Allan Radcliffe

Scott Capurro

A mix of the inspired and the obnoxious

21 Aug 2008

It’s been said that the older people get, the less worried they are about causing offence. Scott Capurro, veteran of some 15 Fringe summers, has clearly decided to go for broke this year, trampling all over every sacred cow and totem of political…

Behind The Mirror

Bizarre love triangle

21 Aug 2008

At first, Ad Infinitum’s infectious romp plays out like a physical theatre version of The Odd Couple, the buffoonish protagonist embarking on a slapstick turf war with his demonic reflection, who has escaped from his rightful side of the mirror. The…

I Can't Sleep by David O'Doherty

No cure for insomnia

14 Aug 2008

Next time you find yourself wide awake in the middle of the night, desperately trying to think of ways to make yourself tired, try taking a few leaves out of David O'Doherty's self-help manual for insomniacs. Rule number one: counting sheep is just…

Lost in the Wind

Lost Spectacles brings the outside inside

14 Aug 2008

Remember Let's Pretend, the kids TV show where the cast made up a play using whatever props and costumes found in the dressing-up box? This offbeat show from Lost Spectacles has a similarly patchwork feel to it. The cast use simple objects such as a…

A Night at the Movies

Classic scenes from the silver screen

7 Aug 2008

Golden moments from classic Hollywood films are the inspiration for this patchy production from US choreographers Gallimaufrey & Greene. While the intention is to provide an accessible entry point for theatregoers who are less familiar with contemporary…

Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger

Polished insight into the joys of online dating

7 Aug 2008

Anyone who has dipped their toes in the choppy waters of internet dating will find this sparky, well-observed two-hander from Australia's Out Cast Theatre enjoyably close-to-the-knuckle. Butt Boy (Jamie) and Tigger (Matt) meet in a chatroom late one…

Cleansed

7 Aug 2008

The late Sarah Kane's writing is so spare and savage that it lends itself to multiple approaches. Sadly, the cast of this production by the University of the West of England's drama department drift through the playwright's tale of a torturer and his…

Clockheart Boy

Stylish, heart-rending tale

7 Aug 2008

There's an important piece missing from the Professor's puzzle: his daughter Sophie disappeared 28 years ago while out walking on the beach. Luckily, he's got an energetic bunch of eccentric pals living in his castle to help with the search and assist…

On The Waterfront

Stylish re-imagining of a screen classic

7 Aug 2008

The English National Theatre didn't know what to do with this project: a stage adaptation of the Budd Schulberg-scripted film that cemented Marlon Brando's status as the actor of his generation and scooped eight Oscars. Never one to shy away from a…

Reginald D Hunter

7 Aug 2008

Reg D manages to pull off the neat trick of delivering an hour of intelligent, edgy material to his largest audience to date with the laid-back nonchalance of a very charismatic pal waxing lyrical after a late-night toke. His narrative, about the…

The Time Step

Mother of a tragic-comedy

7 Aug 2008

The monstrous showbiz mother has a time-honoured pedigree in popular culture, from the ambitious Mama Rose in the stage musical Gypsy, to Faye Dunaway's outrageously camp turn as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. In Matthew Hurt's claustrophobic chamber…

Saddle up

31 Jul 2008

As a posse of spoof country and western acts rides towards the Fringe, Allan Radcliffe asks why songs about rednecks, guns and erections make for sublime comedy

Bibi van der Zee - Rebel Rebel

31 Jul 2008

CAMPAIGNER BIBLE (Guardian Books) ‘Write to your MP!’ used to be the battle cry of every outraged rebel with a cause, whether that was to prevent the destruction of some local beauty spot by developers, conquering smut on the telly or campaigning to…

James Campbell's Shut Up Stupid

Comic plays for kids of all ages

31 Jul 2008

James Campbell is envied and acclaimed across the comedy universe for carving out a triumphant career performing stand-up for kids. While his Comedy Club 4 Kids continues to train young folk from the ages of six upwards in the hard-nosed business of…

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…

Vincent - Jim Jarrett

Lasting impression

31 Jul 2008

A one-man play about an iconic Dutch post-impressionist painter, scripted by the man best-known for playing a pointy-eared alien would be worth seeing for sheer curiosity value alone. What’s perhaps more surprising is that, since its first production in…

We all fall down

Exploring the darker side of storytelling

31 Jul 2008

Over the past five years, En Masse theatre has garnered a reputation for creating exciting, imaginative productions for young people and their families. Their latest show, We All Fall Down, is a tale of two villages – Eyam, where the people are saintly…

