Theatre
Jimmy Chisolm
Romeo AND JULIET
Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. until Sat 4 Mar
The skyline view from the Citizens' Theatre is dominated by the towering blocks of the Gorbals housing estate, and it's a view which is to be reproduced, at least in essence, inside the venue for Gregory Thompson‘s revival of Romeo and Juliet. The star crossed lovers and their feuding families are to be plucked from the streets of fair Verona and placed in a slightly less romantic, but equally stimulating location. ‘We're setting it in Glasgow, with a very strong Scottish cast playing very strong Scottish characters. We've got all that Gorbals energy mixed with the Elizabethan passion, and it fits,‘ says Thompson.
A marked respect of the text has led him to omitting only the 16th century references that have no contemporary relevance. ‘We do the play pretty straight. It‘s set in modern times in the Gorbals, but it’s Shakespeare‘s play.‘ Allowing the play to speak for itself, Thompson has resisted a perhaps obvious temptation to bridge some known divides in Glasgow‘s culture with his warring working class gangs. ‘That‘s not what this play is. Shakespeare says “two households both alike in dignity”. People want to make a point across a divide and this play can be used to do that, but it‘s not what Shakespeare was writing. He’s very specific that these two families are culturally the same.‘
In a month when two other companies open in Glasgow with adaptations of the same story, the line-up at the Citz might just tip it for local punters. ‘We‘ve got two stars in our leads, Ian Robertson from Sea of Souls; he’s the handsome younger one, as apposed to the handsome older one, which is Bill Paterson.‘
Alternatively Shakespeare‘s R and J, a boarding school meta-drama playing on links to the forbidden courtship of the young lovers, is at Gilmorehill, and the Moscow City Ballet‘s production is at the Kings. (Eddie Thornton)
Robertson: Doubling up in Romeo and Juliet and Blood Wedding
84 THE LIST f
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
Festival Theatre. Edinburgh. Sun 12 & Mon 13 Feb
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RE VIVAL
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NLV. WORK JOHNOTHAN PRAM Arches, Glasgow, Fri 3-Sat 4 Feb
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Ever srnce Chaplrn there have been frgures who rnvergle our empathy through then perfectly organrc rnabrlrty to cope wrth thrs world. Perhaps the latest of these rs Jonathan Pram. alter ego of performer. wrrter and sound artrst Ben Faulks. Hrs errdeanng corrrrc persona uses musrc. vrsual rmagery and surreal dralogue to create lrttle comrc eprphanres about our modern world. Joorney back to your organrc self wrth hrrn. lSteve Cramerl
Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 15 Feb-Sat 4 Mar
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