Jo Clifford

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

The Tree of Knowledge

David Hume and Adam Smith point out obvious pitfalls of 21st century life

12 Dec 2011

The central conceit of Jo Clifford’s new play is an interesting one. Two influential figures from 18th century Scotland find themselves in early 21st century Edinburgh, surveying the world they helped create. The witty lines flow thick and fast, as…

Anna Karenina

Dundee Rep ensemble pull off moving and powerful version of Tolstoy's classic love story

6 Jun 2011

Despite the occasional casting oddities that arise from matching a permanent ensemble to the requirements of a text, Dundee Rep pull off a moving and powerful version of one of the pinnacles in Russian literature. Jo Clifford’s lovely 2005 adaptation of…

Jemima Levick and Jo Clifford adapt Tolstoy's Anna Karenina for the Dundee Rep

20 Apr 2011

Jemima Levick is what you might call a safe pair of hands – a fact borne witness to by a string of well-received shows at Dundee Rep and an armful of awards from her freelance days. Couple that reputation with a classic novel and a script by Jo Clifford…

February is LGBT History Month

Events on in Scotland are set promote awareness and understanding

26 Jan 2011

‘It’s all about education, celebration and shared understanding,’ says Sue Sanders, co-chair of the LGBT History Month and co-founder of LGBT education group, Schools Out. Sanders saw how Black History Month was being used to promote interracial…

Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh collaborate on Panic Patterns at Glasgay! 2010

First collaboration from writing pair

8 Oct 2010

Award-winning writers Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh live together and are in a long-term relationship, but until recently they’d never collaborated. Glasgay! director Steven Thomson asked if they’d be prepared to change that by co-penning a play for…

How a bumper programme at the Traverse Theatre in 1985 changed Scottish culture

25 years of The List

23 Sep 2010

1985 was a landmark year for The Traverse theatre. Peter Arnott, Chris Hannan and Jo Clifford recall working there to Mark Fisher

First Word - Jo Clifford interview

31 Mar 2010

First record you ever bought Beethoven’s Fifth. I was in my horrible school uniform and felt very small. And very scared to go into the shop. But the man in the shop took me so seriously, and was kind. I still have that record. First film you saw that…

Every One

31 Mar 2010

‘The management must be quaking in their boots!’ quips one of the characters as an aside early on in this original work by Jo Clifford. Certainly, the piece is a brave undertaking for both theatre and playwright: a lyrical but still close to the knuckle…

Jo Clifford: Every One

19 Mar 2010

Jo Clifford talks to Steve Cramer about her new play Every One, in which personal grief brings political liberation Since the mid 1980s, with Losing Venice, a wild and passionate condemnation of colonialism, the work of Jo Clifford has received…

LGBT History Month

21 Jan 2010

LGBT History Month kicks off its annual celebration of the lives and achievements of the LGBT community with three workshops exploring drama, poetry and storytelling. Playwright Jo Clifford (Losing Venice, Jesus Queen of Heaven, pictured) leads the…

Glasgay! - Steven Thomson interview

24 Sep 2009

2009 will be both one of Glasgay!’s best and most troubled years. The programme is stronger than ever, but as Glasgay! has grown in its cultural importance it has attracted new levels of criticism and controversy that now threaten to undermine its…

Great Expectations

17 Jan 2008

ADAPTATION The Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Thu 31 Jan–Sat 9 Feb, then touring ‘What is it that makes a person? How possible is it to escape your past? Are you trapped by it or does it give you a platform from which to move forward?’ These are the…