Issue 584

Knocked Up

(15) 128min

23 Aug 2007

Production assistant Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) gets the opportunity of a lifetime when she is given the chance to present on an entertainment TV channel. One day her producer tells her that her body could do with being a little ‘tighter’. But no…

New digital video service to teach fans how to recreate songs

23 Aug 2007

Aspiring musicians are being offered the chance to learn their craft from the music maestros themselves this month, following the launch of ‘Now Play It’, a new digital video service developed to help offer a more instant and direct way of learning, to…

Jarvis Cocker

23 Aug 2007

During the heady days of Britpop I was a Jarvis Cocker obsessive; following Pulp around from town to town, skipping school to buy concert tickets and waiting outside venues and hotels for autographs and photos until all hours of the morning. Once the…

Lady Chatterley

23 Aug 2007

Showjumping’s loss is cinema’s gain. As a teenager Marina Hands was a sufficiently accomplished equestrienne to feature in the French junior national team, along with the future actor-director Guillaume Canet. ‘We weren’t good enough to become…

Ricky Gervais

23 Aug 2007

There really can’t be too many comic names who would get away with performing a one-off gig at the Fringe for an International Festival ticket price, but Sir Richard of Gervais is one such man. With Fame, his obedient fans will be entertained with tales…

Mountain biking

23 Aug 2007

You’re tired and you’re sore. Nights on the vodka still don’t mix with nights on the air mattress. Sunlight splits the trees as the smells of pine forest, fresh earth and your own Red Bull–tinged breath fill your nostrils. It’s daft o’clock in the…

Björk

23 Aug 2007

It is a muggy summer’s afternoon, and although she has been doing interviews in an airless west London hotel suite for several hours, the Queen of Quirk is in fine form and fizzing with energy. Having recently released Volta – touted as her most…

The Easy Star All-Stars

23 Aug 2007

It seems that these days the cover version is more popular among artists and listeners than ever. Mark Ronson’s stone-cold funk renderings have made him friends aplenty (as well as a few enemies), and one cottage label has made the high concept leap…

1408

(15) 105min

23 Aug 2007

Mikael 'Derailed Håfström'’s mild chiller is pretty much a one-man horror vehicle for John Cusack as Mike Enslin, a world-weary writer who makes his living from staying in supposedly haunted locations and describing his experiences. After a mysterious…

Ae Fond Kiss

Greer Ogston

23 Aug 2007

Not to be confused with the 2004 film of the same name, Anne-Marie di Mambro’s play focuses on an awkward teen, Zed, who arrives for his birthday present – an hour with Lola. But Lola is not quite what he expected, in more ways than one. This tender…

AL Kennedy

23 Aug 2007

Dramatic career shifts don’t come more eye-opening than the transition from author to stand-up comic. But that’s the move AL Kennedy made over a year ago and she has gone on to prove to be just as adept in her new job. For this event, she will talk…

Alan Bennett

(Profile)

23 Aug 2007

Alan Bennett’s latest work is a charmingly subversive novella in which the Queen develops a taste for reading. She stumbles upon the Westminster travelling library thanks to her ill-mannered corgis, and swiftly moves from a determined and dutiful…

Alex Horne

23 Aug 2007

Alex Horne revels in trying to find comedy in the most unlikely of corners. It’s one thing to make fun out of ancient languages (the absurdities of Latin was the topic of his last full Fringe run) but he’s now moved on to the inherently unfunny pursuit…

Alyssa Kyria

23 Aug 2007

Kyria’s talents as a comic actor are evident in this patchy but entertaining character act. Compered by Ariadne the Greek socialite, the show also features an Australian New Age dimwit, a snooty tennis-playing nymphomaniac and plenty more grotesques.

Amsterdam Underground Comedy Collective

23 Aug 2007

If this is Dutch humour at its finest, I’m off to Germany for my laughs. The AUCC may have a cult following back home but there’s little reason to believe that their comedy travels at all well in this lame, tame hour. The supposed heavyweight talents of…

And When Did You Last See Your Father?

