Issue 584

Basic Training

5 Questions

23 Aug 2007

5 words to describe Basic Training? Inspiring, uncomfortable, character, interactive, true. 4 things you love about Edinburgh in August? That’s easy! Mariachi’s restaurant, Elephants & Bagels, the buzz and the spectacle. 3 things you…

BBC bruisers

23 Aug 2007

Jeremy Paxman We’re not sure if there was ever a clause in his contract that read ‘be rude,’ or whether he just improvised as he went along, but Paxo has certainly stuffed a few politicos in his time. 26 Aug, 6.30pm, £8 (£6). Clarissa Dickson…

Beastie Boys

23 Aug 2007

Take an objective look at the Beastie Boys’ musical output over the last 25 years and in all honesty it’s pretty patchy. Patchy but fun-filled. Rarely do we see a group so switched on – they’ve been rocking their whole implausible career for kicks. Who…

Best Western

Rich Hall's motel life

23 Aug 2007

Although listed under comedy and written/directed by Fringe favourite, comedian Rich Hall, Best Western is far from a light-hearted romp. It looks at two interlinking families in a middle America Motel, where the owners are being forced to sell and the…

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

23 Aug 2007

This engaging mix of movement, song and animation presents a variety of vivid situations. The central characters are two eerie sisters not unlike the little girls from The Shining, who lead us through a series of grim gothic adventures in an inter-war…

Biyi Bandele

23 Aug 2007

Biyi Bandele is a London-based playwright, poet and author. His adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s classic African novel, Things Fall Apart, has been published as a Penguin Classic and his plays have been performed at top venues, including the National…

Bobby Gillespie

23 Aug 2007

Fire Engines ‘I’m a big Fire Engines Fan. They were a big influence on us: fifteen minute sets, very intense. ‘Get Up and Use Me’ – their single. ‘Candy Skin’, ‘Meat Whiplash’, ‘Sympathetic Anaesthetic’, you know? Big fan of the Fire Engines…

Bomber’s Row

23 Aug 2007

In a maximum security prison in Colorado, three of the most dangerous terrorist bombers alive mix with a Cuban drug lord. From their cages in an exercise yard they converse, then a female barber with a secret cuts their hair. Based on true events and…

Bonus points

23 Aug 2007

The Unknown Pleasures Tent Kicking off the fun in the Manicured Noise Field on Friday will be Glaswegian dubsters and reggae-ska lovers, Mungo’s Hi-Fi . Their party mix of mellow, feelgood beats has already gone down a storm at the Knockengorroch…

Brad Meltzer & Ed Benes

(DC/Titan)

23 Aug 2007

Novelist Brad Meltzer proved he has a knack for comics with the gripping Identity Crisis, perfecting a style of weaving human feelings into tales of world shattering superpowers. This is no mean feat given that it’s often near impossible to anchor the…

Breach

Chris Cooper interview

23 Aug 2007

Chris Cooper’s got pedigree. The 56-year-old American actor began his impressive big screen career with the great independent filmmaker John Sayles, making four films with him, including Cooper’s 1987 debut, the miner’s union drama Matewan, and the…

Breach

(12A) 110min

23 Aug 2007

Superior political thriller based on the true story of an FBI turncoat who created the biggest security breach in the organisation’s history. Chris Cooper is excellent as FBI agent Robert Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe is equally good as the undercover…

Breaker Morant

23 Aug 2007

Kenneth Ross’ great Australian tale of official injustice still feels powerful in the telling. In it, three Australian officers are put on trial for the murder of prisoners in the dog days of the second Boer War. Great courage is shown in the face of…

Brendon Burns

23 Aug 2007

There’s a lot to get annoyed about with Brendon Burns. He’s a bit squealy, a bit shouty, a bit prone to flights of squealy, shouty pseudo-philosophical ramblings. A bit like an Aussie Bill Hicks. A bit 1993. Yet with Brendon Burns, what you are seeing…

Butch

23 Aug 2007

Skinny, effeminate Menno Kuijper has many things, including his wit, style and falsetto vocal cords, but what he really wants is to grow muscles and date army captain ‘Stud’, reasoning that: ‘if Harry Potter can do it, why can’t I?’ In a theatrical…

Can of Worms

23 Aug 2007

When a government minister is pictured committing an act he’d rather keep under wraps, can he keep the evidence hidden? And will his aide keep quiet? Dealing with torture, scandal and government cover-ups, all through the unlikely medium of slapstick…

Canadian Bartender at Butlins

23 Aug 2007

If the basic purpose of theatre is to tell a story (and an entertaining one at that), then TJ Dawe has it covered. Recounting the experiences of a summer working at a holiday camp, this monologue has the feel of a fireside ghost story, interspersed with…

Capriccio

23 Aug 2007

At the start of the Festival, opera-goers were spirited back to the genre’s origins with a spectacular production of the first great opera, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Now, as things draw to a close, the opera on offer is one which poses questions to itself…

Caribou

City Slang

23 Aug 2007

Dan Snaith could never be accused of standing still. In six short years he’s worked spectacular things out of his organic, rusty, Boards of Canada-esque electronica and now has led us all down a psychedelic K-hole and come up in a land of effusive pop.

Certified Male

23 Aug 2007

The mini-career resurrection of Les Dennis continues in this comic caper, which asks just what it means to be a modern man, as a terminally ill company executive, with a new perspective on life, takes three of his employees on a think-tank holiday.

Charles Mingus Sextet

Blue Note Records

23 Aug 2007

There is no shortage of live Mingus music available on record, officially sanctioned and otherwise, but this previously completely unknown concert recording from Cornell University in March, 1964, is a genuine discovery. The gig took place shortly…

Chopper

23 Aug 2007

Chopper is the ‘international ambassador of hard’. So claims Heath Franklin as he brings us his successful sketch show character, based on real-life jailbird psycho Mark Brandon Read. The premise is simple: Chopper pops up wherever you least expect him…

Chris McCausland

23 Aug 2007

There are laughs and truths universally acknowledged aplenty in the company of blind comedian Chris McCausland with his tales of planes, trains and shameful ordeals. He takes a pop at bargain airlines and cryptic crosswords, and jollies his way through…

Christina Davis

23 Aug 2007

It would be unforgivable if a show called Sex failed to be funny, given the range of available material. Davis’ set avoids well-worn jokes, managing to be both surprising and intelligent. But Sex ultimately suffers from a somewhat disjointed delivery…

Christine Brewer

23 Aug 2007

As comfortable chatting about American Idol as she is arias, Christine Brewer is swift to dispel any notion of the opera diva. Indeed, from the moment she burst onto the stage as a teenager with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Brewer knew she had…