SNACK Edinburgh Festivals Guide 2022

SNACKMAG.CO.UK SNACKMAG.CO.UK FREE FREEAUGUST JUNE2022 2022

EDINBURGH FESTIVALS GUIDE 2022

LIVIA KOJO ALOUR (BLACK SHEEP) LIZZIE REID TOM LENK MICHAEL PEDERSEN FUN LOVIN’ CRIME WRITERS ARIELLE FREE KAREN CAMPBELL ELLE NASH DAVID KEENAN PITCH SCOTLAND SCOTTISH OPERA MUSIC | FILM | FOOD & DRINK | LGBT+ | BOOKS | COMEDY | THEATRE | VISUAL ART | WORDS

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Discover the stories behind art’s true masters of light and colour

Modern French Art from Millet to Matisse 30 July - 13 November 2022 | Free for Our Friends Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL

Book NOW at nationalgalleries.org Edgar Degas, Before the Performance, about 1896–1898. Collection: National Galleries of Scotland. National Galleries of Scotland is a charity registered in Scotland (No. SC003728).

CONTENTS INTERVIEWS

P8

Livia Kojo Alour – Tom Lenk – Fun Lovin' Crime Writers Karen Campbell – David Keenan – Pitch Scotland

FOOD & DRINK

P22

Never Really Here – Panda & Sons – Superico Bar & Lounge The Holyrood 9A – Mosque Kitchen – Froth & Flame – Yakitori Shack

WHAT'S ON

P26

Jenny Hval – Night Dances – The Unicorn – Sian Clarke Bloody Elle – McLaren Animation – Nude Tuesday – Spam Valley Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! – Tom Little – Breathe – Sportsperson

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FEST

P50

Aftersun – After Yang – The Duke of Burgundy – Flux Gourmet Leonor Will Never Die – Nana – The Last Waltz – Special Delivery

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FEST

P52

Sarah Smith – Olga Wojtas – Chitra Ramaswamy – Michael Pedersen

SNACK BITS

P56

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

P58

CREDITS Editor: Kenny Lavelle Sub Editor: Leona Skene Food and Drink Editors: Emma Mykytyn and Mark Murphy LGBT+ Editor: Jonny Stone What's On Editor: Natalie Jayne Clark Design: Joanna Hughes

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Hello and welcome to issue 42 of SNACK, Back in 2019, when we published our first Edinburgh Festivals Guide, I didn’t expect it to be 2022 before we got round to making another. World stuff happened. You might have heard.

Lots has changed in the intervening years. Also, zero, nothing has changed – weird, eh? So, post that-bit-of-the-pandemic, what does Edinburgh look like during August? We’ll all have to see for ourselves. It’s going to be a blast finding out.

I know this much for sure: the SNACK Edinburgh Festivals Guide 2022 has tonnes for you to get stuck into. First up, we’ve a chat with Livia Kojo Alour (formerly known as MisSa Blue) the iconic variety star, internationally recognised sword swallower, vocalist, poet, and exhibited artist about her new 100% autobiographical show Black Sheep. Elsewhere, Jonny Stone quizzes Tom Lenk (yeah, from Buffy) about Lottie Plachett Took a Hatchet, a camp play on the Lizzie Borden case. Apparently there’s axe murder, sexual depravity, and the installation of a toilet. Ace. Moving on. My mum will be delighted to see our interview with Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers (she’s a big Val McDermid fan).

Beyond the interviews you’ll find a cracking What’s On section full of our writer’s top tips for the month, including some braw food & drink. Dig through, stay open, and see what catches your eye. That’s decent advice for the festivals generally, too.

Anyold. Stay safe. Wear layers. Enjoy your festival.

Kenny Lavelle Editor

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Ten minutes into our conversation, Livia Kojo Alour shows me one of her swords. She’s a sword swallower, you see. She details the journey it makes through the oesophagus, past the heart, between the lungs and into the stomach. It’s just one of many details we cover as we chat about her new show, Black Sheep.

From growing up in Germany, teaching yoga in Thailand, moving to London, and working across theatre, cabaret, circus, and dance, Livia’s career has been diverse, surprising, and fascinating, and it sounds like Black Sheep will be the same.

Tell me about the show. How much of it is autobiographical?

The story is 100% autobiographical. I grew up in Germany; I was the only Black girl in my neighbourhood, in my school, and I was queer.

The first time I saw somebody like me was when I moved to England, well into my 30s. So it was quite traumatic, and I didn't know it was rooted in racism because I was never educated about it. I grew up thinking there was something wrong with me – and this is what the show is about. snackmag.co.uk

BLACK SHEEP I will say it’s an autobiographical story of a woman finding love. It’s about losing my parents, navigating through adolescence, learning about and unlearning institutional racism, but also understanding feelings and why I navigated through relationships the way I did. So it's about finding self-love, but also romantic love.

I’ve factored in spoken word poetry, live singing, physical theatre, and there are a couple of burlesque elements in the show. They're not striptease, but I use fans, for example, because I have a long career of burlesque, which I find important to weave into my story. I also do some roller-skating in it!

How do you go about making a show like this?

It was a really interesting process of learning by doing. I wrote everything down, and I thought the show was going to be like a TED talk with performances. But once I'd edited everything I just realised I’d written a whole bunch of spoken word pieces. @snackmag

When we had a rough skeleton script, I got a director on board as my artistic mentor. I think next time I’ll probably just follow my original cabaret and circus way of working – oh, I have an idea, let's go into a studio, see what happens and then write it all down.

You’ve mentioned a lot of different things, like circus, dance, cabaret. What’s the benefit of being an interdisciplinary artist?

Sometimes I feel there is no benefit because it's very confusing to people! It would be more beneficial to just do one thing and do that very well. But I think that was never me. I'm mixed race, mixed heritage: my father was Black and my mum was white, and I got adopted when I was really young, so I got taken out of the context where I was born and grew up in a completely white setting. I always searched for identity, and I think that translates into my work.

And now I've done it for so long that this is my… I don't want to say ‘spiel’, because it's more than a shtick. It’s identity.

So the benefit is there’s a group of people who will be very attracted to my work because they have a similar background. They also don't find people who are like them. Because I talk a lot about racism in my work, it’s always people who are like me, who I could never find when I was younger, who see my work and go like ‘Oh, yeah, I get it.’ And then there’s this other group who think my work was made for them to be educated. [laughs] Is that something you rally against, or is it just a by-product of the work you're making?

No, I think it’s good, because if people walk out of my show and they feel inspired to do better, that makes me happy. But you know, I work in theatre.

I’ve spent most of my life as a cabaret and circus performer, where I’d perform for 90% white people. So sometimes it's hard if you want to say, ‘I made this for my people, for a diverse audience,’ and they're just not in the room. In general, it's difficult to reach my people, and then also the definition of ‘my people’ as a mixed-heritage Black person is quite hard to define. I'm happy for everybody to learn something, but Black Sheep is an autobiographical story about finding love and not an educational piece for white people!

I have to navigate through this, but at the end of the day, I want everybody to see it.

Black Sheep, 4th to 27th August (excluding 14th and 15th), Assembly Rooms – Powder Room (Venue 20), 9pm assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/ black-sheep

Photo credits: Sarah Hickson

Theatre by Katie Smith Page 9

You will recognise Tom Lenk, best known for starring as Andrew Wells in a little show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. But Lenk has established an illustrious cult fame in the US and UK as a stage actor: in 2018 and 2019, he starred in the wonderfully surreal play Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist which played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. However, Lenk has also achieved a huge cult following online, with his Instagram photos and viral videos reaching hundreds of millions of views, even earning him a profile piece in the coveted The New York Times Style section. SNACK sat down with Tom Lenk ahead of his new play Lottie Plachett Took a Hatchet to discuss his character Pansy, tiny hands, and his knack for nailing DIY celebrity lewks.

How did you come to be involved in the show?

I’m a fan of the work our creative team (Justin Elizabeth Sayre, Tom DeTrinis and Jessica Hanna) did on an episodic production of Ravenswood Manor, a camphorror soap opera with back-to-back live theatrical episodes every week that blew my mind!

snackmag.co.uk

It was such a fun take on the comedy-horror genre and I was so happy to join the Zoom readings of Justin’s new works during the pandemmy!

How does it feel reuniting with Tom DeTrinis again?

Why? Did he say something about me? No, what did he say? Is he sick of me? Am I being replaced? JK JK. Mostly.

Tom and I obviously were vaudevillians together in a past life, so I always feel safe with him, but also have a weird feeling of wearing tap shoes even though I’m not? Can tap shoes be ghosts?

Tell us about the character of Pansy, a character by name alone I feel an affinity with.

Pansy is short in name for Panserton, short in temperament and also short in stature. This makes more sense when you see the show. He has a passion for homosexuality that is either centuries ahead or centuries behind its time.

@snackmag

He yearns to live outside the walls of his restrictive, conservative household. He’s manipulative and jealous but also sweet and kind (obvs a Gemini). He wears red velvet and patent leather, but he’s NOT Santa Claus, so don’t get any ideas about sitting on his lap. He will sit on yours though! Winky face emoji!

What characteristics would Pansy include on their dating profile, and how successful do you think his ventures would be?

Pansy has a level of blind confidence that I haven’t had since my days as a teenage theatre tyrant and would truly set the online dating world a-blaze!

Why do you think Lizzie Borden’s story continues to captivate audiences so long after it occurred?

This isn’t your first run in Edinburgh; how was your experience playing Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist at the Fringe last time? Do you feel more prepared for what’s ahead?

I couldn’t have asked for a better Fringe experience with Tilda! Audiences loved the show in the US, so we were a bit nervous to see how audiences here in Tilda’s homeland would take to our loving parody of her, and turns out they maybe loved it more than in the US? And we may or may not have maybe-perhapsby-total-chance handed our show flyer to allegedly one of Tilda’s relatives, who I immediately arranged tickets for. I cannot confirm any of this. OK? All I know is that, since Tilda is ‘stress and evolving consciousness,’ and ‘a coffee table in a past life’ that she clearly cosmically arranged this chance meeting for us? My God, Edinburgh and the Fringe are as magic as Tilda is! As far as being prepared? I did Tilda plus my solo show last time, which was a bit much, so I’m excited to get to do our play and then enjoy being an audience member more myself this time around!

Society loves an unsolved murder, and vilifying women, so why settle for less when you can get two for the price of one?

Tom Lenk and Lauren Lopez Photo credit: Arlo Sanders Theatre by Jonny Stone Page 11

Do you feel the Fringe audience differs in any way to what you’re accustomed to in the States?

I was just about to say that Fringe audiences are slightly more ‘lubricated’, but I am completely forgetting that we just finished performing Tilda in the basement of beloved Los Angeles Mexican Restaurant Casita del Campo. And thank the baby Jesus they don’t subscribe to the measured pour at this fine establishment. The margaritas are potent and sometimes the audiences are TOSSED and trying to participate in the show. So in many ways it’s akin to many Fringe venues and on par with the raucous crowds you sometimes get heading into the 8pm and 9pm shows!

I did the lewks the way some people do Sudoku or puzzles or gardening; it was very soothing and relaxing in a way. I like the puzzle-solving-challenge of ‘how do I make this?’ But then during the early days of the pandemmy I thought ‘Oh, I’m done, it had its moment, I’m bored and it’s not a challenge anymore.’

Pivot! What if I take this creative energy and platform and go back to making comedy videos?’ It was absolutely not what my IG audience signed up for, and my follower count decreased by half – but I’m so happy I did it! I have made some incredibly stupid videos that I am very proud of and at the very least make me laugh.

I highly recommend my Scandinavian pop group YFFY’s hit song ‘I Need a Nap’, my other hit song ‘I can’t stop watching British Crime Shows’ or my other hit song ‘Am I Dying Or is it Allergies’, which you can find on my Instagram @TommyLenk.

