Coffee-Table Notes

Theatre Royal, Glasgow Four stars   Life in the 1980s was the best of times for some, the worst for others. Few pop culture creations understood these two sides of the same credit card than John Sullivan’s masterly sit-com of working class aspiration during the Thatcherite boom years. At the show’s heart were siblings Del Boy and Rodney Trotter, the hapless duo attempting to navigate their way through life, but somehow never quite making a million.   This loving homage penned by Sullivan’s son Jim Sullivan with The Fast Show’s Paul Whitehouse revitalises Sullivan senior’s original with a bonus of the sort of showtunes that would make Lionel Bart’s back catalogue sound abstract by comparison. This is not to the detriment of Caroline Jay Ranger’s production, which brings the old gang back together in something akin to the big screen versions of sitcoms that filled cinemas back in the 1970s. Trigger, Boycie, Cassandra, Raquel and all the rest are in attendance in a series of smar...

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh Four stars   One of the many fine things achieved by Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s outgoing artistic director Elizabeth Newman is this unflinching production of Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play. Revived for this short Edinburgh run, Newman lays bare Williams’ study of one woman’s doomed attempts at bluffing her through her emotional baggage in the face of continual brutalisation.    One probably shouldn’t over psychologise Williams’ writing, but it is clear from Kirsty Stuart’s mercurial portrayal of Blanche DuBois here that she has been traumatised for some time. Landing unexpectedly in her sister Stella and her husband Stanley’s cramped apartment in a noisy New Orleans community, Blanche’s high maintenance ways have left her jobless, penniless and loveless.    Blanche finds herself cuckoo in a volatile nest, the claustrophobia of which sees a simmering power struggle between Blanche and Stanley for Stella’s attention. Blanche attrac...

Rise Kagona – Guitarist, songwriter, singer Born May 17 th 1963; died September 14 th 2024     Rise Kagona, who has died aged 61, was a trailblazing guitarist, whose tenure leading The Bhundu Boys throughout the 1980s and beyond saw his shimmering guitar lines make waves beyond the band’s Zimbabwe homeland on main stages across the globe. This was done through his use of what became known as the Jiti or Jit Jive style. This was a traditional Zimbabwean musical form, which Kagona fused with more contemporary Western elements to make for a restless effervescent sound that filled dancefloors wherever Kagona and the group played.   After becoming regular chart toppers in Zimbabwe, Kagona and the Bhundu Boys were picked up by Scottish singer Champion Doug Veitch, who co-founded the DiscAfrique record label to showcase contemporary African music beyond its homeland. Veitch brought the band to Scotland, and soon they were being hailed by the likes of Eric Clapton and Elvis Coste...

Tron Theatre, Glasgow Four stars   When Jessie met Lana, it was lovelust at first sight. He was a would-be rock star playing covers in dive bars. She was a fashion student trying to make ends meet who ends up watching Jessie’s set on a night out. A couple of songs later and that was them for life. Or so they thought. Having a baby should have been a joy, but turned out to be agony, especially for Lana, who freefalls into deep depression while Jessie hits the big time on tour in America. Whether the one time dream team survive the fallout is a matter of life and death both of them need to confront.    It’s not hard to see the join between Jessie and Lana and The View’s vocalist Kyle Falconer and his partner Laura Wilde, who initiated this semi-autobiographical lo-fi rock musical first seen on home turf at Dundee Rep and on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023.    Using songs from Falconer’s 2021 solo album, No Love Songs for Laura, as its starting point, Falcone...

Perth Theatre Four stars   It was sixty years ago last week, or thereabouts, when the Beatles embarked on a brief Scottish tour. Beatlemania may have already been at fever pitch, but rather than stay in swanky big city hotels, the loveable mop tops set up camp in two chalets on the banks of Loch Earn in Perthshire. This historical pop moment concerning the original boy band may be the backdrop to Gabriel Quigley’s new play, but it is another fab four she focuses on. The John, Paul, George and Ringo camped out on the other side of the loch are a gang of teenage girls so hopelessly devoted they have taken the names of their idols and braved the elements in their groovy gear in the hope of getting a long range glimpse of them.    With all four members of the gang considering options beyond this last gasp adventure before they go out into the world, this pilgrimage looks set to be a defining moment for them all in a rites of passage saga that takes in some very serious stuff ...

Cumbernauld Theatre Four stars The rise of the Men’s Shed movement has been a rare glimpse of positivity in a landscape of what we now call toxic masculinity. Clare Prenton’s new play for the recently formed Genesis Theatre Productions takes a peek behind the door into one such sanctuary, where three men of a certain age bicker, banter and bond over tea and biscuits as they gradually share what brought them there. Ex teacher Ken is letting off steam inbetween caring for his wife. Tom is still in mourning for his own spouse. And recovering alcoholic Jimmy may like to joke his way through things, but he is as emotionally raw as his unlikely contemporaries with whom he now shares space.  Opening with a series of out-front monologues from each of the trio, Prenton’s own production of her play draws from real life conversations with shedders to tap into a very real need for men to open up more about their everyday vulnerabilities.  Prenton has her cast play with the audience a litt...

Old Kirk, Forgue Five stars   “Not since John Knox called the organ a box of whistles has anybody played like this.” So says Anthony Richardson from the Friends of Forgue Kirk introducing the opening concert of the Aberdeen based soundFestival 2024 twentieth anniversary programme of contemporary music.    As Richardson indicates, Claire M Singer’s approach to the organ is unique, as the Aberdeenshire born composer has proved on her records for the Touch imprint. Drawing from Singer’s walks in the Aberdeenshire landscape, and with many works named after the Cairngorm hills that inspired them, this  makes for a quietly panoramic display.    Singer’s most recent album, Saor, which translates from Scottish Gaelic as ‘Free’, was partly recorded in tonight’s venue, a striking hillside village church built in 1819. With Singer having discovered that some of her ancestors are buried here, this made tonight’s concert a very special homecoming on several levels....