MODERN DANCE
MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 1 & Wed 2 Nov; Edinburgh Festival Theatre,
Thu 4 & Fri 5 Nov
At the age of 48. Mark Morris has finally shaken off his bad boy image. But as his company arrives in the UK for its 25th anniversary tour. it's clear that sorrre things never change. His desire to shock may have mellowed. but Morris is still a feisty character who knows his own worth. Resurrecting his 1983 duet. The ‘Taini/ Film Songs in Stereo' Pas de Deux. which only he has ever performed. Morris says he ‘wanted to see if it would work without my extremely charismatic personality. and rt
does. it‘s really funny'.
It's said with tongue in cheek. but the reality is. it‘s true. Morris is a rare talent with an incredible body of work. Plucked from a repertoire of over 100 dances. the four pieces in his Scottish programme capture every angle of his choreographic style. while the live music accompanying them runs the gamut from classical to Indian via Spanish and American song book. What links the works is their power to move. either through humour. poignancy or sheer joy. Does Morris create to please an audience or himself? Or is it just a happy
coincidence that he does both?
"The latter is more true. I please myself and I'm very particular.‘ he says. 'I don't like to be really bored or preached to. and I don't have the world's longest attention span. But if somethings engaging. I can go for it for a long time.‘ (Kelly Apter)
NEW WORK
PEOPLE SHOW 1 14 - THE OBITUARY SHOW
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 28-Sat 29 Oct
‘Biography,’ said Oscar Wilde. 'lends to death a new terror.‘ And. if journalism could ever be accused of being a parasitic process. then surely the obituary takes the art to its ultimate conclusion. In death. the obituary writer finds the next story -- the enomrity of another's existence — cut to a few key moments and a life's importance calculated by the number of column inches. But who decides whether our lives are worthy of a double page spread in The Guardian, a couple of lines in the local rag or a few heartfelt words on a gravestone?
In People Show's 1 14th show. we are taken into a newspaper's obituary departrrrent to investigate the Irfe of an unknown piano player through the words written after his death. In The Obituary Show. typed out sentences
mediate the life of this mystery mUSIcran.
while live music and dance conjoin to piece together an existence in reverse.
Set to turn 40 next year. the Peeple Show continues to bring collaborative art to the stage. which goes beyond the Simple boundaries of theatre to incorporate both music and technology. This latest performance promises to be no exception. as a sowrdtrack by jazz. musician George Khan plays an integral role in its development. while the seemingly humdrurrr setting of an old- fashioned newspaper room is transformed by lighting and props to enable an existential investigation of what it means to be alive. An investigation that reads between the lines. (Corrie Mills)
M .-
CMSSIC MACBETH India Building, Edinburgh, Wed 26—Sun 30 Oct
All of us rationalise our lives. Whether it’s the minor impropriety of an extra drink at the pub, because the conversation you’re having really is important, or the partner at home who you’ll eventually leave because it’s the best thing for him/her, we find ways of justifying our own darker, less social impulses with what we convince ourselves are egalitarian or philanthropic motives. In uncovering our real motives we travel to a dark interior and confront our own amorality.
Perhaps Shakespeare’s most powerful journey into this interior is Macbeth, centring as it does on a man who, once set upon his bloodthirsty course, must also address dark places in his mind, to the extent that madness results. His journey into inner motives controverts every ethical structure in his, and our, culture, and the parallel journey of his wife leads to an even faster psychological dissolution than his own. And as the rational world of ethical structure collapses, he is, as we might well be, thrown into a world where he substitutes prerational discourses of superstition for social responsibility.
Theatre
Such a dark piece deserves a dark setting, and the clammy interiors of the India Buildings, better known during the Festival as the Underbelly, seem perfect. Max Stafford-Clark’s revival for Out of Joint, hosted by the Traverse, looks like recreating psychological trauma with a physical space, and set, as it is, in a war- torn African state, it seems as if there’ll be little opportunity to neatly separate our contemporary political world from the exploration of a singular psychology inherent to the play. This is as it should be, for Macbeth has the most to say to contemporary politics of all the major tragedies.
This characteristically socially aware piece from Stafford-Clark‘s always ideologically savvy company features an already acclaimed performance in the lead role by Danny Sapani, while Lady Macbeth will be played by Raquel Cassidy. This actress has become familiar to Scottish audiences over the last few years, most recently as a sensational Anna Karenina at the Lyceum, and might also be recognised by telly-heads from her role in Teachers. The small, claustrophobic spaces of the venue look set to add to the atmosphere. Get into your dark side - you know you want to.
(Steve Cramer)
J’U Oil .5 Nov 7005) THE LIST 83