New Work

The Garden of Adrian

11 Jun 2009

NEW WORK There can be few performers with the immense personal charm of Adrian Howells. His is a theatrical presence that inspires trust, and deservedly so. Perhaps only Howells could carry off this latest piece of performance, which involves a…

Oreet Ashery: Raging Balls & Golani Varanasi

11 Jun 2009

NEW WORK Even the least articulate among us can suddenly become word-perfect when overtaken by a spasm of rage, often to compelling effect. The performance artist Oreet Ashery is keenly aware of this, and, inspired by the artist David Wojnarowicz’s…

Hear Me

30 Apr 2009

With RE-ID and As You Always Do Gappad established a reputation for devised physical theatre which addresses issues affecting the Polish diaspora in Scotland. Its latest piece takes the company in a completely new direction. Performer Agnieszka…

Interiors

2 Apr 2009

NEW WORK We’ve all seen those moments when a friend wants to stay in the pub for an inordinate length of time, less for the need to drink than for pure companionship. Matthew Lenton, artistic director of Vanishing Point is looking toward that sense…

Kyoto

5 Mar 2009

PREVIEW NEW WORK Those ancient, lurking passions that linger in the subtext between two people, who, because of vicissitude and circumstance can’t consummate an attraction that exists between them for years on end is an experience common enough for…

Spectacular

27 Nov 2008

NEW WORK Contemporary Western Culture is at a greater distance from death than any that parallels or precedes it. While we endlessly represent death in movies, television and the theatre, these fictionalised, sanitised versions of an event all of us…

The Dogstone and Nasty Brutish and Short

30 Oct 2008

This double bill, part of the jamboree of new theatre on a small scale laid on by the NTS and Traverse, looks very much a boy thing. Andy Duffy’s Nasty Brutish and Short deals with the deteriorating relationship between two brothers in a Glasgow…

Cockroach

16 Oct 2008

NEW WORK With Darwin’s bicentenary coming up in 2009, one can’t help but suspect that an awful lot of TV documentaries with hidden ideological aims have just been put on hold. A great torrent of material about how capitalism most closely mimicked…

Midsummer

16 Oct 2008

NEW WORK Edinburgh might not be Manhattan, but surely it merits a love story of its own. It is, after all, a romantic city. Step forward David Greig and Gordon McIntyre to fill this void. The dramatist and rock musician are collaborating on a…

A Slow Dissolve

16 Oct 2008

NEW WORK Last year, Barry Henderson’s first play, the Edward Hopper-inspired A Pleasant Kind of Loneliness, impressed critics when it premiered at the Arches. A Slow Dissolve, his new commission from Glasgay!, could well be the sleeper star of…

4 Boutique Shows

16 Oct 2008

1 To Kill A Kelpie In Matthew Smith’s eerie family drama, two grown brothers relive the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their uncle, talking to the children they once were about the climate of fear they endured at their abuser’s tales of a…

Old People, Children and Animals

19 Jun 2008

NEW WORK Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 19–Sat 21 Jun Many of us have elderly relatives, kids, even pets, but in our busy lives, how much time do we actually spend worrying about their welfare? Certainly, these three groups have rarely appeared on a stage…

The Infinite Pleasures of the Great Unknown

5 Jun 2008

NEW WORK Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 6 & Sat 7 Jun The provocative Dr Mabuse trilogy, made by Fritz Lang in the 1920-30s, was banned by the Nazis, before the filmmaker fled the country. It’s frightening, though unsurprising, that a work steeped in the…

Swindle and Death

5 Jun 2008

NEW WORK Tron, Glasgow, Wed 11–Sat 14 Jun; Byre, St Andrews, Mon 16–Fri 20 Jun There’s a long history of plays by Scottish writers about the Scottish theatre, and too often these pieces become mired in self referential jokes. While Peter Arnott’s new…

Nova Scotia

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 24 May Next time you’re trapped behind an oldie trying to use a cash point, quietly contemplating the benefits of euthanasia, you might want to reflect on Phil and Spanky, and buy yourself some patience.

As You Always Do

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 21–Sat 24 May Behind the stories of the media there are truths that we will never see. When we view reports of murders, disappearances and wars, our perspective is controlled by the scripting, editing and camera…

Skin Piel (Without Sin)

8 May 2008

NEW WORK The Arches, Glasgow, Tue 20-Thu 22 May Morally questionable animal testing aside, in vivo research has proven its worth through centuries of scientific study, with experimentation on, or dissection of, entire systems providing valuable…

Death Story

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Oran Mor, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May The thriller format that we’ve come to associate with Alma Cullen’s film and television work in such programmes as A Touch of Frost and Inspector Morse is abandoned in her latest play for a more reflective…

That Night Follows Day

24 Apr 2008

NEW WORK Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 1–Sat 3 May ‘My own observations show that we have rated the powers of children too low and that there is no knowing what they cannot be given credit for.’ Freud believed growing up became a matter of submitting to…

The Polish Play

24 Apr 2008

NEW WORK Craigellachie Village Hall, Craigellachie, Aberdeenshire, Wed 30 Apr, then touring The issue of immigration becomes more controversial each day, and everyone has an opinion. We regularly hear what the politicians and the papers think, but we…

Can We Live With You?