23 Aug 2007

‘It’s not my story, of course. It’s Blake’s story,’ says screenwriter David Nicholls of his latest project. Having cut his teeth on TV drama Cold Feet, Nicholls successfully adapted his own novel Starter For Ten for the cinema before he agreed to give…

Andrew Maxwell

23 Aug 2007

5 words to describe this year’s show, Waxin’? Beautiful, real life, white lies. 4 stand-ups/comedy acts who you think should be more famous in September than they are now? Rhod Gilbert, Jim Jeffries, Steve Hughes, Stephen K Amos. 3…

Andrew McClelland

23 Aug 2007

In one of the hottest rooms on the Fringe, this madcap Australian sweats buckets trying to get laughs from his show which is about nothing more or less ambitious than his favourite songs. You’ll either adore his mugging immediately or sit open-mouthed…

Andrew O'Neill

23 Aug 2007

Is Andrew O’Neill rock or folk? He has the heavy metal chains but he also has long hair and black framed glasses. He has a V-shaped guitar, but it’s acoustic instead of electric. More importantly, is this a comedy show or surrealist theatre? The answer…

Ann Patchett

23 Aug 2007

In the space of 24 hours, Ann Patchett’s Run covers an entire social spectrum: interracial relationships, Catholicism and its validity, familial conflict, economic and class equality, and political ethics. This is a hefty fallout from a single event for…

Arnold Wesker’s The Mistress

23 Aug 2007

We are all capable of turning a blind eye to the painful or immoral acts that happen all around us. Arnold Wesker’s tale of a lover’s guilt finds fashion designer Sam (Martha Lott) transposing facets of her personality onto her dressmaking dummies as…

As You Were

23 Aug 2007

Packing them in for their observational stand-up, tag-team Roger Hailes and Todd Womack and have caused quite a stir with a simple comedy club format, welcoming an alternative Fringe guest each night (on this occasion the sublimely smutty guitar duo…

Attic Lights and The Primary 5

23 Aug 2007

It was only last year that Glasgow fivesome Attic Lights climbed down the stairs from the attic where they’d been honing their big guitarry sound – a power pop blend of 60s Beach Boys harmonies and gently melodic Americana – and finally stepped outside.

Austin Low

23 Aug 2007

This jovial Aberdonian admits to gulping a couple of litres of fizzy pop every single day. Which perhaps explains his inability to stand still or focus on his material for any given amount of time. There’s a fine show in the caffeine-happy head of Mr…

Babble

23 Aug 2007

A monologue based on the Jorge Luis Borges short story ‘The Library of Babel’, Babble focuses on a secluded librarian’s (Jonathan Clarkson) quest for the answers to all life’s puzzles in his stacks of books. Though the fundamental ideas behind the play…

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…

Closing Time

23 Aug 2007

The present conflict in Iraq may dominate both news and Fringe agendas but, lest we forget, away from the cameras and newspaper columns, hundreds of conflicts continue to rage on all four corners of the globe. Alongside death, it is human dispersion…

Colin McRae: Dirt

Codemasters

23 Aug 2007

Surely the most attractive thing about rally sport is its white knuckle, mud-spraying, knife-edge excitement? Which is where most rally titles seem to go astray, preferring to follow the F1 or Touring Car route of exactitude, anal technical precision…

Corpus Christi

23 Aug 2007

Terrence McNally’s controversial retelling of the New Testament places Jesus in 50s Texas and involves the son of God in a sexual relationship with Judas, whose consequent jealously results in the betrayal. Despite slick direction and clever ensemble…

Craig Davidson

23 Aug 2007

Craig Davidson doesn’t pull any punches. We might as well get the terrible boxing pun out the way at the start, because his debut novel, The Fighter, is a brutally violent but brilliantly written tale set in the world of underground bare-knuckle…

Dan Atkinson

23 Aug 2007

With shambolic hair and stately intonations, Atkinson looks and sounds like an endearingly mad university professor. He uses his amiable and rambling persona to enlighten the audience with talk of Greek philosophy and nicely worked illogical theories.

