This Wide Night + Glasgow Film Festival

I have been busy with essays and other stuff lately so I haven't been able to write here! Today's entry is about theatre and film, I hope you enjoy it!

This Wide Night

Venue: Tron Theatre
Play: This Wide Night
Playwright: Chloë Moss
Director: David Greig
Price: £8 (preview)

On the 21st of February, I went to the Tron Theatre here in Glasgow to see This Wide Night, a play by Chloë Moss directed by David Greig, with whom you'll already be familiar if you have read my other entries in this blog. I wrote a review for VOIX Magazine which you can find here.

You can also take this opportunity to browse through their page. This magazine is a young and promising project with lots of talent and enthusiasm behind it! You can also check out their Facebook page here.

On the anecdote side, I tweeted a link to this review, and David Greig himself retweeted it, haha! =) If you don't believe me, you can see it here.

Photograph by John Johnston Photography.

Glasgow Film Festival

You may remember I caught the Glasgow Short Film Festival by the skin of my teeth. I was ready for the Glasgow Film Festival, but there was so much on offer I had a hard time picking which screenings I went to!

I was too late to get tickets for the opening night screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel, but I have heard incredibly good things about this film. If you have watched it, you can tell me about it in the comments! I finally chose these two:

LFO

Venue: Cineworld
Movie: LFO (2013)
Screenwriter/Director: Antonio Tublén
Country: Sweden/Denmark
Language: Swedish
Price: £6.50 (student)

A weird Scandinavian middle-aged guy discovers that Low Frequency Oscillator sound waves can alter people's behaviour. With this powerful and very dangerous tool in his hands, he will try to change his life and, later, the world. This movie is hilarious, sad, creepy, intimate and thought-provoking all at once. The dialogue is brilliant and Patrik Karlson, who plays the protagonist, does a GREAT job both with his face and his voice. I definitely recommend it!

A Touch of Sin

Venue: Cineworld
Movie: A Touch of Sin (2013)
Screenwriter/Director: Jia Zhangke
Country: China
Language: Mandarin
Price: £6.50 (student)

This film follows the paths of four characters in contemporary China, as they are pushed to their limits by corruption, degradation, misery and a restrictive society and government. Visually and music-wise, this movie is amazing. I also think this director has a special way with silences, they're one of the most beautiful things about this movie. I kept expecting the four stories to come together at the end, but they don't (except by the fact that they all suffer the miseries of living in contemporary China). Don't waste your time trying to find clues and connections between them like I did, you'll enjoy the movie more. I was slightly dissatisfied by the first story of the four (with actor Jiang Wu as the protagonist), because I didn't feel his reactions were properly scaled: it all felt a bit too rushed and, at points, gratuitous. The other three were exceptional and not to be missed!

I went to see both films on the same day, and I had a great time! When I came back home, however, someone had tried (and thankfully failed) to break into my flat! *sigh* Anyway! Did you go see This Wide Night? What did you think of it? Also,if you've watched any of this films or other films that have a connection with these, I'd be more than happy to hear what you have to say in the comments! =)

Glasgow's book festival 'Aye Write!' is on just now, so that'll be the next thing I'll write about! I'm going to see writers A. L. Kennedy and Bernard MacLaverty, and I'll be going to a panel session with Caribbean and Scottish Gaelic writers. I'll tell you more about it in a few days' time! =)

Greig + Greig + Dinner + Greig

Ladies and gentlemen,

This evening is going to be a very special one. Mainly because we'll travel through time and space, and we'll enjoy 3 evenings in one. Tonight's thematic menu's main ingredient is David Greig. To help you digest the theatre load, we'll have an interlude after the starter and the main dish for a dinner performance. I hope you enjoy yourselves.

L'arquitecte (The Architect) (February 2012)

Venue: Teatre Lliure
Play: L'arquitecte (The Architect)
Playwright: David Greig
Director: Julio Manrique

On the right, a well-off household and a deserted city roof. On the center, a building ground and a whole close about to be demolished because it makes its inhabitants unhappy. Left, a truck, a nightclub, an entrance hall and a high-up flat in the same building. The walls between those spaces are made of the difference between intense light and stark darkness.

The city ants that inhabit these spaces have lost the track of the ant in front of them and wander lost. The scarce dry crumbs they can collect from the gray pavement bring them depression, rape, rupture, loneliness, anxiety, Freudian needs, betrayal, destruction and failure. One, two, three... demolition. How soon is now?

Dunsinane (13 September 2013)

Venue: Theatre Royal Glasgow
Play: Dunsinane
Playwright: David Greig
Company: National Theatre of Scotland

Macbeth is dead. But his wife, Gruach, is still very much alive. Can a foreign English general's black-and-white simplicity work in a Scotland divided between a coward king whose (fake?) cowardice keeps him in power and a blazing queen whose look melts the snow? Will there ever be a "settling solution" as long as people are still alive? Is the power of words greater than the power of the sword?

Dinner interlude (21 September 2013)

Venue: The Butterfly and the Pig
Play: Dinner Interlude
Playwright: Chef and kitchen staff
Company: Waiters

A charming basement restaurant, with mismatched decorations that go well together for no apparent reason.

WAITER. Come this way, I'll show you to your table.

The lights are low. The table is set for two people, the candles are alight and there's a jar of ice-cold water and two glasses. The crochet mantelpiece gives the table a vintage look.

WAITER. Can I get you something to drink?

YOUR PARTNER. Yes, a pint of beer, please.

YOU. I'll have just water, thank you.

The WAITER leaves the stage and comes back with a pint and the menus. After a silent scene where YOU and YOUR PARTNER order their food, the WAITER comes back with the plates. 

Menu reads: "Cilla black is back in black in a pudding, with salad, apples,bacon and Parmesan, 

contains black pudden and a wee fried quail egg on top"

  Menu reads: "Fish cakes, but not as you know them, open in a pan made with smoked fish, haddock, trout and meltid leeks, potato and baked eggs. We do our best to remove all bones but some may be lurking"

Menu reads: "ATTENTION PLEASE!!! 

An old fave is back with gusto, Gammon Steak with a baked pineapple, fried egg and of course chips.

It simply doesn’t get any better, trust me."

After YOU and YOUR PARTNER have failed at eating the amount of food that has been served to them, they are brought the remains in a box with a lid with a handwritten message that reads "Love, Butterfly & the Pig" and the bill, on top of which are two rosy coconut sweets. 

WAITER: Thanks very much, come back soon!

YOU and YOUR PARTNER leave the stage with full stomachs and happy faces.

The Events (21 September 2013)

Venue: Tron Theatre
Play: The Events
Playwright: David Greig
Company: Actors Touring Company

Screams mixed with a motley-crew community chorus. A serene terrorist that has simply accepted the void, a tormented victim that compulsively needs to fill the void. "Humanity's obsession and destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable." Rudi Dharmalingam, the actor, possessed, by turns, by the souls of a dozen characters.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you've had a really good time tonight, and I hope to see you again. Any queries or complaints about the menu or the interlude will be answered by the "Comments" bar staff. Thank you very much. ;)