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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre : Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Side Effects. - World Premiere. Part of A Play, A Pie and A Pint 2006 Autummn season at lunchtime at Òran Mòr in Glasgow and The Jam House in Edinburgh. Playwright - Raman Mundair. Director - Steve Collins. Designer - Rita McGurn. Producer - David Maclennan. Companies - A Play, A Pie & A Pint - Sponsored By Orange and for Side Effects The National Theatre of Scotland young Company. Cast - here . Venues - In Glasgow - Òran Mòr, 731 - 735 Great Western Road nr Glasgow's Botanics at junction with Byres Rd. Tickets at door or bookable beforehand at 08700 600 100 or www.ticketweb.co.uk. In Edinburgh - The Jam House, 5 Queen Street, EH2 1JE. Ticket at the door or www.thejamhouse.com. Dates - Oran Mor, Glasgow 28 Aug - 2 Sept, The Jam House 4- 9 Sept and Bewley's Theatre Dublin . Run Time - Doors open at 12.30pm, show runs from 1:10pm. Performance lasts around 40 minutes. Reviewer - Thelma Good. Interesting cast but writer needs to see more. The previous seasons of A Play, A Pie And A Pint have all taken place in Glasgow. Now Edinburgh, who did have The Pool lunchtime theatre in the early seventies in Hanover Street, can again get a lunchtime theatre fix. The plays do vary, but even the flawed ones like this are constitently well produced and can include notable Scottish actors. Firstly the vegetable pie is great, even fractionally better than the ones this lunchtime theatre serves up with its plays in the West, the meat one I look forward to sampling next week. The cast are as interesting, but the play, like some seen in previous seasons in the West, has weaknesses. This week's play Side Effects is a chance to see the National theatre Of Scotland's Young Company. Every one in it is just starting out in this tricky profession. They may be young but their professionalism make something of this overloaded and under developed play set in a karaoke pub in Glasgow and later in a flat. Hamish and Jamie, Scott Hoatson and Neil Campbell, have been away for three years and sister Kathleen, Kristin McLean, is keen to see her brother Hamish. In the course of the play the events heap coincidence upon cliché, ending weakly after too many twists in the plot, we get Iraq, sexual orientation, antiwar as well as rape. The switchback changes lose audience's trust in the writer. Poet and writer Raman Mundair needs more knowledge of the strengths of the stage, as she crams in too many raw facts, not allowing her characters develop through drama, leaving Maryam Hamidi with an undercreated part. She does show some grasp of how to write bantering dialogue, which isn't a bad start. Could it be that yet again a reasonable writer developing in other genres has been thrust into (or thrust herself) into writing a play with very little previous experience as audience member, never mind an on stage participant? At £10 for lunch and play these short dramas, with more experienced playwrights like Dave Anderson, Alistair Grey and Elizabeth Maclennan to come, is a welcome and good value addition to an often static Edinburgh scene. © Thelma Good 4 September 2006 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com. Cast of Side Effects. - Kathleen/Morag - Kristin McLean, Ailsa - Maryam Hamidi, Hamish - Scott Hoatson and Jim/Compere - Neil Campbell. 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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