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Scotsman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Liza Goddard: Renowned English actress 'a bit frightened' about debuting Scottish accent in Edinburgh play
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Actress Liza Goddard has said she is "a bit frightened" to debut her Scottish accent when she performs on stage in Edinburgh next month. The 75-year-old star, who has appeared in TV shows including Doctor Who and Bergerac, as well as 1969 series Take Three Girls, said she had been "trying out" her accent in shops in preparation for playing 19th-century crofter Enid McRae in a production of play The Croft, at the Festival Theatre. The play has already been performed in theatres across England. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Goddard also revealed she had enlisted the help of Lewis folk singer Dolina Maclennan to help her pronounce some Gaelic phrases required for the part. Based on a true story, The Croft, which also stars Coronation Street and Casualty star Gray O'Brien, charts the life of the last woman to live on a remote croft on the Applecross peninsula. 'I'm a bit frightened about performing in Edinburgh,' Ms Goddard said. 'I've had lots of practice and a very good voice teacher. Sometimes, apparently, I go to Morningside, but mostly I stay in the Highlands. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I quite like accents. I do practice all the time in shops. I don't know why I feel that people in shops are going to say 'oh, you're not Scottish'. But of course, they don't. They're probably accepting of however you talk. Liza Goddard stars as Enid. | The Croft 'So, I don't know if that's a good thing, but I have a happy time being Scottish most of the time.' Ms Goddard added: 'Gray [O'Brien] is very useful because he'll tell me if my vowels are going a bit south.' Mr O'Brien said the pair have a ritual to get Ms Goddard into her Scottish accent before going on stage. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I say 'guid' and she says 'guid' and then I say 'aye' and she says 'aye',' he said. 'Her accent is pretty good. She's so jolly hockey sticks normally that it is funny to see her playing this dour, crofter woman.' He added: 'It's been a really difficult play. It makes you feel guilty that people are turning these old crofts into holiday homes, after all that happened in the Clearances. I know the audience in Edinburgh will have a good awareness of that. I'm not sure how much our audiences in England knew before.' The Croft writer Ali Milles was inspired by stories of local women told at the Applecross visitor centre. The play moves between the life of Ms McRae, in the 1870s, to modern times, when other characters stay at a holiday home next door to Ms McRae's remote croft. Ms Goddard said she had called on Ms Maclennan, a friend of Scottish actor John Bett, to help her with the Gaelic lines. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Liza Goddard, while appearing in Bergerac in 1997 | PA She said: 'She very kindly recorded it for me so I could then practice. I feel confident doing it all because of her. It'll be a great treat to meet her when she comes to Edinburgh to see the play.' Director Alastair Whatley said he found the location a "really spooky place" when he visited out of season to get a feel for the area before starting work on the play. He recounted finding himself in the Applecross Inn with just one other guest. 'I went up and I visited it a few times, and it's an amazing, beautiful place,' he said. 'But when it's raining and it's dark and you're on your own, it's a really spooky place.' Mr Whatley said of staying at the award-winning Applecross Inn: 'It was just me and one other guest, who I never met, and the owners. It was the off season and nothing was open out there, and it was pouring with rain. It was really kind of bleak, but also magical, it was quite easy to get into the play.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He added: 'There's something about it, particularly when you learn the history and the tragedy that's come its way, which is quite powerful.'
