As we entered the space, the performers were already onstage, greeting us with big smiles and small, repetitive movement sequences. A bare floor, static lights, microphone stands and clothes were scattered around. I was hesitant. It was starting to look like a girly sleepover instead of the dark, ‘distressing’ themes promised.
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‘Chic Murray’ focuses on the life of the eponymous ‘Comedian’s Comedian’ (played by Dave Anderson) and his wife Maidie (Maureen Carr). Told through a series of flashbacks that end where the play begins, it is simultaneously funny, nostalgic, and bittersweet.
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A creative piece celebrating the ‘weird and wonderful things about being alive’, We Are All Just Little Creatures features a large cast and live music by composers David Paul Jones and Kevin Lennon. It promises to tell ‘little (but big) life stories’ of all kinds. While the performance does deliver on this promise, I felt a little lost through most of it, like there was a bigger picture or an intended meaning that I was completely missing.
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When I walked into the Traverse to see (Can This Be) Home, I can honestly say I had no idea what to expect. I was refreshingly pleased and thoughtful when I left the theatre. Though I knew that the play was on the topic of Brexit, over the past few weeks however the whirlwind of news had gotten away from me, so I was quite a blank slate as an audience member when coming into the theatre.
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Last week’s one-night-only production of Fleur Darkin’s ‘Velvet Petal’ at Traverse was sold out, and for good reason. The work was last performed in Edinburgh in 2017 and it isn’t hard to see why the pulsing vitality of the music, choreography, and above all, dancing would leave audiences jumping at the chance to experience it again.
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Coarse and tender, defiant and vulnerable, Fat Blokes by Scottee is indeed “a (sort of) dance show”, but to pass it off as entertainment or strictly performative would to be dismiss the heart of its purpose and the spirit in which it was conceived.
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