Issue 609

Working into retirement can bring a new lease of life

13 Aug 2008

What do you see in your future? A cosy retirement? Make it to 60 and then you’re free for sand, sea and sangria? Well, not everyone feels quite the same. A growing number of people choose to work past retirement age because they don’t want a ‘quiet’ life.

Kristin Hersh

After the flood

7 Aug 2008

To the casual observer, Kristin Hersh is a bundle of contradictions. Just seconds into our conversation she is gabbing away like an old friend, expounding on her one-woman show Paradoxical Undressing, the tale of a tumultuous teenage life when, in the…

Desert storm

7 Aug 2008

‘The disease in question had, as its main deleterious effect, the fact that it renders its victims perfectly unable to write anything but 500-page books about the civil war in Sudan.’ The ‘victim’ in this case is US author Dave Eggers, but the…

Dybbuk - Bring out the dead

7 Aug 2008

Steve Cramer flies to Jerusalem to talk to Polish star Magdalena Cielecka about ghosts, obligation and tradition as explored in a new version of the Jewish classic, The Dybbuk

Kristen Schaal - Heart of daftness

7 Aug 2008

Kristen Schaal merges sinister and sweet with terrifying success. Claire Sawers chats to her while hoping she doesn’t do that angry, erotic sheep thing.

The Idiot Colony

Beautiful, shocking indictment of an all-too recent past

7 Aug 2008

The opening scene of this intense, beautifully constructed piece of physical theatre lingers, unsettlingly, for days afterwards. Three girlish figures in pretty white dresses, perfectly in sync with each other, sway to a ragtime number, their faces…

Deep Cut

Powerful take on true-life tragedy

7 Aug 2008

Thirteen years after Cheryl James died at Deepcut barracks, the young army private's parents continue to campaign for a public enquiry. No longer solely concerned as to whether she committed suicide, as the army originally claimed, Des and Doreen James…

Children of the Khmer

Cambodian song and dance

7 Aug 2008

This is as inspiring as it gets. An ensemble of young talented performers from Cambodia delivering perfectly orchestrated dance routines that are soulful, funny, enthusiastic and set against a powerful musical backdrop. It starts off on a mellow…

Brendon Burns

Award winner is back and still pretty angry

7 Aug 2008

What do you get when you take an aggressive Aussie comic with a history of psychosis, substance abuse and vitriolic rants about every sector of humanity and award him the if.comeddie main award? Gladiator costumes, Schwarzenegger impressions and a…

Ladies in Waiting

Getting Brownie points for this show

7 Aug 2008

Anyone who has broken their childhood promise to 'do their best' will find this show pleasingly subversive. The Brownie leader, Brown Owl, starts the show with a finger pressed to her pursed lips and the audience is told to be 'quiet as mice'. The…

Mark Watson

Lightning fast, likeable wit from not quite Welsh wizard

7 Aug 2008

Most 55-minute comedy shows, explains Mark Watson, use 50 minutes of material then allow five for laughter. But being a pessimist, the self-slagging, nervy wonderboy has prepared an hour. Based on audience reactions, the wiry, fake Welshman should have…

Pot Noodle The Musical

Song and spoofs about the saucy snack

7 Aug 2008

With unexpected Hamlet undertones, Pot Noodle The Musical spins the story of the dastardly Alan Little, who kills his noodle-farmer brother Barry in order to get his mitts on prostitutes and cars. The plot is a happy blend of clichéd musical (Barry's…

The Echo Chamber

Underground antics

7 Aug 2008

Part history lesson, part scary story, this atmospheric show from En Masse Theatre is a great way to start your Fringe day. Descending down into the bowels of Edinburgh, you find yourself in one of the many caverns and passageways that run beneath the…

Jackie Leven

Scottish outsider brings home his extensive back catalogue

7 Aug 2008

It’s the stuff on your doorstep that always goes unnoticed. While we heap plaudits on underground legends from across the pond, Scotland’s own talented outsider Jackie Leven remains unheralded. ‘I can’t get arrested in this country,’ Leven laughs…

Tracey Emin: 20 Years

Emin thrills… and disappoints

7 Aug 2008

Tracey Emin seems to polarise opinion – just check out the online comments on her column in The Independent. One of Britain’s most recognisable YBA artists, she’s been nominated for the Turner Prize and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, but…

DJ Sneak

7 Aug 2008

The Telefunken team are joined by an acknowledged master of Chicago house in the form of DJ Sneak, for his first Edinburgh show in five years. Moving to Chicago from his native Puerto Rico in 1983 he quickly soaked up the sounds of Frankie Knuckles…

Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design

Of human bond-age

7 Aug 2008

It’s strange, considering how conservative a character James Bond is, that his presentation and marketing seems to fall so readily in step with the times. From Sean Connery throughout the smooth, swinging 60s, to the more cartoonishly lurid 70s and…

Caring for people

People with dementia are learning to live their lives to the full

7 Aug 2008

When people consider retirement they often think of all the fun things they’ll be able to do that they’ve never had time for before. This dream is occasionally cut short when someone close to them discovers they have dementia but that is not to say the…

Dr Sketchy’s Anti Art School

7 Aug 2008

I blame after-school ‘buff club’ for the prudish apprehension I felt on entering Dr Sketchy’s Anti Art School. The life drawing class of my youth utterly succeeded in repressing my schoolgirl giggle. Week after week the models’ towelling gowns would…

Ingleby Gallery

All change

7 Aug 2008

Edinburgh’s Ingleby gallery has gradually developed a solid reputation for showing emerging and established contemporary art in a domestic Georgian setting, but their art collection has grown along with their status, prompting directors Richard and…

Last Word - Manda Rin

7 Aug 2008

First record you ever bought It was a seven-inch of the Bangles’ ‘Manic Monday’ in RS McColl’s in the Pollok Centre. Last time you were chatted up I never feel like I get chatted up, but am always told that I am by friends (and my boyfriend!). I…

Âme

7 Aug 2008

‘It’s pronounced “am”,’ says Kristian Beyer, one half of Karlsruhe electronicists Âme. ‘All the time people pronounce it “ami” or “Amy”, but it’s “am” – the French word for soul.’ In which case the duo are well-named, because Âme produce a beautiful…

Calvin Johnson

7 Aug 2008

When Calvin Johnson plays a booze-free all-ages show in a church hall in Glasgow this week, he won’t be attempting to be cute. Rather, it’s just one more wilfully skewed strategy in this most single-minded of mavericks’ ongoing mission of DIY…

Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir

7 Aug 2008

They may be only four in number but there are times when the collective voices of the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir soar as strong and pure as a 100-strong ensemble. While they make us guess at the tendency of their religious beliefs there is no…

Wagner Moura - Elite Squad

7 Aug 2008

Girls swoon when Wagner Moura wanders through his old haunts in Sao Paulo. The 32-year-old graduate in journalism with boyish good looks is in the process of going global thanks to his role as the captain of the shoot-first-ask-questions-later elite…