Issue 610

A shared experience

21 Aug 2008

Age is not a factor for the Armed Forces. It is shared experience that counts and each member of the forces has his or her own experiences to draw upon and assist others. Every year the Royal Regiment of Scotland hosts an activity weekend for cadets…

Barry & Stuart: Part-time Warlocks

Part-time warlocks, full-time fun

14 Aug 2008

It's hard to imagine Paul Daniels onstage with a joint that transforms into a gold chain, and there's no danger you'd have caught him magically turning a porn mag into a map of Iraq. Describing themselves as the 'anti-Paul Daniels of magic', these…

Chuck Palahniuk - Snuff love

14 Aug 2008

Chuck Palahniuk tells such stark tales that people faint at his readings. Doug Johnstone crosses his legs, girds his loins and chats to the guru of gore

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

A childhood state of imaginative possibility

14 Aug 2008

Over six pieces comprising kinetic sculpture, projections, visceral jokes, total immersion sensory works, whole room architectural installations and, with ‘Opera for a Small Room’ (pictured), an awe-inspiringly perfect sound sculpture, Cardiff and Bures…

Louis CK

Domestic policy

14 Aug 2008

Championed by Ricky Gervais, loved by late-night US TV and censored by his wife, Louis CK is preparing to launch his brand of outrageous confessional comedy on the UK. Claire Prentice finds out just how far he's prepared to go. Louis CK is driving…

Russell Howard

Beat surrender

14 Aug 2008

Russell Howard can't resist a spot of testicular tomfoolery but, he tells Jay Richardson, his new act is less Buster Gonad than Jack Kerouac With his infectious, wide-eyed optimism currently offering a counterbalance to Frankie Boyle's unflinching…

Simon Munnery - Festival veteran

14 Aug 2008

Simon Munnery shares his lessons learned from 21 years on the Fringe

Take 5: Plays with a gruesome body count

14 Aug 2008

Topping the morbidity league with plane upon planeful of passengers heading to a nasty end, Charlie Victor Romeo takes transcripts from black box recorders and re-enacts those scary final minutes of sky-high tension. Not every passenger dies, but most…

The Vanishing Point

Awe inspiring spectacle on stilts

14 Aug 2008

The Vanishing Point is sheer delight. The stilt walkers, communicating to each other through some sort of primeval whale song, trace a pattern of evolution from dinosaur-like creatures and sexually charged tribal people to, briefly, dead-eyed office…

Jock Tamson’s Bairns - Child's play

14 Aug 2008

Bands have a saying that you are only as young as your youngest member. That places Jock Tamson’s Bairns at about 33 years old, the age of their newest member, the fiddler Anna Wendy Stevenson, who joined the legendary Scottish folk combo in 2006. ‘I…

Lisa Appignanesi - Express yourself

14 Aug 2008

Kate Gould finds Lisa Appignanesi on good form as she discusses the history of health and the future of censorship

Office Party

Tasteless delights

14 Aug 2008

Seldom were ham and cheese so well combined in a sandwich as in Cal McCrystal’s interactive version of that familiar titular institution, the office party. The show may be disrupted here and there by its structure, but this seems to do nothing to dampen…

Gavin Francis

Trekking round the back door of Europe

14 Aug 2008

Edinburgh-based GP-turned-adventurer and travel writer Gavin Francis’ next book – charting an epic motorcycle schlep from Orkney to Sydney – will finish on an ironic endnote. Having survived the mean streets of Beirut and New Delhi on its journey, his…

John Pinette

Say yeah yeah to big bad John

14 Aug 2008

Since getting Jerry and co locked up in the grand finale of Seinfeld, John Pinette has spent the last decade making a name for himself on Broadway and in Hollywood. Having worked with the likes of Sinatra, Arnie and Travolta, he may not need the Fringe…

Pajama Men

Fantastic yet familiar physical horseplay

14 Aug 2008

The Fringe traditionally gets its unfair share of headlines for being a hotbed of nudity and a feast of skin-baring. But two guys in their jimmy-jams before the watershed? What gives? The massively innovative North American double act of Shenoah Allen…

