Latest news with #ConfessionsOfAShinagawaMonkey
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Scottish-Japanese co-production the big winner at 2025 CATS
The winners for this year's Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) have been revealed. The awards, which celebrate and recognize the best achievements in Scottish theatre, were presented at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre on Sunday. Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey, an international collaboration between Glasgow-based Vanishing Point and Kanagawa Arts Theatre of Yokohama, Japan (in association with Tramway), was the big winner, picking up four awards. Based on short stories by the acclaimed Japanese writer Haruki Murakamki, Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey won 'Best Design', 'Best Technical' and 'Best Ensemble' awards, with Sandy Grierson, who played the eponymous monkey, receiving an 'Outstanding Performance' award. Sandy Grierson in the Vanishing Point-Kanagawa Arts Theatre co-production of Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey (Image: Mihaela Bodlovic) CATS co-convenor Mark Brown said: 'Scottish theatre has enjoyed a renaissance in the period since the Second World War. 'Internationalism has been a primary driver of that revival and one of the key exponents of that internationalism – over the past 26 years – has been Glasgow-based theatre company Vanishing Point. Their unique form of international theatre as witnessed in Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey sees the integration of multiple languages and cultures in a single show.' Anna Burnside of Corr Blimey! and Across the Arts said: 'Sandy Grierson was an extraordinary monkey, matter of fact and believable while undeniably an animal. 'His physicality was entirely convincing and, working with a skilled puppeteer, his tail added an extra layer of nuance to an already astounding performance. This was something very special.' READ MORE: Lear, Traverse Theatre: 'mesmerising depiction of one of the world's great tragedies' This Swan Lake not only seizes the audience's imagination - it captures their hearts These could be Scotland's theatre stars of tomorrow The supreme award, 'Best Production', went to Hedda Gabler, the second collaboration between Gordon Barr (director), Kathy McKean (writer) and Nicole Cooper (Hedda) for Bard in the Botanics. This award follows the success of their first collaboration, Medea, which won the 'Best Production' award at the 2022 CATS. CATS co-convenor Joyce McMillan said: 'In recent years, Bard in the Botanics have extended their work beyond Shakespeare to embrace other mighty writers and stories; and there is none greater than Henrik Ibsen. 'Last year, they presented his huge and haunting 1891 tragedy in the perfect surroundings of the Kibble Palace, in a thrilling new version by Kathy McKean, and in a production by Gordon Barr with Nicole Cooper as Hedda that fairly took the breath away with its pace and intensity.' Meanwhile, the first 'Outstanding Panto' award was scooped by the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr's Mother Goose. Mother Goose, Ayr Gaiety (Image: Tommy GA-Ken Wan) Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre said: "This was a panto packed with local references, that oozed love and laughter, and which eschewed a shoe-horned wedding to bring a message of hope and reconciliation at the finale. 'Above all, however, this was a panto which dared. Dared to bring in big topical political comedy, dared to acknowledge societal concerns, dared to name-check the venue's panto greats over the years and dared to have Deaf characters in the cast and company using the fact of their deafness to up the physicality for everyone to see.' The second 'Oustanding Performance' award went to Kirsty Findlay for the title role in Beautiful: The Carole King Story at Pitlochry Festival, where 'she embodied the legendary singer songwriter with a depth and maturity that was riveting to watch'. The 'Best Director' award was won by Andrew Panton for A History of Paper (Dundee Rep/Traverse Theatre). Nicole Cooper in the title role in Kathy McKean's version of Hedda Gabler, directed by Gordon Barr at 2024 Bard in the Botanics (Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan) Douglas Maxwell picked up the 'Best New Play' award for the second year in a row. Following his success with The Sheriff of Kalamaki last year, Maxwell won the 2025 award for So Young (Traverse Theatre, Raw Material and Citizens Theatre). CATS co-convenor Michael Cox said: 'Douglas Maxwell proves again that he is one of Scottish theatre's best playwrights. 'This is underlined by the fact that he's not only won this award back-to-back, but for two very distinctive plays which have only their excellence in common.' Yellow Canary, Tashi Gore's powerful family story of survival during the Nazi Holocaust (produced by Glass Performance), won the 'Best Production For Children and Young People' award, and the Royal Lyceum' s Wild Rose won the 'Best Sound and Music' award. In total, around 140 works created in Scotland in 2024-5 were eligible for the 2025 CATS, of which over 120 were new plays.
The National
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
War and family collide in bold reworking of King Lear
That programme staged a style of audacious, gestural performance that was – and still is – quite rare in Scottish theatre. For sure, we have the brilliant, Lecoq-trained actor Sandy Grierson (lead performer in the recent, and fabulous, Confessions Of A Shinagawa Monkey), who combines exceptionally accomplished movement with superb verbal expression. However, for the kind of wordless theatre that was showcased at Aurora Nova, Scottish theatre lovers have to turn to excellent outliers like Company of Wolves and acclaimed theatre-maker and performer Al Seed. They also turn – and always with high expectations – to the work of the award-winning Scots-Singaporean artist Ramesh Meyyappan. READ MORE: Scotland's oil profits must not be used to exploit Gaza citizens, says Humza Yousaf With beautiful works such as Butterfly and Love Beyond, Meyyappan (who is Deaf) has consistently provided audiences with visually stunning and emotionally compelling pieces of physical theatre. His latest piece, entitled LEAR, is a fine addition to his impressive oeuvre. Inspired, needless to say, by Shakespeare's famous play King Lear, the show – which is produced by Glasgow-based company Raw Material in association with the National Theatre of Scotland – has just returned from its world premiere at the Singapore International Festival of Arts. The piece is set – we assume from the sandbags, Lear's greatcoat and the shell fire that characterises the conflict – during the First World War. Rendered profoundly Deaf by an exploding shell, Lear – not a king, but, we assume, an officer – returns home to his three daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia (who are given beautifully measured, emotive performances by Nicole Cooper, Amy Kennedy and Draya Maria). It is clear from the nature of his return that Lear has enjoyed the domestic status of a beloved and revered (and perhaps somewhat feared) pater familias. The daughters compete for the patriarch's attention and affection, and seek to ease him back into domestic life. However, Meyyappan's Lear is dragged into deep despair and frustration by his experience of war and his devastating injury. Memories, both terrifying and consoling, flood his mind and are given, by turns, powerful and humorous expression by Meyyappan. A scene in which the man – his mind twisted beyond his control – turns upon his beloved daughters is genuinely, viscerally shocking. The production is stylish and precise, thanks to director Orla O'Loughlin and dramaturg Lu Kemp. It is played on an excellent, minimalist set, designed expertly by Anna Orton and lit intelligently by Derek Anderson. It also boasts music and sound (composed by the ever-impressive David Paul Jones) that is always perfectly attuned to the action. In its relocation of Shakespeare's famous protagonist to an appalling, modern conflict, LEAR renders the man both more human and more frightening. Once again – as both writer and performer – Meyyappan succeeds in captivating our minds and our senses. At Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, June 5-7:
