{THEATRE} Reviews
BLOOD AND ROSES Multi-sensory journey with history’s courageous women ●●●●●
Edinburgh’s tendency towards the wet would seem an admonishment against a promenade performance. The northeast’s Poorboy, whose raison d’être is the site specific, doesn’t shy away from the less sunny sides of life. Listening via individual headsets the staging for this audio
play by director and writer Sandy Thompson is a guided exploration through the streets of Edinburgh’s West End, public buildings and art installations. As the physical journey progresses a cacophony of (mostly female) voices trace lines in history, genealogy and storytelling from Russia and Scotland. The parallel paths unite in the relationship of a Scottish girl and her Russian boyfriend.
The stories, conversations and songs revolve around female relationships, familial and romantic, and the often terrible acts women are made to endure, choose to commit or are accused of. Russian folkloric witch Baba Yaga is invoked in three stories about protagonists who have to stomach courageous acts. In Scotland the influence of Isobel Gowdie, who confessed to witchcraft in 1662, is traced down a line of free-thinking women. The heady mix creates a powerful evocation of the human spirit, in these instances female. Jen Robson’s art installations are collections of beautifully delicate paper sculpture, family photographs and collections of objects. Each stop allows time to absorb the visual accompaniment then focus on the audio. The multi-sensory approach to conveying epic themes is fantastic when events coalesce (a brisk wind fortuitously picking up during a description of a storm, the majesty of St Mary’s Cathedral) but the practicalities of navigating streets on a schedule can easily divert attention. The scope of the experience is enticing and when it works, marrying aural, visual and physical, it is really something special. (Suzanne Black) ■ St George’s West, 225 7001, until 27 Aug, 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm, 2.30pm, & 3.30pm, £12–£15 (£10–£12).
THE GOLDEN DRAGON Global stories to take away ●●●●●
YOU ONCE SAID YES Exhilarating interactive experience ●●●●● KING OF SCOTLAND Off (with) his head ●●●●●
L A V I T S E F
Roland Schimmelpfennig’s 2009 play, a bit hit in Germany, is a gift for a director. His characters are blank canvases with names such as ‘The Young Woman’ and ‘The Man Over 60’. Much of their dialogue is written in the third person, stage directions included. It means there’s a built-in theatricality and any number of possible directorial choices to be made.
In his debut as artistic director of ATC, Ramin Gray
makes the most of it with an open set – literally a blank piece of paper – and a cast of five who, in accordance with the playwright’s directions, routinely play against type; men as women, old as young, even human as insect. All this creates a lively setting for a series of stories about the staff, customers and neighbours of a Thai-Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant which have a flavour as cosmopolitan as the dishes being served from the cramped kitchen. The liveliness, however, only goes so far in this well
acted production, because of a play that hints at having something to say about globalisation, economics and sexual exploitation, but never gets round to saying it. (Mark Fisher) ■ Traverse Theatre, 228 1404, until 28 Aug (not 22), times vary, £15–£17 (£12–£13).
68 THE LIST 18–25 Aug 2011
This one-on-one interactive show is initially – and purposefully – disconcerting, but it swiftly becomes utterly thrilling, mysterious, funny and finally really quite sweet. It begins at Underbelly Cowgate, where single audience members are equipped for a journey and sent out into the streets of Edinburgh, where they’re engaged in a series of seemingly random encounters with a succession of strangers that takes the participant on an eventful promenade around the city.
To go into any detail about what actually happens would spoil the enjoyment of the show. But to get the most from it, the best advice would be simply to go with the flow and say yes whenever you’re given the opportunity. And during the slightly bewildering moments when you feel like you have been completely cut loose and are acting on your own, as it were, be safe in the knowledge that the organisers have everything under control. Indeed, once the interactive experience is over you’ll marvel at just how well staged it was – and you’ll have the opportunity to quiz the masterminds behind it. Great stuff. (Miles Fielder) ■ Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, until 29 Aug, every 10 minutes from 12.30pm–2.50pm, £15 (£12.50).
It’s 11 years since the premiere of Iain Heggie’s free adaptation of Gogol’s Diary of a Madman. Jonathan Watson, star of TV football sketch show Only an Excuse?, follows Brian Pettifer and the late Gerard Kelly in the role of Tommy McMillan, an unhinged Scottish bam who imagines that he is the monarch of Caledonia. Tommy’s verbal obscenities are surpassed only by his sexual vulgarity. Nevertheless, he is deemed eminently suitable for a job at the Department for Social Inclusion on account of his 28 consecutive years of unemployment. The no-holds-barred ribaldry of Heggie’s brilliantly crafted, rapid-fire humour is distinctly non-Gogolian, but there is in the script both an underlying poignancy (in Tommy’s deteriorating mental health) and a righteous anger (at the cynicism of our political masters). Playing on a set which combines kitsch patriotism with urban dereliction, Watson gives a nuanced performance; even if he is occasionally too static to truly take flight in Heggie’s most absurd moments. Still, this is a strong presentation of Heggie’s second best monologue (after The Tobacco Merchant’s Lawyer). (Mark Brown) ■ Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 28 Aug (not 22), 2pm, £12 (£9).