Edinburgh Festivals

Belleville Rendez-vous

Inventive adaptation of Gallic animated classic

11 Aug 2011

The main difference between FellSwoop’s adaptation of Belleville Rendez-vous and Sylvain Chomet’s animated original is the setting: while Chomet jumped right into the life of a pint-sized grandmother and her recently-orphaned bicycle-loving grandson…

The Girl With The Iron Claws

A fairytale for grown-ups

11 Aug 2011

Taking as their starting point a Nordic myth that clearly shares some of its roots with Beauty and the Beast, The Wrong Crowd weave a subtle, dark fairytale about an independent-minded princess who falls in love with a bear (of course, he’s really a…

Allotment

Sweetly observed play taking place on a real allotment with free cup of tea

11 Aug 2011

Whatever happens to Dora and Maddy, the chalk-and-chips sisters at the heart of Jules Horne’s sweetly observed play, you know they will be outlived by their surroundings. The soil beneath their feet, the weeds that have persisted for millions of years…

Anton's Uncles

Chekhov remixed as a highly entertaining divertissement

11 Aug 2011

Four dapperly dressed men cavort with the stage dressings, dance with each other and utter one-liners with a Wildean frivolity. The members of LA’s Theatre Movement Bazaar are so diverting with their antics that this play’s relation to Anton Chekhov’s…

Cutting the Cord

Tragicomedy exploring immigration via young Japanese woman in London

11 Aug 2011

Audience members queueing to enter Cutting the Cord are invited to tell a small wooden box where they’re coming from and where they’re going to. What seems like gratuitous cuteness pays off at the end of this engaging and skilful exploration of the…

Bones

Honest examination of real life on the dole

11 Aug 2011

Nineteen-year-old Mark has just been released from prison to find himself in a world that’s almost as grim as the inside. Drink, drugs, violence and abuse are commonplace, as well as an unhealthy disrespect towards women and authority – likely a result…

Mark Twain Abroad

Dramatic recreation of a lecture by the famous author lacks panache

11 Aug 2011

Purportedly embarking on a round-the-world lecturing tour in order to pay off his ‘considerable debts’, Mark Twain (Todd Wronski) discards the original speech he had prepared in favour of an hour-long discourse on the benefits of travelling. In it, he…

Snails and Ketchup

Dynamic one-man Calvino adaptation

11 Aug 2011

This version of Italo Calvino’s story The Baron in the Trees dispenses with the verbal action and substitutes physical theatre, multimedia and acrobatics to tell its story. Ramesh Meyyappan gives a dynamic performance, transforming into several…

Theatre production Jasmine Gwangju celebrates South Korean democracy

The Gwangju uprising in 1980 explored in Edinburgh Fringe show

10 Aug 2011

‘Pfweee! Pfweeeeeeeeeee!’ Jun-tae Kim is recreating the noise of fighter jets swooping over the South Korean city of Gwangju. It was 18 May 1980 and he was a young geography teacher, on the streets with thousands of other students and citizens…

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…

Insider's insight: Canada’s cabaret comedy diva Sharron Matthews

The high – and low – notes of life on the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

10 Aug 2011

You know my fave place to take a nap in Edinburgh? The hill right beside the Half Price Hut on Princes Street: it is soft, it is shaded by trees and if you place yourself properly, no one can see you sobbing into your phone on a million dollar phone…

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…

Kristin Hersh set for Edinburgh Festival show

Indie rock goddess brings new memoir, spoken word and live music

10 Aug 2011

Alternative rock idol Kristin Hersh is spoiling us. She’s playing four shows in the Edinburgh festival, although she doesn’t realise it. ‘Am I? I don’t know!’ she laughs. ‘I’ll do whatever you say...’ The List is tempted to exploit this congenial…

The personal connection I feel to the character of Medea

Nadira Janikova presents Edinburgh Fringe production of classic work

10 Aug 2011

Medea represents a huge challenge for any actress: trying to convey on stage the power of somebody who is a demigod; and finding the human side of somebody who commits the most unnatural and terrible of all crimes – the murder of their own…

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…

Edinburgh arts institution the Forest Cafe gears up for its final Fringe

Edinburgh's rough and ready creative hub closing down

10 Aug 2011

Many Edinburgh-dwellers agree that it will be a sad day when the Forest Café finally closes its doors at the end of this summer. The rough and ready creative hub will be badly missed, but at least it’s staying open long enough for the Forest Fringe to…

Dot504: Mah Hunt

Acclaimed Czech dance company bring duet to 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

10 Aug 2011

DOT504 made its Fringe debut in 2008 with Holdin’ Fast, a woozy, delicate work about desire, with six young dancers tumbling and fondling under showers of glitter and old Persian carpets. The company returned by popular demand in 2009 with the darker…

