Can Alfie still cut it in 2010?

liam rudden

Arts and Entertainment Editor

MY name, is... Alfie. No, not Sir Michael Caine, but 29-year-old Edward Elks, who brings Bill Naughton's 60s wide-boy to life at Musselburgh's Brunton Theatre tomorrow.

Berkshire-based Blackeyed Theatre Company's new interpretation of the play, which these days is better known for its movie adaptations starring Sir Michael and, more recently, Jude Law, finds Alfie, a young man with an overwhelming desire for the ladies, playing the field. No change there then.

'Birds' are irresistible to him... sort of second nature. There's Ruby ("A lust box in beautiful condition"), Clare ("You're all lathered in sweat, Alfie"), Siddie... and Annie... But who's counting? Certainly not Alfie, three in one evening if necessary, and necessary is the right word for this cockney Don Juan, who swaggers and philosophises his way from conquest to conquest, carefully rejecting anyone – or anything – who might touch him too deeply.

A familiar story, perhaps, but director Adrian McDougall explains that there are challenges when taking a contemporary play of its time and staging it four decades on, when it has become a period piece.

"The challenge is to make it relevant for an audience in 2010. To an extent the subject matter does that for us. Alfies exist today, though perhaps they're not quite as blatant in their attitudes. Nevertheless, the play could very easily come across as dated.

"Our production uses lots of live 60s music to underscore it. It's as if to say, 'We know this is the 60s and we're not going to apologise for it. We're going to celebrate it, we're going to accentuate the style of the era as much as we can'.

"Ultimately, it's about presenting a no-holds barred account of the era and allowing the audience to relate it to life today in their own way."

That said, McDougall accepts that Sir Michael's success in the movie version makes it more difficult to bring the character back to the stage.

"Audiences approach the show with preconceptions, based almost entirely on Caine's iconic performance. You can't set out to better it or match it. You have to set out to create your own interpretation, and that comes from the actor and his take on the text. Ultimately it's about being true to the play.

"I'm lucky enough that Eddie has made the role his own – by that I mean he has not based it on previous incarnations, and the character has developed incredibly since the show opened. Add to that Eddie's natural charisma, and you have a fantastic, original performance of an iconic figure." For Elks, the challenge was to avoid succumbing to the influences of what has gone before?

"I'd seen half of the original film a few years ago, so the dilemma was whether or not to watch it again. I chose not too, nor the Jude Law one.

"Instead I went back to the original script and tried to make it my own. Now, from what I remember of the film, Alfie was fairly neutral. He had a lack of emotion. Reading the script I realised that Alfie's childhood was actually the key to his character.

"The violence he possibly experienced himself shaped him into who he is in the play, a man who inflicts violence on women. So I looked at the aggression and his split-side – he also has moments when he shows great compassion." Darker than the film, Elks believes that the play offers a far more powerful and vivid experience.

"There are small details that are different, and they make a huge difference to the character of Alfie himself," he promises.

Alfie, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Saturday, 7.30pm, 10.50, 0131-665 2240

HOT STUFF: Edward Elks takes on the star role of Alfie in the latest version of Bill Naughton's play

Curtain rises on a busy time for Capital stage

liam rudden

Arts and Entertainment Editor

A CLASSIC, a bite-size piece of theatre, puppetry and the stars of the future. Edinburgh stages experience one of their busiest spells for a long time next week with musicals and dramas galore, all offering something for everyone, including...

EURYDICE

SARAH RUHL'S Eurydice made great waves in New York. Now the celebrated playwright's bold re-interpretation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice makes its Scottish premiere at The Traverse next week.

Eurydice is in love with Orpheus. Her dead father has advice for her wedding but his letters can't get through to the land of the living. At last one does. With his words in hand, Eurydice crashes down a flight of stairs and wakes in the underworld, her memory wiped. How will she ever get home?

Alice in Wonderland meets Greek myth in this playful and heart-breaking American take on a timeless tale of loss, grief and redemption.

Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, Wednesday-Saturday, 7.30pm (Saturday matinee 2.30pm), 13-16, 0131-228 1404

A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: SOUP

THE third of The Traverse's lunchtime plays for 2010 opens on Tuesday. A new work by up and coming playwright Ella Hickson, Soup, is the story of a family misunderstanding. Playing the local card, the play tells the story of a young man returning to his comfortable Morningside home and the confusion his presence brings to his insecure film-critic father. Directed by emerging Edinburgh director Natalie Ibu, Soup features Edinburgh actor John McColl as the father.

Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, Tuesday-Saturday, 1pm, 10 (includes pie and pint), 0131-228 1404

EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON

Liminal Theatre presents the Scottish premiere of Joel Mason's magical play which combines Bunraku style, hand puppets and onstage actors who interact in a dynamic form of experimental theatre.

When Bridgette causes the near destruction of her town when she breaks her promise to a frog she must save her home and her village by undertaking a perilous journey to a far away land. There she must rescue a prince from a troll princess and unlock the meaning of life.

Roxy Art House, Roxburgh Place, tonight, tomorrow and 19-20 March, 6pm (Saturday matinees 2pm), 9, www.liminaltheatre. co.uk

MUGGED

"How do you tell the truth? About what actually happened? You know, tell the actual truth?"

That's the dilemma facing a group of pupils in the latest production from the Lyceum Youth Theatre (LYT) when a seemingly ordinary morning turns into a devastating experience as their walk to school becomes the occasion of a violent theft.

Written by Andrew Payne (creator of the 90s BBC crime drama Pie In The Sky), Mugged presents a hard hitting analysis of truth, friendship and the media.

Stewart's Melville College, Queensferry Road, tonight and tomorrow, 8pm (Saturday matinee 3pm), 8, 0131-248 4848

AMERICAN STYLE: Sarah Ruhl's take on the classic Greek tale at the Traverse