Tom Piper Archives - North West End UK

2Nov

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

1984 – Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh

I first read 1984 in a philosophy class at high school. Back then I remember thinking how dystopian it was, one of those books that the teacher chose to make you think about how easily things could go terribly wrong, but in a way that still felt removed from reality. This new adaptation by Chris Hannan, directed by Dominic Hill, makes an interesting choice by bringing Orwell himself into the story. The play opens with the writer in a tuberculosis hospital in Scotland, where conversations with his doctor offer a glimpse into the political experiences that helped shape the novel. Jack Tarlton plays both Orwell and Winston Smith, moving between the real man and the fictional character whose world is slowly falling apart. I found this framing particularly interesting because it gives the...

Macbeth (an undoing) – The Rose Theatre

She didn’t know what she was headed for, and when she found out what she was headed for, it was too late. Macbeths come undone. Playwright and director Zinnie Harris’s new and old work, Macbeth (an undoing) sets out to prove that what is done can in fact be undone rather than merely redone. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is arguably overdone, especially at the moment. From Ralph Fiennes to David Tennant, powerful male actors can’t take their grubby hands off it. Audiences too never seem to tire of it. It’s an enduring story, full of sound and fury, and rife with juicy monologues for actors to sink their fangs into. The juiciness of the plot even translates well into foreign adaptations and lubricates applications to very specific historical metaphors. However much of its adaptive appeal rests on wh...

The Scent of Roses – Royal Lyceum Edinburgh

Scottish playwright and director Zinnie Harris' The Scent of Roses begins with a wife who takes her husband hostage to finally have an honest conversation, locking him into their bedroom for more than a night. But this isn't the whole story. In the five sections which follow we explore the interlocking lives of four pairs of people, each in their separate location, the first scene not so much sparking as giving the audience a way into a chain of conversations, obfuscations and revelations in this circle of connected lives. The constantly reconstituted set designed by Tom Piper is marvellous, starting off angled to contrast the natural shape of the stage and subsequently offering us four to five different locations mostly from the same pieces of wall, floor and slanted ceiling, the last ...