Ah har, Me Lads & Lasses! It’s Swallows & Amazons Time

Outside The Festival Theatre yesterday, a chilly February frost soon melted to the warming chirps and trills of excited pupils from Sacred Heart Primary School, Penicuik.

Eager eyes sparkling in brilliant sunshine were looking forward to a midweek matinee performance of  the Bristol Old  Vic’s musical stage adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s age of innocence, ‘messing about in boats’ childhood adventure, ‘Swallows And Amazons’.

And a pre-performance treat was also on offer with a hands-on workshop led by Staff Director, Cressida Brown. Pupils were able to share interpretations of storm-tossed ships in group soundscapes and mimes beneath the very proscenium arch where the show was soon to commence.

Speaking to The Edinburgh Reporter shortly before the performance, Headteacher and visit organiser, Mary Durkacz, praised both The Festival Theatre and Bristol Vic’s determination to make this an unforgettable day for pupils and staff (all on their very best behaviour of course! ER).

And Headteacher’s final report? ‘This was a charming, imaginative and refreshing production. It held the children completely spellbound and brought many adults fond reminiscences of lakeside summers they have only had in their imaginations. Full praise then to Tom Morris’ deft direction of Helen Edmunson’s sympathetic and evocative adaptation.’

The show runs until February 4th and is a delightfully witty celebration of a magical story enhanced  by  ingenious mechanical effects and mind-boggling mime. All aboard me hearties!

Edinburgh 10-Minuters Project looking for writers

Review: The Infamous Brothers Davenport/Royal Lyceum Theatre (****)

Can we really communicate with the dead? And why do we need to believe in the possibility that we can? These are the profound human questions behind the Lyceum’s thrilling yet thoughtful new play, a visually arresting co-production with Glasgow-based theatre company Vox Motus, written by leading Scottish playwright Peter Arnott.

Based on the story of real Davenport siblings, travelling peddlars of hokum in the late 19th century, it tells of a séance sponsored by Edinburgh socialite Lady Noyes-Woodhull (a huffy Anita Vettesse), who, although a woman of reason and science, is desperate to locate her doctor husband, missing and presumed dead in Africa.

Enter the youthful Davenports, along with their verbose stage manager Mr Fay (given a suitably plummy delivery by Gavin Mitchell), who claim to be able to converse with spirits on the other side. Although their stage trickery proves highly entertaining to the Lyceum’s modern-day audience, it only serves to frustrate the increasingly bewildered Noyes-Woodhull. But as the brothers’ shockingly violent family background is slowly revealed, there’s the never-resolved question that for all their chicanery, their abilities might actually be real.

Real-life brothers Ryan and Scott Fletcher are compelling as the damaged Davenports, hiding their volatile mischievousness behind butter-wouldn’t-melt exteriors, yet prone to sudden eruptions that betray an intense inner anger. Scott Fletcher in particular gives a touchingly fragile performance as the younger Willie Davenport, and even at the end we’re left wondering whether his conversations with his deceased sister are real, or simply projections of his own wounded mind.

In Jamie Harrison’s highly effective staging, high on faded grandeur, the Davenports’ experiments take place within a cabinet suspended centre-stage, with audience members even invited on stage and decked out in period costumes to observe it from close quarters. The macabre box also opens and closes to reveal (and conceal) the brothers’ terrible history, the ‘magic’ of their illusions being mirrored in the cabinet’s miraculous transformations from hovel to street to graveyard. The elegance of Harrison’s design lies in just how neatly it echoes the themes of the play itself.

Yet by Arnott’s shocking yet boldly nihilistic conclusion, it’s as if the tables have been turned on us. As the séance’s sordid artifice is crudely exposed, we’re forced to ask why we ever wanted to believe in the first place. Perhaps, as the fawning Mr Fay says, it’s our minds that can change worlds and create realities – certainly an attractive option for the shattered lives portrayed on the stage. From a frothy recreation of Victorian subterfuge, Arnott and the Lyceum and Vox Motus teams have created a profoundly resonant and deeply human play.

