PRODUCTION DESCRIPTIONS
By Maureen Lawrence after Sophocles
Directed by Rob Pickavance
BEST
OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS 1984
By John Harvey
Based on CANDIDE by Voltaire
A second large scale community show at the Theatre Workshop. A cast of over seventy, plus the company in this free and visual adaptation of CANDIDE. Giant puppets, mannequins, an exploding volcano, and a wild and theatrical trip round the world, accompanied by a ten piece band.
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In a new translation by David Johnston, a highly physical and musical rendition of Lorca’s famous tragedy. Music composed and directed by Karen Wimhurst, in an entirely a capella score for nine voices.
By Gerry Mulgrew
A co-production with Sounds of Progress company
The story of the eviction of the Cherokee Indians from
their homeland in Georgia and their forced march (The Trail of Tears) to
Oklahoma
CARMEN
THE PLAY 1984 Fringe First, Edinburgh festival
by Stephen Jeffreys
directed by Gerry Mulgrew
A play version, going back to the original story by Prosper Merimee. Transposed to the time of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. With live music played by two virtuosi violinists, in styles ranging from arrangements of flamenco to Dizzy Gillespie and Antonio Lauro.
Adapted by Neil Bartlett after Dickens
Directed by Andy Farrell
The great classic play about the French Revolution,
and one of its major figures, Georges Danton, the wine and women loving
sensualist and fighter, who, just before he was executed on the guillotine,
proclaimed that “as for politics, I should have stayed a pig farmer”
Adapted by Bryan Elsley from the novel by Robin Jenkins
The well known tale from Robin Jenkins, played in an
environmental forest set.
THE
CREATURE FROM THE MERMAID’S PURSE
By Anne Downie
Directed by Alison Peebles
Another Christmas extravaganza set under the sea at
Portobello, and blending the Celtic story of the Silkie, or seal –man,
with a modern plot of Sewage in the Sea
By Gerald Mangan
A children’s play about a plot to mutate human beings into motor cars,
and how this is undone, by a girl, her dog, and a guerrilla in wolf’s
clothing…..
By Edmond Rostand
Translated by Edwin Morgan
The celebrated French play about noses, war and love
letters, in a magnificent translation into Scots by the Scottish poet Edwin
Morgan
By Georg Buchner
The great classic play about the French Revolution,
and one of its major figures, Georges Danton, the wine and women loving
sensualist and fighter, who, just before he was executed on the guillotine,
proclaimed that “as for politics, I should have stayed a pig farmer”
by Stephen Jeffreys, after Robert Louis Stevenson
directed by Gerry Mulgrew
An updating of the Stevenson story THE BOTTLE IMP, a tale of destiny and the fateful nature of desire. Placed on an unnamed Caribbean island, the Faustian allegory of a magic bottle which can bestow unlimited power to the owner, in return for the owner’s soul, is set in the midst of a bloody revolution.
By Pavel Kohout, translated by Bill Findlay
Directed by Gerry Mulgrew
Assistant director Andy Farrell
Another terrifying comedy from Eastern Europe, about
political power and its manipulation
THE
HOUSE WITH THE GREEN SHUTTERS 1983
Adapted and directed by Gerry Mulgrew
The company’s first touring show. Playing all round the country in village halls, gymnasiums and the newly opened Tron Theatre. Based on the classic Scottish novel by George Douglas Brown. The story of John Gourlay, small town despot and merchant, destroyed by his small town rival and by the small town itself. A peculiarly Scottish theme, interpreted in the grand manner of Greek Tragedy ( the author George Douglas Brown was himself a classics scholar) with daredevil physicality, men dancing with men, live music and Brechtian songs, all in a wonderful, demotic Scots.
THE
HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME 1985
by Andrew Dallmeyer, after Victor Hugo
directed by Gerry Mulgrew
The famous allegorical story played as a black Gothic farce. Set against the backdrop of a sackcloth and Meccano cathedral, the gargoyles of Notre Dame come to life and entertain us with a grotesque and pathetic pantomime, creating image after stunning image of comic ferocity. High above this bedlam, in the towers of the cathedral, Quasimodo the hunchback, and the Angel Gabriel accompany the events with a wondrous and absurd symphony of celestial music played on gongs, bells, cymbals, bombarde, saxophone, shaum, balalaika and drums.
By Communicado and Liz Lochhead
A gigantic, experimental production on the nature of
the Scots inspired by Burns and MacDiarmid. Performed by a cast of twenty
five in Glasgow’s Tramway and commissioned by the 1990 Glasgow Year
of Culture. A surreal baccanale telling the story of the death and apotheosis
of The Drunk Man, and his descent into Hell. As much mediaeval pageant as
play, with music by Karen Wimhurst and an eight piece band, who continue
to this day as The Cauld Blast Orchestra.
Adapted by the company from the story by Gustave Flaubert.
A visual and choreographic rendition of this invented mediaeval morality
tale.
MARY
QUEEN OF SCOTS GOT HER HEAD CHOPPED OFF 1987
Adapted
Set in a kind of circus ring, the events surrounding the fate of Mary Queen of Scots are related in an animated ballad/cabaret with live music and dance.
By Athol Fugard
Directed by Kenny Glenaan
An allegorical play about a Russian army deserter hiding
out for thirty years in a pig sty
By John Synge
An adaptation of the famous Irish play by JM Synge.
Edinburgh Festival and Scottish Tour
British Council Tour of Turkey and Egypt 1995
By Michel Vinaver
A production of a chamber piece by France’s leading
exponent of “theatre du quotidian” – an experimental play,
dealing sometimes with three different scenes simultaneously
By John Harvey and the company
Directed by Gerry Mulgrew, Alison Peebles, Rob Pickavance
A large scale community involvement show, involving around 50 volunteers, staged at the Theatre Workshop Edinburgh. This was the story, told as a kind of “living newspaper”, of the Polish Solidarity movement, with a seven piece band and cabaret numbers. As the events being described were still unfolding as the piece was rehearsed and performed, new material was added for each performance, hot from the pen of John Harvey.
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By Nikolai Erdman
Directed by Gerry Mulgrew
A version of this 1930 satire on Stalin’s Soviet
Union
TALL
TALES FOR SMALL PEOPLE 1995
By Gerry Mulgrew after Duncan Williamson
A story telling piece featuring superb traditional Scottish
stories from the telling of traveller Duncan Williamson.
TALES
FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS 1988
by Gerry Mulgrew
A story telling piece, performed on a bare stage with some cloths and the physical and musical skills of the company, and exploring the comedy and exotic beauty of this famous collection of tales.
Adapted by Stuart Paterson after Zola
Directed by Jennifer Black
A theatrical evening where the audience is invited to dance, and in between numbers, the company, having been playing in the band, entertains with theatrical interludes.
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Written and directed by Gerry Mulgrew
A play which contrasts the experiences of the inhabitants of Sutherland displaced by the Clearances, with the domino effect experienced by the North American Indians, displaced in their turn. With an ironic epilogue in the Garden of Eden. Touring round the Highlands and Islands.
By Zlata Filopovic
Adapted by Gerry Mulgrew
Zlata’s Diary paints a vivid portrait of an innocent
child caught up in a terrible war, a war which, as she says, was to rob
her of her childhood.
A moving account of one family's struggle to survive the siege of Sarajevo,
told with live music and song.
