"Valhalla!" - July 2010

Tron Theatre Company's Valhalla! is undoubtedly the most ridiculous, nonsensical, foul mouthed, drug fuelled piece of theatre we have ever come across. Did we mention that we loved it?

Completely insane, breathtakingly funny, and lip-bitingly outrageous. I honestly think it has to be seen to be believed. The entire cast of Johnny McKnight, Mark Prendergast, Joyce Falconer, Sally Reid, James Anthony Pearson, Grant Smeaton and Mairi Phillips are phenomenal. Paul Rudnick's writing is razor sharp and Andy Arnold's direction manages to bring a cohesive shape to scenes and storylines that cross all sorts of boundaries. And despite assaulting the audience with a two hour onslaught of verbal, visual and theatrical gags they somehow succeed in delivering a genuinely emotional last ten minutes.

This show really shouldn't work. But it does. Brilliantly.

We received our tickets for the show through our membership of the Tron's Patrons scheme which we thoroughly recommend for anyone who is a regular attendee at the Tron.

Valhalla! runs at the Tron until Saturday 24th July
Image by Richard Campbell used with permission.

"Nine" - July 2010

Before we get to our thoughts on this one, there are a few bits of 'housekeeping' I need to cover. This is the first amateur production we've seen for a while so I think it's worth restating our policy that applies to all amateur, community and youth theatre. We make no concessions or allowances and all performances will be considered in the same manner as professional ones - anything else would be patronising to those involved. Secondly, musicals aren't really my thing - with a few exceptions I tolerate them at best, so please keep that in mind. And lastly, in the interest of full disclosure, while we generally keep ourselves fairly isolated from the theatrical community in order to preserve our objectivity, on this occasion one of the cast is a friend of mine (in what passes for our 'day jobs').

Despite winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1982, both Waldorf and I were firmly of the view that this is a bad, bad musical - verging at times on 'Springtime for Hitler' bad. Of all the songs featured, only two - "My Husband Makes Movies" and "Unusual Way" linger in my memory a couple of hours after the show.

So it's very much to the credit of the cast that this was an enjoyable evening. Richard Magowan plays film director Guido Contini as he faces mounting crises in both his personal and professional lives, and makes the most of what are rather weak songs for the central role. He also succeeds in bringing a depth to the character's emotional moments while handling the comedic elements to good effect.

Jennie Wilkie as his wife Luisa receives some of the show's stronger numbers and gives an impressive performance both vocally and in bringing the character to life. There are also particularly strong performances from Chriss Mills as Claudia, Emma Craig as Carla and Kerry Burley as Sarraghina, while the whole cast provide excellent vocals for the ensemble numbers and Adam Stewart does well as the nine year old Guido.

Director Walter Paul has created a well drilled production that features a large cast with extensive choreography on a relatively small stage, but we do have to note that the prompt was required for a couple of lines. Musically and technically this was a very adept production - I've lost track of the number of musicals I've seen with significant problems with the sound levels, but here they were perfectly balanced.

There was certainly enough quality displayed here that I'd be interested to see what the cast and creative team could achieve with some better material to work with; however I do have to comment on the ticket price. £17 for a Wednesday night is pretty horrific in comparison to main stage, large scale professional shows at the Citizens or the Tron and without the factor of having friends/family in the cast it's difficult to envisage us paying similar prices in the future.

Nine, produced by Walter Paul Productions, runs at Gilmorehill G12 until Saturday 10th July
Image by Colin Wilkinson used with permission

"Decky Does A Bronco" - July 2010

Having enjoyed several shows from Grid Iron in recent years, I'd always been curious about their "Decky Does A Bronco" that featured in many actors' programme notes. So I was delighted to see that they had revived Douglas Maxwell's play ten years after their first production of it. Staged in purpose built swing parks and told in flashback it tells the story of a group of children and the summer their lives changed.

