THEATRE | Previews
DOCUMENTARY THEATRE ALL THE SEX I EVER HAD Arches, Glasgow, Thu 9–Sat 11 May
‘Are you 65 and still thinking about sex?’ was the question the Canadian theatre company Mammalian Diving Reflex used to attract the very first participants for its new project. Aiming to shatter society’s preconceptions, All The Sex I’ve Ever Had features elderly Glaswegians discussing their sex lives.
‘We’ve collaborated quite a bit with children and youth, with a focus on children’s rights,’ says artistic director Eva Verity. ‘For All the Sex I’ve Ever Had we decided to swing the pendulum the other way – to work with seniors and talk about sex, a topic seldom approached with the older generations despite their life-long wealth of expertise. This also seemed relevant in the context of the ageing baby-boom generation.’
It’s been nearly four years since the company started the research and interviews that feed into All The Sex I’ve Ever Had, which uses local non-actors wherever it plays. Since 2009, Mammalian Diving Reflex has toured the show to Bern, Switzerland and the Singapore Arts Festival.
‘Reactions to the performance have been positive,’ says Verity. ‘Often people are
surprised that the performers are not actors, and that the stories are real.’
If any young audience member is concerned about the seemliness of the show’s subject matter, Verity is confident they will take something more positive from the piece than inter-generational embarrassment. This is not a show about titillation. ‘Our goal is to bring people together in unusual contexts to open up social dynamics and allow for new relationships to take place – so people can get to know and learn about one another, share a performance experience, see one another, and perhaps their elders – maybe even their own family members – in a new and different light.’ (Amy Taylor)
NEW PLAY BE SILENT OR BE KILLED Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, Thu 2–Sat 4 May, then touring
Hide and seek of the very deadliest kind awaited Bank of Scotland employee Roger Smith in 2008 while setting up a project in Mumbai. Just after dinner on his second day in India, terrorists invaded his hotel, hunting and killing any Westerner. Roger hid in his 14th-floor room and, through two nights and across a day, lay low. The story of the 40-hour long event – already a book – has now been made into a play by Moray- based company Right Lines Productions. But just
how do you turn that story into a piece of dynamic theatre?
‘It would be pretty boring to have a show which was just a man hiding behind a sofa,’ admits co- writer Euan Martin. ‘So we have introduced other aspects using sound and projection work.’
REVIVAL THE SASH Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, Wed 24–Sat 27 Apr, then touring
Forty years after it was first staged on the Edinburgh Fringe, Hector MacMillan’s homespun homily about the perils of sectarianism and its grip on the past and the future remains depressingly familiar to the landscape of Scottish society. Michael Emans, director of this new touring production from his own Rapture Theatre, is under no illusion that he’s stepping into controversial waters. And that’s the intention. ‘The reason I was passionate about getting The Sash up and running again,’ he says with reference to the play’s reputation as a lighter, more comedic piece, ‘was to reclaim it as a piece of political theatre.’ The play is about the tensions between a recently bereaved
young man and his father, and the desire of the former to break away from tradition by not going on the day’s Orange Walk. The divide is crossed with the intervention of a Catholic neighbour. ‘I first saw it when I was a young man and it was written in a voice that I very much recognised, which is working class from the west coast of Scotland,’ says lapsed Catholic Emans. ‘It’s very dark and powerful, but it espouses a notion that we’re all created equal. As the play says, we’re orange or green, but our blood is all red.’ (David Pollock)
WORLD PREMIERES NEW PLAYS FROM CHINA Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 22–Sat 27 Apr, Mon 6–Sat 11 May, Mon 27–Sat 1 Jun, then touring
It’s not often that Scotland gets to see a Chinese world premiere before China does, but it’s about to happen three times. Joining forces with the National Theatre of Scotland, Glasgow’s lunchtime theatre season A Play, A Pie and a Pint is presenting a hat-trick of new plays by Chinese authors, each adapted by a Scottish counterpart.
‘The wonderful thing is getting access to stories that we
don’t often see on the Scottish stage,’ says Davey Anderson, curator of the strand, which can also be seen in Bathgate and Edinburgh. First up is Secrets, a play by Lin Weiran, adapted by Rona Munro, about a doomed love affair. ‘It’s beautifully subtle and nuanced,’ Anderson says. Thieves and Boys follows. It’s by Hao Jingfang and adapted by Anderson who loved its story of two construction workers breaking into a government minister’s house to get financial compensation for a colleague. ‘It has a real swagger and a philosophical depth,’ he says.
N A W N E K - A G Y M M O T
Martin and fellow writer Dave Smith also added the character of Roger’s brother, who died in a Last in the series is Fox Attack by Xu Nuo, adapted by
fishing accident when he was 16. ‘We created this character who is more-or-less his conscience,’ says Martin. ‘We met with Roger and his wife during the process and he admitted that his brother was the person he spoke to in his head. It is a very appropriate device to use in telling the story and in conveying the emotions of what was going on.’ (Thom Dibdin) Catherine Grosvenor, in which a high-flying student covers up a terrible crime. ‘It’s a domestic drama that touches on all these aspects of the society he lives in.’ (Mark Fisher) ■ For full tour dates see www.nationaltheatrescotland.com
98 THE LIST 18 Apr–16 May 2013