IN THE BAG. To 21 May.

Edinburgh

IN THE BAG
by Wang Xiaoli version by Ronan O'Donnell from a literal translation by Cris Bevir

Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2) To 21 May 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 6pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 May

Something possibly lost in translation and production.This is the second and final Traverse-produced play in the 2004/5 season and the first modern Chinese play to be produced in Britain. There must be a number of Scottish playwrights queuing for a Traverse production (it is known as the country's premier premieres theatre). They may well be let's say perplexed - at why In the Bag has been given this priority.

Its picture of life in mainland China emphasises how globalised the economically advanced world is (if China itself has become anything like former leader Mao's paper tiger', it's with the rustle of banknotes or plastic credit). This isn't nationally determined life, but part of world-wide urban affluence and personal discontent.

High-rise blocks, anonymous furniture and smart bars with pool-tables are this quartet's milieu. Anonymous throughout, they represent a common contrast. Smart Younger Brother's an affluent businessman (Mo Zainal, smooth and calm) while his elder sibling (Daniel York, stubbly and urgent mannered) staggers metaphorically around as his relationship ends and his novel, apparently, barely get started.

Meanwhile Younger Brother's wife, during a scene of increasing tipsiness with her friend (also Man's departing partner), decides whether to have her child or follow her pal's path with an abortion. If there's one thing marking the play out from western equivalents it's the comfort with which it ends by endorsing the nuclear family option.

Or so it seems. This production is like seeing the play through a deep fog. Either Wang Xiaou's writing or Ronan O' Donnell's English version comes over unconvincingly more a series of writer's statements than a flow of characters' thoughts. (Consider this as dialogue: Know something, you're the only couple left I admire. Everybody else is splitting up. What's the point of the first 2 words? And of I admire? If everyone else is splitting up they're the only couple left tout court.)

The acting, despite some tactful representations of tipsiness, tends to be unconvincingly declamatory. The usual Traverse high-tech setting has a 65-floor lift sign and an ingeniously unnecessary digitalised pool-table projection necessitating some unconvincing mime. They fussily point up the production's overall lack of conviction.

Man: Daniel York
Woman: Tuyet Le
Younger Brother: Mo Zainal
Wife: Michelle Macerlean

Director: Lorne Campbell
Designer: Jon Bausor
Lighting: Philip Gladwell
Sound: DJRed6
Video: Peter Anderson
Voice: Ros Steen
Script associate: Katherine Mendelsohn

2005-05-10 08:20:15