Issue 608

Office Party

Party On

31 Jul 2008

The medieval feast of fools was an event where established hierarchies were overturned, sexual and social proprieties were transgressed and the everyday laws of the culture were suspended. It’s the subject of academic study all over Europe, where…

Saddle up

31 Jul 2008

As a posse of spoof country and western acts rides towards the Fringe, Allan Radcliffe asks why songs about rednecks, guns and erections make for sublime comedy

Pajama Men - Night moves

31 Jul 2008

Their brand of unique, unhinged comedy has had critics and judges raving about the Pajama Men. Claire Sawers finds that they’re keeping the silly wigs firmly in the bag The voice on the phone sounds impossibly camp. It has a slick and persuasive way…

Live at Loch Lomond - Róisín Murphy

31 Jul 2008

A backless dress with a microscopically small pork pie hat. A sequinned black body sock topped off by a feather boa. Spray-on Lycra and a red ‘Allo ‘Allo beret. Pop chameleon and ex-Moloko frontwoman Róisín Murphy knows a thing or two about killer…

Polish theatre

Poles apart

31 Jul 2008

Sitting in a picturesque café in the heart of Warsaw – Poland’s capital and largest city – it’s easy to forget the turbulent history that has shaped this country’s place in the world today. The city has long had a reputation as a vibrant playground…

Drive-By Truckers - Evolution rock

31 Jul 2008

Drive-By Truckers may hail from America’s south but they do way more than your average redneck stomp. Doug Johnstone meets an ambitious rock band unafraid to take themselves and their audience to new highs

InvAsian Festival

Culture shock

31 Jul 2008

When, earlier this year, a BBC executive lamented the continued dominance of a ‘liberal, white, middle class elite’ across British television, his words could equally have been applied to Edinburgh in August. For all the Fringe’s variety, the number of…

On the Waterfront - Steven Berkoff

Fighting talk

31 Jul 2008

Steven Berkoff’s position in the British theatre is a bit like that of the mysterious nail that seems to belong nowhere after you’ve constructed your Ikea bookshelf. On the face of it, he simply doesn’t belong, but somehow things don’t work without…

Wisecrackin’ Mindsqueezin’ Behemoth - Big time

31 Jul 2008

Their first stage meeting involved simulated copulation. John-Luke Roberts and Nadia Kamil now make beautiful music in their Behemoth sketch guise. Brian Donaldson hears about the pair’s celebrity fans and those nasty critics

Three Billy Goats Gruff

31 Jul 2008

This is the third year in a row that the very wonderful Theatre of Widdershins has played the Fringe – and, rather appropriately, they’re doing a show all about threes: the eponymous goats, plus a few other fairytale characters such as Goldilocks’ pals…

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

31 Jul 2008

Six different, self-contained installation pieces by hugely acclaimed Canadian artist partnership Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, which run a series of gamuts, taking in culture both high and popular, film, multimedia robotics and…

Stage Oddities

31 Jul 2008

Death By Chocolate ‘Interview the suspects, sample the chocolates, solve the crime’ is the pitch for this interactive murder mystery night. The setting is a chocolate-themed singles’ night; the audience are given notepads and pens and encouraged to…

What's up doc?

31 Jul 2008

Borrowing from a classic heist movie, Man on Wire is the latest documentary to take its cue from the art of the feature film. Miles Fielder looks on as the line blurs between fact and fiction It's supposed to be a documentary about a daredevil…

Edinburgh Art Festival

Street arts

31 Jul 2008

Edinburgh residents are used to a takeover at this time of year. As hoardes of performers, artists, comedians and their assorted entourages set up a whole other city on top of theirs, the festivals can feel divorced from the realities of Edinburgh life.

Tim Minchin - Looney tunes

31 Jul 2008

Not one for being stuck in a pigeonhole, Tim Minchin is a musician, actor, comic and father. Anna Millar meets the man who looks like a scarecrow and is terrifying the world of traditional stand-up comedy

War and Conflict

Theatre of war

31 Jul 2008

There’s always a profit to be made from war. The black market proved lucrative during World War II for the sale of rationed chocolate, coffee and cigarettes, while oil companies such as Halliburton have been kept ticking over nicely by the recent…

Felix Dexter - Comedy shuffle

31 Jul 2008

At the RSC he pretended to be the sea and in Edinburgh he sparred with Christian Slater. Leaving the theatre behind for now, Felix Dexter tells Julian Hall that he’s happy again with his first love It’s the first time in over a decade that Felix…

