Kirstin Innes

Chris Cleave - Gold

Well-timed Olympic-themed novel fails to fulfill the promise of its intriguing premise

22 May 2012

There’s something intriguing about the mindset of those athletes who are honed from a very young age into Olympic machines. Lives are altered irrevocably in pursuit of a small gold disc and the too-fleeting associated glory: a strange, self-obsessed way…

Scottish Ballet tackle A Streetcar Named Desire

Behind the scenes at new ballet based on Tennessee Williams play

21 Mar 2012

Stanley Kowalski eases his muscles in around the thin body of the woman who will become his wife. Flirting with her, he pulls her handbag from her lap, wears it on one casually extended foot, a powerful, teasing predator. Behind her eyes, a light…

Why we should scrap public entertainment licence fees

Kirstin Innes of Words Per Minute on the value of tax-free arts events

28 Feb 2012

For the last two years, I’ve run Words Per Minute, a mixed night of spoken word, live music, performance and short film. Every month, we present an ever-increasing audience with around seven ten-minute performances, by selected artists at the top of…

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 - 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…

Words Per Minute: Five new Scottish writers

Allan Wilson, Neil Butler, Kirsty Logan, William Letford, Simon Sylvester

16 Dec 2011

Allan Wilson. His brilliant debut collection, Wasted in Love, pulls together spare, twisted stories from Glasgow's young and wasted. He's a great reader of his own work, too. Neil Butler. Two great books of short stories by young Scottish gents in one…

St Vincent, Stereo, Glasgow, Tue 15 Nov 2011

Thrillingly eclectic live set from the American musician

21 Nov 2011

St. Vincent (okay, Annie Clark if you must), looks good lit from behind, her curls silhouette into an entirely appropriate halo-effect as the first angelic vocals hit an absolutely rammed Stereo. It's a set almost entirely taken from new album Strange…

Scottish Ballet at 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

Ashley Page and Jorma Elo on the EIF programme

25 Aug 2011

Ashley Page maintains that, when putting together Scottish Ballet’s new double bill for the Edinburgh International Festival, pairing the legendary Scottish choreographer Kenneth MacMillan’s neo-classical 1965 piece Song of the Earth with a completely…

Take One Action Film Festival 2011

Event highlights from the political film fest

25 Aug 2011

Radical, committed, and delivering a great, high-quality programme, this year the Take One Action Film Festival, celebrating, as patron Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it ‘the people and movies that are changing the world’, has an excellent programme of…

Neighbourhood Watch: Shawlands, Glasgow

25 Aug 2011

What’s it like? The unofficial hub of the Southside. Young, bustling and almost completely tenement-bound, packed with pizza places, big bars and some excellent independent shopping, Shawlands also benefits from proximity to the lovely space of Queen’s…

Viewless

Paranoid Orwellian bureaucracy has comically sinister effect

19 Aug 2011

A paranoid story of Orwellian bureaucracy played for comically sinister effect, this short piece feels unfinished. We’re introduced to two officers from the Witness Protection Programme, going about their daily business in a warehouse; the boredom, the…

Enclosure 99: Humans

Are we human or are we dancer?

18 Aug 2011

The youngest female folds her body into a knot in the corner of the Perspex-fronted cage, slipping her head into the lap of the youngest male. ‘As you can see, this one is particularly flexible,’ explains the zookeeper, wryly. ‘And this one; well, we…

Hidden Glasgow

Undercover activities, city secrets and grassroots organisations

17 Aug 2011

Parks, gardens and tours So, you think you’d like to get to know the city a little better? Glasgow City Council’s website offers a number of downloadable heritage trail guide packs. We particularly recommend following the Bridgeton Tour, which takes…

Alternative Fringe hubs: The Forest Cafe

Edinburgh's soon-to-be dearly-departed hippy haven

17 Aug 2011

Name: The Forest Café Occupation: Leader of the resistance, home of Edinburgh’s true creative spirit. Resembles: A glorious, shambolic cluster of plants, art, rugs, hippies and graffiti, spread across several rooms. What’s on there, then?

