Theatre and Culture from Scotland, starring The List's Theatre Editor, his performance persona and occasional guest stars. Experimental writings, cod-academic critiques and all his opinions, stolen or original.
Bill Kenwright, The Classic Thriller Theatre Company and Theatre Royal, Glasgow are pleased to welcome the creepy comedy thriller The Cat and the Canary next week as part of a UK tour.
The stage adaptation of John Willard’s screenplay of the same name, The Cat and the Canary is the third show to be staged at Theatre Royal since it reopened on Sunday 5 September.
Starring silver screen and Bond-girl legend Britt Ekland, the chilling play is set 20 years after the death of Mr West as his descendants gather to learn who will inherit his vast wealth and the hidden family jewels. Within moments, the heritage hunters turn into prey. Walls crack open, shadows loom, and dark secrets are revealed.
Britt is perhaps best known for The Man with The Golden Gun with Roger Moore, The Wicker Man with Christopher Lee, and Get Carter with Michael Caine. She stars alongside singer-songw riter, actor and former member of the internationally successful 00’s boy band Blue, Antony Costa, and Tracy Shaw, best known for her long-running role as Maxine Peacock in Coronation Street. They are joined byWest End leading lady Marti Webb, whose credits include Evita and Tell Me on A Sunday; Gary Webster, who played Gary Costello in Family Affairs and Ray Daley opposite George Cole in ITV’s Minder; Classic Thriller Theatre Company veteran Ben Nealon, who played Lt. Forsythe in the drama series Soldier Soldier, and Eric Carte, who played Geoff Roberts in two series of Bouquet of Barbed Wire.The cast is completed by Priyasasha Kumari, Martin Carroll, Jack Taylor and Clara Darcy.
The Cat and The Canary is director Roy Marsden’s fifth Classic Thriller Theatre Company production. Other credits include the West End premieres of Agatha Christie’s A Daughter’s a Daughter at the Trafalgar Studios and Noël Coward’s Volcano at the Vaudeville Theatre. As an actor, he is well-known to television audiences as Inspector Dalgliesh in the long-running P.D. James series.
Adaptor Carl Grose was, until recently, co-artistic director of Kneehigh Theatre. His numerous plays and adaptations include book and lyrics for The Grinning Man, which Tom Morris directed at the Trafalgar Studios in 2017.
Designer takis’s diverse international credits include In the Heights, Gifford’s Circus and the Royal Opera.
Lighting Designer Chris Davey’s work includes Witness for the Prosecution at London’s County Hall and Touching the Void at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
Dan Samson is resident Sound Designer for The Classic Thriller Theatre Company. West End credits include Heathers at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Evita at the Dominion Theatre.
How did you get into burlesque in the first place? Lady V: I started performing burlesque back in 2007 as a way to keep performing after finding that I wasn't the typical size/shape for commercial or theatrical dancing. As an audience member I loved the atmosphere, costumes and showmanship of Burlesque. I approached a local show for a newbie slot and that was my big start. Roxy: I just kind of fell into it! I've always loved the theatre and love the idea of being part of something that's so old and yet just keep changing and stays so fresh! Combine this with my love of pin-up and 50s' culture and Roxy Stardust was born! In an individual performance, what do you look for? Lady V: For me, its really that thing that holds my attention through a particular performance. It can be a style of dance, a particular skill, a unique looking performer or just a really interesting costume. I don't have limitations on the type or style of performance I gravitate towards. Roxy: For me it's all about the energy a performer gives off. Maybe someone is not the best technically or there costume isn't a work of art but if they have that spark, there's just that something that you can't put your finger on, but it's there... And was their any particular them or approach or taste that drove your selections for the festival? When making selections for the festival we were really looking for a broad selection of performers which could show as many different facets of Burlesque as we could. We wanted there to be performers that would suit a wide range of tastes but also to enlighten audience members to things they haven't seen locally before. For headline acts we wanted performers who had been influential on the Scottish scene and who had really made Glasgow grow. Where is burlesque at these days? Is there any particular style that is dominating?
