Wendy McEwan, Author at North West End UK

4Mar

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Fairytales ’26 – Traverse Theatre

IDS Theatre take us back to the dark roots of storytelling, in this work-in-progress sharing of three intersecting short plays. Each play is staged as a monologue, with one actor playing multiple roles. Cleo, My Little Baby tells the story of the “perfect woman”, an AI robot created to comply with men’s desires without asking for anything in return. Cleo escapes from Darren, a bullying creep who calls her mummy in bed, and sets out to discover her origins. My heart broke for Cleo, played with vivacious humanity by Samuela Noumtchuet. Personally, I am rooting for the robot uprising sequel. In The Ginger Girl, we meet Mark (Kieran Lee-Hamilton), a young washing machine repairman and committed misogynist. Mark is chronically online, finding community through the so-called “manospher...

Animated Scottish Shorts – Edinburgh Filmhouse

11Feb

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Animated Scottish Shorts – Edinburgh Filmhouse

The richness and creativity of Scottish animation is showcased in this selection of ten short films, shown as part of the Manipulate Festival. Here are some of my favourites: The stop-motion world of Distance to the Moon, by Sacha Kyle and Victoria Watson, is full of texture and graceful movement, as its determined protagonist embarks on an epic journey. There’s peril, beauty and friendship, and plenty of surprises. Fairground Fever, by Linda Hughes, is colourful and nostalgic. A young woman visits a fairground with her friends. She enters a visually thrilling, swirling world of wonder and excitement. Painted in acrylics, the animation delights with movement and joy. Creche and Burn, by Frank O’Neil, is told from the perspective of a child. Zombies are on the rampage, and hero...

It’s Such a Beautiful Day + ME – Edinburgh Filmhouse

11Feb

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

It’s Such a Beautiful Day + ME – Edinburgh Filmhouse

Don Hertzveldt’s animated film, It’s Such a Beautiful Day, uses simple line drawings, stream of consciousness narration, and inventive cinematography as brushstrokes to build the story of Bill, a man with a neurological disorder. In Hertzveldt’s narration, the mundane and the fantastical are woven together: “Bill sat down and put on a big sweater, but it only made him sleepy”. “The guy next to him at the bus stop had the head of a cow, but Bill pretended not to notice.” As reality slips and slides around him, Bill does his best to make his world make sense. Bill recalls his childhood, his happy and his strange memories. Has his condition distorted his recollection? He attends medical appointments. His ex-girlfriend, and his mother, take care of him, but he is isolated from the people...

Tchaikovsky’s Heroines & Heroes – Usher Hall

12Dec

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Tchaikovsky’s Heroines & Heroes – Usher Hall

This concert comprises scenes from three of Tchaikovsky’s greatest operas, each with a compelling female character at its heart. Their stories of forbidden love echo the composer’s own heartache from living as a gay man in a homophobic culture. In the aria Da, Chas Nastall from Act 1 of The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc (Natalia Kutateladze), bids a bittersweet farewell to her homeland. “You meadows and trees, my foster children, you will blossom and wither without me.” The music, and the performance, are filled with drama and passion, contrasting Joan’s intimacy with her childhood landscape, and the bloodstained violence of the battlefield to come. I was struck by the resolute strength that Kutateladze brought to the character. In a scene from Iolanta, Vaudémont (Robert Lewis) falls ...

Dinna Trust Anyone: Witches of Peebles – Eastgate Theatre

4Nov

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Dinna Trust Anyone: Witches of Peebles – Eastgate Theatre

It’s 1629 in the market town of Peebles. There’s a war on, the harvest has failed, and rumours of witchcraft abound. The ghosts like to gather on Christmas Eve. A modern-day couple (Jennifer Bunyan, David Bon) settle into their hotel room. They gradually become aware that they are not alone. In the first act, the ghosts recount their grim stories. Some were convicted of witchcraft because they were childless, or gay, or foreign. Some seek to justify their role in the executions. But in this Peebles, the Devil wears a cassock. Reverend Syd (Will Tillotson) summons a storm from the pulpit. Examine your souls, my flock. Make a note of who’s absent from the congregation. The devil’s handmaiden has a barren womb. First-time playwright Kath Mansfield knows how to write words that come a...