Last Orders dance piece based on Sawney Bean

Al Seed Fringe piece on 16th century Scottish cannibal

10 Aug 2011

Anthony Hopkins’ quivering lips, as he extols the fava beans, Chianti and human liver combo, is one of the most disturbing yet compelling images in Silence of the Lambs. For while serial killers might be scarily fascinating, they’re ten a penny compared…

True or false: Comedian Maff Brown on the truths and lies of the Fringe

'The Royal Mile is what Prince Charles calls his intestines'

10 Aug 2011

The Purple cow is purple because it has been holding its breath for too long. Scottish people don’t even like haggis; it’s a practical joke they play on the English. All street performers are really agoraphobics going through therapy. The Gilded…

Enclosure 99 - Humans

Janis Claxton dance piece set in Edinburgh Zoo

10 Aug 2011

When Janis Claxton took up daily residence in an Edinburgh Zoo enclosure during the 2008 Fringe, she had no idea how much attention she and her fellow dancers would generate. ‘I was only doing it as an experiment,’ Claxton avows, ‘absolutely unaware…

Caught in the act - Fringe performers getting creative with their reviews

Exposed: Harmon Leon, Sophie Gatacre and James Sherwood

10 Aug 2011

Every year, upon opening the Fringe programme, the staff at List HQ ask themselves, ‘Eh? Did we really give that show five stars?’ With so many quotes and suspicious-looking star ratings cropping up, we’ve decided to investigate and expose some of the…

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…

Interview: Austin McCormick of New York dance outfit Company XIV

Dance piece Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures at Edinburgh Fringe

10 Aug 2011

Who or what inspired you to choreograph? I was inspired from an early age by the combination of mediums in Baroque performance (1600-1750); movement, scenic design, music, and costumes combine to give an audience a 360 degree experience at the theatre…

Fringe show The Trains explores Holocaust

Music and video with score by Steve Reich, Weill, Mahler, Puccini and Górecki

10 Aug 2011

Songs from the Holocaust might seem too dark a subject to tackle. But Greek-born singer Marika Klambatsea is convinced that even music from this bleakest of periods can be life-affirming. ‘Music can help people overcome tragedy. From these songs, you…

Interview: Toby Mitchell of children's theatre company Tall Stories

Co-founder on show Brilliant Books for Kids at Edinburgh Fringe

10 Aug 2011

What was your favourite story book as a child? I had many favourites, but there are two that stick out: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster is like a modern-day Alice in Wonderland, full of clever word-play and ways of seeing the world in entirely…

Interview: Jeremy Millar on exhibition Mystics or Rationalists?

Artist discusses his contribution to Ingleby Edinburgh Art Festival show

10 Aug 2011

How far do you agree with Sol LeWitt’s comment that ‘conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists’? I think I’d tend to agree: they’re certainly rather more mystics than rationalists. Art isn’t rational, but it can be mystical. What is…

Lord of the Flies

William Golding’s classic novel slightly adjusted for modern times

10 Aug 2011

The words ‘contemporary adaptation’ can send shivers down a reviewer’s spine, especially when the source material is one of the 20th century’s finest literary works. Thankfully, Big Spirit Youth Theatre’s reworking of William Golding’s 1954 novel…

Edinburgh Festival Fringe podcasts

Shows at 2011 Edinburgh Festival available as podcasts

10 Aug 2011

Richard 'King of Edinburgh' Herring celebrates his 20th Edinburgh Fringe with RHEFP a daily podcast of comedy and chat. His guests include well-known names from Dan Antopolski to Andy Zaltzman as well as up-and-coming comedy…

Interview: Ali Smith - There but for the

Scottish writer appears at 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival

9 Aug 2011

There can be few more anxious experiences for an author than turning to the literary section of a newspaper as the book they have slogged over for possibly years is taken apart by a faceless critic. One national paper gave Ali Smith the fright of her…

Interview: Comedian Vir Das at Edinburgh Festival

Household name in India brings show Walking On Broken Das to Fringe

9 Aug 2011

A Harvard graduate and gross-out film star, Vir Das is a household name in India. Jay Richardson met him on his home turf before he tests himself at the Fringe

Interview: US comedian Todd Barry set for Edinburgh Fringe

High hopes for American Hot show from 'third conchord'

9 Aug 2011

When Todd Barry made his Fringe debut in 2004, the experience didn’t seem to be to anyone’s liking. Stuck in a cavernous hall with a near-midnight start time, people failed to show up in their droves and those who did couldn’t quite get to grips with…

