Read full review - Suspect Culture

The Scotsman
Section: Critique
Edition: Main
13 April 2007
Page: 14
Article Size (cm2 ) 294.03
Circulation: 63449
Source: ABC April 2006
end
Party
like
Fit tu ro logy s
international cabaret, complete with Sandwich
entirely
fulfil its
the
it s
potential
as a social
commentary
world
the
of
on what
Island clown, doesn t
ahead
lies
mankind
for
Joyce McMillan
FUTUROLOGY:
SECC,
A
GLOBAL REVUE
GLASGOW
****
AMADA AND MOTHER, FATHER,
SON
ARCHES, GLASGOW
****
ment
is that, right from the start, it
RIDAY THE 13TH, and the future
lacks that detached and slightly ruthless
of humankind has never looked
master-of-ceremonies figure who is key
more frightening. Our food
to the success of all great cabaret.
secnrity, our water supply, the
Instead, the role of presenter
falls to
very land on which most of us
entertainment
the city s greasy opportunist of a mayor,
live, is
under threat from climate
played with terrific sleazy energy by
change; and as Scotland s specialists for
the last decade in uneasy theatrical explorations Grant Smeaton, and his mistress and
chief of protocol, Valentina, represented
of the zeitgeist,David Greig
by a magnificently sardonic Morag
and GrahamEatoughofSuspectCulture
Stark. Both are superb characters, but
are dead right to conclude that it s time
as key players in the drama they simply
for a big, rip-roaring, desperate cabaret
can t keep the entertainment at that
at the end of the world. The only prob1cm
critical, ironic distance from the events
with the show they ve produced in
around it that gives great disaster
co-production with
the
National
cabaret its hard-edged theatrical
Theatre Of Scotland,the Brighton Festival,
energy.
and a host of artisticcollaborators
The result is a show full of good
is that it isn t quite the cabaret it could
things - haunting dance, rowdy song,
be; its format is more ambiguous, and
raunchy show-tunes, ventriloquism,
the effect more diffuse.
hypnotism, stand-up comedy and political
The showis set at a surreal version of a
satire
that nonetheless seems
UN Climate Change conference,taking
oddly variable in quality, and a little less
place in some clapped-out city in a region
impressive than the basic materials
of the globe rapidly turning to
would suggest. The strengthof the idea,
desert. Delegates arrive, one from each
the excellence of the performances
nation, on a cabaret set that also suggests
from Suspect Culture s international
ranks of conference tables ranged
team of actors aud musiciaus, aud the
in a massive hall.
company s trademark combination of
We follow the story of Patrice, played
deep lyrical humanism, all-embracing
by the astonishingBrazilian clown Angela
political intelligence, and honest middle-class
de Castro. She is the large,na ve and
angst, all conspire to nudgeFuturology
friendly delegate from the Sandwich Islands,
into the four-star category; no
who has come to explain that her
serious fan of 21st-century theatre
tiny homeland is about to sink beneath
the waves; but she has trouble networking, should miss it. But there s a nagging
F
since her endless supplies of homemade
sandwiches fail to impress her
sharp-suitedcolleagues, or a conference
management increasinglypreoccupied
with imminent civil war outside.
The
show s
basic strategic error,
though
as it sets out to combine
dream-like stereotypes, shrewd
observation,and bursts of
wild or beautiful cabaret entertain-
sociopolitical
Ref: Sc20070413105
sense that, given
a
final twist of theatrical
perspectiveand flair, this could have
been twice the show; rather than agood
shot at the last word on the world we live
in that somehow just misses the bull seye.
If
there s one theme
and
many
the global future
bustling urban
that haunts
Futurology
other debates on
it s
the sense
civilisation that
of
a
has
somehbw
touch with the wellspriugs
by chauce or design,
the two shows createdhy thisyear s winuers
of the Arches Award for emerging
directors now runjointlywith the NTS
and the Traverse Theatre present a fascinating
double reflection on the lifeforce
itself, and its complete failure in
some victims of our increasinglysterile
lost
of life; aud
civilisation.
Amcida, adapted and directed by the
wonderful actress and musician Cora
Bissett,is based on Isabel Allende s story
Simple Mario, about a young woman
from a respectablefamily who
following
a severe bead injury
becomes a
na ve and enthusiastic nymphomaniac,
and eventuallya great star among prostitutes,
a woman
who truly believes in
love, and can give men the illusion of it
cash.
for
Bissett sversion
two musicians
three actors and
for
adopts
fairly conventional
a
illustrated-narrative
style.
But
both visually and musically, the show
has a tremendous rich sensuality that
both reflects and celebrates the powerful
earthy energy of the story; and Nerea
Bello s wonderful Basque singing celebrates
the true female voice, and the
deep, raw physicality of love, birth and
death, in
a
way that
the reach
still
our
of
seems
far
beyond
cold northern
culture.
Rosie Kellagher s Mother Fothel, Son,
by contrast, describes the travesty of a
conventional family
life
reduced
roles without love or meaning, and
rejected by
a
to
finally
twentysomething
who
in the phenomenon
the
Japanese call hikikomori finally locks
himself forever in his room.
Scripted by Hugo
Plowden, Kel
son
Kellagher s
showis a tremendously shapely
and stylish event, with a hauntingly
The contents of the publications from which these extracts have
been taken are copyright works and without prior permission or
save as permitted by statute may not be copied or otherwise
reproduced (even for internal purposes) or resold.
The Scotsman
Section: Critique
Edition: Main
13 April 2007
Page: 14
Article Size (cm2 ) 294.03
Circulation: 63449
Source: ABC April 2006
claustrophobic,hyper-realistic domestic ed young directors, created with an impressive
Õ Futurology is at SECC, G1asgo until
set by Lauren Brown, and inspired
eye for the shape and impact of
tomorrow; the Corn Exchange, Edinburgh,
use of music andmovementto evoke the the whole theatre event. And it also features
17-21 April; the AECC, Aberdeen,
creepy and deadening rituals of a toocomfortable
a couple of
treasurable performances
25-28 April; and the Brighton Dome, 5domestic life.
from Anne Scott Jones and
10 May.Amada and Mothei Fathei Son
ItÒs
debatable how far PlowdenÒs Peter Kelly as Mother and Father, a pair
at the Arches, Glasgo
until 14 April,
script really advances our understanding of hapless victims of the parentalrole in
and at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh,
of the hikikomori generation. But
which most of us will recognise at least
17-21 April.
this show signals another sure step in
of our parents; and many of us will also
the career of one of ScotlandÒs most gift- recognise ourselves.
giftÕ
Angela de Castrostarsas the
irrepressible
Sandwich Island
delegatein Futuroloqy:AGlobal
Revue Picture:
Douglas
McBride
Ref: Sc20070413105
The contents of the publications from which these extracts have
been taken are copyright works and without prior permission or
save as permitted by statute may not be copied or otherwise
reproduced (even for internal purposes) or resold.