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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre:EIF 2006 Theatre Programme. |
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Theatre
listings > Theatre Preview of Edinburgh International Festival 2006. EIF Dates - 13 August - 3 September 2006. Booking opens for all by post, phone, fax, counter and online on 8 April 2006. EIF website. It's Brian McMaster's last festival as director and his theatre programme this year contains two world premieres. One is directed and adapted by Calixto Bielto from the controversial novel Platform by Michel Houellebecq in a production with the Companyia Teatre Romea, Barcelona. The other, a co-production between EIF and the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS), is Anthony Neilson's Realism directed and written by him and developed by his intensive rehearsal and revision process which produced the highly moving and successful Dissocia at the 2004 EIF. As well as these theatrical draws, there is also the renowned Peter Stein directing a EIF/RSC co-production of Shakespeare's Trollis and Cressida, a no dialogue play by the New Riga Theatre that puts the elderly centre stage. Completing the theatre programme is the Polish director Krystian Lupa who directed The Sleepwalkers at the 1999 EIF, directing the American Repertory Theatre in Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters. In the Opera programme there are theatre connections in Kurt Weill's Operas, The Lindbergh Flight/The Flight Over The Ocean and The Seven Deadly Sins, with Bertolt Brecht's words, on at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre 14 - 16 August. This is directed by Francois Girard who directed at 2001 EIF a mesmeric theatre adaptation of Novecento. Peter Stein will also be directing Opera National de Lyon in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre 22 & 24 August. The poet Simon Armitage supplies the words and the Scottish composer Stuart MacRae supplies the music for the world premiere of The Assassin Tree with the direction, lighting and set concept by the directors Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten whose work was first seen in the EIF dance programme. This an EIF/ Royal Opera House/Scottish Opera co-production is staged 25 - 27 August at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. In the Dance programme there's the British premiere of Balanchine's ballet Don Quixote. Here the dancer the ballet was originally created for, Suzanne Farrell, directs her own company at the Edinburgh Playhouse 26 - 29 August. At the same theatre Scottish Ballet, 18 - 20 August, and Nederlands Dans Theater, 31 August - 2 September return with new programmes of work. While at the Hub, 14 - 19 August, and at the Edinburgh Playhouse, 22 & 23 August, the exciting Brazilian choreographer Bruno Beltrão and his company Grupo de Rua de Niterói inspired by street dance, produce exciting works in their first UK appearance. Then at the Royal Lyceum Theatre on 21 & 22 of August there is a special opportunity to see the work of two acclaimed Indian dancer-choreographers Madhavi Mudgal (Odissi dance) and Alarmel Valli (Bharatnatyam), where their two dance styles combine to create Samanvaya accompanied by eleven virtuoso musicians. There will also be talks at lunchtime at the Royal Museum of Scotland Lecture Theatre and at 5pm conversations with the artists at Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, Weston Link, National Gallery of Scotland most days. Detailed Rundown Of The Theatre Programme all productions in English except, in the case of Platform (in Spanish), with English supertitles and Long Life (without dialogue). Jump to sections of this page using these links: Week 1 13 - 19 August | Week 2 20 - 26 August | Week 3 26 August - 3 September Thelma's comments. Week One 13 - 19 August. 2 productions open in Week One. Troilus and Cressida has the world renowned and EIF favourite Peter Stein directing for the EI\fand Royal Shakespeare Company. This is the year the RSC is producing all Shakespeare plays in new productions by a variety of acclaimed and interesting directors and companies. The play explores infidelity against a background of war, politics and double standards. Performed in English it will run at the King's Theatre from 14 to 15, 17 - 21 and 23 - 26 August at 7pm with Matinees at 1pm on 15, 19, 24 and 26 August. Performance length approximately 3hrs 30 mins. Realism will have Anthony Nielson and his cast working on his take of what the aim of life is. The Wonderful World of Dissocia staged by much of the same creative team received five Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS). The omens for this one are good. Performed in English. It's a short run so catch it at the Royal Lyceum Theatre 14 - 19 August at 7:30pm with matinees on 17 & 19 August at 2:30pm. Running time to be advised. Week Two 21 - 27 August. One new production opens this week and one continues. Long Life from The New Riga Theatre, (Latvia) brings a no dialogue play with immense storytelling capacity which follows one day in a communal block in Riga and the elderly and retired persons who live there. Directed by Alvis Hermanis, a newcomer to EIF, it is performed without dialogue. Performances 23 August - 2 September at 7:30pm, except 29 August at The Hub The continuing show is, at the King's Theatre, Troilus and Cressida until 26 August. Note that on the 22nd of August there is no EIF theatre production though there is an opera and two dance productions, perhaps next year the programing will ensure there is something theatrical available every day. Week Three 28 August - 3 September. Two new productions open this week. Opening at the Royal Lyceum Theatre on the 29 of August American Repertory Company with The Three Sisters by Chekov and directed by one of Europe's most influential directors Krystian Lupa. Three sisters yearn to go to Moscow and then a garrison arrives in their town. Can they find happiness now? Performed in English. 