What celebrity, if any, are you interested in taking on next?

I’ve been threatening to do ‘Tom Lenk in One-Man SHOWGIRLS,’ where I play everyone and do all of the Showgirls movie in an hour. All I know is there is a swivel chair and spray water bottle for the pool scene.

Take me to the start of your accidental Instagram stardom. I am obsessed with Tilda, obviously, and when you recreate celebrity LEWKS, and the app seems to be an amazing outlet for your work. How did it all start for you?

Lottie Plachett Took a Hatchet runs between 4th and 27th August 2022 (except 17th) at Assembly Roxy (Upstairs) Venue 139

I started by seeing if I could spend the week making that year’s Met Gala Lewks. Celebrities started reposting the ‘lewks’ and it just exploded! At the time, Instagram really was about the ‘curated’ lifestyle and this weird online perfectionism, so I really loved taking the energy of throwing things together without much effort (okay, I did put some effort into the Sarah Jessica Pasta wig) and pointing out what is wonderful and ridiculous and subjective about fashion and art.

snackmag.co.uk

@snackmag

Made up of crime writers Mark Billingham, Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Luca Veste, Doug Johnstone and Stuart Neville, the band Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers present toe-tapping covers of songs all about death and murder.

They’ve been embraced beyond the bookish world, playing at Glastonbury, Queen Anne’s Hall, and now at the Fringe.

I'd read that the band began when an open mic night at a crime writing festival got ‘out of hand’.

Doug: We were at a convention in New Orleans, a bunch of British crime writers over there for a few days.They had an open mic at the House of Blues in New Orleans! The house band had a break at one point: I was standing there with Mark Billingham and Stuart Neville, who are also in the band, plus an American writer.

We basically cobbled together like two or three songs, literally there on the spot, and went up and played them thinking well, that'll just be the end of that. But they went down really well, people were obviously loving it, and somebody filmed it, and it ended up on YouTube.

And I can remember vividly standing at the bar afterwards saying, ‘We can easily do this back home, we could form a band’, which was kind of just a pie in the sky idea. But we also knew it would work. It’s such a tight community in the crime writing worlds – we all knew there was enough musical talent in there that we could actually make a go of it.

Music by Natalie Jayne Clark Page 13

Photo credit: Alan McCredie

FUN LOVIN' CRIME WRITERS

You’ve probably heard of The Rock Bottom Remainders, the American rock band made up of writers such as Stephen King. Maya Angelou was an honorary band member.

If you could have any crime writer join you for a one-off gig, who would you choose?

Doug: Any? Oh, wow. To be honest, I mean, it would be great if it was Stephen King.

Val: Oh, that's a difficult question. People got very excited when we had Yrsa Sigurðardóttir come up on the stage doing the woo woos – she's so stylish and elegant. As Carol Ann Duffy (the then Poet Laureate) said, it was an interesting contrast in styles.

Doug: We do often get other writers up, particularly during ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ by The Rolling Stones. If there’s any other writers in the audience we get them up to do backing vocals.

We often play book festivals, so it happens a lot.

We had Nicola Sturgeon on stage doing the woo woos.

This one's for Val in particular. So you've won Eggheads, played at Glastonbury, you've sold over 70 million books worldwide. Which one right now gives you the biggest rush of like, oh my god, I did that thing.

Val: I’d have to say playing in the band. It's such an unexpected thing to be doing. I did not think in my 60s I was going to be with a bunch of guys on stage doing rock music, having the best time of my life. As we've been in the band, there's been a real bond that's grown up between us. And I didn't expect that either. We have a good time no matter what. If things have gone right, then that's fantastic.

If things have gone wrong, we can all sit around and bitch together in style.

snackmag.co.uk

You said you’ve played a lot of book festivals.

It’s interesting to see how they’ve widened their types of events.

Doug: Definitely. People are there to hear their authors talk about their books, but they also want to let their hair down, so we're an absolutely perfect Friday or Saturday night last slot for people to come along and have a fun couple of drinks and a bit of a dance. Dancing is absolutely mandatory at our shows, just to point out.

Edinburgh Book Festival’s Unbound programme was an entire programme of stuff in the Spiegeltent that was basically music-based or slam poetry or performance. It’s actually a whole new dimension to the book festival experience. Now we’re not just doing it for a book festival – it’s at the Fringe, which is just another kind of level. We get nervous before we play anyway, but this is slightly out of our comfort zone because we're not necessarily playing to an entirely bookish crowd.

Val: Although we did play the Queen's Hall to pretty much a packed house.

How do you create together as a band when you’re used to being creative as individuals?

Val: Before we have a rehearsal, we'll have talked amongst ourselves in our WhatsApp group about new numbers we might want to try. When we come together to rehearse, if we've got a couple of new numbers we're going to run through, then everyone will have been working on those beforehand. The guys will all be playing it in the same key and hopefully I'll be singing the same key.

Sometimes we consider: are we playing this too fast or too slow? Should we cut out the middle verse? That sort of thing, but it's not a sort of, people flouncing out of the room because they're not being listened to.

@snackmag

There’s a real strong sense of friends working together, friends having a good time together. The fact that that can expand to include an audience is a bonus. One of the other things about this, of course, is when you're on stage as a writer by yourself, you're having an interview or whatever and sometimes you say something really stupid.

You feel like a complete idiot. But when you're in the band and you make a mistake you've got the rest of the band to carry you.

Doug: There’s sometimes the songs that don’t work. I keep trying to get us to play ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ and it just never it just never works. As we’ve worked together more and more, we get to that point of realisation much quicker. The set feels very honed and streamlined – it’s a targeted party set that people are really going to enjoy.

Would you say they’ve got a lot of singalong kind of classics, your sets?

Doug: It's for all ages! But the average age of the band – we’re not spring chickens – so it tends to be stuff from the 70s and 80s, and into the 90s. Every single one of the songs we play, people know it already. That works really well.

Val: My last book, 1979 it's called, it's got a playlist at the back of 40 tracks that my protagonists will be listening to in 1979 and I was taken aback by how many of them we actually play.

How do I know, if I hear one of your covers, that it's from the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers?

What's your sound?

Doug: We are a fairly robust rock outfit, partly because Stuart Neville, the lead guitarist, is an absolutely insanely good guitarist, like proper shredding guitar solos, and just one of the most talented musicians I've ever met.

Val: We've all got quite distinctive styles as well.

Mark has a background in stand-up comedy and acting. There's always a sort of certain element of theatricality to his performance, and some of it was quite over the top in a good way. My voice is recognisable, it's noticeable. If you hear me belting it out, then it's the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, as opposed to David Bowie or somebody else. You can tell we're enjoying ourselves. I think sometimes with bands they’re playing stuff all the time – it's like, oh, God, here we go again. But because we don't get to play that often, because of the distances involved that we have to cover to get together, when we are together, we're having a good time. I think that vibe comes over to the audience.

The last one just, I would like each of you to finish this sentence. The audience come for their favourite crime writers, but they stay for…

Val: …their favourite music.

Doug: …a good time.

Catch the Fun Lovin' Crime Writers 9.15pm. 8th till 11th August New Town Theatre Use the code ‘FUNLOVIN’ for the 2-4-1 ticket offer thestand.co.uk

Music by Natalie Jayne Clark Page 15

KAREN CAMPBELL Karen Campbell is one of the most versatile writers around. She started out writing crime fiction before surprising readers with 2013’s acclaimed This Is Where I Am, a novel which examined the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland. She has gone on to write a rural thriller set around the referendum (Rise) and wartime historical fiction (The Sound of the Hours). Her latest is Paper Cup, which focuses on the life of Kelly, a homeless woman who decides to make a pilgrimage home. SNACK spoke to Karen Campbell to find out more about it.

So Paper Cup is just a story about one middleaged woman, Kelly, who struggles with alcohol and, when the novel opens, is living on the streets in Glasgow.

What inspired you to write Paper Cup?

It makes clear how easily people can find themselves homeless no matter their background. Why was that something that you wanted to examine?

I wanted to write about vulnerability and exposure and resilience, really. About someone living at the edges of their ability to cope – and at the edges of society too. And then, once I started circling that idea, I began to think of the voice I would tell it in, the eyes I would see the world through.

Right away I thought, you can’t get more exposed, literally, than being out in the open, without a roof.

So that made me start thinking about that, about what it might feel like, to wake up in the morning, disorientated, realising it’s cold and wet, and you’re inside a doorway, in an empty city street.

How does that feel? I’m lucky, I’ve never been in that position, and I was very conscious that I didn’t want to make this a novel ‘about homelessness’ – I’m not qualified, personally or professionally, to do that. I’m a storyteller, someone who is interested in seeing the world from different perspectives.

snackmag.co.uk

For various reasons, which you learn as the novel progresses, Kelly has slipped through the cracks.

She tells herself that it’s better that way – to be in a place where no one can let her down and she can’t let anyone else down either. But Kelly was someone’s daughter – a girl with hopes and plans, same as everyone else. So I wanted to follow Kelly on her journey, and see if that girl was still inside.

I wanted to look at how easy it might be to fall through the cracks, and how, once you've fallen, how easy it might be to keep slipping and trying your best to scrabble back up, but slipping again, and losing energy and heart and confidence and hope. What if that safety net we imagine is always there to catch us when we need it doesn't really exist? Or that the shadowy outline of it is there, but actually there are pretty big holes in it? Plus, I’m always interested in writing about facades – what we see on the surface and what is really going on inside – whether that’s a place, a person, or a situation. When we walk past a person sitting on a step with a paper cup in front of them – what do we actually see? Do we rush past? Do we drop a coin in, but keep our eyes fixed a wee bit distant? Do we notice if it’s a man or a woman? @snackmag

Does the man or the woman want us to ‘see’ them?

That one, tiny interaction has so many permutations and possibilities. And I wonder, is it easier not to think ‘why is that person there?’ because that then means we don’t have to think about the actual fact of who they are, and where they came from. Or what it might feel like to ask strangers for money.

Everyone has a story, and other lives, and times when they tried and failed, and tried again.

Years ago, I was a police officer in Glasgow.

Walking the same beat, you’d see the same people, settling down for the night. Folk carrying their belongings about on their back, in the wind, the rain, the snow. I found it profoundly disturbing – how in the city that buzzed with life and people going about their business, or socialising, or taking tourist snaps, there was this other, unseen, netherworld of people with nothing, who had nowhere to go. So, while Kelly is entirely fictional, there are certainly elements of fact woven into her story.

I feel I was lucky with Kelly – she kind of roared onto the page! She began as a shapeless figure, asleep, but her voice was bright and funny in my head. She’s one of those characters you ‘meet’ as much as create – gallus and sharp and yes, her spirit does have echoes of people I’ve encountered through my work. But their stories are their own, not mine, to tell. So I wrote Kelly’s journey instead.

The structure of the novel, which is that of a pilgrimage, really works – that of someone trying to get back, in all sorts of ways. How important is the way a story is told in your novels? Is it something you have to have clear in your head before you start, or can it change as you go?

I think how you tell a story is as important as the plot itself.

Photo credits: Kim Ayres

In Paper Cup, an incident in Glasgow triggers Kelly’s desire to return home, back to the wee Galloway town she left many years before.

But the impetus is both pulling her and pushing her away – part of her wants to go back, part of her can’t bear to return to face her past. So the pilgrimage route she takes – as well as allowing me to sing the hidden praises of Galloway – mirrors the slow, winding route that she’s mentally taking, to prepare herself for the journey’s end.

It also lets her encounter various other folk on the journey – I wanted to give that sense of how our lives can touch and ricochet off other people’s lives all the time – but we may never know the impact of that. Plus we rarely get to know how other people’s stories end.

