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Raydale Dower - Cryptic Nights at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 2 Feb 2012

Raydale Dower - Cryptic Nights at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 2 Feb 2012

Experimental but playful sound installation

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

The title of Raydale Dower's new 'spatial sound composition' speaks volumes about the former Uncle John & Whitelock bassist and current Tut Vu Vu clarinettist and sonic architect's methodology.…

Zach Braff, writer, director and star of All New People - interview

Interview: Zach Braff, writer, director and star of All New People

The Scrubs and Garden State star discusses his new theatre production

2 Feb 2012

‘I’m still Jenny from the block,’ says Zach Braff after a moment’s reflection. ‘Even now I feel a bit underground in the acting world.’ For those who enjoyed Braff (and 20 million viewers around the world did) as the lovable JD in US comedy drama…

Alasdair Gray prepares for a second reading of Fleck - interview

Alasdair Gray prepares for a second reading of Fleck - interview

Scots version of Faust myth to be performed at Margins Book Festival

2 Feb 2012

Will Self described you as ‘a creative polymath with an integrated politico-philosophic vision’, but you say you're ‘a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian’. Which do you prefer as an official description? I don't approve of…

Ten things you might not know about Zach Braff

Zach Braff: Ten things you might not know

The star of Scrubs, Garden State and All New People also voices the US Andrex puppy

2 Feb 2012

1 He is the youngest of four children. He has two brothers, Adam and Joshua, and a sister, Shoshanna. His mother and father are divorced and have both remarried. He says he now spends Thanksgiving with his ‘four parents’. 2 He had an ‘American…

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons

Slick, spirited musical play with Neil Hannon score grasps essence of original

(4 stars)2 Feb 2012

The four children of the Walker family, aged 12 to 7, are given permission by their naval father to set off alone on the sailing dinghy Swallow to camp on an uninhabited island on Coniston Water in the Lake District. Their imaginations let loose, they…

Passing Through charts encounter between a magician and a young woman

Passing Through charts encounter between a magician and a young woman

Theatre romcom two-hander from Peapod Productions

2 Feb 2012

Striking out on your own can be tough. But for actor Philip Kingscott, who set up Peapod Productions in 2010, the gamble has been worthwhile. Last year’s touring production The Garden was a five-star success, leading Kingscott to commission a new play…

Visible Fictions to revive Zorro

Visible Fictions to revive Zorro

The theatre company's popular swashbuckler to play at Scottish Youth Theatre

2 Feb 2012

In case you didn’t know, the word ‘zorro’ is Spanish for ‘fox’, and that’s exactly what this cunning fictional hero does – fox those around him, not just with his deeds but his entire persona. Starting life as a serial in a 1920s US magazine, the tales…

Mark Fisher dicusses The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide

Mark Fisher on The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide

Theatre critic's book of essential advice to aspiring Fringe performers

1 Feb 2012

1 Choosing a title takes ages It’s as straightforward as they come, yet The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide was a title born of months of discussion. The subtitle, How to Make Your Show a Success, was arrived at no quicker. My editor couldn’t believe…

Greg Hemphill makes An Appointment with the Wicker Man

An Appointment with the Wicker Man

Robin Hardy’s 1973 classic to become the play-within-the-play for new NTS production

1 Feb 2012

‘There are many films that people would love to see adapted cleanly onto the stage,’ says Greg Hemphill, and if current trends are anything to go by, he looks to be right, ‘but when we discussed it with Vicky [Featherstone, National Theatre of Scotland…

Interview: Choreographer Christine Devaney

Interview: Choreographer Christine Devaney

Artistic director of Scottish contemporary dance company Curious Seed

1 Feb 2012

Christine Devaney, artistic director of Scottish contemporary dance company Curious Seed, tells us all about her new production, PUSH What made you want to be a choreographer? I’ve honestly never thought ‘I want to be a choreographer’, but I knew I…

Jemima Levick discusses Steel Magnolia revival

Jemima Levick on Steel Magnolias revival

The theatre director aims to retain the humour and tenderness of Robert Harling's original script

1 Feb 2012

‘I would rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special,’ says Dolly Parton as brassy hairdresser Truvy in the 1989 film adaptation of Steel Magnolias. The country singer led a cast of big name Hollywood hitters that included…

Lovesong looks at beginning and end of a marriage

Lovesong looks at beginning and end of a marriage

Frantic Assembly, Abi Morgan, Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham

