Edinburgh International Festival
EIF 2004 Theatre Preview.

Their website Booking opens for all by post, phone, fax, counter and online on 17 April 2004.

Initial Rundown Of The Theatre Programme all productions in English except, in the case of Le Soulier de Satin (in French), Andromache (in German) and Peer Gynt (in German) with English supertitles.
Jump to sections of this page using these links:
Week One 15 - 21 August / Week Two 22 - 28 August /
Week Three 29 August - 5 September / Thelma's comments.

Week One 15 - 21 August.
5 productions open in Week One and there are 2 Royal Bank Lates (starting at 10:30pm).

Celestina brings back the team who presented Hamlet in 2003. Calixto Bieito directs The Birmingham Repertory Theatre with the extraordinary actress Kathryn Hunter in the starring role.

This play by Fernando De Rojas has a new English translation by the renowned playwright, John Clifford whose version of Calderon's Life is a Dream was also directed with flair by Bieito at a pervious EIF. In this seldom performed play the madame brothel keeper of the title agrees to help a nobleman. With the aid of two servants she aids him in the seduction of a young and very alluring woman. This is a welcome and rare chance to see Rojas' play which has inspired many artists since being written in 1499.
Celestina will be at the King's Theatre and will run from 15 to 24 August (not Suns) at 7:30pm with Matinees at 2pm on 19, 21 , & 24 August. Performance lasting about 2 hours.

Also opening on 16 August at the Festival Theatre is Le Soulier de Satin (The Satin Slipper) from Centre Dramatique National Orléans-Loiret-Centre of France. This huge play written by Paul Caudel (1868 - 1955) and published in 1929 is directed by Olivier Py, (who has a rehearsed reading of his new play as a Week Two Royal Bank Late) with 24 actors and musicians. Set in 15th Century Spain, it is a love story between a Spanish knight and the wife of an aging nobleman which endures through decades, military and social upheavals and crossing oceans and countries. Performed in French with English supertitles.
Performances 16 & 17 August at 1pm lasting approximately 11 hours with three intervals including a supper interval of 45 minutes.

Also opening on 16 August at The Royal Lyceum Theatre is Andromache from Schaubühne Am Lehniner Platz, Berlin. Director Luc Perceval and his co-adaptor Peter Perceval use Racine's play as a starting point for this retelling of the tragedy of Andromache, forced to marry Pyrrhus to save the life of her son. It's another opportunity to see the outstanding actress Jutta Lampe who has been seen by EIF audiences in Peter Stein's The Cherry Orchard and Luc Bondy's The Seagull.
Performances 16 - 19 August at 7:30 pm. Performance lasts aproximately 1 hour.

And this year there is some late night theatre at the EIF as part of the Royal Bank Lates which give people for £5 an opportunity to try out new artists and art forms. Music and Dance performances for one or two nights at various venues also form part of this exciting development. Tickets for these go on sale on 2 August and every night there will be some tickets available an hour before performance, a chance to follow a whim.

Biokhraphia by Lina Saneh and Raib Mroueh from Beirut a strong, subtle one woman theatre piece. A rare chance to see theatre from an area of the world we need to know better.
Performances 16 - 19 August at 10:30pm at The Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Lucia Melts from TG Stan one of Europe's exciting experimental groups present in English an exploration of the breakdown of a relationship.
Performances 20 - 23 August at 10:30pm at The Hub.

Week Two 22 - 28 August.

Calixto Bieito's Celestina continues at the King's Theatre to 24 August (not Suns) at 7:30pm with Matinees at 2pm on 19, 21 , & 24 August. Performance lasting about 2 hours.

Opening on 22 August at The Royal Lyceum is Peer Gynt by Ibsen from The Berliner Ensemble directed by Peter Zadek, with Uwe Bohn as Peer Gynt and Angela Winkler (last seen at the EIF as Hamlet) as Aase. This is a large scale production of this epic from a theatre director who is acclaimed for his productions of Ibsen and Shakespeare. In German with Supertitles.
Performances 22 - 24 August at 7 pm. Perfomance lasts 3 hour 30 minutes.

Opening at the King's Theatre on 27 August director, composer, designer and performer Carles Santos brings his company with his joyous celebration of Rossini, the man and his music, The Composer, the Singer, the Cook and the Sinner. His Ricardo i Elena was loved and acclaimed when it appeared at the EIF for its intense theatricality - this sounds as if it will hit the spot too!
27 - 30 August at 7:30pm.

And the Royal Bank Theatre Lates.
Lucia Melts from TG Stan continues until 23 August at 10:30pm at The Hub.

