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2 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018

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CONTENTS 1 FEB–31 MAR 2018 | LIST.CO.UK

W

es Anderson fans – it's finally Isle of Dogs time. We're over the moon that The Life Aquatic director's latest film is opening this year's Glasgow Film Festival in February (though if you miss it there, it's out on general release from the end of March). And there's plenty more where that came from at GFF – turn to page 17 for all our coverage, from Lynne Ramsay's new film with Joaquin Phoenix (page 22) to the epic School Disco at SWG3 (page 57).

It's busy times at the Hydro just now too, as Strictly (page 15), Kendrick Lamar (page 69), Jason Derulo, Sam Smith and Flight of the Conchords (page 36) swoop into town. Plus, we chat to Django Django ahead of the release of their third album (page 70), and catch up with Mae Martin, Mark Thomas and Brendon Burns before the Glasgow Comedy Festival (page 28).

Aye Write! (page 49), Nils Frahm (page 76) and Glasgow Short Film Festival (page 25) are serving the city well this season too, but Edinburgh's got a few of its own highlights to contend with. Burns Unbroke takes over Summerhall until mid-March (page 92), the Gilded Balloon has plenty top comedy at its new Basement Theatre (page 52) and the Edinburgh International Science Festival returns for its 30th year on Easter weekend (page 47).

Next time, we'll be saying goodbye to those dark winter nights and looking ahead to a busy spring and summer of festival goodness. Until then!

FRONT Realist

COVER STORY

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL These two 'cute' pooches adorning our cover signal the brand new Wes Anderson cine-extravaganza but there are plenty other Glasgow Film Festival treats to get your tail wagging. Lynne Ramsay's new movie has Joaquin Phoenix on devastating form, Edith Bowman chats movies and music, and TV star Jessie Buckley discusses her decidedly dark big screen debut. Plus, we explore an overnight special at the Glasgow Short Film Festival.

PHOTO: STEVE ULLATHORNE

36

11

Strictly

15

FEATURES Glasgow Film Festival

Audiences in the west have plenty to get their laughing gear around in March with the likes of Brendon Burns, Mae Martin, Mark Thomas, Evelyn Mok, Tiff Stevenson (pictured) and David Baddiel all showing off their funny wares.

The music is just as important as the jokes in Flight of the Conchords' world as the Kiwi duo of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie swoop into the Hydro for a night of lo-fi rapping and smoochy yet awkward love songs.

Flight of the Conchords

36

FOOD & DRINK

41

Tomillo

41

The Ivy on the Square

42

AROUND TOWN

47

Edinburgh Science Festival

47

Highlights

48

BOOKS

49

Aye Write!

49

When They Call You a Terrorist

50

Highlights

51

COMEDY

52

Gilded Balloon

52

Evelyn Mok

53

Highlights

56

Claim £10 off your first order of JING Tea

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Win tickets for a family of four to AquaDash at the Royal Commonwealth Pool

8

Win tickets to the Kelburn Garden Party 2018

8

Win tickets to Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Citizens Theatre

57

School Disco

57

The Shape of Water

59

Phantom Thread

60

Highlights

63

KIDS

65

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

65

Highlights

67

MUSIC

69

Kendrick Lamar

69

Django Django

70

Four Tet

74

Nils Frahm

76

Highlights

80

83 83

Miss Saigon

87

Ballet Hispanico

88

Highlights

89

VISUAL ART

91

A New Era

91

Burns Unbroke

92

Highlights

93

TV 8

17 28

THEATRE & DANCE

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

17

Glasgow Comedy Festival

The Last Bordello

GLASGOW COMEDY FESTIVAL

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Requiem

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The Black Gloves

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FIRST & LAST Zinnie Harris

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GRAPHIC CONTENT

CONTRIBUTORS

What we’ve been talking about With the Glasgow Film Festival about to start, we got thinking about endings. What are the classic final scenes from movies? Here are some reasonably flawless spoiler-free movie denouements

Monsters, Inc. always makes me cry buckets of happy tears. The door!

Reservoir Dogs! So iconic! And probably the only film ending which had me literally on the edge of my seat.

Some Like it Hot: ‘Well, nobody’s perfect’. Best final line ever.

Take your pick from Certified Copy, Inception or Lost in Translation because ambiguity is far more satisfying in the long run.

I’m generally not a fan of downbeat endings but I make an exception for The Mist. The whole film plays out in a minor key so a happy resolution seems unlikely; but even now, after a dozen or so viewings, the final scene sucker punches me every time.

For an ending where you think things might turn out OK-ish only to be dragged into a living nightmare, it has to be the original Carrie.

Don’t Look Now: you may never trust someone in a red mac again.

Has to be Vertigo. Two people look all set for love, redemption and happiness. A second later it’s just horror and utter despair.

Smurfs 3D: The Lost Village: I don’t want to give anything away, but against all odds, our brave, blue friends find a way to make the impossible real. Britney Spears provides the score. Five bags of popcorn.

A Boy and His Dog which I watched at the tender age of about 13, not knowing the first thing about it. It was the first film that made me realise that the whole world could be turned on its head in an instant.

The final scene of Alan Parker’s Vietnam War movie Birdy is a beautiful mix of the comedic contrast between the weird kid and the jock, and the terrible notion that in his quest to fly, Matthew Modine’s Birdy may just end up killing himself.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, when you learn that even if you know better, you’d still make the same mistakes all over again if you had the chance.

La La Land and that final ‘what if’ scene when you see what could have been if only they’d made it work. Ryan Gosling, that incredible soundtrack and the set just get me every time.

CONTENT Editor-in-Chief Yasmin Sulaiman Senior Digital Editor Scott Henderson Content Manager Rowena McIntosh Deputy Content Manager Murray Robertson Senior Content Producer Alex Johnston Content Producers Henry Northmore, Arusa Qureshi, Louise Stoddart Subeditors Brian Donaldson, Paul McLean Work Placement Katie Flannery SECTION EDITORS Books / Film Scotland Yasmin Sulaiman Comedy / Front Brian Donaldson Dance / Kids Kelly Apter Film Reviews Emma Simmonds Food & Drink Donald Reid News Rowena McIntosh TV Henry Northmore Theatre Gareth K Vile Visual Art Rachael Cloughton PRODUCTION Senior Designer Lucy Munro Designers Stuart Polson, Seonaid Rafferty DIGITAL Senior Developer Andy Carmichael Senior Designer Sharon Irish Data Developers Andy Bowles, Alan Miller, Stuart Moir COMMERCIAL Senior Account Manager Debbie Thomson Account Managers Ross Foley, Alistair Chivers Ad Ops Executive Jessica Rodgers Affiliate Content Executive Craig Angus Promotions Executive Emma Thompson Events and Promotions Manager Rachel Cree Digital Business Development Director Brendan Miles Partnership Director Sheri Friers ADMINISTRATION Head of Accounting & HR Sarah Reddie Director Robin Hodge CEO Simon Dessain

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The

REALIST Y R A U R B E F

MUSIC

2 Kendrick Lamar With a mere seven Grammys to his name, the Compton-born rapper and songwriter has just been announced as curating the soundtrack to forthcoming Marvel movie Black Panther. And as he tours on the back of his universally adored DAMN. album, few acts in any genre are as hot right now. See preview, page 69. SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Sun 11 Feb. PHOTO: GREG MOODIE

FILM

1 Glasgow Film Festival Glasgow will once more prove that it’s a worthy home to one of the finest film festivals in the UK. This year’s GFF opens with Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and closes with Nae Pasaran, a documentary which recalls the 1970s workers of East Kilbride who showed solidarity for the people struggling under the cruel Pinochet regime in Chile. Plus, there’s anniversary screenings (every day) of Groundhog Day, the excellent Sound and Vision Strand, featuring Nico biopic Nico, 1988 (pictured) and a slew of UK premieres and events. See features, from page 17. Various venues, Glasgow, Wed 21 Feb–Sun 4 Mar.

VISUAL ART

3 Burns Unbroke The art strand of this multi-disciplinary festival seeks to show that the spirit of Robert Burns is still vibrantly alive, featuring the likes of Graham Fagen, Bridget Collins, Douglas Gordon, and the Chapman Brothers. See preview, page 92. Summerhall, Edinburgh, until Sat 10 Mar.

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So much culture, so little time.

We boil it down to 20 of the best events BOOKS

4 When They Call You a Terrorist

Both a memoir of Patrisse Khan-Cullors and a history of the Black Lives Matter movement, which she cofounded, this publication is a timely insight of her journey into activism and the institutionalised hostility confronted by black Americans every day. See review, page 50. Canongate, out now.

MUSIC

5 Four Tet Kieran Hebden plays in the round at the Barrowlands as he celebrates his long-awaited Four Tet return with New Energy, a release that harks back to some previous recordings while continuing to relentlessly push forward. See preview, page 74. Barrowlands, Glasgow, Fri 16 Feb.

PHOTO: TOMMY GA KEN WAN

FILM

THEATRE

6 The Shape of Water 7 The Last Bordello Guillermo del Toro’s Oscarnominated tale sprinkles magic on the life of a mute cleaning lady (Sally Hawkins) who makes an amazing discovery in a government lab in 1962 Baltimore. See review, page 59. General release from Wed 14 Feb.

David Leddy once again challenges audience expectations with this piece, which merges a Latin mass, gay slang and a notorious red-light district. See preview, page 83. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 10–Sat 17 Feb; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 21–Sat 24 Feb.

KIDS

8 Scottish Chamber Orchestra Composer Paul Rissmann and CBeebies presenter Chris Jarvis (pictured) team up for a concert based on The Chimpanzees of Happytown picture book. See preview, page 65.

Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Feb; City Halls, Glasgow, Sun 18 Feb.

MUSIC

9 Franz Ferdinand For those who think that the Glasgow art-rockers peaked a little too soon in their careers, their new album might have a little message in its title: Always Ascending, insist Alex and co. See preview, page 74 and review, page 76. O2 Academy, Glasgow, Sat 17 Feb.

PHOTO: LESLEY MARTIN

10 Mark Thomas

CHOSEN BY WINTERPLAY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SUSAN TOMES

For me, the first part of the month will be taken up with rehearsing for Winterplay, my mini-festival of chamber music at the Queen’s Hall. When I emerge from that, I’m looking forward to comedian and activist Mark Thomas’ Showtime from the Frontline. I much enjoyed the furious energy of Mark’s show The Red Shed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016. This new show tells us how he set out to run a comedy club for two nights in the Palestinian city of Jenin, ‘only to find it’s not so simple to celebrate freedom of speech in a place with so little freedom’. It’s sure to be eye-opening and thought-provoking.

Winterplay is at Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 10 & Sun 11 Feb; Mark Thomas: Showtime from the Frontline, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 14–Sat 17 Feb; Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 21–Sat 24 Mar. See feature, page 30.

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H C R MA

COMEDY

1 Flight of the Conchords In a year of exciting big comedy tours, Kiwi duo Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement’s return to Scotland after almost a full decade away is as thrilling as it gets.

Musical comedians who put equal emphasis on music and comedy, Flight of the Conchords will be landing among their avid fans who will lap up oldies such as ‘The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)’, ‘Think About It’ and ‘Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymnoceros’ while welcoming the quirky twosome’s new material.

See feature, page 36. SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Mon 26 Mar.

PHOTO: ALLAN DIMMICK

PHOTO: CARLA GULER

COMEDY

THEATRE

2 Glasgow International Comedy Festival

3 How to Act

Another exciting lineup of local, national and international comedy talents descends on Glasgow, including the likes of Rob Delaney, Rob Schneider, Rob Rouse and many others not owning that forename (eg Katherine Ryan, pictured, Tommy Tiernan and Bridget Christie). See feature, page 28. Various venues, Glasgow, Thu 8–Sun 25 Mar.

A big hit at last year’s Fringe, the National Theatre of Scotland’s study of the power dynamic between a young female actor and an older male theatre director takes on extra significance in the light of #MeToo and Time’s Up. See feature, page 26. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 6–Sat 10 Mar; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 13–Sat 17 Mar.

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The

REALIST PHOTO: ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER

BOOKS

MUSIC

VISUAL ART

4 Aye Write!

5 Nils Frahm

6 Rachel Maclean

This year’s Glasgow literary festival (incorporating Wee Write for the bairns on Sat 3 & Sun 4 Mar) has a superb lineup, with Maggie O’Farrell (pictured), Sayeeda Warsi, Brett Anderson and Jackie Kay among the picks. See previews, pages 49 & 66.

Various venues, Glasgow, Thu 15–Sun 25 Mar.

As he launches All Melody, his new collection of glorious soundscapes, the Berlin-based musician, composer and producer drops into Glasgow to prove that his 2017 hibernation was well worth it.

See album review, page 76. Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 1 Mar.

The Scottish video artist’s 2017 Venice Biennale work makes its UK premiere: Spite Your Face tackles the rather prescient story of Pinocchio in the era of fake news and constant public lying.

See Highlights, page 93. Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 24 Feb–Sat 5 May.

PHOTO: EMMA KAULDHAR

FILM

DANCE

MUSIC

7 Glasgow Short Film Festival

8 The Little Mermaid

9 Django Django

Celebrating emerging talent within Scottish and international film, the GSFF once more offers an annual platform for cinematic innovation and transgression to take place. See Highlights, page 63. GFT, Glasgow, Wed 14–Sun 18 Mar.

Set to a score by Sally Beamish, Northern Ballet’s take on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale will be a delight for adults and children alike. See preview, page 88. Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 22–Sat 24 Mar.

On the back of new album Marble Skies, the rock quartet who formed at Edinburgh College of Art will be seeking to prove the credentials that led to a Mercury Prize nomination. See feature, page 70 and review, page 77. SWG3, Glasgow, Thu 1 Mar.

CHOSEN BY BROADCASTER AND AUTHOR STUART COSGROVE

10 Scottish Snowdrop Festival

At least once a year we should do something that does not come naturally. For me it’s the annual Scottish Snowdrop Festival, a symphony of small white flowers which stretches from Castle Kennedy Gardens in Dumfries to the Abriachan Nurseries near Loch Ness. Festivals and events are supposed to be culturally stimulating but they can also act as personal therapy. Imagine that you work day and night in a call centre fielding the grievances of irate consumers. Or you have a job in industrial waste management that does nothing for your self-esteem. Or imagine, even more horrifically, that you co-present a radio show trapped in weekly communion with a friend whose endless reservoir of jokes would struggle to make the script of Carry On Up the Khyber. If you can imagine that particular torture then you will forgive me for recommending a quiet stroll through the fauna and flora of old Caledonia. Stuart Cosgrove & Tam Cowan: Off the Bawl, King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 15 Mar (part of Glasgow International Comedy Festival); Stuart Cosgrove: Memphis 68, Glasgow University, Fri 16 Mar (part of Aye Write!); Scottish Snowdrop Festival, various venues, nationwide, until Sun 11 Mar. 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 7

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READER OFFERS WIN TICKETS TO LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT AT THE CITIZENS THEATRE

CLAIM £10 OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER OF JING TEA

The List have teamed up with the Citizens Theatre to offer six lucky winners the chance to see Dominic Hill’s highly anticipated production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

One of the greatest American dramas of the 20th century, Eugene O’Neill’s hugely moving and personal Pulitzer Prize-winning Long Day’s Journey Into Night delves

The List has teamed up with JING Tea to give readers a special discount of £10 off your first order over £40 with them.

into the private lives and failings of a conflicted family, while revealing insights into his own upbringing.

Authentic tea that expresses the true taste of its origin and supports the skilled masters who bring it from the gardens to us. That’s JING Tea’s mission statement. Jing Tea want us to enjoy tea at its very best, discovering the myriad joys of loose leaf and its traditions.

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Citizens Theatre 119 Gorbals Street Glasgow, G5 9DS Fri 13 Apr–Sat 5 May

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WIN TICKETS TO THE KELBURN GARDEN PARTY 2018

The List have teamed up with The Kelburn Garden Party to give one lucky reader the chance to win tickets for The Kelburn Garden Party 2018. Set in the magical lands of the ancient Kelburn Castle on Scotland’s West Coast, it’s a festival like no other - an explosion of creative energy set in stunning natural surroundings comprising world-class music, site-specific art, interactive experiences, theatre, cabaret and a healthy dose of pure party vibes.

It’s a cultural safari for the mind, body and soul and quite frankly unmissable for the serious festival-goer, young and old. And you are invited.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply log onto list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

Kelburn Garden Party takes place at Kelburn Castle near Largs.

When was the castle built?

Kelburn Castle, KA29 0BE Fri 29 Jun–Sun 1 Jul

www.kelburngardenparty.com TERMS & CONDITIONS: Competition closes Thu 5 Apr 2018 The List’s usual rules apply. See List.co.uk/offers for full list of terms and conditions.

To claim £10 off any order of £40 or over, simply enter;

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WIN TICKETS FOR A FAMILY OF FOUR TO AQUADASH AT THE ROYAL COMMONWEALTH POOL The List have teamed up with Edinburgh Leisure to give complimentary tickets to AquaDash for a family of four, the session will be 50 minutes long and will include a free swim afterwards. AquaDash is the brand-new inflatable assault course on water at the Royal Commonwealth Pool. The very first in Scotland, it is the perfect activity for all fun seekers aged 6+. There’s many thrilling challenges to conquer, racing your friends and family to victory! Do you dare do the Dash?

To be in with a chance of winning, simply log onto list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

How many pools are there in the Royal Commonwealth Pool?

Royal Commonwealth Pool Dalkeith Road Edinburgh EH16 5BB

From Sun 11 Feb 2018

edinburghleisure.co.uk TERMS & CONDITIONS: Competition closes Sat 10 Feb 2018 The List’s usual rules apply. See List.co.uk/offers for full list of terms and conditions.

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COMING SOON The TOURING CONSORTIUM THEATRE COMPANY and CAMBRIDGE ARTS THEATRE present

13-17 February KING’S THEATRE 20-24 February FESTIVAL THEATRE 20-24 February KING’S THEATRE 27 Feb-3 March KING’S THEATRE THE LATEST STAR-STUDDED CHAPTER IN THE CLASSIC THRILLER SERIES BILL KENWRIGHT PRESENTS

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NEWS

ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL MyFrenchFilmFestival returns for an eighth year, presenting a showcase of French and Francophone cinema online until Mon 19 Feb. The festival includes a mixture of shorts and feature films, with strands such as ‘French and Furious’, ‘Teen Stories’ and ‘Hit The Road’.

MyFrenchFilmFestival can be accessed on 50 partner VoD platforms.

LIGHT ‘EM UP New immersive visual and sound displays are set to light up the dark winter nights in the capital.

Running from Thu 8 Feb to Sun 11 Mar, Edinburgh Lumen will include three unique installations: ‘Serenity Gardens’ in St Andrew Square, ‘Moments Lane’ in Assembly Rooms Lane and ‘Ocean of Light’ at The Mound precinct, where visitors can walk through 12,000 individual suspended lights.

A HELPING HAND Help Musicians UK, the leading independent charity for those working in the UK music industry, have opened a permanent new Scottish operation, Help Musicians Scotland. HMScotland will provide bespoke Scottish programming and campaigns, as well as health and welfare support for the music industry.

BEATING A RETREAT The inaugural Glasgow Tattoo took place in January 2017 at the SSE Hydro and featured over

For more news go to

LIST.CO.UK /NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS, LINEUPS AND OPINION

600 performers from across Europe. It was billed as being an annual event but the management of the Glasgow Tattoo have cancelled the 2018 event, which was set to take place in February.

SHORT & SCARY FrightFest, a celebration of the very best in horror cinema at Glasgow Film Festival, has launched a new initiative: a 90 Second Challenge. Create a short film (no longer than 90 seconds) in the horror, sci-fi, thriller or fantasy genre and send it to FrightFest by Tue 13 Feb and your film could be screened at their events in Glasgow and London.

CITY OF DESIGN Scotland’s first design museum, the V&A in Dundee (pictured), has announced its opening date as Sat 15 Sep. The museum, which has been designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, features temporary exhibitions and permanent galleries as well as exciting new commissions and installations.

PAISLEY TAKEOVER Scottish Alternative Music Awards have announced a new music festival in Paisley this March. SAMAs Paisley Takeover features music workshops and seminars covering ‘When is the best time to showcase your music to industry?’ and ‘How do you DIY in music in 2018’, as well as live performances in venues across the town.

CREME DE LA CREME Recipients of the new Muriel Spark 100 Fund include Janice Galloway, who will write four shows in response to Spark’s life and work; musician Jessica Danz, who will create a song cycle using the Dame’s poetry; and StAnza, who are asking poets to craft responses to quotes from the new introductions to Spark’s 22 reissued titles, which will be presented to audiences at the festival.

SUGAR DADDIES Edinburgh trio Young Fathers have announced the follow-up album to their SAY Award-winning mixed tape, Tape Two, and their Mercury prizewinning album, Dead. Cocoa Sugar will be released on Fri 9 Mar via Ninja Tune before the group tour the UK and Europe in support of the new album.

CREATIVE BLOCKS The latest round of Creative Scotland Regular Funding awards have created plenty of ripples across the Scottish arts and culture scene.

Among the winners in the new Regular Funding portfolio are Stills Gallery in Edinburgh, Creative Dundee, Creative Edinburgh, Magnetic North, Creative Carbon Scotland and the Federation of Scottish Theatre. But several high profile organisations have lost out, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, Dunedin Consort, NVA and Catherine Wheels Theatre Company.

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NEWS Sister Suffragette Rowena McIntosh explores some of the events taking place to mark 100 years since the first women in the United Kingdom were given the right to vote

COMING UP

EDINBURGH MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL The majesty of mountains is captured on film in a series of screenings, lectures and exhibitions.

Climbing, skiing, mountain biking and exploration are represented, and guest speakers include Mark Beaumont, Sarah Outen, Pete Whittaker and Kelly Cordes. George Square Lecture Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 3 & Sun 4 Feb. CHEESE FEST A brie-ly welcome addition to Scotland’s festival calendar. The inaugural event showcases a selection of traders offering the best in cheese and street food plus live music and a bar. Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, Sat 10 & Sun 11 Feb. GET CREATIVE FESTIVAL A merger between the Get Creative Weekend and the Voluntary Arts Festival, encouraging people to come together and be creative in their local community. Various venues, Scotland, Sat 17–Sun 25 Mar.

F

ebruary 2018 marks the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, where, for the first time, some women were granted the right to vote in the United Kingdom. Just some women, mind you – you still had to be over 30 and meet certain stipulations. While it wasn’t equal yet (men only had to be 21) it was a massive step forward and allowed 8.4 million women the opportunity to vote.

The act allowing women to be elected to Parliament was passed the following year.

Across Scotland, events are taking place to commemorate the anniversary. BBC Scotland and 14–18 NOW, the UK’s official arts programme for the First World War centenary, have commissioned Scottish artist Rachel Maclean to create a new feature film to mark the milestone. Set in brutalist icon St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross, Make Me Up is part horror, part comedy and is inspired by suffragette protest, including the 1914 attack by Mary Richardson on Velázquez painting, ‘The Rokeby Venus’ (she slashed it with a meat cleaver).

The film depicts a dystopia where a group of women are trapped in a reality TV-style competition, where compliance and attractiveness are key, and voting is

not a liberation but a harsh judgement the contestants must face. Make Me Up is screened throughout the UK and then broadcast by the BBC in 2018.

Elsewhere, Nicola Wright and Lea Taylor present a piece of storytelling specifically written to mark the centenary, mixing historical facts with prose in The Purple, White & Green: The Story of the Scottish Suffragettes (Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, Tue 6 Feb). Glasgow Women’s Library are planning events throughout the year, including Caroline Phillips: Scottish Suffragette and Journalist (Sat 10 Mar), a talk which provides a unique insight into the suffrage campaign through the correspondence of Phillips, leader of the Aberdeen suffragettes from 1907–1909. And as part of Aye Write! cartoonist Kate Charlesworth and Nicola Streeten, author of The Inking Woman, discuss history, cartooning, feminism and the celebration of female artists in Deeds not Words: 100 Years of Voting, Thinking, Drawing Women (Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sun 25 Mar).

For more events marking the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, visit list. co.uk

PUPPET ANIMATION FESTIVAL The UK’s largest and longest established annual performing arts event for children pulls some strings to present a feast of puppet-based entertainment throughout Scotland.

Various venues, Scotland, Sun 25 Mar–Sun 15 Apr. COUNTERFLOWS A festival of underground, experimental and international music, with artists from around the world collaborating with homegrown talent. Various venues, Glasgow, Thu 5–Sun 8 Apr. GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL The two-yearly festival of visual art returns with more than 45 group shows and 35 solo exhibitions. There are major new commissions and projects by Kapwani Kiwanga, Linder and Tai Shani, and Nadia Myre; solo exhibitions by international artists including Mark Leckey, Lubaina Himid and Duggie Fields; and a major group exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art. Various venues, Glasgow, Fri 20 Apr–Mon 7 May.

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How to Act

Written & Directed by Graham Eatough

‘(An) acting masterclass’

THE STAGE ‘a riveting hour of theatre’

THE SCOTSMAN

Tron Theatre, Glasgow 6–10 Mar 2018 Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh 13–17 Mar 2018 Eden Court, Inverness 20 & 21 Mar 2018 The Byre Theatre, St Andrews Fri 23 Mar 2018 nationaltheatrescotland.com

CLOCK IN PUNCH OUT Work stories from the people of North Lanarkshire, told in a dramatic, outdoor, large scale theatrical event.

Start your SHIFT now!

National Theatre of Scotland is Core funded by the Scottish Government

The National Theatre of Scotland reserves the right to alter casts, performances, seating or ticket arrangements and latecomers may not be admitted. National Theatre of Scotland, a company limited by guarantee and registered in Scotland (SC234270) is a registered Scottish charity (SC033377). nationaltheatrescotland.com Photograph by Alan Dimmick. Design by After the News

THU 29 MAR — SUN 01 APR 2018 7:45pm for an 8pm start £10 (£8/£5) SUMMERLEE MUSEUM OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE Heritage Way, Coatbridge ML5 1QD

BOX OFFICE – 01698 403120 nationaltheatrescotland.com/Shift #NLShift

The National Theatre of Scotland reserves the right to alter casts, performances, seating or ticket arrangements and latecomers may not be admitted. National Theatre of Scotland, a company limited by guarantee and registered in Scotland (SC234270) is a registered Scottish charity (SC033377). CultureNL Ltd is a registered Socttish charity number SC043891. Company number SC435540. Photography by Megan McEachern. Design by ostreet.co.uk

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MUSIC VENUES TRUST LAUNCHES ‘FIGHTBACK’ ACROSS THE UK 100 shows – 100 venues – Limited Edition T-Shirts - Sold Out Dates

Music Venue Trust (MVT) is excited to announce the launch of Fightback, the public facing fundraising arm of the UK registered charity, with four SOLD OUT shows featuring The Wombats to take place at Grassroots Music Venues in February in association with Openstage.

Fightback will be reaching out to its 360 UK Music Venue Alliance venue members to organise live music events at their own venues across the year in support of the work of the charity. MVT has been working with music industry and commercial partners to identify key artists and partnership opportunities that benefit both the charity and the hosting venue.

To get involved in hosting or promoting a FIGHTBACK event contact Gary Prosser | 07940 309 769 | gary@musicvenuetrust.com

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BIG PICTURE

STRICTLY COME DANCING: THE LIVE TOUR Even the most jaded individual can’t fail to be charmed by a little bit of Strictly.

Or, to give it its full Sunday name, Strictly Come Dancing, which is now careering across the UK on a star-filled tour, stopping off at the Hydro for a weekend. Here’s your chance to cringe at Bruno and boo at Craig in the flesh while the likes of Scottish shimmiers such as Susan Calman and reigning champ Joe McFadden are joined by Debbie McGee (pictured), Alexandra Burke (no hissing at the back now) and Jonnie Peacock. Strictly Come Dancing: The Live Tour, SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Fri 2–Sun 4 Feb.

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THE QUEEN’S GALLERY PALACE OF HOLYROODHOUSE

UNTIL 22 APRIL 2018

www.royalcollection.org.uk 0303 123 7306 16 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018

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g s o a w l GFILM FESTIVAL WED 21 FEB–SUN 4 MAR Another year and another stirring Glasgow Film Festival is upon us. King of quirk Wes Anderson is given our retrospective treatment as we look at his movies from 1996 debut Bottle Rocket to Isle of Dogs, which opens the GFF (and adorns our front cover). Jessie Buckley, ‘bolshie Irish’ TV star of Taboo and War & Peace, discusses her dark film debut while Edith Bowman brings us her music and movies podcast, Soundtracking. Acclaimed Scottish director Lynne Ramsay talks about working with Joaquin Phoenix and and we hear about an all-night marathon at the Glasgow Short Film Festival.

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WESWORLD With Wes Anderson’s latest movie opening this year’s Glasgow Film Festival, Eddie Harrison takes a timely trawl through the celebrated director’s back catalogue

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n 2003, I was invited to Cinecittà Studios in Rome to marvel at a freshly constructed film-set, a diorama of the good ship Belafonte, built for Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Over 150 feet long and 40 feet high, this underwater dolls house had been meticulously constructed over three stories high to resemble a cross-section of a ship, the image that originally inspired Anderson to make the entire film.

At that point, Anderson had only made two movies, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore,

two promising quirky comedies. Given a real budget to play with, the Texan writer/director/producer soon developed his unique visual style, an eccentric, miniaturised, visually symmetrical universe he describes as a ‘slightly heightened reality, like a Roald Dahl children’s book’.

As a prelude to 2018’s Glasgow Film Festival kicking off with the first UK screening of Anderson’s animated film Isle of Dogs, here’s A Short and Practical Guide to the Wonderful World of Wes Anderson . . .

2004

2007

2009

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Darjeeling Limited

The Fantastic Mr Fox

A tribute to the great Satyajit Ray, this 2007 story of three brothers bonding after their father’s death was filmed on a train in India, starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman.

