Theatre and Previews

Blue Raincoat theatre company to tour Ionesco's The Chairs

Director Niall Henry discusses the fêted production

15 May 2012

After a five-year tug of war over rights, Sligo-based Blue Raincoat arrives in Scotland this month with its fêted production of Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs. Director Niall Henry, who co-founded the company in 1991, is thrilled about the tour and cites…

Class Enemy

A different class

14 Aug 2008

When Nigel Williams’ Class Enemy made its debut at London’s Royal Court in 1978, hip hop was still a phenomenon of the American underground. It would never have occurred to a director to incorporate it into this portrayal of a bunch of teenagers in a…

Cirque du Soleil: Quidam

16 Apr 2009

Cirque du Soleil might be celebrating its 25th birthday this year, but the French-Canadian company, which has made a name for itself across the world with its foundation-shifting take on traditional circus acrobatics, shows no signs of lagging behind in…

Quadrophenia

14 May 2009

The current economic crisis has cast many minds back to the unemployment-wracked 1970s, so it’s perhaps apt that a new stage adaptation of The Who’s Quadrophenia – one of the decade’s most celebrated albums – is touring this year. Composed by The Who…

An Inspector Calls

19 Feb 2009

REVIVAL Before Oscar glory reached British director Stephen Daldry, he won plaudits at the English National Theatre in 1992 with a powerful re-imagining of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. The production won four Tony and three Olivier awards, and…

Orgy of Tolerance

2 Apr 2009

A quick glance at the poster for Jan Fabre’s latest show, Orgy of Tolerance tells you the Belgian artist clearly isn’t afraid to push people’s buttons. On it, a bearded, long-haired performer stands wearing Y-fronts, a gold-link chain and a crucifix…

Barbara Rafferty discusses Lark, Clark and the Puppet Handy

The show also stars Sean Scanlan and Frank Gallagher

27 May 2011

What made you want to be an actor? My mother was a cinema usherette so I went to the movies and was hooked. It was another world I wanted to be a part of. First and foremost I am an actor but when I was asked to direct a show, My Name is Margaret…

Swede Dreams - Britt Ekland

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

A true icon of the 60s and 70s, Britt Ekland has lived a life of glamour and glory. She tells Liz Joseph why she’s telling the Fringe her story and how she keeps from feeling her age.

Claire Sweeney takes lead role in Educating Rita revival

The actress discusses Willy Russell's much-loved script

15 May 2012

Whether on stage or screen, few can forget Willy Russell’s young, earnest heroine, in Educating Rita, a working class girl hungry for education who finds herself under the tutelage of a lost, boozed up lecturer, searching for life beyond academia. For…

Foe play - Class Enemy

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

In times of both war and peace, Haris Pasovic has created crucial theatre. Malcolm Jack speaks to him about taking a story set in 1970s Brixton and plunging it into contemporary Sarajevo.

Simon Jones to star in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show - Live!

Neil Gaiman and Billy Boyd to perform cameo roles

15 May 2012

Life, the Universe and Everything are reimagined in a new stage production of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, touring to Glasgow’s Theatre Royal this month. Original cast members from the long-running radio series reunite, alongside…

Brian Conley to play Fagin in Oliver!

The new Cameron Mackintosh production is stopping at Edinburgh's Playhouse

15 May 2012

‘Cameron Mackintosh doesn’t do small,’ announces Brian Conley, his warm grin a lifetime away from the Fagin character he depicts in the Scots impressario’s successful revival of Oliver!. TV star Conley’s acclaimed turns in Jolson and Hairspray suggest a…

The BFG

2 Apr 2009

PREVIEW STAGE ADAPTATION Nineteen years after his death, Roald Dahl remains as popular as ever with the bedtime crowd. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches – the list goes on, each of them bringing delight to…

Waiting for Godot

2 Apr 2009

CLASSIC The prospect of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen sharing a stage as the leads in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is both thrilling and slightly intimidating. The two thesps have known each other since the mid-1970s when they were members…

Beckett double bill to be staged at The Citz

Director Dominic Hill discusses his productions of Krapp's Last Tape and Footfalls

15 May 2012

Following on from the success of his productions of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and Shakespeare’s King Lear, Dominic Hill concludes his inaugural season at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre with a double bill of short plays by the great, Irish dramatist Samuel…

Singin’ in the Rain - Long to rain over us

25 Jun 2009

Anna Millar looks forward to some old-school hoofing in Singin’ in the Rain

Educating Rita

5 Feb 2009

REVIVAL If there’s a consistent thread that runs through the work of Willy Russell, it’s the need for escape, usually from a stagnant class system that oppresses his protagonists. Yet his work is more nuanced, less moralistic than you might expect.

