Au Revoir Les Enfante

witty by the occasionsw hen the play- connection with his work: it DAVID HARE's painful, wright puts it on hold and listens does, however, bear out the and moving new play The to file pretty patterns he makes ancient principle that successful Secret Rapture (NT, Lyttelton) which place sound before sense. jazz is written not for instru- is a morality of modern behav- Passion in public 'Why is the sun bleedin'?' 'In a ments but for players . iour in which the people who f ace way, we all died.' McGuinness "Mt The three-part suite by the have all the answers , buy can do better than that. He does tnRudue Kid. Wshicheveir it cis, I out and destroy the people who JOHN PEEL at the West Indian composer Herman so elsewhere in the Dublin The- hope the oaf ish name will not Wilson did not work on thought there were no questions atre Festival, in a marvellously discourage readers from seeing Wednesday night at the Queen to ask. The elements are tradi- good version of 'Peer Gynt' at Mean Fiddler this extraordinary band. Elizabeth Hall because it had tional but neglected: a represen- the Gate (to which I shall return Rapeman was suppor ted by clearly not been conceived with tative of earthly government , an artis t of , next week) and be does so in FOR OVER a year now I have New York's Band of Susans, this band in mind: they were so , an artisan, a man God *P.nrtha gminn«' with a plain Ut- had to endure the horr id busy concentrating on being a witch. Hare also brings off a fron ted by a male, Rober t of any of the dead 13, their ages, taun ts of acquaintances who Poss, and with but one of orchestral musicians that they portrait absolute goodness on and the banaDy named streets did not, as I did, miss the f inal three original Susans remain- had no time to be themselves. stage, while a conf lict between from which they came (Garden tour of Steve Albini's f ormer ing. I suspect the Band of On the other hand, the two sisters transforms a fatal attrac- Place, Westway, Central Drive) band , Big Black. 'Rewed-u p pieces written by Harry Beckett , tion into a crime passiomel, rare of Susans would agree that they En lish and with at least two the youths on a thrill rampage ,' did not really hit their stride who plays trumpet in the band , in any g play. watchers f o r the dead: Paul, a they said. until two or three songs f rom came off beautifully. The best Marion (Penelope Wilton), ferocious ex-teacher building a t 's reputa- the end of their set. With three moment of the night came in his Junior Minister for the Environ- pyramid out of garbage (Des Since hen Albini ', tion has grown so much that I guitars establishing an unre- piece 'Something Like That ment, and her fatuous evangelist McAker) and Maeh, a bereaved with Orphey Robinson's vibra- husband Tom (Paul Shelley) mother (Rosaleen Lutetian). can only suppose that the lenting, even oppressive back- phone solo. The rhythm sud- modest crowd at the Mean meet Marion's sister Isobel (JiU ' drop for largely inaudible denly perked up in response to Baker) at the deathbed of then- Am I mad?' Paul asks Maela Fiddler in Harlesden on vocals, the Susans were poorly his flowing lines, and f or a f e w f a brightly. 'You're definitely not ther. Robert was a country t ,' replies Miss Thursday to see his new band served by sound engineers who minutes the whole perf ormance ' bookseller of such liberal other- well aU he time in part at least, T iiwhan gravely, with the dark can, be should have cranked up the became airborne. worldlines s that he took a brittle explained by the American's volume and put some of the In their present form, the Jazz voice of a droll sybil and the alcoholic drop-out half his age to sanity of Breughel's miserable choice of name for bite they later found for Steve Warriors are much improved. be his second wife. When Kath- grim-jawed the trio: Rapeman. Albini Albini into the gukar noise. Even their biggest f an would not erine (Clare Higgins) maliciously spectre stridin g the religious approaches his work with a At the same venue the pre- describe them as masters of wars, Dulle Griet. Miss Linehan announces after the funeral that ' liveliness that would send Carl vious night, I saw Boston's ensemble accuracy, but they s small stu- is a one-off, and I can t wait to she is joining Isobel' gain. Lewis into torments of circum- The Pixies. They provided a have a spirit and mutual under- dio, Marion , the Tory advocate see her a locution; he also seems to have third strand of contemporary standing that is far more impor- of individual initiative, f orcest he Kathy Stracban designs Jon a lively sense of humour. American music: articulate, tant than the odd dropped stitch. gentle Isobel to accept by declar- Pope's studio production of The ' Jazz Warriors' tour continues Richard III (Citizens', Glasgow) 'We 're the Sweet Smellin' frus trated and complex, and around England and Wales until 23 ing that resistance would be self- Daff odils ,' he announced. 