Featuring arresting use of The Kinks song ‘This Time Tomorrow’ and the late Peter Sarstedt’s ‘Where Do You Go To My Lovely?’, this bittersweet comedy had a plot set in motion via a Paris-set short-film by Anderson, Hotel Chevalier.

For once, Murray does not feature, except in a Buster-Keaton-inspired cameo over the opening credits.

Marking a rare departure into family entertainment, Anderson’s first animated feature sees the director transforming Roald Dahl’s wellloved story into a 2009 heist film, with George Clooney playing to type as a Mr Fox out to beat the system operated by the local farmers. Bill Murray chips in a voice-over.

Bill Murray takes centre-stage as Steve Zissou, an underwater explorer in the Jacques Cousteaumould who sets out on a Moby Dick-style search for the fabled Jaguar Shark that killed his best friend. Cheerful on the outside, 2004’s The Life Aquatic’s teamwork and jollity conceals an abrupt and surprising dark twist; compensations include a selection of David Bowie songs adapted by the inimitable Seu Jorge in Portuguese, plus Willem Dafoe in his bobble hat as the hapless Klaus Daimler. Although largely filmed in Italy, a significant part of the Mediterranean flavour comes from Anderson and Wilson’s long writing sessions at eatery Bar Pitti, a famous foodie institution in New York’s Greenwich Village.

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1996

1998

2001

Bottle Rocket

Rushmore

The Royal Tenenbaums

Described by Anderson as ‘a Mean Streets where the streets aren’t so mean’, 1996’s Bottle Rocket was a likeable expansion of his first 13-minute short, and featured long-time collaborator Owen Wilson and his brother Luke as two spectacularly incompetent crooks. Featuring James Caan as Abe Henry, a role Anderson originally considered Bill Murray for.

The first film for his own American Empirical Pictures company, Anderson’s first cult hit from 1998 featured Jason Schwartzman as the wily high-school student Max Fisher, who battles jaded millionaire Herman Blume (Bill Murray) for the love of schoolteacher Olivia Williams.

There’s also a bonus in Stephen McCole’s wild performance as Scottish bully Magnus Buchan.

Taking some inspiration from JD Salinger’s Glass family of child geniuses, this NYC-set 2001 comedy/drama saw Gene Hackman’s failing patriarch Royal Tenenbaum attempting to rule the roost over ex-wife Anjelica Huston. Ben Stiller, Owen and Luke Wilson are among the rebellious children, and of course, Bill Murray also features.

2012

2014

2018

Moonrise Kingdom

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Isle of Dogs

Opening with a typically elaborate sequence which uses the compartmentalised structure of Benjamin Britten’s ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ to introduce his cast of characters on the fictional island of New Penzance, Anderson’s gentle love story offers a similar blend of sweetness and innocence as Alan Parker’s whimsical 1971 drama Melody. Set in 1965, two children fall in love and elope leaving concerned parents in their wake, plus police and social services in the form of Bruce Willis and Tilda Swinton. Bill Murray comes included in the package.

In 2014, taking inspiration from the writings of Stefan Zweig, Anderson created this multi-layered wedding-cake of derring-do and well-deserved revenge, set between the two world wars, with Ralph Fiennes channelling his inner Leonard Rossiter as concierge Gustave H. Much like the ship in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Anderson constructed the hotel as an elaborate ten-foot tall handmade miniature. This film also contains Bill Murray.

Despite his many live-action successes, Anderson has retained his interest in animation, including an unheralded performance as Daniel the giraffe in 2016’s hit Sing! (Anderson performs Michael Jackson’s 1972 hit single ‘Ben’). A nod to Japan’s Akira Kurosawa is expected, and rest assured, Bill Murray is involved.

Isle of Dogs, Glasgow Film Theatre, Wed 21 & Thu 22 Feb. General release from Fri 30 Mar. 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 19

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Jessie Buckley with Beast director Michael Pearce

NATURE OF THE BEAST Actress Jessie Buckley chats to Emma Simmonds about her dark film debut

F

rom auditioning for Andrew Lloyd Webber to playing the enigmatic lover of a suspected serial killer, via a Tom Hardy passion project and Tolstoy, Jessie Buckley’s career has certainly kept us guessing.

Born in Killarney, Ireland, her first brush with fame was on the BBC’s I’d Do Anything in 2008, competing for the role of Nancy in Oliver!. Last year she won our hearts as War & Peace’s demure Marya and held her own against a flamboyant Hardy in Taboo, while on stage she’s shone in The Winter’s Tale and A Little Night Music.

This former talent show runner-up now finds herself leading lady of her latest project, Beast – her first film role and one that’s more than a little daring. The feature debut of BAFTA-nominee Michael Pearce is set on Jersey amid a series of murders; it sees a young woman with a troubled past looking to escape the clutches of a suffocating mother (Geraldine James) by getting involved with Johnny Flynn’s ominous outsider.

Beast is a remarkable and unsettling film.

How did you come onboard?

It is still rare but slowly we’re seeing more of these complex women onscreen . . .

Absolutely. It’s such an exciting time. The kind of sheen that has been painted over women in film is slowly being taken away. You only have to look at what happened at the Golden Globes, people are asking questions about the boundaries that have been restricting and numbing us.

Beast is unusually accomplished for a first feature. Did [director] Michael Pearce have a very clear idea of what he wanted, and what was he like to work with?

It was our first feature for both of us and we stepped into it terrified and exhilarated. We dared each other to go further and to jump off the edge of the cliff together.

I think Michael is going to be one of Britain’s great filmmakers; he’s got a really unique vision and style, yet has a wealth of knowledge of the history of film.

He’s just the bloody loveliest guy as well.

Many will know your co-star Johnny Flynn from comedy series Lovesick but he’s got form exploring his darker side, as we saw in Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen . . .

I read 20 pages of the script and rang my agent straight back and said ‘I love this, please get me into the room’; it moved me and challenged me, I felt afraid of it. There was a period where they said they might need someone who was more of a name, but I kept the script under my pillow and didn’t give up.

Finally they gave into my bolshie Irishness.

He’s been typecast as a psychopath and he’s actually the nicest man in the world! We immediately felt we were in this together and trusted each other. Although it’s a dark story, we were always excited to come in and play and explore.

What about it excited you so much?

I hope so. I spoke to Tom [Hardy] the other day. I said, ‘Are we going back on the ship?’ I haven’t had a reply yet. Even if I have to swim to the bloody ship, I’ll get on it!

To read a female character like that. You rarely see anti-heroines. Moll is the kind of girl who ate worms in school. I thought I can do that, I’m better at playing those kind of female characters than people who wear pink nail varnish – that’s much more scary for me.

I have to ask about Taboo. Will there be a second series?

Beast, Glasgow Film Theatre, Sat 24 & Sun 25 Feb. General release from Fri 27 Apr.

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Until 10 June 2018 Modern Two Free for Our Friends #ANewEra William Crozier, Edinburgh (from Salisbury Crags), c.1927 (detail), National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. Photo: Antonia Reeve.

National Galleries of Scotland is a charity registered in Scotland (SC003728)

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P I EC E O F T HE ACTIO N

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or her fourth feature film, director Lynne Ramsay gives the male action hero a serious makeover with a tender, blackly funny and vicious thriller about an ex-marine who is sent on a mission to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring in New York. You Were Never Really Here stars Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role of Joe and is adapted from a novella by Jonathan Ames. Ramsay read the novella in a couple of hours and changed the final third by restructuring Joe’s reaction to violence. ‘I went through it very fast and I really loved this character.

I liked the beginnings of this character – he’s got this hunchback quality to him, he’s almost a monster and you never know what he’s going to do next. The quality of the writing and how unusual the character was for what would usually be a B novel or B movie stuck with me. One of the things I took from the book is that he was a very fallible man.’

The acclaimed director of Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk About Kevin, Ramsay wanted Phoenix

in this role from the beginning and soon after he agreed to do it, the pair began to collaborate on the psychological and physical development of his character. Phoenix moved around the corner from Ramsay roughly seven weeks before shooting started and any spare moment she had in between scouting locations in New York she spent working with him.

‘That time was invaluable,’ she says. ‘It was cool that he did that because he prepared himself really early on. The way he looked physically and how big he was becoming before my eyes, and the way he walked was amazing. We talked a lot about the role, trying to get rid of any clichés. Joaquin and I talked a lot about masculinity and the tough guy, the knight in shining armour who rescues the girl. The male action hero normally saves the girl and we were doing the exact opposite of that. I wanted to redefine the clichés of those movies but for it also to be an intelligent film.

It’s about male impudence in a lot of ways, but in a way, he comes back to life. I thought of it as a bit of a Lazarus story.’

Ramsay’s approach to violence and the tense action sequences set her film apart. ‘I’d never done action sequences before: I’d never done anything like that.’ she notes. ‘I tried to approach them from

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As director Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes-prizewinning movie You Were Never Really Here hits cinemas, she talks to Katherine McLaughlin about tackling the action genre for the first time and bonding with leading man Joaquin Phoenix the psychology of the character. That’s the kind of technique they used in silent movies – what you don’t know and is left to your imagination is almost more potent. I thought [the violence] should be very mechanical at first which is why I brought in the surveillance camera. Then the violence becomes more personal to him, and then it becomes almost post-violence in the way that you don’t see anything, but you can fill in the gaps. He’s just moving forward.

Right now, there’s a lot of explicitly violent films and people know how it operates. What’s more scary in this is that you don’t see everything.’

On set, Phoenix and Ramsay bonded over sharing music with one another and listening to Aphex Twin and Melkeveien’s ‘Peter Pan Death Wish’ (the song featured in the trailer) to get them in the zone.

Jonny Greenwood composed the electronic score for the film and Ramsay chose a soundtrack to match her character’s mindset that skips and jumps to eerie effect. Ramsay also gave Phoenix audio clips of explosions and fireworks to listen to as an explanation of what was going on in his head.

‘With the character of Joe, I was trying to understand how memory works and how you recall things as flashes,’ says Ramsay. ‘Unlike flashbacks which tell

a story, I was looking at fragments and how people piece things together. The explosions represent how people remember.’

An abusive upbringing and his time serving in the marines have left Joe broken and suffering from PTSD and Ramsay expertly puts the viewer in his disturbed mind.

Phoenix carried out his own independent research by speaking to men who work on sex trafficking cases. Ramsay watched documentaries on PTSD which explored the subject as far back as the Civil War, but she also focused on the modern world as part of her research.

‘I find documentaries really informative and I’m not on any kind of social media so it’s my way of trying to understand the world,’ she says. ‘Nothing’s black and white anymore, you can’t trust anything anymore and Joe lives in that kind of world. He kind of looks into this abyss of darkness and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. He lives in this world of uncertainty which I think is the world right now.”

You Were Never Really Here, Glasgow Film Theatre, Fri 23 & Sat 24 Feb. General release from Fri 9 Mar. See review, page 62.

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SCORE D RAW With guests like Steven Soderbergh, Denis Villeneuve and Sofia Coppola, Edith Bowman’s Soundtracking podcast is already on its way to a million listeners. She tells Scott Henderson all about it, ahead of a live recording at GFF with Lynne Ramsay

What was the genesis of Soundtracking?

The podcast started off the back of a show I did on 6 Music with Adam Buxton. We created this strand called Screen Six, getting people involved with TV and film to come in and chat. And then when I left the show they asked if I’d do Screen Six as a show that would pop up now and again, so we started off doing it about soundtracks. It was really obvious from the start no one else was doing this and as soon as you scratched the surface there was a wealth of things to dive into. We decided to do it on our own, make it ours. It meant the goalposts were wider – it didn’t have to conform to a broadcaster’s audience market.

For a while you were doing both breakfast radio on Virgin and Soundtracking, plus loads of other side projects – that can’t have been easy.

I only finished at Virgin in September, it was all right though. I’ve got a pretty strong work ethic instilled in me from a young age working in a hotel. And because [Soundtracking] is mine, it means something different. I can do it anywhere, anytime, that’s one of the great things about podcasts, how accessible they are to people – you don’t need much to make one.

The junket circuit isn’t something filmmakers relish especially, but your interviewees obviously enjoy these conversations.

It’s a bit of light relief for them too. I grab people as and when I can. Cillian Murphy was a bit different, we ended up in being in the basement of a hotel trying to find a quiet corner. You can hear the door of the luggage room opening every 20 seconds, it’s absolutely hilarious. What’s nice is we’re getting people coming to us and asking to do it. Edgar [Wright] was the first person to do that, I bumped in to him last Christmas in Soho. I’ve known Edgar for years and he was like, ‘Edith, when can I do the podcast’? And I was like, ‘whenever you want’! This was before anybody really knew anything about Baby Driver.

What’s one of your favourite stories to come out of the podcast?

I was nearly in tears recently when Rian Johnson described to us going round to John Williams’ house

and sitting and talking to him about the soundtrack, then looking around and thinking he was in a library of books until he realised all these leather bound volumes covering the walls were every score he’d written, in the form he’d written them in. It almost brings me to tears thinking about it. Seeing that the score for his film was going to fit in this library with all these other scores was amazing.

You must have quite the hit list of dream guests?

Oh god yeah, totally. I’m already planning a trip to LA to get some of the people who don’t travel really.

John Williams is top of the list really. I want to go to his house and see his books. Cliff Martinez, I’d love to speak to him.

Soundtracking, Glasgow Film Theatre, Sat 24 Feb.

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T S H OE SRT I VA L

FILM F

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (right)

A L L N IGH T LO NG Scott Henderson chats to award-winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose work will screen as part of an overnight film experience at Glasgow Short Film Festival

I

t’s a rare filmmaker who continues making short films having embarked on their feature film career.

Rarer still is the director who wins the Palme d’Or and still can be found tinkering and experimenting with installations and obsolete cinematic technologies like Super 8. Like his Cannes-winning Uncle Boonmee, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s shorts are enigmatic, subtly humourous, meditative, often ethereal affairs – in fact, it’s hard to think of a better way to experience them than in an overnight marathon at Glasgow’s CCA.

As a short filmmaker you’ve been prolific throughout your career, working on feature films hasn’t changed that. What is it about shorts that keeps you coming back?

Feature filmmaking takes a long time to make; short film is a great help in changing the inertia, the rhythm.

Most of my short films are not big productions.

Making them allows me to be more intimate with the camera and the subjects.

You’re shooting on everything from Super 8 to digital. How does the practical or artistic intersect in your camera choice?

When you don’t consider what you do work, you take pleasure in it as if you are a child, immersing yourself in it with full curiosity. Different camera ‘eyes’ excite me and stimulate the filmmaking because I think this craft always ties in with technology and invention, since when we were in caves and scratching images on the rocky surfaces.

What do you recall about your first short filmmaking experience?

I was working on 16mm film. Afterwards, I spent more time in the darkroom than the shooting.

I somehow enjoyed the calculations of frames, exposures. It’s intimate and suits my character well.

I remember the anticipation awaiting a roll of film from the lab, putting it on a projector, and making more calculated adjustments. This ritual is no more.

Are there short filmmakers in Thailand, or elsewhere, whose work you especially admire?

I like these talented filmmakers: Pathompon Tesprateep, he works on 16mm film, lyrical and political. Sompot Chidgasoronpongse, my assistant who is like my twin, intellectually. He made a film called Railway Sleepers, which you can sleep in.

Chulayarnnon Siriphol, he is attracted to cosmic manifestation, a fatalist, an artist. Taiki Sakpisit, a man of little compromise. Wichanon Somumjarn, he’s from Khon Kaen, the same town I was from in the northeast [of Thailand]. He has captured the life, the mundane of us so well. Sutthirat Supaparinya, she’s a media artist. She documents places that are changing, and places that refuse to change.

How do you feel about your work being shown in non-traditional cinema spaces?

I think we are in a transitional period, like when we moved from silent to talkies, black and white to colour.

The bridge is littered with subpar materials before we find solid ones to build a strong bridge. I think VR is the direction we want to cross towards. We try to eliminate the frame, to make cinema (or whatever you want to call it) closer to dream.

At GSFF, your short films are being screened as part of an overnight performance – how does this experience fit your work?

I encourage the organiser to bring some beds, and the audiences to bring pillows, sheets. I hope that at one point in the night, one doesn’t need to interpret meanings but let the image and sound flow like a river. You cannot control it, just marvel. I also think the experience reminds me of when I was young and slept in the movies that my parents took me to see. The drifting, the youth, the comfort of this dark cave . . .

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HOW TO ACT

PHOTO: ALLAN DIMMICK

SECOND ACT

Graham Eatough’s intelligent piece of meta-theatre, How to Act, returns to the stage this year.

But as Gareth K Vile discovers, it’s back amid a whole new cultural context

A

fter its success at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, the National Theatre of Scotland’s How to Act is making a rapid return to Scottish theatres. Yet in the few months since its last outing, Graham Eatough’s play has experienced a transformation beyond his control.

‘I’m not sure the text will change hugely, though there are a few approaches that we might revisit,’ says Eatough of the play. ‘But it’s the context that has changed so much. The massive thing that has happened since the Fringe – something profound and historical, at least in the media – is the #MeToo movement. I think we’ll offer a very present frame on this tour through which people can now read the show.’

How to Act’s power dynamic – reflected in the double meaning of the title, which evokes the setting in a theatre workshop but also asks serious questions about human behaviour – revolves around a conflict that has a strikingly contemporary relevance. ‘The older director and a younger female actor becomes a charged relationship in a way that the play was pointing towards,’ he explains. ‘But now it’s more pointed and an opportunity to explore the debate.’

When the older director attempts to explain his engagement with cultures beyond the west, his optimistic universalism is challenged by the performer. What begins as a discussion over theatrical technique develops into a wider argument about how dominant ideas can fail to see their own privilege. ‘The play is still primarily about the potential abuse of power. It’s about power relations in a creative sphere and asking who is in control of the story; it’s also about storytelling and different ideas of truth.’

Eatough’s reading of Greek tragedy – with its commitment to the working out of conflicting

ideas – inspired How to Act to address the tension between competing authorities, as the younger actor comes from a culture that the director appears to appropriate.

‘I love that idea that in great tragedy, everyone is right but the ideas are irreconcilable. How to Act is inspired and influenced by Greek tragedy,’ he says, but isn’t simply imitating the form. ‘It’s futile to try and write a contemporary tragedy: How to Act is a riff on tragedy.’ The tone’s measured seriousness and a refusal to provide easy answers impressed critics and audiences during its Fringe run at Summerhall, evoking theatre’s potential as a public space for the discussion of difficult issues.

Eatough’s enthusiasm for theatre’s relevance encourages him to see the play as an opportunity for audiences to reflect on their own values.

‘Theatre opens up a space for discussion that is the precursor to developing compassion,’ he reflects. ‘And the only reason we are interested in ethics is to develop compassion, and be critical of the right things.’ It is the intensity, however, of the confrontation between two people who represent radically different ways of thinking that makes How to Act more than simply a cerebral exercise.

Unlike the director in the play, Eatough takes a tentative approach to solutions. He is suitably guarded about revealing too much of the plot, but his synopsis speaks of the play’s appeal to a common, if not universal interest. ‘It tries to ask a question about the tendency to try to look for a story that is relevant to everyone,’ he concludes. ‘That’s valid, but How to Act opens up some questions around that.’

How to Act, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 6–Sat 10 Mar; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 13–Sat 17 Mar.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Escape to

NEWCASTLEGATESHEAD for a romantic weekend in the city If you’re looking to whisk your loved one away for a romantic weekend, NewcastleGateshead has a lot to offer, and it doesn’t have to break the bank. Treat yourself to a stay in a luxury hotel, take in the city’s sights, indulge in a Michelin star meal and explore the home of Geordie culture

PLACES TO STAY

PLACES TO EAT

THINGS TO DO

Jesmond Dene House This grand 40-bedroom house is based at the north end of Jesmond Dene. Originally designed by Georgian architect John Dobson and refashioned by Norman Shaw in the 1870s, the old oak panelling and Venetian red silk remains, but Jesmond Dene House has a welcoming, contemporary feel. The restaurant is first class and makes use of the local larder with oysters from Lindisfarne and ham from Northumberland.

Jesmond Dene Road, Newcastle

The Herb Garden You’d be forgiven for being drawn to The Herb Garden for the eye-catching indoor ‘garden’ growing herbs in metal cylinders or the sea of paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling, but the delicious stone-baked pizzas, antipasti, salads, steaks and tapas are what make the restaurant a local favourite. The restaurant doesn’t take bookings so just head down. Look out for the lifesize model horse on roller-skates at the door.

Arch 8, Westgate Road, Newcastle

Lane7 Get competitive at Lane7’s stylised 1950s-feel bowling alley and sample beers from around the world or choose from a wide range of premium spirits in the alley’s well-stocked bar. If bowling isn’t your thing, they’ve got ping-pong and pool tables, beer pong, a Karaoke room and a nine-hole mini golf course to work your way around.

80–90 St. James’ Boulevard, Newcastle

Hotel du Vin On the banks of the River Tyne, Hotel du Vin is in the building of the old Tyne Tees Steam Ship Company and nods to its maritime history in almost every room. Ask for a room overlooking the river to enjoy views of the city’s quayside and bridges.

The restaurant offers French bistro style cuisine and the stylish bar is perfect for pre-dinner drinks or a nightcap.

Allan House, City Road, Newcastle

House of Tides This family-run, Michelin-star restaurant is set inside a listed 16th century former merchant’s town house. Headed by Kenny Atkinson, the team at House of Tides serves beautifully executed dishes with a focus on British produce, changing the menu regularly to reflect the seasons. Only one tasting menu is available and there’s an extensive wine list to complement each course.

28–30 The Close, Quayside, Newcastle

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Housed in an old flour mill on the south bank of the River Tyne, the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art is a major international centre for contemporary art, famous for its cutting-edge exhibitions. Current exhibitions include Sofia Stevi: turning forty winks into a decade, the first solo presentation of Stevi’s work which uses sweeping lines and colours to describe form with a sense of playfulness and animation.

Her works evoke the domestic but have a charged eroticism.

South Shore Road, Gateshead

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PHOTO: ED MOORE

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DOPE AND GLORY Mae Martin’s award-nominated show has the Canadian comic tackling both her own and society’s addictions head-on. Craig Angus hears from her about making light of the dark stuff

‘I

f I had met Bette Midler, I wouldn’t be answering these questions right now because I’d have spontaneously combusted and gone to heaven.’ The upward trajectory Mae Martin has been on since the success of her latest show, Dope, hasn’t brought her face to face with her childhood hero – and that show’s muse – just yet, but you wouldn’t bet against the Canadian comic rubbing shoulders with Hollywood A-listers in the future.

‘Who knows what will come of it all?’ she says of her life right now. ‘I might become a nun in 2019.’

We’re chatting ahead of the Glasgow Comedy Festival, to which Martin brings the critically acclaimed, Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated Dope after packing out the capital’s City Café at last August’s Fringe. ‘I’ve done over 75 hours of comedy there in my life,’ she says wistfully of the venue.

‘My clothes will always faintly smell of chips.’ Her fondness for that basement stage isn’t surprising.

Back in 2015, Martin took Us there, a show which explored sexual identity and our seeming need to label, categorise and oversimplify. A confident hour of great intelligence, crucially it was also a set that didn’t compromise on laughs.

Two years on, Dope built upon that show’s excellence. A carefully thought-out exploration of human propensity towards addiction, it drew on Martin’s own experiences as an unruly (to put it lightly) teenager, and was packed with acute and poignant observations about the human condition. It was also a show of disarming honesty and surprising darkness.

‘The show is really personal,’ Martin says. ‘Talking about darker stuff from my life was definitely very cathartic and at times confronting. And the more I did it the more I had small realisations about what I was saying, which I kept adding in.’ Dope, as its title suggests, is a tale of use, abuse, and reliance on drugs. Martin, who’s in her early 30s but has the sprightly demeanour and youthful exuberance of someone at least ten years younger, was already a seasoned stand-up in her teens after becoming involved in her local comedy scene as an eccentric, waistcoat-wearing, Bette Midler-obsessed child. In Dope, Martin portrays the wide-eyed innocence of her young self so vividly that the inevitable downfall is one that shocks.

Dope’s narrative horizons expand beyond Martin’s own remarkable journey, and the show’s greatness lies in the way it so easily shifts from absorbing personal tale to non-judgemental cultural

commentary. Like many of her North American contemporaries, Martin has a solid grounding in improv, and a series of work-in-progress shows gave her the chance to flesh out some themes. ‘I do lots of gigs where the audience write down questions and then I improvise around them,’ she states. ‘I love doing that because although you do get a lot of questions about sex positions and poo, you also get asked some really thoughtful stuff. And it gives you an idea of what people want to hear you talk about.’

Something that emerged from those interactions was the parallel between Martin’s own drug addiction and our collective obsession with social media and technology. It’s a cultural shift that, in a sense, gave Martin the push to start talking about addiction. ‘One of the things that made me feel emboldened to talk about stuff like drug addiction was that I felt because of smartphones and social media, people would actually be able to relate in a way that they wouldn’t have a few years ago. Many of us are having a very real experience of addiction right now, compulsively spending hours scrolling through our phones even though intellectually we know it’s bad for us.’ It’s something that will ring true for anyone who has absent-mindedly lost hours to an internet clickhole. ‘It’s pretty crazy! I just spent about an hour watching videos of people doing yoga while baby goats stand on their backs.’

Like the best of us, Martin is still vulnerable to addiction and obsession (‘I’m going through a phase where all I want to eat is macaroni and cheese: does that mean I’m pregnant?’) but she’s found the main defence against that is to keep working. She’s adapted her stage shows for two Radio 4 series and is currently in the midst of putting the finishing touches to a book for teens. Entitled Can Everyone Please Calm Down?: Mae Martin’s Guide to Sexuality, it aims to break down barriers and poke fun at gender stereotypes for a young audience with their whole lives ahead of them.

With a TV pilot recently filmed for Channel 4, we can look forward to seeing a lot more of her. That’s great news for the comedy-loving public, even if it means there’s no rest for Mae Martin. ‘Aside from the fact that my phone is attached to my brain and constantly in my eyeballs, I’m trying to avoid getting hooked on anything by staying constantly busy. It’s tiring.’

Mae Martin: Dope, The Stand, Glasgow, Tue 13 Mar; The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Mar.

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‘COOLNESS IS THE ENEMY OF COMEDY’ After his life-changing experience of exploring and documenting the West Bank in 2009, Mark Thomas returned to help set up a comedy club in Jenin. He tells Brian Donaldson that his new show is about people with an unbreakable spirit and wicked sense of humour When did the idea for Showtime from the Frontline first come about?

It came out of Walking the Wall in 2009 where I walked along the barrier built by Israel, which was fascinating, exciting, and eye-opening. I couldn’t get the injustice of it all out of my head. I was then invited back by the beautiful people who run the Jerusalem Education Bookshop, and I was shocked that a lot of the people who I had walked the wall with had dropped away and weren’t involved in the struggle any more or had left the country. The mood felt very strange and a bit stuck so I had a day off and found the Jenin Freedom Theatre.

What does a theatre in the middle of a refugee camp say to you?

It speaks of our human aspiration and it defies prejudice and that Bob Geldof vision that refugees are just sitting around waiting for hand-outs. I spoke to the guy who ran it who was saying that he wanted people to rise up against the occupation in a non-violent way and to respect human rights. True to his word, their first production was Animal Farm. I was captivated by their energy and commitment and I thought ‘we have to do a comedy workshop here’. Eventually I went out there with my mate Sam Beale who teaches a standup course at Middlesex Uni, and spent a month in the West Bank running these workshops.

What can you tell us about Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa Shehada, the two performers who are joining you for the show?

About writing and being silly, but mainly that it’s about how you approach a subject. We said ‘we don’t want you being cool, we want you to be silly because coolness is the enemy of comedy’. We put up two lists on the wall: a list of attitudes and a list of activities.

The attitudes would be things like ‘depressed’, ‘lustful’, ‘eager’, ‘obsequious’, and on the other side there was ‘milking a goat’, ‘brain surgery’, ‘telling a friend his mum’s died’. We got them up and said ‘take one from each list and show us something’, and it was like this amazing game. So you’d have a lazy brain surgeon or a lustful arrest or a depressed suicidebomber milking a goat. It was huge fun.

You’re collaborating again with Joe Douglas who directed The Red Shed. What does he bring to your work?

Joe came out to see the shows in Jenin and he’s very funny and hugely talented. What he’s great at is knowing when to instil order, and he’s brilliant at asking the right questions at the right time that get you moving and thinking and creating in the right way.

Just before the end of 2017 you had the last performance of Mark Thomas: A Show That Gambles on the Future. How do you feel when a long-running work comes to an end?

It’s like Old Yeller, a very good film about a boy and his dog. I finish a show and I look at it and it looks at me, and it has tears in its eyes but it knows that it’s the end. I then take it outside and quietly find a pillow and a gun and pull the trigger. And then I don’t look back.

Mark Thomas: Showtime from the Frontline, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 14–Sat 17 Feb; Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 21–Sat 24 Mar.

PHOTO: LESLEY MARTIN

The two guys are performers who have done the theatre course at the Jenin Freedom Theatre and they just happened to be the best performers who also had the best control of English. We also worked with people had never stepped on a stage before, but after two and a half weeks, they were up there doing a gig.

What did you teach them?

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PREMI ERE

RITUALIA Colette Sadler

TUTUMUCKY Botis Seva

The Scotsman ++++ Dundee Rep Theatre Fri 9 & Sat 10 February at 8pm dundeerep.co.uk 01382 223530

The List ++++ Beacon Arts Centre Sat 17 February at 7.30pm beaconartscentre.co.uk 01475 723723

The Stage ++++ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Sat 3 March at 7.30pm traverse.co.uk 0131 228 1404

The Herald ++++

Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre Limited is a Registered Company No: SC021201 Scottish Charity registered No: SC017315 Photo by Brian Hartley.

