Tramway Archives | Plays To See

The North

Marine Furet 16/05/2017

With its playful exploration of disorientation, The North, which premiered at the Tramway last weekend, opens up many possibilities ...

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Velvet Petal

S.A. McCracken 10/05/2017

What does the controversial photography of Robert Mapplethorpe have in common with the life cycle of a ...

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Rosalind

Marine Furet 05/05/2017

Wth this new production, James Cousins pares down Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like it to its gender-shifting heroin, the titular...

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 28/04/2017

Welcome to Dance International Glasgow (or DIG Festival) where I’m at The Tramway, home of Scottish Ballet, for the world...

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Wolves

Marine Furet 21/03/2017

arrowland Ballet’s latest creation Wolves gives body and voice to ideas of community, transmission and conflict in this inventive and...

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Panti: High Heels in Low Places

S.A. McCracken 14/03/2017

anti Bliss, the Queen of Ireland, talks glamourous diseases, the Pantigate scandal, and back-to-boy makeovers. Wearing a red sparkly bodycon...

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#negrophobia

S.A. McCracken 03/03/2017

negrophobia is a searing, multimedia exploration of attitudes towards black male bodies. The production defies categorisation, blending poetry, dance and...

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The Ballad of the Apathetic Son and his Narcissitic Mother

Marine Furet 28/02/2017

allad is too tranquil a term for this intensive exploration of a relationship between the titular Mother, Lucy Gaizely, from...

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Guerrilla

Marine Furet 27/02/2017

resented as part of the international selection of the festival Take Me Somewhere in Glasgow, Guerrilla envisions a future of...

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Brocade

S.A. McCracken 08/12/2016

he Tramway Studio 4 is not so much in the round as in the rectangle. The ceilings are high and...

Reviews

The Tempest

The King of Broken Things

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

PAN! (Pantomime)

Interviews

Pavel Šporcl’s Magic Touch

Scholars, Poets, Lovers: The Invention of Love

Malicho Vaca Valenzuela in conversation with Thibault Elie

157th Anniversary of Pirandello’s Birth

Features

Fiddler on the Roof

Rigoletto

Your Lie in April

In Conversation with Matt Hartley

Festivals

The Tempest

The King of Broken Things

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

PAN! (Pantomime)

The North

Velvet Petal

Rosalind

Scottish Ballet: Each Other

Wolves

Panti: High Heels in Low Places

#negrophobia

The Ballad of the Apathetic Son and his Narcissitic Mother

Guerrilla

Brocade