Clod Ensemble's THE RED CHAIR Scottish Tour Adds New Rural Dates
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 08, 2017
Touring Scotland for the first time, Sarah Cameron's towering solo performance is a delicious feast for the imagination performed in luscious Scots dialect and served with tasty morsels.
Written and performed by Sarah Cameron | Directed by Suzy Willson | Music by Paul Clark
Scottish Tour: 3rd March - 31st March
A contemporary take on folk and fairytale storytelling traditions, The Red Chair is a surreal ballad populated with larger than life characters which draws the audience into the extraordinary world of a troubled family, living together but each trapped in their own lonely worlds. Told in a saucy Scots dialect, The Red Chair tells the darkly humorous story of a father who eats and eats until he turns into the chair he is sitting upon, the wife doomed to cook his meals and their 'inveesible' daughter.
The epic and lyrical narrative takes audiences on a journey through a landscape of twisted reason, extreme compulsion and eye watering complacency, where domestic drudgery happens on an operatic scale and a father's dereliction of duty reaches epic proportions. At three points in the show, audiences are invited to try tasty nibbles sourced from local suppliers and a dram of whisky to oil the way.
Created in collaboration with Dundee-born Sarah Cameron and based on her original book, The Red Chair is performed with the physical vitality that has become a trademark of Clod Ensemble's work, rooted in the training that both Sarah and director Suzy Willson received at the Jacques Lecoq school in Paris. Woven into the production is an original sound score created by Clod Ensemble co-artistic director Paul Clark.
Director Suzy Willson said "Clod Ensemble usually works with music and is movement based work rather than being centered around text. We had worked with Sarah Cameron as a performer for many years but had no idea she could write too, so when she showed us the book she had been working on called The Red Chair, we were blown away by the quality of the language. Sarah is a virtuosic physical performer as well as a sculptor -the story felt to us like a kind of sculpture of words and we immediately wanted to hear and see her telling it."
Writer and performer Sarah Cameron said: "A Scottish tour is a thrilling prospect as it is an opportunity to bring the work back to its natural home. The language and the dialect of conjurer's up the wild beauty of the Scottish landscape. The text speaks of family and ancestry and in many ways is a romantic remembrance of Scotland, which is ingrained within my being and my heart."
3 & 4 Mar
Tron Theatre, Glasgow
63 Trongate, Glasgow G1 5HB
8pm | £10 / £7.50
www.tron.co.uk | 0141 552 4267
6 Mar
Eden Court, Inverness
Bishops Road, Inverness IV3 5SA
7:30pm | £11
www.eden-court.co.uk | 01463 239841
8 Mar
Seaboard Centre, Balintore
East St, Balintore, Tain IV20 1UA
7:30pm | £10 / £8
www.seaboardcentre.com | 01862 832888
10 Mar
Aros, Isle of Skye
Viewfield Road, Portree, Isle of Skye, IV51 9EU
7.30pm | £12 (£10 concs)
www.aros.co.uk | 01478 613750
13 Mar
Macphail Centre, Ullapool
Mill Street, Ullapool, IV26 2UN
7.30pm | £8 (£6 concs)
www.macphailcentre.com | 01854 613336
14 Mar
Gairloch Community Hall
Achtercaim, Gairloch, Highland, IV21 2BP
7.30pm | £10
www.gairlochcommunityhall.org.uk
15 Mar
Craignish Hall, Ardfern
Ardfern, Lochgilphead, Argyll PA31 8QN
7.30pm | £9 (£6 concs)
www.craignish.org.uk | 01852 500 746
17 & 18 Mar
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh EH1 2ED
8pm | £16.50 / £13.50 / £8.50
www.traverse.co.uk | 0131 228 1404
20 Mar
Theatre Royal, Dumfries
66-68 Shakespeare Street, Dumfries DG1 2JH
7:30pm | £10
www.theatreroyaldumfries.co.uk | 01387 254209
31 Mar
Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee
Tay Square, Dundee DD1 1PB
7:30pm | £14 / £12 / £11
www.dundeerep.co.uk | 01382 223530
Illustration by Sarah Cameron
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