TAM O' SHANTER AND OTHER WORKS. To 7 June.

Glasgow/Tour

TAM O' SHANTER & OTHER WORKS
by Robert Burns

Arches Theatre Company Tour to 7 June 2003
Runs 1hr No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 May at Borderline Theatre Ayr

A colourful ceilidh an' all that.Long ago I heard a theatre director be dismissive when someone in a teachers' forum suggested his company might build a production round poetry. It's a sign of how far theatre's vocabulary has since expanded that it seems natural for Andy Arnold's Arches Company – very aware as he is and they are of theatricality – to build an hour's show out of Burns' verse.

Despite an inadequate rake at Borderline's Ayr theatre, the space seems near ideal – an old building, with the looks of an ecclesiastical past, giving an added sense of profanity. And the auditorium's thrust stage creates an intimacy surprisingly effective given the grotesque creatures in front of us much of the time - veering between well-sozzled humans and grotesque, goblin-like witches, who seem to have us wrapped round their coven for grotesque ceremonies in disorderly tavern or mountain cavern. Major contributions here from Anna Cocciadiferro's costumes and Bob Pringle's lighting.

Weird and warming, as a celebratory dram of whisky's handed to each adult audience member (never has sponsorship had more immediate audience benefits than The Famous Grouse's here). Arnold's picked on sex and drink as themes inn (sic) the title poem and linked it to other Burns works. The result's a rowdy, raucous, highly coloured sixty minutes, heightened by John Somerville's live music, periodically giving the feel of a supercharged ceilidh.

Never more so than when the verse hijinks suddenly settle into the night mare-ish story of Tam O' Shanter, and his tail-length escape from the witch Cutty Sark. Tam's boastful drinking, the witches' gathering, the climactic chase are miraculously recreated by these distorted figures, in person and in shadow.

True, there are moments when you think the poem alone would be enough, when the action seems effortful and strained, when it repeats rather than illuminating the words. But more often sheer theatrical verve intensifies the mood. This is far from a cold literary event.

Cooling off time's needed. It comes – perhaps as the excitement phase of alcohol is followed by the ruminative (on a good night) - in a quiet coda. This includes shorter reflective poems, with some of the most famous Burns taglines – reminding the man's a man who wrote of mice and men – bringing the excitement to a quiet, satisfying close.

Cast:
Johnny McKnight, Julie Brown, Ross Stenhouse, Michelle Gallagher
Musician: John Somerville

Director: Andy Arnold
Designer: Moray Bresnihan
Lighting: Bob Pringle
Costume: Anna Cocciadiferro

2003-05-21 11:45:10