Epistle For Young Actors - A rehearsed reading in English of Olivier Py's new play (Py directs one of the Week One Plays Le Soulier de Satin) which takes a fantasical look at theatre.
26 August at 10:30pm at The Hub.

Eraritjaritjaka - Theatre Vidy Lausanne bring us Heiner Goebbels newest, they wowed us with his spectacular Hashirigaki, this work inspired by Nobel Prize winning writer Elias Canetti is perfomed with André Wilms and the Mondriaan String Quartet. I'm assured this is a theatre piece.
27 - 29 August at 10:30pm at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Week Three 29 August - 5 September
Continuing at the King's Theatre is Carles Santos' The Composer, the Singer, the Cook and the Sinner. until 30 August at 7:30pm.

Opening at the Royal Lyceum Theatre on the 1 September The Tron Theatre Company, Glasgow premieres The Wonderful World Of Dissocia by the playwright of Stitching and The Censor, Anthony Neilson. Lisa ia a woman who visits Dissocia it has its dangers and no one wants her to go there. So she promises not to go even though some amazing people live there. But to keep her life and the Dissocians one day she finds she has to go back.
1 - 4 September at 7:30pm Matinee 4 September at 2:30pm.

And the Royal Bank Theatre Lates, just one theatre event, a don't miss from Heiner Goebbels (details below) in this week. It's a chance to try out another medium. There is Tango music on the 30 August and 1 September and solo dance on the 2 & 3 September at the Hub. and at the Usher Hall Ian Bostridge on the 29 August, Bach Cello and Violin Music on the 31 August, Traditional Japanese Flute Music on the 2 September and Stravinsky on the 4 September.

Eraritjaritjaka - Théâtre Vidy Lausanne bring us from Heiner Goebbels who wowed us with his spectacular Hashirigaki this work inspired by Nobel Prize winning writer Elias Canetti perfomed with André Wilms and the Mondriaan String Quartet. I'm assure this is a theatre piece.
continues till 29 August at 10:30pm at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Official Festival Theatre 2004 - What Thelma thinks.

The main Theatre programme is a chance to see two amazing actors Kathryn Hunter and Jutta Lempe, to see if Calixto Bieito thrills or inspires with Celestina, to immerse yourself in an eleven hour production, to experience the theatrical genius of Carles Santos and a new play from a writer who can scare and please often in the same play. Not a bad selection at all.

The side orders the Royal Bank Lates which extend the EIF experience into the night give opportunities to see companies like TG Stan and Théâtre Vidy Lausanne, a play from the Near East, an area we see too little theatre from, and to hear a new play from an interesting French playwright. But is there enough range and are the performances on for long enough? Only 2 of the 10 (6 main, 4 lates) have more than 4 performances and only one, Celestina, has more than 5.

It is a programme which has many returning artists and liaisons from previous festivals, you can have no doubt that the EIF has favourites. When you are programming an international festival there will be some names that keep on returning, but It does feel as though certain companies are destined to be invited every other year or so. For regular attendees of the EIF theatre programme who wish to follow what the International world of theatre is creating, it can get a little annoying if as far as you're concerned some of those frequently invited aren't and are never going to be worth the price of a ticket and/or the time spend watching. It's particularily irritating if you happen to catch some of the other internationally renowned artists and companies elsewhere and feel they offer a more engaging and less tradional fare. EIF's main theatre programme is still strongly based on revivals and adaptations of classics and on director's theatre. This year's theatre programme has only non-European piece. I hope, prehaps in vain for a more International rather than West European flavour next year and more new companies.

This year there are 5 main productions and the third week is very thin with only one theatre production on Wednesday to Saturday and no theatre perfomance of any sort on the last Tuesday. Whilst the EIF isn't hermetically sealed from the Fringe, August theatre audiences can and largely do go to the Fringe and quite a few go to EIF also, it is perverse to have no theatre available on the day after the Fringe packs up entirely.

So yes, there's plenty to look forward to. But with short runs and a thin third week my advice is book soon. Also check out the other lates, the new opera Al Gran Sole Carico D'amore with chorus work and electronic sounds - 26 August only - and the dance programme has Akram Khan Dance Company, Rambert, Jean-Pierre Perreault's Joe Ballet West USA and a whole 4 days to marvel at dance illuminated by Alwin Nikolais's choreography and extraordinary light. So EIF and reader be adventurous and have a good and international festival!
© Thelma Good April 2004
Edinburgh International Festival 2004 Their website Booking opens for all by post, phone,fax counter and online on 17 April 2004.

Pat Napier's EIF Opera, Dance and Music Preview

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