Early mourning - 4.48 Psychosis

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Nine years ago, uncompromising playwright Sarah Kane ended her own life. In an old Warsaw variety theatre, Mark Fisher is shaken by a mesmerising staging of her final work.

Tony Blair: The Musical/Tony! The Blair Musical

1 Aug 2007

You knew it was coming! More colourful than Derry Irvine’s wallpaper, more expensive than a peerage, but a bit less fictional than the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yes it’s the musical version of old Pinocchio’s political life. Or two versions, in fact…

Gordon Barr on Bard in the Botanics 2012

The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It to be staged in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens

15 May 2012

This season, for us as we move into our second decade, is all about discovery, exploration and new horizons so we were looking for plays that tied in to those themes. The link to The Tempest is fairly clear but As You Like It covers some similar ground…

Quadrophenia

28 May 2009

The stage musical adaptation of the film of the landmark album by The Who, about a bloody Bank Holiday weekend battle between the Mods and the Rockers in Brighton at the height of their 1960s rivalry, is told from the point of view of teenage rebel…

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

24 Apr 2008

CONTEMPORARY CHINESE DANCE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 25 & Sat 26 Apr Since its formation in 2000, the Dance Consortium has brought us an array of international treats. From ballet to hip hop, the Consortium introduces diverse, innovative and…

JM Barrie: Peter Pan Man - a play by Anne Stenhouse

23 Jul 2009

Few lives could have been as dogged by mortality as that of JM Barrie. From his childhood, much of which he spent imitating his brother (who died in a bizarre skating accident), through his youth, and on to his latter days, those close to Barrie were in…

Heart of darkness

His Dark Materials

14 May 2009

Three novels, hundreds of characters and numerous parallel worlds – Philip Pullman’s imagination knows no bounds. Between them, Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass have captivated millions of readers worldwide. Fitting their…

Underneath The Arches

8 Jan 2009

Glasgow’s Arches, as anyone who’s worked there will tell you, is the sort of place that doesn’t so much defy your expectations as consistently confound them. Audiences might marvel at the sort of building that can stage a theatre show, art exhibition…

Romeo and Juliet

16 Oct 2008

CLASSIC Shakespeare’s enduring tale of star-crossed lovers and warring families has benefited from numerous treatments down the centuries, from faithful period settings to the gland-snapping musical adaptation of West Side Story and the exhilarating…

Slick

4 Sep 2008

Another chance to see Vox Motus' daft satire on cruelty, greed and casual violence, in which a Glasgow family discovers oil spurting from their toilet, fresh from its premiere at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Expect some funny gags and a novel…

Free Outgoing

True-life tale explores India’s traditional attitudes to sex

31 Jul 2008

It was a real-life incident that prompted Chennai-based playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar to write Free Outgoing, which depicts a country’s anger when an Indian schoolgirl is filmed with a boy in her classroom. ‘I heard the girl’s family migrated…

The Body Politic - The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

A story of prostitution, oppression and torture might not sound like fun, but throw in a bit of belly dancing and you have a Fringe hit. Steve Cramer talks to Craig Murray, formerly our man in Uzbekistan, about baring souls on stage.

Chess: The Musical

1 Sep 2010

A love triangle set amid the kings, queens and pawns of an international chess tournament in a cold war setting provides for much intrigue in the musical which gave us the hit song, ‘I Know Him So Well’. Directed by Craig Revel Horwood of Strictly Come…

Calendar Girls returns to Glasgow Theatre Royal

Elaine C Smith leads WI charity nude photo cast

5 Aug 2010

The show about the Women’s Institute fundraisers who stripped for a (tasteful) nude calendar returns with a cast headed by Elaine C Smith and featuring such well-kent faces as Denise Black, Jean Boht, Jennifer Ellison, Julia Hills, Rachel Lumberg, Ruth…