The Translator's Dilemma

Dark, taut work about industrial negligence

17 Aug 2011

Plays designed to educate the audience about a particular issue often just come off as lectures, so it was clever of new playwright Jessica Philippi, who also takes on most of the burden of performing, to actually set her piece about the appalling…

Josh Howie: I am a Dick

Patchy quest with dodgy material

16 Aug 2011

Somewhere along the way, the idea that a sniggering comedian telling a badly-timed rape gag is the vanguard of free speech has become entrenched. It’s not: it’s just lazy. There’s nothing ‘edgy’ about Josh Howie’s material in I am a Dick; he’s not…

Tea with Queenie

Very moving tragic-comic piece for three people, including tea and cake

16 Aug 2011

This tiny-audienced show (Queenie can take a maximum of three for tea) takes you right into the messy home and mindset of an old lady who lives by herself. There’s no getting away, no matter how uncomfortable she makes you. Although it could benefit…

Rich Fulcher: Tiny Acts of Rebellion

Surreal and sedate show from the rambunctious Mighty Boosher

16 Aug 2011

It’s an uncharacteristically laid-back, practically sedate show from the normally rambunctious Mighty Boosher, and anyone turning up to see him unleash a full-force storm might feel a little disappointed. That said, Fulcher’s still a class act even when…

4.3 Miles From Nowhere

Good performances and brilliant live folk band but no dramatic stakes

14 Aug 2011

Young company Fine Chisel claim A Winter’s Tale as an influence on their Fringe debut, although with two sets of teenage lovers and a Puckish meddler lost in the woods, A Midsummer Night’s Dream also looms large. There are absolutely no dramatic stakes…

Audience

Ontroerend Goed slip out of the major league with cynical show

11 Aug 2011

Audience opens with an informal talk from cast member Maria, about what it means to be in an audience. You’re not really supposed to talk; you need to clap at the end. We chuckle appreciatively. The joke is that of course we know this. We’re not just…

Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures

Adults-only retelling is decidedly not Disney

11 Aug 2011

Sometimes the spectacle is enough. The experience of watching Company XIV’s radical reinterpretation of Pinocchio is a little like gorging on gourmet food: something sensual and rich that might not offer you too much nourishment in the long run, but…

Pasta! Macaroni Puppet's Show

Children's show where pasta comes to life

11 Aug 2011

Given that nursery schools the world over have already realised the potential of dried pasta shapes to entertain small children, this lovely little show by Italian puppeteers Placedumarche seems to be the next logical step in pasta-based play. The…

Forgetting Natasha

Multimedia memories with excellent choreography

11 Aug 2011

As a poetic and artistic response to early-onset dementia, Forgetting Natasha is a well-conceived idea with some utterly beautiful moments. The writing, by Anna Mae Selby, is sharply-observed and designed to tug at the heartstrings. Multimedia…

The Girl With The Iron Claws

A fairytale for grown-ups

11 Aug 2011

Taking as their starting point a Nordic myth that clearly shares some of its roots with Beauty and the Beast, The Wrong Crowd weave a subtle, dark fairytale about an independent-minded princess who falls in love with a bear (of course, he’s really a…

Dot504: Mah Hunt

Acclaimed Czech dance company bring duet to 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

10 Aug 2011

DOT504 made its Fringe debut in 2008 with Holdin’ Fast, a woozy, delicate work about desire, with six young dancers tumbling and fondling under showers of glitter and old Persian carpets. The company returned by popular demand in 2009 with the darker…

Mission Drift

The TEAM achieve the huge, soaring size of their ambitions

8 Aug 2011

The TEAM (Theatre of the Emerging American Moment) don’t deal in the small. Since their Fringe debut in 2005 with the Richard Nixon-fixated solo Give Up! Start Over!, their chaotic, rambunctiously-expressed subject matter has been myth-making factory of…

