We have seen a lot about "The Jungle" and the desperate efforts of migrants to get from France across into the UK, with our right wing media usually portraying them as people intent on some unspecified harm. We see them portrayed in racist negative terms, dehumanised, and with little thought given to the impact their presence has on the French people they meet. Phillipe Lioret's 2009 movie redresses the balance, and has become ever more relevant in the intervening decade.
Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) is a 17 year old Kurd who escaped from Iran and spent 3 months crossing Europe (including a spell being tortured by Turkish police) and is now in Calais to complete the final leg of his journey. Mina (Derya Ayverdi), his girlfriend is waiting for him in London, although her family are against the match. But getting across, or under, the closely monitored stretch of water separating them is the hardest thing he's faced. One desperate effort fails, so Bilal decides on an even more dangerous option - swimming La Manche.
He engages swimming instructor Simon (Vincent Lindon) to teach him. When Simon realises his intent he tries to talk Bilal out of it, but, partly due to some words of his ex-wife, soon finds himself acting as the Kurd's father figure, giving him shelter and some serious training.
In doing so Simon finds himself arrested and investigated, for providing aid to migrants. Even giving one of them a lift in his car is deemed an illegal act. Small acts of kindness and humanity have become acts against the state. Even the policeman who questions him recognises the essentially illiberal nature of the law he is forced to uphold.
Lioret has created a very human story, engaging our empathy with both the young lovers and the cynical but kindly Frenchman. Lindon is wholly convincing as a man confused by his situation, but trying to find the most compassionate route through, trying to be a decent person even if it means confronting bad law, and he brings a strong truthfulness to the role. Essential viewing for anyone who is strongly anti-immigrant.
The ironic title comes from the word on the doormat of the neighbour who reports Simon to the police.
Friday 31 May 2019
Thursday 30 May 2019
Toy Plastic Chicken (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse
Based on a true story, this is a take on the UK's illiberal terrorist legislation and the increasing return of racism in our society. Rachel (Neshla Caplan) sets off an alert at airport security when the toy plastic chicken she's carrying starts squawking and laying an egg. Her ethnicity, and the news that she is on her way to Istanbul to meet an Iranian man, are enough of an incentive for Ross (David James Kirkwood) to detain and question her under anti terrorism laws. Annoyed at having been overlooked for promotion he sees this as a chance to demonstrate his abilities, but his pursuit of his goal leads him into seeking the most minor of excuses to justify his actions.
His colleague Emma (Anna Russell-Martin) goes along reluctantly at first, but gets angrier with Ross when she's forced into strip searching Rachel, an experience that degrades them both. As they get in deeper and deeper the regulations make it harder and harder to find a way out.
There are a lot of issues being raised here, and fifty minutes is never going to be long enough to explore them in any depth, but Toy Plastic Chicken works as a reminder of how dehumanising bad law can be for parties on both sides of the argument.
His colleague Emma (Anna Russell-Martin) goes along reluctantly at first, but gets angrier with Ross when she's forced into strip searching Rachel, an experience that degrades them both. As they get in deeper and deeper the regulations make it harder and harder to find a way out.
There are a lot of issues being raised here, and fifty minutes is never going to be long enough to explore them in any depth, but Toy Plastic Chicken works as a reminder of how dehumanising bad law can be for parties on both sides of the argument.
The Origins of Ivor Punch (A Play, a Pie and Pint), Traverse
Any show that allows the audience to take their seats to the sounds of Lau's magnificent first album is off to a strong start in my reckoning, so I was already in fine mood before the actors took their places. The action, set on the island of Mull, switches between the present day and the 1860s. Twenty first century police sergeant Ivor Punch (Andrew John Tait) is out on a stormy night with friend and joker Randy (Tom McGovern) when they encounter a fey young woman in the dark. She says little and vanishes mysteriously near the cliff, leading Ivor to question not only who she was, but also his own place in life.
A century and a half before the woman is revealed to be the gentile Henrietta Bird (Eva Traynor), sister of famed explorer Isabella, and admired, distantly, by tongue tied postman Duncan Punch. A romance shyly develops between them, but there is a tragic ending to their love. There are cameo appearances from Isabella, and Charles Darwin, emphasising the evolution of lives, and why the modern day Ivor owes something of himself to the fateful relationship of his ancestor. (The three cast members all double up on the roles.)
It's often fun, generally enjoyable despite the odd cringeworthy joke, but the connections between the two periods are tenuous. Darwin feels like a heavy handed device too. But the performances are strong, doing enough to overcome the failings of the script to provide an entertaining fifty minutes. Maybe a subject better suited to a full length format?
A century and a half before the woman is revealed to be the gentile Henrietta Bird (Eva Traynor), sister of famed explorer Isabella, and admired, distantly, by tongue tied postman Duncan Punch. A romance shyly develops between them, but there is a tragic ending to their love. There are cameo appearances from Isabella, and Charles Darwin, emphasising the evolution of lives, and why the modern day Ivor owes something of himself to the fateful relationship of his ancestor. (The three cast members all double up on the roles.)
It's often fun, generally enjoyable despite the odd cringeworthy joke, but the connections between the two periods are tenuous. Darwin feels like a heavy handed device too. But the performances are strong, doing enough to overcome the failings of the script to provide an entertaining fifty minutes. Maybe a subject better suited to a full length format?
Kris Drever, La Belle Angele
One man, one voice, two guitars and one singular talent. Drever has established a strong reputation as sol artist and collaborator, as singer, guitarist and songwriter, and this solo show as a chance to hear him dip into his now extensive back catalogue of solo material (traditional and modern), some new stuff he was trying out, and even a bit of the mighty Lau. A confident, relaxed and relatable stage presence, Kris always introduces something new into even the most familiar songs, his immediately identifiable vocals a fine complement to his talent as one of Scotland's finest musicians. Not to be missed.