Find us online scottishdancetheatre.com

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WHAT’S ON JANUARY

FEBRUARY

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1

Adam Rowe: Unbearable

2

The Comedy Show

(20:00)

11

Damian Clark: WIP

12

The Comedy Show

(20:00)

The Comedy Show

13

(20:00)

14

(17:00)

14

(19:00)

(20:00)

3

The Comedy Show

3

Ray Bradshaw: Deaf Comedy Fam

19

The Comedy Show

18

(20:00)

9

The Comedy Show

10

The Comedy Show

11

Fred MacAulay In Conversation…

(20:00)

Billy Kirkwood, Vladimir McTavish, Phil Jerrod & Fern Brady

Rabbie

(19:00)

25

(19:00)

25

(21:30)

26

(19:00)

Rabbie Rabbie

(21:00)

Stories & Stovies

17

(13:30)

Rabbie

17

26

(21:30)

The Burns Comedy Show

(20:00)

27 27

(21:30)

The Song of Fergus and Kate The Comedy Show Scott Agnew, Fin Taylor, Rachel Jackson & Tom Stade

(14:00)

Rabbie

Stories & Stovies

Scott Gibson, Rosco McClelland, Harriet Dyer & Alfie Brown

20

(20:00)

28

Rabbie

29 30 31

16

The Alasdair Beckett-King Mysteries

16

The Comedy Show

17

The Comedy Show

(19:30)

(21:00)

(20:00)

18

(14:00)

20

25

(20:00)

The Comedy Show Scott Gibson, Tony Jameson, Ray Badran & Eleanor Tiernan

Scott Gibson: Sunday Session

26 27

20

(20:00)

Stephen Frost’s Celebrity Murder Mystery Play

THE COMEDY SHOW:

A few of our favourite comedy, cabaret and theatre Fringe shows for audiences to enjoy outside of Fringe season!

Our flagship comedy night with a changing line up of the UK’s funniest on every weekend. A must for comedy fans.

THE RESIDENCY SHOW:

THE KIDS SHOW:

Shows for the wee-uns (and big-yins) to let loose and enjoy.

The Comedy Show

14

Megan Shandley, JoJo Sutherland, Lou Conran & Alasdair Beckett-King

Megan Shandley, JoJo Sutherland, Lou Conran & Alasdair Beckett-King

Stories & Stovies

Sonnet Youth

15

17

(20:00)

The Comedy Show

21

(20:00)

25

(20:00)

Jay Lafferty, Karen Bayley, Harriet Kemsley & Patrick Monahan

The Comedy Show Jay Lafferty, Karen Bayley, Harriet Kemsley & Patrick Monahan

Scott Agnew, Edd Hedges, Megan Shandley & Jayde Adams

Stephen Frost’s Celebrity Murder Mystery Play

27

Desiree Birch: Unf*ckable

27

The Comedy Show

28

The Comedy Show

29

Scott Gibson: Sunday Session

(20:00)

(20:00)

Scott Gibson, Rosco McClelland, Danny Deegan & Desiree Birch

Scott Gibson, Rosco McClelland, Danny Deegan & Desiree Birch

30

25 26 27

28

Stephen Frost’s Celebrity Murder Mystery Play

29

Chris Forbes: Unquiet Mind

(19:30)

30

Catherine Bohart: Work in Progress

30

The Comedy Show

31

The Comedy Show

26

The Comedy Show

(20:00)

Scott Agnew, Edd Hedges, Megan Shandley & Jayde Adams

22 23 24

23

(21:00)

Sonnet Youth

20

(21:00)

(21:00)

(20:00)

Stories & Stovies

Edd Hedges: Wonderland

Patrick Monahan: Rewind Selector 90’s

(20:00)

Katie Mulgrew, John Gavin, Liam Withnail & Matt Reed

19

(20:00)

23

24

The Comedy Show

18

(19:30)

(20:00)

Katie Mulgrew, John Gavin, Liam Withnail & Matt Reed

16

Scott Gibson: Life After Death

(21:00)

24

13

(21:00)

22

Eleanor Tiernan: People Pleaser

(20:00)

Mum’s The Word

(14:00)

23

Scott Gibson, Tony Jameson, Ray Badran & Eleanor Tiernan

13

(13:00)

Nodha

(20:00)

The Comedy Show

Lisa Gornick: What The Fuck is Lesbian Film?

14

Richard Gadd: Work In Progress

Scott Agnew, Keara Murphy, Christopher MacArthur-Boyd & Eddy Brimson

12

(20:00)

(20:00)

15

Scott Agnew, Keara Murphy, Christopher MacArthur-Boyd & Eddy Brimson

9 10 11

Watch Bad Movies with Great Comedians

(19:30)

23

(21:00)

13

Jay Lafferty: Besom

(21:00)

Our monthly residencies, everything from Murder Mystery evenings to Storytelling and Movies Nights to Spoken Word.

12

22

(20:00) (19:30)

THE FRINGE COMEDY  CABARET  THEATRE SHOW:

Fred MacAulay In Conversation…

Danny McLoughlin, Matt Stellingwerf, Gráinne Maguire & Charlie Baker

21

Sonnet Youth

21 (19:00)

11

(17:00)

(20:00)

19

The Burns Comedy Show

The Comedy Show

19

Scott Gibson, Rosco McClelland, Harriet Dyer & Alfie Brown

18

(19:00)

Scott Agnew, Fin Taylor, Rachel Jackson & Tom Stade

Danny McLoughlin, Matt Stellingwerf, Gráinne Maguire & Charlie Baker

10

(20:00)

(21:00)

The Comedy Show

Fred MacAulay In Conversation…

The Comedy Show

The Song of Fergus and Kate

16

8

9

(21:00)

(20:00)

Tom Stade: I Swear

The Comedy Show

Charlie Baker: The Hits

Fin Taylor: Best Of

16

7

9

(19:30)

15

(19:30)

The Comedy Show

(17:00)

(20:00)

16

6

Danny McLoughlin

The Song of Fergus and Kate

(13:30)

24

Scott Agnew: Spunk on Our Lady’s Face

(19:30)

8

(21:00)

15

(20:00)

23

Watch Bad Movies with Great Comedians

DIVE QUEER PARTY

6

(20:00)

The Song of Fergus and Kate

(13:30)

21 22 (19:00)

Katie Mulgrew, Sarah Callaghan, Jamie Dalgleish & Carl Hutchinson

5

(20:00)

Gráinne Maguire: Gráinne with a Fada

14

(13:30)

The Comedy Show

20

(20:00)

Katie Mulgrew, Sarah Callaghan, Jamie Dalgleish & Carl Hutchinson

Nodha

8

The Ballad of Sarah Callaghan (work in progress)

12

Billy Kirkwood, Vladimir McTavish, Phil Jerrod & Fern Brady

Jay Lafferty, Jim Smith, Michael Redmond & Raymond Mearns

4

(20:00)

Short Attention Span

(19:30)

13

The Comedy Show

Chris Forbes: Great Scots

2 3

7

(20:00)

Sarah Callaghan:

(17:00)

Jay Lafferty, Jim Smith, Michael Redmond & Raymond Mearns

1

(17:00)

Short Attention Span

9

(20:00)

The Comedy Show

APRIL

6

Mum’s The Word

(21:00)

Michael Redmond: I Wrote a Joke in 1987

4 5

(13:00)

Fred MacAulay In Conversation…

15 16 17

(20:00)

(20:00)

(19:30)

(17:00)

Jay Lafferty, Christopher MacArthur-Boyd, Liam Withnail & Smug Roberts

9

Ray Bradshaw, Freddy Quine, Sully O’Sullivan & Damian Clark

Angus Gordon & Aaron Chen

2

Jay Lafferty, Christopher MacArthur-Boyd, Liam Withnail & Smug Roberts

4 5 6 7 8

Ray Bradshaw, Freddy Quine, Sully O’Sullivan & Damian Clark

1

(20:00)

(20:00)

(20:00)

(20:00)

MARCH

Chris Forbes, Paul Pirie, Catherine Bohart & Tanyalee Davis

The Comedy Show Chris Forbes, Paul Pirie, Catherine Bohart & Tanyalee Davis

Comedy Show line-ups subject to change

FOR BOOKING DETAILS

BASEMENT THEATRE 204 ROSE STREET, EDINBURGH, EH2 4AZ

0131 622 6552 GILDEDBALLOON.CO.UK

Basement-ListAd-Spring18.indd 1 747 AD pages.indd 32

25/01/2018 13:08:30 26/01/2018 17:13

In the wake of sex scandals revolving around Harvey Weinstein and Louis CK, Brendon Burns decided it was time to properly tackle gender in his stand-up. Murray Robertson talks to the award-winning Australian comic about dodgy audiences and mellowing with age

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VICTORY MARCH Brendon Burns isn’t the only Edinburgh Comedy Award winner showing up in Glasgow.

Here’s a quintet of other August victors from the past

Bridget Christie In 2013, Christie became just the third solo female victor of the Edinburgh Comedy Award (whether Hannah Gadsby’s joint triumph last summer will herald an era of more women winners remains to be seen) and her stock continues to rise. She’s here with her post-Brexit show What Now? as she ponders the future of hope amid a landscape of despair. But with jokes. Citizens Theatre, Fri 16 & Sat 17 Mar. Richard Gadd If solo female acts have failed to register on the ECA winners’ podium down the years, Scottish comics were wholly absent since Arnold Brown’s 1987 win until Fifer Gadd broke the sequence in 2016. Having run himself ragged (mentally and physically) with Monkey See Monkey Do, he’s trailing some new material here.

Blackfriars, Sat 17 Mar.

I

t was Brendon Burns’ wife who first made the comedian reconsider his attitude to masculinity.

Pointing out that the UK-based Australian standup has been very open about his attitudes to race on his podcast, Dumb White Guy, why then has he been so guarded when it comes to gender? ‘I thought that was really interesting, so I started talking about it on stage and it became very empowering,’ Burns explains. ‘We’ve only really been looking at racism since the boat was invented; gender is tens of thousands of years of social preconditioning.’

There’s been a seismic shift in gender politics over the past few months, particularly since the fall of Harvey Weinstein and the various men who have been brought down in his wake. But that’s not actually what inspired Burns to write Mansplainin’.

‘It was just the sheer volume of sexual assault,’ he explains, incredulous. ‘On the podcast, instead of addressing race like a lot of comics do by just saying “hey, Farage is a racist!” I think it’s more valuable and interesting, comedically, to ask “when am I racist?” So, when the Weinstein and Louis CK things came about, I got defensive. Then I thought “why the fuck am I defensive? Shouldn’t I be celebrating this”?’

Last year, Burns played the Edinburgh Fringe with Aboriginal Australian comedian Craig Quartermaine in a show called Race Off, a provocative examination of interracial politics and white guilt. The show hung on a twist designed to expose the audience to their own hidden prejudices, albeit with mixed results. ‘The first week I had braced myself for the way a certain element of the Edinburgh faithful treats performers of colour, but nothing had quite prepared me for it. If you think the Edinburgh Festival is a liberal, progressive place, just go outside the Soweto Gospel Choir show and listen to the audience coming out.’ He winces at the show’s title. ‘I think we really fucked up calling it Race Off

because that audience came to see us. It was one of the most misunderstood and least ambiguous things I’ve ever been involved in and it was the most wilfully misrepresented. But the argument was watertight: we’ve all been brainwashed into normalising whiteness.’

Burns is touring his new show as an independent performer, booking venues where and when he sees fit and organising everything himself. He says he relishes his freedom and that it’s been a long time since he last looked forward to getting back on the road. ‘The first date of the tour was in some guy’s lounge room and the audience was about 75% women,’ he remembers. ‘And I turn up with my own PA and microphone and there’s about 50 women in the room as I set up: I’ve never felt more like a stripper in my life.’

Burns is modest but sanguine about his standing, now a decade on from winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award. ‘In this post comedy-boom period, you’re hearing these horror stories of household names playing to 30 people in 400 seaters in Folkestone or some place: it doesn’t make sense to me. Everyone has the reach and scope to find out themselves through analytics and their own social media and fanbase: “where am I wanted? Right, I’ll go there”. If Edinburgh taught me anything, it’s, “play to the right crowd, ’cos the show will suck otherwise”.’

Onstage, Burns is a thoughtful and intelligent performer, keen to puncture prejudice and fight social injustice, but he’s also built something of a reputation for being aggressive and confrontational.

Does he think he’s mellowed with age? A long pause. ‘I think so. God, I hope so.’ He thinks about it longer still before roaring with laughter: ‘of course!’

Scott Gibson Seconds prior to Gadd being handed the main gong, Glaswegian Gibson laid the foundations for a little bit of Fringe history by lifting the Best Newcomer prize and easing the passage to a unique Scottish double. Anywhere But Here has him retelling the tale of a teenage voyage to Kavos.

Saint Luke’s, Fri 16 Mar. Tommy Tiernan In 1998, Irish stand-up Tiernan was as close to a unanimous winner among the Perrier judges as there was prior or has been since. He’ll be in typically blistering form while Under the Influence as he ponders his love of behaving badly. King’s Theatre, Wed 14 Mar. Bob Slayer Not content with running a number of innovative venues under the Heroes@ banner, Slayer and pals (including Omid Djalili) won the 2016 panel prize for putting on a Fringe-long daily reading of the Chilcot Report in its 2.6 million-word entirety. In Bobby’s Inner Circle, pretty much anything could happen. Blackfriars, Sat 17 Mar.

Brendon Burns: Mansplainin’, Blackfriars, Glasgow, Sun 11 Mar.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

GRUESOME E D I NBURGH Scottish history is steeped in tales of murder, torture and brutality. From witchcraft and sorcery to cave-dwelling cannibals, we look at five characters you can meet at the Edinburgh Dungeon who have shaped the city’s dark past.

THE TORTURER RER fe in Torture was rife dden Edinburgh’s hidden nnels underground tunnels and chambers from gh to about the 1400s through 1850. Devices used by the torturer includee the tongue trument that tearer – an instrument efore being was heated before clamped down on the tongue, twisting it several times before pulling it straight out.

Thumbscrews were also a popular methodd of torture rip fingers which would grip tening the and toes, tightening screws to crush and break the bone. Butchers hooks were often used to punish traitors, hooked into the base of the neck to lift them off the ground.

ELIZABETH ELPHINSTONE (THE GREEN LADY)

One of Edinburgh’s greatest ghost stories is set in 1715 in Morningside, one of the city’s more prestigious areas at the time. Sir Thomas Elphinstone had bought a home here after his wife passed away, but it wasn’t long before his new wife, young Elizabeth Pittendale moved in. Elizabeth had previously fallen in love with a young army officer called Jack Courage, but the couple had ended things when Jack was placed overseas.

Not long into their marriage, Eliza Thomas told Elizabeth that they would be getting a visit from his son who h was returning home after serv r ing in the th military serving ovverseas. Rumour Rum overseas. has it wh appeared that the son who at the door was Jack Courage, the man who Elizabeth had fallen in w love with. It wasn’t long r before their relationship wh picked up where it left Thom realised off, and Thomas

what was going on. In an argument with his son, Thomas accidentally murdered Elizabeth and heartbroken, took his own life not long after. Jack moved out of the house and rented it to a new tenant and it was then that the ghost of The Green Lady appeared.

AGNES FINNIE There are several accounts that link the Edinburgh shopkeeper and moneylender Agnes Finnie to witchcraft. Agnes lived and worked in Potterrow, and it was in this neighbourhood where most of the allegations took place. The son of William Fairlie passed eet one day and shouted her Agnes in the street nickname ‘Agness Winnie!’, which led Agnes licly in the street. The next to curse him publicly feeling in the day, the boy had no ody left side of his body way and he passed away eek, the following week, icians which physicians ult of said was the result auses. supernatural causes. ases, Agnes After several cases, was arrested in June 1644 on 20 counts of witchcraft and sorcery, and she was executed on Castle Hill in Marchh the following year.

BURKE AND HARE William Burke and William Hare were the culprits behind the infamous Burke and Hare murders which took place in Edinburgh in 1828. When a resident of Hare’s lodging house passed away in 1827, the pair sold the body to reclaim money owed by the resident. Doctor Robert Knox bought the body for dissection at his anatomy lectures, as few corpses were being allocated to his medical school at the time. From then on, body snatching flourished, and Burke and Hare stopped waiting for their victims to die of natural causes, and so began the series of murders. The situation became so worrying for families with recently buried relatives, that the bodies would be watched 24 hours a day until they were no longer of any use to the body snatchers.

Many of Edinburgh’s nburgh’s even graveyards installed high walls wers, and watchtowers, berts like St Cuthberts he Church at the ’s top of King’s Stables road.

AN SAWNEY BEAN ehind The story behind wney’ Alexander ‘Sawney’ Bean and his clan of 48 cannibals is one of the more gruesome tales of Scotland’s past. Sawney Bean was born in East Lothian during the 1500s, but later moved to Ayrshire with his wife and settled in a coastal cave in Bennane Head. The couple began robbing passers by, murdering the victims and butchering the bodies to feed on. As their family grew, so did their appetite for human flesh, and they oups of people. started to target larger groups ace Eventually, the clan’s place led of residence was revealed ins and they were taken in chains ow to Edinburgh and Glasgow ted where they were executed storians without trial. Some historians question the authenticity of the d others Sawney Bean legend and struggle to believe that he even existed, but myth or noo myth, dwelling the story of the cave-dwelling fy. cannibal continues to petrify.

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s it the accents? Is it the hirsuteness? Is it the manner in which they stumble around an awkward social situation while singing a lovely / silly ditty? Just what is it that makes people fall so hard for Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie?

Heck, maybe we just love everything about the duo that comprise Flight of the Conchords aka ‘the fourth most popular folk parodist act in New Zealand’.

Ever since charming their way into the hearts of Edinburgh audiences in 2002 (the following year they were nominated for a Perrier Award), Clement and McKenzie enjoyed further adoration in the UK with one radio series (narrated by Rob Brydon and including Jimmy Carr as an obsessive fan), 22 TV episodes (also featuring more beloved overseas Fringe alumni, Kristen Schaal, Arj Barker and Rhys Darby) and even made an appearance on The Simpsons in 2010.

Separately they’ve not done too badly either with McKenzie scooping an actual Oscar for penning ‘Man or Muppet’ in 2011 film The Muppets, which resurrected Jim Henson’s sock puppets, while Clement has appeared in winning movies such as Eagle vs Shark, Dinner for Schmucks and, get this, Men in Black 3.

But news of their recent reunion was hailed as the glorious tonic we all needed in these gloomy, doomy times, and with a TV special also tipped to be on the way, 2018 looks like being the year of the Conchords.

But don’t take our word that their return is cause for enormous celebration: here are some thoughts from a bunch of Glasgow Comedy Festival comedians whose shows feature heavy doses of music . . .

NEIL BRATCHPIECE AKA THE WEE MAN Flight of the Conchords last played Glasgow at a sold-out SECC in 2010, during which a fan shouted ‘where’s Murray?’ referring to the character in their TV show played by Rhys Darby.

Quick as a flash, Jemaine replied ‘he isn’t here ’cos he’s fictional. He’s on vacation with Homer Simpson. And Taggart.’ That wry, offbeat Kiwi humour was displayed with a sharp local reference thrown in. How I wish I’d been there to hear it, but my pal Rob who went to the show told me this story. I also didn’t get tickets in time for their upcoming Hydro gig before it sold out so if you know anyone who knows anyone, don’t be a stranger. After all, a stranger is one down from ‘work mates’ on the friendship graph. Better yet, just tell me any notable things from the show in case The List ask me to write something like this again, which is probably unlikely. I have, however, done this nice little cartoon [pictured, right].

■ Blabbermouths, The Stand, Sat 10 Mar; The Wee Man’s Rap Battle Showdown 2K18, The Hug and Pint, Fri 23 Mar; Billy Kirkwood & Neil Bratchpiece Mandatory Festival Show, The Admiral Bar, Sat 24 Mar.

PAUL VICKERS AKA MR TWONKEY I would say ‘Think About It’ is their funniest song, with lines like: ‘There’s people on the street / Getting diseases from monkeys / Leave those monkeys alone / They have problems of their own’, and ‘They’re turning kids into slaves / Just to make cheaper sneakers / But what’s the real cost? / ’Cos the sneakers don’t seem that much cheaper’.

■ Mr Twonkey: Twonkey’s Night Train to Liechtenstein, Liberté, Fri 9 Mar.

TIME FOR As Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie their cult status, we asked some musical to pick a favourite Flight

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PHILL JUPITUS They have an incredibly effortless energy. I think the idea of that kind of shruggy lo-fi reluctance will be very funny in a room like the Hydro unless they’ve gone full-scale rock show now.

I was briefly in a band with Rowland Rivron, Neil Innes and Ade Edmondson called the Idiot Bastard Band and we used to do a cover of their ‘Carol Brown’. I think much like Rubberbandits, the focus for them is on making really good music before the gags. The production on both their LPs is absolutely perfect. They’re more like The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band than anything else.

■ Phill Jupitus: Juplicity, Òran Mór, Fri 16 Mar.

PHOTO: ROSIE COLLINS

RACHEL PARRIS I’m a sucker for a sexy love song, so ‘The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)’ ticks all my boxes. ‘You’re so beautiful / You could be a part-time model’. It tells most of the story from first glance to first fumble, between Jemaine and the gorgeous Sally and his overly rational / badly improvised compliments to her: ‘You’re so beautiful / Like a . . . tree?’ And for all his flattery falling flat, this soulful number ends on a genuinely sweet lyric, asking: ‘Spend part of your time modelling and part of your time / Next to me’. Irresistible.

■ Rachel Parris: Work in Progress, Veneer Gallery, Fri 16 Mar.

MC HAMMERSMITH I’m a freestyle rap comedian and a huge fan of hip hop. As such, my favourite Flight of the Conchords moment is undoubtedly ‘Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymnoceros’.

The contrast between the gangsta rap lyrics and their uncomfortably awkward delivery is a delight to behold. And rapping about wanting more constructive feedback is just inherently wonderful.

Plus, Jemaine’s freestyle section is a personal highlight for me: the journey from initial visible panic to completely failing to rhyme, ending with openly admitting his loss of confidence is coincidentally a perfect replica of my own first dozen freestyle rap performances. So it resonates with me on several levels.

■ MC Hammersmith’s Magical Freestyle Factory, Liberté, Sat 24 Mar.

TAKE OFF return to the live work that first secured based acts at the Glasgow Comedy Festival of the Conchords moment

CHRIS ISKANDER The most underrated thing about Flight of the Conchords is just how good they are as musicians. They have a knack for perfectly capturing any genre they pay homage to from the French acoustic stylings of ‘Foux du Fafa’ to their multi-layered ‘Bowie’. My favourite moment from the duo, though, is a live performance of ‘The Bus Driver Song’. The folk story follows a man called Tony as he gives a tour of a New Zealand town, eventually revealing that he regrets his life and wishes his bus could go back in time so that he can be with a different woman. It’s funnier than I describe it.

■ Chris Iskander: Hardly Any Fish, McPhabbs, Sun 25 Mar.

Flight of the Conchords, SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Mon 26 Mar.

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EARTHY

E ARTHY TO E ARTHY With news of pioneering food store Earthy closing down, food & drink editor Donald Reid recognises its contribution to the local food scene and peers into a missing gap in food retail in urban Scotland

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t was around 10 years ago when the feelgood factor around Scottish food and drink really started to grip. The evidence was in farmers’ markets, farm shops and a growing number of small-scale producers emerging.

Here and there you could discover an artisan baker or an organic box scheme; there was an awareness that, in the face of its clichéd unhealthiness, Scotland was actually capable of producing distinctive food of quality and integrity. If you knew where to find it, that was.

The founders of Earthy reckoned they knew where to find it. And they reckoned that if they could gather it together and showcase it, then the market – particularly in a relatively well-off, discerning city such as Edinburgh – would respond. When it opened in May 2008, Earthy felt like a deliverance. An alternative to supermarkets and their crushing culture of convenience and cheapness. A celebratory food hub you could trust for storeroom basics, dairy, treats, proper bread, real food. Local fruit and veg, not in paltry piles but displayed with the dolce vita of an Italian village market. ‘If it doesn’t taste great, it’s not getting in the door,’ founder Dirk Douglas confirmed back in the early days. Rare was it in Scotland that good food – good local food – could puff its chest out, and smile too.

Over the years, it expanded: a shabbychic café in the original converted garage in Newington that served sophisticated, contemporary, eat-me food. Another store in Portobello, a shop and café-restaurant on Canonmills Bridge. It picked up awards, loyal followers, celebrity fans and made things work, surfing the waves of interest in local food but also paddling hard to reach them. Of course, like most businesses they grappled with failed ideals, fractured relationships, frustrations and challenges. It faced, as any food retailer that’s

not a supermarket faces, barbs about its pricing.

When the landlord of their Canonmills venue announced plans to demolish the building to make way for a new housing development, locals protested determinedly but ultimately unsuccessfully. Earthy Canonmills shut in September 2017. The rest of the business moved into administration in January 2018.

While acknowledging the ragged ends any closure entails, it’s worth marking the positives that Earthy brought to food retail in Edinburgh. Significantly, over its lifetime it gave employment to and inspired many people about what good food can mean, helping to ferment a youthful, energised, empowered sense of how politics, ethics and culture are inextricably woven into everyday food.

Stuart Guzinski, co-founder of Leith Food Assembly and currently Food Hub Officer for Forth Environment Link, is one who took inspiration. ‘Earthy has gone but the people who loved its ethos and ambience, including myself, are still very much here,’ he says. ‘In a globalised world of look-a-like high streets and soulless supermarkets, I meet people everyday who still crave these local connections.’

Yet while Food Assemblies, food festivals and new food ventures are more common, they exist on the fringes of our consciousness when it comes to everyday eating and drinking.

Between huge multinational supermarkets and tiny artisans, what’s left in the squeezed middle? Can medium scale, off-high street alternatives be viable? In the last ten years Scotland’s journey has taken it to the brink of proclaiming itself a ‘Good Food Nation’.

Quite how that status is determined is up for debate, but the disappearance of ventures such as Earthy does make the prospect of better food just around the corner seem frustratingly elusive.

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VOTE

FOR YOUR FAVOURITE RESTAURANT AND

WIN

A TRIP FOR TWO TO THE BIG FEASTIVAL

Scottish Craft Soda

Low in Calories

Full of Flavour #grabafoal

Fancy being in with the chance of winning a trip for two to The Big Feastival in the Cotswolds next August including glamping and travel courtesy of Birra Moretti?

After last year’s race to pick up the coveted List Reader Award, we are back and ready to look for 2018’s winner.

The List’s Reader Award in association with Birra Moretti will be presented to the restaurant that receives the most online votes from our readers. The winning restaurants will be announced at our Eating & Drinking Guide Awards in 2018 in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

This is the 10th year that Birra Moretti has supported Food & Drink in Scotland and helped promote Scotland’s rich gastronomic culture to a wider audience.

To vote, just head to https://www.list.co.uk/offer/ and tell us your favourite restaurant in Glasgow or Edinburgh by 1 April 2018 and you could be heading to The Big Feastival. T&C’s apply. @thelistmagazine #ListReaderAward

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FOOD & DRINK

For the latest news, listi n reviews, ggs and o list.co.uk to /food&dr ink

TOMILLO Plant-based dining continues to grow

PHOTO: CARLO PALONI

January may have passed – along with its increasingly popular animal-free-diet-for-a-month initiative Veganuary – but the plant-based lifestyle is attracting a growing number of full-time adherents. The arguments are strong – sticking to the veggies can be one of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint (along with having fewer kids, selling the car and stopping the long-haul flights), while also doing your body the world of good. Newly opened in time to help any new animal-free eaters with their resolve is Tomillo, a Glasgow-based vegan kitchen offering delivery and takeaway. Their eclectic homemade menu, from pasta and ramen to cassoulet and burgers, adds to the city’s great and growing vegan offerings and bolsters its reputation as a haven for herbivores.

■ fb.com/tomilloglasgow

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FOOD & DRINK

DRINKS NEWS

NEWS & REVIEWS

Irn-Bru is different – but pretty much the same. The hallowed recipe was overhauled in early 2018 to cut the sugar from 34g per can to 16g to avoid the sugar tax. Yet despite a minor run on the Bru as people stocked up on the full-sugar version, and a futile (now pointless) 49k+ petition to stop the pop makeover, the widespread opinion is that there’s little discernible difference.

Panic over. (Disclaimer: has not been tested yet as a hangover cure.)

Scotland’s craft beer fans now have an interactive online guide to help them discover the beer-makers that are increasingly dotting the country. Visit Scotland and trade group the Brewers Association of Scotland have created the handy Craft Beer Map, covering over 80 Scottish breweries, from the big producers to the micro operations.

THE IVY LEAGUE? With big name opening after big name opening, St Andrew Square has become a flashpoint for debate about the city’s food and drink offering.

Jo Laidlaw checks out one of the new faces for herself

T

he interior of the glossy Ivy on the Square (St Andrew Square, to be exact) riffs pleasingly on a Parisienne/art deco vibe. High ceilings and picture windows blend with metallic accents, marble floors and statement booths with oversized leather sofas, while downstairs the huge bar rightly dominates. The upstairs mezzanine is cosier but still open to the hubbub below – if downstairs is the place to see and be seen, upstairs is the place to see then settle in. There’s a huge outdoor terrace (by Edinburgh standards) and the vibe is classic brasserie: bright, buzzy and busy. Staff are attentive, speedy and well-drilled, so first impressions are of a slick, confident operation – as they should be, given that the Ivy Collection (the Ivy on the Square’s parent company) has opened around 20 similar venues across the UK in the past couple of years, with more planned for 2018.

Edinburgh’s Ivy saw over 10,000 diners pour through the doors in its opening months; a full restaurant, smart service and luxe surrounds doesn’t fail to generate an air of happy enjoyment. And there is a lot to like here although the similarity in menus across the Collection and an insistence on central

sourcing lends a cookie-cutter air to the whole experience.

