RE_ID. To 12 August.
Edinburgh 2007 Fringe.
RE-ID
devised by Gappad.
Roman Eagle Lodge, Johnstone Terrace. (NB moved from another venue).
To 12 August 2007
Daily 4.45pm
Runs 50 min No interval
TICKETS. 0131 226 7207 or Fringe BO 226 0000.
www.gappadtheatre.co.uk
Review Thelma Good 6 August 2007.
Start to a dialogue, with a good musical backing.
This first production by a new Polish theatre group based in Scotland explores what it feels like to leave all that is familiar and go to another perhaps not so welcoming land. Who are you when no one can pronounce your name, never mind know it?
The influx of Poles into Scotland has been swift and marked since they joined the EU. They’ve reached most towns and even villages and brought their cousins and friends to join them. They’ve open shops and restaurants with their own delicacies and our supermarkets are stocking Polish foods too. In some more run-down towns after a few years of resentment that “they’re over here and doing our jobs”, Polish shops and neighbours are beginning to be seen as adding zest and energy to once-declining places.
Using physical theatre, and Polish, English and Scottish words, phrases and sentences these six young Polish actors try to give us an impression of what it feels like to be urged, ordered or released with reluctance to go to live away from family, friends and certainties. They experience taunts, jeers and unkindness. We like to think we Scots are friendly and welcoming; it looks like Gappad’s experience is different. Though there are some acts of kindness they seem few. But by the end, despite depression and feeling very confused for a while, the Poles finally find they are no longer lost.
Conveying the bewilderment and how being a foreigner can make one feel as bad as the only new kid in an uninterested school, this first attempt to reach across the Polish/Scottish gulf of misunderstanding shows only knowing one language need not be a barrier. Whether this new theatre group will turn out to bring some great new ways and talents to Scottish theatre it’s too soon to say, but at least the dialogue, with a good musical backing, has started.
Cast:
Gosia Zbudniewek.
Aenieszka Bresler – also Artistic Director of the company.
Pola Bresler.
Piotr Kurjata.
Anita Lenyk.
Dominik Dabek.
Co-Directors: Kat Harrison, Gappad.
Composer/Saxophone: Krzysztof Mielczarek.
Cello: Justyna Jablonska.
Piano: Patrica Nohn
2007-08-07 10:27:19