Scotland Archives - Page 28 of 128

Peebles Orchestra Concert – Peebles Burgh Hall

26May

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Peebles Orchestra Concert – Peebles Burgh Hall

Weber Overture, Preciosa, J. 279 Mozart Minuet in C, K.409 Haydn Piano Concerto No. 11 in D, Hob. XVIII:11 (with guest pianist, Pawel Szulc) Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5 in D, Reformation, Op. 107 This evening, Peebles Orchestra, conducted by the inimitable Robert Dick (“one of the most sensitive and least clichéd conductors I have ever worked with.” - Nicola Benedetti) produced its trademark hum, buzz and bravado to a full house of appreciative music lovers. Robert Dick is an accomplished musician with a plethora of credits to his name and a host of international engagements. He freelances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Concert Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Scotland. It is a credit to Peebles Orchestra that he regularly conducts this talente...

25May

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Ballet BC – Festival Theatre

Presenting a double bill of innovative contemporary dance, Dance Consortium brought Canadian company Ballet BC to the Festival Theatre’s stage. Playing with both the dark and light, fluidity and harshness, humour and sadness, Ballet BC provides us with an intentional and diverse vision of creation that stretches the boundaries of contemporary dance. It is clear that choreographers Crystal Pite and Johan Inger take great care with their work, with even the slightest movement bringing impact and meaning to the respective pieces - each joint, limb, and muscle being utilised in unique and unusual ways. Act one featured the work of Crystal Pite with their piece entitled Frontier. Frontier explored the relationship between the self and the shadow with dancers dressed ent...

24May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Mama’s Broke – Traverse Theatre Bar

Kicking off their first show in a five week tour of the UK, the Bar at Traverse Theatre proved an ideal intimate setting for a spell-binding performance by Canadian Folk duo, Mamma’s Broke, which had everyone leaning in and, at times, tapping along. Hailing from Nova Scotia, Edinburgh has been a regular destination for the pair, since their first Edinburgh Fringe foray eleven years ago, where they resorted to busking on the streets to survive. They have come a long way since then. Known for their haunting harmonies and genre-defying compositions, the 30-something pair served up a beautiful mixture of songs from their previous two albums, Count The Wicked (2017) and Narrow Line (2022), along with some new material heading into the recording studio later this year. The venue’s simpl...

22May

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Blinded By The Light – Traverse Theatre

‘Blinded By The Light’ is a gem of a play which celebrates a group of miners fighting to preserve their community, their jobs and their way of life. But at the same time it shows us a future where life has become unsustainable on our planet. Playwright Sylvia Dow was teaching at Bo’Ness Academy in 1982 when the National Coal Board decided to close the town’s Kinneil Colliery on the grounds that it was no longer workable. This was disputed by the miners who believed there was a hundred years’ worth of coal left for them and their descendants to mine. Twelve of them (nicknamed ‘the dirty dozen’) decided to stage a ‘stay-doon’ in the deep pit tunnel under the River Forth. This was two years before the Miners’ Strike of 1984. Two of the actors playing miners are from Bo’Ness and the town...

The Rheingans Sisters – Traverse Theatre

20May

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Rheingans Sisters – Traverse Theatre

Performing the entirety of their 2024 album, Start Close in, Anna and Rowan Rheingans shared their talent with us in a continuation of their UK tour. I use the word “shared” very intentionally here - folk music is inherently a genre which is made for, and by, a collective - there is such a feeling of connection and intuitiveness within the genre that the Rheingans Sisters manage to capture and uphold beautifully. The melding of tradition and modernity in the composition, along with the sisters’ blending of Scandinavian, French, and British musical heritage truly encapsulates the collectivity of folk music. The range of instruments played by the sisters was a feat to behold, from the ancient tambourin à cordes, to a handmade banjo made from a gourd. The Rheingans Sisters d...

19May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Keli – Royal Lyceum Theatre

Keli is writer and composer, Martin Green’s response to his adopted community and its music. The writer moved to a small mining town in the South of Scotland and became fascinated by the relationship between the brass band and the pit. The mines were of course long gone, but the music remained and had become an emblem of continuity and resilience, where ‘the band is the toon, and the toon is the band’. At the centre of life Green’s a fictitious small mining town is Keli, a troubled and foul-mouthed young lady with few prospects, an anxiety-ridden mother and a dead-end job stacking shelves. The one good thing in her life is the band, and when she picks up the tenor horn, she becomes a different person, somehow empowered and necessary. When she blows those few inches of air it is the one ...

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Festival Theatre

14May

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Festival Theatre

As someone who spent a good portion of their childhood half-convinced there might be a secret world hiding at the back of the wardrobe, this production was always going to land somewhere between nostalgia and reverence. And I’m pleased to say, it hit the mark beautifully. Michael Fentiman’s production, adapted from Sally Cookson’s earlier version, is a rich, often dazzling journey into Narnia and one that balances spectacle and substance with real flair. From the opening bars of We’ll Meet Again, underscoring the siblings’ evacuation from London, it’s clear this is not simply a children’s story. There’s grit in the frame, a proper wartime darkness that lends weight to the fantasy. It’s still magic – of course it is – but the stakes feel real. The visual storytelling is a triumph. ...

Jesus Christ Superstar – Festival Theatre

8May

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Jesus Christ Superstar – Festival Theatre

Edinburgh’s oldest amateur theatre company, Southern Lights brings us their original take on the classic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. Featuring a huge ensemble, powerhouse vocals, and mixed media, this certainly went above and beyond my expectations of what amateur theatre is capable of. It is noted in Southern Light’s programme that each new production must not replicate any previous production by order of the show’s licensing. And what with Jesus Christ Superstar having first performed on Broadway in 1971, conjuring an original take on the show is no simple feat, with decades worth of adaptations having already been staged in every way imaginable. For me, the most interesting new directional concept, director Fraser Grant brought to t...

6May

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

In Other Words – The Studio

When your partner is diagnosed with a life-changing illness, your shared history becomes a prologue. At first, nothing tangible changes between you. But at that moment, you each gain a new identity within your relationship. They are the patient, and you are the carer. And the future you had planned together is revealed as a mirage. As the audience enters, Jane (Lydia White) and Arthur (Matthew Seager) are falling in love. They sit beside each other, blissfully conversing and gazing into each other’s eyes, accompanied by the music of Frank Sinatra. This is the very beginning of the life they will spend together. Then, the lighting changes. Arthur remains seated, but now he is nonverbal, trembling, childlike. Jane comforts him. Photo: Tom Dixon We follow their relationship from t...

Scottish Ballet: The Crucible – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

5May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Scottish Ballet: The Crucible – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Excelling in pretty much every aspect of theatrical performance, this revival of Scottish Ballet’s 2019 adaptation of Arthur Miller’s iconic play is a cast-iron cross-over hit full of exquisite movement, sublime sound, theatrical storytelling, ethereal lighting and brilliant set design, magical, darkly complex and supernaturally good. I say cross-over because this does not feel, or indeed sound like any ballet I have ever witnessed before. There is so much modern dance and passionate movement mixed in here with storytelling and set to a scintillating modern score by Peter Salem it feels like something completely new, different and exciting. The giant stage of The Festival Theatre can be daunting, some productions just get swallowed up here. But not this one. In Emma Kingsbury and Dav...