Food runs from 8am breakfast via afternoon tea and a weekend brunch through to dinner, where the à la carte is anchored by core ‘Ivy classic’ items – steak tartare, shepherd’s pie and steak, egg and chips. More elegant than the name suggests, this is a juicy, well-flavoured rump steak with thick-cut chips and frilly eggs. Starters feel a little lighter – there’s a meltingly tender tuna carpaccio with on-trend ponzu dressing (although avocado purée adds little to the overall flavour) while chunky, meaty wasabi prawns make a good sharer. The dessert menu is compact and it’s nigh impossible to look beyond the chocolate bombe once you’ve seen one being served – a perfect chocolate dome which melts away as the waiter adds hot butterscotch sauce at the table brings a theatrical end point to a competent meal.

+

Life is lush in the Square

-

This square could be anywhere

THE IVY ON THE SQUARE 6 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, EH2 2BD, 0131 526 4777, theivyedinburgh.com Mon–Sat 8am–midnight; Sun 9am–10.30pm

RECOMMENDS RECOMMEND DS . . .

TRUE THAI CUISINE EDINBURGH

Tucked away on Edinburgh’s Causewayside, True Thai Cuisine bring an authentic taste of the Far East straight to your door with Deliveroo. Their delicious and fiery Prad Kraprao comes highly recommended! true-thai-cuisine.co.uk

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SUPPORTED BY

SIDE DISHES

News to nibble on Burger chain Byron’s closure in Glasgow after only 18 months of trading shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the burger is on the way out.

Glasgow still loves a good pattie, and excitement is mounting about local pop-up burger hero El Perro Negro opening a first restaurant soon in Finnieston (where else?), with rumours of another venue due in Woodlands.

Also dishing up burgers along with steaks is bar-diner The Drunken Cow – a replacement for popular city centre Spanish spot La Boca, with a planned early February opening.

Organised by Essential Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Restaurant Festival returns to the city for its fourth year, with an emphasis on international cuisine, world-class service and Scottish hospitality. From 5–25 Feb, special offers, competitions and food experiences will

be running at more than 20 restaurants and bars, including Dishoom, The Ivy on the Square and Gaucho from the St Andrew Square development.

The festival’s main event – The Moveable Feast – gives diners an opportunity to eat their way across Edinburgh, starting at the

East End with canapés at the Voodoo Rooms, and finishing at the West End with a nightcap at Hyde & Sons, not forgetting the other three courses in between.

The Secret Dining Festival is a new event this year, where visitors are escorted to a surprise venue for lunch.

April sees the publication of The List’s landmark 25th Eating and Drinking Guide. Our reviewers have already dug out the big pants and the belts with the extra notch and are combing the bars, restaurants, cafés and coffee spots of Edinburgh and Glasgow. We’d love your help though.

Voting is now open for our List Reader Awards, in association with Birra Moretti – your chance to nominate your favourite restaurants in both cities. You could even win a trip to The Big Feastival, so get nominating at list.co.uk.

Ex xpe erien e ce e ou ur 1st Au uthe ent n ic i Sic ic chuan hu n Cu uissin ne in n Sco otla and d.

349 Sauchiehall Street G2 3HW

http:// www.sichuanhouse.co.uk

0141 333 1788

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FOOD & DRINK

HOME COMFORTS

RECENT OPENINGS

One of the original stalwarts of Glasgow’s street food scene, Julie Lin Macleod has a permanent Southside home for her brand of Malaysian comfort food, as Ruth Marsh discovers

H

awker stall staples dominate the concise menu at Julie’s Kopitiam – nasi goreng topped with Chinese sausage and smoky char kuay teow flat noodles scattered with salty nuggets of belachan (dried shrimp). Irresistible small plates, from pleasingly slippery pork and chive dumplings swimming in sweet black vinegar to bite-sized sweetcorn fritters to be dunked into jammy tamarind sauce, mean your table will soon be heaving under the weight of impulse orders. Dishes arrive with admirable swiftness from the compact open kitchen and, even if you fear you’ve over-ordered, you’ll somehow still find room for warm, slightly savoury coconut rice pudding with a moat of ginger and mango syrup. As per a traditional neighbourhood kopitiam, Julie’s is booze-free but the steaming teapots of lemongrass and ginger plus slushy machines ready to churn out lapsang souchong-laced ices in the warmer months, make this no hardship. With just 20 covers and a dedicated city-wide following, scoring a table at Julie’s already takes patience, but you’ll reap the rewards.

JULIE’S KOPITIAM 1109 Pollokshaws Road, Southside, Glasgow, G41 3YG 07835 108102, fb.com/julieskopitiam £13 (dinner)

The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Prices shown are for an average two-course meal for one.

with brittle batter. You won’t linger long here, but for wallet-friendly refuelling, it’s hard to beat.

SMASHBURGER BURGER CHAIN

Glasgow BEAUMARTIN – THE COTTAGE SCOTTISH-FRENCH 156 Milngavie Road, Bearsden, 0141 258 1881, beaumartinthecottage.co.uk, £17 (set lunch/pretheatre) / £30 (dinner) French restaurateur Richard Dupupet and Scottish head chef Andrew Stott have brought their hearty Scottish-Gallic cuisine to The Cottage – literally a little old white cottage. A gas fire crackles in the corner, while tables for just 32 are packed in tight. Stott’s traditionally minded, lovingly and unhurriedly crafted dishes are made from thoughtfully selected seasonal ingredients, and are rich in texture and flavour. Leek and goat’s cheese tartelette is an auspicious start to their lean seasonal menu. Confit duck leg meat slips satisfyingly off the bone, complemented by white bean ragoût and celeriac mash, while chocolate fondant is a simple dessert flawlessly done.

165 Sauchiehall Street, City Centre, 0141 332 4554, smashburger. co.uk, £15 (lunch/dinner) Industrial-chic features meet McDonald’s-style components at this chain, whose USP is ‘smashing’ – basically squishing a meatball between a mechanical clamshell grill, cooking the burger in just 70 seconds. The thin, well-cooked patties work best with simple toppings.

A pimped-up option – such as the Local Smash with rich stilton offset by tangy chutney and crisp bacon – may warrant an extra pattie to stop the beef taste going astray. Sweet potato ‘smashfries’ in olive oil, rosemary and garlic are great, too.

weeks, but lunch selections like pork cheek and barley ravioli bathed in a chicken consommé, or peppercorn crusted tuna with avocado nori show his ambition. Eggs feature heavily at breakfast, including shakshuka and eggs benny, while all the pastries and bread are made on the premises.

WHITE HORSE OYSTER & SEAFOOD BAR

Edinburgh

FISH 266 Canongate, 0131 629 5300, whitehorseoysterbar.co.uk, £17 (lunch) / £27 (dinner) Oysters are at the heart of the White Horse – and slurping a few down while sipping a glass of bubbles at the elegant bar is an appealing post-work winddown, particularly if you can make it in for their ‘buck a shuck’ happy hour (Mon–Thu 4–6pm). Share a generous platter or a few small plates to sample the carefully sourced seafood, all from British waters.

There are plump monkfish skewers with satay sauce; chargrilled octopus with ponzu; enormous crisp prawn tempura with wasabi mayonnaise; scotchbonnet cured salmon, and sesame tuna, plus a handful of main dishes and interesting cocktails too.

AURORA

DIABLO LOCO

OKOME

CAFES

JAPANESE 161 Byres Road, West End, 0141 334 1818, fb.com/OkomeByresRoad, £10 (lunch/dinner) With bright Okome-branded packaging and its ‘healthy delicious’ slogan, this slick Japanese canteen feels like a prototype high street chain. Generous ready-made sushi platters are great value – although being served fridge-cold can dull the flavours. Hot dishes fare better, including large rice bowls topped with perennial favourite chicken katsu curry or the more adventurous grilled eel, and a classic pork broth tonkotsu ramen. Sides are worth investing a few extra quid in, particularly the expertly fried chicken,

187 Great Junction Street, Leith, 0131 554 5537, auroraedinburgh. co.uk, £12 (lunch) / £18 (dinner) A nicely informal neighbourhood bistro, Aurora is away from the main drag but there’s little doubt word of mouth will get around fast. Owner Kamil Witek – formerly of Salt Café – focuses on seasonal, local ingredients to create surprising flavour combinations. The menu changes every couple of

BARS & PUBS 74–78 South Clerk Street, 0131 667 2701, diabloloco.co.uk, £13 (lunch) / £18 (dinner) Tequila and mezcal are the joint heads of Diablo Loco’s debauched family, creating six different margaritas plus cocktails. For the fainter-hearted there are Mexican and British beers, with Estrella on tap. Food is fiery and copious, with smaller plates like pork belly croquettes, a range of tacos and six mains including baked chicken enchilada and swordfish steak. With details like pineapple and lime, ewe’s cheese and pomegranate, the food is a clear cut above the average UK Mexican. Leave room for churros and dulce de leche for afters though.

Independent write-ups on all the restaurants worth knowing about in Glasgow and Edinburgh are available on our online Eating & Drinking Guide at list.co.uk/food-and-drink 44 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018

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EDINBURGH’S FAMOUS FOSSIL SHOP 5 Cowgatehead Grassmarket Edinburgh, EH1 1JY

0131 220 1344 www.mrwoodsfossils.co.uk

FANTOOSH FACE & BOD Y ART

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IDEAL is a University of Edinburgh research project investigating how smart technology can help people find ways to use less gas and electricity in the home We are looking for more homes in Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife (KY1-7, KY11 & KY12) with gas combi boiler heating and home broadband to participate at no cost in this cutting edge research.

Benefits of participating include: • Saving money on your gas and electricity bills • Receiving tailored advice from University of Edinburgh experts • Gaining insight into your home energy use • Receiving a free Android tablet (used to display energy use findings)

To take part, contact us today Call 0131 539 8610 or email: IDEAL@changeworks.org.uk before final registration date: Friday 9 March 2018

46 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018

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AROUND TOWN

F the latesotr listing news, reviews,sgand list.c .uko to /aroundoto wn

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FESTIVAL Spring science spectacular returns for its 30th edition

PHOTO: CHRIS SCOTT

With Easter falling a little earlier in 2018, this year’s Edinburgh International Science Festival sneaks into the end of March.

And it’s going to be a big one, as the festival celebrates its 30th birthday. We can’t divulge all the details yet, but for now we can tell you to expect a couple of literary anniversaries, the return of regular foodie fixture GastroFest and, of course, a packed programme of family activities at the City Art Centre.

Expect insights on everything from language to genetics, to green living and the science of death. Plus, the excellent Mini Maker Faire returns to Summerhall for the final day of the festival. Look out for the full programme announcement on Wednesday 7 February. (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Various venues, Edinburgh, Sat 31 Mar–Sun 15 Apr.

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AROUND TOWN | Highlights

HITLIST

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Thu 1 Feb, nms.ac.uk The most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world comes to Scotland.

For over 50 years, the exhibition has showcased top nature photography.

BURNS UNBROKE: CONTEMPORARY ARTS INSPIRED BY ROBERT BURNS Summerhall, Edinburgh, Thu 1 Feb–Sat 10 Mar, artruist.com This multi-disciplinary arts festival aims to celebrate the different varieties of arts and performance in today’s Scotland through the life and work of Robert Burns.

RSNO: THE MUSIC OF STAR WARS Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 3 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls.com We can all whistle them, right? Now you can hear John Williams’ scores for Star Wars, played live by the full RSNO. Richard Kaufman conducts. Also touring, see list.co.uk/music for full details.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FESTIVAL Various venues, Sat 31 Mar–Sun 15 Apr,

sciencefestival.co.uk The top-notch annual hands-on science bonanza for adults, children and families takes place in venues all across the city with the programme ranging from the entertaining to the controversial, and the highly educational to, of course, the potentially icky.

See preview, page 47.

AROUND TOWN HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

of all kinds, climbing, mountaineering, skiing and exploration are among some of the adrenaline-pumping activities represented.

GLASGOW

COLONEL CHRIS HADFIELD Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Fri 16 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls.com Colonel Chris Hadfield (that astronaut fella who did a great David Bowie tribute) talks about his time in space.

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2018 Kelvin Hall, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Riverside Museum, Sun 25 Feb, kelvinhall.org.uk Join Kelvin Hall, Riverside Museum and Kelvingrove Museum for Chinese New Year, where you can enjoy lots of activities including a fun family trail and a lion dance between all three venues.

SCOTTISH CYCLING, RUNNING & OUTDOOR PURSUITS SHOW SEC, Sat 3 Mar, scottishcycling runningoutdoorpursuitsshow. co.uk Test your fitness at interactive attractions including mini velodrome sprint trials, a bespoke mountain bike track, indoor running track, cycle track, Segway and triathlon challenges, climbing walls and ropes challenges.

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK: EXPLORING GLASGOW’S WILDLIFE Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Sat 10–Sun 18 Mar, beta. glasgowlife.org.uk RSPB Scotland look back at some of the species found in Glasgow over the years to encourage people to explore the wildlife of the city and report new discoveries.

PHOTO: JAMES SEBRIGHT

RUBY WAX: HOW TO BE HUMAN Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 10 Feb, rubywax.net Comedian Ruby Wax discusses her latest book How to Be Human: The Manual, where she sets out to answer life’s big questions about what makes us human and how our minds work. Also touring, see list. co.uk/comedy for details.

Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival

DISNEY ON ICE: WORLDS OF ENCHANTMENT SSE Hydro, Thu 15–Sun 18 Mar, disneyonice.com Ice skating frolics through the wonderful world of Disney.

Watch as four of your favourite Disney stories – Cars, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story and Frozen – come to life on the ice. Also touring, see list.co.uk/ theatre for details.

NASTY WOMEN: LAURA LAM AND MEL REEVE Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 17 Mar, glasgowconcerthalls. com Nasty Women, an anthology of writing examining what it means to be a woman in the 21st century, was the debut book from publisher 404 Ink. Contributors Laura Lam and Mel Reeve discuss what it’s like to part of this trailblazing project. Chaired by Chitra Ramaswamy.

SCOTLAND PAKISTAN FASHION WEEK Crowne Plaza, Sat 17 Mar, miraal. co.uk Leading designers from Pakistan, including Mr Deepak Pervani, and recently graduated Scottish designers showcase their designs. Closing date for designers’ registration is Thursday 15 February.

EDINBURGH THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE OF MURIEL SPARK National Library of Scotland, until Sun 13 May, murielspark100.com A virtual journey to the places Muriel Spark called home, with archive material and personal artefacts illustrating her life and work.

CAPITAL SCI-FI CON Corn Exchange, Sat 3 & Sun 4 Feb, capitalscificon.co.uk Sciencefiction convention aiming to raise funds for CHAS. There will be largescale props from Doctor Who, Star Wars, Terminator, Harry Potter and more, plus live special effects presentations, retro gaming consoles, trade stalls and a cosplay competition.

Actors and voice-over artists make appearances over the weekend along with cult comic-book illustrators and writers.

EDINBURGH MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL George Square Lecture Theatre, Sat 3 & Sun 4 Feb, emff.co.uk The majesty of mountains is captured on film in a series of screenings, lectures and exhibitions. Focusing on adventure

MEADOWS MARATHON The Meadows, Sun 4 Mar, meadowsmarathon.org.uk Take your pick of distances at this charity race with a 5k fun run, 10k, half marathon and full marathon all starting from the green, green grass of the Meadows.

There’s also live entertainment and music to motivate you as you loop the park while, thank heavens, fancy dress is allowed at all levels.

EDINBURGH YARN FESTIVAL Corn Exchange, Thu 15–Sat 17 Mar, edinyarnfest.com A festival aimed at ‘yarn-enthusiasts of all flavours’, this woolly bonanza caters for all folk who knit, crochet, embroider, spin, haberdash or just appreciate a darn good yarn.

EDINBURGH’S FESTIVAL OF IRELAND Various venues, Fri 16–Sun 24 Mar, edinburghsfestivalofireland.org A little bit of the Emerald Isle descends upon the Scottish capital around St Patrick’s Day. Edinburgh’s Festival of Ireland is a multi-arts, family-friendly celebration of the links between Edinburgh and Ireland, with storytelling, music, dance, talks and comedy. Last year it featured a topical talk by the Irish Ambassador, Irish Dance Concert with Siamsoir Irish dancers, and much more.

OUT OF TOWN SCOTTISH ALTERNATIVE MUSIC AWARDS: PAISLEY TAKEOVER 2018 Paisley Arts Centre, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Mar, officialsama.co.uk New music festival taking place in Paisley across Paisley Arts Centre and Feel The Groove record store, featuring live showcases, industry seminars, music workshops, in-store events and more over the two days.

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BOOKS

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /books

AYE WRITE! Glasgow’s annual book festival returns have had an influence on their lives and careers.

Elsewhere, Alan Taylor, author of the Muriel Spark memoir Appointment in Arezzo, will be joined by Candia McWilliam and Zoe Strachan, in celebration of Spark’s centenary, and Stuart Cosgrove will also be stopping by to talk about Memphis 68, which explores that city’s relationship with soul music during a monumental period in American history.

Other featured writers include Chris Brookmyre, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Gail Honeyman, Shami Chakrabarti, Maggie O’Farrell, American folksinger Peggy Seeger (pictured) and Nasty Women contributors Laura Lam, Mel Reeve and Sim Bajwa, who discuss their roles in the trailblazing 404 Ink project. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Aye Write!, various venues, Glasgow, Thu 9–Sun 19 Mar.

PHOTO: VICKI SHARP

One of the best loved fixtures on the Scottish literary calendar, Aye Write! is Glasgow’s annual book festival, attracting more than 14,000 visitors each year with a packed programme of local, national and international talent. In March, the festival will once again arrive in the city for ten days of readings, workshops, debates and discussions, showcasing some of the most exciting emerging and established voices around.

Taking place at venues across Glasgow, the programme will see Ruby Wax kicking off the festivities with an introduction to How to be Human: The Manual, the follow-up to her no.1 best-seller Frazzled. There will also be a return of the ever-popular ‘The Books That Made Me’ strand, in which a number of key figures, including Scottish Makar Jackie Kay, share the books that

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BOOKS | Reviews PHOTO: RYAN PFLUGER

SOCIAL MEMOIR

PATRISSE KHAN-CULLORS & ASHA BANDELE When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir (Canongate) ●●●●●

Brought together by a collective goal to dismantle the shackles of systemic racism, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Khan-Cullors (pictured) are the founders of Black Lives Matter. Despite an emphasis on love and justice, they (and indeed the movement) have been routinely labelled as extremists. But BLM’s origins and the context in which it was founded are vital to any understanding of how privilege can shield people from the cultural drivers that demand the reiteration that black lives matter. For this reason, When They Call You a Terrorist is not only a memoir (written alongside author and journalist Asha Bandele), but a vital piece of education and an emphatic call to arms to fight against police brutality, institutionalised racism and anti-blackness at all costs.

Tracing the movement through Khan-Cullors’ account of her own upbringing and journey into activism, the book provides an insight into life in America via the perspective of a black, queer, female from an underprivileged background. Certainly, her sobering experiences help to contextualise the need for BLM but the beauty of the writing and the vital emotion and strength behind her words underline its very tenets. That it is the work of women that has led to this global movement is largely unknown due to the widespread erasure of women’s voices. But When They Call You a Terrorist places women of colour, as well as queer and trans women, at the heart of its conception, all the while opening up conversations about the state-sanctioned hostility facing black Americans today. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out now.

MYSTERY

FICTION

ESSAY COLLECTION

JESS KIDD

JOE DUNTHORNE

ZADIE SMITH

Jess Kidd follows her debut novel Himself with The Hoarder, the story of carer Maud Drennan, who has recently been assigned to the sprawling home of cantankerous Cathal Flood. This once-grand house is overrun with cats and teaming with more than two decades of rubbish. As Maud clears out the few rooms she is allowed to access a series of clues, seemingly from ‘the other side’, suggest the house holds a potentially murderous secret.

Together with her agoraphobic, transgender landlady and a gang of saintly apparitions, including a crude St Valentine and confrontational St Dymphna, Maud attempts to uncover the truth. The investigation brings up an unsolved incident from her own past and the dual mysteries are continually flipped on their heads as identities shift and new perspectives either flesh out the stories or show them to be based on mistruths or assumptions.

Kidd’s writing is incredibly imaginative, viscerally describing the curiosities and horrors that lie behind Flood’s barricade of National Geographic magazines in the out-of-bounds area of the house. She also has a talent for unusual and amusing similes. Her characters are complex and drawn with a deft comic touch that blends tender moments with a comedy of manners. The Hoarder is a gripping mystery, grounded in the realities of isolating secrets and enriched with a supernatural bent and comic flair. (Rowena McIntosh) ■ Out Now.

Up to now, Joe Dunthorne’s novels have concerned themselves with coming of age tales, first in his breakthrough debut Submarine (2008), and next in 2011’s Wild Abandon. In The Adulterants, his characters are grown up, but the coming of age element isn’t entirely subdued; one of the innate understandings here is that, even in their 30s, adults are often as adrift as children.

The novel tells of a quartet of thirtysomething Londoners from the perspective of Ray, a freelance tech journalist, whose marriage to intensive care nurse Garthene is comfortable and perfectly ordinary, although she’s expecting their first child imminently. One night, at a party with their married friends Marie and Lee, Ray and Marie flirt a little too intimately, and a drunk Lee punches him; yet this is just the straw which breaks the back of the couple’s marriage, and a heartbroken Lee – friends with Garthene for many years – ends up sleeping on her and Ray’s sofa.

At fewer than 200 pages it’s an economical read, and the story retains a narrow focus on just the core group of characters and those who come into their orbit. Its intimacy and fluency in middle class lives reminds somewhat of Ian McEwan, but what sets Dunthorne’s writing apart – and elevates it – is a fierce black humour which matches the addictively readable crispness of the prose.

(David Pollock) ■ Out Thu 3 Feb.

Zadie Smith might be better known for her novels, like the groundbreaking White Teeth and the Howard’s End-inspired On Beauty for two. But her second collection of essays is a treat for the mind and soul, her wry and intuitive musings offering nuggets of deeply intellectual yet tender observations about everything from pop culture to politics. In her pieces about music, a clear passion emanates from the pages. This is most notable in ‘The House That Hova Built’, an article about Jay-Z that first appeared in The New York Times Magazine, and ‘Some Notes on Attunement’, a stunning piece concerning Joni Mitchell and her music.

But Smith also succeeds in placing a distinctly personal touch on her political essays, such as ‘Fences: A Brexit Diary’ and ‘North-west London Blues’ (the latter revolving around the closure of public libraries), which adds a sense of humanity to issues that are broad and all-encompassing. The range of themes covered in the collection serves to highlight Smith’s enthusiasm for the discourse and analysis of topical issues and current events.

As well as being a much-revered novelist, Smith has long proven her talent as an essayist in her work for publications such as The New York Review of Books and Harper’s. Feel Free is a handbook to contemporary life and culture, from a mind that stimulates the important questions with an element of warmth and compassion. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out now.

The Hoarder (Canongate) ●●●●●

The Adulterants (Penguin) ●●●●●

Feel Free (Hamish Hamilton) ●●●●●

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Highlights | BOOKS

PHOTO: NIKKI POWELL

HITLIST

WEE WRITE Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sat 3 & Sun 4 Mar, ayewrite.com/ weewrite A jam-packed programme of activities and readings for children, families and school pupils.

There are performances

by Clydebuilt Puppet Theatre, wizarding fun in Harry Potter Magic and the chance to hear the

story of Glasgow 2018 mascot Bonnie the Seal.

See preview, page 66.

STANZA Various venues, St

Andrews, Sat 3–Sun 11 Mar, stanzapoetry.org A literary festival focusing on verse and featuring readings, performances, slams, workshops, installations and films.

Headliners for 2018 include Sinéad Morrissey, Liz Lochhead, Gillian Allnutt and Tara Bergin.

AYE WRITE!

Various venues, Glasgow, Thu 15–Sun 25 Mar, ayewrite.com Glasgow’s book festival remains committed to celebrating Scottish and international writers and writing. The programme features Maggie O’Farrell, Val McDermid, Brett Anderson, Evan Davis, Graeme Obree and Jo Swinson (pictured). See

preview, page 49.

BURNS UNBROKE Summerhall, Edinburgh, until Sat 10 Mar, burnsunbroke.co.uk At this multi-disciplinary arts festival visual artists explore aspects of Burns’s life or work, highlighting his continuing relevance in the 21st century. See preview, page 92.

BOOKS HIGHLIGHTS GLASGOW OLGA WOJTAS Waterstones Arygle Street, Thu 1 Feb, waterstone.co.uk Olga Wotjas’s debut novel Miss Blaine’s Prefect and The Golden Samovar is a cosy crime homage to Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

ST MUNGO’S MIRRORBALL SHOWCASE 7 CCA, Thu 1 Feb, cca-glasgow. com The multi-award winning Irish poet Michael Longley reads alongside rising stars Rishi Dastidar and Ciara MacLaverty.

SALLY MAGNUSSON Waterstones Sauchiehall Street, Wed 7 Feb, sallymagnusson.com Sally Magnusson discusses her new book, The Sealwoman’s Gift. The novel reimagines the fate of Asta, a woman who was abducted by pirates with 250 others from their home on a small island off Iceland.

AUTHOR WATCH Mitchell Library, Thu 15 & 22 Feb, events.glasgowlife.org.uk A series of talks by authors about their work. On Thu 15 Feb Jerry Brannigan discusses his book Robert Burns in Edinburgh. On Thu 22 Feb children’s book author and illustrator John Rankin reads from his new title A Bear Named Boris.

MURIEL SPARK: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sat 17 Mar, ayewrite.com Alan Taylor discusses his funny memoir about Muriel Spark, Appointment in Arezzo, with Candia McWilliam and Zoe Strachan, two novelists who have written new forewords to brand new editions of Muriel’s classic novels Robinson and Memento Mori respectively.

BHP FULL COLOUR PROJECT Mitchell Library, Sun 25 Mar, ayewrite.com BHP Comics discuss their Full Colour project, a mentoring programme for young Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic comics creators that will result in a comic anthology.

SABRINA BENAIM Òran Mór, Mon 26 Mar, oranmor.co.uk Torontonian poet and performance artist, reading from her book Depression & Other Magic Tricks as well as other works.

EDINBURGH CHRIS YOUNG: WALK A MILE Blackwell’s, Thu 1 Feb, bookshop. blackwell.co.uk Author and former social worker Chris Young talks about his debut book Walk a Mile: Tales of a Wandering Loon. When Young was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder he left his job and began a campaign called ‘Walk a Mile In my Shoes’ where he walked the UK coast, without spending any money.

FLINT & PITCH PRESENTS: THIS SCRIPT & OTHER DRAFTS Scottish Storytelling Centre, Thu 1 Feb, tracscotland.org Spoken word poet Jenny Lindsay hosts an evening of new work exploring sexual politics, gender, feminism and more.

THE PURPLE, WHITE & GREEN: THE STORY OF THE SCOTTISH SUFFRAGETTES Scottish Storytelling Centre, Tue 6 Feb, tracscotland.org Nicola Wright and Lea Taylor present a piece of storytelling specifically written to mark the centenary of (some) women’s right to vote.

WOLVES The Studio at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat 17 Feb, edtheatres.com/wolves The wolfpack community is set against the dangers of the big bad wolf, in a world of fairy tale imagery swaying between littered and tidied, wild and domestic.

Storytelling with live music from Mairi Campbell.

SENSING A STORY Scottish Storytelling Centre, Sat 24 Feb, tracscotland.org A day of inclusive multi-sensory storytelling, immersed in smell, sight, sound and taste. Hear and create sensory stories with Claire Hewitt, Ailie Finlay, Maureen Philip, Pat Graham, Lorna Strachan and Tayberry Tales, in association with Pamis.

STORYSTEPS Scottish Storytelling Centre, Sat 24 Feb, tracscotland.org David Campbell hosts an evening of story and song.

CANONGATE STARS & STORIES Royal Mile, until Mar, cityofliterature.com A literary walking trail of 24 light-boxes, featuring quotes and phrases drawn from famous books and publishing figures, and displayed in the windows of businesses along the Canongate.

THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE OF MURIEL SPARK National Library of Scotland, until Sun 13 May, murielspark100.com A virtual journey to the places Muriel Spark called home, with archive material and personal artefacts illustrating her life and work.

Muriel Spark

PHOTO: COPYRIGHT © LONDON EVENING STANDARD. USED WITH KIND PERMISSION HR

Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

and mystery writer James Oswald, creator of the Inspector McLean books, discusses his latest novel The Gathering Dark with fellow author Neil Broadfoot.

DUNFERMLINE COMIC CON Pittencreif Park, Dunfermline, Sat 3 Mar, littleshopofheroes.co.uk Comic book convention with stalls selling original art and collectables, a cosplay competition and panels with visiting comic artists and writers. Guests include Marc Ellerby, Leslie Hung, John Wagner, Brittney Williams, Neil Slorance and Peter Milligan.

OUT OF TOWN HARRY POTTER BOOK NIGHT Various venues, Scotland, Thu 1 Feb, harrypotter.bloomsbury.com/ uk/harry-potter-book-night The fourth annual Harry Potter Book Night takes places in bookshops across the country and features games, quizzes and activities for Potter Fans. This year’s theme is Fantastic Beasts and fancy dress is encouraged.

JAMES OSWALD & NEIL BROADFOOT Waterstones, Dunfermline, Fri 9 Feb, waterstones.co.uk Fife farmer

KIRSTY GUNN: CAROLINE’S BIKINI Smith Art Gallery & Museum, Stirling, Mon 19 Mar, stirlingliterarysociety.org.uk Author of the successful novel, The Big Music, Professor Gunn discusses her new novel.