Any play that portrays young children with an adult cast is on potentially difficult ground and here the risks are amplified by having other (and only slightly older) actors portray the adult versions of the characters. Fortunately the 'young' cast perform brilliantly and bring out the childish elements without forcing them into caricature. The 'older' cast have considerably less stage time, but their quiet and subdued presence speaks volumes in itself and the considered direction from Ben Harrison ensures there is little chance of confusion. Bridging the two 'casts' is Martin McCormick, who as David acts as our narrator and slips between his older and younger selves with a very assured performance in what must be a very tricky role.

And if the roles weren't challenging enough, Maxwell and Harrison task their cast with some impressive acrobatic manoeuvres on the swings - including the 'Bronco' of the title which involves standing on the swing and working it up to a height before jumping off while 'kicking' the swing over the top bar. This is not without risk to the performers (and I speak as a former ten year old with a head gash to prove it) but their swing play was executed perfectly - to the point of being balletic.

Despite the excellent performances, the play itself has left me a little unsatisfied and wishing it had focused more on the aftermath and long term impact of the events rather than over-relying on a sucker punch. With the wind gusting and the physicality of the performances causing occasional sound drop-outs I was left at times grasping to hear lines and found myself joining dots of plot points that perhaps weren't intended to be joined - but the fact I was looking to join them suggests to me that there was something missing. Indeed, for me the most profound aspects of the evening came not from the play but from Ben Harrison's programme notes.

But perhaps I'm guilty of expecting too much and should just appreciate what is undeniably a perfectly captured picture of childhood that will have particular cultural resonances for those of a certain age.

Decky Does A Bronco has completed its run at Cumbernauld and continues on an extensive tour of Scotland before taking up residency as part of the Edinburgh Fringe and then completing its run with various dates in England.
Image by Douglas Jones used with permission.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010 - First Picks

We spent Sunday night working our way through this year's programme for the Edinburgh Fringe which launched at the end of last week. Surprisingly (and disappointingly) it didn't take us anywhere near as long as it has in previous years and if truth be told we found it pretty slim pickings. Usually we end up with a huge list that gets narrowed down to forty or so shows we plan to see but this year we found it a struggle to reach thirty. There's no guarantee we will see all of them once we have taken into account time/location and then scheduled them across a few day trips through to Edinburgh, but here are the shows that have caught our eye so far...

NonsenseRoom return to their home at Rosslyn Chapel and we're looking forward to finally seeing their show based on the Chapel's "Apprentice Pillar". In addition to 'normal' performances of "The Apprentice" there will also be 'special evenings' on the 7th and 14th of August which include a light buffet and tour of the Chapel and are well worth paying the extra ticket price for. NonsenseRoom have a second show at the Fringe - "Hairy Maclary & friends" based on a series of popular children's books - we won't be seeing this one ourselves but have no hesitation in reccommending it based on all their previous shows.

Next up is boxing based "Beautiful Burnout" from the National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly which comes with a cast that includes the usually impressive Ryan Fletcher.

"Blackout" from ThickSkin is inspired by the story of a Glasgow young offender waking up in a jail cell, and its description as "a 45 minute smack in the face" gained our attention.

David Leddy's "Sub Rosa" established itself as one of the greatest pieces of theatre we've ever seen when we saw it at the Citizens last year. With its site-specific nature we're not completely sure it will translate quite so well to its new location - but what is certain is that we're looking forward to finding out!

The Citz has its own presence at the Fringe with "The Girl in the Yellow Dress" as part of the programme at the Traverse but we might wait and catch that one when it reaches the Citz in September.

Those of you who have followed our Fringe tips in previous years will know that anything described as "darkly comic" is likely to catch our interest, and "Honest" from the Royal & Derngate Theatre duly did so. The fact its tale of a man in the pub determined to tell the truth, no matter what, is staged in a local bar also adds the novelty factor often required to stand out from the crowd.

"Imperial Fizz" could easily have got lost amongst the thousands of shows in the programme and defining itself as a "surreal, intoxicating comedy" risked it ending up on our blacklist. But the involvement of performer David Calvitto who impressed us so much in "The Event" was enough to convince us to give it a go.