Dance Marathon

Sweat-slicked endurance test

8 Aug 2011

At three hours in, the fatigue has begun to show. As per the First Rule of Dance Marathon, we’re all still moving our feet constantly, but it’s descended to a listless, obedient shuffling. A room full of sweating strangers, inhibitions completely lost…

Alma Mater

Immersive, lovely look at childhood innocence and loss

8 Aug 2011

There’s been so much recent chatter about the use of digital technology in theatre that you can practically hear the inevitable Luddite backlash grinding up already: don’t let ‘em drown out this tiny, beautiful ghost story. Using – at face value – just…

Whistle

Extraordinary true-life tale

8 Aug 2011

It’s easiest to just come out and say it: when Martin Figura was nine, his father killed his mother. Almost 50 years later, Martin’s on stage in front of us, still overwhelmed at times, but working through things; almost as a by-product, it seems, he’s…

Clare Plested: Vegas, Jesus and Me

Nicely observed impressions from adorable lady but comedy is patchy

8 Aug 2011

Ever wondered what Barbara Nice was like at 30? Clad in animal print and great shoes, the glam half of Fringe vets Plested and Brown tells the story of her Vegas wedding, aided by a big box of Pinot. It’s touching, with some nicely observed impressions…

Ahir Shah

Stars in his eyes

7 Aug 2011

Ahir Shah is 20, pretty, and used to write for Skins while his posters for Astrology have him doe-eyed and holding a sparkler. These may well be the chief reasons that he’s not quite reaching the audience his set needs. Not to worry, though, as he’s got…

Federer Vs Murray

Gerda Stevenson’s play about conflict gets timely revival at 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

29 Jul 2011

‘You don’t often get a chance to do something over again in theatre,’ says Gerda Stevenson, ‘to go back, once you know the text and feel comfortable with it. It’s a great opportunity.’ Stevenson’s play Federer versus Murray originally ran for a week…

Agnes and Walter (A Little Love Story)

A Walter Mitty-inspired dance performance that reclaims the power of daydreams

29 Jul 2011

Poor old Walter Mitty. Since James Thurber published the Secret Life in the 1930s, his name has become synonymous with deranged fantasising. However, a newly-established dance company has decided to rescue him from the sniggers of history. ‘Something…

Dance Marathon - Edinburgh show where audience provides the action

3-hour long participatory show inspired by They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

28 Jul 2011

It’s over three hours long, inspired by that celluloid study of Depression-era desperation They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, and you, the audience, provide the majority of the action. Doesn’t sound like a great night out on the surface, but Dance…

Robert Burns: Not In My Name reclaims Scottish bard from tourism

Kevin Williamson on Burns' radical poetry to Edinburgh Festival 2011

27 Jul 2011

So, you think you know Robert Burns, eh? Tartan-edged poetry for shortbread tins and corporate haggis suppers? Well, Kevin Williamson, founder of 90s publishing punks Rebel Inc (Children of Albion Rovers) has decided to change your mind. His new…

The Edinburgh Festival 2011 shows creating new kinds of audience interaction

Are you sitting comfortably? Not for long

26 Jul 2011

Oh Fringe audience, you poor, beleaguered souls. Herded in and out of cramped venues, besieged by flyer-happy teenagers and bankrupted by increasingly stretched ticket prices, now you also have to provide the entertainment. Terrible, isn’t it? This…

Pilot

Flatrate's podcastable open mic/radio show takes place at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 21 Jul

22 Jul 2011

How to describe Pilot? An open mic night? A live radio show? A arts community get-together? ‘I suppose it’s really just like making a radio show in a rowdy bar,’ says Colin Chaloner of Flatrate (who run open mic night Initial Itch, as well as…

The best Scottish websites

The top 30 websites made for and by Scots

21 Jul 2011

When putting together this list, we weren’t necessarily looking for the biggest or the best-known cultural websites in Scotland. We were looking for unique and interesting ideas, cleverly realised and lovingly maintained on the web. This might mean that…