Dan Willis

23 Aug 2007

Very few things that are this good are offered for nothing. Willis turns a potentially difficult venue to his advantage, ad-libbing off his audience and displaying obvious ease behind the microphone as people from the pub downstairs wander in and out.

David Kendall

(Robinson)

23 Aug 2007

This really is a weighty tome with over 500 pages of war comics culled from across the world and through the ages (from 1965–2006). Keiji Nakazawa sets the mood with his personal account of the bombing of Hiroshima in I Saw It, a poignant tale that…

David O'Doherty

23 Aug 2007

Due to his distinctive, idiosyncratic style (plus, possibly, last year’s Eddies nomination) David O’Doherty has a strong following and has nothing to prove. Yet, for the sixth year, he serves up the goods. In sharp contrast to O’Doherty’s endearingly…

David Ward

23 Aug 2007

David Ward has certainly had a busy old life, mainly revolving around the gambling addictions which led to him doing time. With a title such as The Whole Truth and Nothing But, all we can do is follow him down his own personal lane of memories as his…

Death Sentence

(18) 105min

23 Aug 2007

Mild-mannered businessman Nick (Kevin Bacon) turns into a gang-hunting vigilante when his eldest son is murdered. Good old-fashioned vigilante drama based on the book sequel of Brian Garfield’s Death Wish. Directed with a maturity and intelligence by…

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

23 Aug 2007

There’s a very fine line between a send-up of a ropey cultural item and something that’s just plain ropey. Almost from its shrill opening bars it becomes crystal clear that Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical has crossed the line. The fundamental…

Dogfight

23 Aug 2007

Serial streaker, Mark Roberts, narrowly avoided an Asbo for his ‘performance’ at the Ryder cup. Thankfully, a judge with a sense of humour and an ounce of brain power dismissed the case but it’s this legislating against the insignificant things while…

DT Max

23 Aug 2007

Three things compelled DT Max to set about writing The Family that Couldn’t Sleep. Firstly, as a science writer for the New Yorker and New York Times, he had an interest in prions, the rogue proteins behind mad cow disease. The second was personal: he…

Edinburgh Mela

23 Aug 2007

Post-Festival blues? Mosey on over to Pilrig Park, which is preparing to twitch again to an insistent, persistent bhangra beat. This year the massive, weekend-long inter-cultural festival has pulled performers from Tibet, Iran, Nepal, China, Brazil…

Ensemble 415

23 Aug 2007

It’s not unheard of for groups of musicians to give themselves identities that have something to do with numbers. The Sixteen, for instance, take their name from the regular quota of their singers. Or there’s New York’s Ensemble 21, whose contemporary…

Escaping Hamlet

23 Aug 2007

Is life predetermined, or do we have an input into our own destiny? This is the primary question asked by this fantastical reworking of Hamlet. Keeping the basic plot of the prince who discovers that his uncle killed his father and seeks revenge, this…

Ewan Morrison

23 Aug 2007

For any writer who spends most of their time away all on their own in a darkened corner, it’s essential to have a release and to get some thoughts on their work from people they know and trust. For an author such as Ewan Morrison, dubbed notoriously as…

Ex Drummer

23 Aug 2007

Based on the degenerate novel of the same name by the hugely popular Flemish novelist and poet Herman Brusselmans, Ex Drummer is like a checklist of the Belgian writer’s obsessions, noticeably alcohol, sex, disability, boredom, violence, punk rock and…

Fall Out Boy

23 Aug 2007

Famed for their highly polished, energetic stage show, the kings of emo-pop, Fall Out Boy, fill their down time from the Reading and Leeds festivals with a quick jaunt up to Scotland. The band broke through to the mainstream with hits like ‘Sugar We’re…

Fatboy

David Laing

23 Aug 2007

With our current culture of consumerism and our seemingly endless desire to rid the planet of its natural resources, there is unlikely to be a more fitting or biting satire at this year’s Fringe than John Clancy’s Fatboy. An updated version of Alfred…

Flamenco con Fusion

23 Aug 2007

Ricardo Garcia’s Familia Flamenca exemplifies the drama that can be created from a simple fusion of virtuoso musicianship and strong, deft footwork. Even stripped down to acoustic instruments, voices and movement, the show is no less uplifting. Whether…

