Emotional rollercoaster at Strathearn Artspace
‘Turn a Different Corner’, written by Glaswegian Alan Brady, is described as a darkly comedic play with a musical element, with a real gritty Glaswegian feel ... writes Mike Boxer.
It touches – no, it does more than that, it grabs at all your emotions. It makes you stop and think and realise how certain factors often result in people becoming homeless, take to alcohol and drugs, suffer the stresses of war; areas which are often ignored and the lives of those people dismissed.
The play, performed at Strathearn Artspace in Crieff on May 27 and 28, centres around a young man, Charlie Murphy who is given community service for carrying a knife.
He is sent to a drop-in centre for the homeless where he encounters the four main characters who relate the events in their lives that drove them to their current state of mind – loneliness and isolation, abuse, alcohol, drugs and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Each character in the style of Bertold Brecht’s theatrical techniques directly addresses the audience provoking a rational and a critical view of the action on the stage and therefore adopting a critical perspective in order to recognise the social injustice and exploitation.
Thus hoping for the audience to leave the theatre and effect change in the world outside.
The author even adopts Brecht’s techniques in the use of songs to emphasise the predicament of the character.
Each victim is portrayed with sensitivity by the cast and their movements, reactions and language is highly charged.
Set off against this is the humour of the cleaner in the drop-in centre who television programme and in her banter with the judges.
Clever use of short films as a backdrop at the start of the play and at the conclusion brought home to all the surroundings and the possibilities of such events ignored in our own neighbourhoods.
Congratulations must go to all involved with this production and the thought, sensitivity and realism of the presentation – the audience performance with a great deal to think about.
The Strathearn Artspace is an ideally suited new venue to enable small theatre companies to present their often exciting new plays in the provinces.
Local audiences are able to watch new theatre productions without the expense of travel etc to the town theatre.
Who would have believed a few years ago presentations by the National Theatre of Scotland, Our Time Theatre Group and the Crieff Drama Group among others would have such a venue that is now being developed in Crieff.
Housed at the former public library on Comrie Street, the Artspace is a community-based arts and leisure project and is a registered charity aiming to progress arts education and appreciation within the community of Strathearn.
stathearnartspace.co.uk.