SHEBEEN DANCIN'
March 1989
 

Suprise from Youth Theatre - Cumbernauld 1/3/89

"Shebeen Dancin’", which opens tomorrow (Thursday), features a mixture of conventional theatre, dance and music, and will include the use of video in some scenes.

The play runs at the Cumbernauld theatre until Saturday and each performance starts at 7:45 p.m.

Set inn the near future, "Shebeen Dancin’", is written and directed by Chris Smith, the youth theatre’s director.

He said: "We are using the play to have a look at how youth culture exploits young people, through things like discos, pop videos, soap operas and telephone chat lines".

"That might sound a bit heavy, but it really isn’t. There’s quite a bit of humor there, too."

The plot concerns the adventures of Alice, played by Diane Denmead, who desperately wants to become a dancer – and to meet the famous dancer Veeceeah.

She is soon lured into a fantasy world of pop video’s and soap operas.

Also appearing are Gerry Leonard as the night-club owner, Billy Wright as Scratch the DJ, and Debbie Thompson as Alice’s mother, an Australian soap star. The play has a cast of 40.

The Youth Theatres members have been working on the play over the last two months.

The original idea for "Shebeen Dancin’" stemmed from conversations between Chris Smith and Ralph Haggerty, who wrote the music.

"Music plays quite a big part," said Chris "There are quite a few musicians among our members, so we so we will have a live band performing during the show. They’ll contribute to the dance sequences, which are a part of Alice’s fantasy world. Really, the show is a bit of everything.

"Everyone has been working very hard to make sure that the show is a success and we hope the public will come along and enjoy it."

Aiming for the sky - Cumbernauld 8/3/89

Cumbernauld Youth Theatre set themselves a challenge with their latest production "Shebeen Dancin’".

The play, written and directed by Chris Smith, made it debuts at the Cumbernauld Theatre last Thursday.

"Shebeen Dancin’" was a look at the way youth culture exploits the young, and used dance, lave music, take-offs of Australian soap opera’s and video to make it’s points.

The plot centred on Alice, played by Diane Denmead. Alice is 14-years-old, and yearns to be a dancer. Her chance comes when local Arthur Daley figure, Mr. D, opens up a new night-club.

Alice is hired as a dancer/escort in the club, and believes it will give her a chance to meet her idol, the pop star Veeceeah.

But Alice’s dream becomes a nightmare when she is lured in to the world of video – in a far more seedy way than she bargained.

The play was ambitious –perhaps a little too ambitious. It featured many innovative ideas, some of which failed to come off.

The Australian soap opera inserts were certainly funny, but they did not really add anything to the message, and simply acted as a brake on the action. Similarly, the dance sequences, while beautifully staged, seemed somewhat superfluous.

The one addition which I thought did work – and worked well – was the presence of the band, who added several songs throughout the whole show called "The Mechanics of Fantasy", Ralph Haggerty, Stephen Angellini, Joste Bowen, Michael Ahern, Rona Morrison and Dave Lang were excellent.

Their songs and music were strong, and had real guts. Much of the guitar work, in particular, was very impressive.

While I felt some of the more experimental parts of the production failed to come off, "Shebeen Dancin’" was still a highly successful and interesting piece of work.

The large cast performed superbly, and brought real verve to messages, which might otherwise have seemed heavy-handed.

The outstanding performance though, came from Ray Dowling as Sylvester. This was a quite brilliant, fully convincing portrayal. Sylvester’s attempts to rescue Alice from her fantasy world were made believable by Ray’s earnest performance.

Also worth of note were Billy Write as the cocky Scratch, and Paul Osbourn and Stephen Keegan as Ray and Jason – a genuinely funny double act.

"Shebeen Dancin’" was a brave piece of theatre. It may perhaps have over-reached itself, but its successes far outweigh its failures.

(Below) a scene from "Shebeen Dancin’"

With Diane Denmead who played Alice and Ray Dowling who played Sylvester.