theatreSCOTLAND

John Bett and Kirsten McLean in the Government Inspector

18 February 2010 The Guardian

The Government Inspector

By Nikolai Gogol. A Tron Theatre/Communicado review.

THE gag about Barclays bank is not strictly necessary. The modern relevance of Nikolai Gogol's small-town satire has hit us long before the actor's off-the-cuff quip about bankers' bonuses. Such is the atmosphere of venality in Gerry Mulgrew's hilarious Communicado production that, despite the period setting, we are never far away from financial profiteers and expense-fiddling MPs.

18 February 2010 Northings

The Government Inspector

By Nikolai Gogol. A Tron Theatre/Communicado review.

"IT takes a lot of jockeys to run a one-horse town," says Andy Clark, playing Ivan Khlestakov, the man mistaken for a powerful St Petersburg official in Nikolai Gogol's hilarious satire. To cover up their corrupt behaviour, the locals have been only too willing to pay him off with cash bribes. No mean opportunist himself, Khlestakov has accepted their favours with enthusiasm.

Fergus Lamont by Communicado Pic: Richard Campbell

30 March 2007 The Guardian

Fergus Lamont

Adapted by Gerry Mulgrew from the novel by Robin Jenkins. Communicado review.

ROBIN Jenkins' 1979 novel Fergus Lamont is a wonderfully eccentric rags-to-riches story that speaks powerfully about the peculiarities of the class system and the events of the early 20th century. It echoes the story of Pip in Great Expectations, but in Jenkins' book, the hero sets out to claim the noble heritage he believes he deserves as the illegitimate son of a Scottish earl. Despite his lowly background, he wears a kilt and prefers to be known as Fergus Corse-Lamont.

30 March 2007 Northings

Fergus Lamont

Adapted by Gerry Mulgrew from the novel by Robin Jenkins. Communicado review.

WE should be grateful to Gerry Mulgrew and Communicado for drawing our attention to Robin Jenkins' 1979 novel, ‘Fergus Lamont’. It’s the second of the author's works Mulgrew has tackled (for the last one, ‘The Cone Gatherers’ in 1991, he built a life-size wood in Glasgow's Tramway), and you can see the attraction.

The Memorandum by Communicado

7 February 2006 The Guardian

The Memorandum

By Vaclav Havel. Communicado review .

GROWING up in communist Czechoslovakia, future president Vaclav Havel knew all about food shortages, state surveillance and rampant bureaucracy. His 1965 comedy, The Memorandum, might be an example of theatre of the absurd, but its vision of an office driven mad by the introduction of Ptydepe, an impossibly precise new language, is rooted in the reality of life in a centralised economy.

4 June 2004 Northings

Zlata's Diary

Adapted by Gerry Mulgrew. Communicado review.

SINCE Communicado came to an unhappy end in 1998, founding artistic director Gerry Mulgrew has kept himself busy with freelance work, but has yet to recapture the zest and drive that characterised his company in its glory days. He’s hung on to the Communicado name, however, and we’d like to think it’s only a matter of time before he reclaims his place as Scotland’s most thrilling director.

25 May 2004 The Guardian

Zlata's Diary

Adapted by Gerry Mulgrew. Communicado review.

THE first 20 minutes are banal. That's deliberate. It's all trips to the country, woodwork lessons and piano practice for Zlata Filipovic, 10, and her middle-class family in sunny Sarajevo. Her everyday enthusiasms, for Michael Jackson and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, make it all the more poignant when the shells and sniper fire descend on her city. This is a vision of war as a robber of childhood.

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