Two cultures learning to live together

Published on Monday 29 September 2008 09:59

Cherry Blossom **** Traverse Theatre DARING to be different, the Traverse's new co-production with Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz gets right inside the issue of how foreign cultures learn to speak to one another.

Set in Poland and Scotland, Catherine Grosvenor's script follows the mundane story of Grazyana, a 43 year-old mother, who leaves her husband and two children to come to Edinburgh to work in a meat packing factory. Speaking no English, she eventually creates the kind of life she is able to bring her 12 year-old son to share.

Underpinning and intercut within Grazyana's story is the stark, verbatim telling of the final hours of Robert Dziekanski's life. The 43 year-old Polish man arrived in Toronto airport 3.12pm on 14 October, 2007, where his mother was waiting to meet him. At 2.20am the next morning he was declared dead, having been Tasered twice by the Canadian police.

Performed on an apron stage with the audience on banked seating, translations and scenery are projected onto the floor., together with the indication of who each character is.

The cast - Poles Marta Scislowicz and Malgorzata Trofimiuk with Scots Sandy Grierson and John Kazek - all perform all the characters. More crucially, each actor speaks (mostly) in their native tongue, no matter which character they are portraying, thus constantly altering your perspective on events and bringing the whole issue of translation and understanding into sharp relief.

A brilliant piece of work.

&#149 Run ends 11 October