Dir. Andy Arnold, Tron Theatre, 10th – 13th May
From the second Ramesh Meyyappan walked onstage, his presence made the space come alive. I was transported into the obsessively monotonous life of Joe Kilter, who saw his world turned upside down after receiving a termination letter.
Illustration by Isabelle Ribe
We at qmunicate know all too well that exam-time is a season wrought in caffeine and tears. Thus, in a gesture to all those labouring in the cold grasp of deadlines, and those lucky few who’ve drifted carefree into summer, we’ve compiled our favourite comfort viewing in an effort to spark a little cinematic warmth within you.
CCA, 27th Jan – 12th March
Forms of Action reminded me that I should really spend more time at the CCA. An exhibition with many different collaborating artists, it explores socially engaged art practices in a fascinating way. I was completely engrossed by the first room, where fables or folktales and their illustrations were waiting on the walls to be read and interacted with. The videos accompanying them were truly fascinating, the most thought-provoking an interview with a translator based in Marrakech who described translation as both a dialogue and a new creative process.
When I first arrived at uni, I thought I’d carry on being an early riser with perfect attendance. I soon realised that as you get used to your uni routine, a lazy morning in a warm bed becomes an infinitely preferable option to sitting in a cold lecture theatre half awake and barely paying attention to the powerpoint on the screens.
Dir. Erfan Shojanoori, Artists in Arches, 22nd – 24th November
After putting on four pairs of trousers, four jumpers and my hat down to my eyes, I felt ready to go see Broken Mirror Theatre’s production of Dennis Kelly’s Osama the Hero, performed at one of the arches under a bridge. It was already dark when the audience started flowing into the space and sat down on wooden pallets, their backs against the stiff grindstones. As I arranged my blanket around my knees and the cold faded into the background, I started becoming more aware of the venue. Unusual, to say the least, but one that the performance made incredibly good use of.
Image: Aike Jansen
What used to be a city of industry, shipbuilding and trade has grown into a unbelievably inspirational and exhilarating place. Glasgow as a whole deserves to be described as inspiring, however, as difficult a choice as it proved, a few places really stick out.
Dir. Jack Elfick, 13th Note, 2nd November
That Much Ado About Murder was focused on an actor brutally murdering the critics responsible for his bad reviews makes my job as reviewer of the play a particularly tricky one. While the idea behind the horror-comedy play was a very creative and inventive one, the performance in Glasgow let its audience down slightly. The tiny space in the Thirteenth Note’s gig venue was partly to blame for limitations in the set’s lighting and a very partial visibility of the stage itself.
