Achi news desk-
History and Shakespeare thrown into the mixer and re-imagined by two of Britain’s leading playwrights. With James V: Katherine, Rona Munro has returned to the history of the Stewardian monarchy that she explored in the James Plays. The latest episode, directed by Orla O’Loughlin and starring Catriona Faint, tells the story of 19-year-old Katherine Hamilton, who is on trial for her life with the King, James V, as a spectator. It is a more intimate drama compared to its predecessors and at its heart is a love story. He’s just finished his run in Edinburgh, with Glasgow and Aberdeen to follow and then he’s hitting the road, with dates in Tobermory, Inverness, Dunoon, Birnam, St Andrews, Stirling, Peebles and Melrose to follow throughout May.
Next month, meanwhile, Edinburgh playwright Zinnie Harris’ remix of Shakespeare’s Macbeth returns to the Scottish stage after runs in London and New York. The result is the Jazz Age, jazz hands taking the Scottish Play who steps into the ring with the Bard. That shows Harris’ ambition. The Herald’s Neil Cooper called it a “thrilling reimagining,” so you know it has to be good.
What the Butler saw
Perth Theatre, April 30-May 4
“You can’t be a rationalist in an irrational world. It’s not logical.” Joe Orton’s last play – unreviewed when he was brutally murdered by his partner Kenneth Halliwell – is his dark, salacious take on the Feydeau farce. Orton was reversible to the core and What the Butler Saw plays with sexual obsession, cross-dressing and a very 1960s battle between anarchy and order. Does that make it a period piece now? Hopefully this production by Theatr Perth will suggest otherwise. Michael Cabot directs.
The Girls of Slender Mode
Royal Lyceum Theatre, until May 4
Gabriel Quigley’s theatrical adaptation of Muriel Spark’s 1963 novel is not the first. Stellar Quines performed a version written by playwright Judith Adams back in 2009. But then it’s not hard to see the appeal. Set in the summer of 1945, Spark’s novel follows a group of young women who find their feet in a world where the roar of war has finally subsided. Julia Brown, Amy Kennedy, Molly McGrath, Shannon Watson and Molly Vevers are the young women featured in director Roxana Silbert’s production at the Lyceum.
Sunset Song
Dundee Rep, until May 4; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, May 8-11; Eden Court, Inverness, May 16-18; Royal Lyceum Theatre, May 28-June 8
Spark is not the only Scottish novelist whose work is taking center stage in the coming weeks. Dundee Rep and the Royal Lyceum Theater in Edinburgh are currently staging a production of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel Sunset Song, which was voted the best Scottish book of all time in 2005. Writer Morna Young, director Finn den Hertog and the composer Finn Anderson is the team behind this. current adaptation, with Danielle Jam cast as Chris Guthrie.
Jack Docherty: David Bowie and Me – Parallel Lives
Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen, April 24; Byre Theatre, St Andrews, April 26; Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, April 27; Howden Park, Livingston, May 2; Eastwood Park, Giffnock, May 3; Corn Exchange, Haddington, May 4; Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, May 5
Hands up, when I went to see this at the Edinburgh Fringe last year I wasn’t expecting much. In Bowie and Me, Docherty sets out to use his love for Ziggy Stardust as a platform to tell his own teenage story, before going on to recreate the same time he met his hero. It sounded a bit thin, even for a Fringe show. But the reality was joy, a glorious coming-of-age story that doubled as a humorous return to Scotland in the 1970s and Docherty’s wild youth (wannabe) which then builds into an impressive examination of the passage of time, the perils of a hero. worship and the transformative role of art in our lives. Sometimes the best pleasures are the unexpected ones.
As a result of his Fringe success, Docherty is now touring the country. There will be further dates later in May and June in Glasgow, East Kilbride, Edinburgh, Stirling, Inverness, Perth and Cove.
Chekhov’s Double Measure
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry, April 25
There is more to Anton Chekhov than The Cherry Orchard. Elizabeth Newman has written two monologues, About Love and Trouble, drawn from the Russian playwright’s sly, often surprising short stories. The first, performed by Ali Watt, is a story of unrequited love, while Trouble, starring Matthew Churcher, is the story of a prisoner facing deportation for theft.
Hamilton
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until April 27
In fact, tickets are scarce for the final week of this touring production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s historic musical that draws on hip-hop and R&B and has become something of a cultural phenomenon. Winner of 11 Tony Awards, seven Olivier Awards and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this is the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States, who was George Washington’s assistant. Ben Brantley in the New York Times suggested that Hamilton “makes us feel the urgent, unstoppable rhythm of a nation’s birth.” Not bad for a night out.
Bridezilla and the Orchard of Sin
Oran Mor, April 22-27; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, April 30-May 3
The latest in Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and a Pint series, Mairead A Martin’s comic drama follows “Bridezilla” Amber and her fiance Gary as they search for the perfect venue for their wedding. When they meet Lady Valgaria she offers them the use of her estate. But will his orchard of forbidden apples lead the couple astray? Directed by Becky Hope-Palmer and designed by Gemma Patchett, this three-part drama, which stars Chiara Sparkes, Santino Smith and Giga Gray, promises a “journey of saucy self-discovery”. Which doesn’t answer the big question? Are the apples Golden Delicious or Egremont Russet?
Hope Your Flowers Are Blooming
Cumbernauld Theatre, May 2; Tron Theatre, Glasgow, May 3; Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, May 5; Studio Theatre, Moffat, May 23; CatStrand, New Galloway, May 24
According to its creator and star Raymond Wilson, I Hope Your Flowers Bloom is a show about “self-worth, working-class access to green spaces and unhealthy masculinity that wishes it could be a romcom or maybe a nature documentary.”
A quiet success on last year’s Fringe, it is also partly autobiographical. It tells the story of Raymond, stuck in a scheme in Glasgow, who wants to escape to the world of nature. When he meets Flo he gets his chance. But can he make this new beginning work?