I'm a little worried that Waldorf's selection of "In Memory" may turn out to be a total tearfest but it sounds like it has the potential to be a powerful piece of theatre - and on a more shallow note I'm a sucker for an interesting publicity photo.

Another of Waldorf's picks is "The Interpersonality Workout" which appears to be an amusing take on corporate training but I tend to think the reality of these events often takes them beyond parody. But hey, it has the advantage of being free, so why not?

Despite how it might appear at times we don't spend our time sticking pins in the Fringe programme to choose shows, and quite often we'll place a lot of trust on the basis of what we've seen a company do previously. Dogstar Theatre's "Jacobite Country" was an easy pick on that basis - despite its somewhat bizarre blurb. We really enjoyed their award winning "Tailor of Inverness" and are also pleased to see it getting another outing at this year's Fringe.

"Jacob's Ladder" from Pocketful Productions promises to be "a twisted comedy about religious politics, social position and sexual immorality" - more than enough to get itself added to our list.

An office romance doesn't sound particularly promising for a comedy, but then, writer DC Jackson is responsible for some of the funniest shows I've seen in recent years so "My Romantic History" at the Traverse is a must see for me.

This next pick is an interesting one as I saw a production of Louise Welsh's play last year that proved intriguing and frustrating in equal measures. Our review prompted some intriguing revelations about the play/production that makes me want to have a look at this new production of it. Warning - trust me that "Memory Cells" is a show worth seeing, but I'd really suggest going into it cold. Don't go looking for any reviews of it and whatever you do don't go searching out our one.

Sex trafficking appears to be quite a popular topic this year and while Emma Thompson's Executive Producing role on "Fair Trade" seems to have generated a fair amount of publicity, we don't think we can face two shows on the matter in a single Fringe and have opted for Cora Bissett's "Roadkill" based on the fact that pretty much everything we've ever seen her involved in as actor/director has been nothing short of brilliant.

Yes, we know that the Fringe tends to throw up a lot of self reverential and self indulgent shows full of theatrical in-jokes that are totally unfunny to 90% of the audience, but for people who see as much theatre as we do it's hard to ignore a show that doesn't take theatre too seriously. And we hope we don't fatally damage any credibility we may have established over the last four years when we book up for "A Slacker's Guide to Western Theatre".

Simon Callow has built a reputation as a real draw in Edinburgh with his Dickens based show and this year his performance in "Shakespeare:The Man from Stratford" is bound to attract an audience. But given our long-standing year round policy of declining press tickets it's a bit of a stretch for us to justify ticket prices of £20 plus for a single show when we could be seeing three others instead. Maybe if we can sort our schedule and time off to take advantage of the 2 for 1 offer on 10th August...

Euthanasia is always an issue that I'm interested in seeing being dealt with by theatre and "6766" sounds like it's going to rush in where others fear to tread. This is quite possibly the show I'm most looking forward to this year.

Few words divide our opinion on a show's blurb more than 'moving' - it seems to be a magnet for Waldorf and sends me scurrying for some comic relief instead. So I think she'll be on her own for "Speechless" despite the involvement of Sherman Cymru who brought us "Deep Cut" last year.

I'll also be ducking out of seeing "Stationary Excess" for different reasons - it lost me at "Imprisoned on an exercise bicycle..." but Waldorf's still keen.

Of course there are just as many shows that I'll be left to see on my own - including "Stitched Up" which claims to be a "bitterly comic take" on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Its timeslot might be tricky for us to schedule but it sounds like it might work as a funny conclusion to a day of more serious shows.

Another show likely to cause us scheduling problems is the EGTG's version of "The Tempest" as it takes place on a barge down in Leith. But it's not just the venue that piqued our interest - we enjoyed their version of "Tiny Dynamite" a couple of years ago and director Claire Wood's blog provides an interesting insight into the production process.

