Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
4 stars
A vintage recording of Lulu belting out Shout is the perfect
scene-setter for Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay's audacious Scots
reimagining of Quebecois writer Michel Tremblay's ensemble piece for
fifteen women. It's also a magnificent double-bluff, as Serge
Denoncourt's National Theatre of Scotland revival in co-production with
the Royal Lyceum proves time and again. Yes, Tremblay's 1960s-set tale
of a working-class back-kitchen sorority brought together by Kathryn
Howden's blousy Germaine's winning of a million Green Shield Stamps is
funny to it's riotous core. Look beyond the fur coat and nae knickers
one-up-womanship, however, and you'll find a raging back-street
portrait of a post World War Two society fit to bust.
Life's a lottery for all of the women who gather to stick Germaine's
stamps into books before she transfers them for a catalogue-bought
dream home. As each woman repeats in turn, alas, none of them are ever
likely to win anything, not even the sacred game of Bingo they sing so
lustily of. As each steps out of what looks like a last supper to
confess all, a world of envy, martyrdom, acquisitiveness and the desire
to escape is laid bare. Of the choices on offer beyond Germaine's Green
Shield wealth, the return of Lisa Gardner's once angelic Pierette, now
strung-out by too many good times, is a telling indictment of
patriarchal capitalism in a kitchen-sink world.
Denoncourt orchestrates this mix of bitter-sweet banter, proto-rap
chorales and once taboo-busting depictions of real women with a
relentless gusto which all onstage grab hold of. When it comes, the
explosive redistribution of wealth is a call to arms to be reckoned
with.
The Herald, September 27th 2012
ends
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