Abigail’s Party

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Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh has been on my want to see list for a long time. Just at this moment, I’m disappointed.

I saw Abigail’s Party years ago during an August afternoon in a Fringe venue performed by a group of non-drama students. I thought the chap cast as Tony in that production was so bad because he’d been drafted in to fill a space. Now I realise it wasn’t him – it’s the part.

Women shouting their glee over discovering they’re entertaining a professional footballer is long gone, but not completely. Maybe Leigh has a point when Beverley, the ghastly heroine, played by Hannah Waterman, gets over-excited by mono-syllabic Tony and his legs.

I had no recollection of the ending of Abigail’s Party. Certainly the A-B-C of don’t pull a rabbit out of the hat to cheat the audience is all there, but you do have to piece it together later.

The cast work hard, but I can’t help thinking it would have enjoyed a better vibe if we’d been allowed a bit more seventies music.

All of that said, the play pointed up in the late seventies how very difficult it is to imbue taste despite opportunity. When I was working in London in the seventies, the flat had a host of pictures sold by the thousand. They were moody studies of heads: children with a single tear falling down their cheek, a beautiful girl/woman with a flower in her hair – beyond sentimental. A friend took them to sell at the church where he was training to be a Curate. The lady running the church fair said, ‘Oh no! These are too good to sell. We’ll use them as raffle prizes.’ There simply is no accounting for taste.

Disappointed, Edinburgh.

The King’s has lovely new seating – I may have mentioned this before. You can dedicate a seat. £300 for one, £500 for two. Visit: www.edtheatres.com/dedications or phone 0131-662 8087

SCOTTISH COMMUNITY DRAMA ASSOCIATION 14th -16th February

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The Scottish Community Drama Association holds its one act festival for Edinburgh District over the three nights 14th -16th february 2013.

St Serf’s Hall, Clark Road is the venue and starting time is 7 pm

Up first tonight is Leitheatre (Kirkgate), followed by EPT and Mercators

Friday 15th is opened by Edinburgh Makars, followed by St Serfs (Afton) and Leitheatre (Sunnyside)

Saturday is opened by Livingston Players and then St Serfs (Bangholm) close the Edinburgh SCDA one act Festival round.

Tickets from www.scdaedinburgh.org.uk or 0131 225 5952

Lynne Bains adjudicates.

Theatre Broad tour Ira Levin’s Deathtrap

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Theatre Broad, directors Carol Metcalf and Tangee Lenton, are to tour Ira Levin’s Deathtrap which they produced to great acclaim in 2007.

I’ve been dropping gently teasing hints over the last week or so, but the news is out today. Creative Scotland are funding Theatre Broad for this tour of Deathtrap. Ira Levin’s comedy/thriller is a tour-de force of modern American writing. You will not want to miss this.

Call back for news of casting and progress or check things out over on Theatre Broad’s own website. Wonderful news for the company, the play and the small towns on the list of tour venues.

Growing The Audience: Bums on Seats

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Growing the Audience is something we’d all like to do. I was at Edinburgh Grand Opera last night where a stellar cast gave their all to a Queen’s Hall with huge gaps along the rows.

Where were the bums for those seats? Don Giovanni must be one of the most audience friendly works in the history of opera – if you can’t pack them in for that, what’s the prospect of tackling anything more challenging?

I have no idea what EGO does by way of advertising, but a lot of the chorus members were greeted by a small group of family or friends at the interval and the end. So that’s one ploy for growing the audience. You can have children and you can be nice to your friends.

The practitioners among us have all done it and been supported by those sections of the theatre going public. I love them.

Okay, mutual admiration ain’t growing the audience or getting extra bums on seats in sufficient quantity. The folk who come to our productions are often pleasantly surprised by the quality, but they haven’t necessarily risked embarrassment by flogging tickets to their friends. I think this is a profound misunderstanding of the nature of criticism in so far as people often feel they want to know they’ll enjoy the production. By extension, your family and friends don’t want to find themselves defending your sortie into surrealism, or physical theatre, or anything with a risqué content.

Any answers? Well, next time the pal asks how ticket sales are going, challenge them to not only come along, but bring one or two of their pals. Ask them where they distributed the flyers you gave them – sitting on, or under, their hall furniture is not selling any tickets.

