Bedlam,’ says Muller, but we wanted to set a precedent and really push the boundaries tc~ see Just ,vhat you can achieve with that space‘
That's the way to do it (lane Prenticei
-' Puppet regime: Eilidh Macdonald in Mr Punch