Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh 4th October 2023 Review
Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape is at the Lyceum Theatre from 4th to 14th October and, at first reading of its promotional material “This compelling and powerful story is set in a Perthshire country house during the Scottish Independence referendum of 2014”, I nearly never went along to review this one as this is a subject that is so divisive, has had so many opinions, so many words already given to it that I saw little that could be added to what has gone before. I am pleased to say that not only did I obviously decide to go, but that this work asks far more important questions about our collective past, present and future as humanity as a whole than just the subject of Scottish Independence. In this work playwright Peter Arnott is asking many questions and skilfully allowing many very big subjects to be discussed whilst offering no answers, because often nobody knows the answer to the question.
All of these topics are set to the background of a retiral party for academic and political heavyweight, George Rennie (John Michie), but nothing is ever as simple as it appears to be here and very soon the internal strains of trying to hold a very fractured and dysfunctional family together comprising of his wife Edie (Deirdre Davis) and daughter Emma (Sally Reid) soon takes it toll on everyone. Add in to this corrosive mixture of emotions former students Charlie (Matthew Trevannion) and Frank (Keith Macpherson) and long-time family friend Moon (Benny Young), and the scene is set for old animosities and old secrets to come to the surface once more. Caught up in all of this at times carefully orchestrated chaos are Kath (Patricia Panther) and Jitka (Nalini Chetty). Always around and somehow touching the lives of everyone at this party is the at first mysterious and unexplained Will (Robbie Scott).
What could have ended up being a pretty boring dinner party conversation piece of work is here transformed into a story where well-defined characters have very strong opinions on often very controversial subject matters. But how many of their opinions are genuine and deep felt and not the surface gloss of who they want to project as their self to those around them? In the hands of a very skilled cast like this one, these people are brought to life with their own individual personalities on stage and tight direction by David Greig keeps everything and everyone moving along at a pace that never lets this story line slow down.
George Rennie has his own personal reasons for this carefully chosen selection of people around him tonight and I have to admit that I figured that reason out very early on, but I am not telling anyone here and it is interesting to get a little insight into the world of everyone at this party. Here we have a world of academia and the very economically privileged lifestyles that many of them enjoy. Here people can afford the luxury of taking very divergent views on important subject whose outcomes will affect millions of people, safe in the knowledge that whatever way things go their world, their lives, their jobs are for the most part immune from any changes ahead that may be to come.
This work is one where you really have to pay attention to the dialogue and, amongst others, one important question with no definitive answer is open to so many personal interpretations –“What do we need to live a good life and what around us do we need to achieve this goal?”
A little puzzle in one recollection talked about here though – Bilston Glen Colliery only opened in 1961. You will see what I mean if you go along to this production.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
All of these topics are set to the background of a retiral party for academic and political heavyweight, George Rennie (John Michie), but nothing is ever as simple as it appears to be here and very soon the internal strains of trying to hold a very fractured and dysfunctional family together comprising of his wife Edie (Deirdre Davis) and daughter Emma (Sally Reid) soon takes it toll on everyone. Add in to this corrosive mixture of emotions former students Charlie (Matthew Trevannion) and Frank (Keith Macpherson) and long-time family friend Moon (Benny Young), and the scene is set for old animosities and old secrets to come to the surface once more. Caught up in all of this at times carefully orchestrated chaos are Kath (Patricia Panther) and Jitka (Nalini Chetty). Always around and somehow touching the lives of everyone at this party is the at first mysterious and unexplained Will (Robbie Scott).
What could have ended up being a pretty boring dinner party conversation piece of work is here transformed into a story where well-defined characters have very strong opinions on often very controversial subject matters. But how many of their opinions are genuine and deep felt and not the surface gloss of who they want to project as their self to those around them? In the hands of a very skilled cast like this one, these people are brought to life with their own individual personalities on stage and tight direction by David Greig keeps everything and everyone moving along at a pace that never lets this story line slow down.
George Rennie has his own personal reasons for this carefully chosen selection of people around him tonight and I have to admit that I figured that reason out very early on, but I am not telling anyone here and it is interesting to get a little insight into the world of everyone at this party. Here we have a world of academia and the very economically privileged lifestyles that many of them enjoy. Here people can afford the luxury of taking very divergent views on important subject whose outcomes will affect millions of people, safe in the knowledge that whatever way things go their world, their lives, their jobs are for the most part immune from any changes ahead that may be to come.
This work is one where you really have to pay attention to the dialogue and, amongst others, one important question with no definitive answer is open to so many personal interpretations –“What do we need to live a good life and what around us do we need to achieve this goal?”
A little puzzle in one recollection talked about here though – Bilston Glen Colliery only opened in 1961. You will see what I mean if you go along to this production.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com