Neighbourhood Watch: Leith, Edinburgh

A beginner's guide to the capital's port town

21 Jul 2011

What’s it like? It’s Leith. If you’re an Edinburgh List reader, it’s very likely you live there. Glossy bars, Michelin-starred restaurants and warehouse conversions squaring off against cobbles, pint’n’pie pubs and Hibees. Vibrant, community-focused (it…

400 Women - Tamsyn Challenger interview

Edinburgh Art Festival 2011 show inspired by tragic events

6 Jul 2011

For the last couple of decades of least, the gallery-centred world of contemporary art has been a largely apolitical space, with the popularity of conceptual and often oblique work tending to overshadow that of artists engaging with or responding…

Edinburgh International Magic Festival 2011

Paul Wilson and Xavier Mortimer among highlights of second annual festival

28 Jun 2011

Eyes may have been rolled and fezzes shrugged last year when yet another Edinburgh International X Festival was announced (‘we’ll like this,’ residents thought, ‘but not a lot’). However, magician Kevin McMahon, now presiding over his second year as…

Neighbourhood watch: Newington, Edinburgh

A guide to the ares of the Scottish capital dominated by Edinburgh University

27 May 2011

What’s it like? Okay, we’ll get the inevitable out of the way first. There are a lot of students living in Newington. And while we know some of our readers aren’t that keen on students, their presence does imbue the area with a certain bounce and life…

Scotland's biggest ever Refugee Week celebrates the 60th anniversary of the signing of the UN Refugee Convention

17 May 2011

This year, Scotland’s ever-expanding programme of films, performances, music events, exhibitions and club nights celebrating the contribution that refugees have made to our society is marking a very important anniversary: it’s 60 years since the UN…

Election night entertainment - Unholyrood, Welcome to the Hotel Caledonia and Mayfesto: It's a Dead Liberty!

13 Apr 2011

Perhaps injustices tend to hit harder when they’re closer to home; perhaps there’s just more meat; but periods of Tory government do tend to galvanize our satirists and create new relevance for political theatre. You may have noticed stirrings…

Neighbourhood Watch: Partick, Glasgow

A guide to your local neighbourhoods

13 Apr 2011

Partick, Glasgow What’s it like? The bit of the salubrious West End that still feels properly Glaswegian: cool café bars, delis and boutiques sitting tooth by rough-shaven jowl with classic boozers, betting shops, greasy spoons and pound…

Reel Festivals: Syria and Lebanon

Films from the Middle East at this year's events include 'Every Day is a Holiday' and 'Zabad'

13 Apr 2011

The team behind 2009’s Reel Afghanistan and Reel Iraq in 2010 have decided to focus their attention on Syria and Lebanon this year. For the uninitiated, the format is simple: in an attempt to bridge cultural understanding, the festival of films…

No Lights, No Lycra: the dance-in-the-dark craze hits Glasgow

13 Apr 2011

As a wise man once said, you can’t start a fire without a spark. However, now you can go dancing in the dark, as the No Lights, No Lycra craze has finally arrived in Glasgow. Starting in Melbourne in 2009 and spreading worldwide soon after, NLNL is a…

Edinburgh International Science Festival highlights 2011

Lego robotics, mini jungle safaris and wind turbine workshops

24 Mar 2011

Ah. Science. No, not the teensy rapper from the 2005 Big Brother house (we at The List are nothing if not timely), although perhaps it does suffer from a similar image problem. Organisations such as the Glasgow Science Centre and the Edinburgh…

The rough guide to Portobello, Edinburgh's seaside

Neighbourhood Watch: The best bits by the beach

24 Mar 2011

What’s it like? An utterly charming, slightly wonky area of Edinburgh, characterised by the city’s only beach and a very distinct, anti-corporate local community ethos. Formerly the holiday destination of most Central Belters, a lack of investment in…

International Women’s Day 2011 in Scotland

A rundown of various events taking place all over Scotland

8 Mar 2011

Tuesday 8 March marks the 100th annual International Women’s Day, and the celebrations are spilling out throughout the month. In Glasgow, by far the biggest celebration we’ve heard of is Loop at Tramway (Tue 8 Mar, 10am–11am, free), with the crème de la…