Diciembre finds dark humour in Chile's Pinochet years

Teatro en el Blanco go back to basics with politically engaging EIF production

16 Jul 2010

The Pinochet years continue to leave a deep scar on the Chilean psyche. Playwright Guillermo Calderón tells Mark Fisher why Diciembre tackles some dark memories but still finds humour in his nation’s tortured past

Inspector Sands - If That's All There Is

9 Mar 2010

If the maudlin humour and languid disenchantment of the Peggy Lee number ‘Is That All There Is?’ appeals to you, then this new piece which riffs an entire tepid kind of romance from Lieber and Stoller’s song should appeal. Inspector Sands’ debut…

Me Too – A Sideshow

12 Aug 2009

Dutch performer Ulrike Quade’s acclaimed work is an inspired blend of performance, puppetry, music and dance, all brought together to tell the bizarre story of Siamese twins Daisy and Violet, who have performed as a revue act since childhood alongside…

Ice Cream Man and the Jelly Incident

Fun with food for kids

30 Jul 2009

Writer Jonny Berliner certainly knows how to create an attention-grabbing show title. After the huge success of Dude! Where’s my Teddy Bear? – which went from Edinburgh sell-out in 2003/4 to runs at festivals nationwide, including Glastonbury…

Bard in the Botanics

11 Jun 2009

There are probably fewer people in Scotland more excited about the Met Office’s predicted heatwave this summer than Gordon Barr, artistic director of Bard in the Botanics, Glasgow’s annual outdoor Shakespeare festival. ‘I’m really keeping my fingers…

Off to see the wizard

13 Nov 2008

‘They’re big shoes to step into, aren’t they?’ says Helen McAlpine, about the specially-customised ruby slippers she’ll be wearing onstage in the Citizens’ Theatre’s Wizard of Oz. She’s not talking about her shoe size, either – as Dorothy Gale, McAlpine…

Blue

16 Oct 2008

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE While its existence in any sort of visual medium is an artistic victory, the ambition of Derek Jarman’s Blue becomes most apparent when you discover that he drummed up money for the film by staging it as a series of live…

Gerry Mulgrew - The Lesson

2 Oct 2008

Gerry Mulgrew is a smart director, but when he’s in the rehearsal room he prefers to work from instinct. ‘I respond to Peter Stein when he says a director should have unlimited enthusiasm and absolutely no idea of what he’s going to do,’ says the man…

5 Questions - Linda Marlowe

31 Jul 2008

Linda Marlowe is renowned for her mesmerising solo performances, from Berkoff’s Women to Believe. As she prepares to wow this year’s Fringe with The Time Step, she tap dances her way through our Q&A 5 words to describe The Time Step Wacky, cruel…

Irene MacDougall to play female Prospero in Dundee Rep's The Tempest

Caliban and Ariel also adapted as female roles in new production

15 May 2012

Irene MacDougall has been a member of the Dundee Rep ensemble since its inception, but 2012 will mark her first turn in The Tempest. Like Helen Mirren in Julie Taymor’s recent film of Shakespeare’s classic, MacDougall will play Prospero as a female. The…

Theatre and dance highlights of the West End Festival 2012

Featuring Pygmalion, Man of the House and Pulse 12

15 May 2012

At first glance, the theatre and dance programme for this year’s West End Festival looks a bit traditional as the team from A Play, a Pie and a Pint offers up Shaw and Jarry classics while The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet are brought back for the Bard…

The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon discusses theatre production Swallows and Amazons

The musical is to be directed by War Horse's Tom Morris

6 Jan 2012

‘I don’t think of myself as much of a collaborator...’ muses Neil Hannon. A chuckle follows, the irony of his statement kicking in. When he’s not being frontman to The Divine Comedy, the Northern Irish pop star has written music for Father Ted and…

Just Checking charts bride-to-be whose OCD is getting the better of her

Very physical piece from Taggart actor

16 Feb 2011

For an actor, no job is for life. Not even when you’re the star of Britain’s longest running cop show. So when Blythe Duff (aka DI Jackie Reid) found herself in between series of Taggart in 2009, she thought it would be prudent to have another string to…

Stage musical The Secret Garden stars Siobhan Redmond

Cross-generational appeal of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel makes for ideal festive show

