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Theatre listings > Passing Places. - Tour. This play was first performed on 4 February 1997 at the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh and was then directed by John Tiffany, the recently appointed Director for New Work at the embryonic National Theatre of Scotland. Playwright - Stephen Greenhorn. Director - Anna Newell. Designer - Brian Hartley. Lighting Designer - Simon Wilkinson. Music Director - David Goodall. Video - Anna Newell and David Goodall. Company - Borderline Theatre Company - Company Website. Cast - here . 2005 Tour Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at Motherwell Theatre in North Lanarkshire near Glasgow on 12 February 2005. Run Time - 2 hours 30 mins including one interval. Reviewer - Thelma Good. Things are over stressed. Scotland is a country of contrasts and of many recent changes, Stephen Greenhorn's play takes a couple of small town men, has them finding the country is stranger and more varied. Alex, working in a Motherwell sports shop for a scary boss, Mr Binks who's obessive about his surfboard in the window, gets done over by some local neds. Fired from his job, Alex goes drinking with his friend Brian and, after taking the board in lieu of wages, they take off for the north in a clapped out Lada. As they dander about the Highlands Mr Binks dressed in leathers and on a motorbike sets off too to their final desination, Thurso, where surfers go to find the perfect wave as it rolls in across a stony reef. Sean Hay's leather clad Mr Binks is a man to avoid, with his unseen even more unhinged alter ego Ronnie who is his constant companion. Subtitled "A Road Movie For The Stage" Passing Places has 20 characters, fifty-three scenes and almost as many locations. Yes it's a challenge to produce, particularly if you are going to tour it and Borderline have responded with only limited success. Brian Hartley's map coloured set contains a curved ramp with health and safety railings placed so, unless you're in a steeply raked or multi-tiered venue, they interfere with your view of the video screen placed on the flats behind. It also results in the flat area reduced to a narrow strip at the front of the stage. The video gives an impression of the scenery the boys and Mr Binks drive or ride through, and there's a map on Hartley's flats in case you ain't got a clue what's outside Scotland's Central Belt - sadly that's quite a few of us. The production is full of props, the Lada pushed out from under the ramp and pushed back or not by the cast when the scenes change with no consistency, or the very stuffed seagull carried on and afixed to the railings for one scene to indicate we are on the Skye ferry. Like much in this production things are over stressed, and in a two and half hour play that can get very irritating. It's a Scottish failing in theatre to go for the wrong sort of half-way realism. Too often we see actors and directors trapped in stagings which sabotage their skill and our imagination. These choices also fly in the face of the Scottish touring realities - tight funding, long drives and frequent moves to very differently arranged venues. With the already existing references in the dialogue, a Lada can be created by chairs and a ferry by sounds while simple unfussy sets liberate plays. David Goodall has arranged various songs like David Byrne's "Road To Nowhere" , U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name" and Bobby Troup's "Route 66" but the jokey renditions by the band Failte become too raucous and relentlessly ironic. All this coupled with the near cartoon-like presentations of the characters has the result veering towards patronising childrens' show style rather than the humourous, wry but moving atmosphere the original Traverse production created. © Thelma Good 12 February 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Text Published by Nick Hern Books - Website. Cast: Kevin Lennon - Alex, Jim Webster - Brian, Sean Hay - Binks, Clare Lamont - Mirren, Toni Frutin - Others, Andrew Murray - Others and Richard Orr - Others. The Band - Big Jock - vocals, guitar and snare, Feargal Ferguson - vocals, whistle and bodhran, Lachlan Ferguson - voclas, pipes, mandolin and dulcimer, Donald Cameron MacDonald - vocals and mandolin, Sandy Earnaidh Macleod - vocals and fiddle, Eilais Nicleod - vocals and mandolin , Fiona Pemberton - vocals and whistle and Sandy Munro - vocals and fiddle. 2005 Tour Details of Borderline Theatre's production of Passing Places . Tour begins Preview 10 Feb at 7.30pm Kilmarnock Palace Theatre 01536 554900. Opens 11 Feb at 7.30pm Kilmarnock Palace Theatre 01536 554900. 12 Feb at 7.30pm Motherwell Theatre 01698 302999. 15 - 19 Feb at 7.45pm Dundee Rep Theatre 01382 223 530. 22 Feb at 7.30pm Dumfries Theatre Royal Tkts from Occasions The Florists 01387 250800. 23 & 24 Feb at 7.45pm Cumbernauld Theatre 01236 732887. 25 & 26 Feb at 8pm Livingston Howden Park 01506 433634. 1 & 2 March at 8.00pm Inverness 01463 234234 3 & 4 March at 7.30pm Musselburgh Brunton Theatre 0131 665 2240. 5 March at 7.30pm Dunfermline Carnegie Hall 01383 314000. 7 March at 7.30pm Ayr Gaiety Theatre 01292 611222. 8 March at 7.30pm Stranraer The Ryan Centre 01776 703535. 9 March at 7.30pm Hamilton The Town House 01698 452130. 10 March at 8pm Stirling macRobert 01786 466 666. 11 March at 7.30pm Castle Douglas Lochside Theatre 01556 504506. 12 March at 7.30pm Greenock Arts Guild Theatre 01475 723038. 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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