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The theatre companies taking their shows to Scottish care homes - including with five-year-olds
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Gus Harrower has seen the impact of theatre performances on care home residents first hand. 'They sing along, some of them get up and dance,' he says. 'It's really interactive. There are a lot of smiles.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mr Harrower, the creative engagement co-ordinator of the dementia friendly programme at Capital Theatres in Edinburgh, knows the positive impact the arts can have on residents facing memory loss. Jack In The Box performance at Festival Theatre for people living with dementia. | Greg Macvean Photography 'For us, the big question is how can we reach people who can't come to the theatre because they are in a care home or have dementia,' he says. 'They have got a diagnosis, but the best way to tackle it is to keep busy and keep your brain active and this helps them do that.' The theatre's Jack in the Box show, based on a train journey between Liverpool and Edinburgh, has been granted funding from the RS Macdonald charitable trust to play at care homes and day centres around the Lothians this summer. A specially crafted dementia friendly performance, it is created by and performed by singer Michelle Burke and pianist James Ross. The show is adapted to include person-centred sensory interactions, vintage puppetry and familiar music, encouraging the audience to reminisce. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The production has previously performed a limited winter run and has held dementia-friendly performances at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre, but the new funding means more residents can enjoy the show. 'Art gives people ownership,' Mr Harrower says. 'Their whole life changes [when they get a dementia diagnosis], but they can still find something that is really creative and fulfilling.' He adds: 'We've had workers at the care homes tell us that people are calmer for the rest of the day after they've seen the show and that is big.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Glow Bugs from Beacon Arts Centre, performing in a local care home. | Christopher Bowen At Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock, the Glow Bugs theatre group for five to seven-year-olds has also been touring local care homes. The project is mutually beneficial - inspiring not only the residents, but also the young performers. 'They're going on tour,' says Karen Townsend, co-director of the Beacon. 'We've got tour T shirts, we've got posters, we've got tickets, and they're all going into the care homes to perform their piece. They are so excited.' An initial run last year proved so successful they decided to expand the initiative to more care homes, as well as a dementia-friendly performance at the theatre itself. 'We want to spread joy,' Ms Townsend adds. 'We wanted something light and happy and nice to do. Obviously the important thing is the intergenerational work, everybody knows that works. You get the stories from the older residents, they have the connection with the young people. It's great.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Emma Letson, activity co-ordinator at Kincaid House in Greenock, says The Glow Bugs show engaged her residents. 'It created a lovely atmosphere within the home around the residents and had them chatting about their lives together throughout the rest of the afternoon,' she says.
Globe and Mail
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
As You Like It opens the Stratford Festival with a post-apocalyptic boom
Title: As You Like It Written by: William Shakespeare Performed by: Sara Farb, Makambe K. Simamba, Sean Arbuckle, Christopher Allen, Andrew Chown, Steve Ross, Seana McKenna, Jessica B. Hill, Silvae Mercedes Director: Chris Abraham Company: Stratford Festival Venue: Festival Theatre City: Stratford Year: Until Oct. 24, 2025 Critic's Pick In The Last of Us, society is synonymous with death. A parasitic fungus called cordyceps travels easily between humans, and in the not-too-distant future, companionship is a surefire way of getting killed, or worse, turning into a zombie. It's safer, the video-game-turned-television-smash posits, to run for the forests – to live on the fringes of civilization. Of course, idealizing the countryside in media isn't new. We've longed for greener pastures for millennia. In literature, stories that turn their backs on city life are referred to as pastorals, and William Shakespeare wrote a bunch of 'em – most chiefly As You Like It, which on Monday night opened this year's Stratford Festival with a genre-bending, post-apocalyptic boom set to a backdrop of lilting guitars. It's a fabulous production that clearly takes its inspiration from a certain TV show starring Pedro Pascal, as well as the ever-real threats of the climate crisis. But director Chris Abraham doesn't shoehorn Shakespeare's story into any old context du jour – he makes a winning case for the contemporary framing, and when the play embarks on its much more upbeat second half, there's an almost-physical shift from the pain and gloom of what preceded it. A retreat. Long one of my favourites of Shakespeare's plays, As You Like It is a banger if done well, as it is here. The play opens in disarray – there's a famine, and in this version, thick snow blankets the earth in downy fluff (kudos to set designer Julie Fox for that). When Duke Frederick (Sean Arbuckle) seizes power from his sister (Seana McKenna), the latter escapes to the forest, prepared to live out her days in exile. Her daughter Rosalind (Sara Farb at her funniest and most endearing) brings up the rear, her trusted cousin Celia (Makambe K. Simamba, also excellent) in tow. Of course, all hell breaks loose when, disguised as a man in the woods, Rosalind encounters Orlando (Christopher Allen) and convinces him to prove his love for … herself. As You Like It is a play that starts sour but turns sweet by its final song – and there are many songs, composed in this production by Ron Sexsmith and Thomas Ryder Payne. Like most directors who have tackled this work, Abraham taps into the comedy of the play, the raunchy jokes and mistaken identities that prop up its second half. But what's refreshing about this As You Like It is Abraham's equal willingness to show the violence, grit and solitude of the Forest of Arden – the crushing weight of political exile. As You Like It is a production of extremes, and Abraham's cast, a veritable 'greatest hits' of Stratford Festival actors and frequent Toronto players, drives the tale home without any weak links. Arbuckle, heartbreaking in 2023's Casey and Diana and radiant in last year's La Cage aux Folles, is terrifying here as the unfeeling duke. Andrew Chown, too, can be proud of his Stratford debut as Oliver – he's a fierce presence onstage who ably keeps up with the veterans who've played the cavernous Festival Theatre for years. Steve Ross makes for a terrific Touchstone, a clown who lobs out bad jokes by the minute – and he's complemented well by Silvae Mercedes's Audrey. Jessica B. Hill, too, is a rock-solid Phoebe. But it's As You Like It's leading trio that makes Abraham's production such an auspicious start to this year's festival. Farb, in particular, is wonderful – her crush on Orlando is touching and schmaltzy, and her scenes with Allen are laugh-out-loud funny. Farb and Simamba have swell chemistry as the sister-close cousins, as well. On the design side, Abraham's production bears welcome resemblance to some of the director's more successful recent projects in Toronto. Imogen Wilson's sun-dappled lighting, especially, calls to mind the similarly nostalgic effect Kimberly Purtell achieved in Abraham's Uncle Vanya in 2022. Fox's rugged set and costumes, too, feel like they'd be right at home at Crow's Theatre – they're elegantly tailored, with an eye toward outdoorsy grunge. Fans of Shakespeare and The Last of Us alike ought to be pleased by this As You Like It, and folks on either side of that aisle might be surprised by how Abraham's production wriggles and evolves over its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. As artistic director of Crow's, Abraham has long lobbied for audiences to put down their phone and head to the theatre – following this successful challenge to the high production values of prestige television, I'm more convinced than ever.
