Blogs

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs: Desmond O’Connor

The worst possible time to lose your voice

26 Aug 2011

It couldn’t have happened at a worse time; I was looking forward to the most exciting night of the Fringe in three of the seven shows on which I am working and I woke to find myself facing the worst nightmare that a performer can be forced to endure.

Fringe 2011 theatre blogs: Biding Time

Can we find alternative models for making theatre at the Fringe?

23 Aug 2011

Market’s crashing, Somalia’s starving and London’s burning; Are we fiddling in Edinburgh while Rome burns this August? It takes a mental leap to see any real connection between the Edinburgh fringe festival and the state of the wider world, except…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs: The Suitcase Royale

Edinburgh is easy. Getting to Edinburgh is difficult.

16 Aug 2011

We booked a private cab to pick us up from Battersea Arts Centre, where we’ve been staying, and take us to Luton Airport for our 6:15pm flight to Edinburgh. Being old hands, now, at touring, we thought it wise to leave three hours to get to the airport.

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs: Yianni

Periodic Table of Edinburgh

16 Aug 2011

Ah Edinburgh. Back again so soon? Anyone who has spent an August at the Fringe knows it contains freakish space and time bending properties. Any event which takes place outside its borders exists outside of space and time and is – in essence…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Michael J Dolan

The Mancunian comic discusses hecklers and the world's shortest joke

14 Aug 2011

One of the most overused of the tiny stockpile of go-to moronic taunts used by the average drunken heckler is, 'Tell us a joke.' As heckles go this, more than any other, indicates that the heckler's function within the gig is completely over. It…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - John Robertson

There’s still time to stop all this and get that doctorate …

11 Aug 2011

I’ve only been heading out to festivals for a few years – and at almost every one of them, I’ve gone completely ballistic. Usually, it’s in the lead-up to the first performance, when I’m overrun by a combination of info from publicists, news on…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Nick Doody

The comic discusses how to circumvent the expense of the Fringe

10 Aug 2011

It is expensive to put on a stand-up show at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2006, my first solo show, Before He Kills Again, was arguably a hit, selling out the entire run and putting on two extra shows in a larger venue, both of which also sold out. That…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Jason John Whitehead

The five stages of coping with trauma... and the Fringe

10 Aug 2011

This year my show is, on the surface, about the excuses that we’re always given when a relationship ends. Another relationship/heartbreak/anger in anguish kind of show but this time with a JJW twist. A strong theme of my show has been the five stages…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Lloyd Langford

The comic writes on the danger of fancy baths

10 Aug 2011

It’s that time of year when I, and thousands of other performers, take over and squat in the Scottish capital for a month. August every year, comedians flock to the city in the hope of getting something big out of the Fringe. Stand ups in Edinburgh are…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Laurence Clark

Exploring American fears about the 'socialised medicine' of the NHS

10 Aug 2011

The National Health Service may seem like an odd subject for an hour’s comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe. So why make a show about the NHS? Well for one, my own life has been profoundly shaped by it. Also it’s a subject that’s always in the news. Indeed…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Tony Law

An Interview with Tony Law, by Tony Law and for Tony Law. From Tony Law

10 Aug 2011

You are not quite sure what a blog is, are you? Don't you mean am I? What? No. Blog is what we are doing right now as in, Intervblog. We are doing an Intervblog. Your show Go! Mr Tony Go! is on at the Stand at noon. It has been said that it…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Marcel Lucont

10 Aug 2011

Every year at the Edinburgh Festival I am asked, 'Marcel, how do you maintain this air of carefree nonchalance during such an intense month? Surely, given the high standard of your shows, the pressure increases annually?' I reply, 'That is Monsieur…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Steve Pretty

He of the Perfect Mixtape discusses music vs comedy and proper Fringe preparation

10 Aug 2011

By 30th July, any sensible Fringe performer would either already be in Edinburgh getting some early promo done, or locked away in a rehearsal room, honing their show, perfecting that topical gag or getting that new set piece extra zingy. So why, last…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Sarah Campbell

One half of Christmas For Two highlights the pitfalls of audience participation

10 Aug 2011

Say it with me: audience participation. The comedian's friend. The punter's dread nemesis. I used to love a bit of, 'You with the top, what's your name?' But these days I'm not so sure. As a solo stand-up you can pick on people without fear, but with…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Lou Sanders

