Radical Angles with a Cutting Edge - Edinburgh reviews 2

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...And the second of the group reviews of both International and Fringe shows was published in the Morning Star on Saturday. It is available here. It covers reviews that I posted in my previous blog post, (Cathy, Out of the Bad, and The Remains of Tom Lehrer), plus reviews of Yo Carmen and Drainage Alley. 

There will, I think, be a further two compilation reviews in the Star in the forthcoming weeks but a couple of shows that have slipped through the net are printed below. 

John McDonnell MP

The increase of spoken word events in the various festivals, means we need to find a reviewing standard to rate them. John McDonnell MP (*****)may have provided us with a standard in this interview (by comedian and presenter, Susan Morrison).

The Shadow Chancellor, and de facto deputy in the Corbyn leadership can sometimes appear severe and harsh in political interviews. In fact he proved to be an entertaining and engaging subject. He ranged over his life, both political and non-political – not the least of his revelations was that he didn’t want to be a politician – he wanted to be manager of the Co-op! 

Moving from Liverpool to London when very young, and taking a number of jobs after school, he eventually became active via the TU movement. Handling questions well, he seemed to charm even unconvinced members of the audience – while showing an impressive grasp  of economics! A performance that did neither him, nor his interviewer any harm.

In contrast, Michelle Shocked's show - Truth vs Reality (**) will not have helped her career. She is a

Michelle Shocked. pic Chad Batka

great singer, and songwriter, but in this show her undoubtedly pure voice plays second fiddle to an onstage exorcism of her treatment by big business. Nobody has any illusion about the  music industry, but sometimes you can be too close to your own story for others to follow, even (or maybe especially) if it is read from a script!

Edinburgh's International Festival - for the elite, or for the masses?

A little-known fact of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), is that it has always included on its board a representative from the city’s trade unionists. Appointed by Edinburgh’s TUC, the impact of this link has had varying levels of influence over the 70 years of the Festival’s existence.

The tensions between ‘working-class’ or ‘peoples’ culture and the ‘highbrow’ culture that the International Festival has sometimes seemed to celebrate, occurred early on and is referred to in this article on the EIF’s history from Adam Behr in The Conversation.

Rudolf Bing, the Festival’s first director, thought contemporary Scottish work unlikely to meet his standards and turned down the successful Glasgow Unity Theatre. They came anyway and performed, along with a number of other companies, on what was to become the Fringe.

The history of Glasgow’s Unity Theatre is worthy of an article (or more) to itself. Formed from a number of working class theatre groups in the city (including the Clarion Players, the Glasgow Workers Theatre group and the Jewish Institute Players) and chaired by ex-shipyard worker and novelist, James Barke, it commissioned and staged a number of important plays, including Ena Lamont Stewart’s Men should weep.

The tensions between ‘elite culture’ and ‘people’s culture’ continues to this day, and it is to immense credit that the EIF that, at the time it is celebrating its 70^th year of existence, it is also bringing this debate up front. As part of its ‘Spirit of 47’ season, it is staging Contesting the Spirit of Unity – Whose Festival, Whose Culture? A combination of readings and discussion will be chaired by Director of the Festival, Fergus Linehan and will feature Larry Flanagan – General Secretary of the EIS and Joyce McMillan – theatre critic and NUJ branch chair.

The debate will no doubt continue, but what is significant to me, is the long tradition and continuing vibrancy of people’s culture in Scotland, and particularly in Glasgow. It is a tradition that deserves much more attention than it gets, and its continuing work (through groups like Trades Union Councils, FairPley and many others) still receives less than its fair share of artistic subsidy.

Contesting the Spirit of Unity is at The Studio, 22 Potterrow, Edinburgh at 11.00am on 16 August, Details and Tickets Here.

Rich pickings for the Culture Vulture - Edinburgh Festivals Preview

It seems like some time since I posted anything vaguely cultural here, but that is about to change!

Last Saturday our friends in the Morning Star printed my preview of the Fringe at this year's Edinburgh Festivals. This (and the International Festival) started this weekend and I thought it was worth posting a link to it here. Mine is the second of the two reviews posted there.

The International Festival meanwhile is celebrating its 70 Anniversary. The trade union link has been ably dealt with by Ann Henderson in an earlier Star, but it is a pity that much of the ‘Spirit of ‘47’ events are only available online and not in the printed programme.  

PJ Harvey. pic Maria Mochnaz

In addition to the rich classical and dramatic programme dealt with so ably by my colleague Gordon Parsons in the first half of the Star preview, the contemporary music programme features, PJ Harvey, and Anoushka Shankar. Other contemporary music highlights promise to be the eclectic Benjamin Clementine, and Jarvis Cocker/Chilly Gonzalez in Room 29 of the Los Angeles Chateau Marmont. 

