ENDGAME at the CITIZENS THEATRE

An unobtrusive spare set greeted the audience , always a good sign because it allows the dialogue to rightly take the centre-stage.
In the video below the actors give their take on the play and what its main themes are.


This short piece in The Herald gives a good precise synopsis of the play and the production.

"WHERE Waiting for Godot is a play that can't begin, Endgame is a play that can't finish. The two amount to pretty much the same thing, a wry comment on the futility of existence performed as a wry comment on the futility of theatre. The irony is that the
deeper these plays sink into life's meaningless void, the more life-affirming they become."

Sitting in front of me (one seat removed) was a Friend that is a playwright herself and has seen many productions of the play , she was too busy dropping newspapers which the guy next to me had to retrieve from under her seat whilst i was too busy being in the zone that one has to be in order to decipher what the hell you have just watched on stage when attending Beckett.The production in the video below is her all time favourite.

THE LENINGRAD ALBUM at the MITCHELL LIBRARY

During the siege of Leningrad which lasted nearly 900 days and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands civilians the People of Leningrad still managed in all these deprivations an album of thanks to the Scottish ( especially Airdrie and Coatbridge) People , the Album sent from Scotland gave to the starving and besieged civilians, according to a Leningrad headmistress " ... the unexpected gift gave them a chance to convince themselves, by demonstrating to others, that without food for their bodies, they could satisfy, through their own efforts, the hunger of their soul for beauty and art and harmony between nations."

You can get a fuller story in this article by a descendant of one the founding figures in getting the album of hope to the besieged city of Leningrad Wilma Stark.

"They trudged round the whole district, even during the blackout, collecting over 6,000 signatures - many more would have been collected but they only had a very short time-scale in which to gather the messages and signatures. They had to get them to London, and thereafter, they hoped, to Leningrad. With great care these signatures and messages were pasted into the pages of an album.
Margaret Plant designed the cover and decorated it with the local Buchanan Tartan, and lines from Burns' 'A Man's a Man for a' That'.
A deputation of housewives including Agnes Maxwell took the album to London and handed it over to the Soviet Embassy.
In 1988 the 'Dear Allies' book, written by Margaret Henderson was published by Monklands District Libraries. In this book Harry Walker spoke of the feelings of all those involved at that time in 1941... "We half-hoped that we would have some acknowledgement just to know that it had reached its destination."
In June 1942 a telegram was delivered to Agnes Maxwell, in Park Crescent, Airdrie. It confirmed that against all odds, the Scots Album had arrived.
Harry Walker remembered, "It was a miracle... It was unbelievable that women struggling with hunger and disease, and face to face with death, should find time to respond to our pledge of solidarity and admiration. The telegram was passed around with much gasping of disbelief, and weeping for joy."

 This article goes into more details about how the Woman of Airdrie worked tirelessly to gather signatures under a very tight timescale to send from Scotland to Leningrad.

"The late Harry Walker attended the committee meeting on that auspicious evening :

.“The eyes of the world were on Leningrad. We were all aware of the tremendous contribution of women volunteers defending the city, night and day, against the fascist forces.We had a large and enthusiastic women’s section in the Russia Today Society. All the women were deeply affected by what they had been hearing about Leningrad. They were desperately anxious to do something to feel part of the vast struggle that was taking place. The plight of Leningrad was the sole topic of discussion at that meeting. We agreed to act immediately, for we could not know how long the besieged city would hold out, the situation was so grave. We decided that a collection of women’s signatures should be made in both Airdrie and Coatbridge and somehow sent to the women of Leningrad with a message conveying our admiration and feelings of solidarity.”

You can see a 2 minute and 20 sec video news report from the BBC about the Leningrad Album in the link

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CHRISTY MOORE at the BARROWLANDS

It is hard to believe he is 70 years old , he has been touring for 50 years , his voice is fine and sweet but most importantly his music seems even more current and poignant now than when it was written , a sign of the regression of Human and Civil rights of our times in this age.

Here is a chilling yet inspiration version of No Time For Love:


And he finished of with an aborted version ive not heard before called Lonesome Boatman:

GHOSTS at THE TRON GLASGOW

This re-working of Ibsens play changes more things than just the words , but , importantly , it keeps faith with the original and adds more elements than mere scandal on a social scale , adding the very sinister dimensions of our very own under-investigated scandal among the powerful political elites.

As the description on the Tron website states 

"On the face of it, local councillor Helen Alving’s financial support for the creation of a Childhood Trust and the donation of her ‘big house’ to the Council to create a new looked-after children’s facility seems to be a magnanimously benevolent gesture to honour her late husband, the Captain.
With the unexpected arrival of her son Oswald 'from abroad’ however, Helen’s carefully constructed reality is torn apart, and the ghosts from their tormented past manifest grotesquely in shocking revelations of political corruption and abuse.
Megan Barker’s dark and gripping adaptation of the Ibsen classic exposes a litany of terrible secrets and the incontrovertible damage these have caused."

