Theatre

The Authorised Kate Bane

Comic exploration of family life by acclaimed playwright Ella Hickson

'Write what you know' is the standard advice given to aspiring dramatists. But how do you edit your own life to make it fit for dramatic purpose? Up-and-coming playwright Ella Hickson's new piece for Grid Iron tackles this dilemma head-on, focusing on…

The Arches: 21 defining moments

The cutting edge venue turns 21 this year - here are some of the stand-out moments in its history

1. Cafe Loco October 1991 First set up as an experiment by Arches founder Andy Arnold to bring theatre to clubbers, Cafe Loco showcased numerous emerging and experimental performers including early sightings of performance company Mischief La…

Cora Bisset on Glasgow Girls: the Musical

The production tells the true story of three Drumchapel teenagers taking on the immigration system

The dramatic story of the 21st century Glasgow Girls, the teenagers from Drumchapel who, in 2005, banded together to take on the immigration system when one of their friends was threatened with deportation, is an obvious one for the stage. Cora Bissett…

Ulysses

Captivating stage adaptation of Joyce's masterpiece brought to life by an excellent ensemble cast

For anyone familiar with James Joyce's magnum opus, the prospect of a stage adaptation of Ulysses is intriguing if eyebrow-raising. How the hell do you go about translating Joyce's epic, experimental account of a single day in Dublin for the stage? And…

Actor William Troughton on Graham Linehan's The Ladykillers

The stage adaptation of the Ealing comedy classic also stars Shaun Williamson and Clive Mantle

Fans of The Ladykillers may have been sceptical when Graham Linehan’s stage adaptation of the film premiered last year. But the Father Ted creator’s version of the classic Ealing comedy – in which a gang of petty criminals occupy an old lady’s house as…

Glasgay! theatre round-up, including Harold and Maude, All That Promise and Dustin Lance Black's 8

Already recognised as a festival not afraid of dealing with issues of sexuality in a challenging and unconventional manner, this year’s Glasgay! comes with its own political backdrop – the ongoing debate between the Scottish government and the Catholic…

Solar Bear's Therapeutic Theatre strand presents Inside Outside In Our Stride

The production will take place as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Solar Bear theatre company’s Therapeutic Theatre strand was created five years ago for the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, and it’s now developed into a process of engagement for its participants which culminates in a show at the…

Cast member Abby Ford discusses Simon Stephens' London

For ford, the play is about 'ordinary people who share a loss of self in one way or another'

Simon Stephens is fast developing a reputation as Britain’s most prolific playwright, having given us Three Kingdoms and Morning this year already. His latest offering with Paines Plough, London, incorporates two previous plays: Sea Wall, which featured…

An inside look at The Arches' revival of Alien War

The Arches revival of the infamous terror experience from a first-person perspective

For as long as I can remember ghost trains have been a part of my life. The first time I went on one I filled my long socks with urine. The second time I jumped from the train and had to be led out by an employee with a white sheet draped around his…

Farmhouse

Psychological thriller-cum-genre mixing semi-fairytale let down by a disappointing script

Farmhouse, the latest production from Edinburgh-based theatre company Siege Perilous, opens with Anthony, and his pregnant partner Claire, seeking help from a nearby farmhouse when their car breaks down in the country. After helping them patch up the…

Actor Blythe Duff takes the lead role in Rona Munro's Iron

The Taggart star is to play a convicted murderer who is visited in prison by her daughter

After 21 years as DS Jackie Reid on the TV series Taggart, now Blythe Duff is on the other side of the prison walls playing inmate Fay in Rhona Munro's drama Iron. Though, she insists, her choice of genre is nothing more than coincidence; 'I wouldn't…

lifeguard

Compelling, fragmented site-specific performance piece exploring our relationship with water

Adrian Howells’ performance piece, created in collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland and sited in Govanhill Baths, is a collage of images exploring our relationship with water. Each fragment is compelling in itself but these combine to…

Haunting Julia

Alan Ayckbourn's ghost story features plenty of chills but suffers from abrupt shifts in tone

Ghosts are back in vogue. All the most successful horror films of the last few years have been supernatural chillers (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister) so it’s no surprise to find there’s been a trickle down to the theatre, leading to this…

5 Things - Masks

We select our five favourite mask wearers, including MF Doom, Daft Punk, Zorro and Rubberbandits

Phantom of the Opera An interesting choice of shape – surely it takes more effort to buy a whole mask and cut a bit out? Is your cheek that attractive?