Paper Cup is mainly set in Galloway, where you currently live. Was it important for you to write about and represent the area?

Definitely. There are several themes I tried to thread through – loneliness, forgiveness; but also it's about the hidden beauty in people and places – not least Galloway. Having moved from Glasgow to south west Scotland a decade ago, I can see how little known an area it is, even within the rest of Scotland. Like Kelly, Galloway lives slightly in the margins it's a forgotten corner in terms of investment, infrastructure, and opportunities. Yet there’s so much rich history and beautiful scenery here, not to mention innovation, resilience, folk really trying to change the dial and make a difference, so it was a real pleasure – and a bit of a journey of discovery for me – to write about that, as well as hidden gems like St Ninian’s Cave and Whithorn. So I’d definitely like to put this wee bit of Scotland on the map a bit too.

Paper Cup is published by Canongate Books, and Karen Campbell will be at Edinburgh International Book Festival on the 23rd of August, with Charlie Roy Books by Alistair Braidwood Page 17

DAVID KEENAN

One theme of this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival is 'Playing with Books', where books are brought to life by theatre production. One of the featured works is David Keenan’s This Is Memorial Device (TIMD), set in Airdrie. The novel has been adapted and directed by Graham Eatough and produced in partnership with the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, starring Scottish actor Paul Higgins. David’s new title, Industry of Magic & Light, also set in the world of TIMD, is also being read at EIBF prior to the publication later in the month.

David spoke with SNACK about being involved in EIBF, the experience of having his work adapted for theatre, and some of his own festival highlights to look forward to, including Luke Cassidy and Amy Liptrot.

How did you come to be involved with the EIBF? Just pre-pandemic, we were invited by EIBF to stage a small, experimental, one-night-only staging of a play based on TIMD, directed by Graham. It was a great success, and ever since then we have talked about doing a fully expanded version with The Lyceum that would run for the whole of the festival.

What persuaded you to agree to this adaptation?

I’ll be honest, I am not one of those writers who long for a TV or a theatrical adaptation of their work. However, the whole point of TIMD was that it presented an experience common to people growing up in small towns everywhere, so in a way everyone has their own ‘memorial device’ and probably imagines the [fictional] group and their music as filtered through their own past and passions. I realised that it truly was in the nature of the book to have as many iterations as possible, as many different – even contradictory – tellings.

When we did the first play with Graham I was quite hands-on: I didn’t know his work, because to be honest, I am completely ignorant of contemporary theatre. I have learned not to be [hands on], and after the first experience I was happy to hang back and let Graham and the crew get on with it.

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@snackmag

And what can we expect from this adaptation?

As well as Graham, I have some good friends working on it, completely coincidentally. There is video and photography by Martin Clarke, who I went to school with in Airdrie and was one of my best buds at the time, so he lived in that world as much as I did and totally gets it.

Paul Higgins stars in This is Memorial Device

Then there is sound design by Stephen Pastel – The Pastels are featured in the book – who again I have been best buds with since I was a kid. I think Paul Higgins brings the monomania, obsession, and zeal of Ross Raymond so well. I think it should – and it will – feel like being trapped in a room with a madman.

And you are reading from your new novel, Industry of Magic & Light, the prequel, and giving an early insight to the TIMD world.

What can the audience expect from this event?

As soon as I started Industry of Magic & Light I realised it was set in the same mythical Airdrie as TIMD, only [this time] featuring the generation before. There are characters from TIMD – Teddy Ohm in particular features, as does Sinew Singer — and there are lots of intriguing details and some revelations for people who know TIMD well.

But at the same time, as with all my books, it can be read as a stand-alone book easily. The first part is written as a kind of inventory of objects, found in an abandoned caravan in Greengairs that belonged to a hippy who ran a psychedelic light show, while the second half is told in the form of a tarot spread.

I combine fiction with real objects and details from the counterculture: letters from the poets Jack Hirschman and George Dowden, record reviews, transcribed cassettes, poetry journals, harmoniums, packets of crisps, bubblegum, et cetera.

And finally, can you offer some of your own personal highlights from the EIBF programme that we might want to check out?

Vashti Bunyan, Kate Molleson, my favourite contemporary author. Wendy Erskine, Amy Liptrot, Ryan O’Connor, and Antony Beevor on the Russian Revolution are some. Luke Cassidy’s Iron Annie Cabaret, James Birch talking about his brilliant book about Francis Bacon in Russia, as well as David Bratchpiece and Kirstin Innes discussing The Arches venue, Lucy Caldwell and Louise Kennedy, Pola Oloixarac, and probably some more that I can’t think of right now…

For more information on the 2022 Edinburgh International Book Festival programme including the performances of David’s This Is Memorial Device check out their website: edbookfest.co.uk

Books by Keira Brown Page 19

PITCH SCOTLAND The inaugural Pitch conference comes to Glasgow this year, an event for hip-hop and underground culture from the team behind HANG (Hip-Hop Aimed Networking with Grime) and the Scottish Alternative Music Awards. I spoke to Scottish music pioneers Richy Muirhead and Alana Hepburn in Glasgow to see what they’ve got planned and why the time was ripe for a conference celebrating Scotland’s underground.

We’re doing a lot of workshops, we’re doing a positive graffiti campaign with [graffiti artist] Rogue-One – we’re going to be painting the outside of The Space, which we’re so happy about.

How did it [Pitch] evolve out of HANG? Was it always your intention to take it to this larger stage?

Alana: It’s about approachable venues for the demographic, as well, because we want people to feel comfortable in the environment around them: that’s when you get the best out of people.

Hip-hop is trainers and tracksuits, it’s not fancy – we feel these venues work well with the community and aren’t a barrier. It’s perfect to encourage the demographic to come out and to be themselves.

Alana Hepburn: It has been a big evolution, a development from what we did last year — some of our priorities from HANG had changed and that’s why we wanted to be more specific to the demographic that we’re working with.

Richy Muirhead: HANG was a lockdown event and it had never taken place in a physical environment, so coming back as Pitch has enabled us to work across multiple venues, to work with a certain part of the community and to build on the relationships that we’d made through HANG. Particularly with [international music and networking event] New Skool Rules, who are based in Holland. Changing it slightly and building on what we had.

Richy: People will be travelling to the east end of Glasgow who have possibly never been, and we really want to showcase the heartbeat and creativity that side of the town offers. I think it’s an exciting location to us – we really felt quite at home.

Richy: Historically as well, with Saint Luke’s through the SAMAs, there have been lots of iconic and special moments there and we want to build on that. We have a really great relationship with the team there and that’s so important when planning something like this.

I found the choice of venues really interesting.

Alana: Moving to three smaller venues we thought would encourage the hip-hop mentality: working with [Govanhill community arts venue] The Space is an opportunity to not only help the venue develop but to help us develop through the venue. snackmag.co.uk

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So we’re trying to develop these artists to try and raise awareness — to make it acceptable that if someone does rap and someone does acoustic music they can take a chance and collaborate: there’s no social difference, we’re talking about the same issues. The Snuts and Bemz coming together was a huge thing. It has changed so much and the next five years are so exciting. It’s about social acceptance, as well.

If someone forms an opinion of you based on what you’re wearing then it becomes a barrier — it’s about taking that barrier down, and maybe someone who sees Pitch happen will walk by and listen, not think ‘they’ve got a knife’ or whatever.

NoLay Hip-hop in Glasgow has always been there, but it feels like it has broached in the last few years.

Alana: It has completely exploded - people like Loki and Steg G kind of paved the way, but the influx of grime has pushed a lot more rappers to become established – you’re talking to whole different groups and dynamics.

We’ve got all these different subgenres that have evolved and come up through it.

Richy: To break down those barriers lets other artists push themselves – the media in Scotland, the funding bodies, have really got behind the art form in a way they maybe didn’t in the past. The more visibility those artists and sounds have, the more they develop. Events like Pitch play a really crucial role in building that infrastructure.

Alana: Being in a band has always had a clear gateway to know where you’re going, but if you are an MC it’s not such a clear pathway.

Was using that language for a conference, saying that this is a serious industry event, a part of that?

Richy: It builds on that: there’s a lot of talent in Scotland but a lack of infrastructure and ways to get more information. So building a conference is a way to make opportunities and grow the sector.

Alana: [It’s] showing people that in a few years you can be winning awards, you can be playing TRNSMT, or whatever. But you have to be intentional for change to happen.

Richy: Part of what we’re doing with photography exhibitions, video, breakdancing, dance workshops and performance is about bringing all those art forms together, whether it’s showing your young daughter what dance can look like in a hiphop context or seeing the next popular artists who are going to go on and play those stages.

Pitch will run across multiple venues on Saturday 27th August pitchscotland.com

Music (not in Edinburgh) by Chris Queen Page 21

FOODIES AT THE FESTIVAL At this time of year we turn our attention to the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. So if you are going to see some shows but aren’t quite sure where to eat or drink, then here are some bar and restaurant suggestions from our resident Foodie Explorers, covering the New Town, Old Town, West End, and Newington.

NEW TOWN The most well-known venue here is the Assembly Rooms on George Street, but there’s also The Stand Comedy Club and Rose Theatre, among others. For classic boozers, three of the most ornate are within a stone’s throw of each other: Cafe Royal (19 West Register Street, EH2 2AA), The Abbotsford (1 West Register Street, EH2 2AA) and Tiles (1 St Andrews Square, EH2 2BD). There are also plenty of cheaper options along Rose Street: the New Town is a haven for cocktail drinkers, with numerous quirky bars and speakeasies we’re going to focus on those.

If you’re travelling to Edinburgh by train, you may be surprised to know that there is a cocktail bar directly above Waverley train station. Cask (3 Princes Street, EH1 1BQ) has been redesigned just in time for festival season, with a mezzanine wine bar and suntrap roof terrace. If the weather isn’t so good, there are Scandinavian-style domes to sit in outside. Food is provided by Lichen Kitchen and afternoon tea is also available. Open all week.

Never Really Here (89 Rose St North Lane, EH2 3DX) used to be Bryant and Mack, a detective agency-themed bar with frosted glass windows. It always looked like it was closed but if you gave the door a push, lo and behold, you found yourself in a dimly lit cocktail bar. It changed owners and name before lockdown, but retains a similar secretive speakeasy style, with unusual cocktails.

Reservations recommended. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Hoot the Redeemer (7 Hanover Street, EH2 2DL) also hides behind a facade: a single door suggests that psychic palm readings and crystal-ballgazers are waiting inside. Downstairs, away from prying eyes, is a nostalgic bar with tarot-themed cocktails and vending machines that dispense ready-made cocktails or alcoholic ice cream. If you’re just looking for a beer there is a selection of Pilot, plus some from further afield and wines by the glass. They also like to give you popcorn with your drinks. Reservations recommended.

Closed Mondays.

Panda & Sons

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Sister to Hoot, Panda & Sons (79 Queen Street, EH2 4NF) is hidden beneath a fake barber-shop frontage. Downstairs, you’ll find cocktails served in teacups, top hats, and even Chinese takeaway cartons. If you’re not after cocktails you’ll be pleased to know that local craft beer features, as does wine by the glass. They also provide popcorn with drinks orders. Booking is advisable. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Also on Queen Street is Bramble (16A Queen Street, EH2 1JE). You’d be forgiven for missing the tiny sign acknowledging its existence: you sort of have to know it’s there, and guess what? It’s hidden underneath a dry cleaners, only the business is real this time. Bramble frequently ranks in top cocktail bar lists for the UK and even the world, so try and locate it to find out why.

Sister to Bramble, and also on the same street, is Lucky Liquor Co (39A Queen Street, EH2 3NH).

