Latest reviews & features
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Marcus Intalex launches new house and techno identity Trevino
17 Apr 2013
Underground house and techno from DJ and producer known for drum & bass
‘It’s underground house and techno,’ explains Trevino, a new alias for a name that will be more familiar to most clubbers as drum & bass don Marcus Intalex. This isn’t a new secret identity with Intalex trying to keep his involvement confidential; he’d…
Crate Digging - Truss/MPIA3
17 Apr 2013
DJ and producer shares some of his favourite tracks ahead of set at Unseen’s first birthday
Truss (also known by his ‘aggressive brutal electronic’ alter ego MPIA3) shares some of his favourite tracks ahead of his guest set at techno night Unseen’s first birthday. My first pick is DJ Richard ‘Leech (White Material). I was chatting to Bill…
Theatremakers Damir Todorovic and Kirsty Housley discuss Mayfesto 2013
17 Apr 2013
The political theatre fest will also feature plays from Jenna Watt, Daniel Bye and the Tron Studio
Mayfesto, the Tron’s annual festival of political theatre, takes truth and identity as its focus in 2013. Programme highlights include Flâneurs, Jenna Watt’s Fringe First-winning look at urban violence; The Price of Everything, Daniel Bye’s performance…
Prodijig, stars of Sky One's Got To Dance, return with Footstorm
17 Apr 2013
Group founder Alan Kenefick promises 'a new form of magic for Irish dance'
Once upon a time, Irish dance was all big wigs, glued arms and tough judges. Then, in 1994, Riverdance came along and turned this competitive dance form into a bona fide performance style. But time stands still for no dance, and the latest incarnation…
Quiz Show
17 Apr 2013
Rob Drummond's game show-set drama is thunderingly powerful stuff
That Rob Drummond is a master of illusion will be known to anyone who has heard of his Fringe hit Bullet Catch, let alone seen it. In Quiz Show he flaunts that mastery with grace and articulacy. Here is a simple event. A quiz show called False! The…
Flash Fiction - Ida Keeps Falling by Jenni Fagan
17 Apr 2013
Latest in The List's series of ultra-short stories
She is to be awake throughout the entire procedure. They'll slice the top of her head open, saw through the bone (make it like an attic hatch — so they can peer in) and she was told to bring a friend. - It's important you chat to someone through the…
Five reasons to go to the Italian Film Festival in Scotland 2013
17 Apr 2013
Every Blessed Day, The Commander and the Stork and Piazza Fontana among the festival highlights
The Commander and the Stork 'This is by director Silvio Soldini, who has been to the festival a couple of times in the past. He also made Bread and Tulips, which was very popular when we showed it. We’ve been very supportive of him. It’s a magic…
High Society
17 Apr 2013
A clever and satisfying production of the musical best known as The Philadelphia Story
Easy on the eye and easy on the ears – despite a plot which exalts the uninhibited flaunting of wealth – this is a witty and effervescent revival of the Cole Porter favourite. High Society hits the stage running. A tightly drilled, black-and-white…
Doctor Faustus
17 Apr 2013
Dominic Hill and Colin Teevan's adaptation meshes the 16th-century poetry with modern day decadence
It turns out that there are several details the Elizabethan Christopher Marlowe left out of his play about the questing academic who sells his soul to the devil. Faustus was raised by a leopardskin-wearing slattern who fed him Haribo as he watched…
Documentary theatre production All the Sex I've Ever Had seeks anecdotal wisdom from the elderly
17 Apr 2013
'People can see one another, and perhaps their elders, in a new and different light'
‘Are you 65 and still thinking about sex?’ was the question the Canadian theatre company Mammalian Diving Reflex used to attract the very first participants for its new project. Aiming to shatter society’s preconceptions, All The Sex I’ve Ever Had…
Mariana Castillo Deball - What we caught we threw away, what we didn't catch we kept
17 Apr 2013
Works based on anthropological detritus from Mexican artist
Anthropological detritus forms the bulk of 'What we caught we threw away, what we didn't catch we kept', a new body of work by Mexican artist Deball, which was co-commissioned by Cove Park and the Chisenhale Gallery in London, where it transfers later…
Ballet star Carlos Acosta moves in more contemporary direction for On Before
17 Apr 2013
'I wanted to convey something that actually speaks to the audience’
He has danced with some of the most important classical ballet companies in the world, but when it came to building his own show, Carlos Acosta knew it was time for a change. Rather than showing off the high leaps he was famous for at the Royal…
David Batchelor's Flatlands highlights the artist's painted and drawn pieces
17 Apr 2013
Show of artist's two-dimensional work puts colour centre stage