Flavour of the month

23 Aug 2007

Food at festivals is too often hit and miss. At best you may find some culinary treat that shocks and delights the pallette, while others are there to fill a hole as you rush from stage to stage between bands. But the organisers of Connect are…

Footlights

23 Aug 2007

Judging by the comedy graduation success of the Cambridge sect, the next Mark Watson or Stephen Fry may well be among the folk on stage, but they’re as difficult to spot as a funny sketch. Still, the cast’s occasional efforts to swallow their own…

Four Wenches and a Free For All

23 Aug 2007

An entertaining hour is spent in the company of these talented actors. The laughs aren’t massive, with some jokes a little obvious, but the more creative ones include the ‘Vodafriend’ shop where you can exchange your old mate for a newer model with more…

Frances Richardson: Internus

23 Aug 2007

Richardson’s sculptural works present a vision of the emotional dereliction that lies beneath the surface of contemporary consumerist culture. Internus, draws on elements from a 15th century Italian painting Archangel Raphael Saving an Attempted Suicide…

Frank Skinner

23 Aug 2007

After a decade away from the stand-up circuit, you’d think that quite a fuss would have been made of Frank Skinner’s Edinburgh return, back in the exact same room where it all started for him with his Perrier-winning year of 1991. Yet when the lights go…

Funeral Games

23 Aug 2007

Not to be confused with the Joe Orton play, this friendly little physical theatre piece focuses on a young undertaker forced to look after his demanding father. His brother, a wee bovver boy comes on a visit, and various fakings of death, and real…

Game Theory

23 Aug 2007

At the end of a war with some resemblance to the Yugoslavian conflict, a succession of scenarios unfolds. Three government officials negotiate fruitlessly over responsibility and territory, a woman returns to her abandoned, vandalised home with her two…

Game?

23 Aug 2007

If you’ve ever been to a dinner party and wanted to scream in frustration then this creative company, Tangled Feet, have the play for you. What begins as a get together to welcome the neighbours soon morphs into a sharp, surreal insight into the…

Gently Progressive Behemoth

23 Aug 2007

While the sketch show may have fared rather poorly at this year’s Fringe, the oddball double act might well be having its salad days. Certainly, if the Gently Progressive Behemoth (in the shape of comically theatrical young Cambridge guns Nadia Kamil…

Get Your War On

23 Aug 2007

“I’m not very analytical. You know I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about why I do things”, honest words from President Bush, as he spells out his failings to the electorate and yet they still voted him in for a second term. Join the Rude…

Glenn Wool

23 Aug 2007

If ever a comic had an appropriate surname, then it’s this surrealistic Canadian. You could knit a jumper with the majority of this set, but while it may be overflowing with material, give one of its many loose ends a tug and all the threads would come…

Greg Fleet with Mick Moriarty

23 Aug 2007

Fleet has survived drug addiction and a guest part in Neighbours. Now, with the aid of a double bass and guitar-playing sidekick, he successfully battles tree frogs, a tiny but disproportionately vocal audience and being a punning private dick straight…

Gürzenich Orchestra

Carol Main

23 Aug 2007

Of all the orchestras appearing at the Festival, there is none with a more impressive pedigree than the Gürzenich from Germany. Mahler, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms and Stravinsky all wrote for and conducted this orchestra, whose Cologne roots stretch…

Hallam Foe

(18) 95min

23 Aug 2007

As writer and philosopher William Gass once noted: ‘for the voyeur, fiction is what’s called going all the way’. No one knows this better than rural Scottish boy Hallam Foe (Jamie Bell). While his father (Ciarán Hinds) and stepmother (Claire Forlani…

Hamell on Trial

23 Aug 2007

Can there be anything worse than someone banging on about how wild life was in the 60s/early 70s? Possibly not, and in The Terrorism of Everyday Life cult hero Hamell tortures the uninitiated with a string of shouty punkish anthems and marginally…