I had nearly marked "That Moment" in my copy of the programme and then didn't as it wasn't quite enough for me to make the effort to see on my own and I knew it would be too hard a sell to get Waldorf to come along. So I was pleasantly surprised when we compared our picks to find that it had made it onto her list. Perhaps it's another show that's benefitted from the whole 'theatre eats itself' vibe.

But she's back on her own again for what sounds like a 'choose your own adventure' type performance in "Threshold" from 19;29. I'm a little cautious about this kind of stuff (terrified I'll miss a turn and wander off and get lost!) and the note that 'price includes a bus ticket' doesn't help matters.

We certainly wouldn't be rushing to see another "Hamlet" at the Fringe but SEDOS' "The Tragedy of the Prince of Denmark" might be an intriguing look at the play's events from a different viewpoint.

Waldorf's hoping to see "Tunde" but a 'powerful drama' about modern day child trafficking sounds a little too close to 'moving' for me...

How workers in a call centre cope when faced with a natural disaster isn't really an obvious choice for me - especially as the blurb says it's "funny, poignant and moving" but somehow I still want to see "20:20 Vision". Maybe it's my mother's 'end of the world' fixation coming through...

"The Typhoid Marys" true-life tale of 43 women confined in a psychiatric hospital for being carrier's of typhoid seems unlikely to provide a comfortable afternoon but sometimes those are the shows most worth seeing.

The Fringe often features shows that deal with a personal journey or triumph over adversity and Waldorf has picked out "Unshakeable" from the programme. Paul Betney's performance based around his diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease sounds a little too 'personal' for me - I prefer my shows more 'at arms length' but it sounds very much Waldorf's cup of tea.

We have very few hard rules about things that we won't see at the Fringe but "Ups and Downs" has managed to persuade us to break one of them. We've learned that shows in hotels are considerably riskier than those in other venues and in fact we can't think of a show we've seen in one that would gain anything like pass marks. But KDC Theatre's show about a group of the newly dead as they await judgement is the kind of thing we like to see at the Fringe so we're taking a deep breath and giving it a chance.

"Two couples explore the threat of honesty and our perverse need for it" sounds like typical Fringe stuff and wouldn't normally warrant our attention but "While You Lie" is written by Sam Holcroft whose "Cockroach" has the distinction of being one of only half a dozen or so shows that have genuinely changed my opinion about something important. And the fact it's on at the Traverse is generally a measure of quality... and provides a nice excuse to eat at the nearby "Spirit of Thai" restaurant.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the "slick, dark and very funny" that got "Wild Allegations" onto our list, but rather a hint at the play's format/structure. In any medium I tend to enjoy things that provide alternative views of the same events or any kind of 'he said'/'she said' situation so it was the mention of "parallel but conflicting tales" that grabbed me.

"a site-specific, interactive shopping experience" was enough to send me running in the opposite direction but I wasn't surprised to see "Your Dream Wedding" from Anything Bloody Goes on Waldorf's list.

That's all we have from the 'Theatre' section of the Fringe programme but we like to dabble in the 'Music' and 'Musical' sections too. As soon as we heard Alan Cumming was bringing his musical show, "I Bought a Blue Car Today", to the Fringe it was top of our 'hot ticket' list. And we'd enjoyed his performance in "The Bacchae" so much a few years back that we don't even grudge paying £20 a ticket. We're amazed there are still tickets available for his 3 night run but don't wait too long to book up.

We're also hoping to see "Spring Awakening" and I'll see "Fresher" if it can be slotted around a day's schedule.

And that just about concludes our tips for now, although we may add shows to our list once we get more details about shows such as cast etc. It's also unlikely we'll be able to see all these shows as past experience suggests there will be time clashes and distances between venues that will prove insurmountable given the relatively short amount of time we can spend in Edinburgh.

