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Theatre
PREVIEW NEW PLAY FOR ONCE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 4–Sat 14 Apr
Shropshire’s Pentabus Theatre has earned a shelfload of awards for its imaginative and challenging productions of stories set in rural areas. Television writer Tim Price’s debut play, For Once, is a case in point.
Set in Wales, it’s about the impact of a car crash in a
country lane on the family of the only survivor. The director is Orla O’Loughlin, former artistic director of Pentabus, and her six years with the Shropshire-based company enabled her to introduce Price to Pentabus’ local community, the very rural and very foodie town of Ludlow. In the course of research, Price visited an abattoir and worked a shift in a local Michelin-starred kitchen. ‘The two biggest stories in Ludlow,’ he says, ‘are probably
its food, and its teen death toll on countryside roads. I explore how these two might be related.’ O’Loughlin is pleased with the result, praising Price’s
humour, enthusiasm and commitment and saying that the development process felt like a culmination of much of her work with the company. The play takes the form of integrated monologues, a new writing trope that contemporary playwrights can’t seem to tear themselves away from. Price engagingly admits that he ‘usually hates’ monologues, but he commends O’Loughlin for recognising that, in a piece about family members isolated from each other, they seemed – for once – appropriate.
O’Loughlin is now artistic director of the Traverse,
Scotland’s cauldron for new writing, where she’s determined to keep renewing the tradition of producing new work. ‘The new will one day be the classic and we have a duty as
artists to keep the canon ongoing and relevant.’ Price, meanwhile, seems bracingly unafraid of big subjects. His next play is about the Welsh upbringing of interned US soldier Bradley Manning. (Alex Johnston)
PREVIEW CIRCUS ARTS ALEGRIA SECC, Glasgow, Wed 11–Sat 15 Apr
PREVIEW INCLUSIVE DANCE TIGHTROPE Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 30 & Sat 31 Mar PREVIEW CONTEMPORARY DANCE KITH/KIN Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Thu 19 Apr
Expect a heady mix of high-energy acrobatics, dance and music when Cirque du Soleil returns to Scotland this month. Alegria, Spanish for ‘joy’, has been delighting audiences across the globe for 17 years, as artistic director Bruno Darmagnac points out. ‘It’s a very theatrical production. There are moments of poignancy and intense acting: you laugh, you’re surprised and then you are moved.’
Combining an effervescent blend of angels, clowns and nostalgic old birds, the production explores the division of a carnivalesque society, as a younger generation fights against established members of the community to decide who should take over the ruling of their kingdom. Darmagnac describes his role as being in charge of maintaining the concept of Alegria: ‘As new artists arrive they change the characters and give ideas, but it’s up to me to be careful to stay within the initial concept.’
Watching every performance and taking notes, Darmagnac’s own sense of Alegria comes from the reactions of audiences. ‘We use a language that doesn’t exist, but people understand what happens on stage. It works – kids, parents and grandparents come out happy and amazed.’(Kirstyn Smith)
Down on its luck, an ageing circus troupe sticks together in an attempt to survive. On paper, Tightrope’s storyline doesn’t sound like much fun, but in reality the work has been lauded for its wit and poignancy. The show was created for London- based integrated dance company AMICI in 2010, by company founder, Wolfgang Stange. Featuring disabled and nondisabled dancers, who perform a range of circus skills, Tightrope has now been re- worked to include Glasgow’s Indepen-dance.
‘The beauty of working with another company is that they bring in their own personalities,’ says Stange, ‘so the production will become theirs within the structure of the existing piece. Working together has been a positive challenge that has enriched both Indepen-dance and AMICI.’
AMICI first visited Tramway in 1990, helping to foster a re-evaluation of who can and cannot dance. ‘In the years since AMICI first appeared in Glasgow, there has been a steadily positive shift in people’s attitude towards performances with disabled artists,’ says Strange. ‘This sharing of artistic expertise is another development in bringing inclusive dance theatre to mainstream audiences.’ (Kelly Apter)
The recent departure of Janet Smith from Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT) highlighted not just her achievements over the past 15 years, but the alumni she helped foster. Two such dancers are Kevin Turner and Anthony Missen, both of whom had a compelling stage presence at SDT, and have since branched out to form Company Chameleon Dance Theatre.
‘My time with SDT was tremendously formative,’
says Missen. ‘The broadness of the repertory helped me become a versatile performer. I developed my voice in a variety of ways and took away a whole raft of ideas and approaches to creating movement.’ Company Chameleon is heading back to Scotland
this April, to perform a double-bill of contemporary dance exploring male identity. Before Night Fell, created with choreographer Beth Cassani, looks at friendship, camaraderie and bravery. Rites takes a more personal look at the journey from childhood, through adolescence into adulthood. ‘We researched various notions of masculinity but realised we would have to bring it back to our own experiences to find something intimate that we could share. We’ve been dancing together for almost 20 years, so there’s a lot of history – the good, bad and ugly.’ (Kelly Apter)
29 Mar–26 Apr 2012 THE LIST 111