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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre : Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Elizabeth Gordon Quinn. - Tour. This play premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 1985.. Playwright - Chris Hannan. Director - John Tiffany. Designer - Neil Warmington. Composer & Sound Designer - David Paul Jones. Lighting Designer - Chahine Yavroyan. Company - National Theatre of Scotland Company Website. Cast - here . Tour Venues & Dates - here. Run Time - 2 hours including 15 mins interval no Interval. Reviewer - Ellen Woodrow. Fall in love while hating them too. Chris Hannan's acclaimed play is given a new production by the National Theatre of Scotland and revised for a stylish and poignant 2006 tour. Right from the start we are introduced to the Quinn family and Elizabeth Gordon Quinn - the matriarch and delusional lead. A money-strapped family home greets us with Elizabeth's proud piano in centre stage, and draws us quickly in to the poverty of Glasgow's rent strike in 1915. The simple but effective set brings us into the Quinn family home as well as their tenement close- how do you bring a whole tenement to the stage? This is how! And the spaciousness of Dundee Rep's stage only helps, somehow, to build the feeling of claustrophobia - too many people in too little space, no where at all to hide. Cara Kelly as Elizabeth has moves beautifully, and her tone of voice is perfect. We dare not believe she is poor, or ever has been. This is not the sort of lady who would even know about such things! We laugh with the characters, without ever losing sight of their darker sides, and being aware their lives shouldn't be any laughing matter. Poignant moments abound in the second half . . . Elizabeth's conversation with Mrs Black shows us how things could have turned out so differently, perhaps, and happier. Robin Laing as Aidan Quinn and Lesley Hart as Maura Quinn interact well together as brother and sister, conveying their various hurts and regrets, different but the same. It's these personal relationships and moments that make this play. Caught up in the circumstances the Quinns and their neighbours find themselves in, they make you question what you might do if you were them. And that's where this production succeeds. It doesn't matter that the timing's sometimes a bit off, and a couple of lines a little clumsy - it makes you think, and wince, and fall in love with all of the characters a little bit, while hating them all too. © Ellen Woodrow 27 April 2006 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast - William Quinn - Billy McColl. Elizabeth Gordon Quinn - Cara Kelly. Special Branch Officer / Sheriff's Officer / Coalman / RSM - John Ramage. Maura Quinn - Lesley Hart. Mrs Black - Myra McFadyen. Mrs Cunningham - Pauline Goldsmith. Dolan / Brogan / Sergeant - Antony Strachan. Haggerty / McCorquondale - John Kielty. Aidan Quinn - Robin Laing. Tour Venues and Dates. Tour begins 25 - 29 April at 7:45pm also Sat mat at 2:30pm Dundee Rep Theatre 01382 223530. 2 - 6 May at 7:30pm also Sat mat at 2:30pm Glasgow Citizens Theatre 0141 429 0022. 10 - 13 May at 7:45pm also Sat mat at 2:30pm Perth Theatre 0845 612 6320. 31 May - 3 June at 7:45pm also Sat mat at 2:30pm Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre 0131 248 4848. 6 - 10 June at 7:30pm Aberdeen His Majesty's Theatre 01224 641122. 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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