From Chekhov, Ibsen and Strindberg to Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg (Festen) and, most recently, English television dramatist Stephen Poliakoff (Dancing On The Edge), we seem to have lost none of our fascination for watching the carefully constructed image of the bourgeois family unravelling before our eyes.
JB Priestley's Time And The Conways, currently receiving a faithful co-production by the Lyceum and Dundee Rep is in a similar vein.
The piece is coloured – like Priestley's most famous drama, An Inspector Calls – by the author's Fabian socialism. It charts the shifting fortunes of the seemingly impregnable Conway family as, in the aftermath of the death of its patriarch, it is buffeted by the First World War, the General Strike, the Wall Street Crash and the bare-knuckle economics of a nouveau riche breed of capitalist. Shifting forward and back, between 1919 and 1937, it is a sturdy, some might say dated, "well-made play". Dundee Rep joint artistic director Jemima Levick has fashioned a production which rises but rarely soars (although just how high Priestley's drama is capable of soaring is a moot point).
Designer Ti Green's deadening, grey, Magritte-esque set (in which a table emerges from a wall, as if appearing through a cloud) has an evanescence which is appropriate to the uncertainty of the Conways' fortunes. Jessica Tomchak (as the once carefree beauty Hazel Conway) and Martin McBride (the disastrously favoured son, Robin) give strong performances in the midst of a largely accomplished cast, but there is such an inherent restraint (emotionally, intellectually and politically) within the play itself that one can't help but feel it is a somewhat conservative choice for the 21st-century stage.
There's little sign of conservatism in Second Coming/Winter, Again, the new double bill from Dundee Rep's resident sister company, Scottish Dance Theatre. It is difficult to imagine a more distinct contrast between two modern dance pieces than exists here between the works of Los Angeles choreographer Victor Quijada and his Norwegian counterpart Jo Strømgren.
Quijada's piece combines a series of metatheatrical (and not very funny) jokes about a supposed series of disasters in the theatre, an injury to a dancer etc, with a dance style and a musical score which are observably influenced by US street culture. Competing solos, confrontational choreography, and the clash between hip-hop and European classical music sometimes make the piece seem like a postmodern West Side Story. Often physically virtuosic, the work has its moments of tension, vulnerability, pathos and poignancy. Frustratingly, however, these are overwhelmed by its self-ironising postmodernism, which not only irritates but also (in the passages of speech) reminds us that dancers are not actors.
Strømgren (who is remembered fondly by many Edinburgh Fringe-goers for pieces such as The Hospital and The Convent) is a very different proposition from Quijada.
In Winter, Again, mud-spattered people emerge from an abstracted forest in which (Chekhov-style) a seagull has been shot. It is the first of a series of animals to die in the midst of a lost, disorientated and fearful chorus which is reminiscent of the wretched characters of Maurice Maeterlinck's play The Blind.
By turns bleakly comic and beautifully sensual, the piece is performed to exquisite Schubert lieder. Subtly emotive, it is considerably more substantial than its companion piece.
For Scottish Dance Theatre tour dates, visit www.scottishdance theatre.com
Time And The Conways
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until March 9;
transferring to Dundee Rep, March 13-30
Second Coming/ Winter, Again
Seen at Dundee Rep;
touring until May 29
Reviewed by Mark Brown
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article