Previews: EIF Theatre

The Edinburgh International Festival has long commissioned some of the most innovative theatre. From Santiago to Brazil, this year promises to bring to Edinburgh the cream of world's very best performers

Feature by Arianna Reiche | 15 Jul 2010

Vieux Carré (The Wooster Group) 
One of New York's most legendary and inventive theatre companies, The Wooster Group, brings a wild re-imagining of the Tennessee Williams classic to the Edinburgh International Festival. Taking cues from Andy Warhol, as well as contemporary artist and filmmaker Ryan Trecartin, the group seeks to find new ways of staging on of the most popular playwrights of recent times. There is perhaps no more influential living director in New York experimental theatre than Elizabeth LeCompte – missing her on Scottish soil would be a theatrical crime punishable by death.

The Man Who Fed Butterflies (Teatro Cinema)
Chilean company Teatro Cinema brings to the EIF this exploration of mythology, ritual and identity at the end of one man's life. Film and live performance combine to showcase the group's already legendary mixing of mediums – indeed, EIF director Jonathan Mills has set a challenge for audiences to guess the number of live performers. Performed in Spanish with English subtitles, The Man Who Fed Butterflies will be stunning for the techie theatre-goer, and for anyone prepared for a psychologically affecting experience. The same company is Sin Sangre, an adaptation of a novella by Italian Alessandro Baricco, also in their unique film and live action fusion.

The Gospel at Colonus  
Oedipus! Evangelism! Rock n' roll! Narrated by a Pentecostal preacher—the part that launched Morgan Freeman's career—and with vocal backing by Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, Lee Breuer and Bob Telson showcase their Pulitzer Prize-nominated adaptation of the Oedipus myth at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Also stars the Blind Boys of Alabama who, in a celebrated piece of casting, collectively play the sightless Oedipus. Conforming to this summer's trend of fused, disparate genres, The Gospel at Colonus, now 25 years old, promises song, inspiration and Oedipal ickiness in one mesmerizing sitting.

Vieux Carré
Lyceum Theatre
21-24 Aug, 7:30pm, £10-£27

The Man Who Fed Butterflies
King's Theatre
29 Aug, 2 & 4 Sept (times vary), £12-£27

The Gospel at Colonus
Edinburgh Playhouse
21-23 Aug, times vary, £8-£30