Everywhere! Glasgow is a cabaret hive! We have Wild Cabaret and The Riding Room who constantly have live entertainment on display and there's many independent night ran for performers. There's a lot more performers diversifying their skills and bringing new and unexpected things to their acts. It's now not enough just to be good at one thing. Ultimately it shows that styles and expectations chance over time and performers and constantly are challenged to come up with something new and innovative. But that's certainly not a new concept for this industry. How do you feel about the 'controversy' of burlesque - the 'is it/isn't it feminist' matter? Lady V: It's only controversial if you make it so. Glasgow and Scotland in general is so open to the burlesque, cabaret and alternative scene in general. It's certainly that attitude that makes Glasgow unique and known worldwide for their friendly nature. Burlesque is what you want or need it to be. Roxy: I think that the best way to deal with this is let everyone have an opinion, and then just accept that everyone has one. Is there much connection between the wider cabaret scene and burlesque at the moment? Of course there is. Cabaret and burlesque cross over so much now. We think with so many performers bringing a plethora of skills to their performances the lines a blurred between the two because burlesque isn't about just stripping and cabaret isn't just all about singing and comedy.
What kind of audiences are you hoping for - and what will they experience? There is no typical audience member for us. We just want the whole of Glasgow and beyond to come along! Audiences will experience a fun filled weekend showing the many facets and faces of Burlesque but also focusing and highlighting on what makes the Glasgow scene unique and fabulous. Why have the festival in Glasgow? Glasgow is home to the world's largest burlesque show, club noir. Glasgow also has the world's oldest surviving music hall, Britannia Panopticon. We are also home to the best audiences the world has to offer, well if you believe what touring musicians say! This is also our home city which we both love dearly. Does it celebrate a Glasgow scene? Glasgow has always embraced and celebrated burlesque and cabaret. Think it's something to do with the water! But yes the festival has a big focus on Glasgow performers particularly at the closing show. Are there national or international artists coming? We have local, national and international artists coming. The closing night will focus in Scottish artists but each headliner across the festival is Scottish.
Is there one night that would be the best for a 'newbie'? For newbie performers we have a show on the Sunday afternoon at The Riding Rooms, Roxy's Round-Up. Although for the festival it's not strictly new performers it runs the last Thursday of every month and is a show specifically for performers finding there feet .
For someone who's never been to a burlesque show, any of our nights would be a superb night out. And is there any artists who might surprised a jaded old critic? Of course there will be! Burlesque is so much more than a pretty performer taking their clothes off to an old piece of jazz music. We have a particular female performer who is bringing a comedy act which we both agree you'll love. We have a variety of male performers who are not just dancers too. Oh and we think that Granny Stardust might be popping along to give us her opinion on a few things too.
Oh - and any guys doing boylesque, too? Certainly! Burlesque is not gender specific. It is heavily influenced by female or feminine performers but the boys certainly give them a good run for their money. For us there's no separation of boylesque from burlesque, its just a different facet of the same coin.
Roxy Stardust Described as "Explosively Gallus" Roxy Stardust specialises in Singing and Comedic routines.
Roxy is the mastermind behind Monster-A-GoGo, Roxy's Round-Up: Cabaret Showcase and various other shows the UK. Roxy has performed all over the UK and in 2012 made her first US appearance and then toured the states in 2014
She's a Glasgow showgirl through and through.
Lady V Lady V started performing burlesque back in 2007 and has been performing across the UK since. A trained dance teacher who owns her own school and also an accessories designer under the name "Twirls and Delights by Lady V".
NO LITTLE MYSTERY FOR HOTEL’S RESIDENT SHOW SELL-OUT
Intimate magic show, Little Mysteries, is continuing its sell-out run as it passes the halfway point of a one-year residency at Glasgow’s iconic Grand Central Hotel.
Glasgow sleight-of-hand artist and magician, Ryan Davidson, has already performed 20 shows to audiences of no more than 15 the last six months.
And his weekly performances are receiving rave reviews – as well as unstoppable demand for tickets.
Described by audience members as ‘astounding’, ‘mind-blowing’ and ‘a must-see’, Little Mysteries gives smaller audiences a unique opportunity to witness close-up magic, and hear the unique narrative that goes alongside.
Ryan, who has studied the art of deception for the last decade, said: “The show has done even better than I could ever have imagined. I really enjoy performing to a more intimate audience as they get to see everything as closely as possible and really feel part of the show.
