FILM BOOKS
Wondering whether Matt Damon should have appeared at Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry In Green Zone, the Bourne star plays a US army officer in Iraq who goes in search of weapons of mass destruction after receiving dodgy intelligence. The very idea is preposterous, of course. ■ 12 March. Trading opinions with the Booker Prize-winning James Kelman The celebrated author of Not Not While the Giro and The Busconductor Hines will be promoting If It Is Your Life, a collection of essays about identity as it is expressed through language, class, politics, gender and age. ■ Hamish Hamilton, 1 April.
FESTIVAL FILM
Wishing the National Review of Live Art a happy 30th birthday The annual celebration of the weird and wonderful in performance art is bringing back many of the major names who have appeared over three decades, including Alastair MacLennan, Forced Entertainment, Ian Smith, Neil Bartlett and Ron Athey. ■ Arches, CCA and Tramway, 17–21 March.
THEATRE Figuring out how a boy can fly in Peter Pan For his staging of the JM Barrie classic, National Theatre of Scotland director John Tiffany is working with aerial specialist Vicki Amedume of London’s Upswing and magic man Jamie Harrison of Scotland’s Vox Motus to give an other-worldly lift to the JM Barrie classic. ■ King’s Theatre, Glasgow, 23 March–8 May and on tour.
Putting Coatbridge on the map with Kick-Ass Lanarkshire lad and comic-book supremo, Mark Millar is venturing into the movie big league as his Kick-Ass comic, about a boy who decides to become a super hero, hits the big screen with Nicolas Cage in the cast. ■ 2 April.
OPERA Savouring an unlikely plot with Scottish Opera In The Adventures of Mr Broucek the less-than-sober hero journeys to the moon and then back to 15th century Prague, taking in bagpipes, organ music and patriotic hymns as he goes. Scottish Opera clubs together with Opera North for this rare staging of the Janácek curiosity. ■ Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 8 & 10 April and on tour.
CW from bottom left: Arcade Fire, Deborah Colker, Kick-Ass and Forced Entertainment
2010PREVIEW 11 and 12
RETURN OF THE KING
The return of Peter Brook to the Tramway after more than a decade is a sparkling highlight of this year’s theatrical calendar, writes Allan Radcliffe
When it comes to living legends of the theatre world, they don’t come much more distinguished than Peter Brook. Having helmed his first play in London in 1943, the hugely influential experimental theatre and film director rose to prominence in the 1950s with several major productions for the RSC, but it was his 1967 film adaptation of Peter Weiss’s play, the Artaud/Brecht- influenced Marat/Sade and his passionate, hugely influential exploration of the issues facing theatrical performance, The Empty Space, that marked Brook out as a true innovator. Brook is perhaps best known for his exhaustive, nine-hour adaptation of
one of the major Sanscrit epics of ancient India, The Mahabharata. Originally staged in 1985, the ambitious production toured the world over the course of four years and was later truncated to a mere six hours for television. The story of this mightily ambitious stage marathon became entwined with
the inauguration of one of Scotland’s most extraordinary theatre spaces. Glasgow’s Tramway was launched as a direct result of the UK-wide search for a space that had the capacity to house what would be, in 1988, the only UK performances of The Mahabharata. He returned to the space he helped create with productions including La Tempête and L’Homme Qui . . . and was last here in 1997 with Oh Les Beaux Jours (Happy Days). His latest production, 11 and 12, which arrives at the Tramway as part of an international tour this spring, is an English-language adaptation of a play Brook created in French, Tierno Bokar, adapted from a work by the African writer Amadou Hampaté Bâ. The piece explores a conflict in West Africa under French occupation, and depicts how a dispute over whether a certain prayer should be recited 11 or 12 times leads to a massacre. While the production features a fascinating epic narrative, the themes of violence and tolerance, religion and its place in everyday life are also extremely prescient.
Brook himself has said of the themes driving 11 and 12: ‘For Christians and Muslims alike, God through his prophets has given to mankind a clear and simple commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. Today we see that no rational thought, no intelligent debate, no social analysis has ever influenced nor can explain the endless current of hatred that pours through history.’
For Brook aficionados or theatre-lovers new to his particular dramatic vision, 11 and 12 is likely to be one of the shining highlights of the year ahead. Tickets go on sale on 15 January – don’t miss out! ■ 11 and 12, Tramway, Glasgow, 30 March–3 April.
24 THE LIST 7–21 Jan 2010