Allan Radcliffe

The best free and cheap things to do in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Visit a library, go for a walk, bake a cake or see some cheap theatre

21 Jan 2011

Beat the January blues with these guaranteed pick-me-ups, suggested by our writers and some friends of The List. They’re all free, or cost just a few quid, so you’ll come out of winter with your bank balance intact and a smile on your face

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

23 Aug 2007

There’s a very fine line between a send-up of a ropey cultural item and something that’s just plain ropey. Almost from its shrill opening bars it becomes crystal clear that Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical has crossed the line. The fundamental…

Fame

22 Jan 2009

MUSICAL Running through the list of musical numbers in the programme your heart slowly starts to sink. Clearly the creators of this stage version of Fame couldn’t afford the copyright to songs from either the film or TV versions. What, no…

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

16 Dec 2010

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

Lung Ha's Around the World in 80 Days

Interview with Maria Oller, artistic director of Lung Ha's

24 Feb 2011

What inspired you to take on Around the World in 80 Days? I wanted to give the company members a chance to do a classic play. Around the World in 80 Days came to mind as a story that is rarely produced for the stage, and is funny, with lots of…

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…

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…

Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh reopens

Three-year rejuvenation makes collection more accessible

18 Nov 2011

It’s a starry night in early November, and I’m about to get my first taster of the newly refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The imposing sandstone building that sprawls across an entire block of Edinburgh’s Queen Street has been closed…

Titanic: Honour & Glory

New exhibition dedicated to the ill-fated luxury liner

29 Sep 2010

This new exhibition dedicated to the ill-fated luxury liner showcases the largest private collection of Titanic artefacts in Scotland, including some very rare pieces from the ship itself as well props and costumes from the 1997 blockbuster movie. Items…

Loung Ung

Edinburgh International Book Festival

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Book Festival Surviving the peace Author, campaigner and victim of Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia, bestselling writer Loung Ung talks to Allan Radcliffe about how she managed to carry on after the hell of the killing fields

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…

The King and I

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

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…

Equus

9 Mar 2010

Peter Shaffer’s endlessly revived classic about a troubled boy who blinds four horses and the psychiatrist who treats him is an odd mix of compelling mystery and disarming theatricality that frequently runs the risk of getting bogged down in its own…

Still Breathing

Impressive but joyless contemporary dance

18 Aug 2009

There’s plenty to admire in this new show by all-male company 2FaCeD DaNcE, not least the virtuosity of UK breakdancing champion, Robby Graham. Plus some incredibly tight ensemble routines, which fuse street dance with contemporary to explore the…

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…

Top Hat

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

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…

Morag Macdonald's work involves repetitive mark making

Artists from North Uist and her exploration of shape and line

24 Feb 2011

Originally from North Uist in the Western Isles, Morag Macdonald graduated with a degree in Drawing and Painting from Edinburgh College of Art in 2008. Since then, while developing her own projects, she has tutored a range of English and Gaelic visual…

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…

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…

The Man Who Lived Twice

Stylish, striking and poignant study of 1930s dramatist Edward Sheldon and actor John Gielgud

28 Mar 2012

For a few years in the early 20th century playwright Edward Sheldon was the toast of Broadway, with melodramas such as Romance notching up lengthy runs and inspiring movies with Garbo and Dietrich. Crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, he withdrew…

Circolombia: Urban Intimo

Impressive circus showcase that leaves you wanting more

14 Aug 2011

This colourful, multi-faceted circus skills showcase opens with allusions to the impoverished backgrounds of its cast members. The master of ceremonies crawls into the space inside a waste bucket while screens at the back of the stage show images of the…

Othello

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 21 Nov

10 Nov 2009

Guy Hollands’ production of the Bard’s tragedy of racial hatred, jealousy and betrayal is a stripped-back version, starkly lit, with minimal staging, that returns the focus squarely to Shakespeare’s language. Thus, the most successful moments come about…

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

19 Mar 2009

MODERN CLASSIC Mention Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and most people will recall the 1966 film adaptation starring Taylor and Burton at the peak of their own convoluted marital soap opera. While the movie has achieved iconic status in its own…

The Hot 100 2008

11 Dec 2008

It’s been a helluva year. 2008 has been a time of significant global change, socially, politically and culturally, with Scotland no exception. So here, for your delectation, is The List’s pick of the 100 people, places and things that rocked our world…

Gerhard Richter: Paintings

11 Dec 2008

Time is running out to catch the first retrospective in the UK for 20 years of Gerhard Richter’s work (his first ever exhibition in Scotland). The stunning show reflects the zeitgeist of Richter’s native Germany between World War II and the early Cold…