1 Feb 2012

During its runs in Plymouth and London, Lovesong has had audiences reaching for the tissues in huge numbers. Penned by Abi Morgan (27, The Hour), produced by Frantic Assembly (Beautiful Burnout) and directed by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett (the…

Mwana is a new play from Glasgow-based Ankur Productions

Mwana is a new play from Glasgow-based Ankur Productions

Debut play from Tawona Sithole examines culture of Zimbabwe

1 Feb 2012

Mwana is a salad boy. It’s a Zimbabwean joke, what people who live in the country and eat a heavy, starchy diet call the urban lettuce-munchers. Despite this dietary preference Mwana comes to Glasgow to study and Tawona Sithole’s play takes his return…

Melmoth The Wanderer

Melmoth The Wanderer

Stage adaptation of Charles Maturin’s 1820 epic, sardonic shaggy dog

1 Feb 2012

The Northern Irish company Big Telly Productions has a taste for adapting unruly texts such as Spike Milligan’s manic novel Puckoon. Their latest production is an adaptation by Nicola McCartney of Charles Maturin’s 1820 novel Melmoth the Wanderer. An…

Playwright Ishy Din dicusses new play Snookered

Playwright Ishy Din dicusses new play Snookered

Former cabbie creates characters that transcend cultural divides

1 Feb 2012

The latest production from London-based theatre company Tamasha explores the issues faced by young men reaching adulthood and how the choices they make inform the rest of their lives. In Snookered four friends meet for a tense drink on the anniversary…

Samuel Beckett's 'The End' to be adapted by Gare St Lazare

Samuel Beckett's 'The End' to be adapted by Gare St Lazare

Conor Lovett and Judy Hegarty Lovett adapt absurdist short story

1 Feb 2012

A nameless man, ejected from an anonymous institution, lost in a city. ‘The End’, a short story written by Samuel Beckett in 1954, is one of Gare St Lazare’s favourite pieces of the Irish absurdist’s work. They are well placed to have a preference…

Double Nugget combines shows Marymassacre and Seven Year Itch

Double Nugget combines shows Marymassacre and Seven Year Itch

Random Accomplice take two duet plays on tour

1 Feb 2012

With hits like Little Johnny’s Big Gay Wedding and last year’s Smalltown, Random Accomplice have proved themselves to be one of Scotland’s best-loved theatre groups. Now, they’ve revived 2008’s Marymassacre and 2009’s Seven Year Itch in a touring double…

The Infamous Brothers Davenport

The Infamous Brothers Davenport

Captures excitement of Victorian public séance but makes for unsatisfactory theatre

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

Some 52 members of the crew on this co-production between Vox Motus and the Lyceum were required to sign secrecy clauses, so it’s no surprise that the show has its fair share of ‘how-did-they-do-that’ moments. In one scene, a table rises from the ground…

Preview of 2012 - King Lear

Preview of 2012 - King Lear

New Citizens Theatre boss Dominic Hill brushes up his Shakespeare

6 Jan 2012

Take on the Citizens Theatre and you take on the past. Any artistic director of the Glasgow institution can only be aware of the building’s history. Opened as the Royal Princess’s Theatre in 1848, it became home to James Bridie’s Citizens’ company in…

The Infamous Brothers Davenport

Playwright Peter Arnott discusses The Infamous Brothers Davenport

Arnott and Vox Motus to resurrect the 19th century American spiritualists

6 Jan 2012

This new show from playwright Peter Arnott and Vox Motus promises to be part Dickens, part Derren Brown. It focuses on real-life American magicians William and Ira Davenport, who in the 1860s were a central part of the spiritualist movement, which first…

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

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…

The King and I

The King and I

This stylish production of the musical classic can't disguise the script's patronising tone

(3 stars)6 Jan 2012

Like most of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s quintet of hit musicals, the deceptively light surface action in The King and I struggles to keep the lid on the problematic themes rumbling away underneath. Where the culture clash between prim, feisty governess…

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel (Platform, Glasgow)

Magical and truly unpatronising update of the Grimm Brothers' classic

(4 stars)21 Dec 2011

If the Grimm Brothers had grown up in Easterhouse, their version of the cannibalistic horror story for kids, Hansel and Gretel, might have turned out slightly differently. In Platform’s magical, and truly unpatronising 2011 update, Gretel (Becki…

The Lost Sock Princess

The Lost Sock Princess

Puppet Lab's festive show for under-sevens is infectious, interactive fun

(4 stars)19 Dec 2011

Ever wondered what happens to your socks when they disappear from the washing machine? Puppet Lab provides some highly persuasive answers to this conundrum in a big-hearted entertainment pitched at children under the age of seven. The show kicks off in…

