CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE

The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertold Brecht is running at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum theatre in a translation by Alastair Beaton.

My feelings about Brecht are always over-shadowed by the horrors of Mother Courage, but I was delightfully surprised by this production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Loud music and raised voices from the off settle into a very human tale of how the ordinary person copes in stressed times.

What would you do when a baby cries?

The central story of Grusha captivates us and Amy Manson, previously seen at the Lyceum in Six Characters in Search of an Author, is a most watchable actor. The large ensemble cast move seamlessly from word to instrument, from good character to bad. One of them even plays a horse and as such gets the biggest laugh of the night – I won’t spoil it for you.

The baby whose existence is central to the plot is entertainingly portrayed by puppeteer Adam Bennett.

The questions Brecht asks us to consider are as present now as they’ve ever been.

Run continues until 14th March. Get your tickets here.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen adapted by Zinnie Harris

A Doll’s House is a play I’ve seen more than once and studied. It isn’t a happy work, but it does have a lot to tell us about the ways in which our best endeavours for the ones we love the most can blow up in our faces and cause life-long harm. This version by Zinnie Harris, staged by the Royal Lyceum Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland, has lost none of the intense moral centre of Ibsen’s original.

Harris took the play out of the banking world and into the political one where trust is equally important. Trust is all the politician has to allow him (and they were him) to lead his flock by the even-handed use of power that can be frighteningly all-embracing. At the core of the work is the issue of whether wrong-doing is ever justified. Thomas tells the embattled Nora everyone always has choices. Do we? What kind of choices? Choices might be to not buy a small car for the country cottage so one can re-decorate the drawing room, but equally might be not to put the heating on because then you can’t buy food. Thomas says they would face consequences together and then when he has to is unable to see beyond what he would lose and falls into the myth Nora created to save him from the stigma of being known to suffer from mental paralysis. I had pneumonia, he says without pausing for breath.

Excellent performances by the cast kept the pace moving along and the audience quiet. Lucianne McEvoy as Christine and Brian McCardie as Kelman were a delight to watch. Amy Manson was an engaging Nora.

On a personal note, I was really pleased the pears used in the scene we bloggers were privileged to see  pre-opening, had been abandoned.

Run continues. Well worth your time.

In Before the Act A Doll’s House

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen adapted by Zinnie Harris is the next production in 2012-13 subscribers’ season at The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

As regular readers of this blog know, that’s my favourite place. An invitation as a social media person to join a session in the main auditorium for one of the press calls for A Doll’s House, was a wonderful surprise. I accepted, but where were the rest of you? This production is a joint one with the National Theatre of Scotland and the NTS run regular social media opportunities. In Glasgow, they sometimes have to cap numbers.

All the more opportunity for me and John from Blip Photo blog – hope I’ve got that name right. We spoke with Graham McLaren, the director, Zinnie Harris the playwright and several of NTS’s staff on-site. I am amazed by how many people support the two actors we saw run through one of A Doll’s House’s climactic scenes.

Amy Manson as Nora and Brian McCardie as her protagonist Neil Kalman (Krogstadt) were locked in combat on the fully dressed stage and played the scene over several times for different press requirements. Graham and Zinnie spoke of the need for people now to understand how the problems arising from women’s lack of power are still with us. Although the people we see on stage were distinct products of their social and cultural mores, parallels can be found.

The morning was a great experience and I’m looking forward to seeing the whole play. Preview is tonight at 7.45 pm and it runs until 4th May.

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