Alan Bissett

Reveal 2012 showcases new Scottish theatre

Highlights include Mexican reality TV, a Gaelic divorce and London riots performed by puppets

25 Apr 2012

Following on from last year’s successful inaugural Reveal Season, The National Theatre of Scotland, in association with the Citizens’ Theatre, present Reveal 2012, a season of new work by up and coming and diversifying artists, many of whom have been…

Dear Glasgow theatre season focuses on Middle East and North Africa

New project from Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint strand

21 Mar 2012

With the Syrian crisis showing no sign of abating, the human story behind the various conflicts and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa has seldom been so urgent. It’s an issue that David MacLennan, artistic director of Oran Mor’s A Play, a…

Is this a golden era for Scottish literature?

Alan Bissett, Helen Fitzgerald and Allan Wilson survey the current literary lansdscape

1 Feb 2012

Alan Bissett The contention is that Scottish literature – due to a combination of factors, including centralised buying by book chains and a backlash against post-Trainspotting fiction – has undergone a difficult time of late, but that the tide is…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

Interview - Alan Bissett

Writer tackles Scotland’s sectarian shame in fourth novel Pack Men

24 Aug 2011

With the rivalry between the Old Firm reaching dangerously manic levels recently, you’d think that sectarianism would be reflected in our nation’s fiction, but it’s hard to think of many novels that examine our unique bigotry. Step forward Alan Bissett…

(g)Host City

Edinburgh audio tours from spoken word performers

18 Aug 2011

First thing in the morning, I’m standing on top of Calton Hill looking out to Arthur’s Seat, Princes Street and the Pentlands. It’s a view I never tire of, but on my headphones Jenny Lindsay is giving a different message. ‘Edinburgh, you old tart,…

Theatre shows using digital media at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

Incorporating Skype and mobile apps into theatre shows

26 Jul 2011

Digital media is being embraced by theatre companies at this year’s Fringe, but is this a passing fad or a great way for theatre to keep in step with modern technology? Lauren Mayberry investigates

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011 line up highlights

Grant Morrison, Will Self and Jo Nesbø among highlights

16 Jun 2011

A selection of international authors, a bunch of Scottish novelists, an array of top non-fiction scribes, a host of children’s writers and a series of exciting innovations: yes, it’s just another Edinburgh International Book Festival programme. A cliché…

Margins is Glasgow’s newest grassroots book and music festival

Doug Johnstone, Ewan Morrison Tom Leonard and Withered Hand

16 Feb 2011

Imagine just starting a festival. Just saying, right there and then ‘there’s a gap in the market, and I’m going to fill it.’ It’s not such a great step for Mark Buckland; when newly graduated from university, he said to himself ‘I’m going to start a…

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

16 Dec 2010

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

Moira's five ways to ensure you survive the festival

'Falkirk's hardest woman' hands out tips on surviving the Fringe

10 Aug 2010

Being on tour can be a stressful business, what with staying away from home, forgetting your lines onstage and, erm, setting off the fire alarm in the venue. Scotland’s newest stage superstar, Moira, shares her tips on how to survive a fortnight at the…

Lars Husum and his novel My Friend Jesus Christ

A wild and bizarre slapstick farce

6 Aug 2010

Given that My Friend Jesus Christ reads like a Dogme movie, you can’t help but feel Lars Husum’s time working as a dramaturge at Lars von Trier’s Copenhagen film production company Zentropa fed into his debut novel. ‘It’s not conscious, but I see your…

Valentine's Day: Love letters to Glasgow

3 Feb 2010

Dear Glasgow. We love you. We sincerely do. You’ve given so much to us over the years, we felt we just had to say something – as did some of your more well known inhabitants. Here, an assortment of Glasgow's finest list the people, places and things…

NTS history and Gutter magazine latest National Library of Scotland events

1 Feb 2010

Eagle-eyed readers of the Around Town listings may have already noticed that change is afoot at the National Library of Scotland. Over the last few months, there have been an increasing number of interesting, well thought-out, exciting and downright…

The Ching Room and The Moira Monologues

26 Jan 2010

A double bill of short plays by the acclaimed author of Boyracers and Death of a Ladies’ Man. The Ching Room, originally commissioned for the Traverse Theatre and Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint season is a darkly comic two-hander depicting a…

The Shutdown

20 Jan 2010

Director Adam Stafford and writer Alan Bissett’s award-winning short (pictured) about life, family and loss at the edge of the Grangemouth petrochemical plant screening at the beautifully refurbished Hippodrome. The evening will also include novelist…

Best of a decade: Respectable in the Noughties

2 Dec 2009

Much of the most powerful art produced in Scotland in the 1980s–1990s developed in angry reaction to the political situation and tapped into our radical, left-wing and egalitarian traditions – it’s no accident that the most popular works of that period…

Word Power Book Fringe

6 Aug 2009

Helen FitzGerald (reading Fri 14 Aug) is just one of the great lineup of local and international authors on at our favourite local book shop Word Power’s Book Fringe this year. Other readers include Tom Leonard (Fri 21 Aug), Allan Massie (Thu 13 Aug)…

Scottish Books - Irvine Welsh, Alan Bissett and Ewan Morrison

9 Jul 2009

Irvine Welsh inspired a generation of young Scottish writers and showed there was literature to be found in the lives of the Scottish underdog. Two of the leading lights of that next generation are Alan Bissett and Ewan Morrison. Both authors boast…

Aye Write!

1 Mar 2009

Now in its fourth year, Aye Write! 2009 promises to be the biggest and best instalment of the Glasgow-based literary festival yet, and - as the name boldly hints - one which continues to blend an appraisal of the wider written world with a strong spine…

Preview 2009 - Local talent

8 Jan 2009

MUSIC: The Phantom Band We’ve been tipping this Glasgow sextet, who make what’s most succinctly described as ‘experimental krautrock’, for greatness for a wee while now. Their debut album Checkmate Savage lands in late January, fresh off the Chemikal…

Music Like A Vitamin: Vitamin A

23 Oct 2008

Praise should be heaped on Idlewild’s Rod Jones, the man behind Music Like a Vitamin, for organising the double-header of concerts on behalf of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. Thursday’s show, Vitamin A, compered by the…

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

2 Oct 2008

‘Anyone can suffer from mental health issues, regardless of your walk of life,’ says Idlewild’s Rod Jones, curator of a music evening during the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. ‘It’s something I really wanted to get involved in. It’s…

Eye to the future at the end of the line for Edinburgh Festival 2008

Alan Bissett's festival blog

27 Aug 2008

Ah, the end of the Fringe. Goodbye rain. Goodbye bright-eyed young hopefuls thrusting flyers. Goodbye posh accents. How was it for you? Depending on who you talk to, plays this year have been too bleak/political/teenage. Given the gloomy political…

Telling stories while we can at The Edinburgh Book Festival

Alan Bissett's festival blog

26 Aug 2008

Today's theme is stories! The ones we tell about ourselves, our past, our bodies. What prompted this was The Fooligan at the Pleasance, a one-man show from the Arches' artist in residence, Al Seed. Al waddles onto the stage, an obese, grotesque medieval…