27 Mar 2008

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 3–Sat 5 Apr Edinburgh’s Lung Ha’s theatre company has always steered clear of politics. Although set up to give performing opportunities to people with learning disabilities, the company prefers to let the…

The Apprentice

27 Mar 2008

NEW WORK Oran Mor, Glasgow, until Sat 29 Mar There’s a long tradition of theatre and film which explores bigger existential questions through what might, on the face of it, seem a familiar commercial vehicle. It’s possible, for example, to see…

An Advert For The Army

27 Mar 2008

NEW WORK Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 7–Sat 12 Apr The question of how much we must compromise our principles in order to live our lives is one that has plagued cultures for as long as we’ve recorded them; it’s as much part of modern drama as it was in…

Oresteia

27 Mar 2008

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 27–Sat 29 Mar Critics tend to use the phrase ‘an uncomfortable night of theatre’ to describe the effect of a challenging piece on an audience. But in Lazzi’s one man version of Aeschylus’ tragic trilogy, the…

The Wall

13 Mar 2008

The anxieties and dilemmas of teenage life seems to be the theme of the moment in Scottish theatre. But it’s hard to imagine that they could be approached with such guile, deftness and warmth as in DC Jackson’s new play for Borderline and the…

Hidden World - Litter of Sandals

28 Feb 2008

NEW WORK Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 25 Feb–Sat 1 Mar Being able to address the oppressive regimes of recent world politics in mainstream lunchtime theatre is a luxury some countries simply do not have. In Hidden Worlds, playwright Stuart Delves…

Static

28 Feb 2008

NEW WORK Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Feb, then touring It sometimes takes a brush with death to remind people of the truly important things in life, the shock instantly cutting through the meaningless static that surrounds us. Evoking memories…

The Visible Men

14 Feb 2008

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 16 Feb Contemporary dance and comedy double act are two concepts that aren’t usually found in the same sentence. The two genres appear to attract such widely different types of audiences, and philosophies that…

The Persian Revolution

15 Nov 2007

NEW WORK Traverse, Edinburgh, Wed 21–Sat 24 Nov What do we imagine when the word Iran is mentioned? In the West, the frequent response might be images of great masses of conforming folk, all similarly attired, with a succession identical…

The Pearlfisher

15 Nov 2007

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, run ended Philip Howard’s final production as the Traverse’s artistic director might be seen to characterise much of his sterling work there over the last decade. His swansong with Iain F MacLeod’s gentle, but…

Blood Country & Rehearsal Room 12

15 Nov 2007

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 22–Sat 24 & Thu 29 Nov There’s always been something boysie about the best of Douglas Maxwell’s work, with such pieces as Our Bad Magnet and Decky Does a Bronco depicting all-male casts exploring the rites…

Only The Men

1 Nov 2007

NEW WORK Touring A play that deals with the emotional intricacies of father-son relationships is certainly nothing new. Reeling and Writhing’s new work inspired by the landscape and history of remote Sanna Bay in Ardnamurchan, explores the issues…

Faustus

1 Nov 2007

NEW WORK Dundee Rep, Tue 13–Sat 17 Nov, then touring In general, the visual arts and theatre go together like garlic and custard. The theatre’s more outward-looking social vision, its concern with public issues, might seem to contrast with the…

Only The Men

18 Oct 2007

NEW WORK Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Thu 25 Oct; Platform, Glasgow, Tue 30 Oct; Brunton Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 31 Oct; CCA, Glasgow, Thu 1–Sat 3 Nov Music speaks to us in ways words or actions cannot, or so the cliché goes. This is certainly the…

Beneath You - Spider Girls Are Everywhere

20 Sep 2007

One in ten women in the UK uses more than half her monthly take-home wage to pay off debt, and popular TV programme Spendaholics no longer shocks us with its weekly depiction of debtors borrowing thousands in their quest to portray the perfect outward…

Music at the Brewhouse: Helter Skelter

18 Jun 2007

NEW WORK If there’s something about the circus that thrills us when we’re children, there’s also a darker undercurrent within the spectacle of it all. This is perhaps why clowns have so often been lifted from their traditional locale and into horror…

Over The Wall

18 Jun 2007

NEW WORK George Peat, the new president of the Scottish Football Association, is calling for a new anthem to replace ‘Flower of Scotland’, which he described as ‘embarrassing’. But there may well be more than a few football fans who object to such a…

‘E Polish Quine

22 May 2007

NEW WORK Henry Adam’s capacity to emotionally move an audience has remained unchallenged in Scotland over recent years. This writer’s work, for all the wildly funny farce of such pieces as The People Next Door, and unflinching political commentary of…

The Bad Drive Well/Tongue Lie Tight

8 May 2007

NEW WORK Interesting idea: take two half-hour plays by young writer-directors who happily admit that they’re accustomed to ‘an above-average level of control’ over their own work. Give them a rehearsal room and a shared cast of two, and have them…