Another growing the audience idea is probing people’s extended family links. Are you touring to Pumpherston? Whose Mum, sister, best friend’s Bridesmaid lives there or shops there or works in a shop there. Will the shop take a pile of flyers? Will your extended contact display the flyer on the parcel shelf of their car?

Have you exploited as many friends’ blogs and websites as you can identify? Watch this space in coming weeks for news of Theatre Broad.

My friend was explaining how she’d taken her niece to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, see below; pick any one, because the girl is going to University to study Engish Literature but had never been to the theatre. How can this be? The child is in Glasgow which is not a cultural desert.

My friend has also undertaken the further education of other nieces and is conscientious about buying tickets for her own children. She’s the prompt for this piece, together with my shock at the gaps in EGO’s audience. If it’s okay to introduce the next generation to golf, football, tribute bands and all that, why not introduce them to theatre, opera and all that?

And those out there who only buy tickets for known quantities, whether of scripts at producing theatres or for star-vehicle touring productions, try to remember Shakespeare was a journeyman once. We all need support in the beginning. Grow our audiences and put bums on the seats of our productions – please. Stepping out of your comfort zone could be an energising experience.

Any of my family, friends, neighbours, or other audience out there reading this. I love you all. Thank you for the ongoing support.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream BENJAMIN BRITTEN

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Okay, so Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but if you’re around the theatre world at all, or even this blog, you’ll know everyone else has had a go. BENJAMIN BRITTEN’s opera performed by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Scottish Opera is another take on the world’s most versatile play.

The students of RCS and performers from Scottish Opera’s emerging artists’ scheme gave a wonderful performance, ably supported by children from the National Youth choir, directed by Andrew Nunn who is currently studying conducting at RCS. The music doesn’t have many tunes, but in a way that allows the drama and the language to shine through. The performance was conducted by Timothy Dean who was in charge of memebers of the Scottish Opera orchestra with students from RCS.

The production is a revival of Olivia Fuchs 2005 Royal Opera House one and she again directed supported by the original designer, Niki Turner.

A major highlight for me was the breath-taking circus skills exhibited by Jami Reid-Quarrell playing Puck. Strength, elegance and consumate acting characterised his offering and I hope we’ll being seeing him again.

The King’s Theatre Stalls were looking good. Do we have new seats? It was a pleasure not to sink through the cushions onto the floor beneath. Sadly, looking up is another matter. The lovely ceiling is decayed and in need of a lot of TLC.

Run ended.

THEATRE OF WORSHIP – three

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Regular advice to actors is never appear with children or animals. While conducting Baptisms, it’s clearly inappropriate to follow it. At least where the children are concerned. The animals, in the case we’re about to discover it’s a snake, is more arguable.

Many of the regular congregation had wisely stayed at home. There’s a real difficulty about getting to the Church as the authorities have dug up the  junction on two sides and closed them for a month. Why? Who knows? And once there, the heating has been giving trouble although the building was warm enough this morning.

However, the Minister would have been pleased to see the Christening party. It was large and comprised of the two children being christened, six godparents and the extended family with many small ones in hand. The older child, a boy, had brought a friend. It was green and wiggly and perfect for dropping over the front of the pew as the sermon progressed. His younger sister was awake in her pram and cooing loudly. She soon had the covers off and tiny feet in perfect slippers were waving in the air.

Most of the wee folk headed out to the toilet attached to their parent of choice, but as that included the young man of the day, it was considered a good thing. He’d be fine for the actual baptism.

Only he thought he’d go again. Just as the congregation began the baptismal hymn. One of the godparents performed his first duty by winkling the boy and his mum from the toilets in time for them to join his Dad and sister at the font.

The Minister managed most capably and did in fact succeed in baptising the child, but not the snake. However, just as he breathed the proverbial sigh of relief, little sister got hold of the radio mike. Whether it is smeared with child friendly syrup before baptisms, we haven’t been able to establish, but proceedings faltered. She too was baptised eventually. The congregation sang. Dad left the Sanctuary. The Minister raised an eyebrow and Dad came back onto the Sanctuary.

The Sacrament completed, Dad removed his tie. The snake was last seen slithering into a bag. What a lot the stay-at-homes missed.

That would be the sermon. Calvinism and the six paradigms, I think. The theatre was most engaging.

A TASTE OF HONEY Shelagh Delaney

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A Taste of Honey, Shelagh Delaney’s ground breaking 1950s play about changing and unchanging social order in the working class Britain of her times, is the opening 2013 production at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay St.

