The things you can do with a couple of sticks. In George Byatt's Brus, at the Tron, they serve as swords, daggers, a bottle of wine and a laundry basket. The sticks carried by the six actors are virtually the only props in this stark, minimalist production which tells the story of the Scottish wars of independence. The alienating effect, as Byatt intends, is to throw actors and audience back onto the text, written in a robust blank verse. The approach does not make for a relaxing evening. The irony is that the experienced cast invests the text with such commitment that one becomes emotion-ally involved with the characters, despite Byatt's attempts to stop us. The text is not without its strengths. There are passages in which Robert Brus' followers discuss how it is always the little people who end up dying in the barons' wars. This familiar condemnation of all wars gets an unexpected twist by being placed in the middle of a victorious struggle for national self-determination. In terms of production style, Nae Problem, Lynn Bains' new play from 7:84, could not be more different. David Hayman, the director, uses every theatrical trick in the book to wrench an emotional respose from us to this tale of racial intolerance in today's Scotland. It is the problem we are not supposed to have, but have it we do, to our enduring disgrace. The action concerns two daughters from a mixed marriage and their tribulations at the hands of a school bully whose behaviour is so extreme as to allow the complacent to discount it. Douglas Henshall's bril-liantly-malevolent National Front thug also contributes to the misleading notion that racism is either virulently extreme or non-existent. The production packs some effective punches, through lively direction and Rae Smith's carefully-thought-out design decisions. You are unlikely to come away without feeling angry about what happens to the girls. The Sunday Times Robert Dawson Scott March 11th 1990 Link: Website of writer Lynn Baines |
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