The comedian gives the inside scoop on securing accomodation

10 Aug 2011

This year I thought I’d treat myself to a more luxurious apartment in Edinburgh – I really shelled out for a bobby dazzler of the flat world. This came with all the mod cons... if mod cons include 3 different types of mouse traps. Actually the one type…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Catie Wilkins

The little things that add to the theatrical experience

10 Aug 2011

The great thing about the Edinburgh Festival is you never know what will be around the corner. I mean, you can usually take a punt that it will be a herd of flyerers, or some annoying street theatre, but sometimes the real life theatre going on around…

Reel Science events programme among highlights of Edinburgh Film Festival

Tomboy, My Brothers and Project Nim among film highlights

17 Jun 2011

After my fearless leader’s less-than-generous appraisal of this aged Festival’s opening night, I’m hoping to bring a little bit of love for EIFF back to these web pages. Admittedly, the pared-down nature of this year’s Festival is most noticeable in the…

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011 opens with an Oirish whimper (not a bang)

65th festival gets underway despite disappointing opener The Guard

16 Jun 2011

So the 65th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival is now open. It opened last night, a balmy, spitty Wednesday evening, with a screening of John Michael McDonagh’s decidedly patchy Irish comedy policier The Guard starring Brendan Gleeson.

Roadkill, The Author and 30 Days to Space worthy 2010 festival winners

Steve Cramer's Festival blog

7 Sep 2010

I know it’s not quite over, but with respect to the last couple of shows of the International Festival, now might be the time for the Festival’s final report card. This year’s Festival, if it has shown some good work, still creates the uneasy feeling of…

Myth of the far-left agenda in Alastair Beaton's Caledonia

Steve Cramer's Festival blog

1 Sep 2010

In my last blog, I accused many of the companies engaging in the Fringe of lacking courage, and I’m sticking by it. You can always tell when there’s a political elephant in the room at a fringe, since invariably the more pusillanimous companies visiting…

Pornography takes centre stage at Fringe 2010

Steve Cramer's Festival blog

23 Aug 2010

There are three steps down into the auditorium at the Traverse St Stephens. It’s not entirely at random that I warn you. As I entered said space I failed to spot this natty architectural folly, and launched myself, instead of into Apples, into thin air.

Why The Sun Also Rises is the least successful transatlantic crossing since Titanic

Steve Cramer's Festival blog

19 Aug 2010

I suppose the one compensation of sitting through the unforgivable The Sun Also Rises at the Lyceum was that it provided a little relief from the endless prurient sex obsessions of the Traverse next door, where one leaves every other show with the…

Sex emerging as theme running through 2010 Edinburgh Fringe theatre

Steve Cramer's Festival blog

13 Aug 2010

My first significant encounter this fringe, a week ago as I write, occurred at the door of the Traverse theatre with Jane Ellis, my esteemed fellow hack and wife of another much beloved colleague, Mark Fisher. As I made to enter the building, she seized…

T in the Park 2010: The Proclaimers, Sunshine Underground and General Fiasco

T in the Park blog

11 Jul 2010

Saturday 10th Jul It’s been almost a decade since I last set foot within the hallowed T in the Park grounds, so, eager to see how – or even if – things had changed since my halcyon days of teenage revelry, I find myself on the 10.30 bus with very…

T in the Park 2010: Black Keys, Frightened Rabbit and Eminem

T in the Park blog

11 Jul 2010

Saturday 10th July For the obsessive music fan, it’s one of the eternal frustrations of festivals that sometimes the bands you love don’t get the attention they deserve. This was very much the case with Broken Social Scene, who took to the stage at…

T in the Park 2010: Dirty Projectors, Hot Chip and Kele

T in the Park blog

11 Jul 2010

Sat 10th Jul Hi folks. Your T in the Park blogging correspondent this morning will be Jonny, recovering from an excellent Friday at the festival and ready to recap on the best bands so far. Starting off, it was a storming set from New York’s…

T in the Park 2010: Daisy Dares You, Darwin Deez and Three Blind Wolves

T in the Park blog

11 Jul 2010

The day started off with Radio 1 A-lister Daisy Dares You (●●) in King Tut’s Wah Wah Tent, whose biggest hit to date has been the Chipmunk-starring ‘Number One Enemy’ (which she performed as her closing song). Daisy didn’t seem sure what image she…

