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Fringe previews {THEATRE}
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BERTIE The Scotland Street novels take to the stage in their home city
In case you need to be reminded of the Edinburgh that exists beyond the frenzy of the festivals, Andy Jordan Productions is bringing the fourth in Alexander McCall Smith’s Scotland Street novels to the stage with a faithful adaptation, recreating the city through the eyes of the much put-upon New Town six-year-old, Bertie.
Fifteen characters, including Bertie’s neurotic, pretentious mother Irene, animate a world of enforced yoga classes, conversational Italian, and now the exasperating problem of a baby brother, endured by a boy who would rather just be doing normal childish things.
‘There’s so much humour and so much eccentricity and whimsy about it,’ says director Warren Hooper. ‘The logic of six-year-old children is always a joy to behold. Everything is black and white – they can’t understand any shade of grey.’ An intimate experience for only 50 audience members at a
time, the action of the play happens in the round, with Bertie’s bedroom keeping its sanctuary at the centre, the audience enclosing it, and the rest of the scenes happening around them. Locals and lovers of the books will be delighted to see familiar haunts recreated onstage, but the humanity of McCall Smith’s writing promises that this production will be accessible to all. ‘Mother, father, kid relationships are the same everywhere –
we’re all human beings struggling with our frailty, our needs and our desperations, so it’s no different, it’s just got a huge Edinburgh flavour,’ explains Hooper. The popularity of the original novel looks to ensure a
popular reception for this production. Indeed, as Hooper reflects, ‘I wouldn’t even by surprised if it will end up being a whole series, one every year.’ Will Bertie be the next Harry Potter? We can only watch this space. (Amy Russell) ■ C Soco, 0845 260 1234, 4–29 Aug (not 15), 7.20pm, 9pm, £10.50–£12.50 (£6.50–£9.50).
THE GOLDEN DRAGON Shaking-up theatrical convention
THE GIRL WITH THE IRON CLAWS Dark tale about a woman who falls for a bear TWO JOHNNIES LIVE UPSTAIRS Gallic culture in the heart of the New Town
‘It’s really sexy! It’s got naked women and lots of blood!’ Director Ramin Gray has his tongue planted firmly in his cheek as he attempts to sell his English- language version of German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon, because of course this isn’t just a titillating rabble-rouser, is it? ‘It’s full of playfulness and a really profound
humanity,’ says Gray of the Asian takeaway-set ensemble piece. ‘There’s already a lot of very formal theatre work about the issue of migration, which is a huge topic which affects us all, but this play doesn’t do anything as banal as cast judgement on it. What it does is allow the audience to emotionally engage with other lives, it gives them something to think about and feel. It’s not a political play.’ It’s also certainly a piece that isn’t afraid to shake up convention, with an ensemble cast of five white actors playing 17 Asian characters – quite deliberately, says Gray. ‘However much a white actor tries to be Chinese they will always fail, just as an actor will always fail at being Macbeth or a murderer. But it’s the attempt to be something else that’s most interesting here.’ (David Pollock) ■ Traverse, 228 1404, 5-28 Aug (not 8, 15, 22), times vary, £15-£17 (£11-£12). Preview 4 Aug, £11 (£6).
It’s hard to think of anywhere further from the electrified hustle of Edinburgh in August than a stove-lit yurt on Dartmoor in the depths of winter – and yet that’s where the seeds were sown in Hannah Mulder’s mind for her company The Wrong Crowd’s debut Fringe show, a dark adult fairy tale in the Beauty and the Beast mould. On a storytelling weekend with the West Country
School of Myth she discovered this Nordic tale, which, unlike later versions of the story, which has been sanitised by everyone from the Brothers Grimm to Walt Disney, is all about a young woman growing up on her own terms – and falling in love with a bear along the way. Using physical theatre and a variety of puppets
that are the realm of company co-director and acclaimed designer Rachael Canning, The Wrong Crowd aims to tell strong stories in visually engaging ways. ‘It’s about how to be wild, how to be disobedient,’ says Mulder, ‘how to not do what society expects of you or tells you to do, which I think are really good tales to be telling right now.’ (Laura Ennor) ■ Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, 6–28 Aug, 1.35pm, £8.50–£10 (£7.50–£9). Previews 4 & 5 Aug, £6.
F E S T I V A L
Imagine a stripey-shirted onion seller left Brittany for Edinburgh many years ago, and managed to peddle his wares so successfully that he bought a house on Randolph Crescent where his descendants still live today. This is the world that theatre company Mythos Festival invites you to enter, as the French Institute is transformed into a theatrical home, where each family member has a story to tell. ‘You never know what you are going to find behind
each door,’ explains writer/performer Achille Grimaud. ‘It’s full of small spaces with lots of stairs and lots of doors. So any doors that open you will have a surprise.’
The surprises will come in the form of animation, singing, puppetry and a great deal of silliness with the onion theme carrying through each performance and comedians interacting directly with the audience along their tour. But Grimaud won’t say more than that, for fear of ruining the illusion. ‘The experience is to take the visitors between reality and fantasy,’ he says, ‘just for a moment, to forget where you are.’ (Amy Russell) ■ Institut français d’Ecosse, 225 5366, 8–26 Aug (not 13 & 14, 20 & 21), times vary, £10 (£8). Preview 5 Aug, £8.
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