This dinky bar is a little more conspicuous than the others mentioned: it’s easy to find thanks to having the brightest paint job on the block. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Superico

Noto (77A Thistle Street, EH2 1DY) specialises in exquisite sharing plates and wine from small producers, in a minimal, Michelin-recommended restaurant. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays until 22nd August.

Finally, Superico Bar & Lounge (99 Hanover Street, EH2 1DJ) has a bright, vibrant Art Deco and Latin American-style bar with a focus on sour cocktails and spritzes. Closed Mondays.

A little further up the street is sister venue Superico Restaurant (83 Hanover Street, EH2 1EE). Open for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, the food is a mixture of world cuisines that can’t really be pigeonholed, with unusual items such as scallop tartare and tempura enoki mushrooms. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Noto

OLD TOWN If you are looking for food early or mid-morning near Assembly Roxy or The Pleasance then the obvious choice is Breakfast, Brunch & Lunch (65 Pleasance, EH8 9TG) who have been going for over a decade and launched Scotland’s first vegan deli, which is laid out just like a butchers.

Open all week.

Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, Foodie Explorers Page 23

Also nearby is The Holyrood 9A (9A Holyrood, EH8 8AE), with a modern yet classic interior and breakfast food options. There’s also a large burger menu (including vegetarian and vegan), salads, and small plates with things like nachos, koftas and halloumi. Drinks-wise, they have 16 draught craft beers with Guinness and cider also on tap, and 16 wines by the bottle. Open all week.

A little closer to Festival Theatre and theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall is Mosque Kitchen (33 Nicholson Square, EH8 9BX) for no-nonsense budget price vegetarian curries - around a fiver for a main course, which includes rice. Open all week.

Mosque Kitchen is not licensed, so for libations head to nearby Captain’s Bar (4 South College Street, EH8 9AA). This cosy pub, with its varied nautical ephemera, is popular with folk music fans, and cask ale is available. Open all week.

WEST END Towards the Haymarket end of the town, the EICC will be hosting a number of events. Further along the same street is Froth & Flame (192 Morrison Street, EH3 8EB), serving Neapolitan pizza made by a former winner of Best Pizza Maker at the UK Italian Awards. Enjoy with a draught beer from breweries, or enjoy a cocktail, wine, or Speyside gin. If you don’t fancy pizza, then fish, pasta, burgers, and salads are available.

Froth & Flame

Underbelly and Gilded Balloon are just west of here, and around the corner is a great budget eatery, Union of Genius (8 Forest Road, EH1 2QN). This soup cafe features up to six soups per day, plus chilli and at least one other non-soupy special. Coffee and gluten-free cake are also available.

A little bit closer to Haymarket you will find Wee Vault (7A West Maitland Street, EH12 5DS). This is one of two new bars operated by Portobello’s Vault City Brewing, who specialise in sour beers.

But not your typical sour beers: more like sweetsour beers, if that makes sense? They may sound a bit novelty, but the flavours are incredibly accurate and include carrot cake, cookie dough, Black Forest gateau, and banana split. Yes, these are really beer flavours!

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NEWINGTON

GLASGOW

There’s plenty going on at Summerhall, so if you want a filling meal take a look at The Auld Hoose (23-25 St Leonards Street, EH8 9QN). This venue serves pub grub like burritos and hot dogs, but it’s famous for its gigantic sharing portion of nachos, weighing 6.2lbs (2.8kg). Ideal for groups of four to six. A regular portion size is also available. The jukebox here is worth noting, as it specialises in 80s / 90s punk and metal. Craft beer and plenty of other drinks are available. Open all week: reservations for groups of 8+ only.

There’s a lot going on in Glasgow’s Southside.

Silk Road Deli (34 Minard Rd, G41 2HW), known for flavoursome sandwiches with an exotic touch, is now open on Friday evenings.

Booking is recommended, as it’s a wee space.

The menu is ever-changing, but you can expect dishes such as whipped feta with salt and pepper fried mushroom, and a panko-fried, gochujangseasoned cauliflower burger. BYOB every Friday from 6 p.m. to 9.30.p.m., and you can book a table by emailing silkroadbookings@gmail.com

ELSEWHERE IN EDINBURGH The Pitt bids farewell to Leith in August and says hello to Granton. The food market has been situated on Leith’s Pitt Street since 2015, but due to the site being redeveloped they are moving to a shoreside site in Granton (20 West Shore Road, EH5 1QD). Expect more stalls at this bigger location, which has space for 21 vendors.

Tom Kitchin’s Scran in Bruntsfield has been replaced by his latest venture, Kora by Tom Kitchin (14-17 Bruntsfield Place, EH10 4HN).

Described as ‘modern Scottish with accents of global flavours’, the restaurant’s dishes include courgette flower tempura, crispy Ayrshire pork belly and North Sea cod.

Dean Banks has expanded from St Andrews to Edinburgh, with not only The Pompadour at The Caledonian Hotel, but also Dulse (17 Queensferry Street, EH2 4QW). This new venue specialises in simple dishes that utilise Scottish seafood. Expect to see wild sea bream ceviche, Cumbrae oysters, and trout pastrami.

On the same street, Tantrum Doughnuts (20 Minard Road, G41 2HN) have opened a third store in addition to their West End and city centre locations, so now you can enjoy a picnic with gourmet sweet treats in Queen’s Park.

Just around the corner, the team behind Ramen Dayo have opened Yakitori Shack. This Japanese street food stall sits beside The Bevy Store, so you can enjoy crafted cocktails with grilled meats and veggies. Open Friday to Sunday at Park Lane Market, 974 Pollokshaws Rd, Glasgow G41 2HA.

In the city centre, situated under Central Station, Alston Bar & Beef (79 Gordon St, Glasgow G1 3SQ) are running 'Chateau Thursdays' until September, where you can get a chateaubriand, two sides, two sauces, and a bottle of wine for only £65. Normally their chateaubriand is £70 on its own.

Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, Foodie Explorers Page 25

Jenny Hval

THE RELENTLESS APPROACH

OF BETTER TIMES NEHH PRESENTS: JENNY HVAL Summerhall – The Dissection Room (Venue 26) 7pm, 18th August Following the release of her transcendent eighth solo album, Classic Objects, in March of this year, Norwegian experimental musician Jenny Hval brings her daring, eclectic songwriting and provocative, philosophical lyricism to Edinburgh’s Summerhall. Hval’s most accessible record to date, Classic Objects is an intoxicating expanse of sound, awash in radiant harmonies and ethereal synths. As always, Hval is unafraid to tackle complex and challenging themes, raising questions about marriage, identity, gender, and the role of art within a consumerist society. tickets.summerhall.co.uk

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ZOO Southside – Studio 117 Nicolson Street (Venue 82) 1pm, 14th till 20th August The Relentless Approach of Better Times is a multimedia performance by double bass player Emma Smith, exploring the climate crisis, corruption in politics, and the forced displacement of people. After studying classical double bass at the Royal College of Music, Smith spent time working with Musicians Without Borders in El Salvador and Palestine and supported the creation of artistic spaces for displaced people across Europe. Informed by this experience and featuring film footage from her work with Musicians Without Borders, Smith’s solo show considers the role of music in human resilience and in healing from trauma. zoofestival.co.uk/programme/therelentless-approach-of-better-times

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ACCORDION RYAN’S POP BANGERS The Counting House 10.15pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 8th, 15th or 22nd) An accordion is many instruments in one and has such a distinctive sound sure to make you jive, jog, and jig – and he’s covering your fave pop songs too, so you’ll jive, jog, and jig even more frenetically than if it was an old shanty. freefestival.co.uk

Night Dances

LUNCHTIME CONCERTS Pianodrome, Old Royal High School (Venue 391) 1pm, 5th till 27th August, Wednesdays – Sundays in September

NIGHT DANCES ZOO Southside 10.30pm, 17th till 28th August (excluding 22nd) ‘An assault on the senses’. Sign me up! My senses would like their money’s worth, please – and with ten intergenerational dancers and three live musicians presenting four raw dance poems, I think we’ll be reet. Created by Irish dance maker Emma Martin, with live music from Daniel Fox (of Irish post-punk group Gilla Band), they say ‘the time for dancing has come’.

The Pianodrome is without a doubt one of Edinburgh’s most unusual concert venues. The amphitheatre, constructed entirely out of disused pianos, was first built in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh for the Fringe in 2018.

Now a brand-new installation, resident at the Old Royal High School for the duration of the summer, will be hosting free concerts at 1 p.m. every day during the Fringe and every Wednesday through Sunday in September. The small and intimate space will showcase a wide array of talent from both local and international musicians, providing a welcoming, relaxed, and community-oriented environment. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/ pianodrome-free-lunchtime-concerts

zoofestival.co.uk/programme/ night-dances Music Page 27

THIS IS WALES IN EDINBURGH SHOWCASE It's not all dry adaptations of Shakespeare plays, one-note comedy theatre shows with bad puns for titles, and earnest student versions of musicals at the Edinburgh Festival.

Here are two examples of shows which don't play it safe, for more adventurous theatregoers who prefer raw, challenging performances to catch across August.

THE NEW MYTHOLOGY Alternative Stories from Scotland Blunt Knife Co., 41 Thistle Street 19th till 27th August More storytelling than theatre, this wee event series from Blunt Knife Co. spans spoken word, panel discussion, and workshop events. There’s the emphasis on local and marginalised groups – with storytelling and creativity galore. bluntknife.co

Various Locations 3rd till 28th August The Rest of Our Lives explores performers growing old – a dancer and a clown specifically – and all the mundanity and madness and joy that comes with it. Jo and George offer ‘100 years of life experience between them’, a huge wad of raffle tickets and are ‘armed with a soundtrack of floor fillers’.

There’s also Payday Party – ‘the most glamorous legal political party you will go to’. This show is a cornucopia of real-life stories, told through rap, spoken word, and live music, about what it means to be Welsh and what it means for us all to be living through these times of drastic disparity.

Double Drop is the story of Eisteddfod (a traditional Welsh speaking festival) colliding with the ‘communion and transcendence of a rave’ in 90s North Wales. It has grown from a twentyminute audio created during the pandemic into this! These shows are recipients of funds from Wales Arts International. All shows are distinctly Welsh and globally relatable. wai.org.uk

Blood and Gold by Mara Menzies Photo credit: Kat Gollock

Photo credit: Jon Pountney snackmag.co.uk

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FEELING AFRAID AS IF SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN Summerhall 7pm, 3rd till 28th August (excluding 4th, 9th, 16th and 23rd) Samuel Barnett (aka holistic detective Dirk Gently) is making his fringe debut.

This play is presented as a stand-up gig – but all is not as it seems. Is he really going to kill his boyfriend, or is that part of his act? It is a one-man show performance from this wild ride legend of an actor, but the list of talent behind the curtain is just impressive, including the producer of Fleabag. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/feelingafraid-as-if-something-terrible-is-goingto-happen

THE UNICORN Pleasance Courtyard 6.30pm, 3rd till 29th August (excluding 17th)

linktr.ee/theunicornplay

SURFING THE HOLY LAND Underbelly Bistro 2.55pm, 3rd till 29th August (excluding 15th) Probably the only show exploring feminist empowerment through the lense of surfing, and probably the only show promising ‘ukulele riffs’, this will warm your heart and lengthen your laughter lines. The writer and actor Erin Hunter draws upon her own experiences as an American in Tel Aviv, converting to Judaism for love, and, of course, surfing. She’s a hands-on, headstrong hydra who jumps about, sings, and plays as 12 different ‘colourful characters at breakneck speed’. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/surfingthe-holyland

Photo credit: Michael Shelford

This show has its origins in a fifteen-minute monologue and has grown and been nurtured by an overwhelming reaction for more.

It follows Andrea, who is dismissed from her job after making an official sexual harrassment complaint – a pertinent play, to say the least.