RUTHERGLEN COMIC CON Rutherglen Town Hall, Sat 24 Feb, sllcboxoffice.co.uk A host of traders, selling comics, graphic novels, crafts, art and more. Plus, there’s a cosplay competition, workshops, quizzes and guest comic artists and writers.

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COMEDY

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GILDED BALLOON Iconic comedy institution lays on a strong spring programme While much comedy attention is being currently directed towards the west thanks to the Flight of the Conchords and Glasgow International Comedy Festival, the Gilded Balloon continues to remind Edinburghers that there are plenty laughs to be had on their doorsteps.

Having taken permanent residency in the Rose Theatre, the Gilded Balloon programme-makers have gathered up a fine array of wits over the next couple of months. Cage-rattling liberal-baiter Fin Taylor delivers a Best Of (Thu 15 Feb) featuring material from the excellent Whitey McWhiteface and Lefty Tighty Righty Loosey while the equally rabblerousing talents of Tom Stade (pictured) are put on display with I Swear (Fri 16 Feb).

More genial amusements are laid on by showman comedian Charlie Baker with The Hits (Fri 9 Mar) while Stephen Frost’s Celebrity Murder Mystery Play (Wed 28 Feb; Wed 28 Mar) is assured to be a crowd-pleaser. Those more in the mood for quirkier delights should get along to People Pleaser by Eleanor Tiernan (Fri 23 Feb), The Alasdair BeckettKing Mysteries (Fri 16 Mar), Gráinne Maguire (Thu 8 Mar), and Mat Ewins whose Adventureman 7 (Thu 15 Mar) found a spot on last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award shortlist.

There are plenty local talents on show with Jay Lafferty’s Besom (Thu 22 Feb) and Chris Forbes’ Unquiet Mind (Thu 29 Mar), while Glasgow-based Irish icon Michael Redmond recalls his comedy breakthrough with I Wrote a Joke in 1987 (Thu 1 Mar), and Fife-born Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Richard Gadd (Thu 15 Mar) tries out some new material. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Rose Theatre, Edinburgh.

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Evelyn Mok | COMEDY

MA IDEN VOYAG E For Evelyn Mok, performing a debut show about being a virgin into her mid-20s shifted between cathartic and traumatic. She tells Jay Richardson that her follow-up will be informed by #MeToo

M

any comedians dream of being approached by appreciative virgins after a show. However, Evelyn Mok has found the reaction to her candid debut hour (in which she recounts not popping her own cherry until she was 25) occasionally unsettling but, ultimately, empowering and cathartic. ‘Excuse the cliché, but performing Hymen Manoeuvre was like owning my story again,’ explains the Chinese-Swedish stand-up. ‘I wanted to tell everybody my secret so that nobody could hurt me with it again, making fun of myself first so others couldn’t. It was definitely a way of taking power back and it turned out to be more therapeutic than I expected.’

On good nights at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, it was a comedy show in which she showed the audience that she’d moved on. ‘But on the bad, it was much more of a therapy session,’ she elaborates. ‘I only saw it as being honest while others saw it as revealing. And when I realised that people saw it as revealing, that’s when I started to feel vulnerable about it.’

Mature virginity has become a taboo and niche fetish in our increasingly pornified culture. ‘I’m Swedish but then I’m also Chinese, I have an American accent and I’m also plus size,’ states Mok. ‘So, I’m already set up to play the outsider card.’ Experiencing a steady rise in profile since she moved to London in 2012, she enjoys playing with the tension her honesty provokes.

‘Though some nights it definitely got away from me and it became more uncomfortable than I intended. In my private life I’m very prudish. But on stage, for some reason, I’m very, very crude; I find it so much fun. It’s a weird outlet but then tension-release is what comedy is all about.’

With the #MeToo movement gathering momentum, her follow-up (which she’s performing as a work-inprogress at the Glasgow Comedy Festival) will be more ‘opinionated about being a woman today and how #MeToo has really stirred things up for me’.

Born to a father from Hong Kong and a Chinese mother who was raised in India, as a child Mok found Swedish culture ‘very homogenous and very white’.

Seldom seeing her own background reflected, she fantasised herself into the US sitcoms her grandparents would sit Mok in front of while her parents worked: ‘I wrote myself into Saved By the Bell and pretended I was a sister of one of the main characters.’

Recently though, she’s appeared in a number of sitcom pilots for real, including Rhys Darby’s Furious Andrew for Channel 4, Andi Osho’s Halloween short for Sky, and Tim Renkow’s A Brief History of Tim, currently being made into a BBC Three series.

Concurrently, she’s writing her own semiautobiographical comedy, Evie, for a major broadcaster, about a people-pleasing, sexually inexperienced academic. Co-starring stand-up Bobby Mair as her adopted brother, a read-through at London’s Soho Theatre attracted an impressive cast, including Nick Helm, Jamali Maddix, Harriet Kemsley, Michael Stranney and Gein’s Family Giftshop’s Ed Easton. ‘I just want to see someone like myself up there on TV with my version of things, and me pursuing my childhood fantasy in a more mature way. Although I would still like to kiss Zack Morris: that would be great’.

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COMEDY | Previews EXPERIMENTAL STAND-UP

JOHN-LUKE ROBERTS

Veneer Gallery, Glasgow, Fri 16 Mar John-Luke Roberts’ latest show is billed as a workin-progress, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to sell short. This is simply how Roberts works and a beautiful but strange creature will no doubt manifest itself in My Title Exceeds 50 Characters. ‘I do a lot of my writing on stage, so work-in-progresses are invaluable to me. Also, they’re pretty fun shows to watch: we all end up finding the show together.

Somehow, it’s usually not a disaster. “John-Luke Roberts: usually not a disaster”,’ he jokes.

Given the eclectic nature of his influences, it’s no surprise that most of Roberts’ shows are full of the unexpected and are as ridiculous as they are funny.

Citing Simon Munnery, Vic and Bob, Barry Humphries and Victoria Wood, he also draws inspiration from ‘theatre and cabaret, and drag, and performance art. I was reading a lot of Ali Smith before last year’s show and I think that influenced that particular one. The Wicker Man too.’

Never one to shy away from a highbrow reference, last year’s show (Look on My Works, Ye Mighty And Despair: All in Caps) included a running appearance from that literary superstar of the middle ages, Geoffrey Chaucer. ‘There’s a particular joy in taking a stupid thought about a thing that maybe 50% of your audience know, and being able to get the whole room laughing. So this year I’m not turning any idea down, no matter how strange or obscure, and playing with it until I can find a way to make it work for whoever has turned up.’ Expect many innovative, hybrid wonders to emerge, then. (Marissa Burgess)

STORYTELLING

DAVID BADDIEL: MY FAMILY – NOT THE SITCOM

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 13 Mar; Rose Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 29 Jun

PHOTO: STEVE ULLATHORNE

In 2016, when David Baddiel premiered his new show My Family: Not the Sitcom, he quite aptly described it as a ‘twisted love letter to my parents’. Now, with a sold-out series of performances at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory behind him as well as two highly acclaimed West End runs, Baddiel is taking his one-man monologue on the road to theatres across the country.

My Family: Not the Sitcom is an atypical twohour show in which Baddiel celebrates the lives of his parents, Sarah and Colin, by delving deep into their idiosyncrasies, flaws and various quirks.

He starts by discussing his recently deceased mother, reading extracts from the erotic emails written to her lover with whom she had a 20 year-long affair, later switching the attention to his father, who has dementia and is prone to sweary outbursts and bouts of anger.

It may seem disrespectful to use intimate memories of your parents in such a manner, but the honesty with which Baddiel discloses their dysfunction, from his mum’s infidelity to his dad’s unexpected aggression, is both refreshing and endearing, highlighting a tenderness that is at times complex. ‘It’s a glib thing to say, but if comedy is therapy, then this really is that,’ he explained in an interview with The Guardian. ‘It’s incredibly close to me, the most personal of all of my comedy. I’m going to talk about difficult stuff – sex and dementia and death – and it’s by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever written.’

The show falls somewhere in between stand-up and storytelling, with Baddiel using an extended monologue to paint a candid yet hilarious portrait of his parents. Everyone deals with grief in different ways and My Family: Not the Sitcom is an ode to the imperfections that make your loved ones who they truly are. (Arusa Qureshi)

MY COMEDY HERO

TIFF STEVENSON

Blackfriars, Glasgow, Fri 16 Mar; Rose Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 4 May I came quite late to Wanda Sykes, maybe four or five years ago, after someone suggested I check her out as we had a similar idea on reproductive rights. I’d seen her in movies but hadn’t come across her stand-up. The first thing I watched was Sick & Tired and I was immediately struck by how much the crowd loved her. I had no idea just how famous she actually was. She spent the first couple of minutes dealing with that fact, and talking about very broad and accessible things. Then after about 15 minutes, another gear kicks in. You barely notice it happening but we’re into social politics and big philosophical ideas. An immediate masterclass in how to take all of your audience with you.

There is never a point in that special when Wanda isn’t accessible, in the room, one of them. Even though the ‘them’ is a very disparate group of people: some were there having watched the TV show Crank Yankers, some from seeing her in Jennifer Lopez romcom fodder, and some pure stand-up fans. Sick & Tired was before Wanda came out, and from that point on, the work just got even better. By being open about her sexuality she was able to unpack homophobic attitudes as well as racist and sexist ones: ‘it’s easier being black than gay; I never had to come out as black’. All this did come at the personal cost of being estranged from her parents, but she’s bold and brave and I love her for it. A hero should be brave. (As told to Brian Donaldson) ■ See more about Tiff Stevenson’s comedy hero at list.co.uk/comedy.

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Previews | COMEDY

list.co.uk/comedy FOOD COMEDY

GEORGE EGG

The DIY Chef picks his top 5 food moments in film Spinal Tap and the backstage catering problems (1984) In this scene the band are confused by the fact that the bread is too small for the fillings. The child-like Nigel Tufnel can’t figure it out while his confused manager tries to help him by suggesting that he folds the salami to fit in the bread, but this only makes things worse.

The French Toast scenes in Kramer vs Kramer (1979) I’ve watched this hundreds of times. There are two scenes in the film where Ted (Dustin Hoffman) and his son Billy (Justin Henry) make French Toast together. They’re completely different but both are utterly heart-breaking.

Any from a plethora of moments from Napoleon Dynamite (2004) This is a film so rich with food but my most memorable moment is the ‘tots’ that Napoleon eats from his pocket. More so because, listening to the DVD commentary, the cast reminisce how they were completely stale, with the crunch added by a Foley artist.

The ratatouille tasting in Ratatouille (2007) Remy has decided to cook this simple peasant’s dish for reviewer Anton Ego who sniffs at it, pokes it around a little and then tastes it.

And the moment he does so he’s transported back to his childhood.

All art has the power to do this and the moment it happens here is magical.

Keith and Candice Marie discuss chewing during Nuts in May (1976) Here, Candice Marie (Alison Steadman) questions Keith (Roger Sloman) on his rule that food should be chewed 72 times. Keith chews (I adore how long they draw out his internal counting) before he concedes that it depends on what it is you’re chewing.

(As told to Brian Donaldson) ■ The Stand, Edinburgh, Sun 11 Mar; The Stand, Glasgow, Mon 12 Mar. See more about George Egg’s foodie films at list.co.uk/comedy.

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HITLIST

MARK THOMAS: SHOWTIME FROM THE FRONTLINE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 14– Sat 17 Feb, traverse. co.uk Thomas shares his experience of founding a comedy club in Jenin. See feature, page 30. Also Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 21–Sat 24 Mar, tron. co.uk

com/venues/kingstheatre Fiery stand-up from the edgy Irish comic.

TOMMY TIERNAN: UNDER THE INFLUENCE King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 14 Mar, atgtickets.

KATHERINE RYAN: GLITTER ROOM Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 8 Mar, paviliontheatre.co.uk Witty jokes and pop culture observations from Canadian stand-up and TV star.

MAE MARTIN: DOPE The Stand, Glasgow, Tue 13 Mar, thestand. co.uk The rising Canadian comic (yes, another one) brings us some more of her Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated Dope, about the perils of addiction. See feature, page 28. Also The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Mar, thestand.co.uk

THE FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Mon 26 Mar, thessehydro.com Banish all memories of Richard Stilgoe immediately: this cult New Zealand duo give comedy songs a very good name with their reunion causing vast acclaim. See feature, page 24.

COMEDY HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

GLASGOW ROB NEWMAN’S TOTAL ECLIPSE OF DESCARTES The Stand, Sun 11 Feb, thestand. co.uk The comedian and novelist, author of the book and Radio 4 show Neuropolis, wonders whether philosophy can help in a world that’s gone proper crazy.

BILL BAILEY: LARKS IN TRANSIT SEC, Sat 17 Feb, sec.co.uk In his latest show, the ‘hippie materialist’ master of semi-surreality tackles politics, philosophy and the pursuit of happiness. His musical interludes include fashioning a symphony from a ringtone and re-imagining the Stars and Stripes.

LEFTY SCUM The Stand, Sun 18 Feb, thestand. co.uk A triple-header show with Jonny & The Baptists, Josie Long and Grace Petrie as they tackle present-day politics and socialism on a more lighthearted scale.

BRENDON BURNS: MANSPLAININ’ Blackfriars, Sun 11 Mar, blackfriarsglasgow.com The host of the Dumb White Guy podcast offers confident stand-up about gender. See feature, page 33.

DAVID BADDIEL: MY FAMILY – NOT THE SITCOM Citizens Theatre, Tue 13 Mar, citz. co.uk An irreverent portrait of family life, memory, ageing, infidelity and gay cats. See preview, page 54 BRIDGET CHRISTIE: WHAT NOW? Citizens Theatre, Fri 16 & Sat 17 Mar, citz.co.uk Acute social and political humour from the awardwinning feminist stand-up, who

repeatedly pokes fun at her own righteous anger.

FINN TAYLOR: LEFTY TIGHTY RIGHTY LOOSEY Blackfriars, Sat 17 Mar, blackfriarsglasgow.com Taylor mounts a full-on attack on the presentday left and its moral high ground.

KIERAN HODGSON: WORK-INPROGRESS Veneer Gallery, Sun 18 Mar, veneergalleryglasgow.com A new work-in-progress show about 1970s politics from a previous Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee.

LIMMY’S VINES Tramway, Mon 19–Thu 22 Mar, tramway.org Limmy presents his much-loved Vine videos. Followed by a Q&A. Also King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 24 Mar, atgtickets.com/venues/ kings-theatre FERN BRADY: SUFFER, FOOLS! The Stand, Wed 21 Mar, thestand. co.uk Incisive comedy from one of Scotland’s rising stars.

RICHARD HERRING: OH FRIG, I’M 50!

Citizens Theatre, Fri 23 Mar, citz. co.uk Herring ponders over what it’s like reaching a half century on this earth.

EVELYN MOK: WORK-INPROGRESS Veneer Gallery, Sun 25 Mar, veneergalleryglasgow.com Workin-progress from this award-winning Swedish-Chinese comedian. See feature, page 53.

EDINBURGH TOM STADE: I SWEAR Rose Theatre, Fri 16 Feb, gildedballoon.co.uk Canadian comedian Tom Stade presents his show I Swear, in which he pledges to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Bridget Christie

JOHN ROBINS: THE DARKNESS OF ROBINS The Stand, Sun 18 Feb, thestand. co.uk Robins reflects on love and loss, and laments the injustice that you can’t break up with yourself. Also The Stand, Glasgow, Mon 19 Feb, thestand. co.uk MAT EWINS PRESENTS ADVENTUREMAN 7: THE RETURN OF ADVENTUREMAN Rose Theatre, Thu 15 Mar, gildedballoon.co.uk Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated multimedia mayhem with lots of audience interaction loosely hung on an Indiana Jones-style adventure plot, including spoofs of video games and films. Also Blackfriars, Glasgow, Sat 17 Mar, blackfriarsglasgow.com

QI: NO SUCH THING AS A FISH Queen’s Hall, Sat 17 Mar, thequeenshall.net Bizarre and humourous facts from the QI universe in the first live touring version of the hit NSTAAF podcast.

Also Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Sun 18 Mar, citz.co.uk

OUT OF TOWN STEWART LEE: CONTENT PROVIDER Dundee Rep, Tue 13 Mar, dundeerep.co.uk Lee’s latest live show is just as caustic, clever and cry-out-loud funny as ever. Also Perth Concert Hall, Wed 14 Mar, horsecross.co.uk/perth-concerthall

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Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /film

SCHOOL DISCO – CLUELESS AND GREGORY’S GIRL Get your 80s and 90s dancing shoes on at Glasgow Film Festival From screening Con Air on an actual plane to their very own Dazed and Confused roller disco, GFF are experts at making classic films even more fun. This year, they’re bringing the school disco to life – because what’s a teen movie without a good school dance? On Wed 28 Feb, SWG3 transforms into an 80s vs 90s extravaganza: audiences choose from two essential high school films,

Gregory’s Girl and Clueless (pictured), then come together at the end for a massive school disco. Expect cheesy tunes, epic dance moves, prizes, games and some unforgettable outfits. See you there – we’re off to book our limo.

■ SWG3 Galvanisers Yard, Glasgow, Wed 28 Feb. Glasgow Film Festival runs from Wed 21 Feb–Sun 4 Mar, see page 17 for more coverage.

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Glasgow Film Festival is an operating name of Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT), a company limited by guarantee, registered in Scotland No. 97369, and registered as a charity (No SC005932).

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Reviews | FILM

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BIOPIC – COMEDY

DRAMA

WAR FILM

I, TONYA

LOVELESS

JOURNEY’S END

(15) 122min ●●●●●

(12A) 108min ●●●●●

Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan) has an unforgiving view of modern Russia, dissecting failings and vices with a surgeon’s precision. Partly inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, Loveless captures the dying gasps of a toxic relationship.

Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) has already moved on and traded up for a wealthy, older man. Boris (Aleksey Rozin) has a heavily pregnant girlfriend who cannot wait for him to become a free man.

Their 12-year-old son Alyosha (Matvey Novikov) is a casualty of their war. Boarding school and military academy will keep him well out of their lives.

Everything changes when Alyosha goes missing.

Filmed in and around St Petersburg in the bleak mid-winter, there is a grey chill that seeps into the very bones of Loveless, while the human characters are equally devoid of warmth. We think Zhenya is heartless until the scene in which we meet her mother. The hunt for Alyosha propels the story but what matters is what it reveals of a country where people are so preoccupied with their own selfish desires that everyone else is surplus to requirements.

It is a point that Zvyagintsev hammers home with the intensity of someone trying to knock sense into a doomed world. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 9 Feb.

Regarded as one of the definitive plays about the hell of trench warfare, RC Sherriff’s World War I-set Journey’s End has inspired numerous theatrical productions. Cinematically, it’s proved less of a draw, perhaps because it takes place almost entirely in a dugout. Director Saul Dibb embraces the confines, injecting energy into Sherriff’s words and expanding the visual landscape where appropriate. Set in Aisne during the 1918 Spring Offensive, the war is at a stalemate. Leading a battle-worn group of British soldiers is Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin), who is nearing a nervous breakdown.

With the upstanding Osborne (Paul Bettany) and newcomer Raleigh (Asa Butterfield) also present, the men anxiously await a German attack, but still find time for moments of kindness and stiff upper lip resolve.

Working from a script by Simon Reade, Dibb uses his camera with great dexterity, trailing characters as they traverse the trenches and peppering his film with explosive moments. It’s almost unfair to pick a standout performer in a uniformly superb cast, though Claflin is unforgettable as a man who can’t bear the weight of his responsibility any longer. He, like this film, is mightily impressive. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 2 Feb.

(15) 119min ●●●●● American figure skater Tonya Harding, famous for her triple axel jump and infamous for her association with an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan, suffered abuse from a young age which continued into her marriage to her first husband. Craig Gillespie’s biopic drums up sympathy for Harding by delving into her personal life and exploring the challenges she faced as an impoverished woman trying to make it in a sport that didn’t welcome her. Told from the contradictory perspectives of Harding (Margot Robbie), her mother (Allison Janney) and ex (Sebastian Stan), the film takes on a blackly funny, meta tone.

Robbie plays Harding from her teenage years through to her 40s; her physical work on the ice is impressive, the combination of nifty camerawork and the actress’s performance evokes Harding’s euphoria, while Gillespie exposes the judges’ distaste at her methods. The blaring music is perfectly utilised in these scenes but the reliance on it throughout undermines the drama. Robbie narrates Harding’s story with candid humour in a film that mimics the bravura approach of Scorsese’s Goodfellas and its ideas about the American Dream, though doesn’t pull it off with the same stylistic grace. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 23 Feb.

FANTASY ROMANCE

THE SHAPE OF WATER (15) 123min ●●●●● As meticulously manufactured as anything that came off the Golden Age of Hollywood’s legendary production line, The Shape of Water also shares much of its DNA with the era’s B-movies, demonstrating a more modern sensibility when it comes to matters of sex and violence. With a love interest inspired by Creature from the Black Lagoon’s Gill-man, this is romance Guillermo del Toro style.

The director co-writes with Vanessa Taylor, setting their fable in 1962 Baltimore and weaving in Cold War paranoia and the fight for civil rights. Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute living above a picture palace, who cleans a secretive government facility alongside the chatty Zelda (Octavia Spencer). Their curiosity is piqued when a mysterious monster, referred to as ‘The Asset’ (Doug Jones), moves into one of the labs. Mistreated by the man tasked with his security (Michael Shannon), Elisa introduces the creature to human kindness. ‘He doesn’t know what I lack and how I am incomplete,’ she tells friend Giles (Richard Jenkins) as the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ narrative is established.

The film makes a rousing focus of a group of plucky outsiders and notes the exclusivity of the American Dream. Hawkins ensures the depth of Elisa’s longing speaks louder than any language – a plea to save the creature is unforgettably conveyed.

Jones, too, communicates beautifully without words, infusing his miraculous being’s plight with graceful sadness.

Alexandre Desplat’s accordion score imparts a Parisian vibe, Paul D Austerberry’s design is impeccable and DP Dan Laustsen wraps the production in a toasty glow. It all adds up to a tale of underwater love that will leave you awash with wonder as it recaptures the magic of cinema. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Wed 14 Feb. 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 59

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DRAMA

ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. (12A) 122min ●●●●●

MELODRAMA

PHANTOM THREAD (15) 130min ●●●●●

As a portrait of the brilliant male artist as tortured deity, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread has a great deal in common with Darren Aronofsky’s mother!. But whereas Aronofsky’s vision proved nothing more than an exercise in provocation, Anderson has turned in an idiosyncratic character study cut from the same cloth as post-war melodrama, but with a modern style all its own.

In 1950s London, haute couture dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) conceives exquisite creations coveted in the highest echelons of society yet, while he’s happy to make women look beautiful, he treats those closest to him with contempt. Only his sister and business partner Cyril (a superb Lesley Manville) can pierce his pomp, but when he meets the striking Alma (Vicky Krieps), who becomes his muse and then his lover, his carefully curated world is turned upside down.

In what is reportedly his final role before retirement, Day-Lewis breathes vigour and vulnerability into Reynolds, whose often abhorrent behaviour originates from a place of emotional immaturity rather than cruelty. A man who gleans comfort from the exacting nature of his work, he finds the undulations and expectations of love unsettling and eventually overwhelming. As Alma, Krieps is mesmerising, in her languid look but also her quiet strength. By the time she asserts her own unconventional rules on their relationship, she has well and truly changed the game.

On the surface, Phantom Thread may be another film about an exceptionally talented man and the women enthralled in his orbit but, in the masterful hands of Anderson and his cast, it becomes a multi-layered, expertly observed examination of desire, control and the ties that bind. (Nikki Baughan) ■ General release from Fri 2 Feb.

Fences offered welcome proof that Denzel Washington still wants to push himself as an actor. Legal drama Roman J. Israel, Esq. provides a further opportunity for Washington to lose himself inside a complex, compelling character. Israel is a fiery Los Angeles criminal defence lawyer who believes in doing everything by the book. He was active in the civil rights movement and retains his idealism. He is also deeply eccentric and clearly not suited for the real world. The real world becomes unavoidable when he is employed by hotshot fellow lawyer George Pierce (Colin Farrell), finding his core values questioned every day of his working life.

Dan Gilroy’s first film since Nightcrawler works best as a detailed study of a fascinating character and what makes him tick. Washington invests Israel with the pride of a true believer in justice, making him a hugely vulnerable figure in an age where virtue is a luxury. The film starts to flounder when we arrive at a particular murder case – the daisy chain of consequences feeling too contrived for comfort. Although Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a fantastic showcase for Washington, regrettably, it isn’t quite worthy of the character or his performance. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 2 Feb.

CRIME THRILLER

LIES WE TELL

(15) 110min ●●●●● DRAMA

DARK RIVER

(TBC) 89min ●●●●● It’s one of life’s most gut-wrenching realities that so many live in fear of their own kin. Dark River sees a woman return to the scene of her childhood trauma to lay claim to her family farm. The third feature from Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant) stars Ruth Wilson as Alice Bell, who has been travelling the world on the shepherding circuit, running from memories that surface as fragments throughout the film, with her predatory father Richard (Sean Bean) appearing like a phantom. Barnard brings out the beauty of the Yorkshire landscape with its expansive, painterly vistas, but grey skies loom ominously overhead and a rumbling score further unsettles the picture.

Alice feuds with her brother Joe (Mark Stanley) in the aftermath of their father’s death when she applies for the tenancy of the farm, which has fallen into disrepair. Words are hard for both to find and, while Alice turns her agony inwards, Joe’s is projected furiously out. Stanley is superb, yet it is Wilson that will leave you shaken. Head bowed in permanent fear and apology, her performance is powerfully affecting as she teases out Alice’s pain and foregrounds her courage, ahead of the inevitable, earth-shattering eruption. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 23 Feb.

Gabriel Byrne and Australian actress Sibylla Deen star in what appears initially to be a crime thriller, a Bradford-set production in which a loyal driver is drawn into the double life of his wealthy employer’s enigmatic Muslim mistress. Tasked with evicting Deen’s Amber from his boss’s love nest, Byrne’s quiet, watchful Yorkshireman Donald is toting his own burden of loss and guilt. So the ill-matched pair develop a sympathetic bond, in the manner of Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa. However, the lurching plot takes a different direction or three, with the hapless Donald along for the ride through too many confusing turns, via too many poorly drawn characters, amid betrayals, abuse, sexual exploitation, blackmail and depraved thuggery.

The big mystery is how so many distinguished names (including Harvey Keitel and Gina McKee) got on board with first-time director Mitu Misra. The handsome visuals come courtesy of renowned cinematographer / director Santosh Sivan. The romantic score is by the late, great Krzysztof Kieslowski’s composer of choice, Zbigniew Preisner. But these assets are swamped by an increasingly melodramatic storyline, littered with horrible stereotypes and preposterous villainy. (Angie Errigo) ■ Selected release from Fri 2 Feb.

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BIOPIC – DRAMA

DRAMA

COMEDY

THE MERCY

CUSTODY

FINDING YOUR FEET

(12A) 102min ●●●●●

(TBC) 93min ●●●●●

Colin Firth is showstopping in the story of Donald Crowhurst’s infamous attempt to sail solo around the world, as part of the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Despite being only a weekend sailor, Crowhurst persuaded an investor to build him a yacht. But his business and home were staked against the sponsorship of his voyage. Crowhurst’s chances are bigged up by his press agent (David Thewlis), meanwhile the ‘wife who waits’, Clare (Rachel Weisz), frets that Donald is in over his head.

Clare’s anxiety is quickly justified as her husband meets with one disaster after another. Realising he is incapable of completing the race, he embarks on a tragic deception.

The supporting cast and period detail are fine, but essentially this is Firth’s film and he does brave, moving work as the disheartened dreamer spiralling into despair and madness. Director James Marsh (The Theory of Everything, Man on Wire) has abundant experience with true stories. But it cannot have escaped his notice that the 2006 documentary Deep Water – assembled from Crowhurst’s 16mm films, tape recordings and journals – remains the more riveting reconstruction of the sailor’s dilemma and the wretched consequences. (Angie Errigo) ■ General release from Fri 9 Feb.

Domestic abuse is a deadly serious subject that time and time again is not dealt with satisfactorily.

French director Xavier Legrand’s powerful debut feature (winner of the Silver Lion at Venice 2017) is a continuation of his Oscar-nominated short and explores the insidious nature of this kind of violence.

It initially places the viewer in the shoes of a judge ruling on the custody of 11-year-old Julien (Thomas Gioria) who has vehemently expressed disdain for his father Antoine (Denis Ménochet).

Despite this, Julien is ordered to spend alternate weekends with Antoine, and there’s nothing his petrified mother Miriam (Léa Drucker) can do about it. Julien’s older sister Joséphine (Mathilde Auneveux) chooses not to see her father and the scene is set for the viewer to learn how fear and intimidation can swallow lives.

While the explosive denouement is heavily signposted, Legrand displays real skill evoking the feeling of being imprisoned by your circumstances.

His camera gets up in Gioria’s face, who conveys Julien’s terror and loathing in a seething performance. It’s profoundly distressing, but that’s precisely the point. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ Selected release from Fri 23 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Tue 27 & Wed 28 Feb.

(12A) 111min ●●●●● ‘Let’s have a naughty sherry,’ Surrey snob Sandra (Imelda Staunton) tells a chum as she prepares to host her husband’s retirement bash, moments before her world falls apart. When her free-spirited sister Bif (a delightful Celia Imrie) picks up the pieces, Sandra learns to live a bit more dangerously than partaking in the odd tipple.

From director Richard Loncraine, Finding Your Feet is pitched at the same crowd who flocked to the Marigold Hotel films: those looking to retire in style. Bif provides inspiration in how to do so on a budget; she’s a ray of sunshine residing in a cosy council flat, merrily playing the field and dancing up a storm with pals played by Joanna Lumley, David Hayman and Timothy Spall.

