Showing posts with label
The Performance Geography of Glasgow.
Show all posts
Showing posts with label
The Performance Geography of Glasgow.
Show all posts
Although the West End of Glasgow is dominated by the University, it has fewer theatres: The Oran Mor on Byres Road is home to A Play, A Pie and A Pint, a lunchtime season of new works which has successfully exported its format around Scotland, but has only sporadic touring companies (most recently, The Sam Shepherd Roadshow did a few nights); The Cottier’s, with a troubled history of opening and closing; Webster’s Theatre, a recently converted church.
Despite this, the West End is a vibrant hub for the arts, not least due to its annual Festival, which brings together music, performance and comedy during July and makes extensive use of
Cottier’s for both its Chamber Music project and informal plays. The Cottiers was also the location for the Glasgow Cabaret Festival in 2011. Its success, however, has led to expansion and , Pete Sneddon of SCENEGINEERING explained in The Evening Times (10/4/2014) that ‘we plan to… is utilise Cottier’s as more of an event space, for concerts and weddings, which allows us to develop Webster’ as a theatre complex.’ Indeed, the popular pantomime has been transferred from Cottier’s for December 2014.
The programming at Cottier’s and Webster’s does not follow the mainstream of Glasgow’s city centre, but offers space for smaller companies, often outwith the touring circuits or as part of other festivals.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint, however, has established a clear identity.
Now in its twenty-first season, it was founded by David MacLennan in 2004. Running for an hour at lunchtime, it offers a new play every week, and has a loyal audience. Authors featured range from the established - Rona Munro, David Greig and David Harrower have all contributed - through Glasgow favourites such as Kieran Hurley, AJ Taudevin and Gary McNair - to emerging names like Sylvia Dow.
Despite the high turnover of plays, and an emphasis on the script, many successes have begun their life here: most recently, Peter Arnott’s Full Tilt (directed by Cora Bissett and exploring the life of Janis Joplin through a concert format) transferred to the Edinburgh Fringe.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint has become the most energetic producer of new plays in Scotland: the supportive audience, the company’s willingness to take risks on young writers and the week long runs are attractive - even Untitled, a well established Scottish company, have presented a ‘classic cut’ of Hamlet - and the long seasons ensure that there are plenty of opportunities.
The concentration of theatre venues in the City Centre suggests that diversity is Glasgow’s hallmark. From The Arches - a re-purposed collection of warehouses beneath the train station - to the Theatre Royal, the venue of choice for both Scottish Ballet and Opera: Glasgow runs the gamut of styles and spaces.
The Arches’ programme reflects artist director Jackie Wylie’s enthusiasm for experimental and emerging artists. During her tenure, two festivals (Arches Live! and Behaviour) have shaped the programme into two distinctive strands. There are the local and emerging artists - most frequently seen at Arches Live! or in works-in-progress throughout the year - and the makers of ‘expanded theatre’.
As the chosen venue for the National Review of Live Art until 2010, it has strong associations with performance art and its atmosphere - somewhere between a dungeon and a night-club - conjures up an underground den where anything seems possible. When David Overend studied The Arches for his Ph.D, he recognised that its multi-purpose space (it is also a nightclub, and has a rather nice restaurant) lends performances a spectral resonance.
Further east, Andy Arnold, formerly of The Arches himself, has
reclaimed The Tron as a theatre where words are celebrated. The annual Mayfesto, originally a celebration of political theatre, has tackled themes of identity and post-colonialism, while affirming The Tron’s commitment to scripted theatre. The opening production of the 2014 Autumn season, John Byrne’s adaptation of Chekov’s Three Sisters is typical only in so far as it is based on a script: Arnold is more likely to book or direct classic texts than find a relatively recent work, possibly from an Irish writer.
The adaptation of Ulysses in 2012 revealed how effectively Arnold could channel language into bold theatricality, and a rare commission - The Tron tends to use existing scripts - Land And Sea and Sky (2010) married a naturalistic staging with a script that examined World War I through arguments as much as action.
Both The Theatre Royal and The King’s Theatre are run by the Ambassadors’ Group, and are part of a national chain of theatres, which includes The Playhouse in Edinburgh. Although they do produce shows - most recently, West Side Story with the ‘original’ choreography - these are made nationally, not in Glasgow and the majority of performances are from touring companies.
Occasional amateur productions fill out the King’s calendar, but the majority of productions are of musicals or popular plays, including work from John Godber , Alan Bennett and The National Theatres of Scotland and England.
Other venues that include theatre in their programme include the CCA and The Glue Factory. The CCA has an ‘open source’ strategy - artists can book the theatre - and this has included a recent Butoh festival Moving Bodies and a production of The Madness of Lady Bright by Cardboard Fox Company. The CCA has a long history in Glasgow’s alternative arts scenes . Previously The Third Eye Centre, director Francis McKee has done much to research its past glories and consciously models its current identity on the freedom and eclecticism of its earlier years.
The Glue Factory was, until recently, the home of 85A, the
collective who have made a splash with their cross-platform, post-industrial entertainments. Although The Glue Factory is still in a state of redevelopment, with part of the premises acting as rehearsal space for The National Theatre of Scotland, the nights staged by 85A, including an interactive film Chernozem, and the Fringe for the Glasgow International Art Festival (GI), suggest it is an untapped resource for performance.
Although The Citizens Theatre has been, in various incarnations, on the same site since 1878 (becoming the Citizens in 1945 with the arrival of James Bridie’s company), The Southside is not over-burden with theatrical venues. Across from the Citizens is the O2 Academy, predominantly a club and gig venue but also the home of Club Noir, the biggest burlesque club in the world (Guinness Book of Records, 2011). Further south is Tramway, a space rediscovered by Peter Brook for his Mahabharata in 1988 and subsequently a major venue during 1990’s City of Culture festival: Scottish Ballet recently added an extension to Tramway, making it their base. At the very edge of the city, Eastwood Park Theatre hosts medium scale touring shows.
Each of these venues has a distinctive identity. Following from the iconic regime of the ‘triumvirate’ of Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald (1969 - 2003), The Citizens became internationally recognised for its daring interpretations of Classic plays, including translations of writers often neglected in the UK. MacDonald, a playwright himself, is more celebrated for his translations, including those of Goldoni and Brecht.
Current artistic director Dominic Hill has continued this theme, staging versions of King Lear, Hamlet and Pinter’s Betrayal, as well as commissioning an adaptation of Crime and Punishment from Chris Hannan. Less interested in new writing, despite Hill’s previous role at Edinburgh’s Traverse, The Citizens maintains a strong connection to its local community, through cheap ticket opportunities.
Tramway is known internationally for presenting experimental theatre from around the world. Apart from its long association with Peter Brook - a regular visitor in the 1990s, and returning in 2010 with 11 and 12, Tramway invited companies like Victoria and Les Ballets C de La B from Belgium, Robert Lepage from Quebec and Forced Entertainment from Sheffield to take advantage of their flexible main space.
Thanks to the wall built by Brook for The Mahabharata, Tramway has a unique atmosphere. Rescued from demolition and also housing a huge main gallery for visual art, it still bears the traces of its previous use as a garage for Glasgow’s trams and the Museum for Transport, linking it to the city’s industrial past. It has a reputation for adventurous programming, but has recently began to support local, emerging artists, primarily through its Rip It Up Seasons.
Eastwood Park, meanwhile, is often the forgotten theatre in surveys
of Glasgow. Positioned at the point where Glasgow meets East Renfrewshire - an independent county - it has featured touring productions from Rapture (based in The Briggait), Random Accomplice (The CCA) as well as The Reduced Shakespeare Company.