The Infamous Brothers Davenport is on at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until 11 February, and then tours to the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow (14-18 February) and Eden Court, Inverness (22-25 February).

Edinburgh Napier University Drama Society’s X-Rated Xmas Show

The drama society at Edinburgh Napier University, affectionately known as ‘NUDS’, is performing their Christmas sketch show at The Bongo Club on Friday 16 December 2011. All the sketches are written, produced and performed by its members, most of whom are students at Edinburgh Napier.

The first part of the show will consist of short sketches of a comedic nature. The second half is one, lengthier performance. Every member of the society is involved in some way and, as last year’s Christmas show was cancelled due to the weather, the cast and crew will be pulling out all the stops to make it an enjoyable evening for all.

Josephine Heinemeier, President of NUDS, said:- “Preparations for the show are coming along well. Being a university based amateur dramatics company, obviously there are extra pressures on time (exams, assessments etc.) so we don’t have as much time as would be ideal to rehearse, but the dedication of every member allows us to pull together and present a well rounded show.

“People can expect a combination of pop culture references, puns and peculiar humour. There is a little something for everyone.”

‘XXX-Mas’ tickets are available now or you can buy at the door. Tickets cost £5 (£4 concessions) and the doors open at 7pm, with the show to start at 7:30pm. Due to the venue, only over-18s are allowed.

Review: Beauty and the Beast, Royal Lyceum Theatre (***)

When is a pantomime not a pantomime? Or to look at it another way, when is a Christmas show not just a straight piece of theatre?

The Lyceum’s seasonal offering this year, enjoyable thought it is, seems to want to have it both ways, as a straight family play that lurches into pantomime from time to time, only to lurch back again just as quickly. One minute you’re sitting back watching the story unfold; the next you’re expected to join in. Or worse, you’re expected to shut up again after you’ve just been joining in.

It should work, and it kind of does, but it still makes for a slightly unsettling experience. And I’m not sure that the rather fragile, poignant story of Beauty and the Beast, with its themes of unconditional love and loyalty, is the right place to be asking the audience to take such a potentially confusing role.

Neil Murray’s well-mannered production just needs to let go a bit more, and allow in some of the rude, earthy popularism of real panto. It’s a lovely-looking show, with gorgeous sets, evocative lighting and a likeable, enthusiastic cast. Angela Clerkin as the wicked witch, Crackjaw, is properly scary (toddlers watch out), and Ruth Milne and Andrew Rothney have just the right wide-eyed eagerness as the central romantic couple.

You get the feeling that more laughs could have been had from the goblin Dunt (a world-weary Mark McDonnell) and the ugly sisters Hannah and Hazel (Nicola Ray and Karen Traynor – with accents to turn milk sour), but it’s back to the pantomime/play question again. Writer Stuart Paterson has shoehorned pantomime characters into the story, but director Murray hasn’t made them very ‘pantomimey’.

By the play’s rather low-key conclusion, though, it’s the joyful story that has really shone through, and the audience stays enthralled throughout.

Photographs by Eamonn McGoldrick

Beauty and the Beast continues at the Royal Lyceum Theatre until 31 December

Review: Cinderella at the King’s Theatre (****)

The King’s Theatre’s panto offering this year is a riot of colour, fast-paced and full of infectious energy. Even before the show starts, the atmosphere in the auditorium is electric, and the barrage of fun doesn’t stop until the final number, which has the audience on its feet.

The stars of Cinderella are, as ever, the trio of Allan Stewart (Baroness McSquirrel), Andy Gray (as a Buttons rather getting on in years) and the towering Grant Stott as the dreadful ugly sister Gobina McPhlegm. It’s a sheer pleasure to watch them in action – there’s a remarkable chemistry between the three, full of ad libs and knowing looks, and they seem to be having as much fun as the audience is.

Stott’s ugly sister sidekick Hocktoo is the diminutive Ross Marshall, who’s reduced to a limited vocabulary of ‘aye’ and ‘no’ throughout – perhaps robbing the character of potential laughs. But it makes his eventual revenge on his sibling all the more delicious.