“It’s always been an ambition of mine to have a regular show in Glasgow, and Grand Central was my first pick in terms of a venue – it’s iconic, famous throughout the city and has the vibe I was looking for to fit with the show. I was delighted when they agreed to let me perform every Saturday night for the full year. This is my third one-man show, and it’s definitely been third time lucky.”
Graeme Gibson, general manager of Grand Central Hotel, said: “Having Ryan perform regularly was an easy decision for us, despite this being the first residency we’ve offered since re-opening. The show is slick and understated, but evokes a great reaction and is memorable for everyone who goes along to watch – so was the perfect fit for the hotel.
“Those coming to the hotel for the show can enjoy dinner and drinks with us before or after each performance – either in Tempus or Champagne Central. We’ve had some wonderful feedback so far, and look forward to welcoming even more people to Grand Central for the next six months of Little Mysteries.” Little Mysteries is performed by Ryan Davidson every Saturday evening from 7pm at Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow.
Glasgow-born Ryan Davidson has been performing close-up magic at private and corporate events for the last 10 years, and has written and performed three one-man shows – Past Times of the Strange(2012), An Honest Deception (2014) and Little Mysteries (2015).
Ryan is also an ambassador for the John Hartson Foundation.
Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow is a recipient of seven awards at the Scottish Hotel Awards 2013 including Scottish Hotel of the Year.
The hotel is part of the PH Hotels collection of 21 properties across the UK. In 2010, it underwent a £20 million refurbishment, transforming it in to one of the city’s most stylish wedding, conference, training, banqueting and short break properties.
Located in the centre of the city, adjacent to Glasgow Central train station, the four-star hotel offers 21 flexible event rooms all boasting state-of-the-art technology and with room for up to 400 guests or delegates.
Guests at The Grand Central will be staying where icons such as JFK, Winston Churchill and Frank Sinatra have visited. So whether a visit’s for business, leisure or a celebration, guests can relax in stylish surroundings.
What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
I’ve always been interested in people’s relationship with mystery and I wanted to try to capture that in a close-up magic show. I loved the idea of giving someone a locked box and asking them to think of all the things that could possibly be inside it. Then, take it away and leave them with this feeling of wonder. That was the starting point for Little Mysteries.
What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
It’s hard to say without giving too much away. The show has elements that are very personal but there’s some historical context too.
There’s a narrative to the show that everyone can relate to. I think there’s a wide range of emotions that it evokes during the 80 minutes.
One minute you’re laughing and then you’re gasping. Next, you’re reminiscing about your childhood. At the finale of the show you’re torn between wanting to know and wanting to stand up and leave.
There have been people crying at the end of the show. I suppose that’s a good thing?
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
It was something I never really gave much thought to in the early days. When I was performing close-up magic the affect was so strong I didn’t care for dramaturgy.
When I thought about performing I never thought about the staging, lighting, music, the use of space, positioning of props, use of set pieces, timing, pacing, scripting and use of language. Proper dramaturgy. The magic was fucking brilliant! Who cares about all the other stuff?
It wasn’t until I wrote my first show Past Times Of The Strange I started to think about using music and lighting and trying to create an atmosphere. The response to that show was far greater than first expected. One night for 30 people soon turned into a full weekend run of four nights to 65 people each night. It all sold out in less than an hour. We went on to do 12 shows that year that all sold out.
I knew I had to step it up for the next one. I decided I would hire a director and a set designer for my 2014 show An Honest Deception. I had an old friend with a background in theatre that had directed shows all over the world. His name is Brendon McIlroy.
He knew nothing about magic. Absolutely nothing. He had never seen me perform so much as a card trick.
I had no idea what to expect. I gave him a script and a synopsis of each effect in the show. I never performed any of the effects during the rehearsals. He directed it from a fantasy in his head. That was all I gave him to work from.
What he brought to that show changed the way I thought about performing. He had me using the space in front of the table, behind the table, interacting with the set as well as the audience and justifying the use of everything that was on that stage. The choreography of each routine became almost like a dance, step by step.
The pacing of the show was something I never thought about. Brendon’s use of pacing helped build the show in the important parts and slow it down when it needed to be slower. There was light and shade, loud and quiet, all things I’d never given thought to.
I had never used a script before. I now appreciate that it is one of the most important elements of a live show. I keep it in my bag and change bits after every show.