T in the Park 2010: The anticipation and planning stage

T in the Park blog

11 Jul 2010

It’s the morning of T and excitement is at fever pitch. I don’t mind admitting that my music tastes are perhaps not as highly-developed as my List compadres’ – my most-anticipated act of today is krunk-pop superstars 3OH!3, who are playing the King…

T in the Park 2010: Arriving

T in the Park blog

11 Jul 2010

Well, after some late night decisions on the travel decisions we came up with the most far fetched way to get here. Picking my comrades up from List HQ in the big 1984 Merc (risky business from the start, I tell you) we flew along the motorway like some…

Au Revoir Taipei, Honeymooner and Third Star bring EIFF 2010 to a close

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

28 Jun 2010

Sunday 27 June. The closing days of the festival are a giddy affair: you realise that, after so many recommendations and bits of buzz floating about, the EIFF has mutated into this Cloverfield-like monster: there’s beautiful people wandering around…

Modern Love, Get Low, Aaron Schneider and the fragility of film-making at EIFF 2010

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

26 Jun 2010

Friday 25 June Friday was my last day at the Festival, and I decided to use it to take a walk off the beaten EIFF track and check out Modern Love, a short film made by a bunch of teenagers from Fife in conjunction with a company called Media…

The Quay Brothers' Maska plus film without images - HP Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

25 Jun 2010

Wednesday 23rd June. While EIFF’s programme focuses mainly on conventional feature-films, there are several one-off events scattered throughout the Festival’s 10 days, so I decided to investigate a couple of the more adventurous ones. The first was a…

Obselidia, Cigarette Girl and Chase the Slut among highlights of final stretch at EIFF

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

25 Jun 2010

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of spending a few minutes talking with Diane Bell, director of ‘Obselidia’. She’s very enthusiastic, lapsing into her native Scottish dialect in moments of extreme excitement, and talking in what she describes as…

Up close with Cherry Tree Lane, Skeletons and Ollie Kepler's Expanding Purple World

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

23 Jun 2010

Tuesday 22 Jun Paul Andrew Williams’ Cherry Tree Lane was one of the first films I saw here this year, and I did not like it. No sir. As I watched the London to Brighton director’s brutal tale of suburban home invasion playing out in real time, I…

Stanley Pickle, Baby and Rita among winning films at EIFF new talent awards

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

23 Jun 2010

Monday was quite a sedate affair – after a number of days where going to bed late and getting up early was the norm, I treated myself to a lie-in before heading into town to catch a few movies (‘Postales’, at last, and ‘Chase The Slut’ – interview on…

Pixar make Brave move with Reese Witherspoon and Billy Connolly after Toy Story 3

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

22 Jun 2010

Sunday 20 June Edinburgh calls itself a festival of discovery, and it’s true, the majority of films playing here are by first- or second-time filmmakers, and you go into each screening hoping to discover the next great moviemaking talent. But, as…

Sean Connery on form as EIFF The Man Who Would Be King screening marks 80th year

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

21 Jun 2010

Yet another early start on Sunday, but I’d learnt my lessons from the morning after the Opening Gala, and hadn’t over-indulged at the Ghillie Dhu ceilidh the night before. Thus, I was fighting fit to attend Der Räuber (The Robber) at the Cameo, a…

Monsters director Gareth Edwards and producer Graham King at EIFF

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

20 Jun 2010

Saturday 19 June The days, as Calvin & Hobbes astutely observed, are just packed. Saturday began with two great things: the first was Toy Story 3, which was possibly the best threequel I’ve ever seen (I’m meeting its two chief animators later today…

Evil in the Time of Heroes and The Extra Man highlights of EIFF screening frenzy

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

20 Jun 2010

I was feeling pretty ashamed of my films-seen-to-days-attended ratio on Friday morning (as it stood at a paltry 1:1), so I went a bit crazy on the screening front. At the crack of dawn I attended ‘Mai Mai Miracle’ at the Cameo, a Japanese anime with…

Ben Miller - Huge respect for the nicest man at the EIFF

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

18 Jun 2010

Friday 18th June. It’s my first day at Edinburgh Film Festival 2010; the opening party is a thing of blurry half-memory and the real business of movie-watching has properly begun, but the atmosphere is a joyous one: the sun is shining, and the weather…

EIFF day one highlight is The Last Rites of Ransom Pride

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

17 Jun 2010

Thursday 17th June A dirty, filthy hangover from the Opening Gala after-party was not enough to stop me fulfilling my interview commitments today, although it was enough to stop me getting into town early and securing tickets for various movies.

