Aberdeen University Theatre

PLAYS PERFORMED

YEAR PLAY AUTHOR DIRECTOR
1979 The Crucible Arthur Miller Marshal Herrick
1980 Major Barbara Bernard Shaw Lomax
1980 Ballboys David Edgar One-Eye
1980 The Physicists Friedrich Durrenmatt Sir Isaac Newton
1980 Beyond The Fridge Late Night Review
1980 The Rogue and Peasant’s Slave Nicky Campbell
1981 As You Like It William Shakespeare Amiens+First Lord
1981 The Magus Calderon De La Barca The Devil
1981 Bent Martin Sherman Maximilian Berber
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1980:

The Physicists

by Friedrich Durrenmatt

 

Reviews

The play was written by Swiss-German Friedrich Durrenmatt after the wholesale destruction of World War 11 and following the explosions of the first and only atomic bombs. The question of scientific responsibility is raised (or avoided) by three physicists… all inmates of an expensive Swiss asylum run by an eccentric sinister psychiatrist. They choose to hide themselves away rather than reveal their discoveries to a world that has yet to demonstrate sufficient moral responsibility. Aberdeen University Theatre entertaining production reveals a play that is a perfectly structured piece of classical theatre and very funny too, with its serious undertones seldom far beneath the surface.

– Glasgow Herald, Peter Staffel

Iain Glen is brilliant as ‘Newton’. Behind his unruffled civility lurked, without the least trace of overacting, the cynical mendacity of a power politician. His acting threw considerable light on what the head of the asylum meant when she declared: “It is I who decide who my patients think they are.”

– The Scotsman, Mario Relich

Credits

Alistair Hunter
Inspector Richard Voss
Nicky Campbell
Fraulein Doktor Mathilac Von Zand
Nina Sbresni
Sister Marta Boll
Iain Glen
Newton
James Reid Baxter
Einstein
Simon Donald
Blocher
Kim Fenton
Johann Wilheim Mobius
Jennifer Turner
Frau Rose
Alan Campbell
Herr Rose
Kate Symington
Nurse Monika Stettler
Paul Spero
Uwe Sievers
Leslie Kacznarek
McArthur
Robert Harley
Murillo
Alan Campbell
Police Doctor
Alan Campbell
Directer
Graham Johnston
Designer

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1981:

Bent

by Martin Sherman

 

Reviews

Fringing” the Festival poses an inevitable challenge – how to winnow wheat from chaff. But when one discovers among the bumper harvest of drama anything as fine as Aberdeen University Theatre’s interpretation of Martin Sherman’s Bent, one feels the search has been worth the effort. The cast is in character – and in difficult roles indeed. This play, ranging from extremes of love to extremes of brutality, makes a plea for understanding tolerance of homosexual love. Act two shows the suffering and degradation which twp homosexuals are made to endure in a Nazi concentration camp. The two men, brilliantly played by Iain Glen and Simon Donald, hold fast to their humanity as long as they can still share a felling of love. Aberdeen shows rare power and maturity here.

– The Times Educational Supplement, Christopher Rathbone

The performances of Iain Glen as Mac and Simon Donald as Horst have a quiet authority, and intelligent direction by Nick Peters conveys the horrifying circumstances against which the gradually acknowledged love between the two men develops.

– The Glasgow Herald, Helen Murdoch

Credits

Iain Glen
Max
Nicky Campbell
Rudy
Allan Graham
Wolf
Nick Peters
Lieutenant
Allan Robb
2nd Lieutenant
Kim Fenton
Greta
Allan Robb
Victor
Alistair Hunter
Freddie
Simon Donald
Horst
Michael Duke
Guard on train
Guy Peploe
Officer
Allan Robb
Kapo
Tony Campbell
Corporal
Guy Peploe
Captain
Nick Peters
Director
Caroline Newton
Production Assistant
Nicky Campbell / Kim Fenton
Music

The Megus

 

Reviews

Nicholas Campbell was impressive as Cyprian, a bespectacled and Faust-like seeker after truth, and Iain Glen gave a powerful performance as the sneering Lucifer who seeks to destroy him.

– The Scotland, John Clifford

This production has the virtues as well as the faults of student drama. Among the former is the willingness to disinter a classic version of the Faust scene – there being a suavely effective Devil played by Iain Glen. There is also an enthusiasm which proves sporadically infectious when applied to the contemporary setting of Europe. The defects are the usual ones of faulty diction and stagecraft, and a lack of resources to help create the necessary illusion.

– The Glasgow herald, Keith Gibbs

Photos

Iain Glen is brilliant as ‘Newton’. Behind his unruffled civility lurked, without the least trace of overacting, the cynical mendacity of a power politician.