Yasser

An original take on the Middle East conflict

14 Aug 2008

The concept of national identity becomes ever more fragile in the absence of a nation state. A people bereft of the glue that binds modern communities together – whether real or imagined – risk having their identity defined by others, moulded by…

5 Questions - Krishma Bachoo

14 Aug 2008

5 words to describe the Obscene vs Volume experience? Friendly, anything goes, genre-less, bass-fuelled, mayhem. 4 things you love about the DJs/acts on the bill? Everyone is playing for free for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre’s & Myeloma UK. MC…

Mudfire

Awe inspiring spectacle on stilts

14 Aug 2008

I picked the wrong day to go and see US acrobatic company Carpetbag Brigade's two Fringe offerings. After 48 hours of rain their outdoor performance space at Sweet ECA had turned swamp and the company was making do with a hastily-converted studio space.

We All Fall Down

Playing with the Plague

14 Aug 2008

Who'd have thought the Black Death could be so much fun? Or that a tale with such a strong moral heart could be so full of laughs and silliness? The story of two 17th century villages both blighted with the plague, the show explores the selfish and…

Festival of Politics

14 Aug 2008

Meanwhile, over at the Scottish Parliament... the Festival of Politics is back for a fourth year and making visiting Fringe slebs really work for their money, as Simon Callow leads a discussion on changing rights for LGBT communities in the UK, and…

Messin’ Around

14 Aug 2008

One of the London Jazz Café’s longest running nights (12 years and counting) takes a trip north for the Festival. DJ Adrian Gibson will be mixing up ‘the good stuff’ – jazz, funk, Latin and soul – as showcased on over 70 compilation albums he’s produced…

Andrew Mueller - I Wouldn’t Start From Here

14 Aug 2008

A few weeks after 9/11, Andrew Mueller – rock journalist, travel writer and self-ascribed hack – browsed the list of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations released by the US State Department and wondered what it might be like to be one of those…

Ben Kingsley - The Wackness

14 Aug 2008

Seeing Gandhi with crazy hair is even weirder than watching 64-year-old Sir Ben Kingsley snog 22-year-old Mary Kate Olsen. But fear not, the knighted actor hasn’t had some innovative hair treatment to unpolish his famously shiny snooker ball, he’s…

Amir Nizar Zuabi - Jidariyya

Poetry in motion

14 Aug 2008

Perhaps the greatest psychological pain humans can feel occurs when they are denied language. The sense of frustration that builds from a voice unheard, marginalised or rendered irrelevant by the listener can be overwhelming. This is as true of the…

Esther B Robinson - A Walk Into the Sea

14 Aug 2008

In July 1966, Esther B Robinson’s uncle Danny Williams drove home to Massachusetts, with a shaving kit full of drugs, and took his own life. Thirty-four years later, Esther’s grandmother Nadia came to visit her granddaughter’s workplace at the Warhol…

Headman

14 Aug 2008

When he released his debut album It Rough in 2001 (which contained the single of the same name), Zurich DJ Robi Insinna, aka Headman, helped presage a whole movement. Around the same time, everyone from Belgium’s Soulwax to New York’s LCD Soundsystem…

Future of the Left

Title contenders

14 Aug 2008

You can’t beat a good song title, and Future of the Left have some of the best. The Cardiff based trio’s second single was the thrillingly angry rock of ‘adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood’, and the band’s debut album Curses was peppered with other gems such as…

Unusual Gameplay

14 Aug 2008

Time to burn your joysticks and throw away your control pads as game developers begin shifting away from the norm by introducing some innovative, unorthodox and plain silly methods of play this summer. If you thought the future was here when the Wii hit…

Steven Campbell

14 Aug 2008

In August of last year, one of Scotland’s most renowned contemporary painters died unexpectedly. Steven Campbell’s sadly premature death at the age of 54, caused by a ruptured appendix, was all the more untimely as he was in the midst of preparing for…

Hidden Lane Café-Gallery

14 Aug 2008

The Hidden Lane doesn’t do location, location, location. Start in the ramshackle stretch of Argyle Street between Finnieston and Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery where there’s a growing and diverse range of small, independent bars and dining spots…

