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Theatre listings > The Girl With Red Hair. - Tour & World Premiere. Playwright - Sharman Macdonald. Director - Mike Bradwell. Designer - Robin Don. Lighting Designer - Gerry Jenkinson. Sound Designer - Tom Zwitserlood. Assistant Director - Jemima Levick. Companies - Co-production between Royal Lyceum Theatre Company Edinburgh and The Bush Theatre Company London. Cast - here . Venues - Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh 19 - 12 March then transfers to Hampstead Theatre London. Full Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh on 19 February 2005. Run Time - 1 hours 30 mins no Interval . Reviewer - Thelma Good. Lingers and wraps round the mind.
The central gap is rarely used by the actors. It's as if it's occupied by the unseen central character Roslyn She was a young singer songwriter who died in a latenight road accident, her future wiped out by the kind of accident, a driver falling asleep at the wheel that removes too many people in Fife and in Scotland. We never meet her but her effect is everywhere a year on since her death, not just with her boyfriend Matt. Only the visiting lorry driver Stuart, Matt's new girl friend Corinne and the young girl Pam never knew her. The others are all caught in a kind of limbo. Though the older ladies Sadie and Ina are more preoccupied by Ida's late husband Bill and Sadie's suggestion that Ida come and help her run a B &B in South west England. These two ladies of a certain age, with their spark and pointed comments to each other, as portrayed by Shelia Reid and Sandra Voe could run away with the play. What ensures they don't is Sharman Macdonald's frequently lyrical text and the rest of the ensemble of actors. Taking the time of one long summer's night, at a time of year all Scots find magical and almost dreamlike the play seduces slowly. The audience watches as the characters reveal themselves, frequently the story builds up in fragments, a little here, a little there. At first it jumps about as if uncertain which strand to develop first, but its own internal rhythms become more and more coherent. And emotionally it's a slow burn. Patricia Kerrigan as Roslyn's mother trying to get back into running her wee hotel and Christopher Dunne as the Blarney tongued Stuart, the snarl that Matt and his new girl are in and Izzy's insistent (and rather late introduced into the play) attempt to keep Roslyn's memory alive by a game she and Pam play, are the fuel along with Sadie and Ina. There is one play it's mood and impact recalls, Michel Tremblay's A Solemn Mass for A Full Moon in Summer, where Quebecois people on a hot summer night talk as the moon rises. Like it The Girl With Red Hair's effect lingers and wraps round the mind with its feeling of the ache of life and the comfort others may in time bring. © Thelma Good 19 February 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast - Matt - Sean Biggerstaff, Corinne - Emma Campbell Jones, Pam - Joanne Cummins, Stuart - Christopher Dunne, Cath - Patricia Kerrigan, Izzy - Helen McAlpine, Ina - Sheila Reid and Sadie - Sandra Voe. 2005 Tour Details of The Girl With Red Hair . Tour begins 18 Feb Preview at 7:45pm 19 Feb - 12 March at 7:45pm Tues Sat mats 26 Feb, 2, 5, 9, & 12 March at 2.30pm. all at Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre 0131 248 4848. then Preview 23 March at 7:30pm 24 March at 7pm then 25 March - 16 April at Tues to Sat at 7.30pm, Sat matinees at 3pm Not on 25 March or 28 March. all at at London Hampstead Theatre 020 7722 930. 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. Theatre listings >
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