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Theatre listings > I Was A Beautiful Day. - Tour & World Premiere. First performance at An Lanntair Arts Centre, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Playwright - Iain F MacLeod. Director - Philip Howard. Designer - Mary Robson. Lighting Designer - Kai Fischer. Composer - Paul Mounsey Voice Director - Ros Steen. Assistant Director - Annie George. Company - Traverse Theatre Company Edinburgh in association with An Lanntair Arts Centre, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. Cast - here . 2005 Tour Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at macRobert, Stirling on 19 October 2005. Run Time - 2 hours including an Interval. Reviewer - Thelma Good. Exhilarating ending.
One day a passing patient puts his head round his open door, Lube's just been downgraded fresh out of a secure ward. He's like a half-grown puppy, always pushing the boundaries. Before he was a successful businessman with wife and a child. Dan is meticulous and protective of his inner self, he's a islander, his first language Gaelic and Iain Macrae, in a very watchable performance, conveys Dan's learnt control over his damaged mind. Glaswegian Lube, is still wearing the designer fashionable slob clothes of his past successful past, his approaches to the much more restrained Dan and his use of language are vigorous and erratic. Though from childhood summer holidays, Lube has a bit of the language of Eden himself he's not a man you want to be left with. Himself a native of Lewis, Iain F MacLeod's play has the audience carried away by the strength and energy of the playing and the dialogue. Macrae's Dan and John Kazek's edgy Lube indulge in verbal tussles and mutually satisfying escape into myths. The contrasting structures of their English due to their Gaelic or Scots roots with frequent and often humourous quoting of English literary phrases add further waves of pleasure. Into Dan's room also comes Anne, Lesley Hart, a cartographer who's been living in Dan's village collecting names for a new map of it and its surroundings. She's not too impressed with the village's distance from the nearest cappuccino machine, though she's out in the world her grasp of it is slighter than Dan's or Lube's. Coming in at moments of significance and myth enactment when actors are speaking is Paul Mounsey's new-age feel music. Sadly there are occasions when those with less than 20/20 hearing may have to forgive it's swamping the words. Anne's reference to the kind of maps she'd like to create is a well-judged addition to the printed text - new plays evolve up (and sometimes beyond) their premiere night. The playwright's suggestion of sheets and stones, rather than the production's maps on stiffened paper and the brutish bricks, would have further released.the lyrical drive of the play. Tacking back and forth under Philip Howard's direction, played on a intensely angled and sloped set, the play moves towards its exhilarating ending where the production moves out of its tied down with red chords set and immaginatively extends the fourth wall. This many nuanced play can be played in different ways. It's well worth seeing the premiere - when (hopefully) it is revived there are different features to thrown into relief. © Thelma Good 19 October 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Text - Is published by Nick Hern and is available from the venues when it is being performed there ,and also thereafter at the Traverse and from the publishers and good booksellers. Language of Eden - Gaelic is sometimes refered to as such. Cast - Dan - Iain Macrae, Lube - John Kazek and Anne - Lesley Hart. 2005 Tour Details of Traverse Theatre's production of I Was A Beautiful Day. Tour begins 7 & 8 Oct at 8pm Stornoway, Isle of Lewis An Lanntair 01851 703.307. 11 Oct at 8pm Griminish, Benbecula St Mary’s Hall Tkts on the door from 7pm. 13 Oct at 8pm Achiltibuie Coigach Community Hall 01854 622 373. 15 Oct at 7.30pm Cairndow Village Hall 01499 600 260. 19 Oct at 8pm Stirling macRobert 01786 466 666. 20 Oct at 7.30pm at Inverurie Town Hall Tkts in advance from Inverurie Bookstore, 18 High Street, Inverurie 01467 625 800. 21 Oct at 7.30pm Huntly Stewarts Hall, Tkts in advance from Rizza Ice Cream Shop, Gordon Street, Huntly 01569 768 359. 22 Oct at 7.30pm Ellon Victoria Hall Tkts in advance from Paterson Shoe Shop, 16 Station Road, Ellon 01358 724 545. 25 Oct at 8pm Isle of Skye Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, 01471 844 207. 27 Oct at 8pm Strathpeffer Pavilion 01997 420 124. 29 Oct at 8pm (door/bar opens 7.30pm) Easdale Island Community Hall Late return ferry 11pm 01852 300 113. 1 Nov at 2pm Mallaig Mallaig & Morar Community Centre 01687 460 039 • Tkts on the door. 3 Nov at 7.30pm Ballachulish Village Hall, 01855 811 979. 5 Nov at 7.30pm Isle of Jura Jura Hall 8 - 19 Nov Not Mons at 8pm, except 13 Nov at 5pm, and also 19 Nov at 2:30pm Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404. 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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