Sunday 10 February 2013

Musing 1



After my recent review of Scottish Opera's Clemency, I was directed to an old article by the composer James MacMillan. Five years ago, MacMillan expressed a pessimism about Scotland's heritage and, in a taut turn of phrase, condemned "the sentimental, saltire-waving orgy of identity politics in which we are now embroiled." Whether MacMillan still holds these opinions in 2012 is difficult to say, but here he echoes a consistent concern: that the arts are concerned not with forging something timeless, but are often stuck in a reflection of fashionable concerns.


Over in theatre, it is strange to call any company fashionable: against the mass media, live performance is more frequently a marginal presence. Yet Random Accomplice are a fashionable company. Recent years have seen them work with the National Theatre of Scotland (Big Gay Wedding), reinvent the short play into a "choose your own adventure" style trilogy, grapple with serious issues around race and education and creating a distinctive Scottish voice. One of the founders, Johnny McKnight, turned up in the NTS' Appointment with the Wicker Man and has managed, through his tenure at Macrobert, to make the annual pantomime hip and knowing.


The Incredible Adventures of See Thru Sam appears to be a fusion of the more serious approach seen in RA's The Promise and their more typical broad humour. With McKnight writing, and visual artist Jamie MacDonald on animation duties, See Thru Sam takes inspiration from both McKnight's familiar west coast patter and the magical world of the comic book. Whether Sam McTannon really has the power of invisibility, or is simply coping with the horror of his parent's death through fantasy, McKnight is on his familiar territory of outsiders trying to relate to their circumstances.


Random Accomplice have a good wind behind them: The Promise was a surprise, bringing out the company's ability to shape work that dealt with big issues without compromising their complexity: their most recent production on the Tron's main stage, Small Town, was a return to the fun and frolics.






Sam is joined by his best pal Walrus, the girl of his dreams Violet and her loser boyfriend Chunk. He is watched over by his parents (Sheila The Feeler and Chip The Grip) and his arch-nemesis – Evil Uncle Herbie. Sam  is played by James Young (Taggart, Chewin’ The Fat, Casualty) and all other roles are played by James MacKenzie (Raven from the BAFTA award winning series of the same name, Sunshine on Leith, Rebus, Taggart), and Julie Brown (Double Nugget, Smalltown, Little Johnny’s Big Gay Wedding)

Accompanying the performance is breathtaking animation from Glasgow based visual artist Jamie Macdonald which creates the canvas on which to tell Sam's story. Through the animation the audience get to see the world through Sam’s eyes, be transported from location to location, witness the cunning disguises his super-villain foes take on, and witness Sam’s inner thoughts. Sam views his life as a comic book and, through the animation and specially composed score by Alan Penman, we get to see what that really looks and feels like. The set and costumes are designed by Lisa Sangster (Double Nugget. Smalltown, Promises Promises, Little Johnny’s Big Gay Wedding, Little Johnny’s Big Gay Musical).

The Incredible Adventures of See Thru Sam – a story about love, life, super powers … and being a total loser.


Random Accomplice are delighted that The incredible Adventures of See Thru Sam will be the first production kicking off the new Tron Ambassador Scheme which runs from Sep 2012-April 2013.

Follow the comic book style story of the making of See Thru Sam on the specially created website www.seethrusam.com.


See Thru Sam

“I used to be invisible.  
The Incredible
See-Thru.  
BA
DONG
I could move undetected throughout the cityscapes stalking the predators, infiltrating the evil geniuses and tying the shoelaces together of thick-necked henchmen.  
I could also watch the girls hockey team take their bras off in the changing rooms.  
Can’t anymore.  
Which sucks.  
Now I’m just plain Sam.  
See-able Sam.”


Supported by Creative Scotland & Glasgow City Council


Random Accomplice started 2012 with an amazing Scottish tour of their **** double bill Double Nugget and will finish the year on a new Random Bites development with Mary Gapinski, based on her NTS 5-minute theatre production, TIPS.

Next year will be Random Accomplice’s 10th anniversary and they intend to celebrate it in the style they know best – fast, funny and fabulous theatre that makes their audiences gasp, giggle and greet. 