Using dramaturgy elevated the show from a series of impressive magic tricks to a theatrical presentation of magic.
My current show Little Mysteries runs every Saturday night in The Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow. As well as writing and performing it, I also directed it. The show is limited to 15 people and is performed in a private suite upstairs. It was difficult to create ‘theatre’ in a room that size for only 15 people but I think I’ve done it without it being overstated.
What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
I’m very inspired by people who do things their own way and aren’t driven by money or fame. I have a real strict set of principles by which I live and work. I think it’s very important. When I see others who have become successful without selling their souls or signing their life away, it restores my faith in art.
Little Mysteries is inspired by magicians from the 1800s who performed close-up magic to smaller audiences. They used very few props and their performances were very understated but slick and memorable. Hopefully I’ve captured some of that with this show.
Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
I usually start with a concept for a show. Then I think of the ending and work backwards from there. It’s what works best for me. I then spend months, in some cases years, playing around with ideas and trying them out on audiences at private engagements to see how they play.
I only have a handful of people I collaborate with. People I trust. I’ll ask them for their opinion and then write, rewrite, perform, rewrite, perform until I feel it’s good enough to go in front of an audience. Even throughout my current show (we’re 21 shows into a year long run) I’m still tweaking and rewriting parts to make it better.
What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
The audience is the single most important thing. For me, magic is art. I try to give it context and the audiences give it meaning and hopefully they all take away with them something different from it.
My shows are limited to 15 people per show so by the end of the
show, everyone has participated at some point. Because of the amount of audience participation, they play such an important part in whether the show is a great show or just ordinary. Some audiences are great and it makes the show come to life. There’s a buzz in that room. Other audiences are reserved and sit on their hands. They might still enjoy the show but if it you don’t feel as though you’re not getting anything back from them it can make the show quite flat. Luckily, that’s only happened once or twice and although I haven’t enjoyed those shows, the audience still loved them.
This is going to run and run. Further to the removal of The Arches' late licence, Dr Iain McPhee of the University of West of Scotland, who specialises in policing and drugs laws, condemned the force for some of the conditions put on the club. The report in The National (Scotland's independence supporting tabloid) relates that Dr McPhee has concluded that the police are acting unfairly. A source within The Arches (anonymous, of course) reckons they are more like a bunch of gangsters. “It’s been a sustained campaign against The Arches – and, I suppose, what it symbolises, you know? A pretty renegade, two-fingers-in-the-air sort of venue.”
The accusation of acting like a racket was backed up by McPhee. “In a free and fair society, Police Scotland should not be operating like an illegal protection racket,” he said.
For libertarians, and Robert Anton Wilson, the police are always a gangsters (the state is the biggest robber baron in history): while the suggestion that The Arches is 'pretty renegade' is weak - it's not an illegal shebeen, and electronic dance music is hardly an underground phenomena in 2015 - the possibility that the police have been trying to muscle in on the financial action is... if not yet persuasive, the closest thing so far at an attempt to analyse the meaning of the removal.
At this point, I am far less interested in the catastrophic loss to Scotland's arts scene - although I recognise that this is a concern - than what the process is revealing about the behaviour of the state.
Winter Gardens, Glasgow Green Thursday 25 September 2014 6.00 - 8.00pm
Scozzesi is a brand new all-male vocal group from Scotland. This collective of eight, talented, classically trained singers and two dazzling pianists, will make their debut performance at the Winter Gardens, Glasgow Green on Thursday 25 September from 6.00 - 8.00pm.
The group takes its name from the Italian for “Scottish men” and the singers are from Angus, Ayrshire, Fife, Lothian and Glasgow. The group was the idea of Daisy Henderson of Classical Musicians Scotland. Daisy said, “I first heard these young men individually at auditions and was instantly struck by how beautifully they sang. I wanted to bring them together because I thought hearing the quality and tone of their voices in four part harmony would be a powerful musical experience.”
They offer a mix of opera, operetta, songs from the shows, traditional Scots songs, popular songs and a few comic surprises along the way, with new arrangements specially written for the group.
With a total of ten musicians, Scozzesi will normally perform as a quartet of singers plus pianist, but for the launch, all members will take the stage.
