Freeway Pro 6.0.8 News and reviews about Scottish theatre http://www.theatrescotland.com/ en Thu, 02 May 2013 16:47:45 +0100 HALF an hour along the Clyde from Glasgow, the Beacon is a handsome new arts centre with a 500-seat main auditorium and a 100-seat studio. The artistic director of the £9.5m waterfront complex is Julie Ellen who, by a happy accident, is also the director of this opening production by the touring company Birds of Paradise. With its all-white set by Kenny Miller and abstract video projections by Neil Bettles, it shows off the studio to good effect.Unfortunately, Danny Start's script is rarely as interesting as the story that inspired it. http://www.theatrescotland.com/home.html 620762701179 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:16:27 +0000 IN THE BAR after the show, two of the staff are playing cards. It looks like a game of snap rather than the poker that has dominated the second half of Conor McPherson's play, but you can see where they got the idea from. Like the endless stream of Irish whiskey and American lager consumed on stage, the card playing is as addictive for the characters as it is compelling for us. It takes extra will power not to leave the theatre and go straight to a gambling den. http://www.theatrescotland.com/home.html 1228124541707 Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:13:26 +0000 YOU couldn't fault this adaptation of Julia Donaldson's novel for being short of themes. In 90 minutes, it ticks off bereavement, child abuse, missing people, drug addiction, mental illness, multiculturalism and the search for identity. Throw in a cat-and-mouse chase across the country, and you have the kind of sensationalist narrative that plays well to the target teenage audience. http://www.theatrescotland.com/home.html 792489952847 Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:26:06 +0000 WE'RE in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest territory – but instead of Jack Nicholson finding method in the madness, here we have Eddie, a hospital radio DJ, discovering the insanity of the psychiatric system. Donna Franceschild's bittersweet comedy, based on her own 1994 TV series, stands as a metaphor for authoritarian oppression. When the self-styled Ready Eddie: the Soul Survivor starts playing his treasured collection of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke originals at St Jude's psychiatric hospital, he realises the main obstacle in his path is not anyone's bipolar disorder, OCD or schizophrenia, but the psychopathic control of the institution. http://www.theatrescotland.com/home.html 1118618620447 Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:26:45 +0000