Rachel Adams @ Tramway

Tramway 5 - front gallery, until 24 March

"For her exhibition at Tramway, Rachel Adams has created an installation of new sculptural works that extends her exploration of the relationship between science fiction, classical sculptural motifs and decorative craft techniques.

Adams joins the aesthetics of sci-fi with an awareness of how certain materials and forms have a specific cultural identity and place within time, particularly craft techniques such as tie dye, macramé and crochet.

The methods employed by TV programmes of the 1970s to produce an “alien” environment are presented as symptomatic of a larger cultural shift, one marked by a growing distrust of the ceaseless progression of technological advancements that defined the preceding decade."

For more information click here

Tramway Video

A nice little film about the Tramway - though the sombre tune does make it feel a little like a memorial. I half expected to discover the place was being blown up or something. Thankfully its not and there are lots of new shows on soon.
http://www.tramway.org/

MFA Degree Show @ The Tramway 18 - 28th June

This years Master of Fine Art degree show will again be held at the Tramway. The exhibition opens on Thursday 18th June and will be on until Sunday 28th June. We have been several times in the last few years and have really enjoyed it. There is always a wide range of work and it's definetly worth a look around.

For more info click here

After Mary Rose

In Conjunction with the Southside Festival - Magnetic North presents After Mary Rose. Written by J.M Barrie who created Peter pan. The play wright D jones is from the Southside... The play is on from Wednesday 20th until Saturday 23rd of May. It starts at 8 o clock, tickets are £8 and can be purchased from the Tramway.

It started with Hitchcock,’ says Nick Bone, artistic director of Magnetic North. ‘I had read an interview with Hitchcock and was intrigued by this play that had fascinated him. And I had a very strange reaction to it when I read it.’

The play is Mary Rose, written by famous Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan. Written late in the playwright’s life, it tells the tale of a young woman who mysteriously vanishes from a secluded island twice in her life with no explanation. She returns both times without signs of aging and with no memory of having ever been gone. It’s a challenging work that is hardly ever performed.

Director Alfred Hitchcock, a major fan of the play, had wanted to turn it into a film but never managed to do so. Bone thinks he knows why it’s seldom seen on stage. ‘I felt that if I’d gone to see it [in modern times], I wouldn’t buy into the mystery. It’s set up like a ghost story but it doesn’t work like a ghost story.’ He also finds fault with Barrie’s female protagonist, calling her a middle-aged man’s fantasy, and odd. ‘There’s an innocence in what he’s trying to capture, but I found that he didn’t quite find a way of getting that across.’

As a solution, Bone proposed to create a brand new play, one that would honour Barrie’s characters and plot but would resonate with a modern audience. He met playwright D. Jones and gave her a copy of the play to read. ‘We both felt there was something disturbing in it and darkly imaginative that we wanted to develop, staying true to Barrie’s themes of grief, loss and disappearance,’ says Jones.

Speaking about the writing process, Jones says ‘I struggled early on with wanting to stay true to Barrie but at the same time wanting to make the script our own.’ In speaking about her script, Jones says that there is a resemblance in setting and structure but that the characters are emotionally richer, an aspect she found lacking in Barrie’s script. ‘I think the end result is that we have hopefully done something original.’

This end result is the new play, After Mary Rose. The play still follows the rules set forth in Barrie’s original and follows two stories, that of Rose’s disappearances and the parallel story of her son Harry’s quest for understanding. Of duality, Bone says, ‘Mary represents mystery and things that cannot be explained, while Harry’s journey is one of explanation.’ There are also parallels to the regrettable losses of war; Mary’s disappearance occurs at the end of the First World War whereas Harry’s story takes place after the Second.

In speaking about the upcoming production, playwright Jones said she now realises that, ‘We had really set ourselves a big challenge’ but remains convinced that ‘there is still something darkly emotional and moving in this play that has a timeless quality and will translate to a contemporary world.’

Click here for review

24 Fragments

Ive just received an e-mail from our friend Stephen, about an event being performed at the Hidden Gardens, this Saturday. Sounds like a really interesting event.