Joanne Thomson and Paul Leubke are suitably starry-eyed as Cinders and the Prince, and they sing well, too. Leubke’s flashing of his six-pack early on threatened to bring the house down. David Haydn as the Prince’s retainer Dandini was strangely open about his liking for ‘big burds’ – he quickly fell for the sadistic charms of Gobina. Katy Heavens is a sweet but streetwise fairy.

It’s a shame that the sound wasn’t always as clear as it could have been, so that song lyrics were sometimes lost behind the music – played live by an able band led by Richard Anderson. The sets (designed by Hugh Durrant) and lighting (Chris Wilcox) are worth the visit on their own – they’re spectacular, detailed, and make full use of all the historic auditorium has to offer.

Just two pieces of advice. If you’re sitting in a box, you might get a visitor. And if you’re late, there could be some special entertainment just for you.

Cinderella continues at the King’s Theatre until 22 January

 

Spring Season at The Traverse

 

The Traverse Theatre is delighted to announce its 2012 Spring season, a packed programme of new drama, writing events and dance. The Traverse also welcomes its new Artistic Director, Orla O’Loughlin to the helm from January.

 

Prior to taking up post at the Traverse, Orla was Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre and International Associate at the Royal Court Theatre.

 

As part of Orla’s first showcase at the Traverse, the Theatre will host a two-week run of Welsh writer Tim Price’s acclaimed debut play, For Once, produced by Pentabus in association with Sherman Cymru. Originally staged at Hampstead Theatre in April 2011, the production will tour the UK before its Scottish premiere at the Traverse (4-14 April).

 

Orla will also curate Write Here, a two week mini-festival of readings, workshops and writing events. Details will be announced later in the season.

Speaking about taking up her new position, Orla said: “I am really excited to be joining the Traverse at the beginning of such a great new season. I’m very much looking forward to meeting audiences, artists and writers over the coming months, and to opening up the Traverse to give everyone a look into the incredible work that is done here with Write Here, which will be an exciting introduction to the future of new writing at the Traverse.”

 

Linda Crooks, Executive Producer of the Traverse said: “We feel very lucky to have Orla joining us at such a pivotal point in the Theatre’s nearly 50 year history.  We’re delighted that Scottish audiences will have the chance to sample some of Orla’s directing work so early into her tenure with For Once, and that she’ll be working with our team to present a taste of things to come with the Write Here festival.”

 

The season opens as one of the Traverse Theatre Company’s biggest hits of recent years, David Greig and Gordon McIntyre’s Midsummer [a play with songs], embarks a three-month Australian tour, taking in dates in Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong and Brisbane (25 Jan-29 April).

 

Back at home, the Traverse will host development workshops from Plutôt La Vie with Danish writer Line Knutzon’s The Builders (20 Jan) and Stellar Quines’ Reherasal Rooms with new work from Anna Carlisle and Jennifer Tremblay (25 & 26 Jan).

 

The Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival enters its fifth year, presenting some of the most avant-garde physical theatre, puppetry and animation to be seen anywhere in the UK this year. Highlights include work from France, Germany, Austria, England, Czech Republic and Russia (30 Jan – 4 Feb). Later in the season, the Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival will showcase the best new international work for children and young people (6-14 May).

 

Fringe hits get extra outings at the Traverse this Spring. Edinburgh’s Barony Bar will once more become the setting for Grid Iron’s 2009 award-winning show, Barflies, drawn from the short stories and poems of Charles Bukowski, with two runs as part of a national tour (6-9 Feb & 27 Feb – 1 March). Strangetown Theatre Company bring a double bill by Tim Primrose and Sam Siggs,Hex & Chow Mein (8-10 March) and also from the 2011 Festival Fringe comes the Fringe First award-winning 2401 Objects by Analogue (30-31 March). One of the best-loved shows to make its debut at the Traverse 2010 Festival, Catherine Wheel’s White, makes a welcome return following an international tour (11-14 April).

