Published in the Guardian
Citizens, Glasgow/Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh co-production
Three stars
WE'RE in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest territory
– but instead of Jack Nicholson finding method in the madness, here we
have Eddie, a hospital radio DJ, discovering the insanity of the
psychiatric system.
Like Ken Kesey's book, Donna Franceschild's bittersweet comedy, based on her own 1994 TV series,
stands as a metaphor for authoritarian oppression. When the self-styled
Ready Eddie: the Soul Survivor starts playing his treasured collection
of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke originals at St Jude's
psychiatric hospital, he realises the main obstacle in his path is not
anyone's bipolar disorder, OCD or schizophrenia, but the psychopathic
control of the institution.
Every chance the residents get for
therapeutic self-help – be it petting kittens, cleaning windows or
letting their voice be heard on the station – is quashed by a system
more concerned with budgets, health-and-safety rules and bureaucratic
efficiencies. Takin' Over the Asylum doesn't have the revolutionary
fervour of Cuckoo's Nest, but its heart is in the same place.
More
touchingly, it illustrates the fragility of the human psyche.
Franceschild shows how much behaviour is explicable in social as well as
medical terms. Like the alcoholism of the supposedly sane DJ, the
patients' self-harming and obsessive cleaning are symptoms of life
experiences. Behind Franceschild's brash, confrontational jokes is a
plea for understanding of the damage done by circumstance.
If
there's a weakness, it's that the stakes rarely feel high enough. The
show is funny and sad, but the story fights shy of the extremes of
comedy and tragedy. Mark Thomson's Citz/Lyceum co-production, however,
is blessed with a strong ensemble cast, including lively performances
from Iain Robertson as the downtrodden DJ and Brian Vernel as his
hyperactive sidekick Campbell.
© Mark Fisher, 2013
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Published in the Guardian
Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Three stars
YOU couldn't fault this adaptation of Julia Donaldson's
novel for being short of themes. In 90 minutes, it ticks off
bereavement, child abuse, missing people, drug addiction, mental
illness, multiculturalism and the search for identity. Throw in a
cat-and-mouse chase across the country, and you have the kind of
sensationalist narrative that plays well to the target teenage audience.
Katie Posner's production, in this Tron/Pilot collaboration, is
at its best when the stakes are high and Jessica Henwick's beautiful
Leonora Watts-Chan, a 15-year-old runaway, struggles to know which way
to turn. After being orphaned, she has fled the home of her predatory
uncle in Bristol to go in search of an estranged Chinese grandfather in
Glasgow. With tremendous physical presence, Henwick captures the sense
of adolescent righteousness, passion and confusion of a girl trying to
create order in an unfair universe.
For as long as the show
focuses on her dilemma, it remains gripping. Things get uneven when
Donaldson's other themes take over, particularly when Leonora falls into
an odd netherworld of well-meaning but erratic psychiatric
out-patients.
Stuck awkwardly between comedy and tragedy, these
scenes are a distraction – largely because the story is not about mental
illness. As with the other themes, it is an idea appended to the
narrative and not fundamental to it; more like a topic for classroom
discussion than a dramatic device. The same is true of the abusive
uncle. He functions as a symbol of an unreliable adult word, but is too
sketchily portrayed to be more than a gratuitous bogeyman.
What
the story is really about – Leonora and her Little Red Riding Hood
journey of self-discovery – is obscured by the extraneous material from
the novel. It is a weakness compounded by the unresolved ending, one
that lessens the impact of the excitement that has preceded it.
© Mark Fisher, 2013
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Published in the Guardian
Birds of Paradise
Two stars
HALF an hour along the Clyde from Glasgow, the Beacon is a handsome new arts centre
with a 500-seat main auditorium and a 100-seat studio. The artistic
director of the £9.5m waterfront complex is Julie Ellen who, by a happy
accident, is also the director of this opening production by the touring
company Birds of Paradise. With its all-white set by Kenny Miller and
abstract video projections by Neil Bettles, it shows off the studio to
good effect.Unfortunately, Danny Start's script is rarely as interesting
as the story that inspired it.
It is about Albert Quinn, a 50-year-old hardman who, like Start's real-life friend Tommy McHugh,
has suffered a double brain aneurysm. When he comes round after the
long operation, he has an irresistible urge to paint, sculpt and write.
This rare "sudden artistic output" syndrome turns a semi-criminal drug
user into a compulsive creator at large "in an alien landscape".
As
a neurological phenomenon, this is fascinating. As a piece of drama, it
has nowhere to go. Once we have established Quinn has woken up a new
man, then what?
Start's solution is to go backwards. In the lead
role, Paul Cunningham exists in a world of fragmented memory. His head
buzzes with voices – father, wife, fellow patient and alter-ego – and
with each fractured scene, Quinn shows us the past that he is leaving
behind. Theatre, however, is a present-tense medium and none of this
reflection moves the story forward.
Morag Stark, David Toole and
Cunningham give spirited performances, but the things that interest us
most (the man adjusting to a new personality, the outpouring of
creativity) are the things we see least.
© Mark Fisher, 2013
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