The rising stars from Glasgow School of Art’s textile department

New fashion talent emerging from Glasgow

7 Mar 2011

Glasgow School of Art’s Newbery Tower is one of the highest points in the city: a grim, grey beacon to 1970s architecture. Its scheduled demolition this summer is set to change the city’s skyline dramatically, which is why for this year’s annual fashion…

Charles Dyer’s 1966 play Staircase

Mutual and self-loathing between two ageing gay lovers

7 Mar 2011

There are a number of very good reasons for resurrecting Charles Dyer’s 1966 play, foremost of which is his control of language. Under Dyer’s pen, the plain tics and disappointments of everyday speech become poetic and lovely. To an extent this is very…

New production Girl X tackles ethics of Ashley X disability case

National Theatre of Scotland’s hard-hitting new play at Traverse

24 Feb 2011

About four years ago, performer and disability rights activist Robert Softley came to the National Theatre of Scotland with an unusual proposition. He’d been following the case of Ashley X, a pre-pubescent disabled girl in the US whose parents filed an…

Area guide to the Glasgow Film Festival

Kirstin Innes helps you bring the movies to life with our GFF-themed area guide

17 Feb 2011

If you're interested in the Beyond Bollywood, Superheroes in Glasgow, Ceol's Craic or Fashion in Film strands, this is the Glasgow guide for you.

The Age of Arousal examines of a key period for feminism

Stellar Quines’ newest production at Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

16 Feb 2011

Stellar Quines’ newest production is at once a contemporary and a historical examination of a key period for feminism. Kirstin Innes talks sensuality with director Muriel Romanes.

Alternative Valentine's Day presents and ideas

Four unique and romantic ways to celebrate this year

26 Jan 2011

Being a List reader you’ve had the infinite good taste to pick a partner who can’t be doing with the corny hearts, flowers and factory-line V-Day dining experience we’re sold as ‘romance’. All well and good, but how on earth do you celebrate February…

The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart gives a voice to the Borders

The National Theatre of Scotland focuses on traditional Scottish pieces this season

26 Jan 2011

The National Theatre of Scotland’s just-announced season feels even more particularly Scottish than usual this year, with a number of pieces tapping into old traditions. Alongside the exciting looking revivals of classics like Knives in Hens and Men…

How to learn Indian cookery from the comfort of your own kitchen

Rachna Deer of Ladyfingers Cooking in Glasgow comes round your house to teach you

12 Jan 2011

Everyone’s got one. The book you’re going to write, the film you’re going to make, the restaurant you’re going to open. And round about the beginning of January, you might think about actually doing it – briefly, for a couple of weeks. Maybe you even…

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.

Underground scare attraction Ghosts of Christmas bring tidings of discomfort to Glasgow

'Interactive, theatrical scare attraction’ brings slay-bells to the Arches

30 Nov 2010

Christmas time. Misteltoe and wine. Spiders and gore and murder most foul. No, I’ve not got my national holidays in a twist. While things that go bump in the night are more traditionally associated with Hallowe’en, an enterprising Glasgow couple have…

St Andrew’s Day offers a programme of poetry, song and dance

2010 National Day a far cry from mince and tatties, a malt and the latest Broons annual

19 Nov 2010

Let’s face it. There is no way that St Andrew’s Day celebrations will ever, ever be cool, and no special guest appearances by Amy Macdonald or thon wee laddie fae West Lothian who won the X Factor are ever, ever going to change that. Processed that?

