NTS
Blabbermouth 1
✭✭✭✭✩ Timely love
Today, Scotland held its breath. Ready to put pencil to paper and make a mark which, no matter the result, will change the political makeup of the islands we live on.
Referendum week theatre
Drama on stage as Scotland decides
The Traverse leads the way with referendum-orientated theatre in the final week before polling on Thursday, although there is a celebration of the Scottish written word from the NTS and a spot of post-referendum experimentation down at the Village Pub on Friday.
Common Man date: Sat
NTS community agit-prop at Traverse
The Common Man community project is staging a piece of agit-prop theatre in the Traverse bar at 1.45pm on Saturday, 13 September, before the performance of In Time o’ Strife.
In Time o’ Strife
✭✭✭✭✩ Raw power
Visceral and uncomfortable truths are laid bare in the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of In Time O’ Strife. Despite the odd false step in the staging, this is an emotionally charged and thoroughly involving production.
NTS seek Common People
The National Theatre of Scotland is looking for young people aged 16 – 20 to take part in its Common Man Community Project running next to the In Time o’ Strife tour, which comes to the Traverse in September.
The James Plays – An Overview
★★★★☆ Event theatre
The confidence, skill and sheer brass neck demonstrated in The James Plays mean that any drawbacks in individual parts are submerged in the feeling that this is an Event with a capital E. Not just in theatrical terms – although goodness knows they qualify on that score – but possibly culturally and historically too.
James III: The True Mirror
★★★★☆ Humorously anachronistic
Cheerfully modern – and far more upbeat than its ostensibly tragic material would have suggested – James III: The True Mirror provides an energetic, occasionally puzzling conclusion to The James Plays.
James II: Day of the Innocents
★★★☆☆ Chilling
There’s a chilling tone to much of James II: Day of The Innocents. Quieter and more brooding than the plays which bookend it, it provides a necessary contrast, but is the least impressive of the three on its own terms.
James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock
★★★★☆ Historic
The high energy and dramatic power of James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock brings history into sharp focus and provides a fitting start to Rona Munro’s trilogy: the James Plays.