Medea

A commanding performance from Rachael Stirling lifts Mike Bartlett's mundane Euripides adaptation

The question of how to make barbarian heroine Medea’s gruesome act of vengeance against her husband Jason believable to a modern audience is one that never ceases to fascinate and inspire theatre-makers. Playwright Mike Bartlett (Cock, Love, Love, Love…

Jess Latowicki discusses We Hope That You’re Happy, Why Would We Lie?

The actor and playwright says the comedy tackles the current 'epidemic of apathy'

‘There’s an epidemic of apathy,’ explains Jess Latowicki, one half of Made In China Theatre, along with co-writer Tim Cowbury. ‘We think we’re feeling something, but you try to do so much and experience so much that you end up just being…

Acclaimed playwright Morna Pearson on The Artist Man and the Mother Woman

Pearson's new play focuses on an art teacher's awkward relationship with his mother

Geoffrey Buncher is a fortysomething art teacher who is still living at home with his over-protective and infantilising mother, Edie. The discovery that his chosen profession is, according to one media outlet, amongst the 'sexiest' jobs leads him to…

Matthew Lenton on the Lyceum's new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

It can be difficult to think of a way to make one of Shakespeare’s most popular and performed plays feel new. But director Matthew Lenton of Vanishing Point, who brings a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the Royal Lyceum this month, has…

Sex & God

Powerful fragmented portrait of 20th century women's lives from playwright Linda McLean

Award-winning playwright Linda McLean has never been one to pass up the opportunity to experiment with form, and her new work for Magnetic North, Sex & God, is perhaps her most ambitious to date. Barely an hour in length, the piece focuses on four women…

The Cone Gatherers

Uneven adaptation of classic Scottish novel is distinguished by strong performances

Robin Jenkins' most famous novel has long enjoyed a prominent place on the Scottish curriculum as a set text. Yet, for all its familiarity, the tale's lyrical depiction of class conflict, obsession and petty fascism, set in a Scotland thrown into flux…

The Guid Sisters

Entertaining and energetic revival of Scots version of Michel Tremblay's classic Les Belles-soeurs

Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay's Scots translation of Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs burst onto Scottish stages in the late 1980s in the wake of that other hugely popular comedy-drama based around a community of women, The Steamie. But The Guid…

Chalk Farm

Julia Taudevin and Sean Brown shine in Kieran Hurley's riot-themed follow up to Beats

Huge expectations greet Kieran Hurley's first new piece since his all-conquering Beats. Named best new play at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland and delighting the Traverse audience at the Fringe, his rave generation monologue marked him out as…

She Town / The Mill Lavvies

Double bill of Dundee-set pieces exploring the city's history from male and female perspectives

It’s hard to think of a play less likely to have had its origins at Cheltenham Ladies College than She Town. It’s about the moment in 1930s Dundee when the mainly female workforce was confronted with falling wages and the prospect of mill closure, while…

My Shrinking Life

Disordered and impressionistic journey through multiple sclerosis diagnosis

The stage is vaguely medical, institutional and scuffed. Behind a curtained window we peep into a glamorous dressing room. Alison Peebles was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001 and My Shrinking Life is a theatrical account of what one of the…

The Monster in the Hall and Yellow Moon go on tour

The National Theatre of Scotland is re-staging the Citizens Theatre’s critically acclaimed productions, The Monster in the Hall and Yellow Moon by David Greig for autumn 2012 with a UK-wide tour of both plays, performed by an ensemble cast. The hit…