How seven key figures in Scottish culture have fared over 25 years

25 years of The List

23 Sep 2010

Didn’t they do well? Scotland has more than its fair share of talent, finds Kirstin Innes, as she chronicles the highs and lows of some of our finest exports over 25 years, including Peter Capaldi, Carol Ann Duffy, Ian Rankin, Douglas Gordon, Tilda…

Fruit Tree Foundation launches new album tackling themes of mental health

Alasdair Roberts, James Yorkston, Scott Hutchison and others record album

22 Sep 2010

Sons and Daughters. Frightened Rabbit. The Phantom Band. Norman Blake. Perhaps because it sets out to encourage discussion of problems nearly everyone has come into contact with at some point in their lives, the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film…

Hole In My Pocket mark Pope's Scottish visit by starting their own church

Eilidh MacAskill and the Parsonage choir appear at Arches event

22 Sep 2010

Inspired by the papal visit, Allistair Burt, more usually known as an architect and the brains behind Glasgow blog Southside Happenings, has just started his own religion. ‘With the Pope being in town, it just seemed like the perfect time,’ says the…

The Man Who Fed Butterflies

Sporadically phenomenal spectacle lacks magic of theatre

7 Sep 2010

Something Pixar, with their melange of spacemen, rat and sea creature protagonists, seem to have worked out fairly early on in the game is that it’s very difficult to emphathise with a CGI human face. The reason the human characters in the Toy Story…

Meredith Monk: Songs of Ascension

There is so much beauty here

7 Sep 2010

It’s difficult to begin describing Songs of Ascension, a new(ish) work by composer, musician, artist and mercurial force of nature Meredith Monk, because it doesn’t fit cleanly into any of the nice, regular boxes we use to describe different kinds of…

Big Society: The Musical

27 Aug 2010

It’s actually rather heartening, in the current climate, to watch a London-based company not only tackling the ConDem government’s agenda of cuts head-on, but also managing to set an entire musical in a working class district of Newcastle without…

Glasgow Harvest seeks to encourage food growing in the city

NVA run city-wide food-growing project SAGE

23 Aug 2010

Glasgow’s fast, urban, predominately tenement-based lifestyle has a lot going for it, but the city isn’t necessarily known as a haven for the green-fingered. That’s changing, slowly: from tomatoes in Toryglen to Maris Pipers in Maryhill, allotments and…

The Crying Cherry

Oddball legends of Japanese psychological banditry

23 Aug 2010

Using an almost entirely made-up language, whip-crack precise movement and mind-boggling vocal sound effects, this oddball delight, riffing on Japanese samurai movies, tells the story of two brothers separated in childhood after a prophecy. The real joy…

Showstopper: The Improvised Musical

Our Fringe reviewer explains what it’s like to be part of the show.

19 Aug 2010

As a critic, I favour stealth and subtlety. Get in quickly, do not sit in the front row or anywhere else where the cast can see your notebook, and sneak out the back during the curtain call. I certainly don’t usually sit on stage, with the director…

Maria De Buenos Aires

An Argentine feast for all five senses

19 Aug 2010

A programme note warns audience members going into this anarchic reinterpretation of Astor Piazzolla’s already surreal 1968 ‘tango opera’ not to worry about following any sort of narrative. Thus released, you’re free to let teeming chaos wash over…

Cape Dance Company

Pop star-slick, but patchy

19 Aug 2010

The key to what doesn’t quite work about this uneven showcase from one of Africa’s most acclaimed young companies is right there in the first piece – Michael Thomas’ pastoral/pop fusion Treasures of the Heart. They’re technically superb on the…

Roadkill

Relentlessly bleak, necessary drama about sex trafficking

18 Aug 2010

Given that the 12 or so people on the bus from the Traverse presumably know what the play we’re going to see is about, there’s something terrible about the way we indulge the Nigerian teenager who just happens to have boarded the bus with us, asking…

Zorras and Eilidh MacAskill set for Words Per Minute 5

18 Aug 2010

There’s life in Glasgow again, as the spoken word, film, music and performance event goes for broke with an all-lady line-up. Zorras, Eilidh MacAskill (of Eilidh’s Daily Ukulele Ceilidh fame, pictured) and Kirsty Logan are all present and correct – look…

Evolve launch with Rhona Cameron

Edinburgh social networking event for gay professional ladies

18 Aug 2010

Come along and help to launch Evolve, a new regular social networking event for gay professional ladies and their friends. Stand-up comedian and author Rhona Cameron will be in attendance to assist with the celebrations. Revolution, Chambers Street…

