The Stage

EIF’s 2010 programme aims to ‘embrace the world’

Published Wednesday 17 March 2010 at 10:40 by Thom Dibdin

Three world premieres in theatre and dance, with the European premiere of Brett Dean’s new opera Bliss, headline the ‘New World’-themed programme of the Edinburgh International Festival 2010, announced this week.

The annual three-week arts marathon runs from Friday, August 13 to Sunday, September 5, with a total of seven theatre productions, five dance productions, three staged operas and 55 concert performances - including four further operas.

“We are not interested in stars in the Edinburgh festival and I don’t think we should be,” artistic director Jonathan Mills told The Stage. “What I try to do is not think of a single individual work, but the way in which all the elements of the programme integrate one with another.

“The best way is to talk about juxtapositions of work. There is no single thing - but the idea that we could actually have a great Brazilian dance company, Grupo Corpo, with Pina Bausch’s Agua, which is her tribute to Brazil - that is a great thing to do.”

The theatre programme is the strongest representation of the festival’s theme. The National Theatre of Scotland is the sole European theatre company on show, with the world premiere of Alistair Beaton’s Caledonia, directed by Anthony Neilson, which is about the Darien disaster.

An adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises by New York’s Elevator Repair Service gets a world premiere. Also coming from New York are the Wooster Group and the Meredith Monk Company. Lee Breuer and Bob Telson’s The Gospel at Colonus gets its UK premiere, and two Chilean companies, Teatro Cinema and Teatro en el Blanco, present three productions between them.

“What we are trying to do with the festival is shift its centre of gravity,” said Mills. “It isn’t a European festival, it is an international festival in Europe.

“There are loads of connections and very strong connotations of Europe, but it is an attempt to move away from an automatic reliance on the idea that the festival is drawing work from Europe.

“It should, if it is an international festival, embrace the world, as John Falconer [Lord Provost of Edinburgh at the time of the first festival] said in 1947.”

While the EIF remains on course over funding for the current year - and has kept its maximum ticket price to £64 - Mills is rather less bullish about the future.

He acknowledged the importance of continued investment from the Scottish Government, which has given £200,000 of its Expo Fund money towards Caledonia, while recognising the difficult times for local government.

He said: “The challenge is to continue to emphasise the fact that we represent extremely good value for the money invested in us.

“The amount that is spent on the festival is magnified many times in terms of its economic impact.”

EIF theatre highlights:

• The Gospel of Colonus

Returning to the UK some 25 years after being workshopped at the Assembly Rooms, Lee Breuer and Bob Telson’s adaptation presents Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex as a

rousing modern gospel musical

set in a church service. The show

features the Blind Boys of Alabama as Oedipus.

• Caledonia

The world premiere of Caledonia, political playwright and satirist Alistair Beaton’s exploration of Scotland’s futile attempt at

establishing a colony in Panama, is directed by Anthony Neilson and co-produced by the EIF and the National Theatre of Scotland.

• The Sun Also Rises

World premiere of an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s first major novel (published in the UK as Fiesta), in a co-production between the Elevator Repair Service and New York Theatre Workshop.

• Vieux Carre

The Wooster Group brings a Paul Morrissey-influenced style to

Tennessee Williams’ highly autobiographical play, which he started in 1938 but which received a critical panning when it finally opened

in 1977.

• Teatro Cinema

Theatre and cinema are fused by this Chilean company, whose highly-stylised staging is a blend of live action and film projection. It brings two works: Sin Sangre (Without Blood) and The Man Who Fed Butterflies.