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Lanark

A young man arrives in a dying city with seashells in his pockets. He doesn’t know who he is, or how he got here. He goes by the only name he can think of: Lanark.  Read more …

Yearning to belong, he meets Rima at The Elite Café and together they are propelled into an epic journey through time, space and consciousness as Lanark tries, fails and tries again to find happiness. 

Lanark is a portrait of the outsider artist as a young man, an exploded life story like no other. This theatrical re-imagining of Alasdair Gray’s classic novel will take us from the Dragon Chambers to the Cathedral of Unthank, from post-war Glasgow School of Art to the sinister underground Institute, from the heavenly city of Provan to the hellish Elite Café, combining science-fiction, realism, fantasy, and playful storytelling. 

In the nearly 35 years since publication, the ideas, politics and ambitions of Lanark have inspired generations of artists in Scotland and beyond. This new co-production with Edinburgh International Festival celebrates Gray’s 80th year and continues a collaboration between Greig and Eatough which began with experimental theatre company Suspect Culture. 

Lanark: A Life in Three Acts is a co-production between The Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival in association with Graham Eatough and Sorcha Dallas.


The critical consensus

A phenomenal acheivement!

*****Irene Brown, Edinburgh Guide, 24/08/2015

The final act's initial depiction of 1970s civic wide boys almost caves in on its own self-referential meta-ness. This in parts recalls manufactured 1960s boy band The Monkees' own break for artistic freedom in their similarly sprawling celluloid indulgence, Head, before slowly morphing into a moving elegy for life and art.

****(*)Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 24/08/2015

David Greig and Graham Eatough’s insanely ambitious adaptation of the Alasdair Gray novel is like a heady, unsettling, unpredictable dream.

****(*)Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 24/08/2015

Wildly surreal and beautifully executed, the staging of Lanark appears to be a risk that's paid off.

****(*)Alex Eades, The List, 24/08/2015

Lanark: A Life in Three Acts is commandingly and demandingly entertaining, likely to surprise those who know the novel as well as those who don’t, and a feat of great theatrical ingenuity at every level of its adaptation. An epic play formed from an epic novel.

*****Danielle Farrow, Edinburgh Spotlight, 25/08/2015

Greig and Eatough have nearly pulled off the impossible here, but it is short of a complete triumph.

****(*)Hugh Simpson, All Edinburgh Theatre, 25/08/2015

Ironically, though the production offers manifold pleasures, a leaner distillation of the great novel’s themes would have come closer to capturing its essence.

***(*)(*)Allan Radcliffe, 25/08/2015

If it sags a little in the middle, however, this Lanark more than justifies itself by the time it reaches its poignant conclusion in which our hero, who has not, he says, had enough love, demands a new ending of the author.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage, 26/08/2015

Proving nothing is impossible, even the staging of this highly improbable tale, this is Scottish theatre at its peak of ambition and class.

****(*)Neil McEwan, TVBomb, 27/08/2015

The whole four-hour show is as hypnotic as it is strange and refreshingly unusual.

****(*)Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage, 28/08/2015

David Greig captures the spirit of Alasdair Gray’s novel in a visually stunning production.

****(*)Clare Brennan, The Observer, 30/08/2015

What more could be asked when an ambitious text receives its worthy treatment?

*****R.G. Balgray, The Public Reviews, 30/08/2015


Features about Lanark

Festival Preview: Lanark

Mark Fisher, The List, 30/06/2015

Cast announced for EIF premiere of Alasdair Gray's classic novel, Lanark

Irene Brown, Edinburgh Guide, 20/07/2015

Alasdair Gray's Lanark is coming to the stage

Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, 01/08/2015

Lanark--Putting Alasdair Gray's Life in Four Books Onstage at Edinburgh International Festival

Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 09/08/2015

Alasdair Gray's Lanark hits the stage: 'it's wild and heroic--if we fail, we fail'

Peter Ross, The Guardian, 19/08/2015

Edinburgh Festival revisits Alasdair Gray's Lanark

Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman, 19/08/2015

Where and when?

Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow from Saturday August 15, 2015, until Saturday September 19, 2015. More info: www.citz.co.uk

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