Theatre
No one knows how to bring Michel Tremblay to Scottish audiences better than BILL FINDLAY and MARTIN BOWMAN.
Steve Cramer
of all
ill l'indlay has driyen in lrnm the entintry and lel't his wallet at
The mother
hnme. lle‘s gnt In tap Martin llnwman l'nr a tenner tn get petrnl lnr his hnme gjntirney. anman turns ln me and
asks hnw mueh interest he shnuld eharge. then generally hanters l’nr a while nn lnimy. hut lamiliar lines ahnut his pals tempnrary pnyerty. .-\II this hadinage reminds me nl' snmenne telling me that my best pal and l are like the two nld men in the hn\ seats nn the .lIup/u'l Slum". nr an nld married enuple.
May he sn. and maybe there are Ints nl pairs nl' gee/ers like these [\yn. but there are dill‘erenees. l‘nr nne thing. anman |i\es in ('anada and l‘indlay in Sentland and. anmatt tells me. that means that lnt‘ n\ er at deeade. they "\e \L‘Cll L‘ilL‘ll nlltL‘l’ l'nt' ahnut a mnnth a year. But what hrings lllL‘\L‘ allahle Chaps tngether is the big dil‘l'erenee. linr hetween them they haye heett t‘espnttsihle l'nl' a stteeessintt nl‘ ()ueheenis/Senttish translatinns nl snme nl‘ the mnst sueeessl'ul drama In he prndueed in Sentland lnr nyer a deeade.
The mystery nl’ Michel 'l'remhlay's phennmenal t'appnt‘t with Senttish atidienees is due in large part In the enllalmratinn nl' these two men nn ten sueeessiye high quality translations. with l\\n slill ln he pt'ndtteed. :\ l‘t'iettdsltip lltttl hlnssnmed n\et‘ l\\n deeades agn. when each disenyered the nther \Vnt'ls‘lltg ntt simultanenus l’hl)s nn Senttish tthe‘lisl .lnlm (ialt at lidinhurgh l'niyersity has hnrne l‘ruit l'nr Senttish theatre audiences.
The range nl’ 'l'remhlay's wnrk. lrnm The (hull Sisters In .Il/ln'rlim' in I’ii'e 'l'imt'x. In the mnre reeent Solemn .lluxs for u I‘ll/l .llnnn in .S'mmm'r. might lead yntt In
The son also rises
But is a play nn this subject in danger nl heing
wnnder whieh partieular l‘aee nt' 'l‘remhlay In expect. fraught with griel‘ nr eyen sentimentality‘.’ '.\'n.‘ says Bnth anman and l‘indlay assure me nl‘ the warmth l‘indlay. ‘I think the best wnrd I can enme up with l'nr
and aeeessihility nl this piece. It is alsn eertainly his it is a eelehratinn nl' her lil'e.' Is the anger that existed under the enmedy ill The
mnst autnhingraphieal play. featuring a Queheenis
mnther intrndueed In the audienee by her writer snn (Iuit/ Sisters still there in this play"? ‘Well. it's nnt us thrnugh a series nl enmersatinns they had hel'nre her angry as that. hut it's still Ihere.’ says Bowman. ‘She
early death.
"l'remhlay ealled his mnther ‘She a “my first aetress".' says - anman. ‘She was a great storyteller. and she liked m .5 worthy of being the
exaggerate and embellish. She
did all this In hide the dark i'ealities nl‘ her life. 'l‘remhlay‘s drama’
nwn mnther died in her 50s. helinre he had heenme
gets angry with her
sister in law. whn she resents. hut in her eireumstanees. it's a misdirected. ittappt'npt‘iale anger. a kind nl sell-loathing Il'ttltslt‘l'l't‘tl tn snmenne else. Really. the play brings his mnther intn
sueeesst'ul and the writer in the play reereates her the theatre. sinee she lnyed drama. but didn‘t liye tn lrnm enm'ersatinns with her between the ages nl' ten see 'l’remhlay 's success. And there's a l‘antastie enup and twenty. But the mnther nl‘ the play isn’t just a de theatre in the tinale related In this.‘
working elass (‘athnlie Quehee mnther. she's also a uniyersal mnther.'
I ask l’nr snme hints ahnut this and the Iwn look at eaeh nther and just smile enigmatieally at me. And
liindlay takes up the stnry: ‘lt's an autnhingraphieal w e're haek tn thnse twn nld hnys in The Muppet
play. and is \ery' funny. But the mnther alsn heenmes Slum; archetypal. She prnyes that a wnrking elass wnman is
as wnrthy nl‘ being the subject nl' elassie drama as If Only . . . , Fri 21 Mar-Sat 12 Apr, Royal
much as lileetra nr Medea.‘ Lyceum, Edinburgh.
62 THE LIST '3 .‘ ' .‘th' .
Stage Whispers
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DUNDEE REP WILL see the last day of Hamish Glen and the first of new artistic director, Dominic Hill, with the opening of Dancing at Lughnasa. Brian Friel's poignant testament to a forgotten pre-war Ireland, in which the traumas of modernism impinge upon the lives of a family of sisters scraping a living on a small farm. Full of both celebration and all the repressions of a rural Catholic community, the play is regarded by some critics as Friel’s best, and should certainly play well to Dundee’s audience.
1.,
' hug} . ’ Awa winning film from Maria Zanotti
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