Simon Hart, artistic director of the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival - interview

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…

The Captain’s Collection

The Captain’s Collection

Matthew Zajac of Dogstar Theatre to play Gaelic music preservationist Captain Simon Fraser

19 Dec 2011

The latest production from Inverness-based company Dogstar is a rich tale about a composer and former British Army officer who courts fame by publishing his volumes of Highland music. The piece, which is being performed in Glasgow as part of Celtic…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-40

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

HOT 100 2011 - 49 to 1

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

Hot 100 2011 - 54: Summerhall venue offers something special

Hot 100 2011 - No. 54: Summerhall venue offers something special

Festival debut marks beginning of major creative space in Edinburgh

16 Dec 2011

Before this August it seemed the Edinburgh Festival was already home to every sort of show and venue imaginable. So, when an entirely new major space sprang up, it was difficult to see what it might offer above the usual. On the programme at…

Best of 2011: Theatre

Best of 2011: Theatre

The best theatre work of 2011, including The Age of Arousal and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Har

14 Dec 2011

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart. The story of the overly curious girl/boy who encounters the Devil is as old as theatre itself, but David Greig’s inspired play-cum-ceilidh brought a dynamic twist to the Border Ballad form. Touring pubs around the…

Theatre critic Mark Fisher casts his eye over the Shakespeare productions planned for 2012

Theatre critic Mark Fisher on the Shakespeare productions planned for 2012

Alan Cumming, David Hayman and more to stage the Bard next year

13 Dec 2011

In 1964, the Polish critic Jan Kott published Shakespeare, our Contemporary. The book caused a stir for framing a long-dead playwright through the lens of 20th century totalitarianism. Director Peter Brook was delighted to find a commentator who could…

Lost Sock Princess

Lost Sock Princess

A puppet theatre performance that lets you join in – all you need is an odd sock

13 Dec 2011

Try as you might to wash and dry them together, socks have a way of parting company somewhere between the laundry basket and underwear drawer. It’s at that point you need the Lost Sock Princess to help you reunite the estranged pair. Or do you? One…

The List launches new cultural awards

The List launches new cultural awards

The List Award 2011 shortlist includes David Greig, Karla Black, Aidan Moffat and David Mackenzie

12 Dec 2011

The List introduces its own end-of-year cultural award, plus a Best Newcomer award. The awards complement The List's annual creative talent list The Hot 100, the 2011 edition of which is published on 14 Dec The winners to be announced at a Hot 100…

The Tree of Knowledge

The Tree of Knowledge

David Hume and Adam Smith point out obvious pitfalls of 21st century life

(3 stars)12 Dec 2011

The central conceit of Jo Clifford’s new play is an interesting one. Two influential figures from 18th century Scotland find themselves in early 21st century Edinburgh, surveying the world they helped create. The witty lines flow thick and fast, as…

Cinderella

Cinderella (Dundee Rep)

Witty script, excellent performances and bold lack of concern for tradition

(4 stars)12 Dec 2011

Writer Phil Porter has taken perhaps the best-loved of all festive tales, pulled it apart and reassembled it with a bold lack of concern for tradition. Yes, folks, this is Cinderella but not as we know it. For starters, this version is set on a…

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

King’s Theatre panto sends everyone home happy

(3 stars)9 Dec 2011

As much a part of the Glaswegian festive season as green and blue santa hats, the King’s Theatre panto looks like an institution defiant of change. So it is refreshing to find a new face, Arron Usher as Jimmy Jingles the Jester, going through the…

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow)

Musical theatre of dry ice, flashing lights and belting numbers

(3 stars)9 Dec 2011

The Citz, of recent years, have taken their festive shows down a musical theatre route and Alan McHugh’s Hansel and Gretel ticks all the genre’s boxes. Older audience members may prefer a quirkier Christmas production but the dry ice, flashing lights…

Cinderella

Cinderella (King's Theatre, Edinburgh)

Panto dream time Allan Stewart, Andy Gray, Grant Stott and Paul Elliot strike gold once again

(4 stars)8 Dec 2011

The great strength of the King’s panto, year upon year, is its ability to hook audiences of all ages and tastes. The script, co-written by Paul Elliott and everyone’s favourite dame, Allan Stewart, features great dollops of slapstick and toilet humour…

Rudolf

Rudolf

The Arches strike again with imaginative alt.panto starring Ross Allan and Rob Evans