Casual sex and instability come to dominate her life and she must try and find a way out of endless loops of distraction and mess. Writer Sam Potter creates a relatable character for the audience to inhabit, to enable us to interrogate our sexfilled society, to take down taboos, and to ‘speak openly’ about our sex lives.

Theatre Page 29

HIPPIE SHAKES Forest Theatre 1.45pm, 4th till 27th August (excluding 14th and 21st) Based on a true story and set to a rocking backdrop of live 60s and 70s music, Hippie Shakes is gorgeously immersive gig theatre at its zenith. Once you are a mother you cannot change that label – but what comes with it? Can you embrace it and still be free? This show artfully explores the drug trade of the hippie movement, motherhood, intergenerational cycles of abuse, and more, using what we all use to traverse tumultuous times – storytelling, music, and dark humour. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/hippieshakes

SIAN CLARKE The Sian Clarke Experience Underbelly, Cowgate – Belly Dancer (Venue 61) 5.45pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 16th) This is a visceral, uncompromising cabaret which straddles performance art and dark comedy. London-based performer, writer, and dramaturge Sian Clarke's furious one-woman feminist show will go full throttle, tackling issues in contemporary society like sexism and violence head on, with zingers, uncomfortable home truths, and baths full of blood in the offing. She has stated that ‘There will be barking. There will be screaming. There will be blood.’

Sian Clarke

FINAL BABY GIRL! Assembly George Square Studios The Flick at Underground (Venue 17) 7pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 8th,15th, 22nd) With a punkish energy and penchant for gore, bearded drag queen Baby Lame's Final Baby Girl! is a slice of performance art that draws upon the slasher horror film trope of ‘final girl standing’ and takes it to unexpected places, with original songs, film clips, and audience participation.

Baby Lame, a whirling dervish of fetish wear, blond candyfloss wig and attitude, selects willing victims from the crowd to help her channel the gals who see off the axe-wielding maniacs. That it's not for the squeamish goes without saying, but it all promises to be immensely good, filthy fun. assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/finalbaby-girl

underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/events/event/ sian-clarke

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BLOODY ELLE Traverse Theatre Various times, 4th till 28th August (excluding 8th, 15th and 22nd) ‘Her eyes are green like guacamole’ – now that’s a descriptor to appeal to the millennials. The romcom will never die, especially if they keep giving us such great ideas for chat up lines. This is a story full of queer joy, original live music, and heart-warming hilarity.

Glasgow 11 – 20 August Book now scottishopera.org.uk

traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/bloodyelle-a-gig-musical

WILF Traverse Theatre Various times, 5th till 28th August (excluding 8th, 15th and 22nd) ‘Frequent graphic references to sex and drug use.

Partial nudity.’ And that’s just the warnings. Calvin has vowed to start a new chapter – to leave his abusive boyfriend and ‘explore’ the world. The relationship between Calvin and his driving instructor (a psychotherapist in a previous life) is frustratingly wonderful and real and hilarious – they are both almost as astonishingly annoying yet lovable as each other but Calvin just about pips her to the post.

When he finally passes his driving test (12th attempt) the world is his oyster – and with his new albeit rusty partner in crime Wilf, a Volkswagen Polo, nothing is off limits. A must for fans of 80s power ballads and comedies that trick you into feeling your feelings. traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/wilf-1

Candide Bernstein

Supported by Friends of Scottish Opera, Scottish Opera’s Education Angels and The Scottish Opera Endowment Trust

Core funded by

Theatre Page 31

THE ILLUSIONIST Film Fest in the City St Andrew Square Garden, Edinburgh 1pm, 13th August

MCLAREN ANIMATION Shorts Cameo Picturehouse, Edinburgh 1pm & 3.20pm, 13th August Split into two shows across the day, the McLaren Awards celebrate creativity and experimentation in British and Irish animation. The sixteen short films are a mix of narrative, folklore, and documentary, including Burry Man, a short film based on the South Queensferry folk tradition, and Alex Widdowson’s Drawing on Autism. edfilmfest.org.uk/whats-on

FILM FEST IN THE CITY St Andrew Square Garden, Edinburgh 12th till 14th August A weekend of free outdoor screenings as part of EIFF, with undisputed classics like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and Ang Lee’s wuxia masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There’s also an anniversary screening of 1922 silent movie classic Rob Roy, performed with a new live score from David Allison, and the none-morememeable Shrek. edfilmfest.org.uk/strands/film-fest-inthe-city

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Of the films screening at Film Fest in the City – EIFF’s free outdoor spin-off – The Illusionist stands out as a rare opportunity to experience Sylvain Chomet’s animated masterpiece whilst immersed in the same surroundings as its characters. The film’s intricate animation and darkly comic story is sure to make you laugh and cry, in between pointing out the famous landmarks in its gorgeous recreation of 1950s Edinburgh. edfilmfest.org.uk/strands/film-fest-inthe-city

NUDE TUESDAY Everyman Edinburgh, St James Quarter 8.40pm, 16th August ‘Gibberish with subtitles’ is the listing note for Armağan Ballantyne’s comedy, improvised in a language made up by the cast, which includes Jermaine Clement and Julia Davis, and set in a couples’ retreat on a fictional Pacific island.

Subtitled into English by Davis, the farcical and clothing-free comedy is a European Premiere for the EIFF Central Gala. Tickets include a redcarpet entrance and complimentary food and drinks, and the film will be introduced by the director. edfilmfest.org.uk/edinburgh-internationalfilm-festival Chris Queen

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Edinburgh’s famous fossil shop

5 Cowgatehead, Grassmarket Edinburgh, EH1 1JY 0131 220 1344 www.mrwoodsfossils.co.uk

Film Page 33

LIZ LOCHHEAD WITH STEVE KETTLEY ON SAX SPAM VALLEY The Stand 10pm, 4th till 14th August Award-winning performer Kevin P. Gilday is back to lambast, lampoon, and lamp roondthe-heid concepts of class and identity. When does one transition from working class to middle class? Is it your first pesto pasta? Is it once you start pronouncing the t sound in ‘butter’, or when you use butter instead of marge? Is it when you start writing for an arts and culture magazine?

Kevin uses his special concoction of comedy and spoken word to share this hilarious and humbling exploration of his lived experience of class, art, and acceptance. kevinpgilday.com

Back in the Saddle The Stand 9pm, 18th and 19th August Fifty years after her first Fringe performance, Liz Lochhead is back, and her powerful words are underscored by sleek sax from Steve Kettley. Our previous Makar is the apogee of poetry – come see her in action – she promises to be ‘funny, frank, soulful, shameless, true’. thestand.co.uk

CHRIS THORBURN Monday Mash-Up Meltdown Monkey Barrel Comedy (MB4), Edinburgh 10.25pm, 22nd August If you’ve ever wondered what a mashup of B*Witched and the Beastie Boys would sound like, or argued that Butterfly by Crazy Town is an underrated classic, then this could be your lucky night. Glasgow comedian Chris Thorburn is playing a one off night of his ‘ill-advised’ mashups for a night, with all profits going to Trussell Trust. event.bookitbee.com/39772/christhorburns-monday-mash-up-meltdown

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What’s on Page 35

YOU’RE DEAD MATE theSpace @Surgeons’ Hall 9.05pm, 5th till 27th August (excluding 14th) Edmund Morris’ debut play will have you dying with laughter. If you’ve ever woken up hungover with The Fear then you’ll relate to this show – except in this one he is literally close to death. The character Death is there to greet him and guide him through the hangover to end all hangovers. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/you-redead-mate

POLICE COPS Assembly George Square Studios Studio One, Edinburgh (Venue 17) 7pm, 3rd till 28th August (excluding 17th and 27th) Police Cops, the critically acclaimed physical comedy ensemble, are back with an expanded cast, a banging 80s soundtrack, and another breakneck parody of classic cop movies and action blockbusters.

Expect clichéd revenge stories, wild plot twists, hysterical performances, and plenty of dodgy facial hair. It promises to be another sell-out show and the best damn police cop adventure yet.

Put a finger down if you’ve ever thought of starting one. Put a finger down if you have dreams of solving a murder one day with all this knowledge you have yet to put to good use! Well, this comedy murdery mystery musical follows two pals who run Hull’s least successful podcast but are ‘thrust into a thrilling whodunnit’ when their favourite author is killed. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/kathy-andstella-solve-a-murder

NATHAN MOSHER IS INJURED C Arts Studio 6.05pm, 3rd till 28th August A show with high highs and low lows: jokes, songs, and poems feature in this autobiographical tale of breakups, breakdowns, and breakthroughs.

Mosher is multimedia and mega and magnetic. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/nathanmosher-is-injured

policecops.co.uk/police-cops--the-musical

KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER! Summerhall 9.50pm, 3rd till 28th August (excluding 4th, 16th and 23rd) Put a finger down if you are obsessed with true crime podcasts. snackmag.co.uk

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A BOOKISH COMEDY SHOW 32 Below 3.30pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 16th) This cabaret compilation show features a rotating cast of comedians and storytellers regaling us with tales of the bookish variety. Add to your Fringe list if you are a book nerd or anyone who ‘has ever read naked’, apparently. freefestival.co.uk

ERYN TETT FINDS HER AUDIENCE Just the Tonic at The Tron 5pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 15th) Have you ever been part of a scientific experiment? Would you like to be? Be part of Eryn’s audience/test sample as she very literally and pragmatically finds her audience.

She promises a ‘bizarre exploration of her own thoughts…word play, odd observations and surreal storytelling’. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/eryn-tettfinds-her-audience

THANK GOD FISH DON’T HAVE HANDS The Stand 4pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 15th) Marjolein Robertson’s new ‘unapologetic brain dump’ will splatter all over the city of Edinburgh, served fresh from two years of Shetland living.

She has promised mind reading too – is there nae end to these Shetlanders’ talents? marjoleinrobertson.com

TOM LITTLE Tom Little Has Good Reviews So Prepare to Be Impressed Subway 3.45pm, 9th till 28th August (excluding 15th) Too lazy to write his own promo or an efficiency aficionado? Tom Little’s show description and press release is made up almost entirely of quotes from a vast range of publications – they are all overwhelmingly positive and he certainly seems to be one to catch now on his ascendance. Here’s a few words plundered from these quotes because we too like efficiency: ‘quirky’, ‘unexpected’, ‘a huge talent’, ‘hidden treasure’. There you are – go see him so at the very least you can add more descriptors for him to utilise. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/tom-little-hasgood-reviews-so-prepare-to-be-impressed

DANIEL DOWNIE There’s Something About Mary Scottish Comedy Festival The Beehive Inn (Beehive 2), (Venue 178) 2pm, 5th till 28th August Local comedian Daniel Downie is best known for his popular Mountebank Comedy Walk tour and History of Scotland podcast series - combining sardonic humour with real Scottish history. For his Fringe debut, Daniel casts a comedic eye over the astounding life of Mary Queen of Scots arguably Scotland’s most famous person. It’s sure to be the perfect, sweary alternative to a stuffy history lesson. mountebanktours.com/theres-somethingabout-mary Comedy Page 37

BREATHE The Play that Becomes a Rave Pleasance Queendome (Venue 23) 7pm, 3rd till 28th August (excluding 15th) Born in London to a Middle Eastern family, SK Shlomo burst into the mainstream after collaborating with Björk and performing with the likes of Lily Allen, Imogen Heap, and Damon Albarn. The DJ and theatre-maker went on to play the Other Stage at Glastonbury, create a moving TED Talk, and receive a nomination for the Edinburgh Fringe Mental Health Award. But after a decade touring the world, Shlomo realised he was getting sick but was too scared to tell anyone.

He became isolated and eventually suicidal, but he survived.