24 hours of music, neuroscience and performance at 24 sites across the UK

The Fragmented Orchestra is a huge distributed musical structure modelled on the firing of the human brain's neurons. Twenty-four sites around the UK are connected to each other to form a “neural” network. The sonic information captured at these sites is transmitted over the internet, causing other sites to “fire”.

Alasdair Roberts will be performing at the Glasgow ‘neuron’ at the Hidden Gardens, Tramway on Saturday 21st February at noon.

Intimate acoustic performance from fine Scottish folk singer Alasdair Roberts and invited guests. Roberts is noted for both his own compositions and recitations of traditional songs. 'Roberts effortlessly makes explicit the shared vocabulary of folk's natural weirdness and experimental music's studied strangeness.' The Times


For more information www.thefragmentedorchestra.com/

Scottish Ballet

Nice little propagnda video about the currently being built Scottish Ballet. It gives you a better idea of what the building will actually be like. The inside looks nice - not sure about the outside but I'm pretty sure it will be a million times better than all the new flats being built in the area - every time I see the "Utopia" sign it makes me smile.

I've only ever seen one ballet, when we went to the National Opera house in Stolkholm. It was very posh, the Swedish Princess was there in her Royal box and I think we were about the only people not wearing suits or black ties. Twas far more enjoyable than I thought it would be and I am interested in going along to the new building once its finshed and checking out a show or two. Maybe try a few moves of my own.

Glasgow Film Festival @ the Tramway

This years Glasgow Film Festival tickets go on sale online at midnight on 21 January 09. Tickets are £6 per film but there are a couple of ways of getting cheaper tickets. You can buy a festival film pass [valid for 10 films] for £40 or you can buy 10 tickets on-line at once and also get them for £40.

The good news for Southsiders is that the Tramway will be hosting a couple of events. The official programme is not being released until the 21st but the Tramway are already advertising their events.

For more details

Dolls at the tramway

I am finding myself drawn to anything Japanese, after our recent adventures... So this caught my eye...the Tramway are showing a play based on the Japanese film Dolls. It's being performed from Wednesday 28 January until Saturday the 31st @ 8.00pm. Opening night is only £5

More info
Adapted from the film by Takeshi Kitano with permission of Office Kitano Inc.Directed by Carrie Cracknell

Dolls is a film of extraordinary beauty from Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. Now, for the first time, this deeply touching visual feast has been adapted for the stage.

Inspired by Japanese culture, Dolls draws upon stories old and new, to create a disquieting odyssey that weaves together three tales of undying love. Haunted by a tragic event before his wedding, a young man is tormented by his guilt. Bound by a blood-red cord to his damaged lover, they are destined to walk the earth together for all eternity.

Along the way a tale of true devotion unfolds as a women waits every day on the same park bench for the lover who deserted her three decades earlier. Intertwined is the story of a vain pop star who, following a disfiguring accident, forms a relationship with a disturbingly avid fan, determined to prove the extent of his obsession.

Hush Productions and National Theatre of Scotland Workshop have re-imagined the film, bringing to life this tender and fragile tale of love in all its many forms. Signed & Audio described performance: Saturday 31st January, 8pm Dolls

National Review of Live Art

February and March are my favourite times of the year, for contemporary theatre in Glasgow. The National Review of Live Art is being hosted at the Tramway, opening on the 6th of February this unique event runs until the Sunday night. Each day of the event artists from around the world perform from around 12 o clock until 2am, in locations all over the tramway.

Click here for the 2008 brochure

Links

The Tramway

New Moves

25 Free Tickets to Performing Rights Glasgow

We received this e-mail from the Vacuum cleaner

25 Free Tickets to Performing Rights Glasgow – a project from the vacuum cleaner
What is Performing Rights Glasgow?

Performing Rights Glasgow (10/02/08, 11 am till late) is a day of performances, presentations, discussions, screenings and interventions around ideas of performance and human rights.
Read more here http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/projects/NRLA

Why are you giving away 25 free tickets?

