Issue 584

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…

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…

Michael McIntyre

23 Aug 2007

Michael McIntyre has the look of someone your mother would like. Unashamedly middle class in his dress, mannerisms and speech, it’s easy to see why he is being heralded as the latest thing in ‘posh comedy’. In terms of demeanour and delivery, McIntyre…

MIA

23 Aug 2007

Were we to try and describe the precise sound which London-born, Sri Lanka-raised MIA makes, we’d be here all day. While she can be very broadly described as an electro-grime act whose vocals are a combination of hip hop cajoling and reggae rhythm…

Kids' events

23 Aug 2007

The last few days of the kids programme takes a walk on the dark side with scary-sounding events such as Night of the Living Horror (25 Aug, 6pm) which opens up a world of gothic terror for those aged ten plus, though Justin Somper and his Vampirates…

Lady Chatterley

(18) 168min

23 Aug 2007

An understated yet compelling French adaptation of Lawrence’s once scandalous novel. Eschewing melodrama the director Pascale Ferran focuses on how the sexual relationship transforms the lives of the lovers. Marina Hans and Jean-Louis Coullo’ch do…

Trisha Brown Dance Company

23 Aug 2007

In 1962, one building in New York City became the centre of the modern dance world. Artists flocked to Judson Memorial Church to produce work, and when they left, went on to influence dancers and choreographers around the world. But when I ask Trisha…

Skolka

23 Aug 2007

Three mail order bride applicants sell themselves to the audience, and before you know it you’ve followed their life history and found out exactly how they ended up smiling at a camera in desperation. This physically enthralling piece draws you into the…

Vashti Bunyan

23 Aug 2007

From Stones protégée to modern folk icon, Stewart Smith counts down the four ages of effervescent folk singer Vashti Bunyan

William Eggleston

5 Questions

23 Aug 2007

5 words to describe Eggleston’s show this year? Even William Eggleston loves it. 4 exhibitions you really want to see at the Art Festival? Richard Wright, the Andy Warhol films, Jock McFadyen and Amazing Rare Things. 3 things that you…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Two Days in Paris

(15) 100min

23 Aug 2007

French actress Julie Delpy jumps behind the camera for the second time with a film that pays a heavy debt to her most famous screen role, that of Céline in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Two Days in Paris is an investigation…

Year of the Dog

(PG) 97min

23 Aug 2007

Talented comic screenwriter and actor Mike White (Chuck and Buck, The Good Girl, School of Rock) makes his directing debut with this low-key comedy about a loosely related group of neurotic nerds, geeks, dorks and stress monkeys living in bland suburban…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…