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A Lie of the Mind.
- Scottish Premiere.
Playwright - Sam Shepard.
Director -James Brining.
Designer - Neil Warmington.
Sound Designer - John Scott.
Lighting Designer - Simon Bennison.
Company - Dundee Rep Resident Ensemble Company.
Cast - here .
Venue -Dundee Repertory Theatre, South Tay Street Dundee.
Dundee Rep Box Office 01382 223530. www.dundeereptheatre.co.uk
Dates - 20 Oct - 6 Nov at 7.45 pm No Perfomances Sun or Mon.
Run Time - 3 hrs 15 minutes including 2 intervals of 20minutes
and then 10min.
Reviewer -Ellen Woodrow.
Funny whilst also being sensitive.
Dundee Rep's second Autumn offering is a visually stylish production of
an award winning play by a masterly American playwright. The set design
plays homage to an America made familiar through movies and its cluttered,
confused layout mirrors the lives and minds of the two main characters.
In this interesting and complex play the powerful blue grass soundtrack
is also used to good effect.
A Lie of the Mind explores a dark tale of husband and wife separated by
domestic violence, and their two families with all the oddities and secrets
that families tend to have. It's a comedy of the blackest order. I found
myself laughing and then thinking that I really shouldn't be, but that's
the intention of the piece. Sam Shepard's play is thoroughly enjoyable,
yet thought provoking eskewing mere light-heartedness.
The actors work well together in this strong ensemble piece. Rep new-comer,
Samantha Young, gives a haunting performance as Beth, struggling
to come to terms with her new life, with an able mind in a disobedient
body, and Paul Blair conveys the madness that consumes the character
Jake well, without it turning into a cartoon.
There isn't a poor performance - Irene MacDougall, in particular,
gets a lot of the laughs playing Meg, Beth's simple mother. Accent coach
Lynn Bains has brought small-town America to the stage in Dundee, with
only few noticeable slips of accent from the cast. Neil Warmington's design
is a triumph, and James Brining's direction remains funny whilst also
being sensitive to the subject matter.
This is a long play, so careful if you need to catch the last train home!
It is well worth viewing, however.
©Ellen Woodrow 21 October 2004. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast -
Jake - Paul Blair.
Baylor - John Buick.
Frankie - Keith Fleming.
Meg - Irene Macdougal.
Lorraine - Ann Louise Ross.
Sally - Emily Winter.
Beth - Samantha Young.
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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