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2003 Theatre Preview.
Theatre Preview of Edinburgh International Festival 2003. Their website Booking opens
for all by post, phone,fax counter and new for 2003 online on
12 April 2003.
Initial Rundown Of The Theatre Programme all productions in English
or, in the case of The Last Night of Mankind mainly in English
with supertitles when it's in Spanish.
Jump to sections of this page using these links:
Week
One 10 - 16 August / Week
Two 17 - 23 August /
Week
Three 24 - 30 August / Thelma's
comments.
Week One.
3 productions open in Week One.
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov has Director Peter Stein
directing Fiona Shaw as Arkadina, Iain Glen as Trigorin
and Jodhi May as Nina. It will be the first time Stein has worked
with an English speaking cast. Many will remember his striking direction
of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard seen at 1997 EIF season, which filled
the vast Edinburgh Festival Theatre stage with action and detail. The
Seagull will be at the King's Theatre and will run for two weeks from
Monday 11 to 23 August (not Suns) at 7:30pm with Matinees
at 2pm on 14, 16 , 20 & 23 August.
A co-production between EIF and the Russian Drama Theatre of Riga, Latvia,
this will be the only opportunity to see this production in Britain.
Peter Stein will later be taking the production and the set to Latvia
to stage the production with a Russian Drama Theatre cast. The last
time EIF audiences saw The Seagull at the Kings was 2001 when Luc Bondy
directed Vienna's Burgtheatre with Jutta Lampe as Arkadina and Gert
Voss as Trigorin - review.
The last time Scottish audiences saw an international director's take
on The Seagull was in 2001 - 2002 when Lithuanian Rimas Tumenas stunningly
directed the acclaimed Dundee Rep production - review.
Also opening on the 11 of August at the Royal Lyceum Theatre is The
Last Night of Mankind from El Periférico De Objetos
of Buenos Aires in their UK debut, inspired by Karl Kraus's classic
The Last Days of Mankind. In the first act naked humans struggle
to survive in a ghastly world of mud, in the second act cleaned and
locked in a clinical room they seem to be manipulated by an unseen "big
brother". From a collaborative theatre who explore political themes
in harsh and spectacular ways, it's a chance to see work from a continent
full of theatrical energy. Performances 11 - 13 August at
7:30pm also Matinee 13 August at 2pm
Opening on the 15 August the World Premiere of Scottish Playwright,
David Grieg's San Diego in a co-production between EIF
and Tron Theatre Glasgow. This often fascinating playwright will
co-direct with director and choreographer Marisa Zanotti and
he will also appear as himself in the production. EIF audiences last
saw Grieg's work in 1999 with The Speculator, his Outlying
Islands was a hit on the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe and that Traverse
production, revived this summer with original cast is going to Canada
and to venues in Scotland and one in England - review.
Week Two
Peter Stein's production of The Seagull continues at the
King's theatre until 23 August (not Sun) at 7:30pm with Matinees
at 2pm on 20 & 23 August..
At The Royal Lyceum William Shakespeare's Hamlet is directed
by sometimes controversial Spanish director Calixto Bieito with
The Birmingham Repertory Theatre and staring George Anton as
Hamlet. Bietio's direction was acclaimed in the 1998 EIF season for
his production of Life is a Dream where he directed Royal Lyceum
Theatre Company including George Anton in Playwright John Clifford's
translation of Caldèròn's great play. His direction in
the 2000 EIF season of The Abbey Theatre, Dublin in Ramon Maria del
Valle-Inclan, Barbaric Comedies in a version by Frank McGuinness was
less of a success (review)
but he's concentrating on the political themes in Shakespeare's play
which has an associated educational programme. EIF audience last saw
a production of Hamlet in 2000 from Deutsches Schauspielhaus, under
the direction of Peter Zadek - review.
Performances 20 - 29 August (not Mon 25) at 7:30pm then
Sat 30 August at 7pm and Matinees on 21, 23,
27 and 30 August at 2pm.
Week Three
Calixto Bieito's Hamlet continues at the Royal Lyceum
Theatre until 30 August (not Mon 25) evening performances (except
30 August) at 7:30pm, Sat 30 August at 7pm and Matinees
on 27 and 30 August at 2pm.
Tamasha Theatre Company bring Strictly Dandia by Kristine
Landon-Smith and Sudha Bhuchar for its World Premiere at the King's
Theatre, it will go to London's Lyric Hammersmith in January 2004. It's
a British Asian West Side Story set in the world of "garba"
dance competitions which form part of the Hindu celebration of Navrati.
Where young Gujerati Britains meet, make friends and behave like teenagers.
