Writers Fanny Burdino and Sébastien Marnier Director: Sébastien Marnier Money is generally recognised as the root of all evil. Director Sébastien Marnier (who co-writes The Origin of Evil with Fanny Burdino) suggests desperation may also play a part. A wordless opening scene of workers dressing for their shift at a fish-packing factory gradually focusses on Nathalie Cordier (Laure Calamy) who looks blankly into the camera lens without hope only hunger. Kicked out of her lodging house and in dire straits, Nathalie contacts self-made hotel and restaurant tycoon Serge (Jacques Weber) claiming to be Stéphane, the illegitimate daughter he has never…
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Festival Director: Alison Strauss For those in the know, silent film with live music is a rich and beautiful artform. This, Scotland’s only silent film festival, takes place each year in Bo’ness, a small town on the Firth of Forth, between Edinburgh and the Grangemouth oil refinery. Its full name is Borrowstounness. It may be slightly out of the way, but don’t let the location put you off. This year the festival has livestreamed three of the movies and two of the talks, so you could enjoy these anywhere. For people using public transport, festival shuttle buses run between Linlithgow…
Performed by: Paul O’Mahony and Hannah Barrie Directed by: Mike Tweddle As part of a new production arm led by ATG Creative Learning which aims to breathe new life into the classics for the next generation of theatregoers, Hove-based theatre company Out of Chaos present a stripped-down 80 minute version of Macbeth with all characters handled by just two performers. It’s an impressive, action-packed spectacle that showcases the physicality and versatility of the two actors, as well as the power of effective lighting and sound design. To help the audience along, the performers, Paul O’Mahony and Hannah Barrie, announce the…
Writer: Shelagh Delaney Director: Emma Baggott The Royal Exchange’s revival of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey is very much a local production. The venue is close to the area where the play is set and the production features Salfordian Rowan Robinson making her professional stage debut in one of the lead roles. My route to the venue passes Pendleton School of Theatre where Robinson trained. In late 1950’s Salford teenager Jo (Rowan Robinson) and her mother Helen (Jill Halfpenny) lead an itinerant lifestyle moving from one dead-end lodging to another as rent becomes due or Helen needs to dodge…
Written by: Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks Directed by: Mark Bell It’s not completely clear whether Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks’ Cluedo 2 is a sequel of the 1985 film (Clue) or the board game itself. Most likely the title is another self-referential joke in what is an evening replete with such humour. Tonight’s onstage world runs on exaggerated gasps, innuendoes contrived to the nth degree and it’s peopled with a cast of stereotypes so conceited they’re as capable of murder as deserving of it. Yes, it’s a rehash with familiar characters in a murder-inducing mansion, and just like when…
Writer & Director: Morag Fullarton With discussions surrounding the waning patience of audiences and their commitment to a night at the theatre often dependant on finance, something like Perth Theatre’s Casablanca, The Gin Joint Cut can soothe every itch audiences may have. Doing so with aplomb and heartfelt performances as this seventy-minute touch of sophisticated farce provides endless hilarity, enjoyment, and even a soupcon of historical and contemporary insight. To achieve so much more than a lengthy, often drawn-out adaptation, is a talent deserving of praise. Writer-director Morag Fullarton’s ‘Gin Joint Cut’ of Michael Curitz’s legendary Casablanca is a smashing example of…
Writer & Director: Eleanor Kumar Emma has been accepted to take part on the new series of Love Island and she is over the moon, the same, definitely can’t be said for her parents. Not only are they horrified that she will be parading around on screen in a bikini all summer, but they also hold a huge secret – that if exposed, could change their family forever. The truth is, Emma (Anna Bradley) was adopted as a three-year-old, leaving her older sister behind and becoming part of her new family as a single child instead. Her parents agreed…
Writer: David Mamet Director: David Thacker Before the use of the word ‘underclass’ became commonplace, author David Mamet detailed the grim lifestyles of the disaffected and desperate in his early play, American Buffalo. Junk shop owner Don (Colin Connor) is having seller’s remorse. Having sold a buffalo nickel to a collector he becomes convinced the customer got the better part of the deal. From Don’s distorted viewpoint this entitles him to steal back the coin and he enlists the eager-to-please Bob (John O’Neill) to burgle the collector’s home. However, Don’s poker buddy Teach, (David MacCreedy) feels this plan lacks ambition…