The slightly-less-contemporary music scene sees legendary produce Joe Boyd try and recreate

Joe Boyd. pic Andrew Goertler

the Music of the Incredible String Band – very cellular songs, using a range of guest musicians, (yes he does include Mike Heron). Boyd was one of the seminal producers of the ‘60s, working with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, R.E.M., John Martyn, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Billy Bragg, and Nick Drake as well as ISB.(An interesting Nick Drake link is the appearance by the Unthanks at this year's book festival. They have reinterpreted the little-known song and poetry of Molly Drake, Nick's mother. Their amazing voices promise an intriguing treatment.)

In the Classical Music side there are as ever, many gems. A spectacular two-orchestra show with the RSNO and the Mariinsky Orchestra marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution.  A flamenco version of Carmen from Spain’s Maria Pages company rubs shoulders with an opera version of Steven Berkoff's resetting of the Oedipus story, Greek. Written by Mark-Anthony Turnage the myth is updated and set in London's east end. Expect references to racism, football violence and industrial unrest! 

I am girding my loins for a busy (but hopefully not unrewarding) three weeks!

Edinburgh Festivals 3. Sin, Dystopia and Scotland

...and this is the two of the other reviews from Saturday's Morning Star article (see previous blog). (The other one was in my first Edinburgh blog.)

Paul Bright's Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Edinburgh International Festival, Queen's Hall. 19-22 Aug 8.00pm 4/5

James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner is deservedly a cult novel. Written at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and set at the beginning of the previous century, it deals with the history of a character (Robert Wringhim) who is convinced by a doppelgänger (Gil-Martin) that he is a member of the elect, chosen by God for heaven and therefore unable to sin whatever he does. And what he does is murder.

However the fascination of the book is in what we don't know. Who is Gil-Martin? The devil? An evil twin? Or maybe a part of Wringhim's own mind - and an early exposition of the duality inherent in Scottish fiction from Stevenson to Gray. The novel operates on different levels.

George Anton in Confessions... (photo Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

This is where the drama takes place, Untitled Projects go on to place further layers of artifice on top of that. It is a recreation of a (failed) attempt to stage a version of the book, and the toll it takes on its participants, one of whom, actor George Anton tells the story.

Constructed from a hugely impressive collection of artefacts - books, notebooks, posters, flyers, filmclips, and even the cassette from an answering machine - the drama unfolds leading to the inevitable death of the key participant - Paul Bright - who ends up inhabiting the part of the doomed Wringhim. The history of a young unsung radical Scottish theatre director is finally being told.

The level of detail that has been created in staging this 'history' is astounding. We enter through an exhibition of the artefacts. But we are gradually aware that something isn't quite right. The artefacts are manufactured, the films are of actors playing actors, Paul Bright never, in fact, existed. And we ask what we are really watching? Just as the book itself leaves us with the key layers and divisions unexplained, so the drama builds even more layers on top of that. Is Bright a reincarnation of Wringhim? What is the relationship between Anton and Bright? Is it all, in Anton's phrase 'lying and getting away with it'?

This is an important treatment of an vital novel - especially important at a time when the image Scotland has of itself is at a crossroads, and has the same fracture referred to by Hogg. It is also exceptionally well staged and created. It is a slight disappointment then, that the layers that are piled onto an already complex story, are a little self-referential. It is about more than drama and the arts.

How would you like your dystopia?
Dark Matter, Venue 13, 17.15, Until 29 August. 3/5
The trouble with dystopias that reflect where we are with any level of accuracy, is that it is

As civilization burns...

difficult to make them funny. Just referring to them as a ‘dark comedy’ doesn’t make it so. Such is the problem with Dark Matter, the first show by Dark Matters Productions. This is a apocalyptic and moral (possibly even religious) take on the financial and political crisis.

A congressman and a banker meet again as violence overwhelms Western civilization.  The financial meltdown has arrived, Congress is burning and the mob is stringing up those they consider responsible. These two have previous. Up to their pretty ears in involvement, and personal relationship, they’ve been brought back together by ‘the boss’, Nick (Old Nick?). There is drama, as the two fight about responsibility and personal guilt, but they are clearly locked together, at the end of the ‘world’. 

All seems dark as they leave the stage – but then a shiny chat show (or televangelist?) reveals the two ‘reborn’ as new age global leaders and happy marrieds. That the new order is based on the exposure/execution of the ‘boss’ and the ‘cleansing’ of most of the population gives the dark, satirical twist – think Chris Morris meets Charlie Brooker. The trouble is, we are shown the problem and the danger but given no inkling of a solution.
The writing is sharp. The acting good. The comedy bitter – but not that funny.  Best ironic moment is the valedictory music, as Barry McGuire (now a born-again Christian) sings his apocalyptic ‘Eve of Destruction’ as we file out!

Post-referendum, but not post-political!

