Issue 701
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- Issue 701
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Profile: Magnus Martens, director of Jackpot
6 Aug 2012
The Norwegian director on the comedy and violence in his Jo Nesbo adaptation
Born 1973, Stord, Norway Background Oslo-based writer and director Martens has worked in film and television for over a decade, notably on 2003’s football–based United. He was writing his own crime comedy screenplay when he was offered the chance…
The Bourne Legacy
6 Aug 2012
Sleek and sophisticated addition to the Bourne series, with Jeremy Renner taking the lead
From the opening shot of a man swimming in the water to the closing sounds of the franchise’s signature song, Moby’s 'Extreme Ways', The Bourne Legacy feels like a Bourne movie in every way – with one exception. No Matt Damon, which means his…
Edinburgh Book Festival 2012 day planner
3 Aug 2012
Julia Donaldson, AC Grayling, AL Kennedy, Alexander McCall Smith and more
Saturday 11 Julia Donaldson The Glasgow-based Children’s Laureate kicks off the Book Festival with a performance-based show in which she brings life to stories such as The Gruffalo and Superworm. Hubbie Malcolm will be on hand to help things along.
Choose Your Own Adventure author Ian Livingstone to visit Edinburgh
3 Aug 2012
The author will appear at both the Book Festival and Edinburgh Interactive
I always had a big interest games. In the 1960s I used to play Diplomacy [a strategic WWI board game] and play-by-mail games. When Steve Jackson and I met up in London in the 70s, we were old school friends and we thought, wouldn’t it be a great idea to…
Glasgow-based Ankur Productions celebrate The Olympics of the Everyday
3 Aug 2012
The new show celebrates those boring, mundane achievements of everyday life
As the eyes of the world are fixed upon the London Olympics and the superhuman exploits of Usain Bolt and his colleagues, Scotland’s leading black, Asian and minority ethnic arts company, Ankur Productions, will be celebrating The Olympics of the…
A Quick Guide to Glasgow’s Best Restaurants
3 Aug 2012
Places to suit any taste
The Classics The places that made and maintain Glasgow’s reputation for great dining Bistro at One Devonshire Gardens Recent changes in the kitchen see this elegant and formal restaurant back serving exquisite, sumptuous, pricey food. Café…
James McLardy - The Swan and Hostage
3 Aug 2012
Enjoyable exhibition questioning the inherent value and fakeness of sculpted pieces
James McLardy’s solo show 'The Swan and Hostage' is the result of his six-week residency at the Duchy gallery in the east end of Glasgow. The title echoes the pub-like feel to the gallery’s name and location: the swan symbolises the beautiful, the…
Lucy Porter - People Person
3 Aug 2012
All sugar no spice: grit lacking from nice girl performance
Yes, yes: it’s easy to knock the nice girl act. But as her fans will attest, that’s exactly what Lucy Porter is. Far from ripping off the shackles of her ‘lovely wee lass’ persona, Porter embraces it with People Person. Back on the Fringe scene after a…
DJ Sotofett is coming to Glasgow
3 Aug 2012
Disco-infused house and techno from Norway
There’s something of the international man of mystery about DJ Sotofett, who prefers not to tell us his name, his age or the meaning of his alias (‘it might sound like a bad joke if I try to translate’). Why so shy? ‘It’s not that I’m against it,’ he…
Highlights from the Fighting Fantasy series of role-playing games
3 Aug 2012
Henry Northmore and Murray Robertson pick their favourite Fighting Fantasy books
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain A collaboration between Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, this was the book that started it all. The first installment was written back in 1982, and is set as you set out to plunder the treasure of the mystical mage.