Winnipeg Free Press
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Shaw Festival has raised 70 per cent of $150M goal to reinvent theatre institution
The Shaw Festival says it's raised 70 per cent of the $150 million it needs to reinvent the theatre institution's role in southern Ontario. Artistic director Tim Carroll says the $110 million the festival has raised so far comes from a combination of the province, the federal government and private donations. He says they're now soliciting donations more broadly because they see the finish line in sight. The Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ont., plans to expand its footprint with an artists' village beside the current Festival Theatre that will include performance and classroom spaces. The organization also plans to create a new downtown campus, including a new theatre to replace the crumbling Royal George Theatre. The Shaw says it wants to create a community hub that brings people together and encourages deeper engagement with the theatre. Carroll says theatregoers are already inspired by what they see on stage, and the Shaw plans to foster that inspiration. 'In future you will come to 'Anything Goes,' and then you can go and take a tap dance class, or you can come to a comedy show and you can then go and take an improv class or a comedy class,' he said Monday. He said it will go beyond performance — there will also be classes for technical theatre skills such as scene design. 'We want everyone to be able to find where their joy is and to be able to release their own artist,' Carroll said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2025.
The Herald Scotland
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Spectacular': Review: The Lion, Witch & Wardrobe @ Festival Theatre
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Neil Cooper Five stars A World War Two soldier is playing We'll Meet Again on the piano at the start of this latest tour of C.S. Lewis' classic morality tale. The melancholy melody is about the most down to earth thing you're likely to see over the next two hours of a show that turns its dramatic world upside down in epic fashion. Scaled up by director Michael Fentiman from Sally Cookson's 2017 version at Leeds Playhouse, the result is spectacular. The opening song sets the tone for the wartime evacuation of the four Pevensie children, who are decamped to Aberdeen, where the allure for their new home's spare room proves too much for the eternally curious Lucy. Before she knows where she is she has gone beyond the flea ridden fur coats and landed in Narnia. As imagined by designer Tom Paris and original designer Rae Smith, the Narnia under the queendom of Katy Stephens' White Witch's more resembles some Fritz Lang styled dystopia driven by a constructivist chain gang who seem to have stepped out of a 1970s adult SF comic. Read more Yes, the White Witch has got the power, as she proves with her jawdropping metamorphosis at the end of the first act, but Spring is coming. This is the case even if Lucy's daft brother Edmund sells out his siblings for a bumper sized box of Turkish Delight personified by way of Toby Olié and Max Humphries' larger than life puppetry. Fentiman's slickly oiled machine is driven by Barnaby Race and Benji Bower's chamber folk score played by the cast of more than twenty throughout. Despite the show's grandiose staging, it is the humanity of the piece that gives the show its heart and soul. This is even the case with Stanton Wright's messianic looking Aslan, embodied by a life size lion puppet beside him as he spars with the White Witch and her well drilled minions. As Shanell 'Tali' Fergus' choreography navigates the cast from dark to light, it is the Pevensie clan who shine. Joanna Adaran as Susan, Jesse Dunbar as Peter, Kudzai Mangombe as Lucy and Shane Anthony Whiteley stepping up as Edmund for a Thursday matinee briefly halted by technical gods all rise to the occasion in a big show that never loses sight of the eternal story at its heart.