Here is my piece in the Morning Star on the things I am looking forward to in this year's Edinburgh Festivals. This year the Star will have four of us providing reviews of various events, and my other colleagues (Gordon Parsons, Mike Quille, and Jody Porter) have also their highlights here. I've also added some events in the Book Festival and this and word limitations of the print media mean that the piece below is not a comprehensive survey. I've tried to add additional planned shows at the end (par 8 ff).

AFTER last year’s referendum-related material, this year’s festivals look much lighter politically on the surface. A closer look though reveals that there is plenty to tempt the radical political animal.
Last year’s successes used referendum fever to look deeper into “Scottishness” and this year’s most intriguing material ploughs the same furrow.

Confessions - what levels do we read it?

Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner is a complex treatment of James Hogg’s 18th-century novel, an early focus on Scotland’s “split personalities.” The novel ranges between family feud and psychological fable and this production by Untitled Projects and the National Theatre of Scotland adds a further layer by telling it as a “metafiction” in which the failed performance never took place — or did it?

This year’s fringe has some political topics, mainly in theatre productions which deal with themes as disparate as the miners’ strike (Undermined); the cold war (The Communist Threat); and Joan Littlewood (Joan, Babs and Shelagh Too).

Mark Steel

This year’s Assembly Rooms (AR) shows concentrate more on the spoken word, with well-known stand ups Jo Brand, Alexei Sayle and Mark Thomas discussing their work in the Talking Comedy series. Both Brand and Thomas also have their own shows elsewhere as does Mark Steel, who makes a welcome return to the fringe after 19 years away. I’m looking forward particularly to Countrybile, the new show from Elvis McGonagall.

Fair Pley’s innovative Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas, also returns to the Stand in the Square with some more controversial proposals from academics — ban students from Edinburgh, anyone? This The Periodic Fable, a scientific panto for young and old.

The Periodic Fable

year the producers also target the younger element with

After last year’s Israeli company controversy, this year features at least two Palestinian events. Playwright David Greig has crowdfunded 12 Palestinian artists to visit the festival and perform in an all-day programme. And at the AR Mark Thomas and Mark Steel, along with Daniel Kitson and Ivor Dembina, get together for a Free Gaza fundraiser to provide front-line medical support for people in Gaza.

At the Book festival too, Ghada Karmi (How Does it Feel When You Can’t Go Home?) and Avi Shlaim (Why Israel's Problems Remain Real) deal with aspects of the Palestinian tragedy. It is heartening that these two are already sold out. My other favourite Spurs fan, John Crace is speaking on his parliamentary sketchwriting in Coalition Confidential. Marcus O'Dair discusses his biography of music legend, Robert Wyatt in From Soft Machine to Shipbuilding. A series of talks on the future of libraries promises some interesting speculations and Elvis McGonagall reappears in the Comic Verse session.


Elsewhere on the Fringe one of the most unlikely tribute bands of all time line up to rekindle the Captain! Orange Claw Hammer present - Beefheart and Cheeze!

Programmes with booking links are; Fringe - https://www.edfringe.com/visit-the-fringe/programme
International - http://www.eif.co.uk/festival-2015#.Vb5fFkUwHIohttp://www.eif.co.uk/festival-2015#.Vb5fFkUwHIo and Book - https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events

When Four Tribes go to war

Polyphonic and polylingual. Re-creation of First World War explores horror and common humanity

5/5

The polyphonic production of Front, by Hamburg's Thalia Theater and the Nederlands Toneel Gent at the Royal Lyceum - directed by Fleming Luk Perceval - is a truly impressive and moving performance. Lasting two hours without an interval, and performed in Flemish, German, French and English (English sur-titles allow us linguistically-challenged to appreciate it) it doesn't sound like something that is immediately accessible. But the pared-back set, the use of a backdrop of monochromatic images from the front, the noise of the collected thunder sheets hanging on stage all combine to evoke the horror.

Taken from a selection of scenes from both Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Henri Barbusse's Under Fire, the narrative circles the opposing front lines - represented by the lines of cast members along the front of the stage. It gives us the full perspective of the sufferings both in opposing trenches and on the home front. While actors spin like dervishes in an assault, the noise rises to a crescendo. Incongruously, yet entirely believably, a moment of romance between a nurse and a wounded soldier counter poses a spark of life amongst the destruction (although the future of that life is shadowed by the fate of the soldier). Above all, the characters of the young friends condemned by their fates to land in the hell of the First World War highlight the reality of this 'war for fatherland and freedom'. As one says, they are not soldiers, just civilians imported to the front.

I've seldom seen a production that evokes the trauma of killing. The horror of the impact of weaponry on bodies, both human and animal, is somehow more effectively portrayed by the flat, emotionless delivery. If you've a chance in Edinburgh today or Tuesday, go. You'll be gripped for the full two hours.

Front, 7.00pm until 26 August, Royal Lyceum Theatre,