theatreSCOTLAND

SCOTTISH THEATRE REVIEWS AND ARTICLES

19 February 2013 The Guardian

Takin' Over the Asylum

By Donna Franceschild. A Citizens/Royal Lyceum Theatre review.

WE'RE in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest territory – but instead of Jack Nicholson finding method in the madness, here we have Eddie, a hospital radio DJ, discovering the insanity of the psychiatric system. Donna Franceschild's bittersweet comedy, based on her own 1994 TV series, stands as a metaphor for authoritarian oppression. When the self-styled Ready Eddie: the Soul Survivor starts playing his treasured collection of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke originals at St Jude's psychiatric hospital, he realises the main obstacle in his path is not anyone's bipolar disorder, OCD or schizophrenia, but the psychopathic control of the institution.

18 February 2013 The Guardian

Running on the Cracks

Adapted from the Julia Donaldson novel by Andy Arnold. A Tron/Pilot review.

YOU couldn't fault this adaptation of Julia Donaldson's novel for being short of themes. In 90 minutes, it ticks off bereavement, child abuse, missing people, drug addiction, mental illness, multiculturalism and the search for identity. Throw in a cat-and-mouse chase across the country, and you have the kind of sensationalist narrative that plays well to the target teenage audience.

8 February 2013 Northings

The Seafarer

By Conor McPherson. A Perth Theatre review.

IN THE BAR after the show, two of the staff are playing cards. It looks like a game of snap rather than the poker that has dominated the second half of Conor McPherson's play, but you can see where they got the idea from. Like the endless stream of Irish whiskey and American lager consumed on stage, the card playing is as addictive for the characters as it is compelling for us. It takes extra will power not to leave the theatre and go straight to a gambling den.

4 February 2013 The Guardian

In an Alien Landscape

By Danny Start. A Birds of Paradise review.

HALF an hour along the Clyde from Glasgow, the Beacon is a handsome new arts centre with a 500-seat main auditorium and a 100-seat studio. The artistic director of the £9.5m waterfront complex is Julie Ellen who, by a happy accident, is also the director of this opening production by the touring company Birds of Paradise. With its all-white set by Kenny Miller and abstract video projections by Neil Bettles, it shows off the studio to good effect.Unfortunately, Danny Start's script is rarely as interesting as the story that inspired it.

20 January 2013 Scotland on Sunday

Traverse theatre celebrates 50-years with new plays

Reflection on company's first half-century. A Traverse Theatre preview.

FOR two dozen Edinburgh residents, 2013 began with a theatrical pilgrimage. Spurred into action by Scotsman theatre critic Joyce McMillan, they gathered in the city's Cambridge Street on the evening of 2 January to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Traverse Theatre. From there, this impromptu gathering walked back in time; first to the Grassmarket, where the theatre was resident in the 1970s and 80s, and then to James Court off the Lawnmarket, where the company launched in 1963 with Jean-Paul Sartre's Huis Clos and Fernando Arrabal's Orisons.

theatreSCOTLAND © Mark Fisher 2009–2013