Photo credit: Nathan Gallagher Now, in aid of the suicide charity CALM, and soundtracked live with songs from his upcoming second album, he is back with BREATHE. snackmag.co.uk

It’s a breathtaking display of bravery and virtuosic performance, recreating the impromptu rave in his living room that saved his life and transformed a sleepy village community. Shlomo explains: ‘It’s a story about how music and raving can unite people from all walks of life. The show has become a space for me to reclaim a bunch of outsider labels that I’ve previously been ashamed of, like being disabled, or foreign, or struggling with PTSD and ADHD, and it’s also the first time I’ve talked in public about queerness or being non-binary… This is the real me, broken but proud.

It’s the scariest, most exciting thing I’ve ever tried.’ pleasance.co.uk/event/sk-shlomo-breatheplay-becomes-rave

GRANDMOTHER’S CLOSET Cairns Lecture Hall, Summerhall 12.30pm, 3rd till 28th August (excluding 15th & 22nd) Writer and performer Luke Hereford brings their solo musical, Grandmother’s Closet, to Edinburgh following a successful run in their native Cardiff.

This autobiographical play explores queer identities, and how Hereford’s grandmother (and her colourful wardrobe) equipped them with the tools to love themselves. The play features modern arrangements of pop classics from female icons including Madonna, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Judy Garland and Björk, and is directed by first-time director François Pandolfo. According to Hereford, Grandmother’s Closet is ‘a manifestation of the joyful, glamorous spirit of my grandmother, my ultimate enabler. Every queer person has been on a journey of self-discovery at some point in their life, and though we take most of that journey alone, if we’re lucky we’re guided through it by unexpected formative moments with unexpected personal cheerleaders.

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Grandmother’s Closet honours those moments and cheerleaders and the power of memory, and is a salute to the sacred art of dressing up.’

Audiences have been promised mischief and mashups, dresses and divas, and a whole lot of heart. festival.summerhall.co.uk/events/ grandmothers-closet Photo credit: Kirsten McTernan

Celebrating its UK debut in Edinburgh, the play is set in a university auditorium where the English department holds its monthly ‘meet the authors’ event. Robyn is the shy and studious moderator of the event and this month's featured author is Dan Anderson of Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man. With the help of a hunky stage assistant named Stefan, Dan aims to turn the event upside down with a highly theatrical, audienceinteractive, sex-tip seminar. This romantic comedy takes the audience on a hilarious and wild ride where no topic is taboo. tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:3888

SEX TIPS FOR STRAIGHT WOMEN FROM A GAY MAN Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) 9.30pm, 5th till 28th August (excluding 10th, 17th and 24th)) Inspired by the international best-selling book of the same title, Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man has been sharing its interactive, upbeat brand of comedy with theatre audiences across America for a decade, becoming Off Broadway's longest-running comedy.

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LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 63

LGBT+ Page 39

SILKWORM

SPORTSPERSON

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) 6.50pm, 3rd till 29th August (excluding 10th, 17th and 24th)

Gilded Balloon Teviot, The Wee Room (Venue 14) 4.40pm, 3rd till 29th August (excluding 15th)

In a time in which we are exposed with alarming frequency to stories of the Home Office failing LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and refugees, Silkworm presents the story of two Glasgow-based women, Abidemi and Omolade, living in a tower block and seeking asylum from the Home Office on the basis of their sexual orientation. As they wait for the result of their case, they must ask themselves: how do we prove our claim, and how far will we be pushed to justify it? Silkworm is a witty, intimate, and intense study of two women as they desperately seek the words to help them navigate their way through a savage and dehumanising system — told throughout with a lightness of touch and mordant humour. Originally set to open in Edinburgh in 2020 before the Festival’s cancellation, the play was recently announced as a winner of the Assembly ART Award.

tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:3872

Photo credit: Miranda Holms

assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/silkworm

Comedian and writer Cerys Bradley presents Sportsperson, a show about playing sport, fitting in, and the acknowledgement that these two entities are challenging to attain in unison.

Sportsperson invites its audience into Bradley’s world, tackling being non-binary, arguing with male cyclists, the importance of hydration, why you should never take advice from Cerys’ dad, why you should never take advice from Cerys’ mum, butts, binders, birthday cake, and what it feels like to get an autism diagnosis at the age of 27. Bradley combines conventional stand-up with easy storytelling and surreal sketches, voiceovers, and props to create a window into their mind and something you have never seen before. Bradley reached the semi-finals of the Amused Moose New Comedian competition in 2020.

Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken snackmag.co.uk

Jonny Stone @snackmag

Pollokshields says

The New Scottish Music Review Podcast

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LGBT+ Page 41

BEST OF THE REST DANIEL SILVER: LOOKING Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Daily throughout August This exhibition portrays the artist’s recent transition to clay, with figures and busts crowding across levels. ‘The exhibition speaks of human connection; of the process of looking and being and being looked at; of the intimacy of touch’.

Spend the time imbuing each figure with a spirit from your mind and seeing if maybe they will share their secrets.

We Got Nuts is an ‘immersive film experience’ – as well as dining out on a delicious show there are handmade choccies to have. There’s comedy from the likes of Frankie Boyle, Milton Jones, and Angela Barnes. The street market looks to die for and demonstrates the range of connections this festival has, and so many take the sea as inspiration. Check out their programme and excitement shall certainly follow. fringebythesea.com

CONNECT FESTIVAL The Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh 26th till 28th August

fruitmarket.co.uk/daniel-silver-looking

Music from grassroots to global; all gustatory, gutsy, and gorgeous. The venue is right aff the M8 for easy access as well. There’ll be your sad summer sounds (The National, The Twilight Sad), your well-wrought words (Self Esteem, Little Simz), your bouncy beats (The Chemical Brothers, Nightwave, Horse Meat Disco), and anything you can add -core or -punk to the end of (Idles, Mogwai).

FRINGE BY THE SEA

Even if you’re the kinda person that keeps missing all the bands, you’ll be satisfied with letting the music wash over you from all fringes of the festival as you tuck into some food: ‘exotic street foods, exceptional Scottish chefs, incredible craft brews, and all that’s best in locally sourced food and drink’.

Various Locations, North Berwick 5th till 14th August With 200 events across 10 days, this festival has everything: giant bubbles, supernatural tales underscored by fiddles, floral crown workshops, legendary authors (including Alexander McCall Smith), aw kinds a music, and a sandcastle competition! Esme Young from The Great British Sewing Bee will be there to talk funky patterns and there’s science and wildlife talks aplenty, from windmills in the sea, to how birds fly, to wildlife to explore in local snorkel sites. snackmag.co.uk

connectmusicfestival.com

Little Simz @snackmag

LIVE AT NO. 40 Scottish Opera’s Production Studios Glasgow 11th August till 3rd September Candide will be performed for the first time by the Scottish Opera since 1988.

The writer, Bernstein, known for his hit musical West Side Story, adapted the novel by Voltaire, and this has been updated to ‘address the specific challenges in the work, including capitalism and globalism in today’s world’. Not only is it performed by international soloists, but the work also features a chorus of 80 people, diverse in age and life experiences, in partnership with Maryhill Integration Network. ‘This production sends a strong message of unity and welcome, showing that asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow are part of the city and want to contribute to cultural life’. There’ll also be a run of The Comedy of Errors from Citizens Theatre which will be ‘even more full of mayhem and laughter than ever’. Finally, there is a performance from The Orchestra of Scottish Opera on the 17th August, simmering with symphonies and sopranos. scottishopera.org.uk

A TASTE FOR IMPRESSIONISM Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh 30th July till 13th November D’ye ken yer Degas from your Monet? Your Van Gogh from your Gauguin? This exhibition highlights the corner of lesser-known Scottish cultural history of how we came to boast such a stunning collection of unparallelled paintings.

Fascinatingly, whilst examining the paintings ahead of curating this collection, the institution uncovered a self-portrait of holey Van Gogh himself.

It’s been covered by his Head of a Peasant Woman for over a century – Van Gogh was thrifty and reused canvases. You can see it for yourself at this exhibition amongst a wealth of globally and eternally influential works and learn about the captivating context of the collection and its artists. nationalgalleries.org

WHERE DO WE PUT THIS? AKA

TARTAN TABLETOP BrewDog West, Edinburgh 3.45pm, 6th till 28th August Will you answer adventure’s call? Join the Tartan Tabletop gang as they embark on an epic quest to bring you Scotland's most exciting Dungeons & Dragons live play experience. Plunder the hall of the Mountain King, solve the mystery of the missing detective and uncover the truth that lies in Edinburgh's dark history. Fantasy awaits you! freefringe.org.uk/shows/tartan-tabletop

THE FOLK TO THANK Events Editor: Natalie Jayne Clark Contributors: Zoë White, Christopher Michael Ovens Sneddon, Jonny Stone, Chris Queen and Lorna Irvine

Best of the Rest Page 43

GRANT BUSÉ

GARRETT MILLERICK

SentiMENTAL! Gilded Balloon, Teviot (Nightclub) 8.30pm, 3rd till 29th August (excluding 15th)

Just Trying To Help Monkey Barrell Comedy 6.25pm, 2nd till 28th August (excluding 16th)

Expect timeless bangers, iPods, mullets and more in this high-energy show about the ‘good old days’ from Fringe favourite Grant Busé. After snagging two trophies at the LA Music Video Awards last year, musical comedian Grant is back with a hilarious hour full of original songs, stand-up and a bunch of blasts from the past. The idea for SentiMENTAL! was originally conceived back in 2020, but in an ironic twist of fate, Covid forced Australian comic Grant to move back down under to his parents’ house, meaning the show evolved massively and was written from his childhood bedroom. SentiMENTAL! will have you longing for your Tamagotchi, running home to watch re-runs of Sex and the City, and even lusting after the old internet dial-up tone.

tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/garrettmillerick-just-trying-to-help

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Photo credit: Ed Moore

Photo credit: Joel Devereux

tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk event/14:4413

Just Trying To Help is Fringe favourite Garrett’s conclusion to his ‘Fatherhood’ trilogy of hilarious stand-up shows, following on from 5-star sellout smash hits Sunflower and Smile. Comedian, writer, and director Garrett is the world’s angriest optimist, with a whole new set of conundrums to try and sort out. This show is answering stupid questions with sensible answers, because Garrett’s got a young daughter and soon she’ll be asking all sorts. Having supported Aziz Ansari and Nick Kroll on tour, as well as appearing on Conan on US TV, Garrett is ready to take on Edinburgh once again, tackling probing questions on religion (or lack thereof), lockdown, parenting, and prophets in another no-holds-

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THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING...EARNEST? Pleasance Courtyard (Pleasance Beyond) 1.30pm, 3rd till 28th August A beautifully chaotic, comedic masterpiece with an overly involved audience: this is The Importance of Being…Earnest?.

Ever wanted to play a lead role in an Oscar Wilde classic…kind of? Well, now’s your chance!

Audience interaction and participation are at the heart of this show, a riotous twist on a much-loved tale. After the actor playing Ernest fails to arrive, an audience member is quickly cast in the lead, setting off a hilarious chain of events as more and more theatregoers are encouraged to step into the spotlight. Will any of the cast be able to fulfil their duties? Is anyone in control of the chaos?

Just enjoy the high jinx! You’ll love this if you’re a fan of The Play That Goes Wrong, Shit-Faced Shakespeare and Austentatious.

Bagbeard Pleasance Dome (10 Dome) 5.50pm, 3rd till 28th August excluding 15th) Crybabies, Edinburgh Fringe Best Newcomer nominees in 2019, were riding high, feeling good – nothing could get in their way of success.

