THEATRE
; clubber, a monumental
THEATRE PREVIEW
Savage
Glasgow: Mitchell Theatre, 2—4 Sep, 7.30pm; Stirling: MacRobert Arts Centre, 10—11 Sep, 7.30pm.
Everyone who's been to high school has read William Golding’s novel, Lord Of The Flies. If that event was some time ago, you may remember what a powerful experience the novel is to the adolescent mind. It seems significant, that Youngblood, the youth branch of Raindog, should be using 28 young actors between the ages of thirteen and 21 to stage a new version of this story, often seen as an allegory on the rise of fascism, about a group of youths marooned on a desert island who resort to savagery and dictatorship to establish social order.
But co-director Gerry Ramage emphasises the differences between this version and the book: 'The novel is specifically about boys and male behaviour. We've brought in girls to this production, and though we started with the idea of the novel, we’ve gone further away from the story as we’ve continued to devise and evolve it.’
This reference to devised theate is typical of the Raindog approach, which lays emphasis on the centrality of the actor in the creation of theatre, minimalising sets and the infuence of text in favour of a more performance-
Doing each other arm: Savage
based programme. As the young actors, who were taken on an expedition to the Scottish wilderness to prepare the piece, have increased their input, so the entire nature of the project has changed. 'We've realised it as a story of epic proportions,’ says Ramage. ’lnstead of only three or four central characters, we’ve developed 21 or 22 significant roles. So this is a very different version of the story.’
(Steve Cramer)
THEATRE PREVIEW Dr Faustus
Glasgow: Paisley Arts Centre, 2—3 Sep, 7.30pm, then touring.
Theatre audiences might well have become weary of versions of the Faust iriyth over the past year. To name but three examples in Scotland since the turn of the year, we've seen the man who sells his soul for ultimate power represented as a twentysomething
thirtysomething mason, and a
; fiftysomething Scottish TV producer.
What next? Well, something quite interesting, actually. TAG's upcoming production promises, instead of a self- conscious attempt to rewrite the myth, a return to its original source in English, Christopher Marlowe's Dr l'austus.
But don't expect a doublet and hose version, since this adaptation has been created by Edwin Morgan, one of Scotland's foremost poets, with an eye to contemporising the original. Of his adaptation, Morgan remarks: ‘I've changed the play all the way through, but it's still recognisably Marlowe's. I’ve
; got rid of some of the original knockabout comic scenes which didn’t really work in a modern context, and
replaced them with comic scenes of my
own. There's still a procession of the
seven deadly sins, but I've balanced them With a parade of the seven deadly things later in the play, Thalidomide, Napalm, Anthrax and so forth. In this version, instead of being a magician, Faustus is a scientist. It’s
Faustian act: TAG's Dr Faustus
about the potential dangers that science presents. I've changed it to emphasise the tragedy of the piece.’ No pale imitation, this version looks set to be a tragedy for our time.
(Steve Cramer)
listings THEATRE
end of century season
MORPHEUS THEATRE
PILATE
Tue 7 - Sat 11 Sep 8pm £7/£4
2 tickets for the price of 1 on Tue 7 Sep
Apex tickets available for all other performances
The exquisite and explicit story of a man wi end; an invented man.
surprising, he has unexpected depths and extraordinary things.
"He commands our moral attention not because he was a bad man, but because he was so nearly a good man. "Tony Blair
fACTional PRODUCTIONS
TIME AND THE CONWAYS
By JB Priestley
Tue 14 - Sat 18 Sep 7.30pm £7/£4
2 tickets for the price of 1 on Tue 14 Sep
Apex tickets available for all other performances
How would you change your life if you were given a glimpse of yourself in twenty years time7 A prophetic Magic Realist drama in which Priestley challenges us to live our lives in the moment Without the baggage of the past or the pressures of the future
- an uncarinin prescient misswe as we exit
box office 0141 221 4001
Sometimes familiar,
th no beginning, no sometimes contrasts, he does
this century.
THE BODY AND SOUL THEATRE GROUP PROUDLY PRESENTS
directed by
Thursday 16th September 1999 8pm James Arnott Theatre, Gilmorehill 9 University Avenue, Glasgow
Tickets £4l£6
Available from all ticket centre outle
my Joseph
ts 0141287 5511
All tickets still valid - any further information
call 0141 401 2582
26 Aug-9 Sep 1999 THE lIST 90