Happy Mondays

23 Aug 2007

‘Hola!’ Shaun Ryder is just back from Spain, and has clearly been learning the language. In between shows leading up to next week’s T on the Fringe gig, though, the surprisingly sharp and decidedly affable Happy Mondays frontman is at home, ‘catching up…

Hard-Fi

23 Aug 2007

With new album Once Upon a Time in the West released the day before this gig, the Staines crew bring forth their ‘club’ tour, giving fans another chance to catch the band’s chirpy dole-rock in an intimate setting. So expect more swaggering tales of…

Harmon Leon

23 Aug 2007

This dreadlocked American claims to be The Infiltrator but how he managed to work his way into the comedy section of the Fringe programme is his greatest hoax. He’s on stage for perhaps ten minutes as he plays some largely pointless footage of him…

Hattie Hayridge

23 Aug 2007

She may have one of the slowest openings to any comedy show on the Fringe, but Hattie Hayridge is in no mood to speed things along at any point. This is either fantastically brave or a sign that her nervy stage disposition is not as much of an act as it…

Heroes and Villains

23 Aug 2007

This two-hander by Matt Greene and Darren Richman features a pair of life’s losers not quite winning a huge fortune on the lottery and spending the next hour chatting about girls and their problems with some level of humour and verve. The piece thinks…

Hitlist - the best dancefloor action

23 Aug 2007

Happy Mondays’ Aftershow Keep the Madchester vibes flowing as Shaun and Bez descend on Studio 24 for a DJ set. Studio 24, Edinburgh, Fri 24 Aug. Relentless The darling of the great Tresor imprint, UK techno purveyor James Ruskin is in town to…

Hitlist - the best exhibitions

23 Aug 2007

Picasso on Paper An exhibition of drawings, prints and illustrated books spanning the career of one of the 20th century’s most important artists. Picasso’s early work gave those artists who followed him a route into pure abstraction, with his later…

Hitlist - the best exhibitions

23 Aug 2007

David Rokeby: Silicon Remembers Carbon Stunning new interactive multimedia work from David Rokeby. CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 15 Sep. Roderick Buchanan: Histrionics A series of works, by Glasgow-based artist Roderick Buchanan, examining the city’s…

Hitlist - the best Festival book events

23 Aug 2007

Tony Harrison The poet whose 1984 work ‘V’ sparked a torrent of tabloid and parliamentary outrage over its Channel 4 adaptation arrives to discuss the power of poetry. Thom Yorke is a big fan. 23 Aug, 11.30am, £7 (£5). Ian McEwan One of the…

Hitlist - the best Festival comedy

23 Aug 2007

Stewart Lee Making a mockery of his low placing as the 41st Best Stand-Up Ever, the co-writer of Jerry Springer: The Opera has had everyone making a song and dance about this year’s show. UdderBELLY’s Pasture, 0870 745 3083, until 27 Aug, 7.30pm…

Hitlist - the best Festival dance

23 Aug 2007

Ballerina Who Loves A B-Boy The finest Korean breakdancers in town – treat yourself to headspins, streetdance and a wee bit of ballet in this five star show. clubWEST@Hilton, 0772 028 5550, 7.45pm, until 24 Aug, £12 (£9). Trisha Brown Dance Company…

Hitlist - the best Festival events for kids

23 Aug 2007

Modern Cautionary Tales For Children Poetry, dark tales and lots of fun participation from the very wonderful Murray Lachlan Young. Gilded Balloon Teviot, 668 1633, until 27 Aug, noon, £6–£7 (£5–£6). Aesop’s Fables With the aid of three hugely…

Hitlist - the best Festival film

23 Aug 2007

Run Granny Run Enjoyably eccentric documentary about a 94-year-old lady’s attempt to become the Democrat’s New Hampshire candidate for the senate. Filmhouse, 623 8030, 23 Aug, 4.30pm, £7.95 (£5.50). Faro: Goddess of the Waters Captivating…

Hitlist - the best Festival music

23 Aug 2007

The Tiger Lillies A few short years ago we were being blown away by this band’s antics at the Spiegeltent. Now they’re up at the International festival. The change of festival has not diluted their appeal, here they team up with Concerto Caledonia for…