(4 stars)7 Dec 2011

For the last couple of years, The Arches have offered an offbeat alternative to the traditional panto – and this year’s Rudolf is no exception. The classic reindeer tale (red nosed fella, rejected by society, wins out in the end by saving Christmas) is…

Mister Merlin

Mister Merlin

The Weegie-centric Tron panto continues to entertain despite uncertain future

(3 stars)7 Dec 2011

Renowned for their particularly weegie take on a festive tale, the Tron may sadly be unable to continue their affordable Christmas shows due to the loss of their corporate sponsor. Unless they find another, the theatre will need to raise £20,000 a year…

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

Dickens' festive spook story is given a compelling and creepy outing by Graham McLaren

(4 stars)7 Dec 2011

Scrooge and Marley’s gloomy office. Dangerous cables loop across the ceiling, piles of dusty papers fill the walls. As we enter in twos and threes to a whooping, fussing welcome, Scrooge himself – a grizzled figure in shrunken tailcoat and slippers…

Jackie and the Beanstalk

Jackie and the Beanstalk

Johnny McKnight's panto manages to entertain while challenging traditional gender roles

(4 stars)7 Dec 2011

According to panto dame Dott Von Trott, things have got so bad in the austerity-stricken pantosphere that ‘parents in Bridge of Allan have started firing their nannies and learning their own kids’ names’. Serious times indeed, and there’s something…

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

Stuart Paterson's 'children's play' is enjoyable but lacks the energy of true panto

(3 stars)6 Dec 2011

The basic story is so simple it’s mythic: girl meets beast, they fall in love, beast turns into boy. Stuart Paterson’s venerable adaptation is a tad more complicated. There are ugly sisters (as if a titular ugly character weren’t enough), played with…

Liam Rudden of the Brunton Theatre’s Aladdin - interview

Liam Rudden of the Brunton Theatre’s Aladdin - interview

The writer-director shares his insight into the panto-creating process

6 Dec 2011

What are the challenges of adapting such a well-known story? The biggest challenge is ensuring that the narrative is not lost in amongst all the routines, gags and songs. Finding the right routines and songs to advance the story is crucial. How does…

Top Hat

Top Hat

Loving tribute to the Fred'n'Ginger classic, starring Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen

(4 stars)24 Nov 2011

According to legend, screen hoofer Fred Astaire was such a perfectionist that, during the 40th take of a scene from Swing Time (1936), his partner Ginger Rogers’ feet started to bleed through her satin slippers. In this stage adaptation of one of…

Alan Cumming to perform free show at Glasgow's King’s Theatre

Alan Cumming to perform free show at Glasgow's King’s Theatre

Scots-born actor in NTS show combining discussion and performance

18 Nov 2011

For Scots-born actor Alan Cumming, a single performance at the King’s Theatre Glasgow on Saturday 26th November, will mark a return to his roots in more ways than one. Panto, Variety and the Scottish People, will see Cumming delve into Scotland’s…

Pantomimes and Christmas shows in Scotland 2011

Pantomimes and Christmas shows in Scotland 2011

Festive work aimed at young audiences in Edinburgh and Glasgow

15 Nov 2011

In the UK, pantomimes traditionally form the first encounter that children have with theatre. But for children under three years old, the noisy drama of a panto can be a disorientating and unnerving experience. However, in recent years, theatre-makers…

South Pacific

South Pacific

New York revival with refreshing emphasis on character in Rodgers and Hammerstein classic

(4 stars)15 Nov 2011

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer-winning musical set in and around a US naval base during World War II includes so many songs that have become standards that the plot seems almost surplus to requirements. You can almost feel the smiles of recognition…

The King and I

The King and I - Ramon Tikaram interview

The Eastenders star set for role of King in Rodgers and Hammerstein musical

15 Nov 2011

He’s played conflicted bisexual courier Ferdy in This Life, portrayed a tyrant in controversial dub punk opera Gaddafi and recently returned to Albert Square as the ruthless but charming father of Amira in Eastenders. Seldom one to resist a…

Nowwhatnow?

Nowwhatnow?