23 Nov 2010

It’s a century since the publication of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, but this seminal work of children’s literature has only grown in stature through time. The tale of Mary, an orphaned girl who seeks refuge in a blooming hidden garden…

Out of the Strong is latest work by Richard Alston Dance Company

Abstract contemporary dance, now with characterisation and Prokofiev

3 Nov 2010

For decades, Richard Alston has been one of Britain’s finest exponents of abstract contemporary dance. Now, however, it would seem he’s also rather good at telling a story. Alston first dipped his toe in narrative waters in 2009, with Scottish…

Edinburgh Fringe show based on 7th July 2005 London bombings

Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You addresses 7/7 London attacks

16 Jul 2010

Molly Naylor is nervous, she doesn’t mind admitting. That’s partly because her first ever one-woman Edinburgh Fringe show is nearing the end of its rehearsal period when I speak to her, and is about to be unleashed upon preview audiences within a matter…

Backbeat - Stuart Sutcliffe story comes to Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow

And the beat goes on

3 Feb 2010

This season’s major show at the Citizens Theatre is more than just a Beatles biopic. Writer/director Iain Softley explains why to Jonny Ensall

We Will Rock You

Steve Cramer sets his reservations to one side to make a positive case for the Queen musical

15 Oct 2009

It’s a very queer place indeed on the other side of the looking glass. Within weeks of the Conservative Party staking a claim to be the defenders of the poor and downtrodden, along comes a classic catalogue McMusical, which sets out its stall as the…

The Last Witch - Rona Munro

12 Aug 2009

Outside of panto season, it’s difficult to find a dramatist these days who’s keen to write about witches. While the idea of witchcraft might bring a certain primal frisson to some, and a sociological fascination to others, the contemporary theatre has…

Optimism - Things can only get better

Frank Woodley tells Mark Fisher why Optimism is the feelgood hit of the summer

8 Aug 2009

This time last year Frank Woodley was mucking in with the Fringe’s finest as he brought his solo show Possessed to the Assembly Rooms. It was much the same as it had been for the best part of 20 years for the rubber-limbed Australian comic, a Fringe…

A-Team - The Musical

22 Jul 2009

Pity the poor fool who misses out on scoring a ticket to this musical version of the legendary 80s TV adventure series about a quartet of ex-crack commandos-turned-mercenaries. So, can Faceman hold a tune? How are Hannibal’s harmonies? What’s BA’s…

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre highlights for a fiver

20 Jul 2009

Short of cash but trying to squeeze in as much festival action as physically possible? Fear not! Our inflation-busting guide presents fifty preview shows for a mere five of your Scottish bank notes

Cooking with Elvis

9 Jul 2009

Lee Hall might be best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Billy Elliot, but long before Jamie Bell’s dancing feet captured the public imagination, Hall scored a hit with the acclaimed comedy Cooking with Elvis. First performed in Newcastle’s…

A View From the Bridge

28 May 2009

One of the gifts that made Arthur Miller such a significant dramatic writer was his ability to capture the world of Greek tragedy – on the face of it an unfamiliar theatrical landscape with its dark blood feuds, incest and primal passions – and make it…

Moonwalking

16 Oct 2008

NEW PLAY Her play clocks in at less than an hour and will be performed in front of an audience eating their lunch, but you can’t fault Nicola Wilson for ambition. Moonwalking, part of Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint season, considers nothing less…

Mary Poppins

2 Oct 2008

At least one commentator has compared Sarah Palin, the American vice-presidential hopeful, to everyone’s favourite nanny. ‘This election isn’t about the issues any more,’ wrote Steven Wells in The Guardian recently. ‘It’s about America’s strange desire…

Glasgay! - Tennessee Williams

18 Sep 2008

Some years ago, I attended a conference where a debate about the work of Tennessee Williams came very nearly to blows. The bone of contention involved Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which the character Brick confesses an attraction to a friend that surpasses…

Theatre to stimulate the senses

Far Up! Far Out! Far More!