The film’s humour and sadness co-exist agreeably, Staunton invests every line of dialogue with integrity and her character’s romance with Spall’s Charlie unfolds in a way that’s endearingly cautious. The lessons loom a little large, while a jaunt to Italy feels outrageously unnecessary and ultimately bizarre.

Sometimes it’s hard not to cringe at the antics but the joie de vivre of these convention-defying pensioners is irresistible. It’s a familiar blend, with just a dash of daring. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 23 Feb.

COMEDY DRAMA

LADY BIRD (15) 94min ●●●●● The star and co-writer of Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig, proves herself a noteworthy director with Lady Bird, a sure-footed, semiautobiographical coming-of-age charmer told with a generous spirit and an acute understanding of human nature.

Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is a 17-year-old from the wrong side of the tracks, stranded in suburban Sacramento and dreaming of the great life that surely awaits her just over the horizon. She has given herself the name of ‘Lady Bird’. Meanwhile, in the real world she has to tolerate her hypercritical mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) and an existence that stubbornly refuses to live up to her expectations.

The winner of two Golden Globes, Lady Bird is often screamingly funny as it charts its protagonist’s giddy journey through the weeks and months of her final year at school, and the agony and ecstasy of college applications. She gains new friends, loses her virginity, makes all the character-forming mistakes of youth and constantly tussles with a mother who finds it easier to nitpick than to express the love she clearly holds.

A valentine to the golden summer glow of Sacramento, Lady Bird has the sweet soul of a John Hughes film and the wit of a Woody Allen. Gerwig has a wonderful affection for her characters and their failings, and gets the most from a very cool cast that includes Lucas Hedges from Manchester by the Sea and blazing new talent Timothée Chalamet from Call Me by Your Name. Metcalf brings out all the complex, tough-love emotions of Marion and Ronan makes Lady Bird a believable and hugely endearing figure.

Wise, witty and breezing along life’s highway on a blast of sunny optimism, Lady Bird is just the film to banish those winter blues.

(Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 16 Feb. 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 61

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WESTERN

SWEET COUNTRY (15) 113min ●●●●●

THRILLER

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (TBC) 85min ●●●●●

Jonny Greenwood’s threatening electronic score breathlessly pursues a troubled figure in Scottish writer-director Lynne Ramsay’s tender and savage reworking of the revenge thriller, based on the novella by Jonathan Ames. Ramsay’s first feature since 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin is a doozy, a double Cannes prize-winner focusing on a worldweary antihero whose shattered humanity is clinging on for dear life.

Joaquin Phoenix’s hulking physique looms large in the hotel and motel corridors he roams as he completes his violent missions. He plays Joe, a gun for hire with a reputation for being particularly brutal, his weapon of choice: a hammer. Though Joe commits horrific carnage in his quest to retrieve young Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov) from a sex trafficking ring, it is the ferocious beast of trauma, stalking him every minute of the day, that proves the most terrifying aspect of this neo-noir.

Joe’s abusive childhood and military service has left him severely scarred. He swallows his pain via prescription pills and asphyxiation rituals and cares deeply for his elderly mother (a wonderful Judith Roberts) who we first meet watching Hitchcock’s Psycho, with the pair sharing a laugh about the famous stabbing scene. However, this isn’t a film about killing, its focus is firmly on Joe’s mental state and how he has come to this point. Glimpses of his past wallop the viewer with insights into his detached and anguished state of being.

Ramsay has pulled off the extraordinary, crafting a muscular, tightly wound masterpiece that features an intensely riveting performance from Phoenix. It’s a crushingly sad, daringly outré lament for lives gripped and held down by the wretchedness of violence.

(Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 9 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Fri 23 & Sat 24 Feb.

The Australian outback is the ideal setting for a western, as anyone who saw John Hillcoat’s The Proposition can attest.

Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah) subverts genre tropes to create a mesmerising, hallucinatory meditation on race, class and political history. Set in 1929, we are introduced to Sam (Hamilton Morris), an Aboriginal stockman lent by his god-fearing, kindly boss Fred (Sam Neill) to his neighbour Harry (Ewen Leslie) to complete some menial work. Harry has a hideous violent streak; he rapes Sam’s wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey Furber) and later comes after Sam, leading the couple to flee into the outback.

Drawing naturalistic performances from the indigenous, non-professional cast members, Thornton is just as adept at capturing the landscape of the Northern Territory. With no score to speak of, this refuses to ape the traditional lovers-on-the-run scenario. Rather, Sweet Country is understated and poetic, though no less compelling. The ironic title firmly pointing the way, Thornton has crafted a fascinating look at the Aboriginal Australian experience, one that keeps surprising you until the final, galling shot. (James Mottram) ■ Selected release from Fri 9 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Mon 26 & Tue 27 Feb.

SPORTS DRAMA

JOURNEYMAN

(TBC) 92min ●●●●● DRAMA

A FANTASTIC WOMAN (15) 104min ●●●●●

Early on in Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s compassionate study of a trans woman in mourning, a man rudely enquires if Marina (Daniela Vega) has had ‘the operation’. Throughout the film, Marina is dehumanised by people who make assumptions about her and is continually made to feel like trash by the family of her older lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes), who dies suddenly from an aneurysm.

Emotions run high in the days following Orlando’s death, with his son, ex-wife and the police inflicting a brutal character assassination on Marina. Lelio (Gloria) whisks the viewer through her grief with gorgeous and haunting imagery that recalls the work of Pedro Almodóvar and Xavier Dolan. Vega’s performance is nuanced and commanding, the musical numbers that bookend the film are elegantly shot in opulent locations, while the focus is on the individual experience, showing how grieving is a personal process. With her confidence knocked, Lelio attempts to put the viewer in Marina’s bewildered headspace as she questions herself and the way people see her. Distorted reflections appear throughout, exposing insecurities, but Marina remains strong and determined, despite the hurdles placed in her way. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ Selected release from Fri 2 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Sun 25 & Mon 26 Feb.

Boxing’s macho posturing is stripped away in a tender roadto-recovery drama. It’s the second feature from writer-director Paddy Considine, following the BAFTA-winning Tyrannosaur. As the title suggests, Matty (Considine himself) isn’t exactly an alltimer, his worthiness of the world middleweight belt questioned at the outset. Instead our protagonist is focused on his family: wife Emma (Jodie Whittaker) and new baby Mia. When he sustains a head injury, those formerly in his corner drift away.

Considine ensures Matty’s crisis is credible, although his age makes him an unlikely champion. Whittaker is such an affecting actress and her character’s predicament is so heartrending that it’s desperately disappointing that she isn’t given the opportunity to articulate her own challenges. Nonetheless, the film is notable for its portrait of tough men overcoming their cowardice and learning to provide emotional support.

There’s delicacy in the performances and in cinematographer Laurie Rose’s visuals, occasionally undermined by the less subtle script. The ending is arrived at rather suddenly but, buoyed by an unshakeable faith in the knockout power of love, Journeyman is as earnest as they come. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 30 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Tue 27 Feb.

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Highlights | FILM

HITLIST

LADY BIRD With five Oscar nominations under its belt, this feature film from Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) starring Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) is a triumph. See review, page 61. Out Fri 16 Feb. THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo Del Toro’s latest is the most nominated

Oscar film this year, with 11 nods. Starring Sally Hawkins, it’s a wondrous tale of underwater love, with an apt and refreshing approach to female sexuality. See review, page 59. Out Fri 16 Feb. GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL Since 2005, Scotland’s fastest-growing film festival

has become a force to be reckoned. See features from page 17 for this year’s highlights. Various venues, Glasgow, Wed 21 Feb–Sun 4 Mar. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE A muscular and tightly wound masterpiece from Lynne Ramsay, with an intense and riveting

performance from Joaquin Phoenix. See feature, page 22, and review, page 62.

Out Fri 9 Mar (GFF, Fri 23 & Sat 24 Feb).

ISLE OF DOGS A boy searches for his dog in this animation from Wes Anderson. See feature, page 18. Out Fri 30 Mar (GFF, Wed 21 & Thu 22 Feb).

FILM HIGHLIGHTS DEN OF THIEVES Gritty crime saga following the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Department and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew, starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent. Out Fri 2 Feb. JOURNEY’S END In the trenches of WWI, youthful new recruit Lieutenant Raleigh (Asa Butterfield) has pulled strings to join his childhood hero, and his sister’s fiancé, Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin) on the front line. Out Fri 2 Feb. PHANTOM THREAD Oscar-nominated new film from Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice), starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a dressmaker. See review, page 60. Out Fri 2 Feb. ROMAN J ISRAEL, ESQ Roman J Israel Esq (Denzel Washington) is a down-at-heel, socially awkward criminal attorney who gets offered a job at a sleek LA firm and who finds that his loyalties are strained. See review, page 60. Out Fri 2 Feb. WINCHESTER An eccentric firearm heiress (Helen Mirren) believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle. Out Fri 2 Feb. THE 15:17 TO PARIS American soldiers discover a terrorist plot on a Paris-bound train. Clint Eastwood’s latest is based on the 2015 Thalys train attack, and starring the real soldiers. Out Fri 9 Feb. FIFTY SHADES FREED The third and final instalment in the Fifty Shades trilogy (phew, there aren’t actually 50). Out Fri 9 Feb. LOVELESS Despairing portrait of modern Russia, in which people are so preoccupied with their own desires that everyone

Black Panther

else is irrelevant. See review, page 59.

Out Fri 9 Feb. THE MERCY Yachtsman Donald Crowhurst’s disastrous attempt to win the 1968 Golden Globe Race ends up with him creating an outrageous account of travelling the world alone by sea.

Starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz.

See review, page 61. Out Fri 9 Feb. BLACK PANTHER T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne

and take his rightful place as king.

The latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe also stars Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and the now Oscarnominated Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out).

Out Tue 13 Feb. FATHER FIGURES Upon learning that their mother has been lying to them for years about their allegedly deceased father, two fraternal twin brothers (Owen Wilson and Ed Helms) hit the road in order to find him. Out Fri 16 Feb. DARK RIVER Alice (Ruth Wilson) goes back to the scene of her childhood trauma after 15

years, to lay a claim to the Yorkshire farm that was promised her, but her brother Joe (Mark Stanley) insists it should go to him. Clio Barnard’s third feature has a superb performance from Stanley and a deeply affecting one from Wilson as the gutsy, damaged Alice. See review, page 60.

Out Fri 23 Feb. I, TONYA The story of Tonya Harding, (Margot Robbie), the US figure skater from an underdog background who was banned for life after an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Olympics. See review, page 59. Out Fri 23 Feb. 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 63

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FILM | Highlights

FILM HIGHLIGHTS CONTINUED A Fantastic Woman

RED SPARROW Ballerina Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is recruited to ‘Sparrow School’ a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. But her first mission, targeting a CIA agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.

Out Thu 1 Mar. A FANTASTIC WOMAN Nightclub singer and trans woman Marina (Daniela Vega) is very much in love with her older boyfriend Orlando (Francisco Reyes), but then he unexpectedly dies after a fall at the apartment they share. A compassionate study of mourning, with a nuanced and commanding performance from Vega as the grieving lover, battling through dehumanisation and bigotry from the authorities and the dead man’s family. See review, page 62. Out Fri 2 Mar (GFF, Sun 25 & Mon 26 Feb).

SWEET COUNTRY Australian western set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where

justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self defence and goes on the run as a posse gathers to hunt him down. See review, page 62. Out Fri 9 Mar (GFF, Mon 26 & Tue 27 Feb).

GLASGOW SHORT FILM FESTIVAL Glasgow Short Film Festival is the largest competitive short film festival in Scotland and celebrates diverse forms of cinematic expression that transgress the boundaries of conventional narrative film. The programme includes international and Scottish competitions, networking events, panel discussions, workshops, parties and live events. See feature, page 25. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 14–Sun 18 Mar. JOURNEYMAN Boxer Matty Burton suffers a serious head injury during a fight. The movie follows the impact this has on his marriage, his life and and his family.

See review, page 62. Out Fri 30 Mar (GFF, Tue 27 Feb).

Damon Albarn & Robert Carlyle, Edinburgh International Film Festival 1997

#edfilm festme mories

We’re building the complete history of the Festival, and we need your memories to do so.

Tell us your stories, send us your photographs.

Become part of the story of EIFF. edfilmfestmemories.org.uk | #edfilmfestmemories 64 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018

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KIDS

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /kids

SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPYTOWN Kids’ picture book gets the orchestral treatment If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it seems to be the mantra at Scottish Chamber Orchestra HQ, where the pairing of composer Paul Rissman and CBeebies presenter Chris Jarvis is proving a winning combination.

Following their successful delivery of Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants and Stan and Mabel, the duo have reunited for another Giles Andreae picture book, The Chimpanzees of Happytown.

Rissman’s new composition, complete with songs, will musically illustrate Andreae’s tale of Chutney the Chimp who, upon his arrival at the formerly dull town of Drabsville, spreads colour and happiness around. Jarvis’ praise for Rissman’s music, and the whole concept of bringing little ones into the orchestral arena through stories, couldn’t be more effusive.

‘Storytelling in any form is fantastic,’ he says, ‘but when a young audience goes into a concert hall, potentially for the first time, and experiences the sound of an orchestra coming to life in a way they may have heard but not seen, and realises that’s how those sounds are made – and then sees those instruments bring the story to life – well that’s truly magical.’ (Kelly Apter) ■ Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Feb; City Halls, Glasgow, Sun 18 Feb.

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KIDS | Previews

WEE WRITE

COMEDY

MUSEUM MYSTERY SQUAD / MAGIC OF THE MUMMY

KEITH FARNAN: KIDOCRACY

From the young King Tutankhamun to spooky wrapped-up mummies, and from the magisterial Sphinx to those jaw-dropping pyramids, the iconography of Ancient Egypt lives on in the west’s collective psyche. At Wee Write (the weekend children’s programme within Aye Write!), two events will keep that flame burning a little longer.

Museum Mystery Squad and the Case of the Hidden Hieroglyphics with Mike Nicholson (Sat 3 Mar, 12.45pm) is an hour of riddles, red herrings and odd facts after a curious message is found on a Pharaoh’s casket. Dubbed ‘Scooby-Doo meets Doctor Who’, this should appeal to young code-cracking detectives.

Meanwhile, Clydebuilt Puppet Theatre’s Magic of the Mummy: Tales of Ancient Egypt (Sun 4 Mar, 12.15pm) features an intrepid explorer entering a tomb in search of the first mummy. As puppeteer Leigh McCalister notes, when it comes to Ancient Egypt, we’re all in the same boat. ‘Like archaeologists, children are also fascinated by this ancient past, a colourful world entirely different to the one in which we now live, one that’s full of magic and mystery.’

Magic of the Mummy uses shadow sequences and rod puppets to bring this bygone period to vivid life. ‘The show is a wonderful puppetry and storytelling theatre experience about the creation of the first mummy and who the important Gods of Ancient Egypt were,’ says McCalister. ‘It’s a story of life and death, and love and jealousy in Egypt, based on figures that were left inside the pyramids.’ (Brian Donaldson)

He may have tackled big topics such as capital punishment, gender inequality and state surveillance in his stand-up, but acclaimed Irish comedian Keith Farnan is attempting his most ambitious show to date. Kidocracy is an interactive affair for (and with) kids, in which the perfect island is created and shaped by children right there on stage, with the emphasis firmly on both fairness and fun.

‘Kidocracy feels like a long-term project and is probably the most far-reaching I’ve ever done,’ notes Farnan. ‘The show has been great in demonstrating just how much kids already know about the politics of the time we’re living in. The idea of trying to show how important and how much fun it can be to participate in building a country is central to it, which means I’m trying to hear from every child in the audience at least once.’

With Farnan dressed as the druid-like Brehon (a figure inspired by judges from ancient Irish history), his wide-eyed enthusiasm and boundless energy propel the children to follow their own sense of what would make a civilised society through a series of games. ‘I never intended to do a show for children. But after doing Comedy for Kids, I thought I could develop a fun kids show that introduced ideas of leadership and democracy to those who may not necessarily attend the schools where the supposed future leaders are to be cultivated or come from families where there’s an interest in politics. That makes it appear like I’m trying to start some revolution but unfortunately I’m not that organised.’

(Brian Donaldson)

Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sat 3 & Sun 4 Mar

The Stand, Edinburgh, Sat 10 Mar; The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 11 Mar

PHOTO: PETER DIBDIN

CONTEMPORARY DANCE

CURIOUS SEED: TEENAGE TRILOGY

Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 9–Sun 11 Feb; Perth Theatre, Fri 16 & Sat 17 Feb Childhood may be a hazy memory for some, but most of us can remember the highs and lows of being a teenager. And although life as an adolescent in 2018 is a world wide web away from those growing up in the past, some things remain constant – as choreographer Christine Devaney discovered during the creation of Curious Seed’s new show, Teenage Trilogy.

‘External pressures have changed, and the internet seems to be the biggest concern now,’ she says. ‘But the things that we have to go through physically, mentally and emotionally, I don’t think that changes. When we spoke to teenagers, we found that even with cultural differences, they talked about the same things we’ve always gone through.’

A work in three parts, comprising an art exhibition created by young people, a dance performance and silent disco, Teenage Trilogy was born out of conversations at home and abroad, including in Denmark and India.

‘This isn’t a documentary about being a teenager, this is us creating art in response to what teenagers have said, what they’re worrying about, what they’re busy with,’ explains Devaney. ‘The people we met in Denmark and India aren’t in the show, as such, but their stories and reactions are.’

Performed by four professional dancers, plus two ‘real teens’ and two ‘vintage teens’, the centre piece of the show will be followed by a chance for everybody to get up and dance.

‘We asked everyone to suggest a song from their teenage years to add to our “Teenage Times” playlist on Spotify,’ says Devaney. ‘We’ll be handing out headphones for the audience to dance to songs from different eras. We won’t force people to join in, but I think it will be great fun.’ (Kelly Apter)

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Highlights | KIDS

Edinburgh, Sat 17 Feb, assemblyrooms edinburgh.co.uk WEE WRITE Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sat 3 & Sun 4 Mar, ayewrite.com Jam-packed programme of activities and readings for children and families as part of the Aye Write! festival.

See preview, page 66.

PHOTO: CHARLOTTE BARNES

HITLIST

SCO: THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPYTOWN City Halls, Glasgow, Sun 18 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls. com Musical adventure with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and CBBC presenter Chris Jarvis.

For children aged 3--7.

See preview, page 66.

Also Assembly Rooms,

KIDOCRACY The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 11 Mar, thestand.co.uk The kids are in charge at Keith Farnan’s fun interactive comedy show

for ages 6+. See preview, page 66.

by Sally Beamish. See preview, page 88.

NORTHERN BALLET: THE LITTLE MERMAID Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 22–Sat 24 Mar, edtheatres. com Gorgeous new ballet based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, choreographed by David Nixon with an original score

PUPPET ANIMATION FESTIVAL Various venues, Scotland, Sun 25 Mar–Sun 15 Apr, puppetanimationfestival. org The UK’s largest and longest established annual performing arts event for children presents a feast of entertainment.

KIDS HIGHLIGHTS PHOTO: EOIN CAREY

Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

GLASGOW CORELO’S WORKSHOP FOR UNDER 5S Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 3 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls.com Bring your babies and toddlers on an interactive, multi-sensory journey with Corelo Productions’ Claudie Layden and Cat Train through storytelling, music and song.

MYSTICAL GARDENS Glasgow Botanic Gardens, Thu 15– Sun 25 Feb, glasgowbotanicgardens. com An illuminated trail showcasing the diverse beauty of the Botanic Gardens at night through stunning lighting, powerful soundscapes and interactive street theatre.

WHITE Platform, Thu 22–Sat 24 Feb, platform-online.co.uk Catherine Wheels present their hugely popular, highly visual new show for very young children.

CHINESE NEW YEAR Various venues, Sun 25 Feb, glasgowlife.org.uk Head to the Kelvin Hall, the Riverside Museum and Kelvingrove Museum for Chinese New Year, where you can enjoy lots of activities including a fun family trail and a lion dance between all three venues.

THE ADVENTURES OF SNIGEL Platform, Wed 7 Mar, platformonline.co.uk Join Snigel the curious snail on an interactive adventure in this gentle dance piece for babies and toddlers.

DISNEY ON ICE: WORLDS OF ENCHANTMENT SSE Hydro, Thu 15–Sun 18 Mar, thessehydro.comorg.uk Ice skating frolics through the wonderful world of Disney.

The Adventures of Snigel

BIRDS GO POTTY Gallery of Modern Art, Sat 17 Mar, glasgowlife.org.uk Make your own birdhouse and try out the potter’s wheel in this workshop inspired by the art of Aaron Angell.

JAMES CAMPBELL: THE HILARIOUSLY FUNNY WORLD OF . . .

Citizens Theatre, Sat 17 Mar, citz. co.uk The man who launched the whole comedy for kids genre is back with a new show for children over six, and their parents.

and what it all has to do with contemporary art in this workshop that will look for traces of a hidden past.

EASTER EGGSTRAVAGANZA People’s Palace & Winter Gardens, Fri 30 & Sat 31 Mar, glasgowlife.org.uk The Buttercup Dairy prided itself on having the most beautiful window displays to attract customers. Help decorate mini Easter Eggs which will be displayed within the shop for the duration of the Easter holidays.

EDINBURGH SAVE THE PLANET!!

The Tall Ship, Sat 24 Mar, glasgowcomedyfestival.com A fun and light-hearted look at climate change featuring comedians Viv Gee (as Dr Dee Nyer), Marc Jennings and Stephen Halkett.

ART MAKER Scottish National Gallery, Sun 4 Feb, nationalgalleries.org Join the Art Maker Club and make your own masterpieces with artists Tessa Asquith-Lamb and Louise Fraser.

DIG IT UP Gallery of Modern Art, Sat 24 Mar, glasgowlife.org.uk Explore antiquity, the techniques used by archaeologists

CHILDREN’S WORKSHOP The Queen’s Hall, Sat 10 Feb, thequeenshall.net In an active workshop, Monica Wilkinson

introduces children aged 7–10 to some of the music from Schubert’s Trout Quintet.

WOLVES The Studio at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat 17 Feb, edtheatres.com Featuring performers aged 6–69, and with live music from Mairi Campbell, dance company Barrowland Ballet’s dynamic show asks how stories passed down the generations control our behaviour. Also Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, Sun 18 Feb; The Brunton, Musselburgh, Fri 23 Feb; Paisley Arts Centre, Sat 24 Feb. WHEN WE WERE YOUNG – SING-ALONG SONGS FROM THE PAST Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Sat 24 Feb, nationalgalleries.org Grannies and grandads are invited to explore the When We Were Young photography exhibition with their wee ones, followed by a special sing-along performance of songs and rhymes from the playgrounds of their past.

COMEDY KIDS The Stand, Sat 24 Feb & Sat 31 Mar, thestand.co.uk Tribe Porty Youth Theatre present eight mini comedians and their pint-sized routines.

TALES FROM THE MAGIC DRUM Scottish Storytelling Centre, Sat 17 Mar, tracscotland.org A riotous selection of stories and West African drumming from storyteller Dougie Mackay promises a fun, interactive storytelling session for ages 4+.

THE GREAT BRITISH DOG WALK Holyrood Park, Sun 25 Mar, hearingdogs.org.uk Take the doggy for walkies with this national campaign, taking place at National Trust properties across the UK. This event is in aid of the national charity, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

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MUSIC

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /music

KENDRICK LAMAR Grammy award-winning rapper hits the road in support of his fourth studio album When Kendrick Lamar released his chart-topping third album To Pimp a Butterfly back in 2015, it was a verifiable indication that the whispers and mumbles of ‘greatest rapper alive’ surrounding the record had some truth to them.

From his skills as a storyteller to his eclectic sampling of jazz, rock and pop, Lamar has succeeded in cementing his position in the rap world with his distinctive sound and an ability to interrogate current events and complex themes with an air of honesty that is unconventional

in the wider realm of hip hop. Last year’s album DAMN. took his storytelling prowess one step further, with 14 tracks of inward-looking meditations on the personal as well as political.

As he explained in an interview with Zane Lowe, ‘TPaB [was] the idea of changing the world and how we approach things . . . DAMN. [is] the idea of: “I can’t change the world until I change myself”.’

From the thumping piano riff of lead single ‘HUMBLE’ to the lyrical dexterity of ‘DNA’, DAMN. is a masterclass in flow, wordplay and innovation.

Lamar’s latest project sees him taking on production duties for the curated film soundtrack to Black Panther, for which two singles ‘All the Stars’ (with SZA) and ‘King’s Dead’ (with Future, Jay Rock and James Blake) have already been released. The soundtrack underlines his versatility as an artist and producer, as well as a discernible ambition that bodes well for the future of contemporary hip hop. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Kendrick Lamar plays SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Sun 11 Feb, with support from James Blake.

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MUSIC | Django Django

DJA N G O U N CH A

Django Django bassist Jimmy Dixon chats to Henry Northmore about the band’s new album, Marble Skies, and the challenges of reproducing their lush, multi-layered sound on stage

D

espite being formed at art school, Django Django hate the term ‘art rock’.

‘It seems like a really odd, lazy term,’ states bassist Jimmy Dixon. However, he admits their output is almost unclassifiable.

‘When anyone asks, I feel like I have to describe every single song, they vary so much. I think it was a fan who said “cosmic rockabilly” which is about as succinct and close to how broad the music is. I have no idea how I would describe it.’

Their new album, Marble Skies, is equally hard to categorise. A lush collage of aural experimentation that ping pongs through the 80s synthtronica of the title track, to the smooth jazz of ‘Sundials’, to the pulsating beats of ‘Real Gone’. A mix of new wave, disco, house and indie rock that refuses to be constrained by genre.

Django Django is the brainchild of drummer / producer David Maclean (brother of the Beta Band’s John Maclean) who started collaborating with vocalist / guitarist Vincent Neff at Edinburgh College of Art. ‘It was just the two of them at the beginning, literally in Dave’s bedroom,’ explains Dixon who first met Maclean while studying at Glasgow School of Art. ‘They posted a couple of tracks on MySpace and straightaway they were getting gig offers so they got Tommy [Grace, synths] on board and eventually I got involved.

We almost just stumbled into it, there was no pressure or expectation.’

The resulting eponymous LP went on to be nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2012. Second album Born Under Saturn was an interesting follow-up but at times felt disjointed,

as if they were cramming too many ideas into 60 minutes without considering the larger picture. Dixon admits they felt the pressure of following up the critical success of their debut and time constraints in the studio amped up the stress levels.

Preceded by addictive single ‘Tic Tac Toe’, Marble Skies feels more cohesive. It’s a sentiment Dixon shares. ‘This time we did most of the recording in our own studio in Tottenham, it was a lot more enjoyable and I think we feel a lot more confident. With the last album, we ended up putting pretty much every song we’d written on, but this time we had time to sit with the songs and be a lot more diplomatic and honest and make an album that works as an album rather than a bunch of songs thrown onto a record. I think it’s much more true to ourselves.’

It also features a couple of gorgeous collaborations. Firstly, Rebecca Taylor of Slow Club, who the band first met at a British music showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas, provides the dreamy vocals over the reggae grooves of ‘Surface to Air’. More intriguingly, ‘Sundials’ was built around a piano loop written by Czech composer Jan Hammer (probably most famous for his searing theme tune to 80s TV staple Miami Vice). ‘We had the album finished, then we had to get in touch with Jan and hope he would give us permission to use this piano riff. We thought it would just go through management but he was great, emailing back and forth, giving us suggestions. He was really into the track.’

The real skill is taking all these elements and binding them into a coherent whole. ‘I think

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Django Django | MUSIC

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we’ve been lucky because we’ve always had Dave producing the records,’ says Dixon. ‘It’s like doing a painting then putting a varnish finish on it, Dave’s production holds all the songs together.’

It wasn’t until the record was completed that Dixon found he could sit back, take stock and pick out overriding themes and moods. ‘For me it feels like quite a reflective album, particularly something like “Sundials”, which feels like an end of summer track. We’re all a bit more mature and aware of what we’re doing now.’

Translating that sound from record to the live environment is a difficult task. Their multilayered sound is built up in the studio and it’s almost impossible to recreate on stage. However, it’s a challenge the band enjoy and embrace.

When we talk to Dixon, Django Django are deep in rehearsals reworking Marble Skies for their upcoming tour. ‘We hardly ever record them live as a band so we end up finishing a record and almost have to start from scratch, pull them apart and learn how to play them again,’ he says. ‘It doesn’t make life easy but it means you can deconstruct a song. You can end up stripping it right back or speeding it up, you just have to accept that you won’t be able to play half of these tracks live like they sound on the record. It is tricky but generally it’s worth it, because you go out on tour playing almost a new song. It keeps it really fresh and interesting.’

Marble Skies is out now on Rough Trade, see review, page 77. Django Django play SWG3, Glasgow, Thu 1 Mar.

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Greek | MUSIC

COMPLEX MATTERS Carol Main chats to leading man Alex Otterburn about Greek, Scottish Opera’s latest take on the story of Oedipus

‘Y

ou shouldn’t have sex with your mother’ is a pretty unambiguous message to take away from Scottish Opera’s production of MarkAnthony Turnage’s re-telling of the Oedipus myth, based on Steven Berkoff’s 1980 play of the same name. Following great success at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival, the opera is back for two nights only at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal at the beginning of February.

Taking the lead role of Eddy once more, and the source of the sound advice above, is Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, Alex Otterburn (pictured).

‘It’s not really a normal sort of revival,’ he says, ‘as it’s within the same season so very much still in the bones.’ In-between times, however, Otterburn has had to tackle Verdi’s La Traviata for Scottish Opera’s autumn production, a completely different kettle of operatic fish, but such is the life of the professional singer.

In Greek, Eddy lives in a seedy, grubby sort of world, with nothing on the horizon for a better future. When, like Oedipus, the prophecy of killing his father and sleeping with his mother comes true, the whole trauma that unfolds is brilliantly conveyed in the Turnage / Berkoff in-your-face, anarchic version of the tale.