Field notes from Rock Ness 2010

Niki Boyle's reflections on Rock Ness

15 Jun 2010

So here’s some notes I took for my pen-and-paper analogue blog (anablog? No, probably not) from Saturday at Rock Ness. Ah, the memories. 9.57am: On the shuttle bus, drinking covert beers when a fellow bus patron is overheard saying, ‘Get the cello…

Calculating the emissions cost

The Editor's green blog

29 Apr 2010

After two weeks it’s time to do the sums and put the stamp of factual authority onto my green project. The CO2 emissions calculator on the government’s Direct Gov website (carboncalculator.direct.gov.uk) tells me that, prior to my eco-conversion, I had…

Growing your own veg not just for the green-fingered

The Editor's green blog

21 Apr 2010

It's weekend catch-up time on the Green Blog, and yes, it did get dirty over the last few days. On Saturday I wandered, blinking, into the sunlight of my back-yard to see what I might be able to cultivate for myself. I was pleased to find that I…

Booze-free, bus-free, bottle-free green living

The Editor's green blog

16 Apr 2010

Going green is a process in stages. I am currently still just starting out in my efforts to be a more planet-conscious human, though my first steps are significant ones. The most significant of which are the steps I now take to my work instead of…

Convection heater first casualty of war on waste

The Editor's green Blog

15 Apr 2010

The List’s editor, Jonny Ensall, ditches bad habits in favour of a fortnight of green living. I am not the Earth’s best friend. If I’m honest, we rarely see eye-to-eye. My side of our relationship is based around a lot of taking and not much giving.

Gregory's Girl, Mogwai's Burning and Legacy bring Glasgow Film Festival 2010 to a close

Glasgow Film Festival blog

2 Mar 2010

I returned to GFF for the closing day yesterday and discovered it had been an eventful weekend: Neil Marshall turned up at FrightFest to show off 20 minutes of Centurion, his forthcoming historical actioner featuring a naked Michael Fassbender in the…

Greenberg revealed at The List Surprise Movie at GFF

Glasgow Film Festival blog

28 Feb 2010

Hello. Don’t worry this is the last time you will have to read my witless meanderings, normal transmission with Sir Paul Gallagher will be resumed soon. So… The List Surprise Movie was…. (drum roll, drum roll) Greenberg. No it wasn’t Kick Ass or…

Young stars of 1234 dispel myths of film industry

Glasgow Film Festival blog

25 Feb 2010

It seems to be a pre-requisite of my typical film festival experience that I will inevitably end up in a conversation about the value (or not) of film criticism with a filmmaker who clearly isn’t a fan of critics. Such was the case yesterday, as myself…

Screen legend James Earl Jones master of good conversation

Glasgow Film Festival blog

22 Feb 2010

The festival buzz has definitely been building over the weekend, and on Sunday I felt its full effect as I walked, a few minutes late (for shame!), into a jam-packed GFT Cinema 1 for the sold-out In Coversation with James Earl Jones event. The place was…

Kristin Scott Thomas and LuckyMe on day one of the Glasgow Film Festival

Glasgow Film Festival blog

20 Feb 2010

Mellow greetings, fair reader. It was the first full day of the festival yesterday, and while it was a little quiet in some of the earlier screenings, by the time evening came around the ticket queues were swelling and the GFT could rightly be referred…

Glasgow Film Festival: Opening night party

Glasgow Film Festival blog

19 Feb 2010

List festival correspondent Paul Gallagher's daily festival reports from the 2010 Glasgow Film Festival.

