Issue 608

Obong

Celebration of Nigerian music and dance

31 Jul 2008

It’s easy to lump African dance together into one big melting pot of bright costumes and tribal drums. In reality, not only does each country have a distinct style, so too does each region within it. Hailing from Cross River State in Nigeria, the Obong…

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…

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

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

Live at Loch Lomond

31 Jul 2008

Another festival for the Scottish calendar, now in its second year, Live at Loch Lomond offers up a solid dance line-up. Subculture and Death Disco host a tent on Saturday and Sunday respectively, while names such as UNKLE, Groove Armada, Morcheeba and…

Chad McCail

31 Jul 2008

The well-revered Scottish artist has created a series of new screenprints exclusively for Edinburgh Printmakers. McCail’s deceptively bold, cartoonish graphics mask the social critique at the centre of the work, which focuses on subjects like education…

Free Outgoing

True-life tale explores India’s traditional attitudes to sex

31 Jul 2008

It was a real-life incident that prompted Chennai-based playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar to write Free Outgoing, which depicts a country’s anger when an Indian schoolgirl is filmed with a boy in her classroom. ‘I heard the girl’s family migrated…

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…

Three others to try: Exotic and physical

31 Jul 2008

Capoeira An Brazilian blend of dance, martial arts and acrobatics, capoeira is not for the faint-hearted. Re-enact Vincent Cassel’s leaps through the lasers in Ocean’s Twelve with Group Senzala, who are one of the most famous capoeira groups in the…

5 Questions - Linda Marlowe

31 Jul 2008

Linda Marlowe is renowned for her mesmerising solo performances, from Berkoff’s Women to Believe. As she prepares to wow this year’s Fringe with The Time Step, she tap dances her way through our Q&A 5 words to describe The Time Step Wacky, cruel…

Camille: the Dark Angel

31 Jul 2008

Some festival veterans would appear to be gluttons for punishment, others just seem to return again and again only to grow in stature. Dublin’s Camille O’Sullivan is very much of the latter category and is among the most celebrated and cherished of…

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…

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…

Theatre to stimulate the senses

Far Up! Far Out! Far More!

31 Jul 2008

Wanderlust This interactive club event returns audiences to the spirit of 1930s Berlin with its electrifying fusion of circus and cabaret, all administered by a ten-foot Fraulein. Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, 2–24 Aug (not 11), 11.30pm, £9–£10.50…

Isy Suttie

The homespun revolution continues with Matlock’s character comic

31 Jul 2008

‘It’s called The Suttie Show; I knew I would use that title at some point,’ explains Isy Suttie of the serendipitous naming of her new show.

Surviving Spike

The tortured genius behind the inspired comic lunacy

31 Jul 2008

Surviving Spike promises to reveal the ‘tormented character that hid behind the public facade’. Audiences could be forgiven for assuming the blurb refers to the show’s star, Michael Barrymore, whose career was all but destroyed by revelations of the…

Ratatat

31 Jul 2008

Specialising in the art of bleeps and blips Ratatat are an electronic duo (Mike Stroud and Evan Mast) hailing from New York City harnessing synths and other machinery for a funky take on electro. Having toured with the likes of Bjork, Daft Punk and CSS…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Stefan Golaszewski Speaks About A Girl He Once Loved

Witty, sophisticated monologue speaks of first love

31 Jul 2008

In his first solo show at the Fringe Stefan Golaszewski shares the funny side of falling in love at 18. As the writer/performer points out, the show describes ‘the massive mind-blowing experience of meeting someone who completely changes you.’ The…

Fringe celebs

Star turns

31 Jul 2008

Joan Rivers, the funnywoman and enemy of Loose Women stars in her play on the ups and downs of ageing, Work in Progress by a Life in Progress. Karen Dunbar, the Chewing the Fat star gets serious in Denise Mina’s A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle.