Liz Lochhead

The legacy of Scottish arts institutions ECA and GSA

An examination as degree shows and 2011 Turner Prize approach

27 May 2011

When David Shrigley spoke in 2010 about how the arts institutions in Glasgow were crucial to his creative development, he may have been bemoaning the impending threat of arts cuts, but his intervention nonetheless speaks volumes about where art…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

Alasdair Gray

24 Apr 2008

Sometimes it’s more fun to ignore the explanatory gallery text and have a good look at the work. This seems an obvious enough way of dealing with art objects, but usually makes for lazy viewing and reviewing on the part of the critic. But it is…

Liz Lochhead discusses her new play, Edwin Morgan's Dreams – and Other Nightmares

The new production will premiere at this year's Glasgay! festival

21 Sep 2011

It’s a sprightly Liz Lochhead who comes into Edinburgh’s Urban Angel for a breakfast coffee – latte with an extra shot – in the midst of a typically whirlwind calendar of deadlines, poetry readings and confabs with theatre directors. This summer she had…

Tony Cownie's production of Liz Lochhead's Educating Agnes bubbles with wit and charm

Peter Forbes, Mark Prendergast and Nicola Roy star

28 Apr 2011

There’s lots to enjoy in this revival of Liz Lochhead’s translation of Moliere’s L’ecole des femmes, but perhaps the greatest pleasure comes from the wit and dynamism offered by the text itself. A palpable sense of anticipation grips the audience as we…

Margins is Glasgow’s newest grassroots book and music festival

Doug Johnstone, Ewan Morrison Tom Leonard and Withered Hand

16 Feb 2011

Imagine just starting a festival. Just saying, right there and then ‘there’s a gap in the market, and I’m going to fill it.’ It’s not such a great step for Mark Buckland; when newly graduated from university, he said to himself ‘I’m going to start a…

The best upcoming events in Scotland in 2011

Highlights of the 2011 cultural calandar from Film, Music, Comedy, Theatre and Visual Art

3 Jan 2011

Huge gigs, inspiring theatre productions, comedy legends and two cute little waving bears – just a few of the things coming up in ‘11 that we can barely contain our excitement about

Aye Write! 2012 - highlights

Seven of the best events at Glasgow literary festival, including William McIlvanney and William Boyd

28 Feb 2012

William McIlvanney The Saltire and Whitbread-winning author from Kilmarnock reflects on a distinguished literary career which kicked off in 1966 with Remedy is None. Was he the man who began the Tartan Noir phenomenon? 9 Mar, 6pm, £8 (£7). Janice…

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

Timely revival of Liz Lochhead's seminal allegorical play

21 Sep 2011

Liz Lochhead’s powerful, playful dissection of a key chapter in Scotland’s history may have debuted at the height of the Thatcherite 80s, but the play’s central themes – the pernicious effects of sectarianism, the Scots’ complex relationship with our…

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

Lyceum and Dundee Rep co-production of Liz Lochhead's classic

24 Aug 2011

For director Tony Cownie and the cast of the Lyceum and Dundee Rep Ensemble’s new co-production of Liz Lochhead’s 1987 Scots classic, the Edinburgh Festival is over. Already they’ve had Lochhead in to give advice on pronunciations and, in the middle of…

Interview - Liz Lochhead on dealing with fame, the Wishaw nightlife and winching

Scotland’s newly appointed Makar answers The List Q&A

1 Feb 2011

First record you ever bought The Rolling Stones’ eponymous first LP (1963, I think). First film you saw that really moved you Doctor Zhivago. Last lie you told Can’t remember. Honestly don’t lie too much. Can’t be bothered to mostly. I’m…

Liz Lochhead announced as Scots Makar, succeeding Edwin Morgan

Poet, author, playwright appointed to role of Scotland's national poet

21 Jan 2011

Poet and playwright Liz Lochhead has been announced as Scotland's national poet on Wednesday. She succeeds Edwin Morgan, who died in August 2010 aged 90 and who held the title of Makar since it's creation in 2004. Lochhead, First Minister Alex Salmond…

Diana Athill, Paddy Doyle and Iain Banks set for Wigtown Book Festival

15 Sep 2009

Tucked away on the Galloway coast, pretty little Wigtown is home to one of Scotland's worst kept literary secrets. After a bumper year in 2008, the annual Wigtown Book Festival looks set for its busiest year on record, with more than 170 events over 10…

Home truths

From fish factory worker to TS Eliot Prize-winning poet, Jen Hadfield talks to Kirstin Innes

6 Aug 2009

It’s been a strange old year for poetry. Although the highs of Carol Ann Duffy’s appointment as the first female Poet Laureate and the unpleasantness of Ruth Padel and Derek Walcott’s fight for the Oxford Professor of Poetry position have almost…

The Home Season: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

9 Jul 2009

As the curtain comes down on another packed season of theatre in the Central Belt, and with the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe waiting in the wings, it’s worth casting an eye over the superb series of Scottish plays currently running at Pitlochry…

Spirit of Jura

14 May 2009

While various coffee houses of the Scottish capital have taken credit for providing the caffeine-fuelled watershed for JK Rowling’s career, few places have such literary resonance as Jura. The iconic isle was the isolated spot where George Orwell, fresh…

Aye Write!

1 Mar 2009

Now in its fourth year, Aye Write! 2009 promises to be the biggest and best instalment of the Glasgow-based literary festival yet, and - as the name boldly hints - one which continues to blend an appraisal of the wider written world with a strong spine…

Sex in the 21st century - Alternative Valentine’s

5 Feb 2009

‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for …?’ Some of the most romantic words ever written have come via the medium of song, so why not throw caution to the wind, and go all Sonny and Cher this February. Book you and yours into a recording studio for an hour…

Educating Agnes

8 May 2008

NEW TRANSLATION Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, run ended; Perth Theatre until Fri 9 May When Molière’s L’école des femmes was translated as Let Wives Tak Tent by Robert Kemp in 1948, it set in motion a half-century tradition of Scottish reworkings of…

Educating Agnes

10 Apr 2008

CLASSIC Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 23 Apr–Sat 3 May Take a step back and it’s easy enough to see the vanity and self deception of those around you. A second step back might well reveal them in yourself. It’s this semi-conscious awareness that…

Another Little Piece of My Heart

Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 5-Sat 10 Feb

29 Jan 2007

NEW WRITING ‘Long live Janis Joplin.’ With this declaration, Suzy, one of the two central characters in Liz Lochhead’s new piece nails her colours to the mast. Now, before we go into the various clichés about flowers in hair, or untimely ends, bear…

Spend a Penny

Arches, Glasgow, Tue 26 Sep-Sat 7 Oct

18 Sep 2006

SITE SPECIFIC WH Auden called it the “porcelain cabin of contemplation”. For him, the one place where you could ponder the events of your life without fear of interruption was the cludgey. Let’s face it, if you’re having a Barry White, not only would…

When the Moon Was Overhead

Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, Sun 24 Sep

18 Sep 2006

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE Writing to commission can be tricky. But when Glasgow’s Hunterian Art Gallery announced an open competition for a dramatic monologue based around the life of Frances Macdonald McNair to accompany the Doves and Dreams exhibition, I…