29 August - 2 September at 7pm Matinee 31 August & 2 September at 1pm. While opening on the 30 August is the last of the five theatre productions, Platform at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. Director Calixto Bieito has a reputation for intense, high risk drama, coupling his energy with his adaptation of Platform by Michel Houellebecq will ensure the novel's tale of sex exploitation, passion and self discovery will be an adult production. Prepare to be stirred. This is performed in Spanish by Companyia Teatre Romea, Barcelona with English supertitles. Official Festival Theatre 2006 - What Thelma thinks. After last year's 13 plays, 8 in double bills, some may feel short changed by only five plays in the whole programme. McMaster has brought back many of his most successful invitees, so it is a strong if small programme. It doesn't stack up against the variety and numbers of the music programme but music is closest to McMaster's heart and has always been the backbone of the this particular festival. Perhaps under the new director, Jonathan Mills, despite his music career - he is a composer - the theatre programme will expand more along the lines of McMaster's 2005 theatre programme. He is currently the Vice-Chancellor's (Professorial) Fellow at the University of Melbourne, director of the Alfred Deakin Lectures and an Artistic Advisor to the new Melbourne Recital Centre & Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. His previous posts have included Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Melbourne Federation Festival, the Melbourne Millennium Eve celebrations and the Brisbane Biennial International Music Festival. As a composer he is regularly commissioned in Australia and increasingly in Europe and the UK. His composition Sandakan Threnody for solo tenor, choir and orchestra won the Prix Italia in 2005. But for McMaster's last EIF theatre programme the chance to see Stein, Lupa, Nielson, Bieito and Hermanis strut their stuff means quality with a possible total cost of under £100 for reasonable seats, less for selected performances for under 18s and full time students. Check out the standby tickets after 1 August for other concessionary groups and Youth Tickets or Turn up and Try It Tickets, (not for Hub performances or Fireworks concert), both available for selective performances on the day, see EIF website for details. It's a programme that contains potential danger in Bieito's and Nielson's productions, though both director-creators have delivered fine work at past Festivals. I do look forward after McMaster's long tenure as director to a different and younger person's take on what is the top quality mix that should storm our senses in August 2007. He may bring us more from the Pacific rim and from newer emerging artists rather than largely tried and tested masters. But he could argue that the EIF principle aim is to gather to together what will be the creme de la creme from the best in the year. I'd welcome at least that he brought us a more varied quality fare, McMaster did tend to return to the same old names rather too often resulting in us seeing the same directors, or the umpteenth production of say, The Seagull, in too few years. Every year the Fringe brings a clutch of stand out professional productions which manage to retain a raw, fresh edge to their performances. Finding them amongst 800 plus productions in 2006 will be a challenge. The EIF curated shows can mean you're guided to potential theatrical gold but I have to say for some, me amongst them, there's a glorious exhilaration in encountering real 24 carat productions unaided in converted theatres, surrounded by an audience who are realising too they've found the hot show using their own nose for talent. I look back across McMaster's time and recall some extraordinary thrilling productions, some bizarre, underwhelming and some solid but not exciting. I liked his choices most when he brought something with an element of risk from a fairly experienced creative, something which received the Festival's ability to fund ambition and with a loose rein letting them realise their best. I salute his honesty about his first love being music but it recent years, despite some duff choices, he has also brought some superb world premieres, in particular David Harrower's Blackbird directed by Peter Stein and Anthony Nielson's The Wonderful World of Dissocia. © Thelma Good June 2006 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Edinburgh International Festival 2006 Their website Booking opens for all by post, phone,fax counter and online on 8 April 2006. Previous Festival Reviews and Info of EIF and Fringe programmes from Edinburghguide.com
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