The Meeting - Suits you sir

31 Jul 2008

Three young talents have variously got a boardroom comedy, a sketch show and a student competition to contend with. Our chair Julian Hall asks if there is any other business This year it’s going to be hard for many Fringe-goers to leave work too far…

Norway

31 Jul 2008

Given that Norway is one of the few places in Europe more expensive, and with worse weather than Scotland, it’s not one of the most obvious destinations for a summer holiday. But for those who appreciate quirky historic towns, dramatic scenery and a…

Kickboxing

31 Jul 2008

It’s nothing to do with overdosing on Buffy the Vampire Slayer re-runs, kickboxing is meant to be a great work out. ‘And let’s face it, would you rather I vent my frustrations at you or focus them onto a well padded target?’ I ask my rather frightened…

Nina Nastasia

31 Jul 2008

Nina Nastasia is incredibly merry. The talented NYC-based songstress has just arrived in Ireland for a run of UK dates and has spent the day reacquainting herself with old friends and the local whiskey she loves so much. When we finally pin her down for…

Melting Pot

31 Jul 2008

‘Disco music as a genre essentially stopped in the mid-80s and became dance music as we now know it,’ says Andrew Pirie, promoter and DJ at Glasgow’s Melting Pot. ‘Everything happening in dance music today has some sort of roots in disco. Just as disco…

Social networking

Single files

31 Jul 2008

Recent Pixar smash Wall-E imagines a future in which lumpen humans only engage with each other through computer screens. Worryingly, this seems all too plausible a prospect. Online interaction and social networking are two of this year’s Fringe hot…

Clubbing onstage

Chemical Romance

31 Jul 2008

As an experience that thrives on the spontaneity of the moment, and, often, some kind of altered state of consciousness, clubbing is a difficult subject to translate into drama. Since the mid-90s, the much-trumpeted drug movie or novel has largely…

Kenny Hunter

31 Jul 2008

People who live in cities are dishearteningly used to stepping over piles of rubbish from split bin bags and negotiating street obstacles such as piles of old furniture and abandoned televisions. This phenomenon is international, and is becoming ever…

Mark Olver - Journey's end

31 Jul 2008

In June, Mark Olver set off by foot from Bristol to Edinburgh, relying on the kindness of strangers to get shelter and material for Ramble On. He tells of the shuddering climax to his fantastic voyage ‘I can see Arthur’s Seat’ I said excitedly as I…

Sarah Millican - Credit crunch

31 Jul 2008

Sarah Millican is putting a sad past behind her and profiting from pain. Marissa Burgess pops round for a cuppa and finds that the Geordie comic may not be as dastardly as she wants us to believe

Tao Bar & Restaurant

31 Jul 2008

This is the Chinese century, and it will be ushered in by the Beijing Olympics. Our economy, foreign policy, environmental and even cultural agenda will all be profoundly influenced by the dominance of China over the coming decades. Our cuisine? It…

Tartan Films

31 Jul 2008

If Norma Desmond believed that pictures were getting smaller, then the same can be said for the industry. Smaller by one distributor. After 26 years, Tartan Films has ceased to be. The home to many cutting-edge, independent and foreign-language films…

All day hip hop event

31 Jul 2008

Banksy’s subversive street art sells for millions, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre are basically musical royalty and films such as Step Up 2 continue to popularise break-dancing and battling. Hip hop and street culture couldn’t be having more of a moment. Funny…

Live at Loch Lomond - The Sex Pistols

31 Jul 2008

‘No future, no future, no future for me.’ Those words, penned by John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) back in 1976, expressed not only Lydon’s feelings, not only his band The Sex Pistols’ attitude to life, not only the stance of the fearsome punk movement…

Reginald D Hunter - Tall tales

31 Jul 2008

Reginald D Hunter is a giant of UK stand-up. But, as he tells Jay Richardson, he’s still trying to escape the sins of his father ‘I have always found Edinburgh intense, in my soul and in my belly. You can’t say there ain’t tension in my shows. It’s…

Andrew Lawrence - Sit tight

31 Jul 2008

He may no longer be the stage psychopath with a killer tune and attitude to match, but Andrew Lawrence is still not exactly a cosy act. Marissa Burgess tentatively meets the man behind the growl Andrew Lawrence is a comedian in a state of constant…

Ed Byrne - Cry freedom

31 Jul 2008

Amnesty International supporter Ed Byrne may not be sure where he fits in any more but, as he tells Doug Johnstone, this keeps him in material

Lucy Porter - Festival veteran

31 Jul 2008

Lucy Porter wanted to be like Kate Adie but ended up being more like Lee Evans. That’s what repeatedly coming to the Fringe does to you. She doesn’t mind though… The Edinburgh Fringe Festival ruined my life. That sounds melodramatic, but it’s absolutely…