The question poses two immediate and difficult questions: what is meant by Glasgow, and performance, in this context. Discussions about performance - its boundaries and the application of its critical theories - have been complicated since Richard Schechner applied the logic of Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) to theatre studies, the ideal of a ‘broad and inclusive’ study has encouraged the reading of all walks of life as forms of performance. And while Glasgow can be found on maps and in encyclopedia, its geographical limits are hardly fixed - in 1996, the Conservative government dismantled the existing Strathclyde Region and, through restructuring, reduced the size of the city and the population by 50 000. The 2001 census revealed that the population of Glasgow had nearly halved since 1938, and areas served by the city’s public transport system, such as Rutherglen, are no longer part of Glasgow but have become self-governing. There is also the Glasgow of the imagination: the violent streets conjured in the novel No Mean City, or Tom McGrath’s play The Hard Man. It has provided the landscape for films: from the apocalyptic World War Z, the social realism of Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen or Carla’s Song, to the horrific science fiction of Under The Skin. This Glasgow is associated with brutality and exercises a fierce hold on the public perception of the city: the actor Brian Cox recently noting that ‘the humour in Glasgow is darker, because it's much more gloomy, there's a perpetual misery there.’ This is more than an abstract problem of definition, since similar problems emerge in the discussion of national theatre identities and history. Nadine Holdsworth, in Theatre and Nation (2010) observes that a tension exists between ‘ethnic nationalism’ - based on bloodlines - and ‘civic nationalism’ - a matter of shared laws and customs. While the latter form allows anybody within the nation’s boundaries, theoretically, to be included as a citizen, ethnic nationalism can insist on a far purer population. Applied at the level of the city, this can resolve into the problematic division between ‘true Glaswegians’ (born in the city) and incomers (arriving for economic or educational reasons). In Scotland, the relationship between the two sets is partially explored in the provocative essay Settlers and Colonists by Alasdair Gray (Unstated: Writers on Scottish Independence 2012), which condemned English professionals who migrated north of the border for short term career gains. Rather than attempting to fit the existing ideals about Glasgow into these existing descriptions, a working definition of Glasgow - tentative and open to expansion or contraction - can be developed, based around the network of important sites for performance. This will be a geographical framework that relates artists to their places of work or education. However, this still leaves the problem of performance.
Matthew Whiteside is a regular co-host on The Vile Arts Radio Hour: bringing a touch of intelligence and knowledge to my usual vague understanding of contemporary classical music, he is a tireless supporter of new composition. He's part of the wonderful Said Ensemble, a group committed to bringing classical music into unfamiliar places, like the pub, and he has been known to compose a cheeky electro-acoustic number, or two. In fact, he is prolific.
His entry into the next Edit-Point show explains why he is a good match for the Vile Arts ethos. It's called Sanshen and early indications suggest that it is going to be a big drum solo. Edit Point have got young percussion Glynn Forrest on board to bash some bits - six new compositions, and the full range of percussion, from maracas (Javier Alvarez’s Tamazcal sees the instrument made popular by Bez face off against tape) to a rock'n'roll style kit.
Edit-Point are in one of those marginal areas that I love so much: not purely classical composition, not purely electronic and intrigued by the possibilities of sound in specific spaces. Of course, every experimental musician likes to say something like that, but Edit-Point back it up by having a constant programme that challenges emerging composers to think about sound as "cinema for the ears."
It might be said they are John Cage's children, in their fascination with the complete listening experience. Then again, maybe Cage had an affair with Stockhausen, because these kids like to get plugged into the machine.
Edit-Point are performing as part of the Sound Lab series: 7.30pm, Wednesday 27 February, Recital Room, City Halls, Glasgow
Electronic music is still struggling to find a relationship between the seriousness of its compositions and the immediacy of live performance. Often being closer to classical music in terms of scope and ambition, it lacks the vitality of rock or pop but can veer into pretentiousness when aping the chamber concert. Ben Frost summed up the problems - his music vacillates between Michael Gira and Reich - in his recent gig at the Fruitmarket, which was less interesting as performance than as a soundtrack.
Matthew Herbert's One Pig at Tramway was more successful, not least due to the sight of a lab-coated boffin bouncing about in a musical cage but for all the live remixing, fancy trickery and performance play - One Pig was recast as a performance for laptops, electric fence, boffins and chef - electronic music thrives on the sterility of the studio rather than the grubby confines of the gig.