The very intense and powerful productions left the audience emotionally exhausted , in the video below the set designer explains the process of coming up with the modern and minimal set than allows the script to play the central role with minimum distractions and allowing the audience to engage with the fullest imagination to the many lessons to be drawn from the present that this play first illuminated over a century ago.



This review from The Scotsman gives the best overview of the play though they do overplay the change of tone of the play. 

" What Barker is trying to do, in other words, is to combine the outline of Ibsen’s plot with a 21st century meditation on historic sex abuse, and on the lengths to which some establishment figures will go to conceal and perpetuate these crimes; and it has to be said that the effort to shift the narrative in that direction often pulls the play well out of shape."

TOM DEVINE at the STIRLING LIBRARY GLASGOW

It was very fitting that this high profile overview of Scotlands role in the "nefarious trade" at this years Glasgow Black History Month was hosted in what was once a Mansion built and owned by one of Glasgows Tobacco Lords.

It was quite a privilege to be addressed in a small setting by a World class academic who gave a talk virtually along the same lines to the assembled ranks of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament in the video below to a small intimate audience of less than 30 persons.

The title of the talk was Amnesia and Denial: Scotland and Transatlantic Slavery.This addresses the great paradox of Scotland being the main beneficiary of slave exploitation and yet also being in the forefront to abolish Slavery not only in British controlled areas but also non-British run parts of the New world.When compensation claims were made to provide reparations for the loss of slave-run businesses Scotland ( with about 10% of the population) accounted for 15% of the claims.Yet , consistently, petitions to end slavery at parliament in London prior to it being abolished amounted to a third of them coming from Scotland.More tobacco went to Glasgows ports than all the rest of the UK put together.



3.2 Million slaves were transported from Africa to the Caribbean and North America , though Scotland was only directly involved in 4,500 it run plantations and syndicated that exploited over half of them and their descendants , so though the participation of accruing the raw Human material was slight the vast infrastructures that absorbed then was vast.

Only recently is Scottish academic scholarship beginning to piece together the story in the last few years that brings shame , though ultimately a proper atonement, for Scotland in the 21st century.Scotland was not a victim but a main participant in the creation of the British Empire and Colonial project and all its excesses to the World suffered and still endures today and only by recognising its role can it help heals the scars and deep wounds that must be healed.

After the 46 minute mark a panel , including Stephen Mullan who conducts walking tours of the landmarks associated with Glasgows slave trading links ,discusses and adds more detail to the topics discussed.

THE ART AND POLITICS OF DIEGO RIVERA

The Govanhill Baths Community Trust was the location of this lecture of the iconic Mexican Painter and Muralist Diego Rivera.
Firstly there was an Introduction by Fatima Uygun on the nature of Art and Class , a brilliant piece of historical and cultural analysis with the added perception that all revolutions from the grassroots have always had the dimension of Artists articulating the currents of the time , which is why Art must belong to the People and not be co-opted by the establishment or commodifying commercial interests.

Colin Poole gave an in depth  biographical  account underlying the philosophical and intellectual currents that gave rise to Riveras art in revolutionary Mexico of the early 20th century.

 This link details an exchange of letters between Rivera and Rockefeller after a Mural to be made at the Rockefeller Centre was de-commissioned , notable in this exchange of letters is the compromise suggestion by Rivera to save the Mural which was not taken up.

The video below features music by Robbie Robertson and some of the painting and murals of Rivera.


You can get a more detailed history of Riveras politics and political relationships in the 30s and 40s in this link.

THE SEIGE at the TRON

You would think all thespians would welcome and relish the prospect of oppressed victims getting the chance to tell their own story in their own words, but apparently not the vile , sectarian , contemptible charlatan Maureen Lipman.But , as Al-Raee says in this article  
says  "The most sad thing about the people who are saying that the play is advocating for terrorism is that none of them came and saw the play," says Al-Raee. "They don't actually understand what they are talking about.".

 From the website of The Freedom Theatre established by a combination of Jewish and Palestinian
 Artists the mission of this admirable social civilian project is "The Freedom Theatre is developing a vibrant and creative artistic community in the northern part of the West Bank. While emphasizing professionalism and innovation, the aim of the theatre is also to empower youth and women in the community and to explore the potential of arts as an important catalyst for social change."
 The Board of The Freedom Theatre contains , according to clowns like Lipman , such terrorist advocates as Noam Chomsky and Judith Butler.

You can see the trailer for this highly passionate and humane play in this video


This review from The Herald newspaper gives a sense of the profound impression the play makes on a fair audience

"As performed by an all male cast of six, there is an impassioned partisan rawness to what follows, as we flit between the siege itself and the men's lives afterwards far from their homeland. The latter is told simply and directly without contrition, and when the tour guide takes a selfie with the audience, it's as if the entire world is captured in its light"