Hidden Gardens

Birds suddenly appear

14 Aug 2008

The Hidden Gardens, tucked away behind Tramway, may have been open for five years, but many people aren’t aware of the rich cultural history that’s entrenched in the foundations of the site and built into its design. ‘When the Gardens opened, we…

Watermelon

14 Aug 2008

Scuttling through Glasgow’s West End to meet Gavin O’Brien, owner of the recently refurbished vintage institution Watermelon, I wonder, what on earth am I looking for? Past experience of fusty second-hand hovels hadn’t prepared me for Watermelon’s new…

Broken records

14 Aug 2008

‘It’s never been part of our gameplan to be a cool band,’ says Broken Records’ singer and guitarist Jamie Sutherland. In that case, they better start redrawing the rules right now. Attracting Arcade Fire comparisons like iron filings to a magnet, the…

Prokofiev - The Symphonies

Russian around with the tireless Valery Gergiev

14 Aug 2008

In one of the most exciting orchestral weekends hosted by the Usher Hall, the London Symphony Orchestra appears with its principal conductor, Valery Gergiev, performing all of Prokofiev’s seven symphonies plus the two violin concertos with soloist…

Getting stuck in

14 Aug 2008

Get your tastebuds ready for the launch of Gourmet Glasgow, which offers a rich platter of culinary delights in conjunction with Scotland with Style. The event will celebrate the city's fine foods and restaurants, with over 50 eateries offering special…

Bite the Dust

Polish satire lost in translation

14 Aug 2008

First there is the show that should have been. Originally staged in the late-70s, Bite the Dust is a satirical sideswipe at the military mindset. It proved so controversial in Poland that playwright Tadeusz Rólewicz withdrew the performance rights.

Stefan Golaszewski Speaks About A Girl He Once Loved

Bold, original show from sickeningly talented young performer

14 Aug 2008

Stefan Golaszewski’s a sickeningly talented young man. Squished into a sweaty attic in the Pleasance and armed with nothing more than a handful of props and some banging techo music, the young London lad is bowling over audiences with his first solo…

George Orwell's Coming Up For Air

Funny, tragic stage adaptation of little-known text

14 Aug 2008

What swiftly becomes apparent about this adroit adaptation of George Orwell’s lesser-known 1939 novel is how powerfully it resonates today. Written on the eve of World War II, while the author was in Morocco recovering from an injury sustained fighting…

Esoterica

No ordinary card

14 Aug 2008

The paradox of a culture that loves to see magic and the sixth sense at work, while refusing to believe in either of them, becomes particularly apparent when, sitting in a darkened room watching one man appear to read another man’s mind, your brain…

Borderline

Repetitive beat poetry

14 Aug 2008

The Stone Roses come on, and over in the corner there’s always one monged fella pivoting off the wall. He starts monkey-dancing closer like he thinks he’s Ian Brown, gurning and chewing his face off with the pills. He’s pointing at you. He’s looking you…

Free comedy

A Pandora's Box of PowerPoint and pointlessness

14 Aug 2008

There is a rebellion at the Fringe this year. High venue costs have caused some artists to take matters into their own hands. Doug Stanhope is charging £7349 for a one-off show in someone's living room and the Free Fringe organisations have brought more…

Supper

Food for thought

14 Aug 2008

In any conversation, there’s always another conversation going on beneath the ostensible day to day chat. This premise is the starting point for Supper, which amounts to an intriguing conceit about love, subjectivity and memory. The audience are…

5 Reasons To Go See - Alanis Morissette

14 Aug 2008

She’s massively popular Before we get to any of the juicier reasons for re-igniting your mid-90s fervour for Ms Morissette, let’s lay out the bare statistics of her success. The angry songstress has sold over 55 million albums worldwide, and has scooped…

Kevin Williamson

Writing poetry on the run

14 Aug 2008

‘Rebel Inc involved a lot of chaos and a lot of confusion,’ says Kevin Williamson, founder of the one-time cult Edinburgh imprint. ‘And I can tell you that my days as a publisher are definitely over. I gave it all I could for ten years and wouldn’t go…