Casablanca - The Gin Joint Cut (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse
riter Morag Fullerton clearly loves Casablanca as much as the rest of the world and this comedy pastiche is an inspired homage to Bogart and Bergman and Rains.
Three actors are worrying about how to play their roles in a stage version of the great movie. Rick (Gavin Mitchell) keeps trying out new ways to deliver iconic lines, in a manner that suggests he's pretty clueless, and paves the way for parody to come. The play moves on into a fast paced retelling of the essential moments of the film, using many of the original lines, but now payed very much for laughs, and with freeze moments where one of the cast reveals an interesting fact about the 1942 original.
The cast perform, multiple roles, even Mitchell around whom the action largely revolves. Clare Waugh is both Ilsa and Strasser, Kevin Lennon both Renault and Laszlo, and several others bedsides. Sam is a wooden doll, sat at a wooden piano, and moved around the stage as required. These limitations heighten the comedy, and seeing Lennon conduct a conversation between the French police chief and the Nazi was slapstick at it's finest. Plus a special mention to Waugh for going the full McGonagall when her Strasser gets shot!
It's slickly unslick, with complex choreography, 'fog' from an aerosol can and ham acting at it's finest. Mitchell playing smooth Rick with awkward mechanical movements is an image that's hard to erase from the mind. He is the perfect pastiche Bogart and the ensemble performance is excellent.
Far from traducing memories of a great movie it enhances them. And the film doesn't invite the audience to singalong to La Marseillaise, does it? (Nor does it, in my memories at least, mention Wester Hailes...)
Comedy gold indeed.
Three actors are worrying about how to play their roles in a stage version of the great movie. Rick (Gavin Mitchell) keeps trying out new ways to deliver iconic lines, in a manner that suggests he's pretty clueless, and paves the way for parody to come. The play moves on into a fast paced retelling of the essential moments of the film, using many of the original lines, but now payed very much for laughs, and with freeze moments where one of the cast reveals an interesting fact about the 1942 original.
The cast perform, multiple roles, even Mitchell around whom the action largely revolves. Clare Waugh is both Ilsa and Strasser, Kevin Lennon both Renault and Laszlo, and several others bedsides. Sam is a wooden doll, sat at a wooden piano, and moved around the stage as required. These limitations heighten the comedy, and seeing Lennon conduct a conversation between the French police chief and the Nazi was slapstick at it's finest. Plus a special mention to Waugh for going the full McGonagall when her Strasser gets shot!
It's slickly unslick, with complex choreography, 'fog' from an aerosol can and ham acting at it's finest. Mitchell playing smooth Rick with awkward mechanical movements is an image that's hard to erase from the mind. He is the perfect pastiche Bogart and the ensemble performance is excellent.
Far from traducing memories of a great movie it enhances them. And the film doesn't invite the audience to singalong to La Marseillaise, does it? (Nor does it, in my memories at least, mention Wester Hailes...)
Comedy gold indeed.
Thursday 23 May 2019
Wild Rose
Rose-Lynn Harlan (Jessie Buckley) is back home, all blue denim and white cowboy boots, a song on her lips and a dream of becoming a country music star still burning in her heart. She also has an electronic tag on her ankle, the fiercely proud Marion (Julie Walters) as her mother and a young daughter she's never really connected with. "I should have been born in America" she says, but this is Glasgow, not Nashville, and life as an ex-prisoner isn't easy.
Nor are her familial relationships. Marion has done a fine job of bringing up her granddaughter and has no wish to see her work undone by her wayward child. At the same time she's strongly protective of both, and has a better understanding of those country dreams than Rose-Lynn suspects.
She finds a job as a cleaner to the wealthy Susannah (Sophie Okenodo) who, inspired by Rose-Lynn's vocals on hoovering duties, tries to help her get a break into radio. But the pressures of holding all the conflicting elements of her life together eventually prove to be too much. The chance to realise her Nashville ambitions might turn up, but could it ever match the dream?
Despite moments that are as syrupy and emotionally manipulative as the lyrics she belts out, and the sense of cliche being piled on cliche like a stack of blueberry pancakes, the film is more than carried along by the energy of the script and music, and the strong performances of all three leads. Buckley has one hell of a voice, Walters brings depth to her character, and a special mention to Okenodo who has the most difficult job of steering away from becoming a parody of the middle class do-gooder. And there's a satisfying ending that's less obvious than it could have been.
Enjoyable.
Nor are her familial relationships. Marion has done a fine job of bringing up her granddaughter and has no wish to see her work undone by her wayward child. At the same time she's strongly protective of both, and has a better understanding of those country dreams than Rose-Lynn suspects.
She finds a job as a cleaner to the wealthy Susannah (Sophie Okenodo) who, inspired by Rose-Lynn's vocals on hoovering duties, tries to help her get a break into radio. But the pressures of holding all the conflicting elements of her life together eventually prove to be too much. The chance to realise her Nashville ambitions might turn up, but could it ever match the dream?
Despite moments that are as syrupy and emotionally manipulative as the lyrics she belts out, and the sense of cliche being piled on cliche like a stack of blueberry pancakes, the film is more than carried along by the energy of the script and music, and the strong performances of all three leads. Buckley has one hell of a voice, Walters brings depth to her character, and a special mention to Okenodo who has the most difficult job of steering away from becoming a parody of the middle class do-gooder. And there's a satisfying ending that's less obvious than it could have been.
Enjoyable.
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