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Mike Travis - An obituary

Mike Travis – drummer, percussionist, actor Born December 2, 1944; died September 4, 2023     Mike Travis, who has died aged 78, was a drummer and actor, who was a creative force from London’s late 1960s and early 1970s jazz scene to Scotland’s thriving alternative theatre circuit and beyond. From residencies at Ronnie Scott’s London jazz club, becoming a founder member of prog band Gilgamesh and playing with former Soft Machine bass player Hugh Hopper, Travis worked extensively with theatre companies such as Wildcat and Communicado.   With the former, Travis appeared in shows such as The Beggar’s Opera (1986), 7:84 Scotland founder John McGrath’s epic, Border Warfare (1989), and The Celtic Story (1998). With the latter, he was a founder member of the Cauld Blast Orchestra, formed by clarinettist Karen Wimhurst to play her music for Jock Tamson’s Bairns, Liz Lochhead’s Robert Burns and Hugh MacDiarmid inspired play performed at Tramway as part of the 1990 Glasgow Year of Culture.   Tra
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Doon Mackichan - My Lady Parts

  Doon Mackichan is an actress and writer who partly grew up in Fife. She has been a regular in iconic comedy shows on TV, including The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Brass Eye and Toast of London. co-created and starred with Fiona Allen and Sally Phillips in all-woman sketch show, Smack the Pony (1999-2003). On stage she has appeared at the Royal Court, the Royal National Theatre and on the West End, and brought her adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She starred in the first five series’ of Two Doors Down, and has just filmed the seventh. My Lady Parts is her first book.   Hi Doon, congratulations on My Lady Parts. You’ve just filmed the new series of Two Doors Down as well. How are you feeling about both?   I am extremely excited. I took a year off Two Doors Down last year, and it was wonderful to be back and to realise how much I've been missed. They say pride before a fall, but I'm very proud of this book, whi
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Lear’s Fool

Kibble Palace, Botanic Gardens, Glasgow Four stars If a king can’t follow rules, suggests Lear’s Fool turned gamesmaster to her old boss and his daughter at one point in David Henry Wilson’s play, it will be chaos. Wise words indeed, as Wilson fills in the gaps of Shakespeare’s historical tragedy, as we see what became of Lear’s much loved jester following their disappearing act mid way through Shakespeare’s play. That this came just as the king descended into madness makes one even more curious.   Bundled into a cell by clearly smitten guard, John, Nicole Cooper’s Fool is always ‘on’, keeping up the act whatever. The Fool’s reflex tomfoolery is used to disguise a huge intellect, a way with a metaphor and much more besides. This goes unappreciated by some audiences, including John. As with every soothsaying comic, however, there is a lot of serious stuff going on behind the mask. Wilson’s one act curio was first seen in 1994, and has been picked up for its Scottish premiere by the ever
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Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning

Theatre Royal, Glasgow Four stars Winter is coming, and the weather turned in Glasgow on Wednesday night to add atmosphere before and after the National Theatre of Scotland’s new look at Bram Stoker’s endlessly reimagined gothic horror. So embedded into the collective psyche is Stoker’s mythic yarn concerning his eponymous Transylvanian vampire sucking the life out of all around that we think we know the story when likely as not we don’t.    This works to the advantage of writer Morna Pearson and director Sally Cookson, who conceived their version with Rosie Kellagher and an eight strong all woman and non-binary ensemble. Their telling duly becomes a show of strength, in which Dracula’s victims seize control of their own destiny.   Relocated to Aberdeen, and written in a rich and rollicking Doric, Pearson’s story opens with Mina and co incarcerated in an asylum, with only Mina’s former true love Jonathan’s journal for entertainment and enlightenment. Mina’s own experiences unlock a Pan
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To The Bone

Pitlochry Festival Theatre Three stars The dead bird carried lovingly by the woman at the centre of Isla Cowan’s new play becomes an unwitting illustration of the dangers of everyday tragedies that might happen if the young stray too far from the nest. The woman is Beth, the absentee landlady who makes a prodigal’s return of sorts to the rural cottage she once called home.   Sitting tenant in the humble abode is Alf, who has embraced the hippy idyll of country life that is the complete opposite of Beth’s city slicker existence. This is the case even if Alf’s young partner Vee has something of the cuckoo about her in their stab at creating an Eden to call their own. While the walls aren’t the only things crumbling, if the cracks could talk beyond the new lick of paint that attempts to wipe out the past, the old ghosts that might emerge could tell quite a story.    Burning down the house in an act of purging looks like Beth’s only option in Cowan’s hour-long prime time psychodrama, perfo
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Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape

Pitlochry Festival Theatre Four stars “But we can’t live as if we believed in nothing anymore!” John Michie’s world-weary academic, Rennie, implores, well into his cups in the second act of Peter Arnott’s new play. “We have to live at least as if we believed in something.”   Arnott’s self-styled attempt at Scottish Chekhov sees him gather his clans in a Perthshire country house on the eve of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. And my, how civilised the world looks compared to the extremes thrown up in the decade since.   The occasion is Rennie’s retirement do, and he has a very special announcement for the focus group of Scotland’s liberal media and academic establishment in waiting who make up the guest list. These include his wife Edie, his London based art curator daughter Emma, Benny Young’s exiled actor Moon and Rennie’s former students Frank and Charlie, who have turned out very differently indeed.     Charlie is a TV populist, while Frank’s partner Kath is a youthful fire
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John Cale

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Four stars   Swatting flies probably wasn’t on John Cale’s agenda prior to his Edinburgh International Festival appearance, but such an irritating insect circles Cale over several songs in. The elder statesman of avant pop classicism finally appears to repel the assault from behind his keyboard, necessitating a roadie to come on and reposition his microphone.   This gives an extra edge to an already mighty Guts, from 1975 album Slow Dazzle, one of several sojourns through Cale’s 1970s post Velvet Underground purple patch. This sees Cale’s superb three-piece band led by long term guitarist Dustin Boyer breathe fresh life into the title tracks of Cale’s Paris 1919 and Helen of Troy albums, from 1973 and 1975 respectively, as well as Barracuda, from 1974’s Fear record.     Fleshed out by understated electronic textures that go beyond rock and roll to something more progressively propulsive, there is even a magnificently demonic take on 1980 single B-side, Rose
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