We are always open to suggestions for other shows to see, but if you're planning on e-mailing us about your own show, please do so as early as possible. We always get a few e-mails each year in the middle of the Fringe asking us along to see shows that sound fantastic but we simply can't rearrange our plans at short notice. And with that in mind I had made a mental promise that I would go along to see the first show that sent us a press release after the programme launched - so although it wouldn't have normally been on our list, is technically in the 'Comedy' section (which we haven't quite got round to yet), and is in a hotel venue, I will be going along to see "Dildon't".

Open.Stage & CATS winners announced

The Tron's Open.Stage competition to find a play for their Autumn season recently reached its conclusion, and after the public vote, Abigail Docherty's "Sea and Land and Sky" was declared the winner. We're looking forward to seeing it later in the year and also hope to catch the rehearsed readings of the two runners up. Full details at the Tron website.

And yesterday saw the award ceremony for the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) - full details of all this year's winners are now available on the CATS website. As we mentioned before we somehow seem to have contrived to avoid seeing most of the winning productions, but congratulations to all involved.

"One Million Tiny Plays About Britain" - June 2010

Okay, let's be clear about this for the benefit of anyone worried about committing the next few years of their life to watching this show from the Citizens Theatre Company. You only get to see about thirty of Craig Taylor's 'tiny plays', adapted here by Ros Philips and performed by Sushil Chudasama, Mark McDonnell and Pauline Turner over the course of around 90 minutes. But actually, that's a pity as I'd quite happily sit through another 999,970 tiny plays like these ones - although perhaps not all in one session.

We've grown accustomed to seeing cast members playing multiple characters over a short time frame but I can't ever recall seeing it done on anything like this scale, or quite so impressively as it is here. Age and sex prove no obstacle to playing roles here and the accents vary perfectly to match locations the length and breadth of Britain. When we discussed the show on the way home we realised we had no idea what the 'natural' accents of the three cast members might be. The individual plays are too short and sketchlike to allow any real depth to the characters, but I expect it will be a long time before I see performances displaying such range again.

Despite their brevity, each playlet is absolutely absorbing and perfectly captures a vignette of everyday life in modern Britain and is crafted with such care that they seem to come to a natural conclusion - never feeling too long or too short. In her role as Director, Philips ensures the plays transition seamlessly at breakneck pace separated only by snippets of audio and a digital text scroll to help to set the location. Jason Southgate's design for the Citizens Circle Studio is as creative as I've ever seen in there - with a kebab shop, a train carriage and an immigration inspector's booth located on three of the four walls, and a fantastic multipurpose central set.

A hugely entertaining and memorable evening of theatre and we hope the Citz will be looking to give us Volume II before too long.

One Million Tiny Plays About Britain runs at the Citizens Theatre until Saturday 5th June.
Image by Richard Campbell used with permission

"Blue Hen" - May 2010

Des Dillon's new comedy set in a Coatbridge housing scheme, follows two men who, finding themselves on the scrapheap of unemployment, attempt to secure a better future through breeding hens. And if that brings to mind echoes of "The Full Monty", tonewise you're not far off the mark.

Charles Lawson and Scott Kyle make an entertaining pair as John and Paddy, and there are some very funny moments. But there's also a heavy reliance on using expletives to buy cheap laughs, and that's a pity, as it overwhelms the more sombre moments of the piece. It also suffers from a lack of clarity at times - in discussing the show afterwards, Waldorf and I had very different understandings of a significant plot element.

But I'm prepared to put that down to the distraction of what I could charitably call the 'lively' audience at Cumbernauld Theatre. Less charitably I could detail the three ringing mobile phones (that rang and rang and rang), the talkers in the second row, the attempted heckle and the numerous toilet-goers (5 minutes after the interval for heaven's sake). I really can't face writing another 'badly behaved audience post', however, I do have to note that I felt the 8pm start time and the full 20 minute interval were contributing factors. We appreciate bar takings are an important element for theatres, but I'm afraid it's something that will be a factor when considering to see a show at Cumbernauld in future.