Dance Base presents new work from Andy Howitt, Alan Greig, Steinvor Palsson and Matthew Hawkins

15 Nov 2011

She’s one of the biggest champions of contemporary dance in Scotland, but Morag Deyes isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. The artistic director of Edinburgh’s Dance Base has put together a programme of choreographic comedy that takes an affectionate dig…

The Shoogle Project - Interview with Frank McConnell of Plan B

The Shoogle Project - Frank McConnell of Plan B

Trad Scottish band Shooglenifty collaborate with dance group Plan B

15 Nov 2011

How did the Shoogle Project come about, and who is involved? I went to see Shooglenifty at a gig in Cromarty about three years ago and just loved their great dance music. When I put the idea of doing a show jointly they were unequivocal in a…

Phoenix Dance Theatre: Declarations

Phoenix Dance Theatre: Declarations

Four innovative pieces from the acclaimed dance collective

15 Nov 2011

When Phoenix Dance Theatre (formerly Company) was created in 1981, the founders could scarcely have known how appropriate the name would prove to be. On many occasions over the past 30 years, the company has been re-born from the ashes of what went…

Interview: Matthew Bourne - Choreographer of the Month

Interview: Matthew Bourne - Choreographer of the Month

Witty and glamorous re-working of the Nutcracker returns to Scotland

15 Nov 2011

What made you want to be a choreographer? I was always putting on shows when I was a kid, and taking part in local amateur things. I thought I wanted to be an actor, and I tried it when I was about 15, but couldn’t bear using my voice. I was quite shy…

The Little Match Girl Passion

The Little Match Girl Passion

Movements surplus to requirements in David Lang's fragmented, overlapping score

(3 stars)15 Nov 2011

Amid Victorian clutter – ram’s skull, case of butterflies, mangy toy dog on wheels – four comfortable-looking individuals in deconstructed versions of period dress sing the story of a barefoot lass selling matches on a freezing night. Above them, the…

The Crucible

The Crucible

Stiff performances and lethargic pace dog Arthur Miller classic

(2 stars)15 Nov 2011

Pored over by students across the globe and regularly revived, Arthur Miler’s The Crucible is an audacious choice as Strathclyde Theatre Group’s first production as an independent company following the closure of the Ramshorn Theatre earlier in the year…

27

27

Abi Morgan explores tensions between faith and science in a fascinating but frustrating new play

(3 stars)3 Nov 2011

The tensions that lie beneath the serene surface of convent life have proved fertile territory for writers and dramatists down the years, from Powell and Pressburger’s psychological horror Black Narcissus to Muriel Spark’s Watergate satire The Abbess of…

Dr Marigold & Mr Chops

Dr Marigold & Mr Chops

Great but high-cholesterol fun starring Simon Callow

(3 stars)2 Nov 2011

There's an old Yiddish showtune called ‘What can you mach? S'is Amerika’ (‘What can you do? It's America’), which comes to mind during this entertaining but frustrating show. It's not Simon Callow's fault. Performing two monologues by Charles Dickens…

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

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…

James Corden continues touring success of One Man, Two Guv'nors

James Corden continues touring success of One Man, Two Guv'nors

National Theatre show treats audiences, but reveals craft behind magic

(4 stars)27 Oct 2011

One Man, Two Guv’nors is no longer a play that needs much of an introduction. It’s one of the most critically and commercially successful productions of the 21st century, now on tour from the National Theatre, and gathering more momentum, column inches…

Grant Smeaton discusses Martin O'Connor's Ch Ch Changes, part of Glasgay! 2011

Grant Smeaton on Martin O'Connor's Ch Ch Changes at part of Glasgay! 2011

The writer and actor on his upcoming one-man show

21 Oct 2011

What drew you to Martin O’Connor’s script for Ch Ch Changes? I’ve been thinking about doing a one-man show for a long time. Never done one before. The nearest was the solo performance I did in Spend a Penny at the Arches a few years ago where my…

The Salon Project

The Salon Project

An interesting stab at reviving the art of critical discussion, undermined by technology

(3 stars)21 Oct 2011

‘A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge.’ So says Wikipedia – the significant choice of source that The Salon Project uses to define…

Saturday Night - Tramway, Glasgow, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Saturday Night - Tramway, Glasgow, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Vanishing Point's Interiors follow-up explores similar themes but lacks direction

(3 stars)21 Oct 2011

Vanishing Point’s lovely, imaginative 2009 work, Interiors, revolved around a disparate group of characters at a dinner party. As the audience were cast in the role of voyeurs spying through lit windows the scene was played out in complete silence, the…

Calum’s Road - Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 5 Oct

Calum’s Road - Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 5 Oct

Generally strong but with clunky direction and heavy-handed message

(3 stars)21 Oct 2011

Calum MacLeod claims not to remember when he started the road. Exasperated at the council’s refusal to connect his home, in the hamlet of Arnish on the Isle of Raasay, with the rest of the island, he picked up a shovel and did it himself. It could have…