'And much more to do with the real October. ish. Arguments are stood on Paul Alder and James Durrell in 'Lorca's surrealist experiment in homoerotic theatre *. so that we are seated under the 's a track f rom our LP, world than the apparently end- their head throughout and Iso- crossing of a great English medi- here eval church , with a gothk clere- 'Two Nuns and A Packmule.' less strain of sentimental drivel bel, too good f or this world, is among others, they f ind a chatty about a mythic past that seems marked out for destruction. floor and great tree — provide a story round the four walls of the With that he lashed the band stark, reductive setting f or these and delightful Juliet who is not stage tower above and beyond into 45 minutes of the most to bedevil an America deter- JON SAVAGE She loves Irwin (Mick Ford), English lives rather than the interested in discussing theories mined to avoid coming to an artist in the studio, and Irwin the lighting-rig a gilded angel exciting music I have heard. !KEITH RICHARDS: 'Talk Is clutter they sometimes suggest: Hare, McGuinness, of love or the theatre at all, but terms with the present The adores her. When Tom and hovering in the air. In the clere- With a drummer and a bassist Cheap' (Virgin V 2554) the perf ormances within them simply wants to be in love. story stand draped stone f igures drafted from the Texan band Pixies were unhappy with RICHARDS' first solo album Is a Marion beef up her small busi- are very precisely balanced , led When the director returns to his success: eleven songs In various ness with much-needed capital , Lorca, Shakespeare in various states of ruin and dis- Scratch Acid giving him thun- their perf ormance , but I was by Baker, all resignation , sim- off ice he meets his match in a hugely impressed. 'Ou tstand- roots styles — R&B, reggae, turning it into a company with a humming rna girian repair. Among these figures, derous support, Albini's per- rock—given coherence by the plicity and stillness as the Sinister, invisible to a quarter of the audi- ing,' bellowed a Scot standing ! board , they first buy Irwin's MICHAEL RATCLIFFE (Roddy Maude-Roxby) and the formance — words flung at the relaxed swing of the band/The woman whose feeUngs are ence, Richard (Garan Hinds) microphone as his head hurtles in front of me. 'Outstanding ' is pleasure Is in the playing, but acceptance, an act of betrayal play draws to an incisive, icy, defined for her by others, and by Lorca obscures the worship of poses mockingly for his planned past it, guitar playing fired by not an easy word to bellow, suspicions of slightness are Isobel never forgives. Wilton as the Thatcherite sister close. Worth catching. confirmed by the strength of his Pan with a cool and argumenta- acceptance of die crown. The his apparen t determination to but he was right. Both sisters give themselves who knows she is better brief ed There's a far perkier queen in kiss-off to Mick Jagger . 'You away in transparent disingenu- tive intellectualism worthy of clothes are f a m i l i a rt:he new make the machinery reproduce Don't Move Me'. than her opponents and there- Pirandello, posing questions and Frank McGuinnes's new play Shakespearean heraldry of t if t ousness. 'I t isn't a question of f ore always, but always, in the rflttimginiatia (Peacock, Dub- he noises in his head even i DAVE GELLY on ' says Isobel when paradoxes about the' nature of mud-spattered greatcoats and can't—is so intense that to principles, right. It is the irony of this dis- lin) provoking the soldiers of taking Katherine on, 'I'd just theatre and identity in a her- double-breas ted suits for die greet it with mere applause the Jazz Warriors f r e e b i e s turbing and passionate play that metic . manner ' that gives no Derry in pink suit, blue boots or men: the women trapped in tai- like to be sure we do the right where her own sister is con- in full drag as a mini-skir ted seems f aintly insulting.

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