Issue 635

Belt Up bring Tartuffe and Trial to the Fringe

The award-winning physical theatre company provide an inspired spin on some enduring classics

23 Jul 2009

If the Fringe is about anything, it’s about an inexhaustible ability to surprise an audience, whether it be with a crazy venue space, a thrilling new script or a suitably memorable performance. Step forward - Belt Up.

Bob and Roberta Smith: This Artist is Deeply Dangerous

David Pollock reports on the latest subversive work from Bob and Roberta Smith

23 Jul 2009

For this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival exhibition Bob and Roberta Smith – the multiple pseudonym of Goldsmiths graduate Patrick Brill – slices up the text of an entire review and transferring it to a series of hanging paintings.

Precious Little Talent

Playwright Ella Hickson is living proof that Scotland’s got talent. She meets Anna Millar.

23 Jul 2009

It may be the title of her latest show, but Precious Little Talent is not a description you could apply to last year's Fringe darling, Ella Hickson. 2009 should be her year again.

Naked ambition - Nic Green's 'Trilogy'

Mark Fisher meets the theatre-maker who’s still proud to call herself a feminist

23 Jul 2009

Nic Green was leading a discussion recently when a young man questioned her use of the word ‘feminism’. ‘No one wants to hear that word, can’t you call it womanism?’ he asked.

Stefan Golaszewski is A Widower

Golaszewski returns to the Fringe with a new semi-autobiographical futuristic monologue.

23 Jul 2009

Last year, young London lad Stefan Golaszewski knocked out Fringe crowds and critics alike with his mercurial semi-autobiographical one-man sleeper hit show, Stefan Golaszewski Speaks About a Girl He Once Loved. Unsurprisingly, he subsequently had a…

The Discovery of Spain in Edinburgh

Fascinating and beautiful exhibition of British and Spanish art demands a good, long look

23 Jul 2009

Besides proffering a coloured selection of chapters from an intriguing art historical narrative, this major exhibition presents some seriously affecting works from the likes of Goya, El Greco, Zurburan, Morillo, Velázquez and Picasso.

Surviving the Fringe - Richard Fry

23 Jul 2009

Fringe veteran Richard Fry is performing in a pair of shows in Edinburgh this year. Here he gives up his essential guide to surviving the world’s biggest arts festival

5 Questions: John McCracken

23 Jul 2009

American minimalist sculptor John McCracken’s surfboard-inspired objects, with their bold use of colour and form, have influenced generations. As Inverleith House prepares to unveil his first solo exhibition in Scotland he tackles our Q & A

Ready for take off

He may have branched out in recent times, but Alistair McGowan is returning to his first love.

22 Jul 2009

There can’t be many people for whom the Wimbledon panto is a life-changing event. Not even the gaggle of Gareth Gates fans waiting outside the stage door for an autograph from their very own Prince Charming would go that far. But for Alistair McGowan…

Out of the bag - Dead Cat Bounce

They may have upset everyone at Mo Mowlam’s memorial gig but Dead Cat Bounce are now flying high

22 Jul 2009

If you’ve never actually met rock’n’roll sketch band Dead Cat Bounce, you could be forgiven for thinking that these guitar-wielding Dubliners occupy a place so far ahead of the curve that they’re on the outermost tip of the zeitgeist’s serrated edge.

Life studies - Biographical shows at the Edinburgh Festival 2009

Five of the best biographical shows at this year’s Fringe

22 Jul 2009

A Tribute – Gielgud’s Ages of Man Experience Shakespeare via Johnny Gielgud in this celebration of the late great actor’s crowning achievement: his one-man recital of excerpts from the best of the Bard. Performed throughout the 1950s and 60s, the…

A-Team - The Musical

22 Jul 2009

Pity the poor fool who misses out on scoring a ticket to this musical version of the legendary 80s TV adventure series about a quartet of ex-crack commandos-turned-mercenaries. So, can Faceman hold a tune? How are Hannibal’s harmonies? What’s BA’s…