In Berkoff’s own description of the piece, he said, ‘Greek came to me via Sophocles, trickling its way down the millennia until it reached the unimaginable wastelands of Tufnell Park . . . In my eyes, Britain seemed to have become a gradually decaying island, preyed upon by the wandering hordes who saw no future for themselves in a

society which had few ideals or messages to offer them.’

For Otterburn, there are parallels with that desolate Britain of the 80s and what is going on politically, socially and economically today, as well as with the original play itself. ‘The production is very different to a piece of standard theatre,’ he says, ‘with no stage furniture and leaving you with a bare, stripped-down feeling, which is how Greek tragedy was originally set.

'Alongside that, I think that more than ever this piece is relevant to us today. It is a time of overwhelming political change and division, and apart from direct comparisons from the 80s, we are also in a world of instability, whether to do with the Arab Spring or Trump. The 80s were a time of unemployment, strikes and strife and, as a direct parallel, we could hardly be more politically in turmoil. We’re reflecting these times now.’

As if that’s not depressing enough, the character of Eddy simply cannot escape his true destiny. There is however, a glimmer of hope. ‘The wonderful thing is’, says Otterburn, ‘that inbuilt within the opera is the idea of the circular nature of fate and destiny.

Things come in cycles. For instance, liberalism and tolerance turn in on themselves and breed intolerance. But we always move forward.’

A rugby-playing economics graduate who only started singing when he was 19, Otterburn’s own destiny, fate or otherwise, is undoubtedly one to watch out for.

Greek, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Feb.

PHOTO: JANE HOBSON

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MUSIC | Previews ELECTRONICA

FOUR TET

Barrowlands, Glasgow, Fri 16 Feb Having now been in the game for 20 years, Kieran Hebden (known more commonly by his moniker Four Tet) is arguably one of the finest electronic musicians and club DJs around. His collaborations with everyone from Steve Reid to Burial have garnered him vast amounts of attention, but in his genre-defying solo material, he reveals a multitude of influences that all play a distinct role in creating melodies, rhythms and beats that are sonically rich and highly evocative.

Hebden’s latest release, New Energy, his ninth album and first since 2015, harks back to various motifs from past records, uniting these with his current more dance-centric sounds.

There’s the sweeping instrumentation and blissed-out melodies complemented by elements of Indian classical music and jazz as on ‘Two Thousand and Seventeen’. But then this coalesces seamlessly with more typically garage / house grooves on tracks like the up-tempo ‘SW9 9SL’.

New Energy’s warmth points to its overall characteristic of intimacy, which is backed by the lack of overt fanfare that surrounded its release. Instead, Hebden chose to donate the first 1000 vinyl and CD copies to Oxfam to sell. As he recently explained on the Stance Podcast, where he appeared as a guest: ‘the idea came from my mum: she works in an Oxfam branch . . . and she asked for some copies, so we can sell them there.

It’s a charity that’s been around my whole life and I’ve always associated them with music because most Oxfam shops sell records. I can’t believe I’d never thought of it before.’

As part of his upcoming tour, Hebden will be heading to Barrowlands for a special headline show, which will see him playing ‘in the round’, directly in the middle of the dancefloor.

It’s a rare chance for fans to see the DJ in this non-traditional set-up and one that will no doubt augment his trademark club experimentations. (Arusa Qureshi)

R&B

JORJA SMITH

The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Tue 6 Feb Over the past few years, there’s been a steady emergence of new talent coming out of the British R&B scene, with the likes of Ray BLK and Mabel finding success in the mainstream arena. Walsallborn singer Jorja Smith has played a relatively significant role in this new wave of formidable female vocalists, emerging early in 2016 with her Dizzee Rascal-sampling debut ‘Blue Lights’, which was inspired by the prevalence of police oppression, brutality and black stereotyping. The 20-year-old singer has since proven herself to be a gifted and captivating force within the genre, despite having not yet released her debut album.

The past 12 months have been a bit of a whirlwind for Smith, with guest appearances on Drake’s More Life, a North American tour with Bruno Mars and, just recently, the announcement of her Brits 2018 Critics’ Choice award win. Her 2017 Preditah-produced single ‘On My Mind’ shows that she has the versatility to move between soulful ballads and club-ready garage anthems with ease. But it’s the combination of her sultry, jazz-infused vocals and her self-assured and thought-provoking lyrics that have resulted in people finally stopping to pay attention.

Her latest track ‘Let Me Down’, which features a guest verse from grime’s golden boy Stormzy, is currently doing the rounds with its melancholy piano riff and soaring vocal melodies. To say that Smith has a strong future ahead of her would be an understatement, but as we await her highly anticipated debut, we can only begin to imagine where she’ll be headed next. (Arusa Qureshi) ART ROCK

FRANZ FERDINAND

O2 Academy, Glasgow, Sat 17 Feb It came as no surprise to Franz Ferdinand when guitarist Nick McCarthy said he wanted to leave the band. His departure was announced in the spring of 2016, once their collaborative FFS project with Sparks was complete, and the challenge was to find a replacement member.

The remaining three members knew of electronic producer Julian ‘Miaoux Miaoux’ Corrie's work, as his album School of Velocity was up against FFS at 2016’s Scottish Album of the Year Awards, while the further recommendation of Corrie's label Chemikal Underground was also taken on board.

‘We met up with Julian, went for a curry at Mother India’s Café, had a few drinks and a chat,’ recalls Alex Kapranos. ‘Then we went down to my place [in Dumfriesshire] and headed to the pub, because you’ve got to hang out together and make sure you get on well, don’t you?

Eventually we played some music and the vibe was great. He’s a diverse and rich musical personality, and we could see that would work within our unified sound.’

The result is this month’s Always Ascending, a record which fuses the arch New Wave sound we expect from Franz with Corrie’s added techno influence. ‘Our ambitions are still quite essential,’ says Kapranos of Franz 2.0. ‘We want to make music which is exciting and surprising, and gives you that indescribable feeling when you hear a good record.’ (David Pollock) ■ Always Ascending is released by Domino on Fri 9 Feb. See review, page 76.

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Bach Matthew Passion

Fri 23/03/2018 | The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh 7pm | £12 – £25 (conc. available) | Booking: 0131 668 2019 Director John Butt,e Evangelist Nicholas Mulroy www.dunedin-consort.org.uk

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MUSIC | Records DJ EP

ALBUM OF THE ISSUE

CLASSICAL ELECTRONICA

NILS FRAHM

All Melody (Erased Tapes) ●●●●●

For two years, Berlin-based composer Nils Frahm has been working towards the production of a record that manages to depict his own imagination and internal musical dialogue without restriction. The result, All Melody, is a triumph in its captivating use of contrasting ideas, unconventional instrumentation and mesmerizing builds.

‘Sunson’ epitomises this perfectly, with Frahm using three notes as a foundation, then working in variations on this theme. By the end, there are so many wonderful colours and textures in play that something initially simple has become a sprawling canvas of melody and harmony. Vocals are utilised to interesting effect throughout, from opener ‘The Whole Universe Wants to Be Touched’ which enlists a chorus of voices to build a haunting and ethereal ambience, to ‘Human Range’ where the wordless singing imitates the timbre of a string orchestra.

Title track ‘All Melody’ most clearly underlines the album’s mission statement, with its skittish electronics and reverb ebbing and flowing as the emphasis falls on the developing melody.

Frahm’s unorthodox approach to composition has led him to forge a partnership between piano and electronics which produces a musical landscape that is rich and entirely absorbing. All Melody is somehow more expansive than previous releases, despite its titular focus on the intricacy of individual melodies and recapitulated themes. What Frahm ultimately strives for, and succeeds in creating, is a minimalism that maximises the beauty, emotion and essence of the entire musical picture, without losing any hint of subtlety or finesse. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out now. Nils Frahm plays Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 1 Mar.

ART ROCK

FRANZ FERDINAND

Always Ascending (Domino) ●●●●● In the five years since the release of their last album (we aren’t counting 2015’s Sparks collaboration), guitarist Nick McCarthy has departed, while electronic producer Julian ‘Miaoux Miaoux’ Corrie has been recruited. Add in another new member who isn’t on this album – guitarist Dino Bardot, formerly of the band 1990s – and it equals the 2018 reincarnation of Glasgow art rockers Franz Ferdinand, marking the first significant membership upheaval during their qualityfilled 15-year existence.

Produced by Cassius’ Philippe Zdar, the record is clear but not polished in its intended rawness, steered by the ever-present and wryly compelling confidence of Alex Kapranos’ lead vocal. Franz’s fifth album is dense with ideas and sonic playfulness: the title track is one of the most focused and well-realised results, with Corrie’s grinding synthesiser riffs and ghostly backing vocals lending the song an air of Django Django, while ‘Lazy Boy’s mantra-like hymn to the joys of sleeping-in is relentlessly catchy, coming in like Giorgio Moroder and going out like the Fire Engines.

‘Feel the Love Go’ finally brings the band together with the club movement of their very earliest days, adding squelchy electroclash keys to an archetypal Franz Ferdinand chorus. Meanhile the closing track, ‘Slow Don’t Kill Me Slow’, is a gently swooning ballad which takes the band as close as they’re ever likely to get to Low. There are plenty highs throughout which you want to hear again such as the wistful ‘Huck & Jim’s grungy declaration that ‘We’re going to America / We’re going to tell them ‘bout the NHS’ and ‘The Academy Award’ with its plaintive orchestral dismissal of melodrama.

But at other points some songs are overly busy, switching tone and style midway, as though the right hook can’t quite be decided upon.

They are a new band, after all, and they’re still finding their feet.

(David Pollock) ■ Out Fri 9 Feb. See preview, page 74.

NIGHTWAVE

Sanctuary (Fool’s Gold) ●●●●● The most exciting DJs are always the ones that you can’t pigeonhole or categorise as they continually traverse eclectic and unexpected territory. Maya Medvesek, better known as Nightwave, has carved a reputation around the UK for her forward-thinking sets and dynamic execution of everything from footwork to techno. The release of her Wavejumper EP in 2017 was an indication of where her sound was heading, but new EP Sanctuary takes this one step further, with four tracks of high-energy ravetastic grooves and thundering bass.

Opening track ‘Limelight’ is a euphoric house banger with a steady, pulsating beat, soulful female vocals tying it all together. ‘Sanctuary’ continues in similar vein, bolstered by some playfully quirky melodies and airy choral-like harmonies.

The final two tracks, ‘Tarmac’ and ‘Fantazia’, are bass-heavy apocalyptic pieces, clearly designed to be enjoyed in a packed and sweaty club environment.

In a city like Glasgow, renowned internationally for names like Optimo, LuckyMe and Numbers, it can take something that little bit extra to stand out from the crowd. For women in electronic music, it’s often a greater struggle to be heard, appreciated and respected, but with each DJ that breaks down these barriers, the industry becomes more diverse, creating a more level playing field for future talent.

Medvesek has long been an advocate for gender equality, taking steps to ensure that her success translates to better access and opportunities for women. As well as hosting programming and DJ workshops, she also co-runs Producergirls, which aims to encourage more young women to take up electronic music production.

Though her activism is highly regarded throughout the industry, her skills as a producer have garnered her most praise.

Sanctuary is the latest in a line of strong Nightwave releases and mixes that place her in the same league as some of Glasgow’s finest. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out Fri 2 Feb. EP COLLECTION

BELLE & SEBASTIAN

How To Solve Our Human Problems (Matador Records) ●●●●● Three years ago, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance heralded a seemingly fresh slate for the Belle & Sebastian boys and girl. Largely sidestepping the jangly lo-fi indie textures that made their name in the mid to late 90s, Murdoch and co had moved into seriously poppy territory which owed more to Pet Shop Boys than Tigermilk.

With the three EPs comprising How to Solve Our Human Problems, the band are touching base on their gloriously minimalist past as well as the slickly produced tune-heavy current state they are in. Opening track ‘Sweet Dew Lee’ starts off sounding like their homage to Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen album before launching into an 80s synth instrumental break which suggests they’ve been mainlining both seasons of Stranger Things at once. It’s perhaps the number which best captures this mighty jousting between past and present, with both periods coming up smelling of something akin to roses.

Elbowing their way between the lo-fi and hi-energy is a surprisingly quasipsychedelic sheen on tracks such as ‘Everything Is Now Part Two’ and ‘Cornflakes’. On the downside, ‘The Girl Doesn’t Get It’ is just too sprightly to love while closer ‘Best Friend’ could have landed on a Glasvegas album, and ‘Same Star’ sheds an almost Motown-infused skin, but knows exactly where to draw the line before teetering into parody.

For longstanding Belle & Sebastian watchers, a trio of EPs may make them pine for the ‘Dog on Wheels’, ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’ and ‘3..6..9 Seconds of Light’ triptych that first brought them to the attention of indie lovers in Glasgow before trampolining them to higher acclaim.

While with this current threesome, they might not have produced all the solutions to our current global malaise, for the best part of an hour, Belle & Sebastian have certainly made life sweet again.

(Brian Donaldson) ■ Out Fri 16 Feb.

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Records | MUSIC

list.co.uk/music INDIE

DJANGO DJANGO

Marble Skies (Ribbon Music) ●●●●● The appearance of Django Django’s third album within a couple of weeks of Franz Ferdinand’s latest seems like some sort of engineered Blur / Oasis contest between bands of Anglo-Scots who got their start in and around art schools. Not that we want to pit two of our favourites against one another, but the comparison does illustrate just how tricky it is to seamlessly fuse synthesisers with a more typical band set-up, and how well-practised Django Django are at it.

Although the quartet’s self-titled 2012 debut album monopolised a lot of the critical attention they’ve enjoyed so far (and a Mercury Music Prize nomination), both 2015’s Born Under Saturn and now Marble Skies have maintained a similar level of quality and sonic exploration. They make incredibly versatile, intergenerational music, which works for soundtracking both dancefloors and school runs. Advance single ‘In Your Beat’ has a crunchy, endlessly satisfying techno rhythm, while Vincent Neff’s highly produced choirboy harmony creates a compelling pop hook. ‘Real Gone’ is a striking song, an old-fashioned acid-house beast which breaks into a 4am Balearic piano and synth coda as Neff croons that ‘We’ve been lost but now we’re found / But the moment’s almost real gone’.

Great songs abound on this record, from the opening title track (an odd but utterly logical amalgam of blissed-out Madchester guitar chimes and Yazooesque synthpop) to the Latin groove of ‘Surface to Air’, with Slow Club’s Rebecca Taylor on vocals. All of the above-named electronic adventures bookend the album, together with the breezy West Coast rock of ‘Fountains’, and surround a run of tracks which bear more classic influences, from the 13th Floor Elevators reverb heaviness of ‘Champagne’ and ‘Further’, to the piano-led flower power of ‘Sundials’. Bouncing between retro reverence and impatient futurist exploration, Django Django remain a great and timeless pop band in search of an era all their own. (David Pollock) ■ Out now. Django Django play SWG3, Glasgow, Thu 1 Mar.

COMING UP ...

RICH HALL’S HOEDOWN Fri 23 Feb, 8pm

RICKIE LEE JONES Wed 28 Feb, 7pm

ELECTRONICA

DABRYE

Three / Three (Ghostly International) ●●●●● When Tadd Mullinix debuted his Dabrye moniker in 2001 with the release of One / Three, he unleashed a sound crafted from the dexterous merging of modern electronica with instrumental hip hop and elements of Detroit funk. Since the 2006 follow-up Two / Three, the Michigan producer has been concentrating more heavily on his dance projects, releasing music under various aliases. But over a decade later, he returns with his trilogy’s finale, once again entrusting a series of skilled MCs to deliver rhymes over his now trademark beats.

Three / Three hints at a greater influence of soul and jazz, heard in tracks like ‘Sunset’ and ‘First Law of Nature Rock Day’, with plenty of mellow refrains, relaxed repetition and a much more liberated feel overall. But this is integrated with the welcome addition of some of Detroit’s finest talent including Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat, Kadence, Quelle Chris, Danny Brown and more. Each guest vocalist adds their own unique vibe to Dabrye’s electronic-tinged hip hop lines, often juxtaposing something very minimalist and clean with fast-flowing, animated patterns.

Opener ‘Tunnel Vision’, with Guilty Simpson’s rough multi-layered rhymes, illustrates this excellently, as his flow bounces along above Dabrye’s laidback touches. ‘Emancipated’, with Ghostface Killah on lyrical duties, has this cut and paste quality in the accompanying chimes, which continues on ‘Lil Mufukuz’ featuring Doom assisted by some experimental funk. ‘The Appetite’, meanwhile, is sharper thanks to Roc Marciano and Quelle Chris’ rugged verses and Danny Brown’s familiar yelp, and ‘Culture Shuffle’ is arguably the track that best demonstrates Dabrye’s avant-garde layering, with its Middle Eastern sounding rhythms and futuristic bleeps.

Ultimately, as well as representing Dabrye’s longawaited return to his instrumental hip-hop leanings, Three / Three signals an artistry and flair evident in the first two records of this now formidable trilogy. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out Fri 16 Feb.

THE BLUES BAND: 30 YEARS AND BACK FOR MORE Sat 3 Mar, 7.30pm

JOAN OSBORNE Sat 24 Mar, 7.30pm

TIM KLIPHUIS TRIO Fri 30 Mar, 7.30pm

Clerk Street | Edinburgh EH8 9JG thequeenshall.net | 0131 668 2019 T: @queens_hall F: @queenshall 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 77

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MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World

JAZZ & WORLD

EXPOSURE PHOTO: SEB SINGH

JAZZ

IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS We Out Here (Brownswood) ●●●●●

A snapshot of London’s new wave of jazz, We Out Here was recorded in three days under the guiding hand of Shabaka Hutchings. The British-Barbadian reedist’s own contribution, ‘Black Skin, Black Masks,’ is a highlight, its expansive grooves, snaking clarinets and elegant piano elevated by artful abstraction. Hutchings’ Sons Of Kemet bandmate Theon Cross brings swaggering grime tuba to ‘Brockley’, one of several tracks that show the influence of London bass and club culture. Moses Boyd’s ‘Sirens’ is the album’s deepest dive into electronica, with palm-muted guitar and crunchy drum loops pricking at the surface of swelling synth pads. Dub horns and dirty synth bass raise the pressure, before raw tenor sax and frenetic hard bop drums tear the roof off. Other tracks are less adventurous, but no less enjoyable, from Ezra Collective’s Afrobeat-influenced 'Pure Shade' to the sweet Afro-Caribbean guitar of Kokoroko’s ‘Abusey Junction’.

JAZZ

TONY BEVAN & KIM MOORE Rime (Foghorn Records) ●●●●●

Since moving to Glasgow in 2016, the mighty saxophonist Tony Bevan has run the improvised music event Help Me I’m Melting!, where he collaborates with musicians from the Scottish, UK, and international scenes. Rime is the first vinyl release from the sessions, lovingly presented on Bevan’s own Foghorn label. This August 2016 set sees Bevan commune with Kim Moore (WOLF, Zoey Van Goey).

Moore uses pedals to layer melodic fragments over textural drones, while Bevan patiently explores a range of bass saxophone timbres, from guttural parps to long, fluttering tones. There’s some beautifully sensitive duo playing, where lyrical phrases emerge from sustained tonal clusters. Elsewhere, it gets pretty gnarly, with Moore’s distorted viola and Bevan’s breathy slobber conjuring images of a steel mill sinking into a stormy ocean. The final section is stunning, with Bevan’s grainy soprano saxophone soaring and braying over Moore’s ghostly orchestra.

WORLD

FELA KUTI

Box Set #4 Curated by Erkykah Badu (Knitting Factory Records) ●●●●● The Fela Kuti reissue programme continues with a seven LP selection by the mighty Erykah Badu, spanning 1976 to 1992, and the dissolution of the revolutionary Afrika ’70 band and the formation of Egypt ’80. This series has been particularly valuable in highlighting overlooked albums from the Afrobeat pioneer’s voluminous catalogue such as 1977’s Johnny Must Drop, with its heavy percussion workouts, and 1984’s Army Arrangement, where deceptively cool grooves erupt into wild organ solos. Alongside these gems are stone cold classics like 1976’s Yellow Fever, where Kuti tears it up on saxophone over Tony Allen’s indelible groove.

WORLD

GUY ONE

#1 (Philopon) ●●●●● A star in Ghana, Guy One is perhaps best known to international audiences from his collaborations with fellow countryman King Ayisoba. One’s take on Frafra music is more rural and traditional than Ayisoba’s amplified urban kologo, but on #1 he expands his horizons with the help of Berlin funk specialist Max Weissenfeldt, adding brassy horn parts, electronics and drum kit to the mix.

Afrobeat meets dub on ‘Nongre Nongre Sugre Sugre’, while ‘Bangere Tomme’ complements the gutsy twang of One’s kologo with jittery guitar. Killer grooves abound, but One’s keening and urgent voice is the main attraction.

WORLD

NEGRO LEO

Action Lekking (QTV) ●●●●● Negro Leo was among the Brazilian contingent at Glasgow’s Counterflows 2015, where he performed with Rio De Janeiro’s Chinese Cookie Poets. That set had an angular post-punk feel, but Leo’s latest sounds more like a warped update of tropicalia, as he rants tunefully over spirited acoustic guitar and a rhythm section that sounds like a free jazz damaged Os Mutantes. Wonky electronics and falsetto outbursts add to the album’s mind-warping appeal. A terrific underground pop album, infusing the weirder side of Caetano Veloso and Jards Macalé with the outsider spirit of Syd Barrett and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. (All reviews by Stewart Smith)

THE HONEY FARM Anyone who caught one of their shows in 2017 will know that all-female trio the Honey Farm are some of the most exciting new voices in Scottish rap. Frank, fearless and very funny, twentysomethings Gael (aka SweetHardt Dowt, ‘like a fagend’), Bee (Pimpsess hAsha) and Gracie (Bitta DisGrace), and their male producer Robin (DJ Honeybadger), are brilliantly unbowed. SweetHardt Dowt tells us their story so far On being country bumpkins We’ve known each other forever. Robin and Gracie are brother and sister, and I’ve known them since we were babies. Bee went to the same school as us (Dunbar Grammar) and I first met her on a production of Bugsy Malone. We all live in Dunbar now, but we grew up on the rural outskirts of the town. We’re total bumpkins. I grew up in a hippie family, listening to Donovan, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and stuff.

On discovering rap, and relating to it as women When I was ten I discovered Eminem, and that was the first music that was really mine. I used to rap along to those first two records all through my teens, but it wasn’t until years later that I started seriously listening to rap; that was when Bee and I started writing together. I think I found a lot of rap inaccessible to girls, but if you’re not relating to mainstream hip hop, then you have to find what you do like. We love BWP (Bytches With Problems) and we’re really inspired by MIA, Die Antwoord and Princess Nokia.

Now that I rap, I find it easier to relate to all rap in some way, to be really impressed with the flows and the beats. I love Necro, Ill Bill, Busta Rhymes and absolutely love Immortal Technique.

On starting out Bee and I had this song called ‘Pussy All Day’, which we’d written on ukulele and mandolin. It was quite a sweet love song about being sick of men and wishing we could be a couple, but not being gay. It was Gracie who pushed us to do it as a rap. Bee and I used to text raps to each other as a laugh, and we practised them to metronome videos on YouTube, but we’d never imagined we could do it in front of people.

On being fierce We mostly write about stuff that we come across in our lives, as women. We’ve got sexy songs, but I worry that people think we’re doing that to be shocking and get attention. As three women, we’re going to be sexualised no matter what we say, so we might as well own it and define what we’re into and what we’re not into. (As told to David Pollock) ■ Yoko Pwno x The Honey Farm, Teviot Underground, Edinburgh, Sat 3 Mar.

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AUTHENTIC, IMPORTED, AWARD WINNING U.S. LAGER

@PabstUK

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MUSIC | Highlights

HITLIST

KENDRICK LAMAR The SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Sun 11 Feb, thessehydro.com LA rapper, who has worked with the likes of Dr Dre, Drake and Pharrell Williams, tours his fourth album DAMN. See preview, page 69.

glasgow-barrowland. com The incredibly prolific Kieran Hebden in his minimal, yet melodic electronica guise. See preview, page 74.

DJANGO DJANGO SWG3, Glasgow, Thu 1 Mar, djangodjango. co.uk See feature, page 72, and review, page 77. Also Fat Sam’s,

FOUR TET Barrowland, Fri 16 Feb,

Dundee, Mon 26 Feb, AT THE DRIVE-IN O2 Academy, Glasgow, Thu 15 Mar, academymusicgroup. com/ o2academyglasgow Reformed post-hardcore outfit from El Paso, Texas.

Blinding support form Death From Above and Le Butcherettes.

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Mon 26 Mar, thessehydro.com Banish all memories of Richard Stilgoe – this cult New Zealand duo give comedy songs a good name as they return for their first UK tour in seven years. See feature, page 36.

MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

MORRISSEY SSE Hydro, Sat 17 Feb, thessehydro.com After recent comments it’s increasingly hard to be a Morrissey fan as he swings into Glasgow.

GLASGOW

BRITISH SEA POWER The Garage, Sat 17 Feb, garageglasgow.co.uk Angular, arty Brighton indie rock quartet with a compelling visual sense.

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Various venues, until Sun 4 Feb, celticconnections.com Glasgow’s annual folk, roots, indie, world and traditional music festival celebrating the links between Celtic music and cultures across the globe. Highlights of the closing days of 2018’s CC include Blazin’ Fiddles (Royal Concert hall, Thu 1 Feb), Beth Orton (O2 ABC, Fri 2 Feb), Dean Owens (Drygate Brewery, Fri 2 Feb), Joe Henry (Mackintosh Church, Fri 2 Feb), Colter Wall (Tron Theatre, Sat 3 Feb), The Mavericks (Old Fruitmarket, Sun 4 Feb) and the Celtic Connections Closing Party (O2 ABC, Sun 4 Feb).

FRANZ FERDINAND O2 Academy, Sat 17 Feb, academymusicgroup.com/ o2academyglasgow The allconquering, foot-stomping, guitarjangling foursome tour new album Always Ascending. See preview, page 74, and review, page 76.

ALVVAYS O2 ABC, Sun 18 Feb, academymusicgroup.com/ o2abcglasgow Canadian fuzz-pop quintet.

THE GO! TEAM Queen Margaret Union, Fri 9 Feb, qmunion.org.uk Sonic Youth meet the Jackson 5 plus all points in between pop up during Go!

JAKE BUGG The Old Fruitmarket, Mon 19 & Tue 20 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls.com/ old-fruitmarket Singer-songwriter peddling a folky country indie sound.

HENRY ROLLINS TRAVEL SLIDESHOW Mitchell Library, Sat 10 Feb, henryrollins.com Punk rock hero and former Black Flag frontman presents an evening of stories and photos from his global adventures.

PAUL TOWNDROW: CHARLIE PARKER WITH STRINGS Merchants House of Glasgow, Sun 11 Feb, merchantshouse. org.uk The sax player leads a 16-piece string orchestra in this tribute to the great Charlie Parker.

PEACH PIT Broadcast, Sun 11 Feb, broadcastglasgow.com Canadian pop-quartet. Also Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sat 10 Feb, sneakypetes.co.uk

HELL IS FOR HEROES O2 ABC, Tue 20 Feb, academymusicgroup.com/ o2abcglasgow Caterwauling emo rock combo return for the 15th anniversary of The Neon Handshake.

Big 00s rock lineup with A and Vex Red on the bill.

First Aid Kit

THE LOVELY EGGS Stereo, Mon 12 Feb, stereocafebar. com Quirky DIY lo-fi duo from Lancaster. Also The Mash House, Edinburgh, Sun 11 Feb, themashhouse.co.uk ALESTORM’S PIRATEFEST O2 ABC, Wed 14 Feb, academymusicgroup.com/ o2abcglasgow Charge your flagon

and line up the rum for a night of pirate metal from Perth. Aaaarrrrr!!!!

The band are joined on tour by The Dread Crew of Oddwood and Rumahoy.

CABBAGE King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Thu 15 Feb, kingtuts.co.uk The Mancunian quintet performs self-penned postpunk material.

THE XCERTS O2 ABC, Fri 23 Feb, academymusicgroup.com/ o2abcglasgow Scottish trio in the Idlewild/Biffy mould.

FIRST AID KIT O2 Academy, Sat 24 Feb, academymusicgroup.com/ o2academyglasgow Ethereal nu-folky music from Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Soderberg.

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Highlights | MUSIC ERASURE Usher Hall, Sat 3 Feb, usherhall. co.uk Eighties electro-pop darlings Vince Clarke and Andy Bell. Also Caird Hall, Dundee, Fri 2 Feb.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

JORJA SMITH The Liquid Room, Tue 6 Feb, liquidroom.com Gritty soul and R&B vocalist from Walsall who already counts Drake, Dizzee Rascal, Stormzy and Skrillex among her fans.

See preview, page 72.

THE MARMOZETS The Liquid Room, Mon 12 Feb, liquidroom.com Exhilarating, clattering alternative rock/metal quintet.

NEHH PRESENTS...

MEURSAULT Summerhall, Sat 17 Feb, summerhall.co.uk The Edinburgh indie/folktronica band. Marking the tenth anniversary of their debut album Meursault will play Kissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues and the Nothing Broke EP in their entirety.

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD O2 ABC, Sun 25 Feb, academymusicgroup.com/ o2abcglasgow Australian psychedelic rock band.

PAUL WELLER SSE Hydro, Sun 25 Feb, thessehydro.com The Modfather performs material from his 40-year career, including his latest album A Kind Revolution.

WILEY SWG3, Tue 27 Feb, swg3.tv The ‘godfather of grime’. Also The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Wed 28 Feb, liquidroom.com NILS FRAHM Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Thu 1 Mar, glasgowconcerthalls.com Contemporary composer and pianist from Berlin. See review, page 76.

