New Writing

The First to Go

22 May 2008

NEW WRITING Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, Fri 23 & Sat 24 May then touring British audiences nearly got to see The First to Go in 2002. Actor and playwright Nabil Shaban had the commission from Battersea Arts Centre and the government had pledged £50,000…

HarperCollins to launch social networking site for authors

9 May 2008

HarperCollins UK has released its new social networking site Authonomy in private beta. The book publisher first announced the initiative in October 2007, and the site was expected to launch in early 2008. Authonomy aims to connect aspiring authors…

Gods are Fallen and All Safety Gone

10 Apr 2008

NEW WRITING Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 14–Sat 19 Apr The moment when a parent descends from their all-powerful pedestal to become a person just like everyone else can be shocking. Yet, the horrifying thought, as childhood dwindles, that our parents are…

Out on the Wing

13 Mar 2008

Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 17–Sat 22 Mar Being gay in the armed forces isn’t illegal any longer, but in the male-dominated world of sports, it would appear that, even in the 21st century, boys can only play football professionally if they’re avowedly…

Flight Path

1 Nov 2007

NEW WRITING Traverse, Edinburgh, Tue 6–Sat 10 Nov David Watson’s new play, presented by Out of Joint, explores Britain’s youth from a multi-generational perspective. The piece presents 12 months in 12 scenes depicting the life of an 18-year-old…

The Pearlfisher

18 Oct 2007

NEW WRITING Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 26 Oct–Sat 10 Nov Travelling folk have, for hundreds of years, caused controversy wherever they were liable to show up. How much of the trouble that seems to follow them emanates from the communities…

Elf Analysis - theatre preview

20 Sep 2007

Few young writers of recent years can have had quite so rapid a rise to prominence as Morna Pearson. Before November of last year, few beyond a handful of mentors would have heard of the Elgin born writer, but after her Critics’ Awards for Theatre in…

The Algebra of Freedom

20 Sep 2007

It’s not often we’re called upon to be sympathetic to the police officers who mistakenly killed Jean Charles de Menezes on the London Underground in July 2005. Nor are we expected to find time for those fundamentalists who prefer the bomb to the ballot…

Monks

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 7 Apr

27 Mar 2007

NEW WRITING Faith is a commodity in short supply in our society. But this doesn’t stop people from seeking it wherever they can. With the decline of religion, love has become the form of metaphysical belief of choice for many. And it’s love…

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…

Broke

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING Poverty and debt is perhaps the overwhelming fear that stalks contemporary consumer society. That’s the starting point for Iain Finlay Macleod’s adaptation of this tale by contemporary French dramatist David Lescot. As poverty walks in…

Fifteen Minutes

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, run ended

13 Nov 2006

NEW WORK In contemporary times, the idea of what constitutes beauty is no longer left to individual perspective. Our ideas about physical allure are sanctioned by a mass market, which narrows down the number of physicalities permitted as attractive…

White Point

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING There’s definitely a neglected audience in the theatre, which belongs to a particular generation. Perhaps the oft-declared regret that we see few punters in the latter half of their 20s in the theatre is a self fulfilling prophecy, for as…

World in Pictures, The

The World in Pictures

13 Nov 2006

NEW WORK What does pop cultural history take out of the stories of our past, and what’s left in? It’s an intriguing matter to contemplate, given the movies tell most folk more about history than historians these days. And the Braveheart version of…