25Sep

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

FEIS – Traverse Theatre

FEIS is a story of ambition, intergenerational discord and Irish dancing, with a side order of chaos. Deirdre (Louise Haggerty) is seriously over-invested in her daughter Aiofe’s (Leah Balmforth) dance career. Grandmother Maura (Julie Coombe) is delectably unhinged. Deirdre secretly makes ends meet by creating online Irish dance-themed adult entertainment. Family secrets come to light as Aiofe seeks to understand who she is. Anna McGrath’s mercurial script energetically captures the love and battles between three generations of women. Director Laila McGrath keeps the pace just right, giving the actresses space to really go for it with the larger-than-life characters. The belly laughs come from the heart of the story, as the characters raise the stakes to outdo each other. Haggerty an...

11Sep

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Wallace – Traverse Theatre

Hero. Butcher. Myth. Will the real William Wallace please stand up? This new hip-hop musical examines a giant of Scottish history through three different lenses. Who was he really, and what does that mean for Scotland now? As “Scotsman", Dave Hook recounts the familiar tale, which has inspired generations of Scots as well as a Hollywood blockbuster. His Wallace is simultaneously "just a man standing up for what’s right “, and a heroic colossus, crushing the enemies of freedom with his humongous fists. Manasa Tagika portrays Longshanks as the gangster lord he surely was, oozing status in his blood red fur coat and indoor sunglasses. "I don't think of you much”, he tells us Scots - but he really, really needs us to know that. This was my favourite part of the show but, tellingly, I cou...

Cameron Sinclair Harris: PLANETS!!! – Assembly Rooms

23Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Cameron Sinclair Harris: PLANETS!!! – Assembly Rooms

What would a planet say if they could speak? For millennia, we have identified extraterrestrial bodies with gods, but maybe it's time to let them speak for themselves. Fortunately for all of us, Cameron Sinclair Harris has travelled extensively throughout our solar system, and they are here at the fringe to present their findings by embodying each planet in turn. Spoiler alert: all the planets are completely insane. Harris smokes a kazoo and wears a bowler hat with a feather in it. “Do you want to be in my band?” they ask. One audience member is given a rattle. Another is instructed to shout out “Boom” whenever Harris points at him. We all sing along to Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (a.k.a. the theme tune from 2001: A Space Odyssey), with booming sounds provided by ou...

The Sound of My Own Voice – Scottish Storytelling Centre

21Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

The Sound of My Own Voice – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Morna Burdon is a performer and poet who writes in the Scots language. Here she shares some of her own poems, and a few others that take her fancy. Burdon creates a convivial atmosphere in the intimate George Mackay Brown Library at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. It feels as though she is welcoming us into her own home. She comments that the mention of “striking a match” on a bus shows her age, harking back to the days when passengers were “only” allowed to smoke on the top deck. A few young people in the audience gasp in horror at the degeneracy of their ancestors. At least our generation has changed some things for the better. The Living Dead conveys the widespread disgust at Sir Keir Starmer’s attempt, last year, to withdraw the winter fuel payment from millions of pensione...

Frisky’s Reshuffle – Assembly George Square Gardens

21Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Frisky’s Reshuffle – Assembly George Square Gardens

Frisky and Mannish have been Fringe stalwarts for quite a few years now, and this time Frisky has her own solo show (albeit “with the accompaniment of four accomplished musicians and a great deal of tech support”). Frisky sings well-known songs, but she conspires with audience members to switch up the genre. After some introductory antics, we dip our toes gently at first, with a rock-and-roll version of Like a Virgin. It works, of course it does, and it’s a lot of fun. Then there’s a rave version (with Frisky imitating a vocal breakbeat), and an attempt at traditional Scottish music – a genre with which Frisky is maybe less familiar. Anything could happen. Frisky is very sparkly in a green sequinned playsuit, an entertainer from head to toe, and she builds a great rapport with th...