Scotland Archives - Page 9 of 127

19Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Trainspotting Live – Pleasance EICC

Stark, uncompromising, and more than a little filthy, Trainspotting Live at the EICC is an experience that assaults all the senses. If you thought Irvine Welsh’s story was dark on the page, or confronting on screen, this immersive production makes it visceral, unavoidable, and at times literally in your face. The staging is deceptively simple, two sets of bleachers flank a narrow walkway, with a bed at one end and a heap of sheets at the other. Centre stage, on one side, sits the infamously disgusting “worst toilet in Scotland,” which becomes as much a character as any of the cast. A word of advice, choose your seat carefully. The back row is safer, the second-back row ideal, but anyone who braves the front may find themselves in the splash zone. But in reality, nowhere is safe! ...

I’m Ready to Talk Now – Traverse Theatre

19Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

I’m Ready to Talk Now – Traverse Theatre

One audience member at a time, for 45 minutes, in a room dressed like a hospital ward. That is the premise of I’m Ready to Talk Now, an award-winning piece created and performed by Australian artist Oliver Ayres, and it is as bold and unusual as it sounds. Developed in Melbourne before arriving at the Traverse for its UK premiere, the show has already drawn acclaim for its innovation, but to experience it first-hand is something else entirely. You are welcomed gently, even tenderly. The host tucks you into a bed, adjusts the space for your comfort, and slips headphones over your ears. What follows is a guided immersion into his own story, spoken in his voice, paced by his movements around the room. At times he is by your side, at times he drifts into shadow, and once, when he gazes ...

19Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Alright Sunshine – Pleasance

All Right Sunshine, written by Isla Cowan and directed by Debbie Hannan, is a blistering one-woman play that probes power, gender, and the policing of public space, with a performance that holds the room in an iron grip. At its heart is Molly Geddes as PC Nicky McCreadie, delivering a turn of such intensity and nuance that it feels less like acting and more like possession. From the outset, we know this is about the police, but the framing is unexpected, Geddes’ McCreadie is just five foot tall, far removed from the towering physical ideal once required of recruits. The irony is not lost. Once upon a time, men had to be six feet tall and women five foot eight to join the force. Now here is a small-statured officer, pigeonholed as a “mother figure” on weekend shifts, yet treated with...

19Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Unseen Truth: Sarah Lewis – The Hub

Sarah Lewis takes to The Hub stage at this year's Edinburgh International Festival, analysing the power of culture as a means of justice rather than by law in her talk The Unseen Truth. Lewis is an art historian and Associate Professor of the Humanities and African American studies at Harvard University, leading the popular course, Vision and Justice: The Art of Race and American Citizenship. Discussing ideas from her book of the same title (The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America) Lewis delves into the historical misrepresentation of people of colour in America and focuses on those who combated this misrepresentation, most notably the work of abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and photographer Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). Lewis explores Dougla...

Drama Girls – theSpaceUK @ Symposium Hall (Annexe Theatre)

19Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Drama Girls – theSpaceUK @ Symposium Hall (Annexe Theatre)

For Lisa, Dani and Jen the financial pressures of drama school reign supreme. The showcase was everything but as the event looms, it’s importance fades. The minutiae of tuition delivered under scrutiny and constant criticism is exposed. The overbearing voice of the tutor snipes through the speakers. Unseen but damning the actor’s lives are made or broken by the instruction given. The bubble of performance can be a petty one. Tilly Woof’s play captures this essence; however, the actors themselves aren’t always given enough raw material to demonstrate the respective talents they clearly possess. This is ironic as the exact flaw of a showcase revolves around its inability to adequately sell performers. Woof’s play circles around the quips, bitching and petty arguments that fire back an...

Up Late with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Hub

19Aug

By Danielle FarrowNo Comments

Scotland

Up Late with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Hub

Against the backdrop of an ornately carved wooden pulpit and screen, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith communes with her audience through her music, with Persian rugs below her black modern-tech-laden table, and colourful rib vaulting arching high above her in The Hub’s Main Hall, originally a Church of Scotland debating chamber. This juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary creations is a suitable setting for her distinctive voice and compositions. Smith uses Buchla synthesizers, whose original creator Don Buchla apparently intended his instruments to make new sounds, rather than simply imitating existing instruments and sounds. This marries very well with Smith’s pioneering work, which draws on classical training and a type of synesthesia in which sounds form physical sensations for her. Wat...

Orpheus and Eurydice – Edinburgh Playhouse

18Aug

By Danielle FarrowNo Comments

Scotland

Orpheus and Eurydice – Edinburgh Playhouse

From the lone woman in red descending during the overture to the final full stage that yet starkly reflects the beginning, this multi-company production of the Gluck & Calzabigi Orfeo ed Euridice presents stunning spectacle. Does something so visually focused serve opera? The original 1762 production was part of a reformation of opera which challenged elaborate action and technique centred “extreme sport” opera, as noted in the programme, which also includes Gluck’s own striving for music’s “true office of serving poetry by means of expression and by following the situations of the story, without interrupting the action or stifling it with a useless superfluity or ornaments.” The original opera still included dance, and, for the most part, Yaron Lifschitz - director and set desig...

Eggs Aren’t That Easy to Make – Jersey at Underbelly

18Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Eggs Aren’t That Easy to Make – Jersey at Underbelly

Produced by Big Sofa Theatre and Counterminers, Eggs Aren’t That Easy to Make follows the friendship of Claire (Rachel Andrews) and Dan (Thomas Kingman) through the years, starting with a drunken off-handed promise in university that Dan would be the sperm donor if Claire ever got into a lesbian relationship—unlikely, right? Well, a few years down the line, Claire is in a lesbian relationship and ready to have a baby when Dan reminds her of her promise. The problem is Dan is a little… overbearing, so Claire and her partner Lou (Esther Carr) must assert agency, set up boundaries, and prepare for their pregnancy, all while trying not to upset Dan. Written by Maria Telnikoff, this play tells an endearing story with queer joy at its heart. Charming, funny, and light, I could watch this ...

18Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

It’s Gonna Blow – Pleasance Dome

It’s 24th August 79 C.E. and Mount Vesuvius is about to blow destroying the whole of Pompeii… or is it? Our City Mayor seems to be saying otherwise, it’s just a little…. “grey hail” is all, absolutely nothing to worry ourselves with. Fishing4chips are back at the fringe with a whole new play about Pompeii, armed with a team of just 4 actors multi-rolling for their lives, they have produced a very funny and very fast paced show. Greeted by the town crier (Sean Wareing), we are led into a local meeting to discuss the current state of affairs within Pompeii and given plenty of opportunity to voice our opinions (warning this show is heavily reliant on audience participation). Once the meeting has begun, we are introduced to many a strange and wonderful character, including those in t...

Black to My Roots: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart – C ARTS

18Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Black to My Roots: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart – C ARTS

Black to my Roots is an exploration and celebration of African American hair, looking at the stigma, the joys and the tribulations that come with it. The Seattle based company returns to the Edinburgh Fringe after winning a Fringe First award in 2002, this time also bringing their sister show, Hair’s Breath to the stage. Using a series of monologues, poems, and songs written by Kathya Alexander and Renescia Brown, we are transported to the salon, to school, and to our mother’s house, experiencing all the huge ways in which hair impacts African American women in every context of life. Brown and Alexander’s work includes a number of humorous monologues, with moments that are all too relatable, yet are carrying a heaviness beneath the surface. We have multiple monologues set from ...