Paul Gallagher meets the great French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Glasgow Film Festival blog

19 Feb 2010

I had heard from a few people that Jean-Pierre Jeunet was in a bit of a grumpy mood before the screening of his film Mic Macs last night, but even if that was the case there were no signs of such moodiness when I got the chance to interview him this…

A strange brew prior to Glasgow Film Festival opening night gala

Glasgow Film Festival blog

18 Feb 2010

I’m sitting in the GFT’s Café Cosmo, and there’s more than tea brewing. There’s a definite atmosphere, a sense that much is yet to come, a bit like that feeling you get at the end of every Harry Potter film. It’s not a ‘buzz’ yet; that will kick in once…

More for less: Blog blags

20 Jan 2010

Alice White runs the Edinburgh-based style and travel blog Bon-Voy-Go-There! She runs down her best freebie handbags and holidays, and suggests how to get started blagging on your own blog Blogging is the most arrogant, self-indulgent thing I’ve…

Edinburgh festival delivers a good innings

Steve Cramer's Festival Blog

24 Aug 2009

I seem to have touched a nerve with my last blog. Today, I received an (admittedly second hand) report that it had been said of me that I was clearly a narrow minded little Scotlander for speaking ill of London. The actor friend on the receiving end of…

To tire of Londoners at the Edinburgh Fringe

Steve Cramer's Festival blog

23 Aug 2009

After Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea, I went to the Assembly bar and drank the tea. I was contemplating which was the more indifferent drinking experience out of these two, when I was cheered by a chance meeting with Candida Benson, an actress whose own…

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Steve Cramer's Festival blog

18 Aug 2009

There’s a paradox to being a reviewer. On the one hand, one is constantly badgered by theatre companies to see their shows, and on the other, when you arrive at their venues, they won’t let you in. Colonel Blood had easier access to the crown jewels…

Overcoming injuries sustained in pursuit of the spirit of the Fringe

18 Aug 2009

Waking up on the floor of my own room (the bed seemingly too much of a climb) to the all too recognisable noises of a rain-sodden Edinburgh morning, with dull memories of stand-up, biscuits and the Udderbelly Pasture trudging through my brain was not…

Fringe demands sacrifice of sartorial splendour

Steve Cramer's Festival Blog

13 Aug 2009

Let us go then, you and I, to the place where one wishes the streets were half deserted, and the only muttering retreat you get is two hours sleep. But the Fringe is afoot, and it really hasn’t been a bad start. Leaving aside a School for Scandal the…

Boxing clever a wise move for sons of privilege

Steve Cramer's Festival Blog

13 Aug 2009

The lizard ails! As the Fringe moves on apace, and one enters into the strange, Through the Looking Glass world of sweaty venues, crowded pubs, dreadful hacks and appalling luvvies, one’s domestic arrangements seem a distant and desperately pined for…

A weekend fuelled by comedy and cake

Amber Baxter's festival blog

12 Aug 2009

For a bit of a laugh, I put on my boots this weekend and promptly stomped the streets of Edinburgh - filling them with comedy. On Friday night I took in an early evening performance at the Underbelly by Australian, award-winning comic Sammy J. He’s a…

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…

Fringe hangover: Where have you been?

Adam Fraser's festival blog

26 Aug 2008

That’s it. The Fringe is over. At this point, the hard-working critic, performer, theatre-goer or box office drone might wish to find a darkened room, take a moment to collect their thoughts and let the adrenalin settle, and unpick the events of the…

Medium of the masses joins debate at Edinburgh Book Festival

Alan Bissett's Festival Blog

20 Aug 2008

17th August This morning I went to see Stella Duffy, Rodge Glass and Will Sutcliffe at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, promoting their new novels. Each reading was an assured affair, Duffy's in particular. Author discussion afterwards was…

London home away from home at Edinburgh Festival

Adam Fraser's festival blog

20 Aug 2008

Having a gander round the Guardian's fine Edinburgh arts blog pages on their site, I noticed this one entitled 'Why Take London to Scotland?' from G2 commissioning editor Laura Barnett. Why, it ponders, are so many shows at the Fringe so obsessed with…

Speaking in tongues at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Alan Bissett's festival blog

18 Aug 2008

Thurs 14th Aug This morning I was on at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with Des Dillon and Anne Donovan, two of Scotland’s ace-est writers and who, like me, have a name mainly for writing in Scots urban dialect. We met in the Author’s Yurt…