31 Jul 2008

Wanderlust This interactive club event returns audiences to the spirit of 1930s Berlin with its electrifying fusion of circus and cabaret, all administered by a ten-foot Fraulein. Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, 2–24 Aug (not 11), 11.30pm, £9–£10.50…

Surviving Spike

The tortured genius behind the inspired comic lunacy

31 Jul 2008

Surviving Spike promises to reveal the ‘tormented character that hid behind the public facade’. Audiences could be forgiven for assuming the blurb refers to the show’s star, Michael Barrymore, whose career was all but destroyed by revelations of the…

Best of the rest - Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Giselle. Under the artistic direction of Nina Ananiashvili, the State Ballet of Georgia will be performing what many view as the definitive interpretation of this romantic ballet. Gabriela Montero Two performances here from the superb Venezuelan…

Pornography - Simon Stephens interview

Shock values - Traverse Theatre

17 Jul 2008

As the Traverse embarks on its first Edinburgh Festival Fringe season under the artistic directorship of Dominic Hill, Steve Cramer talks to acclaimed dramatist Simon Stephens, writer of Pornography, about 7/7 and a new definition of the pornographic

The Wasp Factory

10 Apr 2008

REVIVAL Tron, Glasgow, Thu 17–Sat 26 Apr The remarkable aspect of Iain Banks’ disturbing Grand Guignol first novel is its capacity to continue to fascinate 24 years after its first publication. The story revolves around alienated Frank, a teenager…

Nederlands Dans Theater 1

10 Apr 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 11 & Sat 12 Apr Although Nederlands Dans Theater’s ever-excellent youth company paid us a visit in May 2007, it’s been almost two years since principal company NDT1’s memorable, award-winning…

Scottish Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty

29 Nov 2007

CHRISTMAS BALLET Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 11–Sat 29 Dec Since his arrival at Scottish Ballet, Ashley Page has been like a Christmas cracker – when his festive shows open, you never know what you’ll find inside. Both The Nutcracker and Cinderella…

Amy Lamé’s Mama Cass Family Singers

18 Oct 2007

THEATRE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 25–Sat 27 Oct ‘I came up with the idea of a misremembered memoir which is what the show is,’ says Amy Lamé of her one-woman show Mama Cass Family Singers. ‘A lot of it is real, some of it’s made up, but it’s all…

Zurich Ballet

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Wed 4-Sat 7 Oct

18 Sep 2006

MODERN BALLET Chocolate and watches may be their trademark, but it turns out the Swiss are pretty hot at dance too. Playing in Scotland for the first time in its history, Zurich Ballet is an undiscovered gem well worth checking out. A decade ago…

Interview: Simon Hart, artistic director of the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival

Highlights of the 2012 theatre and puppetry festival programme

19 Dec 2011

What can we expect from this year’s Manipulate programme? A great festival with an eclectic international mix: of stylish and sophisticated object theatre, digital projections, animations – and lots of water – in the Theatre Sans Soucis’ Hamletmachine…

Writer Donna Rutherford on KIN, an exploration of parent-child relations

Change in family dynamics as children reach middle age

28 Oct 2011

In a project started in 2010 as a collaboration between the CCA and NHS in Glasgow Clyde, ‘listening posts’ were placed in doctors’ waiting rooms, which played soundbites of conversations between parents and their older children. The snippets are taken…

One-woman theatremaker Lisa Nicoll returns with Home Run

The play deals with the drug addiction and recovery of Scottish women

20 Oct 2011

‘You train as an actress, writer, director or producer for years, but meeting real people and telling real stories is what makes really great theatre,’ says Lisa Nicoll, the one-woman theatre-making machine behind 2008’s Acceptance and short film ‘Truth…

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…

Theatre picks for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

20 Jul 2011

A Celebration of Harold Pinter A starry triumvirate of elements conspires to make this one of the hottest tickets on the Fringe. Hollywood star John Malkovich directs British actor Julian Sands in a loving tribute to the late Nobel winner, drawing on…

Generation

Glasgow theatre company Glas(s) Performance looks at the political views of today's teenagers

27 May 2011

Following swiftly on from a winter of discontent that was nowhere more pronounced than among our nation’s young people, comes a new show from Glasgow company Glas(s) Performance looking at the perspectives of today’s 17- and 18-year-olds on life, the…

Spring Awakening

Frank Wedekind's controversial play given the music treatment by theatre company Sell a Door