While Sonica is going some way to present enough sound art to sketch out the boundaries of modern musical performance, Glasgow City Halls is beavering away with PULSE: Touch 30. Pulse is a new strand of programming - kicked off by Frost last month - and Touch 30 is a celebration of the London experimental audio-visual company.
The gig is a three way mash-up of talents: like a Scottish Ballet triple bill, it has something for different crowds. Philip Jeck gets busy on the decks; BJ Nilsen examines how sound hits humans and composes for film and theatre; Thomas Köner would fit nicely under Sonica's "sonic art for the visually minded" rubric, and has been known to mess about with a bit of dub-techno
Philip Jeck is a rare turntablist who, like Janek Shaefer, is less a hero of the dance floor than a determined sound artist. He brought his Vinyl Requiem up to Tramway in the 1990s: this immense piece is both a nostalgic tribute to the record-player, made at the point when CDs were still looking viable as a replacement, and a reminder of how the turntable has a versatility that makes it an instrument in its own right.
Jeck is also worth seeing perform. His music may come from a secure intellectual foundation - he learnt his skills at Dartington College, not at the block party, and so shares a tradition with live artists or theatre companies like Fish and Game rather than Terminator X - but he has a presence that is unexpected from the man who won The Paul Hamlyn Foundation Composers Award.
Show Name: God Loves a Trier Artist: Victoria Bianchi Venue: Arches LIVE 2012 Date: Mon 17 - Wed 19 Sep 2012 | 8.15pm (1 hour) | Studio | £8/£6
Description (from Arches website): Are we capable of seeing things through to the end anymore? What happens when we don’t get immediate results?
Finding herself at the age of 23 without any particular talents, Victoria Bianchi will attempt to learn three skills previously given up on – playing the piano, speaking Gaelic and tap dancing – as she invites the audience to call in and embrace their own notions of talent, success and failure in a society obsessed with all three. Gareth K Vile: What has been your route into making theatre, and how does your piece express your roots?
Victoria Bianchi: I think the reason I started writing my own work was that I tried everything, and this just seemed to fit best. I have done a bit of musical theatre; some acting in classical plays; some directing; as well as starting (but not completing) degrees in psychology, law and languages. None of these things seemed to quite fit, but when I started writing my own material it just worked for me.
Maybe because I like to talk a lot - I'm turning my penchant for chatting into a career. All of these stops and starts, well that's what God Loves A Trier is all about. Why didn't I keep working at these career paths? Why didn't I commit to any of the hobbies I've taken up at various points, like dancing or ice-skating? Were they wrong for me, or was I just being lazy?
GKV: Are there other artists or work in arches live that you feel have an affinity with your piece- and why?
I think that #neednothing by Rob Jones and Michael O'Neill has something in common with God Loves A Trier. Amongst other things, I'm trying to figure out what impact the internet and TV have on young peoples' ability to put the time and effort into learning. We have everything we need at our fingertips, and it's so tempting to just mess about on Facebook or watch a whole TV series in a day, rather than working hard and learning a skill.
#neednothing looks at the power of social media specifically, and its powers of manipulation. I think that there are other works that, like mine, are about finding yourself at a point in your life where you don't quite know how to fit in to society, two that spring to mind are Peter McMaster's Wuthering Heights and Lucy Hutson's Make Do and Mend Myself, although these are more concerned with gender than my work. Peter and Lucy are asking how to be a man/woman, I suppose I'm pondering how to be an adult.
GKV: It's interesting how you've describe your life so far, and now you are making a work about how we can be distracted... But aren't you articulating something special about the way we are now socialised... And is there really a problem with being eclectic?
I don't think there's anything wrong with being eclectic, as you put it, but I've found that my habit of continually trying things out then getting bored with them has left me without any real skills. If an eclectic person has a few different things they are alright at...well that's not me, because I can't do very much at all.
You know, I think I started to make this show because I was studying in London and it felt like everyone around me was bilingual or a gymnast or something else amazing AND they could make theatre. So I guess I started to want to create this show because I wanted something I could show off about. It was only when I started to write it that I realised it was a reaction to the point I'm at in my life - the transition from student to worker bee - and how I've gotten to this point without becoming exactly who I wanted to be.