Waldorf suspects that we're being theatre snobs and that anything that gets an audience through the door is a good thing, but I really don't care. My enjoyment of the show was significantly impacted by my fellow audience members and I think I'm entitled to be annoyed by it.

I do however apologise to NLP Theatre and the cast for not providing a fuller response to the show. I've sat on this piece for a week, but in the end I've concluded that I simply can't attribute how much of my disappointment last Saturday night was due to the play and how much was due to the external factors. I think the fairest I can do is simply to note that many in the audience were clearly enjoying themselves.

Blue Hen tours Scotland until 12 June.
Image by Daniel Goganian Ania Winiarska used with permission

"The Grapes of Wrath" - May 2010

Staging a production based on John Steinbeck's classic novel of America's dispossessed in the Great Depression is ambitious for any theatre company. For the Citizens Community Company to take it on in the form of this adaptation by Tim Baker is beyond ambitious. Particularly so, when their sole professional performer, Citizens Actor Intern Mairi Phillips, is age/gender bound to play a relatively small but crucial role - leaving community cast members to carry the production squarely on their own shoulders.

A great deal of that responsibility falls on Patricia Preston as the matriarch of the Joad family and she proves to be entirely convincing as a strong, driven woman, but one who knows her existence is hanging by a thread. Equally impressive is Chris McCann as her son Tom, with a well pitched balance between naive optimism and a determination to fight those contributing to their hardship. John McNeil provides strong support as emasculated Pa Joad while John Speirs makes former preacher Casy three dimensional instead of the plot device he could easily have become. Full time performer Phillips gives the Joad's pregnant daughter a beautifully light touch in her early scenes which makes her devastating final moments all the more effective.

With an extended Joad family and an abundance of characters to encounter on the long journey from Oklahoma to California, there's plenty of opportunity for the ensemble making up a cast of almost forty to each have their moments to shine. But the acting is only half the story here, as the production makes fantastic use of song and on-stage musical accompaniment, managing to avoid scenes of vastly differing tones feeling in any way disjointed.

In keeping with our approach of considering all performances we see to a professional standard, it would be remiss not to acknowledge that there were a few lines that we struggled to hear. However, the overall impression is one of an immensely slick and well drilled production. Co-Directors Neil Packham and Elly Goodman move the show along at pace and it rarely feels anything like its two and a half hour run time - with only an extended barn dance overstaying its welcome.

Baker's adaptation makes the Joad's situation clearly relevant for both the current financial climate and the tensions that can arise from (im)migration. I did find it a little heavy handed at times in repeatedly hammering home its economics lesson but Waldorf happily accepted this as simply illustrating that the Joads just 'wouldn't be told' that California wasn't the land of milk and honey they had been cruelly lead to expect.

Once again, the Citizens Community Company has delivered a high quality and relevant piece of theatre - we look forward to seeing what they have in store for us next.

The Grapes of Wrath has now completed its run at the Citizens
Image by Tim Morozzo used with permission

"Address Unknown" - May 2010

I've taken a couple of days to mull this one over as I suspected my initial response to it had been too strong. I feared that my immediate enthusiasm for the play would quickly diminish once the 'high' of the satisfying ending began to wear off.

But two nights later, I'm more impressed than ever with the layers of subtlety displayed here and the direct questions it raised for me. As a byproduct of this, what I'm about to say here will include significant plot points that we would not normally disclose when posting our thoughts on a show. If you've stumbled across this because you are planning to see the show or read the short story on which it is based, it's probably best you read no further.

The Tron's production of Katharine Kressmann Taylor's tale is part of their Mayfesto season of what I will crudely label as political theatre and takes the form of an exchange of letters between two German friends in the early 1930s. Max and Martin jointly own an art gallery in San Francisco, but Martin has recently returned home to Germany, leaving his Jewish partner Max to run the business. Through their letters we witness the impact the rise of Nazism has on them individually and the toll it takes on their friendship.