Ned Beauman set for Edinburgh International Book Festival appearance

Debutant with a palate for the distasteful

9 Aug 2011

Ned Beauman’s first novel, Boxer, Beetle, comes prefaced with the rather haughty caveat: ‘This is a novel for people with breeding. Only people with the right genes and the wrong impulses will find its marriage of bold ideas and deplorable characters…

Five Edinburgh Book Festival guests you'll know from TV

Lucy Worsley, Bettany Hughes, Alexei Sayle, Kirsty Wark and Peter Taylor

9 Aug 2011

Lucy Worsley Delving into the intimate history of old homes and buildings is Worsley’s prime passion and her BBC Four series and book If Walls Could Talk pretty much sums it up. During her years of research, she has uncovered the fact that bedrooms…

Julia Donaldson - Simon Puttock, Vivian French and Guy Bass on the new Children’s Laureate

Author events set for 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival

9 Aug 2011

‘Julia Donaldson is unique in the nicest way,’ says former Book Festival Children’s Writer in Residence Vivian French. ‘She’s passionate about stories, whether in the form of books, songs or plays, and her enthusiasm is infectious.’ French is…

Thirsty

Powerful physical evocation of the relationship between women and alcohol

9 Aug 2011

In a bathroom, on a hen night, two boozed-up young women dance, shriek and hector the audience, the epitome of Booze Britain. In one of the three toilet cubicles Shane Durrant sits astride the porcelain throne surrounded by music-making accoutrements.

Christopher Brookmyre set for Edinburgh Book Festival appearance

Name-shifting Scottish scribe retains his trademarks

9 Aug 2011

When Christopher Brookmyre has three syllables thrown at him, he knows he’s done something wrong. Despite his full first-name appearing on every book jacket since his debut novel in 1997, those around Brookmyre have called him Chris for years. ‘I tend…

Richard T Kelly set for Edinburgh Book Festival appearance

Author of The Possessions of Doctor Forrest

9 Aug 2011

In his second novel, Richard T Kelly conjures up a thrilling romp about three Scottish medics. Here he offers his prognosis on our sickly Q&A Give us five words to describe The Possessions of Doctor Forrest The ones I’d borrow from reviews would be…

Stephen Kelman set for Edinburgh Book Festival appearance

Author of Booker longlisted Pigeon English

9 Aug 2011

Probably most humdrum offices in Britain hide an aspiring creative type who dreams of ditching the day job and succeeding at what they love. For Stephen Kelman, the dream came dramatically true. Penned while he worked as a council administrator, his…

Kevin MacNeil - Revamping a classic RLS tale

Book Festival appearance by author of A Method Actor's Guide to Jekyll and Hyde

9 Aug 2011

A sense of place is very important to Kevin MacNeil. You can see it in his 2005 novel, The Stornoway Way, and it’s there with the evocative Edinburgh setting he’s conjured up for A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde. ‘I like the place where a novel…

Joanne Limburg - The Woman Who Thought Too Much

Author of OCD-themed novel appears at Edinburgh Book Festival

9 Aug 2011

We all have stuff we worry about. Job security; an awful accident happening to our loved ones; what tune we should have played at our funeral? That kind of thing. But when it comes to full-on fretting, most of us are rank amateurs next to poet Joanne…

Jenny Erpenbeck set for 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival

Revisiting Germany’s troubled past

9 Aug 2011

‘An extraordinarily strong book by a major German author, ingeniously translated, produced with love by an idealistic publisher intent on doing something about the shamefully small proportion of foreign literature whose existence our country…

Shylock

Gareth Armstrong and Guy Masterson take us behind the mask of Shakespeare’s Jew

9 Aug 2011

In a festival overflowing with one-actor shows, Gareth Armstrong’s Shylock, performed by Guy Masterson – a much-loved master of the Fringe monodrama – stands out as a work of real quality. The script, which is offered to us by the character of Tubal…

Caitlin Moran set for Edinburgh Book Festival appearance

A self-deprecating take on womanhood

9 Aug 2011

With Germaine Greer’s recent Newsnight debacle dragging the feminist cause kicking and screaming back to the dark days, it’s time to hail the new messiah: Caitlin Moran. Not for nothing has this Brighton-born writer impressed. Aged just 15, the young…

Interview - Mike Slott, Eclair Fifi and Machinedrum of LuckyMe

Glasgow DIY label set for Edinburgh Festival clubnight

8 Aug 2011

Mike Slott (producer) I met Dom [Flannigan] who runs LuckyMe in Borders Books. He was sneaking flyers into hip hop magazines. We got chatting, we liked similar music and in Glasgow if you’re into a certain kind of music, you bump into the same people…