Havers and Blethers brings new spoken-word show to Edinburgh

Daily show features writers, poets, actors and musicians

16 Aug 2010

One of the great things about this time of year is the number of off-Fringe festivals that spring up, like this daily spoken-word-based show, hosted by Kirsty-Jacqueline Lingard and featuring writers, poets, actors and musicians performing short…

RM Hubbert and The Parsonage among highlights of Sonic Soak

Weekend festival of music and art in Govanhill Baths

15 Aug 2010

From the echoing caverns of the now-disused Govanhill Baths, sound and art collective 85A have curated a weekend festival of music, installation, cinema and fancy dress: although there’s no water in the pool, patrons are expected to come in swimwear or…

Glasgow walk encourages critical engagement with centre

Guided walk of city explores use of urban space

14 Aug 2010

The skyscraper-crammed stretch of city centre basking in the title Glasgow’s International Financial Services District is a strange place at the best of times. During the day, the tower blocks are full of call-centre workers; at night the street corners…

Intertwine

Works, and dancers, in progress

14 Aug 2010

Collisions Dance Company are on the cusp. They’re young enough – as a company and individuals – that they haven’t quite found their own style yet, but they’re also talented enough that watching even an uneven collection of small pieces like this feels…

Be-Dom

Joyous fun with Portuguese drums

14 Aug 2010

As the huge white screen they’ve been playing behind in silhouette collapses to reveal what appears to be a junkyard full of cavorting, hunky (and fairly well-scrubbed) crusties, the tone is set for an hour of shambolic play. Switching fairly…

The Regretrospective

The tiger who came to tea with his ex-lover, the horse

14 Aug 2010

Under ‘experiences that could only happen at the Fringe’, chalk up ‘watching a woman wearing a horse’s head use flamenco to seduce her ex-lover, a large cuddly toy tiger, in a bedsit, to a trip hop soundtrack’. And yet, bizarrely, dancer and multimedia…

Tales From The Blackjack

Following three people’s descent into addiction

14 Aug 2010

There’s a moving story to be told about how compulsive gambling ruins people’s lives, but this one-man show, told by the croupier of a casino and following three people’s descent into addiction, isn’t it. Despite a powerhouse (if at times slightly…

Extinguish

One man stares down several abysses

13 Aug 2010

Ezra LeBank is one of those people who it might genuinely be pretty entertaining to watch reading a phonebook: his voice is musical, finely-timbred, and he uses it like an instrument, and his physicality is awesomely controlled: muscles don’t move on…

Like You Were Before

Home movies and movies about home

13 Aug 2010

Walking in off a dark, rainy Marchmont street to the dimly-lit cinematic wonderland of Alphabet Video after hours, the stage is already set for cosy personal revelation. Debbie Pearson, Canadian emigrée, and former Alphabet employee-turned playwright…

My Hamlet with Linda Marlowe

That’s the way to be or not to be

13 Aug 2010

This reinterpretation of Hamlet is interesting on several levels beyond the marketing tagline (‘Linda Marlowe does Hamlet! With puppets!). Yes, it’s essentially a one-person show, with Marlowe doing all the voices, but then perhaps there’s an argument…

Two

Uneven play about a succession of couples packs a powerful punch

12 Aug 2010

Two frantic, versatile actors play a succession of straight couples – in love, in hate, in cynicism – who come into a pub in the north of England. Through it all runs the relationship of the landlady and her husband, a dark, unspooling thread strung…

EIF show Caledonia discusses banking and Scottish nationalism

Darien colony tale retold at Edinburgh International Festival

11 Aug 2010

The last time the National Theatre of Scotland was on an Edinburgh International Festival stage they told, in 365, small, beautiful half-stories about teenagers, played by unknown actors - living in the forgotten corners of public life. That was in…