The text used here has been edited for the theatre by Frank Dunlop and is magnificently crafted. After only the first letter is read I believed in this friendship entirely and as the exchanges develop they always ring true, remaining anchored by those first moments of affection. Of course, a large part of that credibility is due to Benny Young and James MacPherson as Max and Martin giving immensely powerful performances which downplay any moments of melodrama.

For a while I felt the ending was too self-satisfying and that neither the subject nor the audience deserved to be left on a (relatively) positive note. But actually, I think for me this is the greatest revelation and salutary lesson of the play. I'm now horrified by how content, even pleased, I was to see a man being taken, presumably to his death. And more than learning anything about the characters and their circumstances, I've gained an invaluable insight into how easily influenced I could find myself in the right (wrong) situation. I don't think I've ever been quite so personally disconcerted by a play as I was by this.

A truly powerful and memorable piece of theatre.

We received our tickets for the show through our membership of the Tron's Patrons scheme which we thoroughly recommend for anyone who is a regular attendee at the Tron.

Address Unknown runs at the Tron until Saturday 22nd May
Image by John Johnston used with permission.

Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland shortlist

Congratulations to all those on the shortlist for this year's Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) which was announced earlier this week.

Sadly it seems we missed out on seeing some of the best theatre in Scotland last year as we don't appear to have seen many of the shows nominated. But then again, we weren't wholly enthusiastic about some of the shows on the shortlist that we did manage to see.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Edinburgh Festival Theatre on Sunday 13th June. Tickets to the event are now on sale.

Open.Stage Voting Opens

Back in October last year we noted the Tron's new playwriting competition Open.Stage was inviting entries - with the winning play to receive a full commission and production later this year. In February a panel of judges narrowed down almost 300 entries to a shortlist of three: "Zurich" by Rob Drummond, "Sea and Land and Sky" by Abigail Doherty and "Plume" by J.C.Marshall.

Each of the these have since received further development and 'trailers' have now been created and posted on the Tron's website, where it will now be for the public to vote to determine the winner.

The contest certainly appears to have produced three interesting ideas and I think I'd quite happily go along to see any of them.

Voting is open now and closes at 5pm on 21st May.

"The Event" - May 2010

While probably not a good choice for anyone making their once a year visit to the theatre, for those who love theatre as an art form and knowingly clever theatre in particular, "The Event" is an absolute delight.

To say more would spoil much of the fun, so just trust us for once and don't read any reviews or even the blurb for the show - just clear a space in your diary before the run ends.

Written by John Clancy and performed by David Calvitto, The Event runs at the Citizens until Saturday 8th May
Image used with permission

"The Woman from the North" - May 2010

With our increasing elderly population and incidence of those suffering with dementia, Bernard MacLaverty's play is dealing with a very current issue when it introduces us to Cassie who is spending a period in residential care. But despite a hugely impressive central performance from Eileen Nicholas, it somehow feels like a piece from 20 years ago.

Back then, this would have been a window into a hidden world that wasn't spoken about, but now few people are left untouched by these conditions either in their immediate or extended family. There's little to see here that most audience members won't have experienced first hand - and Cassie's situation is very much at the gentler end of the spectrum.

I'm not advocating a sensationalist approach to a serious issue, but there are aspects that could have been focused on that would have given the piece something current to say - the financial burden of residential care, patients refusing medication, standards of care and conflicting wishes of family members among others.

But while lacking an incisive edge the play is beautifully executed and director Liz Carruthers provides some delightful touches. It's a shame much of the Oran Mor audience failed to pick up on a fantastic pre-show piece of scene setting taking place in front of their noses.

The Woman from the North runs as part of A Play, A Pie & A Pint at Oran Mor until Saturday 8th May.
Image by Leslie Black used with permission.

"Turbo Folk" - April 2010

Alan Bissett's contribution to this season of "A Play, A Pie & A Pint" at Oran Mor is a prime example of that rare theatrical beast - a comedy that makes you think. It's also one of the few pieces of theatre I've seen in recent years that can genuinely lay claim to the overused 'Black Comedy' label.