Karen L Vaughan
3 Aug 2012
Textile exhibition lacks the depth required to overcome its busy surroundings
I can’t get that sound you make out of my head is a small display of Karen Vaughan’s series of embroidery panels in the Arches’ foyer. The works are hand-sewn panels of torn up old clothes from second hand shops, which are re-sewn with carefully…
Eddie Izzard to appear at Fringe 2012
3 Aug 2012
The comedian will appear alongside international guests Trevor Noah and Michael Mittermeier
Comedian Eddie Izzard is set to return to the Fringe this year for one night only. The show will feature two international special guests, Germany's Michael Mittermeier and South Africa's Trevor Noah. English-born Izzard has a long history with the…
Pat Burtscher’s Patopotamoose
3 Aug 2012
Slapdash, very funny routine from Canadian comic
A Patopotamoose is, by another name, a McGuffin. In this instance, it’s a nonsense title this whacked-out young Canadian comic gave his show before he’d written it in order to secure a spot on the Fringe. So Burtscher tells us. But did he write a show…
Rob Beckett's Summer Holiday
3 Aug 2012
Solid, sometimes awkward comedy
Hailing from Lewisham, Rob Beckett lets us venture in to the life of a working class comedian living in the south east. Depicting an upbringing of You've Been Framed and potato waffles, Beckett regales the audience with obscure tales of his childhood…
Stephen Carlin: Pandas vs Penguins
3 Aug 2012
Impish Scottish comic talks animals
Stephen Carlin has a theory that humanity can be neatly divided into two types: those who exhibit the social and psychological characteristics of Chinese bears, and those whose behaviour mirrors the Antarctic bird. That the Scottish stand-up disproves…
Jim Campbell: Nine-Year-Old Man
3 Aug 2012
Wonderful timing, whimsical narrative
On the wrong side of 25 and facing the less exciting parts of contemporary life (mortgages, babies, failed dreams of being a rock star), Jim Campbell muses on the themes of growing up and assuming responsibility. It’s hardly unique subject matter and…
Dan Mitchell – Free Egg
3 Aug 2012
Surreal gags partially rescue an overall flat routine
Welsh comedian Dan Mitchell has established himself fairly successfully over the last couple of years. After playing at the Cardiff Comedy Festival in 2011 and performing as a contestant on ITV’s Show Me The Funny, he’s brought a freshness to stale…
Catriona Knox: Hellcat
3 Aug 2012
Promising stuff from character comedian
There's nothing quite like character comedy to enable a performer to both worry and interact with their audience. Before we've taken our seats Knox has taken on the role of saviour of mankind, taking note of audience members' names and organising them…
Joel Dommett
3 Aug 2012
Wicked delivery and dark edge
Joel Dommett returns to Edinburgh with an outstanding new show in which he discusses in fine detail his trials and tribulations of trying to get even with a high school bully after the perpetrator contacts him via Twitter. As the victim of bullying…
One day in the Life of Lloyd Owen Langford
3 Aug 2012
A (tension-free) Jack Baueresque show
Lloyd Langford’s fourth solo Fringe show at the Fringe is structured around a single day. Well, not a day, just an hour. Told within the space of 60 minutes, he notes this is a bit like Jack Bauer but without the tension. In fact the framework of the…
Andrew Doyle does Whatever It Takes
3 Aug 2012
'Bad Catholic' Doyle's has prayers answered
Former teacher and ‘predatory’ homosexual Andrew Doyle has all the makings of a class act. Having doled out cards asking us what we think is ‘most likely to turn on’ our fellow audience members, he’s off on a rambunctious verbal riot of smarts and…
James Yorkston - I Was A Cat From A Book
3 Aug 2012
The folk troubadour's newest album is his first since 2008
A traditional folk songs collection, the publication of his tour diaries and the anniversary re-issue of his debut album have helped bridge the gap, but it’s been a long four years since James Yorkston’s last LP proper. The arrival of the Fife…
Karine Polwart - Traces
3 Aug 2012
The collaboration-friendly folk artist's latest solo effort reaffirms her striking reputation
For all of Karine Polwart’s unquestionable folk appeal (the multiple awards; the clarity of her voice; the history and humanity in her songs) it bears noting that she has stolen the limelight in three of our finest indie collaborations – The Burns…
Rhod Gilbert: The Man With The Flaming Battenburg Tattoo rages at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe
2 Aug 2012
The comedian who makes Basil Fawlty look like a Pilates teacher speaks to the List
You might expect Rhod Gilbert to greet his tenth year on the Fringe with some degree of pride. In a decade, the 43-year-old has risen from So You Think You’re Funny finalist to playing the Edinburgh International Conference Centre via various awards…
Scotland's Toni Davidson speaks at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2012
2 Aug 2012
‘I wrote in huts, by the beach, in hotel lobbies, in train stations’
Scotland’s Toni Davidson is a self-confessed ‘slow writer’. In 1999, his debut Scar Culture was acclaimed for its innovative and unflinching portrayal of child abuse. And though there was the short story collection The Gradual Gathering of Lust in 2007...
