Articles

Scottish Opera revive Besch's celebrated Tosca adaptation

The new production stars Susannah Glanville and José Ferrero

25 Apr 2012

Described as a ‘shabby little shocker’ by one of America’s leading musicologists, Puccini’s Tosca has been a success with audiences the world over since its premiere in Rome in 1900. From the countless productions of it, one which has had particularly…

Marley

A comprehensive documentary on the singer that would have benefitted from delving a little deeper

25 Apr 2012

(15) 145 mins Executive produced by Bob Marley’s son Ziggy and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, Kevin Macdonald’s comprehensive, if overly reverential, documentary chronicles the life and times of the first musical superstar from the third world…

Karla Black

'Giant tiramisu' is breathtaking and ludicrous in equal measure

25 Apr 2012

Between Karla Black’s work and its viewer, the tension is unbearable. Rarely can inert sculptural work have exerted such a gravitational pull upon its audience, and the effect of ‘art vertigo’ it inspires just can’t be understood unless it’s seen live.

Jeremy Deller: Sacrilege

Stonehenge reimagined as a bouncy castle celebrates creative power of play

25 Apr 2012

If you’re feeling down in the dumps, there are few things more rejuvenating than jumping up and down like an idiot for a few minutes. If you can do so without bursting out laughing like an even bigger loon, chances are you’re dead. As a child of the…

Exposure: Friends

The Brooklyn hipster quintet make disgustingly cool indie post-punk-funk

25 Apr 2012

The List makes two predictions with regards to this fresh Brooklyn indie post-punk-funk ensemble. 1) They’re going to be the sound of many people’s summer, and 2) they’re going to have music journos punning furiously on their sitcom namesake. They’re…

Lorna Macintyre: Midnight Scenes & Other Works

Intriguing and apparently unrelated pieces across various media

25 Apr 2012

An exhibition which speaks most eloquently only when its creator’s intentions have been read and understood, Midnight Scenes & Other Works at first appears to be a series of intriguing but unrelated pieces across various media. There’s a video work…

The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Comedy about republicanism, terrorists and dead cats follows predictable arc

25 Apr 2012

A comedy about republicanism, terrorists, and dead cats that’s more fun than it sounds, The Lieutenant of Inishmore displays Martin McDonagh’s talent for harnessing the comic potential in those peculiarly Irish turns of phrase. Many of the play’s best…

Reveal 2012 showcases new Scottish theatre

Highlights include Mexican reality TV, a Gaelic divorce and London riots performed by puppets

25 Apr 2012

Following on from last year’s successful inaugural Reveal Season, The National Theatre of Scotland, in association with the Citizens’ Theatre, present Reveal 2012, a season of new work by up and coming and diversifying artists, many of whom have been…

Emory Douglas: Seize the Time

Imagery of Black Panther party’s minister for culture still high in insurrectionary power

25 Apr 2012

The imagery of the Black Panther party’s first and only minister for culture has lost none of its insurrectionary power over the last half-century. At a time when the Arab Spring and Occupy movements have reintroduced a generation to often violent…

Scotland's Festival of Museums returns for 2012

Programme ranges from Tosca's classics to Scotland’s local heroes

25 Apr 2012

18-20th May sees the return of the Festival of Museums – Scotland’s only country-wide cultural celebration which offers something slightly out of the ordinary for visitors to our museums. For those who remember museum visits as quiet, sedate and serious…

The Futureheads - Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 9 Apr

Stripped down acoustic and a capella show from the indie-rock group

25 Apr 2012

For a band who made one of their very earliest trips around the UK a tour of working men’s clubs, there was a certain sense of having come full circle here. Billed as an acoustic and a cappella tour, it was more than just a stripped-down version of…

Wolfgang Tillmans

Visually stunning and technically excellent mix of photographic works

25 Apr 2012

Wolfgang Tillmans’ new installation at the Common Guild is composed of an eclectic mix of photographic works, both visually stunning and technically excellent, with a disconcerting disregard for continuity of imagery. This diverse collection includes…

A Streetcar Named Desire

Incredibly dynamic, exhilarating and edgy production from Scottish Ballet

25 Apr 2012

Early on in Scottish Ballet’s audacious adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire it hits home just how persuasively Tennessee Williams’ play has been adapted for non-verbal storytelling. Director Nancy Meckler and choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa have…