Jacobite Country

Ramshackle action in the Pictish Free State

10 Aug 2010

Haggis McSporran (no, that’s his real name), who may or may not be the greatest standup in Scotland since Craig Ferguson/Frankie Boyle/delete as appropriate, is conflicted. He’s spent much of his 27 years trying and failing to understand the…

Operation Greenfield

Teenagers getting Christ, no kicks

10 Aug 2010

Four shining-faced teenagers, all of them white and English, three of them angelically blonde, act out the Annunciation with passion and fervency. They smile, as though they’re overflowing with joy of it; they face us and they shout ‘FOR NOTHING IS…

Stephen Carlin - The Podium of Unconditional Surrender

Airdrie wag refuses to get tough

10 Aug 2010

Stephen Carlin doesn’t really have a thing, in that way that comedians do: no identifying features. In his comedy, not facially. Facially he’s easy to spot: good-looking, with the sort of dastardly moustache that you rather suspect is going to turn out…

Comedy in the Dark

Well-known comics pitched out of their comfort zones

10 Aug 2010

Selling a show as ‘comedy in the dark’? Make sure the lights go out completely in the venue. It’s interesting to see well-known comics pitched out of their comfort zones (Shappi Khorsandi discovering how much of her routine was based on facial comedy…

Penelope

Enda in the ascendant

9 Aug 2010

If ever there was an unlikely group of candidates for moral reclamation, it’s Homer’s Suitors, those odious, power-hungry freeloaders who installed themselves at Odysseus’ palace after he was presumed dead, intending to marry his wife Penelope, and thus…

Inside features live score from 65daysofstatic

Dance: not just for girls, okay?

9 Aug 2010

Hefty, stark and at times brutally visceral, Inside, the new work by boy wonder Jean Abreu, is macho dance, its choreography built around lines of masculinity and inspired by prison movies. There are no tutus, no extraneous flounces, and, with a live…

10 Dates with Mad Mary

A simple but brilliant study about readjusting to life out of prison

9 Aug 2010

‘Mad’ Mary McArdle is 25 and having some trouble readjusting to life out of prison. She drinks, she hangs around the local teenagers to whom she’s a celebrity, and she tries not to start any more fights. This is a very simple character study, but it’s…

All the Queen’s Children

An impressive, unflinching piece of fluid theatre

9 Aug 2010

The teens of Reading Youth Theatre devised this unflinching, impressive piece of fluid theatre themselves around the stories of real-life teenage asylum seekers (some of whom are in the company). Samuel is forced to swim to shore, swaggering, glam Lule…

Blackout delivers graceful and hard-hitting insight

Simple, brilliant, and in the second person

8 Aug 2010

Imagine you’re Davey Anderson, a playwright whose work has never shied away from the realities of life in working class Glasgow. The National Theatre, in partnership with children’s charity Barnardo’s, puts you in touch with a teenager who you’re going…

Martin Creed: Ballet Work No 1020

Oh, do try harder, disgruntled of Sadler’s Wells

8 Aug 2010

Three stars. That’s what Martin Creed’s getting, although I suspect he was aiming for one, and some outrage. Three stars because there are a couple of interesting dance moments, a few good laughs, and some of the musical numbers are quite good, although…

Continent

Barton finks too much

8 Aug 2010

There’s something curiously retro about this little piece, from the tight-fitting, slightly shiny suits worn by its performers to the old fashioned world of typewriters and briefcases it conjures up.

The Festival of the Imagination

A huge, groundbreaking new festival for the people of North Glasgow.

6 Aug 2010

Big tops. Gigs. Silent discos. Theatre shows. Circus workshops. Ballroom dancing, sequinned bicycles and a ‘tented village of dreams’. And no, we’re not talking about Edinburgh. The Festival of the Imagination, the biggest ever arts event to be held in…

The Forest Café celebrates tenth birthday

Volunteer-run café is a true original in Edinburgh

5 Aug 2010

The Forest Café’s tenth birthday, happening mostly on Saturday 14 August, but spreading its shambolic, joyous tentacles throughout the rest of the month, is one of those true causes for celebration. That an entirely volunteer-run, hippy-hearted…