27 May 2011

Frank Wedekind’s original German language play caused a stir throughout the early 1900s due to its hard-hitting themes and liberal attitudes towards the problems teenagers face growing up. The 2006 rock musical adaptation doesn’t stray far from this…

Preview: Dennis Kelly's After the End to be staged by both the Citz and Dundee Rep

25 Apr 2011

When actors Jonathan Dunn and Nicola Daley take their final curtain call in June, they will say goodbye to After the End. But fear not. After the end of that After the End, it will be time for another After the End. That’s because, in a rare moment…

Dancing at Lughnasa story of five sisters rural in 1936 Donegal

Citizens run marks 21st anniversary of Brian Friel's hit play

18 Mar 2011

When The Original Theatre Company’s version of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa arrives at the Citizens Theatre in April, it will mark the 21st anniversary of its very first performance. ‘We hope that’s it’s going to really speak to people in Glasgow,…

The best upcoming theatre shows in Scotland for Spring 2011

A guide to the unmissable shows in theatreland til June

4 Mar 2011

Girl X On tour, 4 March–20 April Brilliant Belgian director Pol Heyvaert, who directed Aalst for the National Theatre of Scotland, hooks up with Glasgow actor Robert Softley for a provocative play based on the controversial case of Ashley X, a girl…

Magnetic North's Wild Life explores idea of modern day feral child

Playwright Pamela Carter's play inspired by ‘Wild Boy of Aveyron’

24 Feb 2011

From travelling freak shows to Channel 4’s sensationalistic Bodyshock series, voyeurism has long been a part of human nature, and the internet has only increased the opportunities for pointing and staring at those who stand out somehow from what our…

Lucy Prebble's play Enron deals with financial crisis

Celebrated play on UK tour, including run at King's Theatre, Edinburgh

3 Nov 2010

At last year’s Edinburgh Festival, only the National Theatre of Scotland’s Caledonia, an enjoyable if not completely successful production based around the Darien misadventure of the late 17th century, addressed the current financial crisis. The reason…

New Lyceum production of The Importance of Being Earnest

Production follows on from Romeo and Juliet

27 Oct 2010

The Importance of Being Earnest arrives hot on the heels of the Lyceum’s recent production of Romeo and Juliet, and is employing virtually the same cast and the same set. Director Mark Thomson is excited at the prospect of getting his teeth into Wilde’s…

Wendy Miller and Rachel Amey collaborate on The Bridge at Glasgay! 2010

New play explores theme of teenage suicide

8 Oct 2010

The creative partnership behind one of the chief commissions at this year’s Glasgay! 2010 is one that the festival was itself instrumental in fostering. Wendy Miller met Rachel Amey last year, after Amey was cast in Miller’s Glasgay! 2009 drama Even…

Camille O’Sullivan talks about her show Chameleon

The Irish chanteuse talks G&Ts, Scooby Doo and more

5 Aug 2010

The first time I set foot in Edinburgh for the Fringe was 2004. I was supposed to perform at the Wigwam Tent, but at the last moment the venue went bankrupt — I was saved by the lovely Speigeltent who took my show and also put me in the great new show…

Merrill Grant: A Twentieth Century Fox

A cabaret homage to silver-screen greats

5 Aug 2010

With her Southern twang, strawberry-blonde hair, beaming smile and can-do attitude, Merrill Grant is the epitome of a 1930s belle. Which is just jim-dandy, given the cabaret act she’s bringing to this year’s Fringe. Inspired by her love of Shirley…

Derevo bring 'real theatre' back to Edinburgh Fringe with Harlekin

Fringe favourites return – and this time it’s war!

27 Jul 2010

‘We just enjoy being in a city where there are more street artists than pedestrians,’ says Anton Adasinskiy, director, performer and founder member of Derevo, one of the most lauded companies to come to the Fringe in the last decade, on his decision to…

While You Lie preview

Playwright Sam Holcroft talks to Kirstin Innes about the eagerly awaited follow-up to her searing de

26 Jul 2010

‘What would happen if we started being completely honest with each other, right now?’ asks Sam Holcroft. ‘You could tell me everything you’ve heard about this me and this play; I could tell you exactly what I think of The List. What would happen to that…

Wolf

Richly atmospheric exploration of human-wolf relations

26 Jul 2010

Inspired by current proposals to reintroduce wolves into the Scottish highlands (the last wolf north of the border was killed back in 1769), the debut production by director Kath Burlinson’s Authentic Artistic Collective (drawing performers from Cirque…

The Sum Of It All...