It's all about personal satisfaction, if you're happy with having little bits and pieces here and there that you can do rather than being outstanding at one thing then that's great. God Loves A Trier is about me realising that I'm not happy with that state of affairs - that I'm not satisfied with my current self.
GKV: But in an age where information is so freely available, and distraction is just a mouse click away, can theatre cope with such swift turn abouts as the net offers?
I have never seen the internet and theatre as being rivals, I think the internet can be manipulated for theatre and vice versa. It's also important that you know I'm not condemning the internet. I love the internet. I love TV; I love fast food; I love all these little things that make our lives easier and more fun.
I can't really blame these things for the fact that I never stuck with any of my hobbies. I didn't have the internet in my house until I was 12 or 13, and I had given up on ballet, tap and jazz dancing as well as learning the clarinet well before that. Internet surfing or watching TV, they're my guilty pleasures, and I'm going to keep them around for the foreseeable future.
I'm just hoping that I can find more of a balance now, find a pursuit that leaves me with something to show for it, rather than just being able to recite what's happened to the cast of Friends since it finished. The work I make is always a conversation. I'm not telling the audience what's right or wrong, I'm not trying to send out a message about how they should live. I'm just talking with them about where I'm at, because I reckon that's all anyone can really do.
Back in the day, The Tron was a mixed blessing. For a boy raised on the heady brew of Belgian choreography and American avant-garde cooked up in Tramway, I'd often nip up into town for a refresher in scripted work. Like many of the Glaswegian theatres in the early years of the century, The Tron had been done up thanks to millenial funding, but did suffer as a result.
Since I wasn't that bothered in those days - I had Latin classes to prepare - I didn't notice that the venue had a proud tradition, and that audiences had been undermined across the board by the year of refurbishment. It was only after a few years of running with the critics that I noticed how The Tron had a niche within the scene: less experimental than The Arches and Tramway, but supportive of new writers and sitting in the context of English language scripts coming from Scotland, England, Ireland and the States.
My sudden awareness came at about the time Andy Arnold moved from The Arches to become artistic director. Arnold is most recognisable from that big poster he did in his night-dress, encouraging audiences "to get in bed with The Tron." Given his predeliction for the dry, cerebral scripts of the absurdist tradition - his Becketts are celebrated - I didn't really want a bed-time story.
Arnold is an artistic director of vision. His enthusiasm for theatre that is both populist and intelligent has driven his annual Mayfesto festival and the promotion of premiers from around the world. After I didn't win the competition to discover new playwrights, I dismissed Open Stage as a gimmick, before realising that the actual winner, a tough drama about the First World War that echoed the vicious historical tragedies of Howard Brenton was exactly the sort of drama that I claimed could not win. The lesson is probably to trust Arnold rather than me.
The 2012 Autumn Season - this is written before it starts in earnest - gives a strong indication of where Arnold's interests have led the Tron. A National Theatre of Scotland presentation, My Shrinking Life, kicks off in September, swiftly followed by entries from Random Accomplice (Tron regulars these days), a return from Theatre Jezebel as part of Glasgay, an in-house production of Ulysses and a pantomime that has a definite Glasgewian patter.
Arnold is directing Ulysses himself: unsurprisingly, since he has a love of Irish theatre and many of the authors he has directed have their roots in James Joyce's respect for the mundane and fascination with the power of language. Dermot Bolger's adaptation of the novel may feel risky - an epic book of many pages and allusions, it acts as a text book for formal experimentation, a detailed examination of one man's life, an allegory for how the daily grind can have a mythical dimension and a handy doorstop - but it beats producing Joyce's single play, Exiles, a worthy yet predicable study of love and fidelity.
Next to the recent Greyscale/Stellar Quines co-production of A Beginning, A Middle and An End, and the upcoming Sex & God by Magnetic North (both in the smaller Changing House), Ulysses represents Arnold's belief in the importance of theatre that deals with Big Stuff. Ulysses is being promoted by a picture of a fecund Molly Bloom, rather than her husband's portly frame, suggesting that Bolger is dealing with the mysterious politics of sexuality that drive the hero's wanderings around Dublin. This is possibly the most earthy and sexy part of the novel - Kate Bush did a song about it on The Sensual World - and allowed Joyce to hang his reflections on location, isolation, exile and spirituality on a bawdy, entertaining tale of adultery.
