Monday, January 21, 2008

Forget the January Sales...

It's that time year that the postman dreads. The increase load in their mail bags caused by every theatre in central Scotland sending us their thought provoking and tantalising schedules for the next 6 months. So this is your timely reminder to start have a look through their websites and brochures to see what catches your eye. Time's short at the moment as real life is slightly hectic so we've not managed to add our usual links to everything - sorry - but Google is your friend.

So far we've cast our eye over the main Glasgow theatres (Citizens, Kings, Theatre Royal and The Tron). We booked up early for what we're seeing at The Citz thanks to their Friends scheme giving us an early booking advantage. Of particular interest there is '6 Characters in Search of an Author' (Review now posted) from the NTS and 'The Blue Room' (Review now posted) although the latter divided our household so Statler's seeing that one solo, while I see 'Barry' (Review now posted) the same night.

After enjoying Mike Maran's 'Little World of Don Camillo' we've booked for 'Picasso and Me' (Review now posted) and after the brilliant 'Lysistrata' we are looking forward to GCNS's 'Animal Farm' (Review now posted). Having greatly regretted not buying tickets for theatrebabel's 'Volpone' before it sold out we made sure to book early for 'Educating Agnes' (Review now posted). QMU make a welcome addition to the Citz student season with a series of performances of Greek Tragedies (Reviews posted here and here), while we'll also now be booking up for Reid Kerr College's 'Macbeth' (Review now posted) thanks to the involvement of Melissa Deans who impressed us so much in 'The Princess Bride'.

And of course we'll be seeing the Citizens Company's 'Waiting For Godot' (Review(?) now posted), after enjoying 'Ice Cream Dreams' we've also booked for Citz Community Co and Young Company's 'They Shoot Horses Don't They?' (Review now posted) Rounding off our current plans for the Citz is 'Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off' (Review now posted) although we may still be persuaded to see 'Little Otik' once we find out a little more.

We've also got our 2nd London trip coming up soon, when we'll be catching the much reviewed "Othello" with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor (Review now posted), having a bit of fun with "We Will Rock You" (Review now posted) and finishing up with "Speed the Plow" with Kevin Spacey & Jeff Goldblum, although it's still in Previews so we won't be doing a full review of it (Preview/Review now posted).

Elsewhere we still have to firm up our plans but there are a number of shows we have in mind. At the Kings in Glasgow we're considering Andy Gray and Elaine C Smith in "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice" (Review now posted) but I'd really like to hear some casting news for LV before booking up. Another possibility is "Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision" which was probably the popular hit of this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

We're also trying to fit in "The Wasp Factory" (Review now posted) and "The Wall" (Review now posted) at the Tron while further afield the prospect of "Yarn" by Grid Iron/Dundee Rep staged in an old Dundee factory has really caught our attention (Review now posted).

No guarantee we'll manage to see all of these but if we had sufficient time/finances they would definitely be on our lists, and of course we're still open to suggestions.

7 Heckles

Anonymous said...

Hi there! If you guys liked lysistrata you should go along to the GCNS production of Julius Caesar in the college studio!

Statler said...

We'll certainly try and get along if you can let us know dates/contact details for tickets - I've just a had a quick look on the GCNS website and couldn't see anything there. But we do have a very busy few weeks coming up (including GCNS's 'Animal Farm' at the Citizens) so no promises we'll be able to make it.

Anonymous said...

The show is on tuesday the 11th of March until Friday the 14th of March. I can get you a tickets if you let me know the day you are available or you can telephone the college and ask to be put through to the drama office. I'm not sure if the tickets are on sale as of yet but they will be within the next week or so. Hope you can make it!

Statler said...

Sorry, but we've already got 3 shows booked for that week and I don't think it would do you or us any favours if we tried to squeeze it in. We do love theatre but it's easy to overdose if you aren't careful - and as one of the shows we're seeing is Macbeth I think another Shakespeare play would put me well over my limit.

Best wishes for a successful run, and do let us know about any future shows - as far in advance as possible.

Anonymous said...

That is too true, you wouldn't want a Shakespeare overload, though I'm pretty positive you would have gotten more than you bargained for with our production of Caesar. Thanks for trying and hope you enjoy the other shows!

Anonymous said...

Hi, love your site! I was really unhappy i didn't get to see QMU's performances (they don't market thier shows well) but thanks for your insight.

Anyway... hope you can come and see 'The Women of Lockerbie' at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. It's on April 15th - 18th. www.randomact.co.uk

Statler said...

Hi John, thanks for your comment. I had read a little about "Women of Lockerbie" on the Scottish Theatre Forum but weeknight shows in Edinburgh are a real struggle for us. The STF posts mentioned the possibility of Glasgow dates for the production - have these been confirmed yet? (I couldn't see anything on the Random Act website)