The Arches, Glasgow
3 stars
Agent 160 don’t do things by halves. Or at least that’s the impression
from this inaugural project from this newly constituted UK-wide women’s
writer led company. Over two nights, twelve new playlets by the same
number of writers were presented on the final dates of a three-leg
mini-tour. If the quality and verve of the scripts on the first night
came even close to Part Two, then artistic director Lisa Parry and
dramaturg Louise Stephens Alexander have tapped into something special.
In the first half, Branwen Davies’ Genki? is a Welsh bi-lingual study
of one woman finding herself abroad, The Red Shoes is Sarah Grochala’s
estuarised fantasia concerning a teenage mum finding consumer comfort
of a fantastical kind, and A Modest Proposal by Lindsay Rodden looks to
Animal Farm in a warzone. The second half opens with Parry’s own piece,
Nancy, in which a middle England grand dame squares up to the recession
as well as the rabbits in what’s left of her garden; Skin; Or How To
Disappear Completely, by Morna Pearson, finds a long term benefit case
and his assessor slipping through the cracks; and Ioanna Anderson’s How
To Be A Pantomime Horse is a two-woman psychological disaster movie.
While rough and not always ready, hearing such a diverse array of
voices is a joy. What is encouraging too is both how political all of
the pieces are, and the urgency with which the work is delivered. With
three directors overseeing six actors, there’s a tantalising richness
to all plays. But it’s Pearson’s miniature masterpiece that shines her,
as it subverts social realism in a damaged duologue akin to a Doric
Tennessee Williams.
The Herald, February 27th 2012
ends
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