theatreSCOTLAND

6 November 2010 The Guardian

The Monster in the Hall

By David Greig. A TAG Theatre review.

DAVID Greig's The Monster in the Hall takes its cue from shimmering 60s girl-group pop. In its story about a 16-year-old whose mother died in a motorbike accident, it nods to the melodramatic roar of Leader of the Pack, except, where the Shangri-Las gave us baroque teen tragedy, Greig gives us social-work leaflets, internet roleplay games and a hard-rocking Norwegian anarchist. Every time the four actors drop into Phil Spector harmonies, it's a fair bet the story will take a decidedly unromantic – if funny – turn.

October 2006 Northings

Yellow Moon

By Daid Greig. A TAG theatre review.

WHEN the actors of Glasgow's TAG theatre company turn up in your school hall, you might think they're taking the Mick. They've got no set, no stage, no costumes to speak of Ð nothing more than a couple of chairs. It doesn't look a promising way to fulfil playwright David Greig's aim to entertain a teenage audience with a story of Hollywood-style excitement.

13 April 2006 The Guardian

The Crucible

By Arthur Miller. A TAG theatre review.

WHILE the RSC is fielding that fine Scottish actor Iain Glen in their current production of The Crucible, the National Theatre of Scotland has chosen to stage the same play in an altogether less starry fashion. Collaborating with the schools-friendly TAG theatre company, the NTS is taking Arthur Miller's witch-hunting tragedy on a small-town tour, drafting in a dozen locals to flesh out the cast at each destination.

April 2006 Northings

The Crucible

By Arthur Miller. A TAG theatre review.

THE thing they always teach you at school about Arthur Miller's witch-hunting tragedy is that it was written as a metaphor for Senator McCarthy's communist-baiting House Un-American Activities Committee of the early-1950s. It's an allegory that makes perfect sense, but put that thought aside and you see that, over half-a-century after it was written, ÔThe CrucibleÕ is much more fluid in its application.

October 2005 Northings

A Taste of Honey

By Shelagh Delaney. A TAG theatre review.

YOU'VE got a girl just out of school who's single and pregnant. She's from a white family but the child will be black. Her flatmate is openly homosexual and her heavy drinking mother has abandoned her for a sleazy fancy-man. The house is unsanitary and there is virtually no money coming in.

22 February 2005 Northings

Knives in Hens

By David Harrower. TAG theatre review.

THERE are many extraordinary things about David Harrower’s ten-year-old play. Extraordinary is the number of productions it has had: getting on for 80 in 25 countries and almost as many languages. Extraordinary is the play itself, a mysterious, dream-like thing unlike any other, even subsequent work by Harrower.

11 February 2005 The Guardian

Knives in Hens

By David Harrower. A TAG theatre review.

YOU could describe the plot of Knives in Hens easily enough. You could say that David Harrower's play was about a young woman driven to kill her adulterous ploughman husband with the help of the hated village miller.

September 2003 Northings

The Birthday Party

By Harold Pinte. A TAG theatre review.r

HAROLD Pinter is an exceptionally precise writer. Even in this his debut play, first performed in 1958, his phrasing, his sense of place and his feel for character is exact. He might be describing an ambiguous air of menace, but there is nothing ambiguous about the way he does it.

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