Issue 670

Travel theme for 2010 Scottish International Storytelling Festival

Japanese strand and Festival-on-Tour among themes

Following on from 2009’s ‘Homeland’ theme, which explored the tales of the Scottish diaspora, the ‘Eastern Routes’ strand of this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival surveys storytelling from India and beyond, including the effects…

Interview - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly

Musician Sam Duckworth on politics, change and the future

5 Questions. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. 1. The List: The first single from the new album is entitled ‘Collapsing Cities’. Was the song inspired by the recent collapse of the economic system? GCWCF: It was more a reaction to the collapse and an…

The Unwinding Hours

A spellbinding performance from the Scottish alt rockers...

The Alasdair Gray-painted murals and warm, natural reverb of the Oran Mor's auditorium proves the perfect setting for this very special sunday night's entertainment. RM Hubbert opens proceedings with a set of mesmerising acoustic instrumentals…

Gok Wan's Through Thick and Thin - book signing tour

Presenter recalls Leicester upbringing and 21 stone past

With his memoir Through Thick and Thin (you can surely see what he’s done there?), Mr Wan recalls his upbringing on a Leicester housing estate. His folks ran a Chinese restaurant which might have something to do with the fact that Gok bloomed to some 21…

Family weekend: Rebels with a Cause – The Jacobites and the Global Imagination

Traditional music, egg decorating and quiz among highlights of weekend of free children's events

Rebels with a Cause – The Jacobites and the Global Imagination Wednesday 27 October to Saturday 8 January (closed Sundays except Sunday 28 November and 24 - 28, 31 December and 1 - 3 January) Monday and Friday 10:00 - 16.00 (last entry 15:30)…

Out of the Ashes

Documentary about the rise and rise of the Afghan national cricket team

(PG) 86min Documentary about the rise and rise of the Afghan national cricket team. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 5–Sun 7 Nov.

Official Tron Legacy trailer, poster triptych and Daft Punk track 'Derezzed'

Compare the original 1982 Tron trailer with the 2010 Tron Legacy version

Tron Legacy is released in the UK on 26 December 2010. That's right, Boxing Day - meaning that the Christmas TV schedules are going to need to pull something pretty special out of the bag to compete with this, as frankly, The Emmerdale Omnibus followed…

LCD Soundsystem on Hot Chip, Glasgow Barrowland and breaking the cycle - James Murphy interview

'I don’t know what’s going to happen for the first time in five years. It’s exciting to be confused'

‘There’s a right way and a wrong way to play Glasgow,’ says LCD Soundsystem founder and frontman James Murphy. And he should know. His band’s excursions to the Barrowlands (‘my favourite venue in my favourite city in the world’, the New Yorker assures…

Simon Starling’s Project for a Masquerade

Complex sculptural meditation features a star-studded cast

The pan-global plot of Simon Starling’s latest work is as labyrinthine as a Cold War spy thriller. The quiet elegance of the GSA-trained 2005 Turner Prize winner’s Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima) / Mirror Room similarly references both real and…

Series 2 of Misfits features a grizzled Dexter Fletcher

Comedy-drama with a lot of heart, swathes of wit and genuinely chilling interludes

In a bygone episode of Filthy Rich and Catflap, Rik Mayall’s hapless fool inadvertently murders a series of milkmen. Flash-forward a quarter of a century and, in marginally less slapstick a fashion, the BAFTA-winning ASBO cast of Misfits (E4, Thu 11…

Joker, James Blake and Girl Unit head up Numbers Sub Club date

Glasgow Guy Fawkes Night triple bill

It’s Guy Fawkes Night, and while children in hoodies are throwing fireworks at each other in the park and building bonfires in places they’re not supposed to, the Sub Club is going to explode with the sound of the biggest party to hit Glasgow this…

Lucy Prebble's play Enron deals with financial crisis

Celebrated play on UK tour, including run at King's Theatre, Edinburgh

At last year’s Edinburgh Festival, only the National Theatre of Scotland’s Caledonia, an enjoyable if not completely successful production based around the Darien misadventure of the late 17th century, addressed the current financial crisis. The reason…

Guests from Designers Republic, EIDOS and Pictoplasma among highlights of NEoN 2010

North East of North arts festival secures Scotland's reputation as centre of digital excellence

