Theatre
Review
Slit Sit uli .i‘ BRIDGEBUILDERS Port of Dundee, Sun 3 Jul 0...
In an era where we are constantly taught that true beauty resides in nature, we’re wont to forget the beauty of the works and hands and days of humankind. Both, in fact have glories, as well as dangerous vicissitudes. Each is explored in this site-specific production, which takes us on a physical and metaphorical journey through history, beginning in a cafe, going on to a dock, then an abandoned shop, and culminating in a darkened warehouse. All this within a stone‘s throw of the mighty elemental force that thematised the clear, humid evening in Dundee, the sea.
In it, three actors (Sarah Crabb, Kim Falconer and Brian Ferguson) create a multitude of characters, from a stern paternalist visionary of Victorian utilitarianism and his unhappy partner, to newlyweds whose lives are affected by the husband‘s crewing of a lifeboat and through to an oiler couple. Between these interweaving journeys, travelling from the 19th century to pretty much the present day, a host of other characters, richly demarked by some clever performances, pop up between renderings of a
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mythic undercurrent that evokes the Minataur, Icarus and the fates as quite as much part of our own lives as that of the older civilisations that created them.
There is a brooding beauty to the entire evening, which portrays so much of our technology and all the careful geometry of nautical engineering and navigation as dwarfed by the older, feminised and temperamental character of the sea. This latter is played through Crabb’s earthy character, an older, observing, and cruel presence, deftly created. Sandy Thomson’s smart and assured production sees its many sets littered with recurrent tropes; circles of stones, pools of water, compass calculations and seafaring myths, creating a cacophonous but rich symbolic territory. Add to this the music, and some skilled acting, and there’s more than enough here to overwhelm the senses, gathering us into the humour, tragedy and sensuality of the evening as surely as the sea gathers in its victims.
There‘s a slightly confusing middle quarter hour, where the many stories lose a little focus, but it’s a minor flaw. As one stands, complete with hardhat in the dark, empty warehouse to witness a denouement of the many and varied stories, the quiet, creeping power of the element of water is revealed, and the piece serves us some gorgeous rewards. An engrossing evening of theatre. (Steve Cramer)
N met/\lioN WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
POLITICAL THEATRE
BLACK SUN OVER GENOA Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Thu 30 Jun & Sat 2 July, then touring.
The hyping up of fear over the G8 protests by an international alliance which still dreads popular protest is an old tactic. Creating the impression that you should not express your opinion on the street for fear of having to (pin a small and unruly group of yOung anarchists With funny haircuts and an averSion to soap is an old tactic to keep y0u off it. Long ago I remember marching against the poll tax in Glasgow. l was wearing a corduroy iacket and chinos. and my partner a cotton blouse and a pair of Jeans. I'm no more fashionable now, I'm sorry to tell you. But there were a lot of similarly, it slightly better dressed. people around us. I can remember that the news coverage that night filmed. excluswely, a small number of well intentioned. unkempt young people from the RCP in Glasgow. and the protests that turned nasty in London. The rest. and overwhelming majority of us ordinan, folks With an opinion didn't get a look in, creating a completely false impreSSion about who was actually there.
This time. to stop yOu from taking to the street. there‘ll no doubt be plenty of imagery from the notorious Genoa Summit. where one ining man, Carlo Giuliani, was shot dead by the police. and many others beaten up or arrested. But who provoked and created this Violence? There's still plenty of ambiguity on that score. The inclusive company at Theatre Workshop Will give its version of these events at this bit of the Ya Basta! festival. Maybe it'll be valuable change of perspective from the view created by the dupliCitous cameras of CNN.
(Steve Cramer)
Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 27 June-Sat 2 July
Two old friends. one man, one woman, take a whole script to realise what we worked Out from the trailer. All the same. the rorn com plot of When Harry Met Sally became a firm and much loved mould forever after. And. of c0urse. it prOVided an eternal reference pOint for discussions on the female orgasm. So given the iconic status of the 1989 hit. Marcy Kahan's adaptation of Nora Ephron's screenplay is certainly open to comparison, as actor .Jonathan Wrather (Coronation Street's Joe Carter) who plays Harry. is well aware. 'It's ft)(.()§]lllfi£ll)l(3 the film but transposes really well to the stage. We've changed one or t.vo of the locations, but their relationship proceeds the same. And the oneliners and the taking it scene are still there.‘ Well, thank heavens.
So is performing in Billy Crystal's shadow a daunting experience? 'Playing Harry's gieat,' says an unfazed Wrather. 'He's a really likeable character With a slightly dark Side. and he's brutally honest, but she is too. The play speaks about relationships and the differences between men and women' But does it say anything we didn't hear 16 years ago? 'lt's got a different resonance because our personal perceptions and experiences of relationships Will have changed since then.‘ And as for that infamous Question of whether nut and women can still be friends? 'The answer is yes. of course,’ says Wrather. 'The lt:lf:‘/£tlll answer is Sally and Harry can't be.’ Wrather describes this West End fare. directed by Simon Cox and starring Gaby Roslin as Sally, as 'wth. fast paced and unashamedly romantic'. As we warmly predicted. (Claire Piela)