Side Dishes

14 Aug 2008

Glasgow’s more experienced diners know full well that the Two Fat Ladies fish restaurants had nothing to do with motorcycling cooks Clarissa and Jennifer, and everything to do with the address of the original site at 88 Dumbarton Road. However, the…

Big Things on the Beach: Garden Gallery

Public art, right on your doorstep

14 Aug 2008

As far as public art initiatives go, it doesn’t get much more DIY or community-focused than this. Twenty-nine separate works, most of which are hosted in the front gardens of Portobello houses, and all of them part of a scenic walking tour of the…

Various - Tighten Up! Deluxe Edition

14 Aug 2008

REGGAE (Trojan/Sanctuary) The times around the birth of Trojan Records were turbulent ones: 1968 witnessed social unrest and uprising from Cuba to Belfast, London to Vietnam. Musically, the sound emanating from Jamaica, popularised by Britain’s West…

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan

14 Aug 2008

COMEDY (12A) 112min Anyone who tries to understand Middle Eastern politics based on the contents of an Adam Sandler comedy deserves all they get. Despite his good intentions he bites off more than he can possibly chew in this, his new comic opus. For…

Frank Miller & Jim Lee - All Star Batman and Robin

14 Aug 2008

COMIC (DC/Titan) Frank Miller and Jim Lee tackle the world’s greatest detective and the boy wonder in this sister title to Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly’s All Star Superman. The first nine issues of the ongoing series are collected here, and like…

Rodge Glass

Analysing icons of football and fiction

14 Aug 2008

‘Faith is something that preoccupies me, definitely, but it is usually the lack of it,’ says Rodge Glass, the Glasgow-based Jewish author of No Fireworks and Hope for Newborns who passed through a staggering range of variously religious, private and…

Eskimo

New exhibition space warmed up by a fine group show

14 Aug 2008

Having made their debut last Festival with a show at West Barns Studios, Polarcap return to East Lothian for this debut exhibition at Eskmills’ new gallery. Although the exposed roof beams give the impression that the gallery itself hasn’t actually been…

Ross Raisin

Creating a malevolent teenager trapped on the Moors

14 Aug 2008

Ross Raisin burst onto the literary scene flanked by quotes from JM Coetzee and Colm Toibin. Dubbed ‘one of the most eagerly awaited literary debuts of 2008’, God’s Own Country didn’t disappoint. Set on the Yorkshire Moors, it is about Sam Marsdyke, a…

Dave McKean

The comics guy who connects with rock stars and chefs

14 Aug 2008

An illustration masterclass from Dave McKean is a very special thing indeed. As one of the most innovative illustrators in Britain, his association with Neil Gaiman has raised him to a near-deity among comic fans and goths, providing the covers for all…

Return of the Soul - The Nakbah Project

A secret persecution preserved in wax

14 Aug 2008

Scottish based painter, theatre designer and now multimedia artist Jane Frere revisits the Nakbah, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people in 1948 when the newly UN-sanctioned nation of Israel expropriated ‘lebensraum’ (living room) through…

Sanford Wurmfield: E-Cyclorama

Rainbow in the round

14 Aug 2008

New York based artist Wurmfield’s new creation is a sight to behold. He channels the colour theories of the great Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell by way of Goethe, the Scottish Enlightenment (there is a reason this work is being premiered in the…

The Verve - Forth

14 Aug 2008

PSYCH-ROCK (Parlophone) Even their most evangelical of fans – of which there are still plenty – might have doubted The Verve’s reformation. Much of the solo material of the previously unimpeachable Richard Ashcroft flattered to deceive, and none of it…

Frances Richardson: Playing Against Reason

The great global economic gamble, in heavily symbolic form

14 Aug 2008

Take Frances Richardson’s drawing and sculptures (the latter she refers to as ‘walk-in drawings’) literally and it seems the world is falling down around us. Or at least the financial world is, and that might not be too far from the truth. But how…

Susan Greenfield

Being proactive about identity

14 Aug 2008

Short attention span? Inability to turn down chocolate biscuits? Memory of a long-term dope smoker? Susan Greenfield, the Oxford-based neuroscientist, is hoping to shed light on these problems and more, when she appears here to discuss her latest book.

