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Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh

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TICKETS'CiZl-Cu. CONCESSIONS FROM £1 Special offer for List readers v I Ouote LiSt offer and bring this ad to box office. Subject to availability.

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Company no. SC062065 Scottish Charity Registered no. SCOIOSO9

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Tickets: Mon - Tués £6/3 Wed '- Sat £9/5 Advance booking Collins Gallery 0141 - 548 2558 (Mon - Fri 10- 5) RADIO LUNCHTIME SHOWS mm

Wednesday Lunchtime Radio Plays llltllllt THE SUSPENSE SEASON EHUUP Wed 29 Oct @ 1.15 - Sorry, Wrong Number

Wed 5 Nov @ 1.15 ~ The Hitchhiker Wed 12 Nov @ 1.15 - The Diary of SOphronia Winters BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH, TEA/COFFEE AVAILABLE TICKETS: £4 THE RAMSHORN THEATRE, 98 INGRAM STREET, GLASGOW 0141-552 3489

www.5trath.ac.uk/culture/ramshorn ramshorn.theatrertrath.ac.uk The Unlverelty ot Strethctyde to e cherlteble body. regletered In Scotland, number scmszsa

88 THE LIST 30 Oct 11% Nov 2008

Theatre

REVIEW ADAPTATION SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES Tramway, Glasgow, until Sat 1 Nov 0000

When Gill Robertson first set out to put Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel on the stage. her main concern was doing the book justice. In reality. if anything. she puts it in the shade. The standard of this co-production between Catherine Wheels and the National Theatre of Scotland is so high that Bradbury's script (he adapted it himself) does its job but no more by comparison.

Robertson's direction, Karen Tennent's innovative set. David Paul Jones' original live music. Paul Sorley's atmospheric lighting and the stellar cast all come together beautifully in a show that's aimed at young people but works for everyone. Bradbury's coming of age tale of two teenage boys caught up in the machinations of a terrifying carnival is rich in detail, not all of which makes it into this condensed adaptation. Themes of love and hate. youth and mortality. caution and spontaneity are all touched upon. though none in great detail. Not that it matters. because Robertson has us in the palm of her hand and on the edge of our seats with her visual box of tricks.

Deliciously sinister characters such as carnival owner. Ivlr Dark and scraggy old Dust Witch send a shiver down the Spine each time they appear. the latter flying over the rooftops courtesy of some nifty aerial work. Few people emerge as three dimensional enough for us to truly care about. but as a dynamic. well-crafted and visually stunning piece of ensemble theatre. this is a scary treat. (Kelly Apter)

REVIEW MODERN CLASSIC THE CARETAKER Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 15 Nov 0000

Pinter's tale of a power struggle between three men. one destitute. one marginalised by mental health issues and one seeming to exist at the twilight edge of bourgeois respectability. asswnes a new power in the Current economic climate. When down-and-out Davies (Tam Dean Burn) inveigles himself into the decrepit. detritus-strewn room of Aston (Robert Hastie). a man recovering from ECT. the latter's seedy businessman brother (Eugene O'Hare) takes an interest. sparking an omega-male psychological brawl.

In front of Max Jones' grimly detailed bedsit set. Breen's production points outwards at a society overloaded with aspiration and bereft of the means of achieving satisfaction on either a spiritual or material level. Some tremendous physical business from Burns' tramp combine nicely with O'Hare's droll. deadpan humour. while Haslie's singular monologue about his experience of a barbaric mental institution is delivered wrth chilling. downbeat precision. Each character cites ambitions. be they as modest as the building of a shed or the attaining of a pair of comfy shoes. which will never be realised. all against a background of emotional and fiscal impoverishment. Yet there's endless humour to be found among the pathos. with all three actors bringing a Hancock-like wit to the delivery of dialogue that constantly undermines the characters' pretensions. Most of all. the aching loneliness of these unobserved lives comes across underneath the surface aggression. (Steve Cramer)