 

There is work exploring multi-cultural Britain today, with Tamasha’s production of Snookered, a new play by Ishy Din which opens a door to a rarely seen strand of British Muslim life (16-18 Feb) and Ankur’s Mwana, a new play by Tawona Sitholé about a young Zimbabwean educated in Glasgow, conflicted between his love of the West and expectations of his heritage (22-25 Feb).

 

Two celebrated Irish companies feature in the season. Gare St Lazare return to the Traverse after last year’s sell out Beckett Trilogy, with a performance of Samuel Beckett’s short story, The End(17 & 18 Feb). Ireland’s only full time ensemble theatre company Blue Raincoat are back for a third outing at the Traverse, performing Ionesco’s absurdist masterpiece, The Chairs (7-9 June).

 

Stellar Quines bring international collaboration, ANA, to the Traverse, a bilingual play by Claire Duffy and Pierre Yves Lemieux, which opened in Montreal in a co-production with Québécois theatre company, Imago (1-10 March). Lung Ha’s present a new version of Antigone, by Adrian Osmond (15-17 March) and Queen Margaret University return to the Traverse with Telford College to create six vibrant pieces of new work in Bated Breath (22-24 March).

 

Dance forms a strand of the new season, with work from Errol White Company, iam (22 March), Curious Seed’s PUSH (24 March) and Colette Sadler’s Stammer Productions, with I Not I (18 May).

David Greig will curate a season of A Play, A Pie and A Pint, entitled One Day in Spring. National Theatre of Scotland, Òran Mór and the Traverse team up again following last year’s season of Latin American plays, to feature six shows on the revolution that changed the world, with writing from Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya (24 April–2 June).

 

Magnetic North’s ‘sort-of’ opera Pass the Spoon by visual artist David Shrigley, composer David Fennessy and director Nicholas Bone, will have an exclusive run at the Traverse ahead of performances at London’s Southbank Centre (26-28 April). The Arches Platform Award presents this year’s winning shows, Gary Gardiner’s Thatcher’s Children and Kieran Hurley’s BEATS (26–28 April).

 

Dogstar Theatre Company returns to its artistic roots with a revival of one of its earliest productions, The Captains Collection by Hamish MacDonald (22 & 23 May). ATC return to the Traverse with Sarah Kane’s Crave, which premiered at the Traverse in 1998. The double bill will include Ivan Vyrypaev’s Illusions, translated by Caz Liske (25 & 26 May).

 

The Traverse’s open-submissions writing event, Words, Words, Words will move from the Bar into Traverse Two, to become a work-in-progress development event, offering writers the chance to have short scripts performed on stage (2 April).

 

Theatre at Ocean Terminal – Turning to the Camera

Edinburgh’s Ocean Terminal and local theatre company, Siege Perilous, have joined forces to present Simon Jackson’s ‘Turning to the Camera’. The production will be performed in a 6,000 square foot unit within the shopping centre’s restaurant area.

‘Turning to the Camera’, the tightly-written and fast paced thriller, is based on the true account of the defenestration of the ex-head of Egypt’s secret service in London. It will be performed in the remaining vacant unit within Ocean Terminal’s restaurant area, ‘The View’, which is occupied by a range of eateries, including handmade burger Co., Pizza Express and Frankie & Benny’s.

Michelle Macleod, Duty Centre Manager at Ocean Terminal, said:
“We are delighted to welcome Siege Perilous to Ocean Terminal and to be part of such an exciting project. It is not only a great opportunity to maximise the vacant space, but it also demonstrates the shopping centre’s diversity, by adding to its existing retail and leisure offerings, whilst promoting the local area and talent.”

Andy Corelli, Artistic Director at Siege Perilous, said:
“We visit Ocean Terminal regularly as we live close by and for a number of years I’ve felt inspired about wanting to stage a show here as it’s an amazing venue. We were delighted to receive such a warm response to our proposal from the management team. The unit has huge 4-metre wide windows which provide a ready-made backdrop for the ‘film noir’ staging of ‘Turning to the Camera’ as well as offering a tremendous view of Edinburgh’s skyline”.

