NEW MUSICAL
PANTS
Dundee Rep, until Sat 4 May 0...
That past of ours, it’s a foreign country of course. But if we didn’t have nostalgia, we’d miss it, in a whimsical kinda way. Forbes Masson’s new musical shows an old headed awareness of this, and is very admirable for it.
The show revolves around a Falkirk rock band, the Pants, who are always a year or so out of fashion. It follows their break up and demise into a bitter and twisted bunch of old so-and-so’s. Leader Ricki Rintoul (Andrew Clark) declines over a quarter century into a sad dipso loser (Alexander West), while on and off partner Marcia (Emily Winters) has become a woman with a wasted life (Ann Louise Ross), taking a last chance to move on but not really escape, since the chosen route of exit is Ricki’s long-term rival in the band, Hoop Scudder (Rodney Matthew), who’s reinvented himself as Scoop Hudder (Robert Paterson), the kind of tabloid hack who sees a person as a story with skin wrapped round
Undies-irable influences
it. To rescue Ricki's lost career, they contrive a desperate plan involving the kidnap of contemporary rock star Sylvie McGloag, a kind of
accompanied by scabrous and scatological lyrics. The flashbacks and forward through time are deftly handled, and the laughs come thick
and West are particularly strong as Ricki young and old, and Emily Winter is suitably sweet and sexy as the fool-to-herself girlfriend while
teenage Kylie (Susan Harrison). Masson and collaborator George Drennan keep the musical homage coming, moving from glam rock to disco to punk to new romantic in a bravura display of musical styles
REVIVAL PERFECT DAYS Gaiety Theatre, Ayr, Fri 26 Apr, then touring O...
lt is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman over the age of 30 must be in want of a baby. That is. if she doesn't have one already. In this reirival of Liz Lochhead's 1998 hit. the woman is Barbs iElaine Collinsi. a (SO—yet'ir-old successful career woman of the sort to set the alarm bells clanging in a man: is it y0u they want or yOur sperm?
Barbs is plagued by a loving mother (Una McLean, fuli of naff gifts and Polonius-like adVice and supported by friend Grace lAllCB Inglisr the Sister of her ex-husband Davie (Stewart Porteri. There's a little too much water under the br:dge to turn to Dame. ‘vvho's finally f0und a nex'r. alarmingly yo'ting lover so Barbs asks for a sperm donation from her camp as knickers friend Brendan i’Lawrie McNicoli_ and begins an affair With Grace's long lost son Grant iSteveri Duffy». You can see where all this is gomg.
Ann Scott Jones' production for Borderline recreates the feel of a plush Sitcom that attached to the early moments of the original production. although the denouement isn't dune as inOVing as in its Traverse antecedent. All the same. there's plenty of comedy. and a c0uple of streng performances in a generally good cast. Una McLean shines as the loving pest of a mother. and Stewart Porter's ex-husband with a mid-life crisis of his own gives a splendid supporting performance. A good
night out. 'Steve Cramer) Sperm und drang
and fast throughout.
It’s all in the worst possible taste and a seedy Falkirk warehouse loft design by Tom Piper sets it off nicely. There are great performances all round, but Clark
her rival the slapperish lsla Blige, is played by both Frances Thorburn and Irene Macdougall with panache. lt’s all rather moving in its cheesy finale, and it definitely isn’t what it says on the can. (Steve Cramer)
Ni._‘.'.’ PLAYS
SINGLES NIGHT
Citizens‘ Theatre,
Glasgow, until Sat 4 May
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2:": Apr--:? Ma. .9
Theatre
NEW DRAMA WILLIAM BURROUGHS CAUGHT IN POSSESSION OF THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
Citizens‘ Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 26 & Sat 27 Apr
With a title like that it's hard to know where to begin asking Tam Dean Burn ab0ut his latest proiect. ir‘. which he iS performing as well as directing. Johnny Brown's play c0uples William Burroughs. 20th century American beat writer. author of Jun/(y and Naked Lunch, vith Samuel Taylor Coleridge. English Romantic poet and Opium addict.
“Both of them were Junkies' says Dean Burn. drawing with remarkable ease a Simple connection between two figures centuries apart in life. ‘And :n many ways Coler'dge's poem describes and recounts the Junk experience. from Supreme ecstaSy to desolation. so this play retells the poem in a way. with BurrOugt‘s as the central figure.'
Tam Dean Burn
The production makes SttOl‘g use of muSic to draw the audience in. and takes them with Burroughs the manner On a JOLirney into what Dear“ Burn cails ‘the heart of oamness'. Coierdge's origina‘ poem drives tne actr if of the play. and the text rema:ns true to the events of the orignai. with Burroughs becoming isolated in frozen wastes at sea. shooting a" albatross. and being thereafter ctirsed by it to ‘Orever retest l‘s ston to anyone who w listen.
'Of course. in real life. Burroughs shot h s Dean Burn says. I let pass the ins;r‘uati0n that Burroughs married an a!bazrcss. Some iiiestions are best left masked. iGareth Dawes-
.X‘...’ THE LIST 63