Storytelling to the fore in melancholic, stimulating multimedia extravaganza

26 Jul 2010

Anomic is a brand new company, never before seen at the Fringe – but the style of the company’s debut, The Sum Of It All..., will ring some bells for Zoo regulars. Dan Shorten, Anomic’s artistic director, was also a co-founder of Precarious, and the…

LGBT highlights from Edinburgh Fringe 2010

14 Jul 2010

The List’s LGBT section is about to take a well-earned break (returning in September, folks), but before we head off on our holidays, there’s just time to let you know about some of the gay-friendly stuff that’s appearing at a Fringe Festival near you…

Macbeth at Traquair

28 May 2010

It’s summertime, which may or may not mean the arrival of blue skies and sunshine, but most certainly spells the onset of the outdoor Shakespeare season. Leading the pack is the annual celebration of the Bard at beautiful Traquair House in Innerleithen…

Blue Raincoat bring The Third Policeman to Glasgow's Tron Theatre

6 May 2010

Flann O’Brien’s novel, The Third Policeman is intriguing for its capacity to weave the extraordinary from the banal. Its representation of mid-20th century Irish rural life takes its central, unnamed character on a journey through recognisable fields…

Hairspray

15 Apr 2010

The London production may have closed its doors for the last time at the end of March, but the award-winning musical adaptation of John Waters’ crazy, camp masterpiece is taking to the road for a UK tour that includes a couple of Scottish stop-offs.

Huxley’s Lab brings together Grid Iron and Lung Ha’s theatre companies

31 Mar 2010

Designer babies, excessive recreational drug use and rampant promiscuity may seem like very modern concerns, but in 1932 Aldous Huxley had them all covered. His chilling science fiction novel, Brave New World depicted a time when all humans are made to…

Peter Brook's 11 and 12 marks director's return to the Glasgow and Tramway he transformed

22 Mar 2010

Let’s start with some history. Throughout the 20th century, Glasgow was as dangerous as it was dreich. You couldn’t leave your tenement slum without being stabbed. It was a bonus if you avoided a head-butting. A trip to the steamie or even to your…

The National Review of Live Art 30th anniversary

25 Feb 2010

It all seems wrong. The National Review of Live Art has built its reputation on change. It never looks back and never stays still. The annual bonanza of what used to be called the avant garde has doggedly embraced the disconcerting, the deviant and the…

Greenwich Theatre and Rapture co-production of Hamlet tours Scotland

23 Feb 2010

Scotland’s Rapture theatre company has teamed up with the Greenwich Theatre in London to create a modern, accessible take on Shakespeare’s most famous play. Rapture’s updated Hamlet is set in the contemporary Glasgow underworld, where Hamlet is caught…

Dundee Rep take on Peter Schaffer's pony tale Equus

18 Feb 2010

It’s not entirely down to Daniel Radcliffe’s torso that Peter Schaffer’s 1973 work Equus is undergoing something of a renaissance, but it was certainly the prospect of naked boy wizard that reignited interest in the play. It’s the kind of interest that…

Promises Promises - Douglas Maxwell interview

12 Jan 2010

With The Miracle Man, his play for the NTS slated to open in March, Douglas Maxwell will be in familiar territory. Spotty trauma, adolescent angst and the icky business of entering into the adult world are house themes for Maxwell, and this new work, in…

Anguish With Posie

6 Jan 2010

Fans of spoken word night DiScomBoBuLate will be no stranger to Ian Macpherson’s ability to wax lyrical. A creative powerhouse for writers, actors, comics and directors, the night helped provide the inspiration for Macpherson’s upcoming play, Anguish…

The Sound of Music

6 Jan 2010

For decades, the swansong of legendary musical writing partnership Rodgers and Hammerstein was associated with the 1965 Academy Award-winning film adaptation, in particular the iconic image of Julie Andrews spinning around on a Salzburg…

Stomp

6 Jan 2010

Our instinctive desire to hit things that make a noise is evident from an early age. For the sake of our parents’ sanity, most of us grow out of it. But fortunately, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas never quite managed to shake that desire…