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Two Sisters And A Piano
- Tour & European Premiere .
Playwright - Nilo Cruz.
Director - Paola Dionisotti.
Assistant Director - Chris Bailey.
Designer - Nick Barnes.
Lighting Designer - Gerry Jenkinson.
Sound - Stephen Hudson.
Company - Out Of The Box Productions (England) Artistic Director
- Catalina Botello .Website
This production in assocation with Tron Theatre Glasgow (Scotland).
Cast - here .
Venue - Tron Theatre, Glasgow.www.tron.co.uk
0141 552 4267.
Dates - 4 - 6 Sept at 8pm.
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Run Time - 2 hours including 15 mins interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Intense moments - sensual and cerebral.
Cuba 1991 is the setting for this play, with Nick Barnes' design we are
in the hot, suffocating and grimy heat of a house where two sisters have
been released from prison into house arrest. One, Sophie, is playing as
we enter fragments of Cuban rhythms and classical composers' phrases.
She and her sister the writer Maria Celia are fragments themselves of
a family whose men folk have gone abroad, their father and Maria Celia's
husband.
Eva Alexander is Sophie the younger vitaller person, recklessly
she flings herself around the decaying house, it's because of her sister
she is there. Her sister wrote about freedom and change - a dangerous
thing to do in a once revolutionary state now wanting to control what
happens. Almost febrile is her sister Maria Celia, a woman who, until
Lieutenant Portuondo appears with a proposition, has only hopes that her
husband is writing to her or doing anything. Catalina Botello's
portrayal of the older sister gives us the whiphard will of the political
idealist who desires to ensure she keeps her intellectual soul. The contrast
between them and the sisterly sparring are some of the delights of this
production, well cast and directed by Paola Dionisotti.
In the confinement of house arrest we see the sisters become wasted and
distraught by their captivity, a state Lieutenant Portuondo plays on.
As he reads to the writer her husband's letters what was a straight trade
becomes warped by each person's humanity. Robert Cavanah's confident military
bearing changes into a man literally seduced by the words he speaks. While
Victor the piano tuner who comes to remedy the years neglected instrument
sparks intense hope in Sophie's body, Alexander makes the audience
quiver with her longing while Stephen Hudson's Victor is a man
we hope she'll play with again soon.
It's a sharp production containing some intense moments both sensual and
cerebral. Cruz's play makes us examine whether it is the political idealist
left behind in her own country who is impotent and fruitless or the exile
who is self-seeking and neutered. The languor of the begining is beautifully
handled while the later piercing of the communist bubble by the events
of 1991 recalls that all idealogies and regimes can keep the wolf of change
only so long from their doors.
© Thelma Good 5 Sept 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast: Sophie - Eva Alexander, Maria Celia -
Catalina Botello, Lieutenant Portuondo - Robert Cavanah anf Victor Manuael
- Stephen Hudson.
2003 Tour Details of Out Of The Box Production
of Two Sisters and A Piano.
Tour begins
3 - 6 Sept at 8pm Glasgow The Tron 0141 228 1404.
9 Sept at 7:30pm Kirkcaldy Adam Smith Theatre 01592 412929.
16 - 17 Sept at Poole Jellicoe Theatre 01202 205730.
18 - 20 Sept at Bath Theatre Royal 01225 448844.
22 - 26 Sept at Dublin The Space at The Helix +353 1
677 8511.
27 Sept at Downpatrick (N.Ireland) Down Arts Centre 028
4461 5283.
1 Oct at Reading 21 South Street Arts Centre 0118 960
6060.
6 - 8 Oct at Salisbury Playhouse 01722 320333.
9 Oct at Worthing Northbrook Theatre 01903 606162.
11 Oct at Bristol Wyckham Theatre 0117 987 7877.
15 Oct at Harrow Arts Centre 020 8428 0124 .
16- 18 & 21- 25 Oct at London Riverside Studios 020
8237 1111.
Tour Ends.
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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