My position is highly suspect. When I am not out watching theatre, I am sitting at home in dirty clothes thinking about it.  My tastes matured thanks to the programming at Tramway, which showcased the international avant-garde and introduced me to the obscure delights of physical theatre and Belgian choreography. I delude myself that theatre is made not for the benefit of an audience, but for the critic, who has a duty to deconstruct and chide the performance.

Looking over the press release for The Incredible Adventures of See-Thru Sam, I am struck by the ghastly realisation that sometimes, theatre is not aimed at me. Of course, there is the problem of comedy - Random Accomplice can be hilarious and have an almost seaside postcard sense of humour - and I share the opinion of that mad monk in The Name of the Rose, that too much laughter will eventually mock everything into meaninglessness.

More than that, I start to link the plot of See-Thru Sam to other plays that I have seen. It's about a boy who dives into a fantasy world to protect himself from the harsh reality of his parents' death. It is described as a coming-of-age story. The character has friends with amusing names, and an unrequited life. It's very familiar.

The question becomes whether I can trust Random Accomplice, and writer Johnny McKnight, to make something of these ideas. The question isn't whether this will be an accomplished, witty and populist drama, that addresses the problem of theatre being a minority interest. That is a given: I'm worried that I am going to be the sulking dissenter, sitting at the back of The Tron wishing that I was desperately trying to decode hidden meanings.

Random Accomplice are undeniably a rising force in Scottish theatre: The Promise revealed that they could do the big issues, without sacrificing complexity: Small Town reinvented the short play as a "choose-your-own-adventure" style trilogy. McKnight's vision as a writer has been consistent. His Big Gay Trilogy gave him a voice, and his interest in the outsider coming to terms with himself and society takes his scripts beyond broad humour.

As he has demonstrated during his tenure directing pantomime at Macrobert, McKnight has the skills to update slapstick and cheeky humour to a modern sensibility. Fusing camp and saucy gags, he has been the intelligent bastion of the old fashioned pantomime, keeping the asides to adults without losing the wonder of the Christmas magic. That same vitality made Small Town a hit. Getting the audience involved - they voted for the last act - he made demands on the actors (including himself) and had three of the west coast's finest playwrights working to a comic and potentially tragic brief.

Alongside co-founder Julie Brown, who has acted and directed in all of their work, McKnight has set the pace for emerging companies and, entering their tenth year, still have more energy than a brand new gang.

See-Thru Sam, compared to Small Town's premise of a water-borne virus that transforms people into, variously, sex maniacs or zombies, has a predictable plot. My trust in Random Accomplice is that their distinctive voice - the ear for slang and the one-liner - and willingness to mess around with the  format of the play will take this beyond a generic work-out of "young people's issues."

The signs are there: illustrator Jamie MacDonald is animating the performance, and both Brown and McKnight are back together after a few excursions into extra-curricular activities. It was their dynamic interaction that gave Big Gay Wedding the combination of pathos and hilarity which See-Thru Sam promises. If I have doubts about the basic plot, I am enthusiastic to see what they can do with it.

But, I admit, I am corrupted. Although I do believe that every theatre production has an intrinsic worth, I am more on the side of the difficult and the challenging. Eventually, this blog will clarify why this might be  (I don't know yet, although I imagine it is something to do with my experiences at Tramway and deep emotional repression): in the meantime, I end up giving guarded approval to See-Thru Sam, which is probably going to be the most fun available in the theatre this year.

I might have a habit of spamming Facebook everytime I write a new entry, but more personal entries like this tend to  be set to one side. I don't think they are interesting enough to boast about - the point of the blog is to alert potential audiences to stuff I think is cool, and my egotistical musings are more of a side-bar. Unfortunately, I do feel the need to add the odd meditation on my beliefs and intentions.

Hopefully, these interludes make sense of my idiosyncratic attitude to criticism. For the record, I call it Radical Subjectivity, which refuses the hope of an objective opinion and highlights the writer's own experience to give context to the review. I throw out the odd straight review, even here, because I want to prove I can still write them. And yes, I am looking for work.


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