Chick arrives back in Scotland for a reunion with his old mates Gary and Jackson only to find Gary’s daughter has been the victim of a life-changing car accident. The antiseptic smell of the wards, the relentless beep of the life support and the sterile hospital bed contrast sharply in Chick’s eye with the young wild-haired girl lying there unconscious; inspiring this downtrodden man to embark on a quest to save her life. Read more …
With redemptive purpose Chick wades out into the city night and amidst the swaying revellers, the streetlights and the scream of sirens he searches for an answer – a gutter-bound dreamer looking at the stars.
This funny, lyrical, booze-soaked odyssey is a World Premiere professional production by acclaimed Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell. It is directed by Matthew Lenton whose Lyceum credits include Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the acclaimed work of his own company Vanishing Point, hosted by The Lyceum for the Edinburgh International Festival 2016.
I’m convinced there’s a great play buried somewhere in Douglas Maxwell’s latest play, Charlie Sonata. Sadly, it isn’t to be found in its current form at the Lyceum.I’m convinced there’s a great play buried somewhere in Douglas Maxwell’s latest play, Charlie Sonata. Sadly, it isn’t to be found in its current form at the Lyceum.
This brilliantly realised, tender sonata hits every right note.
When it is beautiful, it really strikes a chord, but when it starts rambling, it loses the plot entirely.
As close to a elegiac modern Greek tragedy as a drunken Saturday night kebab dropped in the bus shelter its resonance and poetic grit remain ferally enchanting.
From deeply personal roots, Maxwell has conjured up a heart-breaking fantasia about where we are now in a society that does or doesn't look after each other, and made a big, beautiful life-saver of a play.
It makes for a dreamlike play that is awkward and idiosyncratic, funny and fascinating.
Director Matthew Lenton mashes up a metaphysical world of fairytales and a brutally naturalistic Glasgow of dubious pubs.
There are some deeply felt and emotional moments here, with a bittersweet magic-realist tone that works very well when it cuts through its somewhat messy surroundings.
There's much to admire, to even love...yet there are disappointments too.
For its moments of drunken beauty, Charlie Sonata is worth the hangover of ambiguity.
Strange, beautiful and haunting.
Matthew Lenton, the director, amplifies the fable-like material with a fluid, dreamlike staging. The script may be overwritten but it is full of brilliantly energetic set pieces that creep up on us unawares with their emotional subtlety.
If you need comfort, hope and a thrilling dose of wide-eyed wonder, Charlie Sonata is vivid and essential theatre.
The structural weaknesses of play and production are exasperating because Charlie Sonata demands to be a better drama than it is.
Theatre preview: Charlie Sonata--The Lyceum
Douglas Maxwell and Matthew Lenton--Charlie Sonata
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Saturday April 29, 2017, until Saturday May 13, 2017. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk