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Theatre listings >
Menu 1 Wrong Side Up
After the performances in Edinburgh as well as short plays there will
be DJ's, Comedy or Music , you can go to all of it or just part, Pub Theatre
with Flair.
Man to
Man - Edinburgh 30 Jan, 1 & 2, 14 & 16 Feb Glasgow 8&9
Feb
Playwright - Manfred Karge translated by Antony Visis
Director - Gowan Calder Actors - Lynne McCallum & Tom
Freeman
The Man With A Flower In His Mouth
- 30 & 31 Jan, 1, 14 & 15 Feb Glasgow 8&9 Feb
Playwright - Luigi Pirandello translated by Kate Nelson
Director - Kate Nelson Actors - Tom Freeman & Robert
Reid
La Festa (The Anniversary) Edinburgh
30 & 31 Jan, 15 & 16 Feb Glasgow 8&9 Feb
Playwright - Spiro Scimone translated by Jenny Varney
Director - Kate Nelson Actors - Robert Reid, Lynne McCallum
& Tom Freeman
For all plays
Designer - Paul A Wright
Technical Manager - Alan Little
Company - Menu Productions
Info on Venues dates at end of review
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Good Night Out menu of courses
Theatre changes, shifts over the centuries, and from country. The new
venture Menu Productions is well thought out and put together by a good
varied artistic team and fills a real gap in Edinburgh's theatre scene.
It's pub theatre with flair, go on your own and find interesting people,
or take a gang of friends - like you do to a meal, have a night with variety
to interest and delight. Support this menu now and look out for then in
the autumn. When I went it was a Good Night Out just what I like to order
and rarely get.
Man to Man
A person sits in a armchair watching us. A Man? A woman? It's a face that
looks as though it has been around, seen things from all sides. Behind
the person another - a young woman her head wrapped in a crepe bandage.
You expect something surreal, and what you find living in Nazi Germany
changing through life after the death of the person's partner who was
a crane driver.
This play first seen in the UK in 1987 at the Traverse causes you to question
who we are and who really is the person in front of us. Lynne McCallum's
intriguing central performance with Gowan Calder's direction makes the
strange character warm and bizarre. Best known for her playing of light
comic parts Man to Man's role shows McCallum's developing talents
range far further. The Counting House was a mite chill on the opening
night and this cutting piece which relies on black irony didn't achieve
all it can, McCallum has the balls to take on a tough role, as the play
and she and we warmed up, she gave a solid first night performance which
could build interestingly in the run.
The Man With A Flower In His Mouth
Next we were taken from Nazi Germany to an Italian cafe where
two men wait sitting at separate tables on the pavement. One to catch
the first train of the morning to his holiday home the other is waiting
for something much more dark. Pirandello's 1923 in a new translation by
director Kate Nelson is tight and musical. Robert Read and Tom Freeman
took that tautness transporting us effortlessly to the 20's pavement cafe
so we could hear the scuffling movement of the night around them, and
the wife who looked down at them from across the square.
Again here are developing strong actors taking on roles and quality writing
and structure in plays less often seen or in this case new translations.
Tom Freeman is impressive as the man whose wife watches him rather than
spend his money. Both he and Read give the play space to unfold and enrich
in performances of depth.
La Festa
This play by a contemporary Italian Playwright took us into an Italian
home where Mama and Papa live with their adult son. Scimone's has written
a comic script echoing Inonesco's The Bald Prima Donna (in US The Bald
Soprano) as the family's life goes on and on, on a continuous play loop.
Witty and very recognisable the family play their game of ....well....Families.
You know the one, we all know it, those formulaic ways we bicker through
our days. The milk's off, it's not off, it smells off, it's the .....and
so it goes. Viewed from the outside we roar our laughter - how stupid
they are. Then as a another line of banter skewers in we roar again this
time recognising our own or our partner's lines. All three actors served
us a dish of great delight rounding off the theatre part of the evening.
On the opening night after each play we cleared the room so the set and
seating could be rearranged and went to the bar to chat about what we'd
just seen. After the theatre most of us stayed on for the other act, the
Skitters a sketch troupe who appear at The Stand in Edinburgh on the Last
Wednesday of the month. Colin Romone, Julie Coombe, John Littlejohn did
their set with their director John MacIsaac. He was standing in for Miles
Jupp who was detained elsewhere on TV business, The Live Sketch Show BBC
1 Fridays at 11:05pm. Memorable Ulster Defence Association Chat line,
the Near East peace negotiations squabbling over the silliest things and
the political kidnappers hiding more than their faces behind their balaclavas
and more topped off nicely the night's entertainment.
And who started Menu Productions? Bill Dunlop whose love of theatre gave
rise to this great idea to give us a good night out.
© Thelma Good 30 January 2002
Venue - Counting House 0131 538 9453 in Edinburgh
( 30 Jan - 2 Feb & 14 - 16 Feb) and The Arches 0901 022 0300
Dates & times - Doors open at 7pm, start at 7:30pm
Man to Man - Edinburgh 30 Jan,
1 & 2, 14 & 16 Feb All nights Glasgow
The Man With A Flower In His Mouth
- 30 & 31 Jan, 1, 14 & 15 Feb All nights Glasgow
La Festa Edinburgh 30 &
31 Jan, 15 & 16 Feb All nights Glasgow
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