Edinburgh International Festival

I Went To The House But Did Not Enter

edfest.tv - video

1 Sep 2008

Three iconic 20th century texts, the theatrical genius of Heiner Goebbels and the virtuosic vocal talents of the Hilliard Ensemble, specialists in both medieval and contemporary music

Deca Dance

edfest.tv - video

1 Sep 2008

Highly energized, daring and humorous dance from Israel's Batsheva Dance Company in a programme of works specially devised to showcase the breadth of choreographer Ohad Naharin's work

Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray

Effective storytelling makes for an adaptation with impact

29 Aug 2008

In the closing moments of Dorian Gray, a bright light shines out into the audience, temporarily blinding us. Something most people aren't used to, but those who spend their life in the spotlight are all too familiar with. It's this -- the trappings of…

I Went To The House But I Did Not Enter

Musical reflection of literary masters

29 Aug 2008

There has been no shortage of theatre that examines the disaffection and atomisation of modern life over the last century, but it’s less common to find a piece that selects four noted 20th century authors to explore the theme, then translates their work…

Ruhe

edfest.tv - video

27 Aug 2008

A recital of beautiful Schubert song is brutally interrupted by people who want to talk about their voluntary enlistment in the SS.

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…

Class Enemy

edfest.tv - video

26 Aug 2008

In a run-down schoolroom a group of foul-mouthed high school students conduct their own lessons as they await teachers who never arrive.

Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray

edfest.tv - video

26 Aug 2008

New Adventures, Sadlers Wells and the Edinburgh International Festival present Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray freely adapted from Oscar Wilde's masterpiece.

Devil's Ship

Intriguing, atmospheric Iranian chiller

26 Aug 2008

This Iranian story, with a lurking subtext of supernatural horror, performed in Farsi with English subtitles by Bazi Theatre Company, features a group of women in a claustrophobic emotional vacuum. While the women rely on custom to get them through the…

365

Magical reflection on children in care

26 Aug 2008

The idea of a play about children in care might not immediately strike you as the an entertaining festival night out, but overcome your prejudices. Vicky Featherstone’s production of David Harrower’s script for the NTS touches upon the issues that…

Class enemy

Heavy-handed adaptation

21 Aug 2008

Haris Pasovic’s production of Class Enemy for Bosnian company East West retains the central theme of Nigel Williams’ 1978 play - the desperate need for nurturing among young people neglected by an under-funded education system - to powerful effect. Yet…

365 - One Night to Learn a Lifetime

Shock tactics

21 Aug 2008

With 365, a series of fragmented narratives about children leaving care, Vicky Featherstone’s National Theatre of Scotland cements its commitment to telling stories of the people. Kirstin Innes meets the cast, writer and director. Lunchtime, and…

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Folk and gypsy influence evident in programme of two concerts

21 Aug 2008

Starting off with a programme inspired by gypsy music and Hungarian folk melodies, the Budapest Festival Orchestra give two full orchestral concerts in the last week of the Festival plus two presented by some of their soloists. Featuring some rather…

Devil's Ship

21 Aug 2008

Renowned Iranian actor-director Attila Pesyani, founder of the Bazi Theatre Company, brings his haunting new play to the EIF for its European premier following a successful run at Tehran’s Fadjir International Theatre Festival. Performed in Farsi with…

Five questions: Jill Gascoine

21 Aug 2008

Currently enjoying a successful run playing the suicidal mother of four estranged daughters in Sister Cities at the Gilded Balloon, star of The Gentle Touch and CATS Eyes Jill Gascoine turns her talents to our Q&A 4 shows you’re looking forward to…

I Went To The House But Did Not Enter

First person peculiar

21 Aug 2008

Edinburgh favourite Heiner Goebbels returns to the Festival with the world premier of his collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble, I Went to the House but Did Not Enter. Mark Fisher catches up with him The scene is Lausanne, Switzerland where a…

Jerusalem Quartet

Globally renowned Israeli foursome make their EIF debut

21 Aug 2008

Making its Edinburgh International Festival debut, the Jerusalem Quartet is the final string quartet to appear at this year’s impressive Queen’s Hall series. Performing in the wake of the Ysaÿe, Belcea and Pavel Haas quartets, the quartet is, says EIF…

Regal king size

21 Aug 2008

Karol Szymanowski considered himself an outsider which is why he identified with Sicily’s King Roger II and why his opera has become a gay favourite, finds Carol Main The Edinburgh International Festival’s staged opera programme is swinging from one…

4.48 Psychosis

Painful journey into despair

16 Aug 2008

Having seen Grzegorz Jarzyna's mesmerising production of this Sarah Kane play on the intimate stage of TR Warszawa in Poland, I was concerned the playwright's sad mediation on suicide would lose its intensity on the bigger stage of the King's. I needn't…

Looking at Tazieh

Fascinating filmed version of millennium-old Persian drama

16 Aug 2008

This video installation by Abbas Kiarostami renders into real emotion a filmed version of Tazieh a millennium-old form of Persian drama enacted annually to commemorate and grieve the loss of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed. But the felt…

Jidariyya

Palestinian end game

15 Aug 2008

There's a sad irony that a play about mortality should open in Edinburgh only days after the death of its author. Mahmoud Darwish was a major Palestinian poet and his Jidariyya was a response to a life-threatening heart attack a decade ago. It was…

Jock Tamson’s Bairns - Child's play

14 Aug 2008

Bands have a saying that you are only as young as your youngest member. That places Jock Tamson’s Bairns at about 33 years old, the age of their newest member, the fiddler Anna Wendy Stevenson, who joined the legendary Scottish folk combo in 2006. ‘I…

5 Questions - Ruth Janssen

14 Aug 2008

As Scottish Dance Theatre lights up the Fringe with its superb double-bill of dynamic contemporary works, dancer Ruth Janssen faces the music.

Amir Nizar Zuabi - Jidariyya

Poetry in motion

14 Aug 2008

Perhaps the greatest psychological pain humans can feel occurs when they are denied language. The sense of frustration that builds from a voice unheard, marginalised or rendered irrelevant by the listener can be overwhelming. This is as true of the…

Chess

Moving Taiwanese tragedy

14 Aug 2008

Fortunately avoiding elaboration of the central metaphor - war as chess - this Taiwanese company, Dansmusicians presents a sumptuous and skilled performance. With superb dancers, a tragedy played for pathos not sentimentality and a ravishing soundtrack…