It also got the book censored, and was helped to get it out through the agency of Jesuits.
If this ambitious main auditorium production announces Arnold's ambition, the various bookings - even in the Victoria Bar - reveal his intention to make The Tron popular and busy. Dorothy Paul is doing her one-woman show in October, Confab are presenting a mixture of Roma song and dance and STG are doing one of their highly entertaining A La Carte evenings. There's even a chance to sketch cabaret artists at the end of every month.
My ancient prejudices against The Tron - a mixture of snobbery and tunnel vision - might not have been reasonable, but they did at least grasp what The Tron has come to be about: the power of a good script, an enthusiasm for theatre that entertains while having a serious intention and a wide variety of companies. It also does a very nice cup of coffee and has wi-fi in the bar, meaning that it is a likely place to find me in the afternoons.
The regular reader of this blog (thank you, Ben) will no doubt be familiar with my fondness for top five lists. I also assume that he will be interested in those geographical locations that have shaped my love of Glasgow. Fortunately, Doors Open Day (Glasgow's Built Heritage Festival) is coming up soon (15-16 September). So I can do a series of Top Fives - places to catch over that weekend, and do a very special one that features the places that I have disgraced.
It's number one in the programme, and number one on this list: The Arches. This venue is very special to me, and not because it was built in the same year as I was born for the seventh time (1879). I've been going to see stuff here since I was a teacher: how well I remember that first National Review of Live Art, being utterly enchanted and confused and meeting the wonderful Lea out of Kylie Minoise.
It's basically a bunch of caverns underneath the railway, and has been, for the past twenty-one years, a multi-purpose arts venue. David Overend did some interesting performances about the heritage of the various spaces, and there's a history of clubbing, acting and drinking that is worth investigating. Plus, they have let me do something for their September festival, Arches Live! So you can buy a ticket to see me before they reveal the secret spaces below.
Argyle Street, underneath Central Station.
I would like to make Tramway my second choice - it influenced my taste in art beyond measure, but I can't find it listed in the brochure. I suppose it's always Doors Open Day there - what with The Hidden Garden outback, two galleries and a rather nice cafe. On Tuesdays, you can usually find me sitting upstairs desperately planning my Young Critics class (although I am willing to be distracted and, for the price of a coffee, make up a series of anecdotes about the building).
Hang on, I found it. And they have tours. It's on page fifteen.
Albert Drive, near MacDonalds.
I am staying Southside for Govanhill Baths. Back in the day, before my political activism was scared out of me, I was involved in the campaign to keep these baths open. Now, the campaigners are slowly getting the space back to public use, and have plenty of cool artists doing stuff around the place (Adrian Howells is up to something with the NTS). However, the chance to check out the pools (now water-free, thanks Glasgow City Council) and the Edwardian architecture makes up for the ghost of my past idealism that currently sits outside in the porch and chides me everytime I stroll past.
I also had a really big row with someone in the big pool here. Ah, memories.
Calder Street, next to the Pandora pub.
Given my earlier inability to find Tramway, when I say that I am disappointed not to find St Aloysius Church in the programme, that means it is probably in there somewhere. I wanted to go on about how important the Jesuits are to me, how they shaped my philosophy and converted me from a Latin teacher into a critic. Instead, I'll have to make do with the Glasgow Film Theatre. That's where I went for lunch when I was teaching at St Al's School, and has a beautifully designed cafe. They are doing tours, too, although I reckon its better to go and see a film there. It just has a sense of occasion about it that I can't get in a multiplex.
Rose Street, abutting that crap big shoe shop Langside Halls is just up the road from my house, and I saw a Big Gay Wedding there... it was the last part of Random Accomplice's Big Gay Trilogy and had free sweets. I also went to a few meetings there when I thought that I could change the world. I still think I can, but have decided that a vaguely cheeky blog about culture is more immediate than listening to other people explain how the world is wrong.
The Halls are having dramatic re-enactments throughout the weekend, although they don't say what they are enacting. Some historic moments... so probably not that time I had to run out of the yoga class because my pants were too tight, or the big public meeting about the dogshit all over the pavement.
Langside Avenue, at the bottom of the big park that is nice during the day
I haven't actually been to the Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre, but I am well into object manipulation these days. So my last choice is hopefully a future location for my ongoing affair with the Dear Green Place.
