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Perfect Days
- tour
Playwright - Liz Lochhead
Director - Ann Scott Jones
Lighting Designer - Mike Lancaster
Costume Designer - Liz Boulton (Elaine Collins also wears Paul
Smith, Verasace)
Sound Designer - David Goodall
Company - Borderline Theatre email
Venues and Dates - see end of review
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Humour sparkling and the pain sharper.
A hit in its 1998 premiere Traverse production on the Edinburgh Fringe
Festival, Borderline give us this touring production of Lochhead's powerful
and funny play. Approaching the big four - 0, family relationships, friendship
and being human, Perfect Days is set very firmly in the Loftlands
of Glasgow but the Barrowlands and all human turmoil lives in these characters's
ways.
Hairdresser Barbs, star of TV makeovers and her Razor City salon, is reaching
that certain age, but her success and money aren't giving her what she
really wants, to experience the patter of tiny feet. Elaine Collins
is a subtle Barbs, dramatically and movingly conveying Barbs's longing
for a young life even though she finds her own mother hard to get close
to. Una McLean is a marvellous, real Sadie, trying to show daughter
Barbs how much she loves her, producing sparkling, garish knitwear and
statements to make Barbs cringe. Zesty unstoppable Sadie cleans Barbs's
loft apartment the day after the cleaner 'cause a mother does it better
than anyone else until she finds her daughter can still hurt and confuse
her. Also in her daughter's life is Davie her ex-hubbie, Stewart Porter
gives him a sexual frisson, you're not surprised Barbs still has him around.
Every woman needs friends and Barbs has two. The oh so camp Brendan, Lawrie
McNicol, who, it turns out, will do almost anything for his friend
- he just draws the line at one thing. And Alice, Grace Glover,
the plain friend with a heart and no style, yet she's mysteriously meeting
a young man Grant, Steven Duffy, who has something to offer Alice
and Barbs. Ann Scott Jones, who played the original Sadie, directs her
well selected cast on a stylish set, even the scene changes add to the
flow as Barbs's cleaner sets the loft apartment to rights while we hear
fitting words from Barbs's favourite singers.
When I saw the premiere production the underlying agonies of the characters
got lost a bit in the script's strong, at times uproarious comedy. This
production keeps the humour sparkling and the pain sharper.
© Thelma Good 10 April 2002
Tour Details
5 6 April at 7.45pm £8/£5 Cumbernauld Theatre, Kildrum
01236 732 887
9 20 April (not 15) at 7.30pm £10/£3 Glasgow Citizens'
Theatre, 0141 429 0022 or online
22- 23 April at 7.30pm £8.50/£4.50 Musselburgh Brunton Theatre
0131 665 2240
24 April at 7.30pm £8.50/£5.50 Kirkcaldy Adam Smith Theatre
01592 412929
26 April at 7.30pm £10/£8 Ayr Gaiety Theatre 01292 611222
27 April at 7.30pm£8.50/£7.50/£7 Dunfermline Carnegie Hall
01383 314000
30 April- 1 May at 8pm £10/£6 Inverness Eden Court Theatre
01463 234234
3 & 4 May at 7.30pm £8/£5 Livingston Howden Park Centre
01506 433634
6 May at 7.30pm £9/£7 Motherwell Theatre Advance BO 01698
267515 Tickets also available from any North Lanarkshire Library
7 May at 7.30pm £8/£5 East Kilbride Village Theatre 01355
248 669
8 11 May at 7.30pm also Mat 11 Mar at 2.30pm£12/£8 Perth
Theatre 01738 621031
14- 18 May at 8pm £12/£7.50/£5 St. Andrews Byre Theatre
01334 475000
Tour Ends
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