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Two Lives - An Audience
with The Lizard Lady /Backstage At The Kit Kat Klub. - Tour.
An Audience With The Lizard Lady was premiered at the Gilded Balloon in
1998 and Backstage At The Pussy-Kat Klub was commissioned by the Courtyard
Theatre, Hereford in 1999. The 2 monologues by Gowan Calder first appeared
there as a double bill in 2000.
Playwright - Gowan Calder.
Director - Janet Dunbar.
Costume Designer - Anna Cocciadiferro.
Company - Occasional Theatre Company, email
and Mad Cow Tel - 0141 422 1442.
Cast - here .
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at Traverse Theatre Edinburgh on 18 March 2004.
Run Time - 1hours 5mins including 20 mins interval.
Reviewer - Irene Brown.
Perfectly timed.
Here's a humourous and thought-provoking double bill about people who
find ways to change how the world perceives them.
An Audience with The Lizard
Lady.
When Morag Kerr, Janet Dunbar, walks arthritically on stage to
the chintzy set that is her best room, her sensible Burberry pleated skirt
and knitted waistcoat belie the surreal world about to be revealed. In
a prim, Scottish voice, she tells how she discovered her astounding ability
to be a human chameleon.
Chameleon-like, Dunbar's comic mimicry convincingly recreates characters
and events from Morag's past. After this gift from God saves her from
her father's abuse Morag goes public. And we're there, hearing big bearded
Bertha shouting, "dae* maroon"
while Morag chitters under Stanley Bennet's big top's spotlight on her
first night. Later we sense the sexy pliable twins who can give you a
double wrap on a cold night.
What Wailing Wallie and his Amazing Inner Child do in the seriously zany
world of circus in Auchtermuchty remains a mystery, but the very name
gives a hint at Calder's imaginative and poetic language used throughout
the piece. When Morag hangs up her silk kimono with Lizard Lady embroidered
on the back after one concealing trick too many, it concludes an audience
treat. One where Dunbar's Morag Kerr, shows her true colours in
this perfectly timed comic treasure.
Backstage At The Kit Kat
Klub.
Here we're in the dressing room of club artiste, Danny Liebermann who
enters the stage in full drag to the sound of loud applause for his act.
Without resorting to camp gestures Donald Munro relates the complex
tale of how he, Danny becomes a drag artiste.
Danny sheds each layer of his female persona, gradually moving into his
male garb - the unrobing like a reverse metaphor of his history. The statement
"My Gran was a man" is soon made clear. Lillian Liebermann,
Danny's real grandmother, dies giving birth to his father in a concentration
camp. Like the female character in Manfred Karges' "Man to Man"^,
Danny's "Gran", a camp commandant (no pun intended!), takes
over the dead woman's identity and brings up the baby. He moves to Glasgow
post war to find a real relative of Lillian, and ends up creating a 'normal'
family for Danny's dad with Joshua, a black GI.
'Lillian' has behaved as nothing more than a bloody human being, as Danny
describes himself to his own son. To be a mensch~
was the survival mantra in the camps and is the overriding message of
this funny and challenging play.
© Irene Brown 18 March 2004. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Footnotes -
* dae - Scots for do.
^ Man to Man - Manfred Karges' play where a working
class woman impersonates her dead husband during World War II.
~ mensch - Jewish word from the Yiddish meaning upstanding
person.
You can also hear Gowan Calder's radio play, Nude Untitled, to
be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 29th March 2004 at 2:15pm and available
on Radio 4's website 24/7 for the week after.
Cast: Morag Kerr - Janet Dunbar and Danny Liebermann
- Donald Munro.
2004 Tour Details of Ocassional Theatre Company/Mad
Cow's production of Two Lives - An Audience with The Lizard Lady and
Backstage At The Kit Kat Club.
Tour begins
12 & 13 March at 7:30pm Perth Upper Springland Theatre
01738 632995.
18 - 20 March at 7:30pm Edinburgh, Traverse 0131 228 1404.
2 April at 8pm Oban, Corran Halls 01631 567 333.
3 April at 8pm Taynuilt, Village Hall Tkts at Door.
17 April at 8pm Whithorn, Swallow Theatre 01988 850 368.
23 April at 8pm Inverness, Spectrum Centre 01463 221 842.
24 April at 8pm Nairn Little Theatre 01667 454 653.
29 April at 7pm Edinburgh North Edinburgh Arts Centre 0131
315 2151.
15 May at 8pm Bellshill Cultural Centre, Bellshill 01698
302 999.
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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