Renowned for many years for his sculptures using lightboxes and pieces of reclaimed detritus from city streets, the Dundee-born, London-based David Batchelor didn’t show his drawings and paintings in public until a show at Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice…
Drawn Away Together
17 Apr 2013
Group show including work from Alan Shipway, Paul Keir and Rachel Barron challenges from outset
This group exhibition challenges from the outset. It opens onto what seems to be the back of Neil Nodzak’s ‘Unbuilt’, an installation of constructed wood and painted boards that surround the entrance to the gallery. You are immediately engaged by their…
Top 5: Lesbian fiction
17 Apr 2013
For some rewarding lady-love books, try these lesbian classics
In Suzanne Rindell's novel The Other Typist, old-fashioned Rose falls into a dangerous obsession with the glamorous Odalie. For some happier lady-love endings, try these lesbian classics: Valencia - Michelle Tea A true(ish) account of a year spent…
Jackmaster, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Kevin Saunderson set for Aberdeen festival The Big Beach Ball
17 Apr 2013
Festival season kicks off with mix of DJs, electronica and indie at Beach Ballroom
After a storming debut last year we’re pleased to announce that the Big Beach Ball is back with their handpicked boutique festival line-up featuring Jackmaster, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Kevin Saunderson and more playing across indoor and outdoor…
Scottish Ballet's Christopher Hampson on Matthew Bourne's Highland Fling
17 Apr 2013
The production is Bourne's adaptation of La Sylphide
It’s always a good idea to turn up at a job interview well prepared. But when Christopher Hampson arrived at Scottish Ballet, to convince the company he should be its new artistic director, he took preparation to a whole new level. ‘I looked at Scottish…
Zinnie Harris' update of Ibsen's A Doll House puts fresh political spin on a proto-feminist classic
17 Apr 2013
'It’s all about how we look at the political couple behind the doors'
In 2009, playwright Zinnie Harris gave Henrik Ibsen’s masterful 19th century dissection of corruption and power a timely update. The acclaimed writer of The Wheel and Further than the Furthest Thing transposed the action from Norway’s financial world in…
William E Jones
17 Apr 2013
Film works based on archive documentary footage from Los Angeles-based provocateur
Three film-works by this Los Angeles-based provocateur take notions of power drawn from archive documentary footage, then, by recontextualising each one via collaging, cut-ups and other treatments, liberates them from their authoritarian…
Immersive drama DEADinburgh puts the audience at the heart of a zombie plague
17 Apr 2013
The play utilises real scientific ideas to dissect the viral outbreak
Gouts of blood and glowing zombie eyes are the hooks by which immersive theatre show DEADinburgh is getting the punters in. But Barra Collins, artistic director of LAStheatre and moving force behind the project, insists it is all about ideas. The…
Ben Tagoe lets us know The Thing About Psychopaths
17 Apr 2013
The playwright's latest is an intense play set between prison and the corporate world
Intense, is how Ben Tagoe’s latest play for Red Ladder has been described. It’s not a warm or fluffy piece of theatre, not that the Perth-born playwright is being demeaning about such work he wants you to understand. But, as you might expect for a play…
Theatre director Michael Emans set to revive Hector MacMillan's The Sash
17 Apr 2013
The play, which was first staged at the Fringe 40 years ago, addresses the dangers of sectarianism
Forty years after it was first staged on the Edinburgh Fringe, Hector MacMillan’s homespun homily about the perils of sectarianism and its grip on the past and the future remains depressingly familiar to the landscape of Scottish society. Michael Emans…
Marilene Oliver: Confusao
17 Apr 2013
Impressive works of the human body based on MRI and PET scan material
In the accompanying literature, Londoner Marilene Oliver provides an impressively idea-packed insight into the layers of conscious metaphor in her work. One line has particular relevance to what she does: ‘playing with disillusioned promises that…
New play Be Silent or Be Killed tells the true story of a terrorist encounter
17 Apr 2013
The play retells an eye-witness account of the 2008 Mumbai attacks
Hide and seek of the very deadliest kind awaited Bank of Scotland employee Roger Smith in 2008 while setting up a project in Mumbai. Just after dinner on his second day in India, terrorists invaded his hotel, hunting and killing any Westerner. Roger hid…
Davey Anderson discusses the upcoming New Plays from China strand
17 Apr 2013
The world premiere performances showcase the talents of three Chinese playwrights
It’s not often that Scotland gets to see a Chinese world premiere before China does, but it’s about to happen three times. Joining forces with the National Theatre of Scotland, Glasgow’s lunchtime theatre season A Play, A Pie and a Pint is presenting a…