Once and for all, it's just a matter of opinion

Steve Cramer's festival blog

18 Aug 2008

I don’t know, perhaps it’s me. There’s always one show of every festival where a critic appears to be out of kilter with his peers. For me, this festival the show would appear to be Once and For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are, So Shut Up and Listen…

The horror, the horror… of the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Alan Bissett's festival blog

15 Aug 2008

Ah the Edinburgh International Book Festival! My home from home! My August social life! The Author's Yurt! The free tea/coffee/wine/beer/finger food! The celebs! The horror. The horror. Man, I love the Book Festival. As its director, Catherine…

The naked truth about the Edinburgh Festival

Jonny Ensall's festival blog

13 Aug 2008

Last week I went to review a show called Strippers & Gentlemen at C Venue on Chambers Street. In it, girls in corsets and black pants reinterpreted the gyrating dance moves of real strippers while members of the audience, free to move about the…

Absurd living and heartbreak at independent Edinburgh festival

Andy Field's festival blog

13 Aug 2008

Well it's been a week now. The festival has erupted. A wild sea of damp flyers and dampened hopes. I've been treading water. My friend Andrzej pointed out that Edinburgh seems to generate its own absurd mode of living, an alternative universe…

How late it was, how late

Steve Cramer's festival blog

11 Aug 2008

It happens annually. Just as our railway system’s management professes the same astonishment that it should snow during the British winter each year, so Edinburgh’s transport infrastructure collapses with monotonous regularity each August, quite as if…

Cultural feast and nutritional famine at Edinburgh Festival

Steve Cramer's festival blog

8 Aug 2008

I’m pining for a vegetable. At the moment, it doesn’t feel as though I’ll be eating one until September. At the best of times reviewers have an irregular diet, since at most people’s dinner time we’re either in shows or on the way to them. But at the…

Themes emerge at Edinburgh Festival 2008

Steve Cramer's Festival Blog

6 Aug 2008

Critics are as human as anyone else, so they’re apt to seek patterns in what they see from day to day in a busy fringe. Perhaps these patterns are there, or perhaps we simply seek to find some comfort in the regular recurrence of some phenomena or…

How to bribe your way to Fringe success

The List payola blog

6 Aug 2008

Every year, thousands of performer flock to the Edinburgh Fringe in order to showcase their talent and kickstart a career in the performing arts. Unfortunately, there's so may other blighters doing the same that it's hard to make yourself heard above…

Near-silent office ambience proves highlight of day one proper

Alan Bissett's Festival Blog

5 Aug 2008

My first play proper is Stoning Mary at the Underbelly, from the pen of debbie tucker green. This contains three separate stories, the links between which are gradually revelead, but when the first words you see onstage are ‘AIDS Genocide’ you know the…

Life's a riot with Man versus Art

Alan Bissett's festival blog

4 Aug 2008

Hello, groovers. And so begins my blog for Scotland’s Cultural Bible from the beating, garish heart of the Edinburgh festival. I’ll be updating, with semi-regularity, on what I’ve seen, heard, touched, tasted, felt and drank. After, all, something had…

The Edinburgh Festival as a stranger in a strange land

Andy Field's festival blog

4 Aug 2008

I’m on the train up to Edinburgh. Some of you probably know the one - Peterborough. Doncaster. York. Onwards. It’s a good train. I’m racing through fields, all golden brown and delicately framed by hedges and trees. The sun is going down and the sky…

Don't let media circus obscure Tracey Emin's talent

Adam Fraser's festival blog

4 Aug 2008

In this writer’s opinion, the most impressive show of the Fringe so far was the one which kicked off with a circus show on Friday morning (1 August). A media circus, that is, as Tracey Emin appeared in Edinburgh for the press viewing of her debut UK…

Samurai swordsmanship cuts the mustard

Alan Bissett's Festival Blog

4 Aug 2008

Swords. Japanese people with swords. Japanese people with swords who choreographed the fight scenes in Kill Bill. I’m there. Samurai Spirit (at Zoo) is just that: a group of warriors performing with samurai swords. There isn’t much to be said about this…

A healthy dose of Edinburgh Festival skepticism

Kirstin Innes' festival blog

31 Jul 2008

Today and tomorrow are the sort-of starts of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Although of course the official opening is Saturday. I think. The Art Festival opens tomorrow, properly, as does the newly-minted Comedy Festival, and the Book Festival kicks…