PUSS IN BOOTS by Stuart Paterson Dundee Rep to 5 January.
Dundee
PUSS IN BOOTS
by Stuart Paterson
Dundee Repertory Theatre To 5 January 2002
Runs 2hr 5min One interval
TICKETS 01382 223530
Review Timothy Ramsden 20 December 2001
Superb production of a formally innovative play by Scotland's leading writer of Christmas-time tales.This new Paterson Christmas play is built in extended scenes, any of which could be stand on its own. Though a narrative thread runs throughout, it's more a story told in separate painted panels than with cinematic continuity.
Yet Paterson features abound, from the artisan heroes to the comic-horror witch (the faded socialite Lady McInnes-McKenzie, given rip-roaring upper crust grumpiness and self-pity by Irene Macdougall) to the inept nasties. The traditional ugly sisters become plug-ugly brothers, Donal and Conal, happy to grab the family mill off honest young Rab. Keith Fleming and Rodney Matthew excel in a series of roles, each less threatening than the preceding, until we return to find the brothers needing Rab's help in sorting out t' trouble they've ineptly caused up at t' mill.
Plenty of social prejudice too when Rab tries to marry Princess Rose, 'a Thunderbird on two legs' rivalling Kate the Shrew. Her character, and Rab's pretence to a title, indicate she's not the girl for him
For the play's heart is feline. No-one could call this athletic cat unattractive, but there's a Beauty and the Beast theme underlying the story. Paterson's already had a go at that tale, as he has Cinderella. And his Cinders story is raked-over here; in the earlier play it's the heroine who chooses outcast Callum over the Prince; here it's Rab who has to see through his aristocratic yearnings to find love with the girl a little closer than next door.
A similarity here to Eden Philpotts' The Farmer's Wife where the affluent local ladies have to eliminate themselves from the running before the farmer finds his humble housekeeper's the one for him. For Cat, bequeathed Rab by his mother, turns to be Catherine, the honest millworker so plainly in front of his face he never noticed to her till she was transformed by the benevolent witchery of Meg Mullach (there's a fierily brilliant display of energy from Meg Fraser in that role).
An interesting development for this Scottish writer, and a production which again shows Hamish Glen's Dundee ensemble to be a major force in Scottish theatre.
King/Sonny Jim: John Buick
Rab: Andrew Clark
Donal/Schtang/Stab/Jester/Shepherd/Grizzly Guts: Keith Fleming
Meg Mullach: Meg Fraser
Puss/Catherine: Susan Harrison
Lady McInnes-McKenzie/Queen: Irene McDougall
Conal/Schting/Stob/Minstrel/Farmer/Lion: Rodney Matthew
Princess Rose: Frances Thorburn
Director: Hamish Glen
Designer: Gregory Smith
Lighting: Richard Moffatt
Music: Aiden O'Rourke
Choreographers: James McGillivray, Jonathan Goddard,Victoria Roberts
2001-12-31 16:24:22