Charles Leadbeater

Internet ideas man seeks to expand boundaries

14 Aug 2008

‘What excites me about book festivals is the sheer diversity of ideas, viewpoints and styles,’ says Charles Leadbeater. ‘There are so many interesting people who are interesting in different ways.’ Leadbeater is all about ideas. He has advised…

Gledinbow

Glasgow and Edinburgh reconciled through art?

14 Aug 2008

‘gleDinBow’ is pitched as an exhibition that has paired artists from Edinburgh with partners from Glasgow as a way to explore ‘sibling rivalry’ and attempt to cross perceived artistic boundaries between the two cities. In practise there is little…

Steve Reich Evening

Music and dance pioneers in perfect harmony

14 Aug 2008

She's one of the most prominent names in European contemporary dance, he's a giant of American minimalist music. Together, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Steve Reich make quite a pair - although their partnership is a result of admiration, rather than…

Game On

14 Aug 2008

Too Human Xbox 360 (Microsoft) Third-person actioner as you play cybernetic god Baldur in the first part of a mighty, world-conquering trilogy from developer Silicon Knights. It mixes hardcore melee and long-range combat as you battle humongous war…

Paperweight

Flawed peek into daily office life

14 Aug 2008

Squeezing into one of the tiniest Fringe venues – a modest office in the Assembly Rooms – this two-man show is about as up close and personal as you can get to what’s happening onstage. Arrive early for a seat: you have the choice of a box against the…

Bookslam

Ripping up the stuffy literary world

14 Aug 2008

‘People think live readings are supposed to be 20-minute monotones about the “quality of light on the mountains” and unfortunately they often are,’ says Alan Bissett, master of ceremonies for a stagefull of Dan Rhodes (pictured), Patience Agbabi and…

Martin Bell

Seeking truth and an end to sleaze

14 Aug 2008

Eleven years after New Labour’s landslide victory, Martin Bell has been considering Tony Blair’s legacy. More specifically, the white suit-wearing BBC war correspondent turned independent MP, and now UNICEF ambassador, wants to work out where it all…

Wild Child

14 Aug 2008

ROMANCE/COMEDY (12A) 98min ‘What is this, Hogwarts?’ exclaims bratty Californian kid Poppy (Emma Roberts, niece of Julia) on her arrival at a genteel girls boarding school in England, ruled over by tough-but-fair headmistress (Natasha Richardson).

Hitlist - Music

14 Aug 2008

Michael Franti and Spearhead He’s been here repeatedly for T on the Fringe and now drops in for the Edge, and with good reason, no one sums up the original politically astute, culturally diverse, socially inclusive spirit of the Fringe as this worldly…

The Six Wives of Timothy Leary

Surprising glimpses into a controversial life

14 Aug 2008

It’s a tragedy of our age that the 60s, a period of unparalleled liberation and social progress for ordinary people, is portrayed today as a kind of absurd self-indulgence from which we were all lucky to recover. This piece goes a little way to…

Painting Music Workshop

The art of sound

14 Aug 2008

There are several enjoyable aspects to this imaginative workshop, but the best one is the gift that keeps on giving. In just 40 minutes, Rhuti Carr and her musical cohorts give you a new skill that will stay with you for life. Gathered around a giant…

Esther Rantzen

Loving life in the third age

14 Aug 2008

It was the death of her husband Desmond Wilcox that shaped the philosophy behind Esther Rantzen OBE’s new book If Not Now, When? A self-help book, after a fashion, it expands on the virtues of enjoying life at every available opportunity, even into…

Books - hitlist

14 Aug 2008

Anne Enright After winning the Man Booker prize for The Gathering last autumn, the Irish author talks about her latest effort, Taking Pictures, a short-story collection about female lives. 15 Aug, 11.30m, £9 (£7). ] Chuck Palahniuk The creator of cult…

