Review

Ni if,“ lick FAUST: PARTS 1 8- 2

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in rep until Sat 8 April 0000

Theatre

WEEDING CANE Traverse Theatre. Edinburgh, Wed 29 Mar~Sat 1 Apr

I The conspiracy theonsts were : ; ' ' : ~ - ' :' right. for all Whispers doubts The ~ w i ' " - Martians have landed among us. ; ; ;'~ 1' : " ' : and takenup prominent posmons in ' w- : .' our apparently unwary world. But i 1. ~- . .v ' r ' they're wrong about them finding " :' ' : :' ~ their way to theWhite House. ' ' " Tiananmen Square and so forth They all wound up. by some form of misplanning. at the Scottish Arts

' ' l ' ' CounCil. ' v i v i « This at least is the best Whispers ' v -- * v i i i . l' i : can do in explaining the recently i - i .' " ' announced new SAC theatre . i l i r ;, t

funding plans. The first thing we were told was that you aren't important at all Nope. there's been I n w far too much consuleration granted to you, the audience. by our local companies. From now on, we're told, everything must be focused on the artists themselves. Which would be all very well, but to this is appended a series of political

Hot on the heels of the National Theatre of Scotland‘s launch, a production °ii~ l " :v» .m 1 iv . ' v. i 1 . t ' provisos. an obstacle course of to match the mood of confidence and ambition in Scottish theatre. With a .i ii, M. l :'l' V, .w- t ' i v t. i f‘ .l" i touchy feety 'inctusion' clauses that large cast and a huge design, the Lyceum‘s artistic director Mark Thomson i i'l vi .. ii ~ ills ~ h o l i. t r render the idea of freedom of artistic

has staged Goethe‘s two-part magnum opus, Faust. The scholar who signs a pact with the Devil is an icon of European

lliiiiiiw.‘ t l‘lil ii lllr" 'lillli it expression entirely redundant

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legend, but the story is problematic: enthralling beginning and end; not l w f 'it rr it i ti l 'i :i w t vi» ;' it :i i ~ wedding planner has money been much middle. Goethe, who spent 60 years writing Faust, responded by v an” ru- - uti. mt; if! ,m .iii so catastrophically misspent. We ignoring considerations of staging, using it as a receptacle for his 12! a, r it.” t. r Ii i~ Hi". «i l Mil see the Windup of 784's funding

meditations on morality, religion, politics and philosophy.

Like Goethe, adaptor John Clifford has brought his own concerns to the work. It‘s no secret that he recently lost a loved one to cancer, and his mourning is woven into the prologue‘s contemplation of evil. Shot through with pansexual eroticism, gender-bending and feminism. There's also a strand of topical satire here, which jars slightly with the piece‘s philosophical complexity: among Clifford's targets are ‘regular guy‘ Western leaders. celebrity culture and economically-driven education

policies.

Faust encounters numerous well-drawn supporting characters, but essentially this is a two-person drama (though Thomson enhances its thematic unity by casting Ruth Connell as both Gretchen and Helen, the two women who capture Faust‘s heart). Paul Brennen makes a superb and articulate Faust, his twitchy disappointment hardening into naked venom as corruption takes hold. Dugald Bruce Lockhart, meanwhile, puts the fist into Mephisto, playing him as a preening PR man from Hell. It's a two- dimensional performance, but then it's not a role that lends itself to method acting. The whole enterprise is bristling with big ideas, luxuriant language, acrobatic staging, astonishing costumes and masks, imaginative lighting and sophisticated score. It‘s often very funny and although Clifford baulks at Goethe‘s climax of Christian redemption, his finale is moving and, in its

way, evangelical.

But despite the undeniable quality of all its parts, this Faust falls short of compelling theatre. By its nature, it's a succession of set-pieces, a story repeatedly interrupted by digressions. As digressions go, though, they‘re

pretty impressive. (Andrew Burnet)

lust as Lorenzo Mele had put in place an artistic policy that seemed to be working A couple of years back. when the company seemed to have run out of impetus. this might have been the right decrsmn, but the corner has surely been turned. At a time when Scottish theatre has become. at last, a little more politically aware. its one purpose built political company is closed by the drongos holding the purse strings. Were they in possession of one. Whispers would venture the SAC had made up its mind too long ago. Meanwhile. Eddie Jackson's Borderline has Clearly been guilty of the unpardonable sin of thinking about its audience. Such an outrage couldn't possibly go unpunished. It's you, the audience who pay at the door. as well as through taxes. to be entertained. Whispers urges correSpondence with your MSPs. As these arrangements. are it seems. not yet finalised. Whispers will no doubt return to this Sllhletll in later editions. Watch this space.

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", l.l :' .MW THE LIST 87