m a r i s i n
Theatre Review - The Scotsman
Love Of The Nightingale
THEATRE REVIEW
JOYCE MCMILLAN
Love Of The Nightingale ***
ROXY ART HOUSE, EDINBURGH
UNLIKE Glasgow, a city full of rough-edged, cheap’n’cheerful theatre spaces, Edinburgh has been notably short, in recent years, of the kind of informal space where young companies on the verge of professional theatre can go through their paces.
But now, with remarkably little fuss, the city has acquired exactly the kind of off-the-wall year-round venue it needs, in the shape of the Roxy Art House at the old Lady Glenorchy Church in Roxburgh Place, a theatre/gallery/cafe inspired by the life and work of Ricky Demarco, and boasting - in what used to be the church tower - an edgy, exciting small-scale theatre space and an anything-can-happen atmosphere.
What’s happening in it this week is a bit of an oddity of a show, in the shape of an Edinburgh student production - by a group called Theatre Paradok - of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale, a searching post-1970s take on the ancient myth of Philomele, who is raped and silenced by her sister’s husband Tereus after he falls madly in love with her.
It’s not that Wertenbaker reduces the story to a series of ideological simplicities; her view of masculinity, its vulnerabilities, and its construction through rituals of conflict and domination, is particularly complex and intriguing.
But she does give full weight to the women, their perspective, their humanity, their words, their suffering, their incredulity at how the balance of worldly power is weighed against them; and she explores the role of theatre and ritual in calling down the gods and revealing truth, in ways that recall her best- known play, Our Country’s Good.
Despite some inevitable inexperience among the actors in director Anya Leonard’s 20-strong company, this delightfully ambitious production does full justice to every aspect of this complex play, and introduces, in its star Katie Hartman, a messy, interesting, complicated young actress with the kind of unexpected raw charisma that light up theatres.
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(good charlotte and miss congeniality 2 only received 2 stars.. ;-p)
THEATRE REVIEW
JOYCE MCMILLAN
Love Of The Nightingale ***
ROXY ART HOUSE, EDINBURGH
UNLIKE Glasgow, a city full of rough-edged, cheap’n’cheerful theatre spaces, Edinburgh has been notably short, in recent years, of the kind of informal space where young companies on the verge of professional theatre can go through their paces.
But now, with remarkably little fuss, the city has acquired exactly the kind of off-the-wall year-round venue it needs, in the shape of the Roxy Art House at the old Lady Glenorchy Church in Roxburgh Place, a theatre/gallery/cafe inspired by the life and work of Ricky Demarco, and boasting - in what used to be the church tower - an edgy, exciting small-scale theatre space and an anything-can-happen atmosphere.
What’s happening in it this week is a bit of an oddity of a show, in the shape of an Edinburgh student production - by a group called Theatre Paradok - of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale, a searching post-1970s take on the ancient myth of Philomele, who is raped and silenced by her sister’s husband Tereus after he falls madly in love with her.
It’s not that Wertenbaker reduces the story to a series of ideological simplicities; her view of masculinity, its vulnerabilities, and its construction through rituals of conflict and domination, is particularly complex and intriguing.
But she does give full weight to the women, their perspective, their humanity, their words, their suffering, their incredulity at how the balance of worldly power is weighed against them; and she explores the role of theatre and ritual in calling down the gods and revealing truth, in ways that recall her best- known play, Our Country’s Good.
Despite some inevitable inexperience among the actors in director Anya Leonard’s 20-strong company, this delightfully ambitious production does full justice to every aspect of this complex play, and introduces, in its star Katie Hartman, a messy, interesting, complicated young actress with the kind of unexpected raw charisma that light up theatres.
--------------------------
(good charlotte and miss congeniality 2 only received 2 stars.. ;-p)