Festival dance hitlist

14 Aug 2008

Bale de Rua, The Vanishing Point, Mortal Engine, Steve Reich Evening, Scottish Dance Theatre, Children of the Khmer, State of Matter

Sister Cities

Death and the maidens

14 Aug 2008

If naturalistic plays set in living rooms are not your bag, then it might be wise to avoid Sister Cities. But, for all its conventionality, Colette Freedman’s black comedy contrives to constantly amuse with crisp, observant dialogue and nicely tempered…

Boys of the Empire

High-camp boy’s own comedy deserves six of the best

14 Aug 2008

This self-consciously silly, satirical stab at the boy’s own adventure wants to be Just William with a nod towards The History Boys by way of Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns. Set between an English boarding school in the late 1930s, and the newly re-named…

Sideshow: The Weirdest Show on Earth

Electric cabaret with a dark side

14 Aug 2008

This isn’t any cabaret show. This is a circus on acid (or perhaps the poppers that the beautiful freak crowds are into nowadays). This is a late-night step into the realm of nightmares for a dastardly conglomeration of comedic, titillating…

The Caravan

Impressive site specific verbatim piece

14 Aug 2008

One of modern Britain’s cruel realities is that, while a US presidential hopeful dominates front page news, the continued homelessness of thousands of UK citizens after the 2007 floods, has gone largely ignored. When this situation is mentioned, it is…

Perfect Vagina

Channel 4, Sun 17 Aug, 10pm

14 Aug 2008

Get set to cross your legs and grit your teeth as Lisa Rogers fronts a very different kind of scrapheap challenge as part of Channel 4’s The G-Spot strand. We’ve all read the headlines and overheard the news that women are literally queuing up round the…

By The Way

On a road to nowhere, for no reason

14 Aug 2008

There’s obviously a lot of talent behind this little two-hander, which follows a pair of friends on a road trip through a dystopian France, where an unnamed plague is killing off everyone’s mothers. The actors are likable and clearly talented, and for…

Festival kids' shows hitlist

14 Aug 2008

Potted Pirates, Visualise Reloaded, Cloudcuckooland, Three Billy Goats Gruff & Other Furry Tails, Heartbreak Soup, Painting Music Workshop

Festival comedy hitlist

14 Aug 2008

Barry & Stuart, Louis CK, Pajama Men, David O'Doherty, JL Roberts & Nadia Kamil, Jon Richardson, John Pinette, Russell Howard

Class Enemy

A different class

14 Aug 2008

When Nigel Williams’ Class Enemy made its debut at London’s Royal Court in 1978, hip hop was still a phenomenon of the American underground. It would never have occurred to a director to incorporate it into this portrayal of a bunch of teenagers in a…

Also Released - Music

14 Aug 2008

King Khan and The Shrines - The Supreme Genius of King Khan and The Shrines (VICE Records) VICE records continue to expand their impressive repertoire with this Berlin-based psych-soul nine-piece. The ecstatic presence of front man King Khan shines…

Surviving Spike

The taming of the Goon

14 Aug 2008

He was a maverick, a one-off, a free-associating comedy anarchist. So what’s the point in paying tribute to Spike Milligan with a bio-play that is safe, conventional and cosy? The tone of Surviving Spike by Richard Harris has far more in common with the…

Vincent

Hazy portrait of an artist

14 Aug 2008

Leonard ‘Spock’ Nimoy’s one-man show about Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh explores the last ten years of the artist’s life, looking into the events leading up to his suicide. American actor Jim Jarrett plays both Vincent and his brother Theo, whom we…

Married to the Sea

Poetic writing tells a coastal tale of loss and decline

14 Aug 2008

A sparse stage and a small cast of three belie the detail in this lyrical tale from the fledgling Dragonfly Theatre. Set against the decline of Galway’s old Claddagh seafaring community, writer/director Shona McCarthy’s first full-length play could have…

The Riot Showgrrrls Club

Cabaret fun with an anti-porn message

14 Aug 2008

A polemic against mainstream pornography is not what you’d expect from two be-corseted cabaret performers, but as the Riot Showgrrrls say themselves, there’s a difference between taste and morality, and this show aims to celebrate the flamboyant…