Apocalypse! - John Clancy's 'glamorously ugly cabaret'

Apocalypse! - John Clancy's 'glamorously ugly cabaret'

Cabaret at the end of the world takes aim at complacency and hypocrisy

(3 stars)21 Oct 2011

There’s an inspired idea at the heart of John Clancy’s ‘glamorously ugly cabaret’, that, with a couple of tweaks and the right home, could develop into a truly anarchic calling card for new Scottish company The Occasional Cabaret. The premise of a…

Director John Binnie on aerial production Mind Walking

Director John Binnie on aerial production Mind Walking

The Tanika Gupta-penned play deals with issues of death, age and vulnerability

21 Oct 2011

Tanika Gupta’s new play Mind Walking is like an ‘Asian King Lear’, according to its director, John Binnie. In it, a 74-year-old Indian man, having lived in Britain for all of his adult life, reverts to his native tongue in old age. Combing a…

Revival of David Harrower's Blackbird coming to the Tron

Revival of David Harrower's Blackbird coming to the Tron

Pilot Theatre's production will star George Costigan and Charlie Covell

21 Oct 2011

David Harrower’s Olivier Award-winning Blackbird is among the Scottish playwright’s most acclaimed works, but six years after its Edinburgh International Festival debut it remains a controversial one. Inspired by the real life crimes of Toby Studebaker…

Para Handy

Para Handy

Nosalgic escapism to the fore in stage adaptation of Neil Munro's popular sea-faring stories

(3 stars)21 Oct 2011

It’s over a century since Neil Munro first regaled readers of the Glasgow Evening News with the adventures of Para Handy and his crew aboard the Vital Spark. John Bett’s stage adaptation (with original songs and music by composer Robert Pettigrew…

The reviewers reviewed: Vanishing Point’s Saturday Night

The reviewers reviewed: Vanishing Point’s Saturday Night

Critical opinion round-up on Matthew Lenton's latest theatre piece

21 Oct 2011

WHAT WE SAID: ‘This follow-up [to Interiors] offers a wordless peek into lit rooms, with intertwining narratives but this piece doesn’t deliver the emotional impact of its predecessor... where Interiors, in its quieter moments, offered a lucid, and…

Theatre director Vicky Featherstone discusses Abi Morgan-penned drama 27

Theatre director Vicky Featherstone discusses Abi Morgan-penned drama 27

The play examines themes of aging, loneliness, faith and science

20 Oct 2011

‘You’re such a journalist,’ says Vicky Featherstone when I ask her whether 27 is going to ruffle feathers among scientists and Christians. The play is, after all, about a crisis of faith in a convent provoked by a scientist’s request to study the nuns…

One-woman theatremaker Lisa Nicoll returns with Home Run

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…

Days of Wine and Roses

Days of Wine and Roses

Owen McCafferty's adaptation of JP Miller's teleplay is revived, with Keith Fleming and Sally Reid

(3 stars)20 Oct 2011

Originally a teleplay by JP Miller from 1958, the story of Days of Wine and Roses is best known for the 1962 Oscar-nominated film starring Jack Lemmon. That story, which focuses on the plight of two average Americans, has been relocated to London by…

The Hunted - Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Sat 15 Oct 2011

The Hunted - Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Sat 15 Oct 2011

Enjoyably scary but slightly confused fairy tale mashup

(3 stars)20 Oct 2011

At first glance the new production from acclaimed young person’s company Visible Fictions seems a straightforward, if well-crafted, thriller, perfect for the spooky season. A wolf is at large, preying on the residents of a timeless fairy tale village.

Amy Lamé’s Unhappy Birthday - interview

Interview - Amy Lamé’s Unhappy Birthday

Morrissey at your birthday party? Glasgay! performer Amy Lamé wants to make it happen

17 Oct 2011

Steven Patrick Morrissey. Icon. Owner of the best baritone in the biz. Vegetarian, animal rights activist and moulder of the most vertigo-inducing quiff since Johnny Bravo? Yes, yes, yes. But warm, approachable, fan-embracing performer who would jump…

Strange Hungers

Strange Hungers

Glasgow Theatre company Fish and Game's wry send up of gay icons past at Glasgay!

17 Oct 2011

Who were the gay icons of your youth? Wham? George Takei? Rosie O’Donnell... ? Everyone has at least one (perhaps strange) LGBT celeb that they looked up to as an alternative youngster – and what do you get if you combine this wry look at ‘back in…

Liz Lochhead discusses her new play, Edwin Morgan's Dreams – and Other Nightmares

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…

Interview: Alt-cabaret act Bourgeois and Maurice

Interview: Alt-cabaret act Bourgeois and Maurice

Outlandishly glam neo-cabarat act bring their dark glamour to Glasgay!

