Lion
in the Street
- part
of The Arches Award for New Stage Directors Season. Scottish Premiere
Playwright - Judith Thompson
Director - Adrian Osmond
Design - Brian Hartley
Lighting Design - Simon Wilkinson
Music - Adrian Osmond and Emma Wilkins
Company - Arches Theatre Company
Venue - The
Arches
www.thearches.co.uk
0901 022 0300
The Arches has been given a make over and there's more to see
and eat.
New entrance at 253 Argyll
St opposite the Argyll St exit from Central Station. Disabled access
to both floors, cafe bar, theatre and toilet facilities.
Dates
- 24 -28 April at 7:30pm
Performance lasts 2hrs with interval.
Reviewer -Thelma Good
Canadian Judith
Thompson's Lion in the Street is given its Scottish Premiere
in the Arches New Directors Season. Adrian Osmond directs this play
set loosely in a "normal" Toronto neighbourhood but the incidents
could and probably do happen here and and in your neighbourhood too
where ever it is.
Osmond uses only two of the Arches many spaces but out of them he gives
with his designers changes of scene, character and mood with ease. Throughout
it all is the haunting waif Isobel who warns us at the beginning not
to be afraid and later pleads with us to take me home with you.
It is this enigmatic character, speaking in her fractured English who
seems to drive the play though she is rarely seen by any of the many
other characters. Off stage Emma Wilkins plays flute music adding to
the haunting nature of the play.
It's an excellent
but uncomfortable script with lyricism and theatricality. There is an
equal strength in both comic and dramatic, sometimes violent dialogue
as Isobel tries to stop the awfulness, of the world and the human, happening
to character after character. The second act is where things drive towards
climax, some
stories becoming interlaced or touching on one another. It has a sometimes
confusing narrative but the essence of the theme keeps coming clearly
through. The end is redemptive and has a strong sense of ritual as we
are exhorted to have our lives.
Osmond can clearly choose and direct interesting plays with plenty of
challenges to a director. He has also choosen a fine cast in Fiona
Danskin, Stephen Docherty, Fiona Ormiston, Debra Rae and Harry
Ward who skilfully give us clear drawn character after character.
But it is Mary Gapinski as Isobel with her childlike form and
her torn dress, sitting often in the shadows or casting an enormous
distorted shadow over the vaulted arches who is the centre and disturbing
focus of this production. I look forward eagerly to the remaining two
devised plays in the season starting next week.
© Thelma Good 26 April 2001
The Arches Award for New Stage Directors -
The other winners are Martin Danziger - Dead
Pan
and Sally Hobson - Talking
To Yourself