Motherland

Narratives of soldiers’ mothers who bear the burden of war

14 Aug 2008

Motherland is a piece of verbatim theatre, which gives voice to the testaments of women from the north east of England who had children serving in the armed forces in war zones. With the least amount of staging, the individual voices, which are studied…

Potted Pirates

Hilarity on the high seas

14 Aug 2008

Sensible pirate devotee Jeff just wants to give a serious, educational lecture about famous pirates. His crewmate Dan, while also a fellow fan of all things swashbuckling, has a different approach. An enthusiast of the Jack Sparrow variety of privateer…

Reasonable Doubt

Confessions in a Sydney hotel suite

14 Aug 2008

Two former jurors reunite in a hotel room two years after a controversial hung verdict in this smart two-hander from Australian playwright Suzie Miller. Both harbour guilty secrets, and sex – initially top priority – is soon shelved in favour of a…

The Gymnast

Harrowing history makes for unsatisfying theatre

14 Aug 2008

This curious collage of movement, speech, sound and lighting FX creates an impressionistic portrayal of life under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Opening with a series of statistics and dates, we are bombarded with the major losses and severity of…

Lies Have Been Told: An Evening with Robert Maxwell

Reviled figure rebuffs his critics

14 Aug 2008

The tremendous performance by Phillip York in this one-man show about Robert Maxwell is so impressive you’re likely to find yourself admiring, and even feeling sorry for the once reviled late media mogul. But as towering a performance and uncannily…

5 questions - Tony Black

14 Aug 2008

New Edinburgh crime prince Tony Black has half an eye on Ian Rankin’s throne. Here he becomes king of our less than majestic Q&A

Baldanders

Polish puppetry for adults

14 Aug 2008

Baldanders examines the relationship between a freak show master and his caged beast. Inspired by the fantastical, existential ideas of Edgar Allen Poe, Jorge Luis Borges and Topor, it’s a thorny and enigmatic show that explores man’s desire for…

Lie of the Land

Two go mad in the countryside

14 Aug 2008

Him and Her move to the country on her family’s money. Mostly. He contributed, though. He’s not as rich as her, rather lacks her breeding. But he’s kind, and she is trying to civilise him. The important thing is, it’s their house. All theirs. Away from…

I Love You, Bro

Tragedy for the dotcom generation

14 Aug 2008

Johnny (Ash Flanders) just wants to be someone, and online he can be anyone he wants. What starts out as a humorous look at socialising in the digital era swiftly morphs into a dark analysis of our atomised society. After a chance online meeting…

Top 5 - TV People

14 Aug 2008

Susie Dent Don’t even ask her to be drawn on the subject of the ‘Carol Countdown Controversy’. Along with fellow word fan Henry Hitchings, the nine-letter word expert will be talking about the ever-evolving English language. 20 Aug, 2pm, £9 (£7).

Jim Jeffries

How to lose your crowd in one horrible hour

14 Aug 2008

No one expects fluffy, cuddly material from Jim Jeffries. The Australian comic is infamous for his potty-mouthed, middle-finger-up comedy, and he'll trash anything - cancer, self-harmers, molested children - as long as it gets a laugh. But unlike other…

It Ain't All Bollywood

Confused, overwrought look at mental health issues

14 Aug 2008

Part of this year’s InvAsian programme of Asian performance, It Ain’t All Bollywood depicts the trials and tribulations of Kiran, who has descended into an escapist fixation with Bollywood films following the death of her father. As a result, she…

St Nicholas

All theatre critics are bloodsucking scum

14 Aug 2008

Conor McPherson was clearly settling old scores when he wrote St Nicholas in 1997. Like many of his earliest plays, it’s a monologue and tall tale. This one is told by a successful Dublin theatre critic, a self professed ‘hack and a drunkard’. Bitter…

Lucy Porter

A set down to its bare bones

14 Aug 2008

While it may have been slightly dispiriting for Lucy Porter to hop out on stage to a less than packed auditorium, there's little in her jovial demeanour to suggest crushed hopes. To spend an hour in Porter's company is akin to having a litre of Jelly…