Scotland Archives - Page 4 of 133

17Feb

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Flames – Traverse Theatre

The much loved over 50s ensemble group, The Flames return to the Traverse theatre with another verbatim-style, mixed medium show. Produced by Tricky Hat Productions, The Flames uses each ensemble member’s personal memoirs to collate together a story. In this case, the connecting theme of all these individual memoirs was jealousy. Alongside the candid monologues, video and text was projected onto the back wall of the stage. Quotes, presumably taken from the ensemble, were projected - each providing a different outlook on how they define jealousy. As well as this, black and white video of the ensemble was also projected. From raw close-ups that captured a wide-range of expression and emotional depth, to wide shots that artfully superimposed its subjects as...

16Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

(UN)LOVABLE – Traverse Theatre

Scratch nights are, by their very nature, uneven affairs, messy blue prints or gluey models rather than finished buildings. And [UN]LOVABLE at the Traverse Theatre embraced that spirit fully, five short pieces circling the theme of love’s absence, distortion, or bureaucratic assessment. Some were works in progress in the truest sense, one felt ready to walk straight back onstage tomorrow. Clown Divorce Written by Russ Russell and directed by Sarah Docherty, this dark comedy about a clown navigating marital breakdown opened the evening with energy and a knowing wink. Performed solo by Chris Viteri, the piece invited us into a surreal domestic world where divorce proceedings involve greasepaint and emotional pratfalls, and where the profession runs in the family, mother a...

12Feb

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Wood Paths – Traverse Theatre

Tired of watching paint dry? As an alternative, Manipulate Festival offers The Wood Paths at the Traverse Theatre. Beginning with thirty straight minutes of performers and co-creators Rūdolfs Gedinš and c chopping into large wooden logs in silence, this show is certainly off the wall. Produced by Latvian company, Theatre on Gertrude Street (ToGS), The Wood Paths is an abstract and eccentric piece of performance art that is both mysteriously aloof, and affectionately playful. Directed and co-created by Andrejs Jarovojs, Rudof Bekič is another co-creator alongside Samĭtis and Gedinš. This certainly was a unique performance, and while some may say its reeks of fine-art ostentation, it can’t be denied that The Wood Paths is absolutely intriguing. The performance was in ...

A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong – Festival Theatre

12Feb

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong – Festival Theatre

Based on their 2017 BBC television special, Mischief Theatre's A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong was directed by Matt DiCarlo, with associate director Sydney Stevenson. Mischief Theatre's bread and butter are the literally named “Goes Wrong” shows (including The Play That Goes Wrong, The Goes Wrong Show, Mind Mangler - Member of the Tragic Circle, Magic Goes Wrong, Mischief Movie Night and Peter Pan Goes Wrong) which was directed by , and in this one, the Cornley Drama Society, a familiar staple of their shows, are casting a production of the seasonal Dickens classic, led by their director Chris/Scrooge (Daniel Fraser) and assistant Annie (Nancy Zamit). Unfortunately their casting pool is not what they would like, leading to a cast which includes drama course recidivist Max (Matt Cavendis...

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...

11Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Auntie Empire – Summerhall Edinburgh

At Summerhall, as part of the Manipulate Festival, Julia Taudevin’s Auntie Empire is a show that improves as it decays. Performed solo by Taudevin, who also conceived the work, the production opens in a register of playful provocation, leaning heavily on audience participation. Under the guidance of performance director Tim Licata, these early sections clearly aim to implicate the room, drawing the audience into complicity before pulling the rug, but the results are mixed. Some exchanges feel laboured, stretching jokes past their natural lifespan and slightly blunting the edge of the satire. At times, the structure seems more interested in keeping the audience busy than in advancing the analysis. Once the show pivots away from participation and into its more overtly theatrical langua...

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...

9Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Rite of Spring – Traverse Theatre

At the Traverse Theatre, as part of the Manipulate Festival, Dewey Dell’s The Rite of Spring announces itself as a work that expects, and repays, sustained attention. Running a concentrated fifty minutes, this is not a production that courts easy admiration or quick interpretation. It is slow, deliberate, and insistently moody, drawing the audience into a sealed weird world that unfolds according to its own internal logic.The original scandal of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring lay in its pagan brutality, Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes presenting sacrifice as the necessary price of renewal. In Dewey Dell’s reimagining, conceived and directed by Agata Castellucci, Teodora Castellucci, and Vito Matera, that focus subtly shifts. As a monumental red flower opens to reveal a prot...

Don Quixote (Is A Very Big Book) – Traverse Theatre

9Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Don Quixote (Is A Very Big Book) – Traverse Theatre

There’s a moment early on in Don Quixote (is a Very Big Book) where the performer suggests the entire show sprang from a serendipitous eBay purchase, a suit of unlikely, clown-footed, articulated armour. It’s a charming idea, but frankly, it’s nonsense. The armour is far too central, too embedded, too perfectly calibrated to the rhythms of the piece for this to be anything other than myth-making. And that’s no bad thing. Don Quixote, after all, is built on glorious delusion. What matters is that this is an almost perfect one-man show, and that’s a bold claim, but a justified one. One-handers often get tantalisingly close to perfection because of the sheer control involved, one body, one voice, one mind shaping the entire theatrical universe. What’s remarkable here is that this sh...

Animated Documentary Shorts – Edinburgh Film House

9Feb

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Animated Documentary Shorts – Edinburgh Film House

It is good to be back in the Filmhouse after the crowdfunded rescue and a beautiful refurbishment. Run by a new charity, Filmhouse (Edinburgh) Ltd, the staff are welcoming, the decor contemporary and warm on this cold winter night. The bus stops right outside and, inside, the bar serves hot food and drink. Seeing the nineteenth Manipulate Festival, which specialises in animation, puppetry and visual theatre from the plush new seating is a treat. On this night, there were eight animated short films. Other nights included short horror films and a daytime dance workshop for over 14s at Dance Base led by two outstanding Italian improvisational breakdancers. The festival runs from 4th - 10th February. Within the eight short animated documentaries, you are gripped by the psychological trau...