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Shackleton

Marine Furet
From 1914 to 1917, the explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew went on an expedition to cross the Antarctic on board the Endurance.
Tristan & Yseult Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
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Tristan and Yseult

Marine Furet
In the neon-lit Club of the Unloved, the ‘Love-Spotters’ dream of their membership expiry, and of the day they’ll finally be allowed in
The North Tramway Glasgow
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The North

Marine Furet
With its playful exploration of disorientation, The North, which premiered at the Tramway last weekend, opens up many possibilities ...
Velvet Petal Scottish Dancer Theatre
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Velvet Petal

S.A. McCracken
What does the controversial photography of Robert Mapplethorpe have in common with the life cycle of a ...
Travels_with_My_Aunt_Credit Pete Le May
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Travels with My Aunt

Marine Furet
Never assume your morality to be above anyone else’s: Travels with My Aunt invites its audience to sit back and enjoy the slow unravelling of its prot...
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Rosalind

Marine Furet
Wth this new production, James Cousins pares down Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like it to its gender-shifting heroin, the titular Rosalind, who disguis...
Welcome to Dance International Glasgow (or DIG Festival) where I’m at The Tramway, home of Scottish Ballet, for the world premiere of their new production, Each Other. This piece, created by Dutch-Israeli choreographers Ivgi and Greben, is an exploration of borders, of division and unity. Tom Parkinson’s score was created in studio with the dancers as they rehearsed, and therefore responds to, rather than dictates the choreography. An electronic thrum is broken by the occasional piano melody, but more often than not, by a sound like boots crunching on gravel. The stage is covered in shoes: trainers, pumps, boots, heels, all scattered across the floor at random. A few dancers in ragged, flesh-tone clothes rearrange the shoes to create barriers, islands of bare floor, and paths between these spaces. Why shoes? They come to evoke so many things during the show: all of the shoes a ballet dancer must go through during their career; individuals lost in a consumerist wasteland; the famous archive of shoes on display at Auschwitz, and the increasing comparisons between contemporary politics and events building up to WW2. The wealth of possible interpretations is one reason why I’ll be thinking about this production for some time. Ivgi and Greben’s choreography creates the illusion of contact improvisation, and is heavily influenced by contemporary dance, with the occasional traditional ballet flourishes and stag leaps. The company moves in and out of unison, pulsing with the score in clannish formations. Yaron Abulafia’s lighting design is subtle and atmospheric, creating a searchlight effect in the frantic border-building scenes, or when the dancers tear down these barriers of shoes. The one comic scene –where a dancer shuffles slowly onto the stage carrying an impossible number of shoes – takes a dark turn as he is buried alive beneath them by the rest of the company. We’re treated to an extraordinary solo by Kayla-Maree Tarantolo, the rebel character who walks along the top of the wall of shoes, instead of choosing sides. Taratolo’s solo tells her character’s story through a range of contortionist-like movements before reaching an ecstatic, breathless conclusion – which is something like what you’ll be feeling after you watch this production. Each Other engages adeptly with the International theme of DIG festival, inviting us to question the purpose and consequences of borders within and between nations, as well as the role of the individual in the crowd.al
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Scottish Ballet: Each Other

S.A. McCracken
Welcome to Dance International Glasgow (or DIG Festival) where I’m at The Tramway, home of Scottish Ballet, for the world premiere of their new produc...