This London based Asian theatre company were last up in a Edinburgh
Festival August with A Tainted Dawn in 1997 at the Gateway Theatre,
a memorable play about the Indian Subcontinent's Partition. Performances
27 & 28 August at 7:30pm, 29 August at 6pm & 9pm
and 30 August at 2pm & 7pm.
Official Festival Theatre 2003 - What Thelma
thinks
With all but one of the productions texts in English and that one mainly
in English with English supertitles for the little in Spanish the theatre
programme is linguistically very accessible to English speaking and
understanding audiences.
EIF have also devised various ways to encourage potential theatre goers
to take the plunge with several low cost schemes. Not that EIF theatre
prices are high they compare well with Fringe prices at the main venues
ranging from £6/£7 to £20 for most only The Seagull
most expensive ticket are more at £26 but even it has ones going
down as low as £6:50. The Royal Bank Turn Up and Try it Scheme
has a minimum of 50 seats sold for £5 from an hour
before each theatre performance. Tickets issued only at the
venue on a first come first served basis, limited to 2 per customer.
Additional schemes apply to certain groups which can be booked in advance.
For selected performances Half Price for children and Students in
Full-time education from 12 April and 25% discount for
Senior Citizens from 7 July and Half price Standby for
Senior Citizens, Unemployed, Young Scot, Equity and MU card holders
from 5 August. For Group of 10 or more 10% discount only
call +44 (0)131 473 2071. Disabled Customers can buy tickets
at the lowest price for performance NB book early for
this discount as demand can be high. These are excellent offers which
those eligible should take advantage of.
So the EIF have extended their ticket offers but what about what is
on offer? The number of plays is down even from last year's 7 to 5 this
year. And two of these plays have been seen quite recently at EIF seasons,
The Seagull in 2001 and Hamlet in 2000. Sometimes it feels as though
the EIF only want to stage certain plays/and or directors. Both Peter
Stein and Calixto Bieito having had productions at the EIF in the last
six years, they are outstanding directors but should one season contain
two such directors directing plays seen so frequently elsewhere and
so recently here?
That said it will be very interesting to see how Stein's direction compares
to Rimas Tumenas's direction of Dundee Rep's The
Seagull which was electrifying. Fiona Shaw, Jodhi May (Platonov
at the Almeida Kings Cross 2001, Tipping The Velvet and The Other Boleyn
Girl) and Iain Glen are all internationally known actors and may mean
that the cast will be drawn from all over and apart from Glen have no
or few Scots.
Likewise this year's Hamlet will probably bring us a crop of English
actors as it is a Birmingham Rep production but as their Of Mice And
Men (review)
which toured here this year had many interesting actors I await their
production with anticipation. Bieito's Hamlet we know will not have
a female Hamlet as did Peter Zadek's production seen at 2000 EIF.
Angela Winkler's performance in that production was low key and altered the balance
of the play. It will be interesting to see how Bieito and Anton's Hamlet
tune this classic. But I would have liked a different Shakespeare, one
less frequently tackled and from the more European modern canon another
playwright, for example a new version of Durrenmatt's extraordinary
The Visit or another Gorky or Mayakovski or Bulgakhov all of which have
many contemporary resonances.
I welcome the David Greig's San Diego which had very successful readings
staged at the Tron and the Traverse in 2002. It seemed at one point
as though this play set in our international modern and confusing world
would be first produced abroad rather than in the playwright's home
country. As yet we don't know who will be in the cast apart from Grieg
but Scotland has a great pool of exciting Scottish actors to draw on.
The Last Night of Mankind looks from its production shots to be the most
likely to be the controversial and political play of the selection. Nakedness
always gets the Edinburgh audiences wriggling in their seats and sometimes
storming up and out of the theatre, but here it seems the settings and
theme are going to give us more nourishing theatrical meat beyond the
flailing about of bare flesh.
The Last Night of Mankind - El Periférico De Objetos Production.
© Alejandro Le Roux 2002.
Strictly Dandia the final play from Tamasha Theatre Company with its dance
background will be full of colour and interest as it lets us go into a
British world many of us don't have the opportunity to experience first
hand. It should appeal to the large audiences who enjoyed their East is
East and Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and A Funeral and is the production
mostly likely to give any audience member a good, entertaining time as
well as an introduction to our Gujerati community.
But there is no getting away from the fact that there are only five plays
available in the EIF programme and though each has interest all take place
in conventional theatre spaces. Perhaps when the Scottish Parliment moves
out of the Assembly Hall in 2003 we'll see that dynamic space used again
by the EIF as its thrust stage lends itself to drama on the grand and
vibrant scale with no fourth wall to get in the way.
© Thelma Good April 2003
Edinburgh International Festival 2003 Their website Booking opens for all
by post, phone,fax counter and new for 2003 online on 12
April 2003.
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