VENUS AS A BOY. To 17 November.

Edinburgh 2007 Fringe/London/Glasgow/Liverpool.

VENUS AS A BOY
adapted by Tam Dean Burn from the novel by Luke Sutherland.

Traverse Theatre. Trav 2. Venue 15.
2 – 26 August not 6, 13, 20 Various times.
Runs 1hr 15mins No interval.

TICKETS. 0131 228 1404.
www.traverse.co.uk
Review Thelma Good 3 August 2007.

Gives a golden performance.
Tam Dean Burn is unlikely to get the film role as Désirée, the man who brought feelings of pure love to those who embraced him, but on stage he gives a golden performance.

It’s a moving story of a boy brought up on the remote Scottish island of South Ronaldsay who takes his miraculous ability to give pure love south to a very different world in London, finally, so he tells us, himself turning into gold. Venus As A Boy first came to life in a novel by Luke Sutherland. With the author there on stage playing his music live and the mercurial Burn being both the amazing central character and many of the varied people he meets, the production delivers a believable modern myth.

It’s not a good luck story - Cupid, as his first lover Tracey called him, is bullied and beaten up even before he leaves Orkney. He goes south looking for Tracey, at first to Glasgow, finally getting to Kings Cross. There he’s done over and falls into the hands of an ex-Nazi Radu who finds him a room in a molly house. Désirée’s spirit and voice embodied by Burnt keep us involved though much of what happens is grim.

While there isn’t a published script, copies of the novel are available from the Traverse so you can prolong your enjoyment of this Cupid (a co-production from National Theatre of Scotland Workshop and Burnt Goods); a being this well-crafted makes a very memorable piece.

Performer : Tam Dean Burn.

Directors: Christine Devaney/Tam Dean Burn.
Designer/Costume: Pamela McBain.
Lighting: Lizzie Powell.
Composer/Live Music: Luke Sutherland.

2007-08-07 01:38:12