Not for nothing does The List frequently refer to Scotland as a centre of digital excellence: the success of games developers, including Rockstar, institutions such as Abertay University and now the return of digital arts festival NEoN, all show a…

The Importance of Being Earnest

Mark Thomson’s Lyceum production utilises recent Romeo & Juliet cast and includes ‘lost’ fourth act

Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy is one of those rep theatre staples that is almost guaranteed to bring in a sympathetic audience. The play is so familiar, in both its premise and as a vehicle for its creator’s witticisms, that you can almost hear…

Spring Awakening unites Douglas Maxwell, Grid Iron and Traverse

Frank Wedekind's attack on sexually-oppressive culture relocated from Germany to Calvinist Scotland

Boldly returning to Frank Wedekind’s original play in the wake of the enormous success of the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening, Douglas Maxwell, together with Grid Iron and the Traverse, has created a fresh, creative and relevant new adaptation…

Padgett Powell - The Interrogative Mood

Hypnotic text blazes a trail for innovation. But can you truly love it?

(Profile) This book’s subtitle pretty much says it all: ‘A Novel?’ As the blurb of Padgett Powell’s new effort suggests, this is the kind of thing Marcel Duchamp or Rene Magritte might have come up with had they dabbled in the written form. Over the…

Recontextualised production of A Doll’s House emphasises role of women

Ibsen’s early feminist play relocated from 19th century Oslo to early 1960s

Adapter Samuel Adamson and director Jemima Levick have hit on an inspired conceit in updating Ibsen’s early feminist play from late-19th century Oslo to the early 1960s. As well as choosing an era noted for its changing social and political mores, the…

Edinburgh hip hop showcase Breakin’ Convention returns to Festival Theatre

Once upon a time, the hip hop dancers of Scotland could only look longingly down to London at the range of opportunities that the form’s annual festival, Breakin’ Convention, had to offer. So, too, the fans of this increasingly popular dance style. But…

Don McCullin's A Day in the Life of The Beatles

Insightful collection of rare photopraphs from Don McCullin

Given that it’s just over 40 years since they went their separate ways as a band, the grip which the Beatles still maintain on the cultural landscape is almost supernatural. Rarely does a week go by without something related to the Fab Four making its…

Infant Opera BabyO is 30 minutes of melody, rhythm and harmony

Scottish Opera’s latest project is aimed at babies aged just 6-18 months

INFANT OPERA BABYO You’re never too young to enjoy a six-part harmony. That’s the theory behind Scottish Opera’s latest project, BabyO. Performed by three operatic singers, a bass, soprano and mezzo soprano, the show is aimed at babies aged just…

Subodh Gupta: Take off your shoes and wash your hands

Collection of splendid things by Indian art superstar explores changing cultural life of India

Coinciding with the handover of the Commonwealth Games from Delhi to Glasgow, Tramway is showcasing a magpie collection of splendid shiny things by Indian art superstar Subodh Gupta. Take off your shoes and wash your hands consists of four works.

Multi-platform In the Company of Wolves event set for Glasgow Sub Club

Very different fashion show showcases new group of designers

Multi-platform events company In the Company of Wolves don’t do subtle. In spring of this year entertainment and events students Ally Turnbull and Claire Stuart leapt onto the scene, launching a showcase of independent design in a multi-faceted event…

Out of the Strong is latest work by Richard Alston Dance Company

Abstract contemporary dance, now with characterisation and Prokofiev

For decades, Richard Alston has been one of Britain’s finest exponents of abstract contemporary dance. Now, however, it would seem he’s also rather good at telling a story. Alston first dipped his toe in narrative waters in 2009, with Scottish…

FrontRunners is Glasgow first running group for the LGBT community

Club combines social and keep-fit agenda

Runners of all ages and abilities are invited to pull on their trainers for the launch of Glasgow’s first running group for the LGBT Community. Glasgow Frontrunners (GFR) will celebrate their official inception at Glasgow Caledonian University’s Arc…

New Glasgow club Pass the Peas promises funk, soul, hip hop, disco mish-mash

Alternate Saturday nights at Blackfriars Basement

Residents Veteran Glasgow DJ Andy Taylor, whose own productions have appeared on Wack Records and Resense, and Graeme Kerr aka weeG, who is also one of the quartet behind Edinburgh’s Four Corners night at the Bongo Club. Guests Not at this debut…