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Zlata's Diary
- Tour & World Premiere.
Adaptor & Director - Gerry Mulgrew from the Diary of
Zlata Filipovic.
Designer - Evelyn Barbour.
Lighting Designer - Jeanine Davies.
Composer - Allan Tall.
Company - Communicado Productions Ltd.
Cast - here .
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at macRobert, Stirling on 26 May 2004.
Run Time - 2 hours 30 mins including 15 mins interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Long but company know the soul.
When disputes break out and the firing starts, would you stay, go or
hope that someone could rescue you? Zlata, her family and friends were
living a normal European life, watching MTV, up with the latest fashions
and pop hits. She was 10 when her country slid into civil war. And it's
through her eyes we see Sarajevo go from sophisitcated capitial she moved
around freely to a medieaval place where there were no schools, electriciy
or running water and she stayed in a few rooms for months and moths on
end
Zlata's piano sits unplayed in the dangerous room, her mother runs over
a bridge in the seconds it takes a sniper to take aim. During the diary
their lives become worse and worse while the "children", what
Zlata calls the politicians, play. It goes on a bit, Zlata's Diary, there
are moments when like Zlata we long for it all to be over - but that's
what wars do. Francis Thornburn protrays the frustration and the
frail potential of Zlata, a girl who could grow wonderfully, but might
be marred or killed by the intense strain of living in a war zone.
When they are not being neighbours, parents and friends the rest of the
cast play her school friends. Even though times get increasing difficult
we see these Sarajevoians grab pleasure in music and song, others are
US pop songs but many are songs of that region thrillingly sung unaccompanied.
The effect is to make you forget this is a Scottish company. It seems
fresh from the land and the conflict that created it, so you trust Communicado
knows that country's soul or experiences.
The many settings are suggested by many positionings of a large moving
piece of set which becomes bridge, catwalk, walls of the house, the school,
and a car in a memorable dangerous dash across the town. The production's
emotional impact is hindered by having to set the action back from the
apron of the macRobert mainstage - in the smaller, closer spaces of most
of the other venues on the tour that will be remedied.
We've been remarkably lucky in Western Europe. With a light-hearted opening
descending into difficult times Gerry Mulgrew's strongly directed Zlata's
diary reminds us things can change all too easily. A change which might
take your youth or even your life away while you wait in the dark, cold,
dressed in all your clothes for life to get back to the peaceful "normal".
© Thelma Good 26 May 2004. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast - Bojana - Irene Allan, Boda - Estrid Barton,
Malik - Stewart Ennis, Nedo - James MacKenzie, Alica - Gerda Stevenson,
Zhika - Allan Tall & Zlata - Frances Thorburn.
2004 Tour Details of Communicado Theatre's
production of Zalta's Diary .
Tour begins
20 - 22 May at 7:30pm Aberdeen The Lemon Tree
http:// www.lemontree.org
26 May at 1.30pm & 8pm Stirling MacRobert 01786 466 666
http://www.macrobert.org
28-Sat 29 May at 7.45pm Cumbernauld Theatre 01236 732887
http://www.cumbernauldtheatre.co.uk
2 Jun at 8pm St Andrews Byre Theatre 01334 475000
http://www.byretheatre.com
3 Jun at 7.30pm Kirkcaldy Adam Smith Theatre 01592 412929
http://www.adamsmiththeatre.com
5 Jun at 2pm & 7.30pm Inverness The Spectrum Centre 01463 711112
http://www.highlandfestival.org.uk
8 Jun at 7.45pm & 9 Jun at 2pm & 7.45pm Dundee Rep 01382 223530
http://www.dundeereptheatre.co.uk/> www.dundeereptheatre.co.uk
11 Jun at 8pm Livingston Howden Park Centre 01506 433634
http://www.westlothian.gov.uk
13 Jun at 7.30pm Glasgow GilmorehillG12 0141 330 5522
http://www.gilmorehillg12.co.uk
15- 19 Jun at 7.30pm, & also 19 Jun at 2.30pm Traverse Theatre 0131
228 1404
http://www.traverse.co.uk
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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