21 Sep 2011

Georgeois Bourgeois and Maurice Maurice (real names George Heyworth and Liv Morris) are a sight to behold on a stage. Glitter, shoulder pads, metallics, smeared lipstick, towering beehives and as much eyeliner as you could ever loot from Superdrug, the…

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

Timely revival of Liz Lochhead's seminal allegorical play

(4 stars)21 Sep 2011

Liz Lochhead’s powerful, playful dissection of a key chapter in Scotland’s history may have debuted at the height of the Thatcherite 80s, but the play’s central themes – the pernicious effects of sectarianism, the Scots’ complex relationship with our…

The Missing

The Missing

Powerful performance of Andrew O'Hagan's non-fiction script across several platforms

(4 stars)21 Sep 2011

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan’s powerful non-fiction work doesn’t easily fit into any generic pigeon hole. It is fitting, then, that this stage adaptation of The Missing is accompanied by complementary art…

Kes

Kes

Poignant adaptation of the grim Northern English fable

(4 stars)21 Sep 2011

This sensitive stage version of Barry Hines’ award-winning book opens with utter chaos on stage. Tables lie on their sides, a sofa is upturned, and remnants of 1970s life are strewn amongst them. The central conceit of the adaptation is that a grown-up…

Director Stewart Laing discusses The Salon Project

Director Stewart Laing on The Salon Project

Immersive theatre project hopes to recreate the intellectual gatherings of late 19th century Paris

21 Sep 2011

Show us the man or woman who isn’t even a little excited by the thought of dressing up and becoming someone else for the night, and we’ll show you a liar. Now best known as a director, but originally a designer, Untitled Projects’ director Stewart Laing…

Arthur, the Story of a King

Arthur, the Story of a King

Colourful family-friendly production about the legendary king from theatre group Wee Stories

(4 stars)21 Sep 2011

Nobody really knows for sure what King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table got up to – a fact quickly acknowledged by Wee Stories in its lively historical drama. Each book documents different facts and figures, so Wee Stories offer us ‘an…

Days of Wine and Roses

Days of Wine and Roses

Kenny Miller of Theatre Jezebel is set to restage Owen McCafferty's Belfast-set adaptation

21 Sep 2011

JP Miller’s dark 1958 television drama, which marries the subjects of alcoholism and dependency, is bravely re-imagined by Owen McCafferty’s 2005 adaptation, in which the central lovers are Belfast natives relocated to London. In the piece the naive…

Apocalypse (A Glamorously Ugly Cabaret)

Apocalypse (A Glamorously Ugly Cabaret)

Catherine Gillard and Peter Clerke of Benchtours embark on a cabaret adventure

21 Sep 2011

Two years after they folded their lauded theatre company, benchtours, Catherine Gillard and Peter Clerke are touring with a new outfit: Occasional Cabaret. Apocalypse, their first full-length production, is developed from a two-week residency at…

Calum’s Road

Calum’s Road

Real life-inspired drama about road-building on Raasay

21 Sep 2011

It’s been nearly 40 years since Calum MacLeod single-handedly built a much-needed stretch of road on Northern Raasay, after decades of unsuccessfully campaigning the local council to do so themselves. Now, this inspirational islander is the subject of a…

Men Should Weep

Men Should Weep

Graham McLaren's adaptation has good comedic beats but lacks the necessary tragedy

(3 stars)21 Sep 2011

It does not take much imagination to see that, when it was first performed in 1947, Ena Lamont Stewart’s play would be genuinely shocking. Eight spunky dames and two hopeless men are trapped in a squalid room and kitchen during the 1930s. In the absence…

New stage adaption of Para Handy stories set for Scottish tour

New stage adaptation of Para Handy stories set for Scottish tour

Writer and director John Bett on timeless appeal of Neil Munro tale

16 Sep 2011

My Skye granny was an inveterate haunter of provincial auction houses and would often return home with baskets of books which nobody wanted and which a wily auctioneer had partnered with household items of more immediate interest to buyers. These books…

Saturday Night

Saturday Night

Matthew Lenton and Vanishing Point further explore the themes of 2009's Interiors

13 Sep 2011

In 2009, one play dominated the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland. Picking up the gongs for best director, ensemble and production, Interiors by Glasgow’s Vanishing Point was a performance of startling originality. Inspired by a play by Maurice…

