In 1649, the ‘Puritan Interregnum’ started in England. As a part of its rejection of lavish Catholicism, theatre performances were banned. The ‘drolls’ were then developed: illegal, secret comic performances that mingled scenes from Shakespeare with other entertainment.
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This exhibition of Bridget Riley’s work is set in ten rooms of the Royal Scottish Academy. It is ordered mostly chronologically. This collection covers 70 years of Riley’s work, which was produced between the late 1940s and 2019.
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Tom Rosenthal has the most wondrous comic stage presence I have ever seen live in my life. Walking in with butterflies in my stomach (I’ve been watching Friday Night Dinner, which he’s in), I saw a video projected of three Toms dressed in colourful clothing dancing unusual and gripping routines, waving at me and the audience.
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‘The Djinns of Eidgah’ brilliantly evokes the psychosocial uncertainty in current Kashmir. It is set just before Eid, when Muslims in Kashmir visit an Eidgah, an open-air enclosure reserved for Eid prayers. The play’s Eidgah is thought to be visited by Djinns, shapeshifting spirits in Islamic literature that are neither good nor evil.
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‘Going Slightly Mad’ is a compelling dissection of NHS psychiatric treatment. Michael Hajiantonis, its writer and director, based the play on his own experiences of being sectioned.
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‘Ali and Alpo’ is an intellectually exciting but emotionally disengaging piece. It appears the performers were living their story so fiercely that they had little energy left to consider the art of storytelling.
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