While on tour in a Balkan-esque state, Scottish pop star Cameron (Ryan Fletcher) decides he wants to get out from his hotel room and meet some real people. His local record company escort (Simon Donaldson) duly obliges and takes him to the kind of bar tourists would avoid.

It's a beautifully simple set up and allows Bissett to make serious points in a manner that avoids any sense of superficiality or trivialisation. His targets include the Scottish belief that the world loves us; our continuing Scottish/British identity struggle; and our lack of knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the turbulent events in the recent past that formed many of the nations on our doorstep.

Bissett's wordplay with the 'local language' is genius - and I'm sure I missed picking out half of it. Fletcher plays Cameron to perfection and displays a musical talent that suggests that in the unlikely event of acting roles drying up he could quite comfortably make a move in that direction. Steven McNicoll as barman Vlad and Donaldson give magnificently steely eyed performances - and are crying out to be cast as the Evil Mastermind and his Chief Henchman respectively in a future Bond movie.

With its well pitched balance of light and dark, and snuggly fitting its 45 minute run time, "Turbo Folk" deserves to be another addition to the list of Oran Mor shows that gain a life beyond their initial run.

Turbo Folk runs at Oran Mor until Saturday 1st May
Image by Leslie Black Photography used with permission

"Huxley's Lab" - April 2010

"Huxley's Lab" proved to be a perfectly pleasant evening of theatre. I just hope Grid Iron and Lung Ha's Theatre Company are as disappointed to read that sentence as I am to be writing it.

Their tale of a genetics lab where a new generation of society is being created 'fit for purpose' with a cast including actors with learning disabilities could have been a profoundly uncomfortable, provocative and personally challenging evening for its audience. Lining the audience up in order of height to be inspected makes for an interesting start, but how much more of an impact could have been made had the cast 'inspection' involved giving each audience member a 'perfection score' based on looks, height, weight, eyesight, hair colour? Or simply divide us into Pass/Fail and treat the groups with a different tone. Sure, it may have upset a few people but what a great way to remind the audience how we all constantly judge others - especially those society considers less than perfect.

Similarly, a segment where the audience uses provided fobs to answer multiple choice questions lacks any sense of significance - apart from anything else we don't get an indication as to how we as an audience have responded. Were they even real fobs? How much more involved would it have made the audience feel had their responses had an effect on events/characters in the show?

But then, the audience role in the production is a little fuzzy. We're often treated as 'candidates' and addressed directly while at other times we're privy to clearly private interactions between characters. The fact that there is a longer time period involved also makes it difficult to hang to to the conceit of us as invited observers.

For most of us genetic manipulation/selection is, fortunately, a somewhat abstract and philosophical question and it needs something more personal to knock people out of their comfort zone. To be honest, if I hadn't been going to write about the show here I doubt I would have given it much thought after Monday evening. But having had to give the show and its issues further consideration over the last day or so, it struck me that in a world of even fairly basic genetic selection I may quickly have found my embryonic self on the 'reject' shelf. How many other short-sighted audience members would find themselves similarly disregarded? And be shocked to be confronted by that revelation had the show delivered a sufficient nudge in that direction?

But although the show left us lamenting a missed opportunity to really unsettle the audience, there remained plenty to admire. Its central cast were all very strong - particularly Sean Hay as Dr Davenport, while "the Naturals" in the rooftop garden showed great dedication in delivering their performances despite the howling wind. And of course there is an incredible level of skill in negotiating the audience groups around the building and delivering the technical elements of the show in all manner of locations.

Over three years after seeing Grid Iron's "Roam" it still spikes in my memory when I see images of civil unrest on the television news. And two years after seeing "Yarn" I still hesitate guiltily when looking at impossibly cheap pricetags on clothes. I just don't think there's anything from "Huxley's Lab" that will stay with me that long.

Huxley's Lab has now completed its run at the Edinburgh University Informatics Forum as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival.
Image by Douglas Jones used with permission.