| |
Theatre listings >
Theatre Index >>
There Was A Man
Playwright - Tom Wright
Director - Alasdair McCrone
Designer - Alicia Hendrick
Sound Engineer - Martin Low
Musical Arrangements - Jim Davidson
Company - Mull Little Theatre Website
01688 302828 Edinburgh guide info on theatre and
island
Venues and Dates - opens in Dervaig Mull and on Sept 19 goes to
Cumbernauld theatre see end of review for details
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Intimate and intense
Burns was a man and a poet. The late Tom Wright, who died just as this
production went into rehearsal, wrote a play that does justice to both.
Mull's Artistic Director, Alasdair McCrone, has brought us a new production
of the play long associated with John Cairney. McCrone has cast John Langford,
last seen in these parts as Captain Ahab in Walk the Plank's Moby Dick.
Unlike Cairney, Langford lets Burns be the spark and the fire of play
and the play is even better for it.
Mull Little Theatre is well named, there's just enough room for 43 of
an audience but that means it's intimate and intense. Both characteristics
ensure that we're soon following Burns as he learns to read, write and
discover he has a mind of his own even though he's just an poor farmer's
son. The Burns we encounter is not the wastrel fornicator we rhapsodise
at drunken gatherings but a more complex being. Moved deeply by the birth
of his children and trying valiantly to look after the women who caught
his fertile seed better than the hard farming soil he had to toil over,
Langford's Burns is clearly also a driven creative man. One stimulated
not only by the fairer sex but also by the world's classics and later
by the songs and language of his own, sometime rebellious country.
As a depiction of how hard it was for Burns to be the man, the poet and
the creator Tom Wright's play has the considerable ring of truth about
it. And how little has changed too in this nation's life, poets still
have to resort to subsided publications and earn their living other than
by their creative pen and receive "advice" from richer non-creatives.
We do have need of writers who can make Scots live and pull us close to
it's thrill and skirl as Burns continues to do. He recorded traditional
Scottish ballads like "Auld Lang Syne" and created his "Tam
O'Shanter", vividly rendered by John Langford's Burns who also recalls
Burns's secular hymn to mankind - "A Man's a Man for All That",
(memorably sung by Sheena Wellington and the MSPs when the Scottish Parliament
was recalled after its 292 year absence).
Burns and Scotland are strongly linked. McCrone, Wright and Langford
along with Martin Low's atmospheric soundscape, designer Alicia Hendrick's
cornfield and Burn's homespun and patched breeks all give this well loved
play a fine production for the emerging new Scots and our neighbours in
the world.
© Thelma Good 2 July 2002
Dates for There Was A Man
Opens 14 June - 2 July, 15 - 17 July, 25 July - 27 July Not Suns at
8:30pm
9 - 13 August, 21 & 22 August, 30 August - 3 Sept Not Suns
at 8:30pm
12 Sept then tours to
18 Sept at 7.30pm Oban, Corran Halls Studio Theatre 01631 567333
19 Sept at 7.45pm Cumbernauld Theatre 01236 732887
30 Sept at 8pm Cairndow Village Hall
1 Oct at 8pm Glenuig Hall 01687 470267
3 Oct at 8pm Lochinver Village Hall
5 Oct at 8pm Plockton Village Hall
18 Oct at 7.30pm Helensbugh, Victoria Halls 01436 673275
21 Oct at 7.30pm Arinagour, Coll Village Hall
23 Oct at 7.30pm Dalmally Village Hall
24 Oct at 7.30pm Rothesay - Pavilion 01700 504250
25 Oct at 7.30pm Dunoon - Queens Hall 01369 702800
28 Oct at 7.30pm Knoydart Inverie Hall 01687 462347
30 Oct at 8pm Halkirk, Ross Institute (Lyth Arts Centre) 01955 641270
31 Oct at 2pm Bettyhill Farr High School
5 Nov at 8pm Clashmore Carnegie Hall 01862 811068
6 Nov at 7.30pm Invergordon Arts Centre 01349 868479
Tour Ends
Mull Little Theatre - Based in Dervaig on the
north west side of a beautiful Island in the Inner Hebrides - Iona, St
Columba's Isle is off the western tip of Mull. This well established theatre
produced 3 plays this season all of which will go on to tour, see rest
of Scotland listings for details.
This company is the only rurally based revenue funded theatre in Scotland.
One play is being done in Tobermory the Island's town, the other two are
in the Little Theatre in Dervaig. It takes 20mins to drive the single
track road from Tobermory. To stay in Dervaig I recommend Druimnacroish
Hotel, laid back, friendly and good food, a 5 min drive along the
Dervaig/ Salen road, you can also book a pre theatre meal there. Great
place to unwind with no TV! And the Bellacroy Hotel in the village gives
excellent cheap meals in a slightly down at heel bar and the staff are
friendly there too. The village also has bookable bunkrooms in the super
new Village Hall.
Mull is an Island well worth a visit where you can walk in and up amazing
dramatic landscapes, see all sorts of fascinating animals, birds and plants
and gaze at breathtaking views and beaches. Our Scottish Islands are balms
to the soul and tonics to the heart - just remember it may well rain or
be a little cold sometimes and outdoor casual clothes and sturdy walking
shoes are often useful.
© Thelma Good 6 July 2002
Theatre listings >>
Theatre Index >>
|
|