Written when Delaney was 18 and taken up by Joan Littlewood, the play is breath-takingly good. Tony Cownie, who directed this revival, names his favourite line in the programme (when did they become £2.50, even for subscribers?), but we’ll all have our own. A Taste of Honey is that kind of work.

Delaney tackles the unchanging cycle of single parent creating single parent, homophobia, drink and racism, with such precision and insight, it’s hard to remember the writer was as young as she was. Did she simply record what she saw and heard? At eighteen, she’d not travelled or even studied that much. And yet she gives us a play of warmth and humour contrasted with bleakness and dystopian dark that challenges many other writers who were older, had studied, had travelled.

Performed without overt violence or sexual scenes, the play involves and delights its audience in equal measure. As the second act moves through, you do begin to wonder how it will finish and the programme hints at Littlewood having influenced the ending. My companion was unhappy with the ending. He’d grown to care so much for Jo, he wanted to know more. Can there be a finer tribute to an author?

Excellent performances from the whole cast. Terrific set, used to great effect. Get along there. Run ends 9th February ’13

HONOURS – Douglas Currie, Edinburgh

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Write, watch and critique is so pleased to be offering congratulations to Edinburgh’s Douglas Currie on his award of the British Empire Medal for services to Drama and Teaching.

Although this Olympic year must be the year of the sports’ god, to those of us labouring away in other fields, Douglas has long been a role model. People in the know will cite his long association with the Mercators dramatic society, his running of the SCDA’s library in South Bridge and his many years of providing wonderful Christmas pantos and evenings of entertainment in Mayfield Salisbury Church.

While writing with Citadel Theatre (now Arts), I was on the same list in Riddel’s Court during the Edinburgh Fringe with the Mercators; Douglas at the helm. They have brought several entertaining exposées of well kent literary figures to the public. Now they bring the Fringe to South Edinburgh.

It wasn’t possible to speak to Douglas today about his BEM Honour, but his wife, and dramatic colleague Rosemary, said how very exciting it has all been.

Congratulations, Douglas. Edinburgh is proud of your efforts.

Theatre of Worship – two

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The Christmas day service in my local church is a relaxed and joyous event – for the congregation. We sing traditional carols and there’s a children’s address: for our Minister, that’s the rub.

The children’s address mainly comprises an opportunity for the children to show off their favourite booty from Santa. Remember the warning NEVER APPEAR WITH CHILDREN OR ANIMALS.

Bet our Minister was wishing he’d thought more carefully about that this morning. Besides the usual cars, aliens, spiders (what is it about children, Christmas and spiders?) he found himself studying a Hexbugs centre. What is a hexbug and should the Church Officer take advice?

In addition, there was the child carrying a large plastic bottle of tomato ketchup. It was, he claimed, his favourite toy. He offered no further elucidation.

A wind-up (of the Minister, not of the ketchup bottle) or a family joke? Who knows. Like all good theatre, we left the Sanctuary with a question in mind.

EDINBURGH’S GIFTED SCULPTURES

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Edinburgh’s Gifted Sculptures are made from old books and lots (and lots) of glue. They started appearing in the Poetry Library in 2011 and there are now ten Gifted Sculptures and a book about them. I went to the touring exhibition in its last couple of days – finishes tomorrow – at the poetry library.

http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/connect/blog/gifted-edinburgh-book-sculptures-tour-2012

The Edinburgh Poetry Library is well down the royal Mile. Opposite the Canongate church with its statue of Fergusson on the pavement there’s an inviting pend – go there. No 35 bus has a handy stop on each side of the road.

The Gifted statues are exquisite and to my untutored eye must have taken hours of painstaking work. Cutting, arranging, glueing at a micro level while bearing the overall compostition in mind looks wholly absorbing. Does the artist have an other life? Who is the artist?

Well, that touch of mystery adds a little relish to the whole wonderful exhibition. I found the Jekyll and Hyde one theatrical as Stevenson’s story leapt out of the arrangement of figures. Anyone else remember the CSI story of the miniature killer?

Back on the High Street, there’s a hug bundle of black bags and stuff stretched out along a bench. Is it rubbish or is there a man sleeping inside the eight-foot coccoon? Edinburgh’s High Street continues to intrigue.