REVIVAL CYPRUS Touring 0000
People are often quick to brand any left wing views as conspiracy theory. yet perhaps on examination. the greatest. and most provable conspiracy of all is history itself. The ironies of historical process are brought back with force in Peter Arnott's rewritten version of his piece for Mull Theatre from 2005. In a world where the very people Britain and the USA trained and armed in the 70s have run amok across the Middle East and SOUthern Asia. interrupting a greedy Western rush for natural resources. his script never misses a cruel consequence of four decades of meddling and rapaciousness.
Yet Arnott's naturalist narrative takes place a long way from this world. on a small Scottish island. in a c0untry house redolent of a much older style of theatre than Arnott's contemporary political theme. Here we meet Brian (Kern Falconerl a semi- retired Whitehall intelligence mandarin who's brought home Mike (Mark McDonnell). a violent former foot soldier of the spook w0rld. after a far from random meeting in London. Brian finds his thirtysomething daughter Alison (Mary Wells) awaiting him. There follows a complex story rooted in Britain's intelligence past. With implications for the present from the Gulf to Afghanistan and beyond. involvmg such seedy. post Le Carre subjects as privatised intelligence sen/ices.
lf Arnott Succumbs a little to writer/director syndrome in allowing his story to extend 20 minutes beyond its natural time. and if the action IS occasionally more televisual than it needs to be. there is plenty to chew on in a crisp. often Witty and very contemporised script. Ultimately. interest is fuelled by the play's character study of three isolated. interiorised and psychopathic characters. for amidst the politics. there's plenty for actors to develop in these figures. And the cast. all three. are strong in pursuing this. Falconer's meticulous. enigmatic and ultimately barbaric civil servant. who empowers himself With deflected questions and silences is splendid. while McDonnell's semi-hysterical. calculating military man is endlessly watchable. This is a night of theatre which never lets you off the hook. politically or emotionally. (Steve Cramer)
Theatre
ReVIews MODE-RN (ll/\SSIC HAPPY DAYS Dundee Rep, until Sat 9 June 0000.
For those who haven’t yet noticed, Scottish theatre has, in Dominic Hill of Dundee Rep, a top rate director of classic plays. His track record over his four years on Tayside — from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Howard Barker’s modern classic Scenes From an Execution - is excellent. That reputation will only be enhanced by this fine production of Samuel Beckett’s extraordinary two-hander Happy Days.
For starters, his choice of Alison Peebles to play the central character, Winnie - a woman ‘of about fifty’, who is buried up to her waist and, later, up to her neck - is inspired. The beauty of her performance (in which her Scottish accent proves wonderfully appropriate to Beckett’s poetry) is that she never tips too far towards despair or self-deluding glee. Rather she plays the role as it should be, with a deep and knowing sense of pathos.
Poking through the top of designer Tom Piper’s big, brilliant human anthill, Winnie, in her incongruous party dress, tries to coax her largely hidden husband, Willie, ‘about sixty’, out of his lengthy silences. Her parasol bursts into flames, leaving her unprotected from the blazing sun. Yet, still, she keeps her spirits up, apparently convinced that a brief response from Willie indicates another ‘happy day’. Robert Paterson is also superb in the relatively minor (but by no means straightforward) role of Willie. A desperately broken image of a dapper gent dressed for a good night out, he finally responds to his wife in a moment which is, simultaneously, darkly comic, poignantly painful and curiously hopeful. Piper’s tremendous set contrasts the huge earth mound with a stark, blue theatre wall, splendidly lit by Jeanine Davies. Dan Jones adds a nicely attuned, evocative soundscape. It all makes for a tremendously complete evening of Beckett. (Ben Waters)
TOURING WORK ‘E POLISH GUINE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 6—Sat 9 Jun 000
lhe damaging effect of that which remains unspoken is something that plagues our culture both collectively and iiidiVidually. lt hangs. as well. like some mighty Presbyterian judgement over the characters of this Henry Adam play from Dogstar. a substantially rewritten piece from the early 90s.
In it. we meet Davy (l raser C Sivewrightl on return to his rural home in the North East immtxliately after the second world war. As he settles into farm life with his family again. what promises to be a sedate and bucolic reverie soon turns into a conflict as intense as the one he's leSl departed. As the shock of the modern descends upon the ceiintryside. changing technologies are combined With altering demographics to create tension Willi a recently arrived Polish family up the hill. A tentative romance begins between the troubled veteran and a young woman from the farm (Magdalena Katelal. but local bigotry. particularly as manifested by Davy's mother (Anne Kidd) and sister Kate (Sarah Haworthl. intervenes. Meanwhile. Kate's ne'er do well fiance (Douglas Russell) adds violence to a fraught situation.
Matthew Zaiac's production shows a real sense of the quiet lyricism of Adams everyday. but heightened emotional poetry. Dave Smith's clever design. which uses back DFOJOCIIOH and silhouette. deftly adds to the effect. What's revealed of the characters' pasts is prt‘:dictable. but rightly so. for the power of this drama works not through revelation. but When the past is revealed. All the same. While Adam's writing. as ever. builds emotional power from scene to scene. the piece is far too long. at around two-and-ahalf hours. for its own good. There are good performances. though. particularly from Kidd's stern and Judgemental mother. and Hamish Wilson. a gentler. more forgivmg half of the couple. Douglas Russell. too. first as an amputee mate of the protagonist. Whose fervent communist idealism descends to alcoholic obliVion then as the dodgy brother-in—law. is espeCially strong. (Steve Cramerl
7 1’1 .J;i1‘.l.’0(‘:'THE LIST 8"