Then, a global pandemic happened and an unexploded World War II bomb in central London put a stop to their highly anticipated Soho Theatre run. Having spent the last few years bagging huge roles on Netflix, thankfully for us, they’re back live at the Fringe with a new and absurd alien creation: Bagbeard. Join the trio on a sci-fi infected narrative sketch adventure about forbidden love, monsters, and mystery in this hour of wonderfully odd, heartfelt nonsense. This is E.T meets The Wicker Man meets When Harry Met Sally and is bound to be another huge hit for the Crybabies. pleasance.co.uk/event/crybabiesbagbeard-0#overview

Photo credit: Rebecca Need-Menear

Photo credit: Michael Wharley

pleasance.co.uk/event/importancebeing-earnest-1#overview

CRYBABIES

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ZOË

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

Assembly Roxy (Central) 3.30pm, 3rd till 14th August

Assembly Roxy (Central) 12pm, 4th till 29th August (excluding 17th)

This international premiere of brand-new, intimate circus show Zoë reflects and responds to the climate crisis and to the fact that, as a species, we seem collectively unwilling to respect the animals, birds, and plants that we are supposed to coexist with. Zoë’s acrobatic feats are assembled with movement, text, sound, soft sculptures, and projected images. Presented by Total Theatre’s Best Circus Award winners A Good Catch, this experimental show invites audiences to find both joy and sorrow in the world we live in. The costumes are extremely unique, the acrobatics are phenomenal, and the production is breathtaking. Featuring alumni from prestigious companies such as Cirque Du Soleil, Flying Fruit Fly and Circus Oz, Zoë is a must-see, challenging, unconventional serving of circus.

Flabbergast Theatre are known for their intoxicating blend of puppetry, clown, mask play and physical performances. Their latest offering, The Tragedy of Macbeth, does not disappoint. This time, they’ve created their first ever text-based show, performing a dark and visceral manifestation of the work’s essence and underlying themes. Using a stripped-down set, the full textural quality of the human drama takes centre stage, in an experience that is both exhilarating and accessible. This lucid interpretation of Shakespeare’s blood-soaked classic draws parallels with modern society and the play is as pertinent today as it ever has been. Flabbergast’s take on Shakespeare is for everyone, appealing to both new and established theatregoers. So don’t be afraid; enjoy this provocative piece of art.

assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/zoe

assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/thetragedy-of-macbeth

Photo credit: Michael Lynch

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THE FAILURE CABARET

HORSEPLAY: BAREBACK

Underbelly Cowgate (Belly Laugh) 9.05pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 16th)

Underbelly Cowgate (Belly Dancer) 10.30pm, 4th till 28th August (excluding 16th)

This dark comedy cabaret, written and presented by real-life married couple Stephanie and Justin (known as The Fremonts) brings hard-hitting topics to life, embracing them through humour, original songs, and good old vaudevillian charm.

Racking up a decade into wedlock, the duo have the therapy bills to prove it. The Fremonts invite you to feel less alone with your own trials and tribulations after spending an hour with them.

This is real life laid bare: the sharing of personal vulnerabilities married with superb musical performances and excellent gags. It’s relatable, understandable, and very, very funny. The content of The Failure Cabaret lurches between silly and playful and dark and ominous. But fear not: the darker the content, the harder the laughs.

What if heaven turns out to be a very different place to the one we’ve always imagined? What if, for all the treats and pleasures it delivers, it comes with a big drawback? Or two? Created by Kathy Maniura (Sketch Off winner 2020, SYTYF finalist 2021) and Derek Mitchell (2Northdown’s New Act semi-finalist 2021), Bareback is an absurd character comedy set in a sexless afterlife.

And if you thought eternity without sex would be bad enough, performance of any kind is also prohibited. A sad vision, creating the premise for a wild show and depicting the afterlife on the brink of collapse, Bareback was written during lockdown when the questions of sex, performance, and death felt all the more relevant.

underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/event/thefailure-cabaret

underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/events/ event/horseplay-bareback

Photo credit: Rachel Graham

Photo credit: Skye Baker Supported Page 47

CHRISTOPHER BLISS

PAUL WILLIAMS

Captain Words Eye Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath 6.40pm , 3rd till 28th August (excluding 15th)

In The Moonlight Assembly Roxy – Downstairs 4.30pm , 3rd till 28th August (excluding 17th)

Shropshire's worst writer leaves his beloved hometown for the fifth time in his life, with the show Captain Words Eye. Christopher Bliss tries his hand at journalism after his previous three shows looked at novels, theatre, and film.

From political think pieces to restaurant reviews, Christopher is just desperate to get his work published, with this brilliant hour of comedy showcasing his trials and tribulations. Rob Carter is the man behind this magnificent alter ego. Mr Carter is an award-winning comedian, stand-up, and actor who has appeared on Peep Show and Fresh Meat, amongst others. His show Captain Words Eye aims to make Edinburgh crowds laugh

Quadruple threat Paul Williams returns to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the ultimate multi-sensory experience. The New Zealand comedian will make audience members taste, smell, see, and hear their way through a brilliant hour of comedy. His show In The Moonlight tells the moving story of how he fell in love with a girl at the National History Museum in London. The show has infectious music, dry humour, and an idiosyncratic view of the world for the people of Edinburgh to enjoy. Paul Williams is a household name in his home country, appearing on TV shows such as Taskmaster, which he also writes the script for. You can also see him as part of the comedy improv group Snort, who all hail from

tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/ christopher-bliss-captain-words-eye

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tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/paulwilliams-in-the-moonlight

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SÉAYONCÉ

TWO HEARTS

Res-Erection Assembly Roxy – Upstairs 10pm , 3rd till 28th August (excluding 17th)

We’re Pregnant and the Baby is Music Assembly George Square – The Blue Room 8.50pm , 3rd till 28th August (excluding 17th)

One of the most prominent cabaret artists in the UK is returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The magnificent Séayoncé will be hoping to make audiences laugh once again with Res-Erection.

Real-life couple and superstar pop duo Two Hearts make the long trip from New Zealand to Edinburgh this year, returning to the Fringe Festival with their comedy music show We’re Pregnant and the Baby is Music. The show is a extravaganza of massive pop hits that are as funny as they are catchy. Laura Daniel and Joseph Moore are very popular in New Zealand, featuring on shows such as Taskmaster and Funny Girls as well as being part of the comedy improv group Snort, who also will be at this year's Festival. After not being able to travel because of the pandemic, the couple are ready to take

From start to finish the show is packed with music, innuendos, jokes, and even death. The ghost of Anne Boleyn will be summoned, in a night that will allow the crowd to dive into the mind of the bewitching Séayoncé. The artist was recommended by Condé Nast as the one to watch at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as having regular shows at venues such as the Soho Theatre in London. tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/ seayonce-res-erection-seayonce

tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/twohearts-we-re-pregnant-and-the-babyis-music

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Throughout the years the EIFF has created many wonderful filmic memories. Always built around social interaction, not least the decadent parties, this is the first year post Covid that the fest can regain some of that lost ground. With a concentration on Scottish film and film-makers and international film, the 2022 edition looks to be as diverse and exciting as previous years, as you would hope and expect from a festival in its 75th year.

Opening gala Aftersun premiered at Cannes earlier this year, winning the French Touch Prize of the Jury.

This, the debut from Scots director Charlotte Wells, has been garnering rave reviews, and is a drama concentrating on the memories of a young girl, played by Francesca Corio.

Her performance has been highly praised. Closing gala After Yang is a sci-fi drama that offers a meditation on the present day, despite being set in a future with technology we don’t currently have. Jake, played by the excellent Colin Farrell, has a daughter whose AI helper breaks. She is heartbroken, and this sets in motion a philosophical exploration that's been compared to the work of director Andrei Tarkovsky.

After Yang’s director Kogonada, hailing from South Korea, also curates a short programme of films his work is influenced by. These include After Life, Irma Vep, and the anime Your Name.

The Powell and Pressburger strand features the new work by visionary Brit director Peter Strickland, whose The Duke of Burgundy enraptures.

After Yang

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Leonor Will Never Die Flux Gourmet sounds like it has all of the darkly comic and aesthetically sumptuous elements of his previous work, with a lot more laughs. Another surreal comedy but working within a very different framework, Filipino movie Leonor Will Never Die sounds right up my alley.

Described as part love letter to cheesy Filipino action flicks of the 80s, and part meta fantasy, the film invites us into the world of a female action director who has seen better days. When she has an accident and slips into a coma, she lives out the world of the movies she made in her mind.

‘The Chamber’ strand celebrates culturally significant arthouse films, with period drama Nana standing out due to its setting in rural Indonesia from the 1940s to the 1960s. Mark Cousins, Becky Manson, and Aidan O’Rourke’s The Ballad of a Great Disordered Heart promises to be full of folk music tradition, celebrating the Irish communities of Edinburgh’s Old Town throughout the centuries. The old classic shown in this strand is none other than Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz, the concert film to end all concert films concentrating on The Band’s last soiree in ‘76.

A collective that began as Bob Dylan’s backing band, from the late 60s to the mid 70s The Band reinvented rock n roll with their rootsy, soulful style.

With luminaries such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell involved, and with a new 4K restoration and the soundtrack overseen by Robbie Robertson, this screening will be one to savour.

Cult film gets its day with the ‘Night Moves’ strand, and with the world going doolally over Korean culture, here we have the new action thriller Special Delivery. Starring Parasite’s own Park So-dam as a female assassin, the movie has been compared to such cult classics as The Transporter. Representing sunny Scotland, there is a 20th anniversary 35mm screening of Lynne Ramsay’s masterful Morvern Callar.

There are 87 films being shown over the eight days, with the above being our special picks. Also worthy of your attention is the short film programme that remains on the cutting edge: events such as The Making of A Bear Named Wojtek (the Polish/UK animated film is to be screened later this year) and two retrospectives.

These come in the form of Japanese director Kinuyo Tanaka’s work, and ‘Reframing the Gaze: Experiments In Women’s Filmmaking, 1972 to Now’, which will shed vital light on feminist film theory. EIFF is back with a bang, and here’s to many more nights talking, watching, and celebrating film.

Martin Sandison

Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from the 12th till the 20th of August, at various locations edfilmfest.org.uk/edinburghinternational-film-festival Edinburgh International Film Festival Page 51

This year’s Edinburgh Book Festival takes place from 13th to 29th August and will be a hybrid festival of live and online events, with over 550 writers taking part from home and abroad.

The centre of it all will be the Book Festival's new-(ish) home at Edinburgh College of Art near the University of Edinburgh’s Lauriston Campus. The event made the move last year from New Town to Old following many happy festivals at Charlotte Square Gardens.

NOTHING BUT THE POEM WITH SAMUEL TONGUE The Poetry of Andrés N Ordorica Castle View Studio 3pm, 13th August Andrés N Ordorica’s debut collection, At Least This I Know, announced a vibrant and vital new voice to Scottish literature. Ordorica’s poems are inquiries into and observations on those things which are central to his life and identity, and his search for community.

Sensual, sensitive, witty, and warm, this is writing which makes you understand the world, and yourself, a little better.

Photo credit: Daniel McGowan

For books lovers, the EIBF is a highlight of the year, and 2022 looks like it will be no different.

You can find all the details of who, what, when, and where at edbookfest.co.uk, but with so many great events to choose from, here is SNACK’s guide to ten things to see at this year’s

Andrés will be in conversation with fellow poet Samuel Tongue to examine the themes and ideas that he explores in his poetry. snackmag.co.uk

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DAVID KEENAN Nothing is Real in Airdrie Wee Red Bar 8.30pm, 13th August David Keenan’s new novel, Industry of Magic & Light, is set in the same illusory Airdrie as his cult classic This Is Memorial Device, to which it is the prequel.

Teddy Ohm is part of a group who run their own psychedelic lightshow, creating ‘events’ which gain local legendary status, with some believing them to have supernatural consequences.