Shout Out Louds

Industrious Swedes do the happy/sad indie thing supremely

31 Jul 2008

‘If you listen to Abba’s songs,’ says Adam Olenius, ‘they sound really happy, but the lyrics are sad. They sing of broken hearts and melancholy. Heartbreak and beautiful melody, that’s the Swedish sound.’ Olenius, lead singer of Stockholm quintet…

Cass

31 Jul 2008

CRIME/DRAMA/BIOPIC (18) 108min Films about football hooligans have resulted in some of the worst examples of British filmmaking in the last ten years – Green Street, Rise of the Footsoldier, The Football Factory have all scored own goals. So it comes…

Lough/Rain

New writing explores themes of love and stoicism

31 Jul 2008

The spirit of adventure brought to the Fringe by the Underbelly has always been about new work, but this year’s programme seems to lean, more than ever, towards new writing, above and beyond the usual array of physical and visual theatre. Notable among…

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

31 Jul 2008

WESTERN (15) 180min The third part of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western ‘Dollars trilogy’ receives a new print re-release ahead of its predecessors A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More (their digital re-release comes in September). As stupid…

George Orwell's Coming Up for Air

Adaptation of overlooked novel by born again Fringe virgin

31 Jul 2008

On the eve of its 70th anniversary, one of George Orwell’s lesser-known novels has been adapted as a one-hour monologue to be performed by veteran Fringe actor and stand-up comedian Hal Cruttenden. Set in England in 1938, Coming Up For Air dramatises…

The Bird & The Bee

Powerful double bill tells tales of star-crossed lovers

31 Jul 2008

The young, it is sometimes said, are society’s canaries in the mine, the first to sense when something has gone awry. Few could have failed to be moved by the strange and tragic events at Bridgend in Wales, where, in the months to June this year, 22…

The Six Wives of Timothy Leary

High life

31 Jul 2008

Timothy Leary’s place in history has long been assured. A tireless proponent of LSD, he enhanced his notoriety with a daring prison escape and life as a fugitive before recovering some of his glory in the techno-pagan 90s. Hollywood writers have…

Man On Wire

Cherishable and joyous tale from a more innocent age

31 Jul 2008

(12A) 94min Meet Philippe Petit – French artist, performer and high wire walker. On the afternoon of 6 August 1974, Petit and six accomplices set off for the World Trade Centre in an unmarked van. With forged ID passes and dressed as deliverymen they…

Idiots of Ants

Internet sensations return with more sketches firmly on the side of silly

31 Jul 2008

A lot of modern comedy dwells on the darker side of life, but that’s not an accusation to be levelled at Idiots of Ants. The London-based four-man sketch act can be placed firmly in the ‘daft’ file, and if you don’t believe us just check out their…

John Pinette

Fringe debut for big talent who appeared in Seinfeld

31 Jul 2008

A heavyweight performer in every sense, John Pinette never imagined he’d be playing ‘a place where I have the best cholesterol in the country’. The 44-year-old Bostonian has been a stand-up comedian half his life and a muffin devotee far longer, earning…

New Musical Express

31 Jul 2008

Glasgow and Edinburgh venues host new night to help support and develop new emerging music talent. Òran Mór in Glasgow and the Caves in Edinburgh will play host to a new initiative set up by Miller Genuine Draft, The Mill, holding weekly sessions…

Finished With Engines

Attack Mode

31 Jul 2008

Stephanie Viola and Drew Friedman, draped sleepily about a rehearsal room, don’t look much like wisecracking sailors with the power to blow up the world. It might be the jet lag. The New York-based actors, best known as founder members of the multi…

Last Word: Ian McLagan

31 Jul 2008

'Mac' to his mates, Ian McLagan is the veteran of The Faces and The Small Faces, now crowning four decades of rock'n'roll with The Bump Band. He climbs down from his tractor to bad-mouth the president and knock back a pint of Guinness First record…

Dance Base Presents…

One stop shop for dance fans

31 Jul 2008

Pop open the Dance Base brochure and what do you see? A picture of artistic director, Morag Deyes beckoning you into one of the most striking arts-centred buildings in Edinburgh. And why go? To see what will be one of the more eclectic, stimulating and…

Wearing well - crazy clobber for comedic purposes

31 Jul 2008

The Pajama Men are not the only ones who are putting on crazy clobber for comedic purposes. Brian Donaldson reveals some other Fringe comics who’ve had a wardrobe malfunction. The show by Mark Allen is about his uneasy relationship with animals and…