Last time we made an art piece at Tramway it was for an inclusive art event called Common Work; it cost £100 to get in, which we couldn’t afford. So we decided to raise the ticket cost by begging outside the entrance. See - http://www.vacuum.org.uk/beggingforsocialengagement

This time round we’re performing inside but we thought it important that people on low and no incomes weren’t excluded, thus we’re getting paid in tickets, which you can have.
How do I get a ticket?
You are entitled to a ticket if:
You live locally to the Tramway or live in Glasgow.
You don’t really go to see much art, or have heard modern art is a load of rubbish but want to give it a go.
You wanted to go, but had been put off by the cost.
You think that art has nothing to do with social and ecological change.
You are on a low or no income.
All you have to do is email suck@vacuum.org.uk with ‘A free ticket’ in the subject line and a name, and we’ll put you down on the list. Tickets are on a first come first served basis. Only take a ticket if you are sure you want to come, as the 25 tickets are instead of our fee.
(See further details on your free ticket below)

Help spread the word.

Help us get the message out and forward this to anyone who it maybe of interest to.
Further ticket details.
No one will be made aware that you’ve got a free ticket.
You won’t be expected to see everything or stay all day if it isn’t for you, but you must be prepared to give it a go.
If you would like to have a buddy for the day, so you can have someone to talk to about the art work, we can try and arrange one, so please state in your email if this is the case.
If you have a visual, auditory or mental impairment or difficulty, please also let us know in your email.
The Tramway is wheelchair accessible.

the vacuum cleaner is not responsible if you have a bad experience.

Helter Skelter

We're off to the Tramway, this evening, for the Helter Skelter performance. It's a tramway commissioned performance which leads you through the hidden gardens and the tramway building.

A performance that leads you through the enchanting Hidden Gardens and the dark corridors of Tramway. Composer Stephen Deazley joins forces writer Dilys Rose (Lord of Illusions/Our Lady of the Pickpockets) to create a spectacular musical entertainment with its roots in burlesque and music hall, and conjur up a dream world reeking of the freak shows, fairgrounds and circuses of long ago. As night falls and the curtain rises, lost souls washed up in this place come out to entertain!

I'll report back tomorrow

EDIT: It was rained off, we're going on Saturday night instead.

Here's what the herald has to say about the piece

http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1524478.0.0.php

EDIT: Our review (by Alburt)



Hmmm, that was quite an odd affair. While to some extents I agree with the Herald's review that the costumes, the music and the basic premise of the show were all great - I just wasn't blown away by it all. Often, the sound would become unballanced and it was difficult to hear or understand exactly what the enthusaistic cast were saying.
There were some great individual images and moments during the show, the trapease artist hanging alone with a red balloon, or the fish boy swimming laps around the fire lit moat. But I didn't really feel the whole show was coherant enough to hold up. It was by far most powerful, when telling individual tales of solitary characters - the pigman and the ratcatchers daughter or the wolf and the bearded lady, but these were just fleeting glimpses in an otherwise swirling mass of colour/ shouting and people running around. During these swirls - you couldn't help getting the feeling that the cast were having much more fun than we were.

We did enjoy it but none of us thought it amazing - it felt to much like the results of a month workshop and not enough like a tightly crafted show - with any consistancy. We went to see something similar in an abandoned slaughterhouse in London (ann makes me go to these things) and there we were led a round a series of clearly defined extracts from tales. And while it to did not give a coherent story, there was enough going on to get your imagination to decipher the images. Here it felt a bit to much erratic.

Happy Birthday Hidden Gardens

On Saturday after our tasty breakfast (see previous post), we wandered along to the Tramway in Pollokshields to check out the MFA exhibition. I had been to the Art School the previous night to see the degree show and I was interested to see how the Masters students compared. I hadn't been overly impressed by the degree show - most likely because there are no explanations of the work or even titles and so you are often left wandering around the place going "What is that all about?"

We only got round part of the main hall before it had to close for some repairs but again I found myself slightly confused by a lot of the work. This time there were titles but they seemed to me to be vague - non committal type things which didn't reveal any of the thought behind the works. It would have been good to have explanation text which gave some insight into the artists ideas and processes. Without that kind of information I found myself having to review the work purely on its aesthetic value and couldn't help thinking that they'd just made it all up. In saying that there was a lot of interesting looking work there I just have no idea what it was about.

After looking at the art we wandered out into the back gardens to discover that it was the Hidden Gardens 4th Birthday. In celebration there were amazing fairy cakes, badge making, singers, punch and kite flying.