Karen Campbell

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

As luck would have it, Karen Campbell could draw on her former career in Strathclyde Police for inspiration for her literary debut. Published earlier this year, The Twilight Time is an atmospheric, fast-paced novel which introduced us to Anna Cameron, a…

The generation game

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

Age is no barrier to performing at the Fringe. Allan Radcliffe talks to veteran stand-up Joan Rivers and 12-year-old debutant Eros Vlahos as they head to Edinburgh, armed with their own distinctive brands of innocence and experience

TV- Remote Control roundup

17 Jul 2008

Allan Radcliffe frets over the sickly state of terrestrial television

Burn Up

17 Jul 2008

DRAMA BBC1, Wed 23 & Fri 25 Jul, 9pm Meet Tom McConnell (Rupert Penry-Jones), VP of Arrow Oil, the most powerful business in the world. He’s square-jawed, blue-eyed with a cut glass accent and a line in motivational patter to rival stick-thumping…

David Sedaris - When You Are Engulfed in Flames

17 Jul 2008

ESSAY COLLECTION (Little, Brown) A criticism often aimed at writers once they reach the publication of their third or fourth book, is that they forget all the things that endeared them to the book-buying public in the first place, and either…

Edinburgh Fringe - LGBT Highlights

17 Jul 2008

Allan Radcliffe selects the best the Fringe has to offer in comedy, theatre and music

Food For Thought

3 Jul 2008

I’ll eat anything but I’m not a good cook and so I avoid cooking and food publications at every turn. I only do one dish well, and it’s easy: a salad featuring mozzarella, mint, peaches, lime juice, olive oil, and prosciutto. I like to drink tap water…

Ian Smith - Peeping at Bosch

3 Jul 2008

Some performance projects simply have to be seen to be believed. This is certainly the case with Mischief La-Bas’ fascinating slice of live, interactive entertainment, Peeping at Bosch, the first stage in an attempt to realise the iconic Hieronymus…

LGBT Youth Scotland National Gathering 2008

3 Jul 2008

YOUNG PEOPLE’S EVENT Westpark Conference Centre, Dundee, Sat 5 & Sun 6 Jul This year’s LGBT Youth Scotland National Gathering, ‘In Control, Your Life. Your Choices’, is a Scotland-wide event for LGBT young people up to the age of 26, their friends and…

Bang Bang

19 Jun 2008

CLUB NIGHT The Ivy, Glasgow, Thu 19 Jun Ladyfest has a lot to answer for. The annual celebration of female achievement in the arts drew enthusiastic crowds to its club nights and gigs when it pitched its tent in Glasgow last month. Once the circus had…

Food For Thought

19 Jun 2008

Breakfast is always the most important meal of the day. If unhurried (rarely), and in the right setting it is also my favourite meal of the day. In fact, Brodies breakfast tea is my favourite non-alcoholic drink . The most important ingredient for a…

Edinburgh International Film Festival - LGBT

5 Jun 2008

LGBT-INTEREST CINEMA Various venues, Edinburgh, Wed 18–Sun 29 Jun This year’s EIFF programme includes a handful of intriguing films featuring gay characters or themes. If it’s a mix of high camp, glamour and drama you’re after, look no further than…

Food For Thought

5 Jun 2008

When I’m performing it’s hard to get time for a proper dinner so I’ll usually have a bag of pistachios, a smoothie, maybe a nice nutty pie, little things to keep me going. I try to avoid cheese as it makes me phlegmy, but if I don’t have a performance…

The First to Go

5 Jun 2008

HOLOCAUST DRAMA Tron, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Jun, then touring Seeing disabled actors performing in a mainstream theatre is rare enough. Benchtours’ production of Nabil Shaban’s play about the treatment of the disabled in Nazi Germany is doubly…

Art School Degree Shows

22 May 2008

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Ragnar Jonasson Painter Originally from Iceland, Ragnar Jonasson paints, but not using brushes or canvas. ‘I’m pouring paint,’ he explains, ‘from saucepans. I pour it onto plastic, then peel it off, so there’s nothing…

Painted Eggs

22 May 2008

THEATRE St Bride’s Centre, Edinburgh, Thu 29–Sat 31 May Gay-themed theatre is a rare beast, but drama based around the experience of transsexuals is even more exceptional. This fortnight, The Luvvies, Scotland’s LGBT community theatre company, are set…

