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The Leningrad Siege. - Tour.
El Cerco de Leningrado was first produced in 1994.
Playwright - José Sanchis Sinisterra.
This English Version translated by Catalina Botello and Rod Wooden.
Director - Mark Rosenblatt.
Designer - Ben Stones.
Costume Designer -D .
Lighting Designer - David Holmes.
Music - Marietta Veulens Menéndez.
Company - Out Of The Box Productions Company
Website.
Cast - here .
2006 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at Glasgow Tron Theatre on 17 February 2006.
Run Time - 2 hours including one interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Frequent lack of pace and clear direction.
Priscilla and Natalia are trying to save the Phantom Playhouse from being
turned into a car park or a soulless heritage museum, they hope to reopen
it again with the play that was just about to go up when it was closed.
Over twenty years ago Priscilla and her husband Nestor were running it
as a revolutionary theatre, and Natalia, like them, trod the boards. Now
the two elderly women now scrub them, squabble and fruitless try to place
scripts, programmes and pictures in the right places.
José Sanchis Sinisterra's play certainly provides laughs
for those who have ever got involved in Communist groups. Now when one
Broadway and West End hit musical draws on Nazi Germany for its humour,
Nestor's The Communist Manifesto - The Musical sounds as though it might
have a future. There are also jokes for those well acquainted with Spanish
culture and/or theatrical life. The archiving of theatre memorabilia too
has its moments as does Deirdra Morris's Natalia. On the first
night her playing of this giddy actress and mistress frequently just kept
the production afloat, Rosemary McHale's Priscilla was too underplayed.
But despite Morris's considerable efforts there is no disguising
the frequent lack of pace and clear direction. Perhaps later in the tour
it may come together more.
Ben Stones' design has threadbare tabs and velvet curtains that
dissolve when lit from behind so that Priscilla and Natalia become like
ghosts. Also creating atmosphere, as well as Marietta Veulens Menéndez's
music, are unattributed sound effects which strikingly fuse the sounds
of demolition, theatre and party rallies.
The translation and adaptation gives the actors many directions to go,
perhaps too many. You're left with a feeling a shorter tighter script,
more direction and greater care with the playwright's subtext and surreal
tendencies, would improve the experience - the second half at the moment
is better than the first. This play has similarities to Nilo Cruz's Two
Sisters And A Piano, which Out Of The Box Productions produced
an English version. In both two women wait many years for their trapped
lives to change. But director Mark Rosenblatt's production lacks
the crispness, energy and sparkle of director Paola Dionisotti's production
of the Cruz play seen at the Tron in 2003.
© Thelma Good 17 February 2006 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast - Natalia - Deirdra Morris and Priscilla
- Rosemary McHale.
2006 Tour Details of Out Of The Box Prods'
production of The Leningrad Siege .
Tour begins
16 - 18 Feb at 8pm also Sat Mat at 2pm Glasgow The Tron Theatre 0141 552
4267.
23 - 25 Feb at 8pm Bath Theatre Royal 01225 448 844.
4 March at Chipping Norton
Theatre.
7 - 11 March at Plymouth Theatre Royal 01752 267 222.
14 – 25 March at London Wiltons
Music Hall 020 7702 2789.
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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