Scotland’s foremost touring theatre company Rapture celebrate their tenth anniversary with an unmissable tour of Gregory Burke’s modern classic. Read more …
A pair of Fife factory workers kidnap their visiting boss to make a point… but what exactly is their point? And do they all have the same agenda? The jokes come thick and fast in this politically charged satirical thriller about a human heist that goes wrong. Very wrong.
First performed in 2001, Gagarin Way was the breakthrough play from Dunfermline-born Gregory Burke (writer of the phenomenally successful Black Watch) and has been produced all over the world. Rapture Theatre Company are delighted to celebrate both their and the play’s tenth anniversary with an unmissable UK tour of Burke’s modern classic. Says company Artistic Director Michael Emans "I am thrilled and excited to be celebrating our tenth anniversary by directing this great play and working with such a talented cast".
Earthy adult language and high comedy combine to make for a wickedly cruel and deliciously funny night at the theatre with an all-star Scottish cast of Dave Anderson (City Lights, BBC; Gregory’s Girl), Jimmy Chisholm (Merchant of Venice, Lyceum Theatre; Be Near Me, NTS / Donmar Warehouse), Finn Den Hertog (Silver Darlings, HMT Aberdeen; Spring Awakening, Grid Iron) and Jordan Young (The Chooky Brae, Borderline Theatre; The Real Thing, The Old Vic).
A script that is as tightly contemporary now as it was then.
Like a slow-burning grenade lodged on mythical barricades, in today’s post-9/11, post-7/7, post-recessionary climate of student riots and public anger with the banks, Rapture Theatre’s revisiting makes the play look like a hugely instructive period piece.
A fast and furious production that is also (mostly) very funnny.
Michael Emans's production...has a strong feel for Burke's comic exchanges, but too little sense of dramatic urgency, leaving us unconvinced about the necessity of his brutal conclusion.
The result is an unnecessarily muted evening, with a little less pace, swagger and surrealism than this great play demands, despite the presence in the cast of such fine actors.
It's a powerful and gripping 90 minutes, with each actor holding his own in what is a fairly stripped-down production.
You could make a case that the political or social commentary aspects of Gregory Burke's play are overshadowed in turns by humour and violence. But when the laughs are so genuine and the brutality isn't out of character you really just have to hold on tight and enjoy the ride.
This makes for an entertaining evening, but somewhere along the way, Burke’s wider concerns about the need for political engagement in a socially dysfunctional society get lost in the relentless barrage of jokes.
Ten years on, Burke's writing remains crispy and satisfying...[but] director Michael Emans doesn't quite push it far enough into the black and the gory ending feels like a get-out rather than a nihilistic full stop.
The show succeeds in entertaining but perhaps the more serious issues Burke originally aimed to address with this play were trivialised.
Gregory Burke's Gagarin Way set for Carnegie Hall
Tour paves Way for Gregory Burke's powerful Fife-set debut
The way forward
Preview: Gagarin Way
Stage: Kidnappers' calamity
On Tour, from Thursday February 17, 2011, until Tuesday March 29, 2011.
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