Brent Ghelfi - Volk’s Game

24 Apr 2008

CRIME THRILLER (Faber) This debut novel from former US Court of Appeals clerk Brent Ghelfi introduces us to Alexei Volkovoy. ‘Volk’ (‘wolf’), a one-time sniper for the Russian Army in Chechnya, is now an unscrupulous gangster commissioned to steal a…

Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision

10 Apr 2008

MUSICAL King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 22–Sat 26 Apr The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a beast of wild contradictions. The annual competition is regular derided for its middle-of-the-road compositions, political voting and the never-ending…

Joanne Proulx - Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet

10 Apr 2008

TEEN DRAMA (Picador) Hot on the heels of Academy Award-winning comedy Juno comes another enjoyable tale of a smart-mouthed North American trying to make sense of the adult world. Joanne Proulx’s debut centres around Luke Hunter who, in the opening…

Remote Control

10 Apr 2008

Nostalgia is currently big business, and television producers have always been quick to take advantage of our romantic yearning for times gone by, whether endlessly revisiting classic programmes or winding the clock back to our political and cultural…

The Quest for the Lost Ark

10 Apr 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Mon 14 Apr, 9pm As Harrison Ford prepares to dust off his fedora, khaki shirt and bullwhip for the belated fourth instalment of Steven Spielberg’s swashbuckling Indiana Jones adventure series, a documentary about a non-fiction…

The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

13 Mar 2008

If there is still such a thing as ‘appointment television’ in this multi-channel age, The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is it. The adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s much- loved novel arrives on the small screen this fortnight thanks to a wealth of…

Alan Grant & Cam Kennedy - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

13 Mar 2008

LITERARY ADAPTATION (Waverley) The second One Book – One Edinburgh graphic novel adaptation was never going to be a straightforward reprise of last year’s successful Kidnapped campaign, even based around a source novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Katherine Ashenburg - Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing

13 Mar 2008

SOCIAL HISTORY (Profile) For germophobic Westerners in the 21st century, it’s customary to shower at least once a day before applying any number of perfumes and deodorants; anything less would be considered a sign of slovenliness. Yet, as Katherine…

Aye Write! - China

28 Feb 2008

What do Westerners really know about the People’s Republic of China? Our understanding of the world’s biggest nation is chiefly drawn from news reports about the country’s booming economy, her patchy human rights record and controversial intervention in…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Lesbian comedians

28 Feb 2008

Stand-up comedy has always provided a platform for historically oppressed minorities. From the self-deprecatory Borscht belt humour of Mel Brooks and Rodney Dangerfield through Richard Pryor’s fearless exploration of racism to the feminist material of…

From Saturn to Glasgow: a celebration of Edwin Morgan

28 Feb 2008

POETRY EVENT Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sun 9 Mar While the guid folk of Edinburgh are enjoying Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this year’s Glasgow City Read focuses on a new poetry collection, From Saturn to Glasgow: Fifty Favourite Poems by Edwin…

Tony Parsons - My Favourite Wife

14 Feb 2008

RELATIONSHIP DRAMA (HarperCollins) The question of whether it’s possible to truly love more than one person is perhaps the most enduring theme in world literature. Writers as diverse as Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, DH Lawrence and Vladimir Nabokov…

OurSpace

31 Jan 2008

What better way of rescuing the neglected history of the nation’s LGBT community than through the great Scottish tradition of storytelling? OurSpace: Making Inner and Outer Space for LGBT Lives presents a wide array of LGBT lives through oral histories…

Alain Mabanckou - African Pycho

Serpent’s Tail

31 Jan 2008

With six novels and six collections of poetry under his belt, Congo-born, LA-dwelling Alain Mabanckou is one of the most fêted of contemporary Francophone writers. African Psycho, the first in a series of translations of his novels to be published by…

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

17 Jan 2008

MUSICAL Playhouse, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 Jan Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s enduring piece of theatrical bubblegum may have started life as a modest school production, but the atmosphere in the packed Playhouse auditorium is as feverish as a…

Queer Mutiny

17 Jan 2008

ALTERNATIVE GAY NIGHT Forest Café, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Jan The dark nooks and free’n’easy hedonism of gay venues such as the Polo Lounge and CC Blooms aren’t for everyone. Queer Mutiny and Queeruption groups are springing up across the world. Their…

LGBT-Friendly Sports Clubs

4 Jan 2008

ACTIVITIES ROUND-UP Bloated from the Christmas blow-out? Struggling to downsize following excessive festive feasting? Instead of adding your name to the waiting list for an emergency tummy tuck why not fight the flab and extend your social network by…