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Theatre director Phillip Breen discusses forthcoming adaptation of Peter Nichols' play

13 Sep 2011

Phillip Breen is only 32, but already he has the honour of straddling three regimes at the Citz. Straight out of university in 2003, he was taken on by Philip Prowse to direct The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, returning at the invitation of Jeremy…

Fringe 2011 awards roundup

Fringe 2011 awards roundup

Multi-award winners include Mission Drift, Leo, Simon Callow and Silent

30 Aug 2011

As the dust settles from this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we see which figures are poised to stand tall on the cultural landscape with a clutch of awards under their belts The Scotsman Fringe First Awards One for productions appearing at the…

If That's All There Is?

If That's All There Is?

Eccentric study of a banal relationship

(3 stars)26 Aug 2011

What happens when you realise the man you're marrying is actually utterly dull? Such is the fate that befalls Frances, no sooner than her new husband Daniel has finished his painfully long wedding speech. In the opening scene, we are the guests and as…

The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding

The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding

A cure for loneliness?

(3 stars)26 Aug 2011

This one-on-one hotel room experience is Adrian Howells’ attempt at total care for a single audience member. It starts with a warm bath filled with rose petals. I undress and step in. ‘It’s my honour to bathe you,’ Howells says, with no hint of…

The Pretender

The Pretender

One man show about lying gets out of control

(2 stars)26 Aug 2011

Lying: people often do it to get over life's hurdles. Whether in politics, relationships, or childhood, lies are part of everyday social tactics, but can often spiral out of control. In this play, we're complicit in one such fib. Our host, a nameless…

Soldier and Death

Soldier and Death

Soldier fable let down by tiny puppets

(2 stars)26 Aug 2011

There’s bags of potential in this talented young troupe of puppeteers who tell the fable-esque tale of a soldier who cheats death. All are compelling storytellers, taking turns as the narrator. But the puppets are miniscule, dwarfed by multiple…

Nourish

Nourish

Thought-provoking suffragette drama

(3 stars)25 Aug 2011

1913 was a year when suffragette militant violence turned inwards with devastating consequences. But while Emily Wilding Davison made headlines by stepping in front of the King’s horse at the Derby, Sylvia Pankhurst was engaged in a quieter but no less…

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Haruki Marukami's novel is given multimedia stage adaptation by Stephen Earnhart

(4 stars)24 Aug 2011

Toru Okada is 29 and shares an apartment with his wife, Kumiko and their cat. When both the wife and cat vanish and don’t come back for several days, Toru tries to work out what’s happened to them, with the help of a spiritualist who doubles as a…

A writers guide to Fringe journalism – A view from the other side

A writer's guide to Fringe journalism – A view from the other side

Behind the scenes at the Edinburgh festivals

24 Aug 2011

Walking around Edinburgh during the month of August is an experience that will stay with you long after the festival crowds have abandoned the capital's streets and returned to whence they came. Areas of the city normally quiet and empty are transformed…

Arches Live!

2011 Arches Live! theatre programme is biggest yet

Over 30 performances of challenging theatre and live art

24 Aug 2011

As Edinburgh’s yearly festivities wind down, Glasgow’s Arches steps up with another packed out schedule of new, challenging theatre and live art. Often regarded as a platform for exciting young Scottish artists, 2011’s Arches Live! programme is the…

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

Lyceum and Dundee Rep co-production of Liz Lochhead's classic

24 Aug 2011

For director Tony Cownie and the cast of the Lyceum and Dundee Rep Ensemble’s new co-production of Liz Lochhead’s 1987 Scots classic, the Edinburgh Festival is over. Already they’ve had Lochhead in to give advice on pronunciations and, in the middle of…

Stage whispers: Fringe performer Martha Wollner on her first Fringe

Stage whispers: Fringe performer Martha Wollner on her first Fringe

Sense of community experienced at first Fringe

24 Aug 2011

‘First Fringe?’ That’s what old festival hands kept asking, followed by advice on how to build audiences: get sleep, see shows and, as one producer put it, ‘Generally gird your loins!’ But upon arrival, our ensemble began to experience something…

The Simple Things in Life

The Simple Things in Life

Five opportunities to meditate on what we should value

(3 stars)24 Aug 2011

Against the backdrop of festival chaos, Fuel theatre provides individual spaces for a slightly different, enclosed experience. Walking through the gates of the Botanic Gardens already provides respite from pounding the cobbles of the Royal Mile, and the…

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