Andrew WK - The Garage, Glasgow, Sat 14 Apr

The long-haired party-metaller plays debut album I Get Wet in full

25 Apr 2012

Andrew WK is what he is: partier, lover of dirty jeans, motivational speaker. Whatever you thought of him when he arrived on the scene with tongue firmly in cheek on the back of last year’s debut album I Get Wet is irrelevant. As a live prospect, Andrew…

Folkert De Jong: The Immortals

Dutch artist references Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh

25 Apr 2012

A gaudily attired couple sit astride some scaffolding watching the debris-ridden legacy of the best minds of their generation. Or at least that’s the sense you get of Dutch artist Folkert De Jong’s site-specific sculptural intervention, which looks to…

Teresa Margolles

Photographic archive of the now decaying Mexican border town

25 Apr 2012

Life’s a riot in Teresa Margolles’ work for Glasgow Sculpture Studios’ new space in Glasgow’s old whisky bond building, which sources a photographic archive of the now decaying Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez alongside a new piece mined from…

Richard Wright: Works on Paper

Small and delicate lesser-known works are enigmatic and unassuming

25 Apr 2012

Buried in the back corner of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Richard Wright exhibits some of his lesser-known works on paper. They are unassuming, enigmatic and predominantly abstract as with most of Wright’s work. However, in contrast to his more usual…

Dundee fashion label Nkili aims to reinstate the blouse as a key fashion item

24 Apr 2012

Has anyone worn a blouse to greater effect than Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary? She looked filthier in her high-necked, pussy-bowed polka-dot number than in her Agent Provocateur shoot. On the right person, the mother of pearl button, the leg of mutton…

Edinburgh vegetarian restaurant Henderson's wins List award in 50th year

Pioneering business wins Eating & Drinking Guide's Special Award 2012

24 Apr 2012

2012 marks a notable anniversary in Edinburgh’s dining history: Janet Henderson’s first city venture dedicated to vegetarian food opened 50 years ago. In 1962 Janet, along with husband Mac, an East Lothian farmer, set up a ‘farm shop’ in the city…

Health to provide Max Payne 3 soundtrack

The LA noise rockers follow the game-soundtracking example of Opeth, Trivium and others

24 Apr 2012

Ever since the very earliest days of home gaming and the release of the Atari 2600 (1977), videogame music has become a part of cultural life. The lack of processing power meant it was necessarily tinny, bleepy and repetitive. Despite this, 8- and…

Le Bistro Beaumartin adds a French flavour to Glasgow's culinary palette

24 Apr 2012

‘French’ tends to be a label that’s very loosely slapped on a restaurant in Glasgow – often truly being ‘French with a twist of this or that’. That’s changed, however, with Le Bistro Beaumartin popping onto the petite-yet-elite scene to teach Glasgow a…

The ancient tradition behind the Beltane Fire Festival

The annual ceremony takes place on Edinburgh's Calton Hill

24 Apr 2012

Fire, processions and rituals – all sounds a bit Wicker Man, right? Beltane Fire Festival, however, is not remotely cult-related and Christopher Lee (nor Nicolas Cage, ahem) will not be anywhere in sight at this annual celebration of changing seasons…

Aerial for Kids provides high-flying excitement for youngsters

Sessions led by aerial company All or Nothing on a weekly basis

24 Apr 2012

Two teenage girls are hanging from a bar, their legs twisted around a rope, heads upside down. This may not sound like the most comfortable of positions, but the smile on their faces suggest they’re having a ball – and they are. As is the young boy who…

New historical books round-up

Kate Summerscale, Paul French, Andrew Martin, Sarah Fraser and John Romer all to release new works

24 Apr 2012

How do you follow up a mind-blowing success like The Suspicions of Mr Whicher? Well, if you’re Kate Summerscale, you understandably get right back onto that period saddle with Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady (Bloomsbury).

Mark Haddon - The Red House

The Curious Incident author delivers a mature domestic drama for grown-ups

24 Apr 2012

(Jonathan Cape) Prolific author of children’s books and part-time writer of novels for adults, Mark Haddon’s latest is his most mature work to date. It’s mature in terms of both content and style, and reading The Red House there’s a sense that this…