Writings

National Theatre of Scotland: The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart

David Greig / National Theatre of Scotland: The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart

January 31st, 2013 by

Another huge international hit for The National Theatre of Scotland (following Black Watch, Beautiful Burnout and Midsummer), I’d somehow managed to miss the initial performances and tour of Prudencia Hart – even when it was on Brighton’s Palace Pier last year. I had caught a few minutes of it at Edinburgh in 2011, and I […]

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Hiroaki Umeda: Haptic / Holistic Strata

Hiroaki Umeda: Haptic / Holistic Strata

January 27th, 2013 by

A black box becomes a white box then fades to grey. A blue line appears across the centre, dissolves, then reappears stage front. Into the shadow comes a figure, in silhouette. Hiroaki begins to move, isolating limbs, electronic beats behind him. He seems to emit energy. In this new twenty minute piece, there is much […]

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Zimmermann & de Perrot: Hans Was Heiri ¦ Photo: Mario del Curto

Zimmermann & de Perrot: Hans Was Heiri

January 23rd, 2013 by

We’re all in control of our lives. Right? We are entirely unique. Right? We know who we are and where we’re going. Right? Told using dance, aerial work, live DJ-ing and an incredible central set piece, Hans Was Heiri reminds us that we are tiny little specks on this giant earth, not always in control. […]

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Amit Drori: Savanna: A possible landscape ¦ Photo Michal Cederbaum

Amit Drori: Savanna: A possible landscape

January 23rd, 2013 by

The performer/technicians were sitting patiently on one of the many packing crates scattered on the stage, behind what looked like an architect’s model of an office complex or railway station. Wires and technology were visible too. The soundtrack began, revealing that the cityscape was in fact the insides of the narrator’s dead mother’s much loved […]

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Invisible Thread: Les Hommes Vides

Invisible Thread: Les Hommes Vides

January 21st, 2013 by

The empty men are thick, greyish-white, heavy creatures with googling eyes and lead in their feet, which land heavily on the table-top stage. Their expressions manage to be both gaunt and gormless. They are vaudeville creatures, nearly beheading one another with that old classic, the too-fast-turning plank. They are almost unable to take to their […]

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