‘Turning to the Camera’ will be at Ocean Terminal from 28th November until 3rd December at 8pm with matinee performances on 1st and 3rd December at 4pm. Tickets available via WeGotTickets.com or by calling 0131 554 3005.

Leith Theatre Group – Not for Profit

In many ways 2011 has been the year of protest with people taking to the streets in countries as far flung as Greece, Tunisia, Egypt and the USA. Closer to home, we have observed Unison campaigning against privatisation, disabled groups rallying and Occupy Edinburgh camping in the city.  Among all this, one Leith-based theatre group has devised a unique way of getting their message across.

ACTive INquiry are undertaking a short tour of the Leith and Edinburgh area with their forum theatre project,  Not For Profit. The Reporter caught up with the group at their latest performance at the Occupy Edinburgh camp in St Andrew Square to find out more about the concept.

The theme for the play is about the cuts currently taking place, and Gavin Crichton, the artistic director of the group, explained how they decided on this theme. Crichton said:- “Every year we do a piece of theatre around a particular issue that we feel is relevant – especially to the people of Leith. This year, the big thing that came up was the cuts and what was going to happen with them.

“People were scared and nervous, so we thought we had to create a piece of theatre around this so people can engage, think of alternatives and how to challenge them.”

The play itself centres on a young working class mother called Mary who works for a call centre but dreams of being a creative writer. The play follows her story and looks at the various obstacles in her path due to the current economic climate. At the end of the performance audience members are invited onto the stage to take the part of Mary and show ways which she could have acted differently to overcome problems.

This type of audience engagement is vital to the play’s success. Crichton says:- “We use theatre to engage people with dialogue on issues that are important to them, and to think about how we can learn through theatre, and turn it into action out in the real world.

“It engages the audience, asks them to come on stage, try things out and asks questions of the audience rather than tell the audience how to think.”

Certainly a number of the audience at St Andrew Square became involved with the performance. ‘Duck’  from Fife has been camping at the Occupy site for a month and he was very impressed with the piece. ‘Duck’ said:- “It was fantastic, brilliant, amazing. It brought out a big crowd and got people talking about important  issues, everyone was joining in and getting involved.”

According to Crichton, the project is a work in progress. The group collected contact details from audience members and plan to hold a public meeting at Leith Circle on 6 December 2011 at 7 pm to discuss the play and the possible next steps. Then, in the New Year, they plan to hold a number of workshops with the goal of putting on a new show involving members of the public next spring.

With the sheer number of marches, rallies and protests happening it takes something a bit different to stand out and ACTive INquiry may just have managed that.

Review: Going Dark (Traverse Theatre) (****)

Entering the auditorium, you’re ushered into a curtained-off area filled with low stools and strange projectors – which you quickly gather is a planetarium. Here, John Mackay’s understated astronomer shows you the wonders of the galaxy and guides you through the secrets of distant stars.

Yet as well as far-flung worlds, the brief blinks of light in the near-total darkness can also represent more mundane devices mapping his peripheral vision, for the astronomer is quickly going blind.

Sound&Fury’s poignant offering maps the personal onto the universal, as its single character’s rapid visual decline and worries about looking after his six-year-old son are set against the ever-expanding universe and the slow deaths of alien suns.

It’s a slick, precise production, performed for the most part in almost complete darkness, which renders its text and sounds all the more potent as the ear strains to catch every last detail. There are some breathtaking effects conjured from its simple lightbox, though: a crumpled sheet of paper becomes a newly formed sun, and the Milky Way hangs enticingly above our heads.

Yet the production never overplays its technical sophistication, and it has a calm thoughtfulness about it that exerts a strong draw. Hattie Naylor’s script is sometimes direct, sometimes oblique, but always resonant, and in the end it’s the frightening ordinariness of the tragedy conveyed by the play that makes it so powerful.

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