Carthage Must Be Destroyed

8 May 2007

NEW WORK It is incontestable that politicians aren’t held in high esteem these days, but what is often missed by those who criticise the political classes is that it might be the system itself that dehumanises our leaders, rather than their…

Home Hinderance

8 May 2007

NEW WORK In our current state of hyper reality the boundaries between the real and fiction have lost their clarity. We have an obsession with reality made fiction and problems differentiating between the two, issues addressed by David Leddy in his…

Leave To Remain

8 May 2007

NEW WORK Anyone who has experienced grief will be aware of its immense power as an emotion. This is often magnified by the fact that at least in Western society, it’s not a subject we’re encouraged to talk about. After losing his wife Susie Innes…

I of The Needle

8 May 2007

NEW WORK Foucault saw identity, who and what we think we are, as something fluid and changeable, a product of cultural circumstances. It’s a similar concept Adrian Osmond seeks to explore in his new one man play directed by Paddy Cunneen, for this…

The Patriot

8 May 2007

NEW WORK In selecting Grae Cleugh’s The Patriot as the first production of his reign, the Tron Theatre’s new director Gregory Thompson clearly had the zeitgeist in his sights. Unfortunately, the only thing he has shot is his own foot. Cleugh has…

Kindertotenlieder

8 May 2007

NEW WORK Literally translated as Songs on the Death of Children, the title of French performance artist Gisèle Vienne’s latest piece has a long artistic history. It first appeared as a collection of 425 poems by German poet Freidrich Rückert in 1834…

Futurology

Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre until Sat 28 Apr, then touring

23 Apr 2007

NEW WORK For all the obvious advantages of a long preparation time for a piece of theatre, there may in fact, be drawbacks. Times change, and attitudes with them. So perhaps the reason why Suspect Culture’s long-awaited NTS-produced piece doesn’t…

Re:Union

Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 27 Apr, then touring

23 Apr 2007

NEW WORK The traumatic and uncertain business of separation, be it of nations, lovers or families, creates a lasting emotional impact upon who we are and how we define ourselves. In 7:84’s new piece, composed of four separate short plays, each…

Re:Union

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 11 - Sat 14 Apr,

9 Apr 2007

NEW WORK Given the amount you’ll be reading over the next few weeks on the issue of the future of the union, I’m loathe to add to your burden. But 7:84 are determined to approach this issue from angles that you won’t expect. True to their general…

Bad Jazz

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 21-Sat 24 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK It’s hard not to feel a certain resistance to the term ‘play within a play’ these days. After over 20 years of those pieces which hide behind the terms ‘postmodern’ and ‘meta-narrative’ in order for members of the profession to talk about…

Strangers, Babies

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 17 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK Does our behaviour depend upon where we’re from, or where we are now? That hoary old chestnut, the nature versus nurture debate still rages on in every field of human knowledge. So it is that while it emerges quite plainly that the woman at…

Monks

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 16 Mar-Sat 7

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK I expect at times we all wonder what life is all about. Beyond all the ceaseless trudging on and on, the struggle with mortgages, the hassles at work, the stress of supermarket queues and so on, there’s surely some greater purpose. Whether…

Ice Cream Dreams

Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 28-Sat 31 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK When writer Martin McCardie, currently best-known for his work on Channel 4’s Shameless, was approached to write a play set during the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars of 1983, he resisted the ready-made plot of drug-dealing and unsolved murder. ‘I…

The Unconquered

North Edinburgh Arts Centre, Wed 7 Mar, then touri

27 Feb 2007

NEW WORK Sometimes, as one leaves a theatre, one can already sense the divide within an audience over the play just watched. Torben Betts’ new piece for Stellar Quines is such a case. The bone of contention? In technique, this piece resembles nothing…

Strangers, Babies

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 23 Feb-Sat 17 Mar

12 Feb 2007

NEW WORK It’s pretty easy, when you think about it, to spot the difference between how men and women treat their relationships. Men are driven by ego - the person they go out with is their own business, and just try to tell them otherwise. Women, on…

Risk

Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Now touring

12 Feb 2007

NEW PLAY Whether we’re crossing on red or skydiving for kicks, we live in a world of calculated risk. If we stopped to think about it, we’d rarely leave the house for fear of the consequences. Actually, to stay in the house would only expose us to…

Earfull

Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 23-Sat 24 Feb

12 Feb 2007

NEW WORK If you like your theatre fringey, there are few greater assurances of quality than seeing the acronym BAC on the flyer. The Battersea Arts Centre might be in London, but the benefits of this creative hive of the arts have been plain to see…

Risk

Tron, Glasgow, Thu 8-Sat 10 Feb, then touring

29 Jan 2007

NEW WORK If you believe what you see and hear in the media, there are gangs of hoodies lurking around every street corner in Britain these days. In truth, of course, teenagers have always been demonised for the kind of mischief that they get up to.

Do I Mean Anything to You or Am I Just Passing By?

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, run ended

27 Nov 2006

NEW WORK Urban alienation is something so familiar to contemporary experience that we seldom even notice it these days. Yet when in manifests itself in art, there’s something compelling about a close focus on single voices articulating the dilemma of…