Described as ‘part oral history – part occult detective novel’, Keenan once again proves that there is no one quite like him writing today, and few can talk about their own work as engagingly as he does.

SARAH SMITH Hear No Evil Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court 1pm, 14th August One of three major performances this year looking at today’s Scotland through the lens of its past, present and future, Hear No Evil is based on the acclaimed debut novel of the same name, by Sarah Smith. The production uses sign language, image, and performance to tell the story of Jean Campbell, a deaf woman from Glasgow, who in 1817 was accused of murder when her child fell from her shoulders and drowned in the River Clyde.

OLGA WOJTAS Murder, Martial Arts and Macbeth Wee Red Bar 3.30pm, 16th August ‘Never underestimate a librarian!’ In Olga Wojtas’ Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Weird Sisters, the latest in her time-travelling crime series, Shona McMonagle is this time sent to medieval Scotland to meet the Macbeths and friends, the titular Weird Sisters, and Frank the cat. It’s another literary and laugh-out-loud-funny novel from Olga Wojtas who has, in only three books, created a series which has garnered committed fans who are always desperate for Miss Blaine’s Prefect’s next adventure.

Olga will be in conversation with Jenny Brown.

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The story is based on a landmark case in Scottish legal history, and this promises to be a very special adaptation.

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JENNI FAGAN Geillis Duncan Has a Broomstick Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court 4pm, 18th August Jenni Fagan’s novella Hex (part of Polygon’s ‘Darkland Tales’ series) is based on the true story of Geillis Duncan, who was one of the first women accused in the North Berwick witch trials. Fagan gives the story an extra supernatural twist, which makes it an interesting companion piece to her novel Luckenbooth: both novels share a sense of the uncanny and play with space, place, and time.

Hex is an exceptional example of how to tell a story and it will be fascinating to hear Jenni Fagan discuss it.

Based around a series of notebooks which were sent, unsolicited, to a certain ‘GMB’ to aid in his research on the ‘[…] forgotten 1960s psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite’, it’s a literary and psychological mystery that examines the relationship between patient and therapist. It also confirms what regular readers already know – that Graeme Macrae Burnet is a very special writer who delights and challenges readers as few others can.

Graeme will be in conversation with Jenny Niven.

This event will be chaired by Sally Magnusson.

CHITRA RAMASWAMY Homelands Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court 1pm, 21st August

Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic

GRAEME MACRAE BURNET In GMB We Trust Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court 1pm, 19th August Graeme Macrae Burnet’s latest novel, Case Study, examines ideas about truth, reality, identity, and so much more. snackmag.co.uk

One of three major performances this year looking at today’s Scotland, Chitra Ramaswamy’s Homelands is a memoir which tells the story of the writer’s friendship with Henry Wuga, a man who arrived on these shores in 1939 fleeing Nazi Germany.

Using ‘a mixture of images, sound and performance, this event interweaves their life stories to look at Scotland’s past and present through the lenses of immigration, community, family and the desire to belong’. This is another event that proves the EIBF is more than ‘just’ a book festival.

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SCOTTISH SPOKEN WORD SHOWCASE Central Hall 8.30pm, 23rd August Spoken word is an area of the writing world which has grown hugely over the last decade or so (lockdowns aside!) to become one of the most exciting art forms of the 21st century, and this event is a great example of the very best of what’s happening in Scotland right now.

Hosted by poet and creative director of I Am Loud Poets Productions, Kevin Mclean, it brings together a diverse group of artists including Bee Asha, BEMZ, Dave Hook, Gray Crosbie, Jo Gilbert, Mae Diansangu, Kevin P Gilday and Victoria McNulty. In terms of hearing different voices in one event, this will be hard to beat.

HARRY JOSEPHINE GILES Deep Wheel Orcadia Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court 1pm, 28th August One of three major performances looking at today’s Scotland, Deep Wheel Orcadia is a performance based on Harry Josephine Giles’ verse novel of the same name. Described as a ‘fusion of music, image and performance’, it tells the stories of Astrid, Darling, and the other characters who are existing on the titular space station, fighting for survival and meaning.

Photo credit: Rich Dyson

MICHAEL PEDERSEN Boy Friends Forever Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court 7pm, 24th August Michael Pedersen’s Boy Friends is among the most eagerly anticipated publications of the year and, as a result, this event promises to be one of the highlights of this year’s festival. It also promises to be deeply emotional. Pedersen was moved to write Boy Friends after he lost his close friend Scott Hutchison, but what started as a love letter to one person became a hymn to all the male friendships that have influenced his life.

In an evening of readings, performance, and conversation, Michael Pedersen will be joined by Shirley Manson and Charlotte Church to examine not only friendship, but also grief, love, and more.

Written in Orkney dialect, Deep Wheel Orcadia will include English-language subtitles and animation, and is accompanied by music from BAFTA-winning composer Atzi Muramatsu, which was commissioned specially for this event. This multimedia event could be as close to pure theatre as you will find at this year’s festival, and promises to be a magical and memorable occasion.

Alistair Braidwood edbookfest.co.uk

Edinburgh International Book Festival Page 55

SNACK BITS No, it’s not an improvisational piece we’re working on for a slot at the Pleasance at 8 a.m. every weekday apart from Tuesdays: it’s a very different SNACK Bits this month! To be honest, we’re not sure what we are!

The ever-fantastic What’s On section – and most everything else – focuses on Edinburgh and the festivals this month, but we know there are loads of great music releases and gigs taking place across the Central Belt. So we’re doing things a bit differently this month in the hope of rounding up attractions that might fall through the cracks.

Fringe By The Sea is back in Berwick: we note Midnight Ambulance are supporting Texas, and they’ve caught our ears of late. New single ‘Smoke and Sweets’ is packed with intrigue and mystery, tapping into the sense of loneliness and bewilderment far too many of us have encountered in recent years. Amelia Stokes’ vocals entice you, but the murky backing trips you up and leaves you grasping for safety. If you’ve had enough of the sunshine, there’s a touch of darkness you’ll enjoy here.

One Festival event you should add to your diary is the BBC Music Introducing event on Thursday 18th August. SHEARS, LOTOS, and Spyres are on the bill: if you read this column, even occasionally, you’ll know we love SHEARS, her tunes, and her production work. It’s all great.

Spyres will also have an EP out by then, Dear Diary, and if it’s anything like lead track ‘Lost Without You’, you’ll want to learn all the words so you can sing along. If this doesn’t put a smile on your face and make you wish for a return to the sunshine pop of the 2000s, even just for an evening, you need to have stern words with yourself.

Fringe by the Sea

Sneaky Pete’s, as it is all year round, is an antidote to the most commercial of Edinburgh, and its Central Belters line-up has many great moments worth looking out for. MADDS and waverley. on 26th August might be the pick of the bunch, but there’s a lot to look forward to.

Summerhall has a great line-up of gigs in August, with Sacred Paws, Honeyblood, Withered Hand, and James Yorkston flying the Saltire high, alongside further-travelled acts like Los Bitchos and Jenny Hval.

August is a long month in the capital, so it’s good to know something is interesting at the end to ensure you remain focused.

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We’re delighted to see Canaan Balsam is scheduled for the 31st of August at The Banshee Labyrinth, and we’re sure Canaan will keep it appropriately weird.

The Hug & Pint will fill your August nights with glee across on the West coast. SNACK loves Brat Coven, who’ll set things alight on Saturday 6th August. You also have Adam Ross and Man of the Minch teaming up to create a fine spectacle on Friday the 26th.

If you fancy welcoming a traveller to these shores, Natalie Bergman from LA and Third Man Records brings her Gospel-inspired sheen to Great Western Road on the 23rd. Natalie is ably supported by Laura-Mary Carter, of Blood Red Shoes, and local act Ali Sha Sha.

Photo credit: Jamie Gray

Mind you, who says you must leave the house to have a good time? Whack on ‘You Walked Away’

by AMUNDA, pump up the volume and allow yourself a little dance to celebrate making it this far in 2022.

This isn’t the first time AMUNDA has featured here of late, but if the infectious beats and drops keep coming, you won’t hear us complaining.

Photo credit: Ploy Ottosen

SILVI might be a new name here, and she doesn’t drop the danceable beats, but with 'Burning', she turns up the heat hotter than those two days we had in July. With a vocal delivery stretching way beyond her years, there’s a great deal of living in this dynamic showing. Hopefully, there’s much more to come like this.

Seeing us out and highlighting the fact that we’ve not had our apples of late, it's Dr. Veers with ‘Microsleep’ and the sort of catchy intrusion you’d visit a real doctor with. It's short and sweet, but the guitar lines and chorus are ideal summer accompaniments. And, taking our lead from the single, enjoy August: you’ll sleep when you’re dead.

SNACK Bits by Andrew Reilly Page 57

IBEYI 8pm, 18th August

2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival.

To celebrate, the EIF is bringing a whole cross-section of international artists to Leith Theatre. All genres are covered, so even the most discerning music fans will find something to inspire them in the line-up.

Here are some hotly anticipated artists to catch this year.

SONS OF KEMET 8pm, 14th August This badass quartet from London are part of the new jazz renaissance. Songs about political struggle and a divided UK are nonetheless uplifting, framed around an irresistibly danceable sound, with a funky sax, tuba, and two drummers.

PRINCESS NOKIA 8pm, 17th August Always an outspoken and vibrant presence, Princess Nokia is part of the new generation of hip-hop artists speaking to issues around female empowerment. Expect nothing less than an incendiary but fun and energetic performance from the New Yorker.

Born into a jazz family, twins Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Diaz are seasoned musicians and songwriters who seamlessly blend smooth French-Cuban jazz with hip-hop, soul and r'n'b.

Their glorious harmonies and songs of love, family ties, and respecting your roots are beautiful.

They recently collaborated with Jorja Smith and Beyoncé, and have sealed their reputation for genre-blurring music.

AROOJ AFTAB 8pm, 21st August Based in Brooklyn, the Grammy-nominated composer, musician, and vocalist has recently been feted by the likes of BBC Radio 6 Music's Mary Anne Hobbs, and brings a fresh, contemporary spin on Sufi music with her soulful voice and transcendent melodies.

EZRA FURMAN 8pm, 23rd August The hugely prolific singer-songwriter always brings passion, wit and exuberance to her live shows. With the release of her latest album, All Of Us Flames, she proves she is a shapeshifting force of nature: sometimes punky, sometimes tender.

One of the finest live acts around, her songs of marginalised communities, resistance, and hope continue to win her new fans.

Lorna Irvine eif.co.uk

snackmag.co.uk

@snackmag

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40 Years of Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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3 – 29 AUG

Book online at assemblyfestival.com or call 0131 623 3030

ALL FILMS ALL DAY FROM £4.50

01786 466 666 macrobertartscentre.org Macrobert Arts Centre is a registered Scottish company and charity. Company no: SC337763 | Charity no: SC039546

Edinburgh International Festival Page 59

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All Together Now Edinburgh International Book Festival 13–29 August 2022

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• Candice Carty-Williams • Diana Gabaldon • P J Harvey • Douglas Stuart • Jarvis Cocker • Maggie O’Farrell • Martha Wainwright • Alan Cumming • NoViolet Bulawayo

• • • • • • • • • • •

Brian Cox Armando Iannucci Frankie Boyle Jack Monroe Gemma Cairney Ian Rankin Michael Pedersen Torrey Peters Jenni Fagan Chris Brookmyre Kevin Bridges

• • • • • • • • •

Malika Booker Kayo Chingonyi Salena Godden Lemn Sissay Damon Galgut Georgia Pritchett Jessie Burton Amy Liptrot Colm Tóibín

...and hundreds more.

Live in-person, online and on-demand Book now at: edbookfest.co.uk

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Join us in Edinburgh or online from home as we bring hundreds of the world’s best writers, artists and thinkers to stage and screen.

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