THE WAILERS O2 ABC, Sun 4 Mar, academymusicgroup.com/ o2abcglasgow Bob Marley’s original backing band, led by Aston ‘Familyman’ Barrett.

PALE WAVES King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Sun 4 Mar, kingtuts.co.uk The Manchester-formed four-piece offer up a glittering alt.rock performance.

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING Barrowland, Thu 8 Mar, glasgowbarrowland.com Quirky Manchester-

formed quartet, fronted by the singer Jonathan Higgs, performs arty electrorock infused indie-pop.

THE FURROW COLLECTIVE The Hug and Pint, Fri 9 Mar, thehugandpint.com Featuring award-winning solo musicians this modern folk outfit approaches traditional ballads with a bold, improvisational twist. Also Falkirk Town Hall, Sun 11 Mar, falkirkcommunitytrust.org JOAN BAEZ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Fri 16 Mar, glasgowconcerthalls.com Musical giant whose influence on the likes of everyone from Bob Dylan to Led Zeppelin has been enormous.

Also Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Mar, usherhall.co.uk

SAM SMITH SSE Hydro, Fri 23 & Sat 24 Mar, thessehydro.com The Londonbased soul/pop singer is back with new album The Thrill of It All, following the massive success of his debut In the Lonely Hour.

YOUNG FATHERS Barrowland, Sat 24 Mar, glasgowbarrowland.com Scottish alternative hip hop trio tour, just after the release of their third album, Cocoa Sugar, on Fri 9 Mar. PHOENIX Barrowland, Mon 26 Mar, glasgowbarrowland.com The Parisian alternative rockers tour their new album, Bankrupt!.

FRIGHTENED RABBIT O2 Academy, Sat 17 Mar, academymusicgroup.com/ o2academyglasgow Celebrating the tenth anniversary of Midnight Organ Fight.

MAXIMUM PRESSURE SWG3, Sat Mar 31, swg3.tv Glasgow techno duo Slam host this series of big club nights. Marathon Easter session featuring Nina Kaviz, Eats Everything, British Murder Boys (live), Optimo, DJ Stingray and more.

Last entry 10pm.

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS Barrowland, Sat 17 Mar, glasgowbarrowland.com Ireland’s favourite delinquent punk sons with a special St Patrick Day’s gig.

MØ O2 ABC, Sat 31 Mar, academymusicgroup.com/ o2abcglasgow Electropop from Scandinavia.

JASON DERULO SSE Hydro, Tue 20 Mar, thessehydro.com The chart-topping American R&B singer returns with new music from his upcoming fifth studio album 777.

EDINBURGH WILL VARLEY La Belle Angèle, Fri 2 Feb, labelleangele.com Rambling folk troubadour.

LOST MAP’S STRANGE INVITATION The Fruitmarket Gallery, Sat 24 Feb, fruitmarket.co.uk A gathering of artists from the Lost Map roster, curated by Pictish Trail. Teaming up with the Fruitmarket Gallery for Bas Jan’s album launch party plus Kathryn Joseph, the Lost Map DJs and more to be announced.

MARTHA FFION Sneaky Pete’s, Fri 9 Mar, sneakypetes.co.uk Glasgow pop singer-songwriter. Also Mono, Glasgow, Sat 10 Mar, monocafebar.com LONDON ASTROBEAT ORCHESTRA: TALKING HEADS The Voodoo Rooms, Thu 15 & Fri 16 Mar, thevoodoorooms.com West African musicians fronted by Edd Bateman pay tribute to their favourite Talking Heads albums.

GARY NUMAN Assembly Rooms, Fri 16 Mar, usherhall.co.uk Pioneering electro rocker, who’s finally getting the recognition he deserves.

NEHH PRESENTS . . . OUT LINES + LOMOND CAMPBELL Summerhall, Sat 17 Mar, summerhall.co.uk New project from the Twilight Sad’s James Graham, Kathryn Joseph and Marcus Mackay. With support from Lomond Campbell.

BELLE & SEBASTIAN Usher Hall, Sat 24 Mar, usherhall. co.uk Scotland’s much loved purveyors of jangling indie. See review, page 76. Also Perth Concert Hall, Fri 23 Mar, horsecross.co.uk 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 81

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MUSIC | Classical

L A C I S AS

CL

CHORAL PROJECT

LUDUS BAROQUE – BACH CANTATA PROJECT St Andrew’s and St George’s West Church, Edinburgh, Sun 18 Feb, Sun 18 March & Sun 15 April

According to the Big Choral Census published by charity Voices Now last summer, there are more than 40,000 choirs in the UK, equating to over 2.14 million people singing in them.

It’s around the same number of people in the UK who swim each week and 300,000 more than those playing amateur football on a regular basis. That’s a lot of singers.

For those who are keen to join the big singing party, Edinburgh based Ludus Baroque has recently launched a new project, taking four of Bach’s gloriously vibrant cantatas as its starting point. Specialist period instrumentalists and a top notch quartet of soloists will lead the way, but the joy of singing Bach chorales will be opened up to those who simply want to take part and sing. ‘Each of the four cantatas will be performed on the specific day Bach composed it for,’ says artistic director Richard Neville-Towle, ‘and we are inviting you, the choral singers and enthusiasts of Edinburgh and further afield to take part in this project.’

Organised so that each cantata is rehearsed and performed informally across the course of a Sunday afternoon and early evening – one a month over January, February, March, April – there are different levels of participation. For those who would like to be part of the action but might not quite have the confidence to hold a vocal line, there is the option of singing only in the final chorale. Why do so many people sing? According to Voices Now, and a whole range of other growing evidence, singing in choirs is hugely beneficial in terms of physical and mental health and bringing together communities. For Ludus Baroque’s project there is all that plus a rare opportunity to get under the skin of this most magical music. (Carol Main) ■ For more information, contact amanda@ludusbaroque.co.uk

CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS HITLIST WINTERPLAY Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 10 & Sun 11 Feb, thequeenshall.net Mini-festival of classical chamber music curated by renowned pianist Susan Tomes. She's joined by Austrian violinist Erich Höbarth and cellist Philip Higham plus other guest artists, performing mainstays of the repertoire alongside a number of educational events.

SCOTTISH OPERA: FLIGHT Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 17, Wed 21, Sat 24 Feb, atgtickets.com/venues/ theatre-royal-glasgow Jonathan Dove’s opera, Flight, is inspired by the story of a refugee who was stranded for years in a Paris airport. Stuck in the airport due to an electrical storm, a group of strangers start to reveal their lives to each other, with unanticipated consequences. Also Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 1, Sat 3 March.

GLASGOW SCOTTISH OPERA: GREEK Theatre Royal, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Feb, atgtickets.com/venues/ theatre-royal-glasgow After its highly successful outing at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival, Scottish Opera is back with its production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s score re-telling the story of the Greek myth Oedipus. It's a provocative piece that brings a 21st-century perspective to the tragic ancient tale. See feature, page 72.

SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE: PROPHECY Wellington Church, Wed 21 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls.com More music inspired by ancient Greece (see Greek above), this time with mezzo-soprano Christine Rice and the instrumentalists of the Scottish Ensemble who tell of the tragic destinies of Dido, Cassandra and Ariadne through heaven-sent arias and heart-breaking laments. Also Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 20 Feb, thequeenshall.net SCO: RAUTAVAARA PERCUSSION CONCERTO City Halls, Fri 2 March,

Scottish Opera: Greek

glasgowconcerthalls.com Scottish premiere of Finnish composer Rautavaara’s Incantations, his percussion concerto specially written for Edinburgh-born international percussion superstar, Colin Currie. Melodic and dance-like at times, vibraphone and marimba are very much to the fore in all three movements. Also Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 1 March, thequeenshall.net

EDINBURGH DUNEDIN CONSORT: COFFEE & ENLIGHTENMENT Methodist Church, Nicolson Square, Sun 4 Feb, thequeenshall. net Perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon – listening to glorious Bach from the joyous Dunedin Consort followed by a discussion

to get the brain cells moving. The Consort’s director, John Butt, and Tom Jones of the University of St Andrews explore the place of the Enlightenment in 21st- century culture. All helped along by coffee.

RUSSIAN STATE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 4 Mar, usherhall.co.uk YouTube star of classical music, pianist Valentina Lisitsa, posted her first video ten years ago and now has a colossal 138 million video views on her channel. Hear her live in Rachmaninov’s popular third piano concerto, made known to mass audiences through its starring role in the Oscar-winning film, Shine.

FLANDERS RECORDER QUARTET St Cecilia’s Hall, Sat 17 Mar, thequeenshall.net With an array of recorders of differing sizes, the virtuoso Flanders quartet bring alive a whole new world of sound from an instrument that has had a bit of a bad press in its day. One of the most important instruments of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, it is now heard in the resplendent splendour it deserves.

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THEATRE

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /theatre

THE LAST BORDELLO

Classical and contemporary combine in provocative new work

PHOTO: TOMMY GA KEN WAN

David Leddy has forged a distinctive theatrical identity, connecting high concepts and broad humour and, as in The Last Bordello, challenging audience expectations. Promising his familiar mixture of references to classical texts and contemporary concerns, The Last Bordello features a Latin mass flavoured with secret gay slang and a notorious red-light district, Barcelona’s Barrio Chino, in the 1930s.

Leddy’s previous production, Coriolanus Vanishes, examined the nature of evil: this time, he addresses more provocative matters: the fragility of masculinity and the fetishisation of sexual abuse. Unlike the solo of Coriolanus, however, The Last Bordello has a large and fascinating cast of characters, from a neurotic madame, through to a schoolgirl who believes she can resell her virginity night after night, to a sailor who carries his typewriter to the docks where he writes dirty stories between servicing clients. Set in a warzone, the night before the bordello is to be demolished, the characters find themselves drawn into a series of surreal parlour games.

Leddy’s work is never for the easily offended, but the provocation of his scenario and sly humour is a vehicle for a passionate belief in the potential of theatre for communicating urgent and profound ideas. (Gareth K Vile) ■ Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 13–Sat 16 Feb; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 21–Sat 24 Feb.

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THEATRE | Previews DRAG

ALYSSA EDWARDS

O2 ABC Glasgow, Fri 9 Mar; The Forum, Aberdeen, Sat 10 Mar; Church, Dundee, Sun 11 Mar. Sure, it may be tough to make it all the way through the challenges, runways and lip syncs of an entire season of RuPaul's Drag Race to eventually snatch that crown but do you know what's harder? Nabbing the unofficial yet highly coveted title of 'People's Queen'. With her two separate appearances on the show, first on season five in 2013 and then in the second All Stars in 2016, Texas drag superstar Alyssa Edwards has done just that, becoming a firm favourite among fans of the reality competition / cultural behemoth.

Edwards’ return to the Drag Race set for All Stars was chock-full of drama as she earned her way back into the competition after an early elimination, only to be knocked out once again by eventual runner-up Detox, who chose to save her pals Alaska and Roxxxy Andrews. But despite the premature exit, Edwards certainly came out on top, walking away as a winner in the eyes of many, as the subsequent torrent of love and support ultimately showed.

Edwards, whose real name is Justin Johnson, is known within the drag community for being a fierce and fabulous pageant queen, having won various titles over the years including Miss Gay America 2010 and All American Goddess 2010. But when he’s not serving sickening looks and dropping unintentionally hilarious catchphrases as Alyssa Edwards, Johnson also owns, operates and teaches at the award-winning studio, Beyond Belief Dance Company, in Mesquite, Texas.

The upcoming Secret is Out tour (a play on her popular YouTube series Alyssa's Secret) sees Edwards in a one-woman show that promises plenty of laughs and over-the-top pizzazz in typical Alyssa fashion. So get ready for the return of the infamous facial expressions, tongue pops and death drops as Alyssa Edwards sashays her way to a city near you. (Arusa Qureshi)

PHOTO: JOHAN PERSSON

PHOTO: LINDSAY ROSS

PHOTO: MIHAELA BODLOVIC

COMEDY

MONOLOGUE

DRAMATISATION

THE BELLE’S STRATAGEM

THE MATCH BOX

THIS HOUSE

The Lyceum’s 2018 programme continues artistic director David Greig’s ambitious campaign to reimagine classic texts for the 21st century: while 18th-century comedy is frequently revived for its saucy humour and witty writing, The Belle’s Stratagem is an example of a distinctively female voice amid the roistering knaves and aristocrats of the 1780s.

Hannah Cowley’s script was written in response to another comedy of manners, Farquhar’s Beaux Stratagem, a piece that became an immediate success in its time, but offered a sardonic commentary on the role of women in marriage and seduction. Playing on the tropes of Restoration comedy, The Belle's Stratagem has a strong feminist theme from an age where Enlightenment doctrines of equality hadn’t quite reached the domestic sphere.

Under the direction of Tony Cownie, The Belle’s Stratagem elegantly fits with Greig’s vision of allowing theatre’s past to reflect on contemporary issues: the belle maintains her virtue, but not without making the demands of romance on her suitor and, along the way, exposing the moral corruption of those dandies who triumph in a permissive society.

(Gareth K Vile)

For director Richard Baron, The Match Box retains a contemporary relevance to Scotland despite having been written in 2012 and set on a remote island where the heroine, Sal, reflects on her past. ‘It is a complete encounter with grief and the will to forgive,’ he says of Frank McGuiness’ monologue. ‘There are powerful resonances of recent Scottish news stories about gang-related shootings.’ Yet despite its theme of revenge, the script is full of humour and ranges across private and public responses to a tragic event.

Produced by Borders-based touring company Firebrand, The Match Box follows the events put into motion by the murder of a child. Sal has struggled with offering forgiveness but ultimately decides on placing herself outside the law and to take revenge.

It’s a demanding study of a mother pushed to extremes, using the intimacy of the solo performance to address large subjects such as guilt and the lure of violence.

Baron recognises traces of Samuel Beckett and Greek tragedy in McGuiness’ writing, investing the intimate production with a grandeur and intensity that promises to reveal theatre’s potential as a provocative location for examining the forces that drive people to a primal justice. (Gareth K Vile)

In the field of political re-enactments that shine a light upon the machinations of the great political pressure points of recent British history, 32-year-old James Graham has taken over from David Hare as the playwright of our times. Over the last 12 years, his plays have illuminated the 1970s anarchist terrorists (The Angry Brigade, 2014), the birth of The Sun newspaper (Ink, 2017), and the Labour party's divisions represented as a romantic comedy (Labour of Love, 2017).

His highest-profile work remains This House, first seen in 2012. It tells of the aftermath of the first General Election of 1974, which had Labour governing on the tiniest of minorities. Yet it focuses not on big-hitting politicians like Ted Heath and Harold Wilson, but the backroom machinations of the whips trying to keep their government running.

In his introduction to the play, Graham professes his fascination with research, and discovering the reality of what Alan Bennett called the time when history ‘rattles over the points’. This House is a dramatisation of reality, but, says Graham, ‘my only fear is that adding the necessary warning – “this is a dramatisation inspired by real events” – might lead an audience to think I had changed more than I have.’ (David Pollock)

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 15 Feb–Sat 10 March

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Tue 13–Sat 17 Feb; Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 20–Fri 24 Feb

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 27–Sat 31 Mar

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Photography: Mihaela Bodlovic

15 FEBRUARY - 10 MARCH 2018

BY HANNAH COWLEY ADAPTED BY TONY COWNIE

TICKETS 0131 248 4848 | lyceum.org.uk

Royal Lyceum Theatre Company Ltd is a Registered Company No. SC062065, and Scottish Charity Registered No. SC010509

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THEATRE | Previews THRILLER

DEATHTRAP

Dundee Rep, Tue 20 Feb–Sat 10 Mar As if Johnny McKnight hasn’t been working hard enough already – his pantomimes at the Tron and Macrobert have been praised for their ability to maintain panto’s innocent tradition while pushing the pop-cultural envelope – his direction of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap for Dundee Rep reveals more of his genre-savvy sensibility.

‘The piece plays with the idea of what sort of mind would write a thriller and, indeed, are they a thrill seeker just like the devious minds of the characters that live within the play,’ he says. ‘I’m drawing reference on all of that genre – the work of Hitchcock, film noir and, indeed, those thrillers that are referenced throughout the piece.

The script itself is aware of the traditions that inform it: ‘There’s a meta angle running through the play,’ he says. ‘Despite it being written in the late 70s – it still feels questioning of its own theatricality.

‘In some ways, it’s a bit of a departure. Normally, I work with my own new writing (and comedy),’ McKnight continues.

‘This piece is different. It’s American in flavour, heightened and operatic at times, there’s a sense of melodrama that runs through it. That’s quite a departure from my normal Scottishbased work.’

Following the adventures of a failing writer – and how far he will go to recover the limelight – McKnight recognises how Deathtrap’s combination of excitement, humour and genrebending offers the perfect night out. ‘I want to make sure we capture the laughs and thrills and jeopardy that I felt for the characters when I first read it,’ he concludes. ‘Theatre’s at its very best when it’s unapologetically entertaining, when it absolutely grabs its audience and doesn’t let it go.’

(Gareth K Vile)

A CITIZENS THEATRE AND HOME CO-PRODUCTION

BY EUGENE O’NEILL 13 APR - 5 MAY The 20th-century American classic directed by Dominic Hill

Written by STEPHEN ADLY GUIRGIS A Tron Theatre Company & Sherman Theatre co-production

Supported by Friends of the Citizens Preview: Thu 1 March 2018

Fri 2 – Sat 17 March 2018 0141 552 4267 | tron.co.uk Original Broadway Production Produced by Scott Rudin, Public Theater Productions (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Joey Parnes, Executive Producer), LAByrinth Theater Company, Fabula Media Partners LLC, Jean Doumanian, Ruth Hendel, Carl Moellenberg, Jon B. Platt and Tulchin Bartner/Jamie de Roy.

BOOK NOW

0141 429 0022 citz.co.uk The Tron Theatre Ltd. is a Scottish Registered Charity No: SC012081

Citizens Theatre Ltd. Registered in Scotland No. SC022513 and is a Scottish Charity No. SC001337. £2 transaction fee applied to online and telephone sales. No charges for in person sales.

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Previews | THEATRE

list.co.uk/theatre MUSICAL

MISS SAIGON

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, until Sat 17 Feb ●●●●● It’s 43 years since the war in Vietnam ended, and 29 years since Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s musical about the mess left behind first hit the stage. A lot of time, therefore, for the public to forget about the devastation the 20-year conflict brought about.

So this revival scores a point for reminding modernday audiences that outsiders arriving in a foreign land, mis-using it, then buggering off, is nothing new.

And the moments when Miss Saigon focuses on the political agenda are genuinely captivating – whether it’s a stunning helicopter flight, a tightly synchronised street parade in Ho Chi Minh City or emotive reallife photographs of orphans abandoned by mothers similarly abandoned by their GI sweethearts. The lyrics sung by those GIs, now returned to their homeland, highlight the real issue here: ‘Conceived in hell and born in strife, they are the living reminders of all the good we failed to do.’

But Miss Saigon is based on Puccini’s Madame Butterfly not Apocalypse Now, so it’s love, not war that’s the focus. Specifically the ill-fated relationship between Kim, a 17-year-old virgin and John, a soldier that’s been around the block. Their fall is quick and hard, and therefore difficult to truly believe in, while the gyrating prostitutes she works alongside feel stereotypical and unnecessarily sleazy.

Schönberg and Boublil’s other big hit Les Miserables has run continuously since 1985, largely because every note in it is a priceless gem – sadly, despite strong vocal performances throughout, nothing in Miss Saigon comes close. (Kelly Apter)

PHOTO: TIM MOROZZO

DRAMA

BOLD GIRLS

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 24 Jan–Sat 10 Feb Sometimes, words can be as incendiary as weapons. Rona Munro’s tough play Bold Girls is set in Belfast in the 1990s, against a backdrop of police sirens and burning vehicles. Munro’s versality as a writer – she adapted Watership Down for the stage and has written for Dr Who – is placed at the service of a story that lends a rich poetry to mundane details of lives spent at the edge of conflict.

It’s here, in typically working-class homes, that four women fight, embrace and laugh, getting on with day-to-day living in spite of the shadow of the Troubles hanging over them.

Starring Deirdre Davis, Sinead Sharkey, Lucianne McEvoy and Scarlett Mack, it’s all about the lived female experience. As Sharkey explains, ‘its four very different women, with really individual stories, and it’s kind of a world devoid of men, because they’re either in prison or have been shot, or caught up in paramilitary activity. So, it’s all about how they’re coping and surviving.’

Sharkey, who was herself born in Derry in 1994 around the time of the ceasefire, believes that the play is timeless. ‘It transcends that era,’ she says, ‘because women are at the centre of things, speaking out and having a strong voice.’

And within Munro’s script, and uner Richard Baron’s direction, there is much scope for witty lines and mischief, too. ‘The issues and themes are quite dark,’ Sharkey says, ‘but the humour and resilience does come out.’ (Lorna Irvine) LIVE ART

MOTHERFUCKER

CCA, Glasgow, until Wed 7 Feb Buzzcut’s Double Thrills has settled elegantly in the monthly landscape of Glasgow’s performance scene, bringing work to Scotland from across the live art spectrum while championing local artists in developing their practice. The breadth of genres programmed, ranging from dance through challenging monologues, and even the occasional ritualistic happening, ensures that Glasgow audiences are treated to a consistent diet of unpredictable experiments.

February’s headliner, Nicola Hunter, presents an uncompromising take on an issue rarely presented on stage: the life of a single mother. From the title to Hunter’s experiences that inspired the piece, Motherfucker refuses to pull any punches.

‘This piece talks not only of my experiences, but of the common and seemingly “just one of those things” bullshit responses many single parents are fed,’ she says. Coming from a fine art training, Hunter has adopted performance to forge an immediate and personal style. Her previous work, Lost Bodies ‘was rooted in shamanic ritual,’ she adds. ‘Processing the work on site added to the success of the show, all of the emotion was real which I found kept the integrity and heart.’

Motherfucker comes from Hunter’s personal struggles, a cry against the structural and social inequalities that undermine women artists by enforcing a maternal role without recognising its problems. As for the audience, Hunter concludes, they will experience ‘a pissed off mother at the end of my tether’. (Gareth K Vile) 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 87

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DANCE | Previews CONTEMPORARY / BALLET

E C N DA

BALLET HISPANICO

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 6–Sat 10 Mar When Tina Ramirez founded Ballet Hispanico in New York in 1970, her intention was to ‘break through stereotypes’. Almost 50 years later, her humble dance school and community project has grown into a company of international repute. And now, for the first time in its history, Ballet Hispanico is visiting the UK. Eduardo Vilaro, who was passed the baton of leadership by Ramirez in 2009, explains why her vision was so important.

‘The organisation was founded in order to give voice to Latino artists in the United States, at a time in the 1970s when there weren’t a lot of possibilities because you were pigeon-holed into a certain kind of dancer,’ he says. ‘And it continues to do that today, but in a very broad way. We try to capture the essence of the full scope of the Latino diaspora and then share it with the world.’

Vilaro says it’s the voice of the choreographers that gives the company its essence, and the two dance-makers whose work we’ll see in Edinburgh will be speaking loud and clear through two complementary works.

Inspired by the work of Picasso, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s CARMEN.maquia is a bold re-telling of Prosper Mérimée’s novella/Bizet’s opera, while Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Linea Recta explores the idea of partnership in flamenco. All those who saw Ochoa’s work for Scottish Ballet, A Streetcar Named Desire, will be thrilled to see her back.

‘Annabelle says to everyone “Eduardo pulls the Latino-ness out of me,”’ laughs Vilaro. ‘This gorgeous piece really tries to bring flamenco further into the contemporary dance world. And only Ballet Hispanico could do it, because the arch of the back, the hands, the liquidity of the flamenco movement is alive in us – and it just pairs beautifully with CARMEN.maquia.’

(Kelly Apter)

PHOTO: EMMA KAULDHAR

CONTEMPORARY

BALLET

SCOTTISH DANCE THEATRE

NORTHERN BALLET: THE LITTLE MERMAID

In an era when men were calling most of the shots in the dance world, one woman was blazing a trail with her innovative choreography: Bronislava Nijinska.

Although often eclipsed by her more famous brother, Vaslav Nijinsky, she created numerous works for the Ballets Russes, including 1923’s Les Noces.

Fast forward almost a hundred years and choreographer Colette Sadler is working her own innovative magic at Scottish Dance Theatre, re-imagining Les Noces for the 21st century with new piece, RITUALIA. And Nijinska has been very much on her mind.

‘I don’t directly reference her life in RITUALIA, but I’m interested in Bronislava as a woman working in dance at that time,’ says Sadler. ‘When I started working on Les Noces, I read her autobiography, and during an early part of the creation I wrote a short text called “Conversation with a dead choreographer”, which was myself and Bronislava having a conversation in a fictional realm.’

Part of a double-bill featuring Botis Seva’s TuTuMucky (pictured), the seed of RITUALIA was planted years ago, when Sadler first learned about the Ballets Russes and the music of Stravinsky.

‘I’ve been interested in Les Ballets Russes since I was a ballet student,’ says Sadler.

‘What interests me is how their work ushers in the era of modernism in ballet, and I find the artistic collaborations that took place within their creations very exciting, involving artists such as Picasso, Cocteau, Massine to name a few.’ (Kelly Apter)

It was Danny Kaye who first introduced David Nixon to The Little Mermaid, when Kaye starred in the 1952 self-titled biopic about its author, Hans Christian Andersen. But it wasn’t until years later, while artistic director Nixon was turning the fairytale into Northern Ballet’s latest production, that he started to appreciate its true depth.

‘I fell in love with the story as I worked with it because it has so many layers,’ says Nixon. ‘At first you just think it’s about a girl with a tail who falls in love with a guy, but it’s much richer than that. At its heart, it’s about the way we look at people differently because they’re not the same as us, and the inability to communicate. Andersen has made that huge in the sense that it’s a water world versus a land world, but it’s very much the way we have looked at people for hundreds of years who aren’t our race or religion.’

Although often synonymous with Disney, and therefore deemed a work for children, Nixon’s version of The Little Mermaid, set to an original score by composer Sally Beamish, is aimed at ballet-lovers of all ages.

‘The performance has really been able to reach across ages,’ he says. ‘For children, it’s about pace, and the piece is quite visually stunning with big puppets for some of the water creatures and beautiful costumes. And adults get a lot out of it because of the layers, and the fact that the mermaid goes through such sacrifice and pain for what she loves.’ (Kelly Apter)

Dundee Rep, Fri 9 & Sat 10 Feb; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 3 Mar

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 22–Sat 24 Mar

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Highlights | THEATRE

THE LAST BORDELLO Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Mon 10–Sat 17 Feb, tron.

PHOTO:TOMMY GA KEN WAN

HITLIST

BOLD GIRLS Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 1–Sun 10 Feb, citz.co.uk Set in Belfast in the early 1990s, four women’s lives have been turned upside down by the Troubles. See preview, page 87.

co.uk Absurd, sensual and provocative parable about trust and truth, domination and devotion, fact and fiction. Written and directed by David Leddy.

See preview, page 83.

Also Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 21–Sat 24 Feb, traverse.co.uk TEENAGE TRILOGY Tramway, Glasgow, Sun 11 Feb, tramway.org Curious Seed brings dance, live music, art installation and a silent disco together to explore teenage life. See preview, page 66. Also

Perth Theatre, Sat 17 Feb, horsecross.co.uk BALLET HISPÁNICO: CARMEN Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 6–Sat 10 Mar, edtheatres.com The UK debut of America’s premier Latino dance company, Ballet Hispánico.

See preview, page 88.

HOW TO ACT Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 6–Sat 10 Mar, nationaltheatrescotland. com Play set in the world of theatre exploring the contemporary realities of personal, cultural and economic exploitation.

See feature, page 26.

Also Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 13–Sat 17 Mar.

THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

asks how stories passed down the generations control our behaviour.

Also see list.co.uk/dance for details.

GLASGOW STRICTLY COME DANCING 10TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE TOUR SSE Hydro, Fri 2–Sun 4 Feb, thessehydro.com Celebrities, professional dancers and judges take the popular BBC TV show on the road. Also touring, see list.co.uk/ dance for details.

THE RETURN Tron Theatre, 23 Feb, tron.co.uk Inspired by the true story of Martin Guerre, The Return is a gripping play about the mystery of identity and the survival instinct, that asks whether we can ever truly know even those we love the best. Also touring, see list. co.uk/theatre for details BRENDAN COLE: ALL NIGHT LONG Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sun 25 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls.com Choreographer, performer and Strictly dancer Brendan Cole performs more dazzling ballroom and Latin moves.

Also touring, see list.co.uk/dance for details.

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG King’s Theatre, Mon 26 Feb–Sat 3 Mar, theplaythatgoeswrong.com Award-winning company Theatre Mischief presents a play-within-aplay about an amateur dramatic society putting on a murder mystery production Also Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Mon 12–Sat 17 Mar. FREAGRA: A BLURRED EXPANSE Eastwood Park Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 28 Feb, eastwoodparktheatre. co.uk A playful, colourful performance of contemporary dance, suitable for all ages, with universal themes of community, conflict and harmony, performed by five dancers and

Wolves

choreographed by Rob Heaslip. Also touring, see list.co.uk/dance for details THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT Tron Theatre, Thu1–Sat 17 Mar, tron.co.uk Stephen Adly Guirgis’ profane and hilarious Tony awardnominated tale of love and addiction in New York City, centred on a former drug dealer called Jackie, who is released from prison and attempts to get his life back in order. Scottish premiere.

ANTON AND ERIN – FROM BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sun 4 Mar, glasgowconcerthalls.com The dance stars celebrate a decade in dance in 2018 with their tenth UK nationwide tour. Also touring, see list. co.uk/dance for details.

CAPTAIN AMAZING Citizens Theatre, Wed 28–Sat 31 Mar, citz.co.uk A new production of Alistair McDowall’s one-person show about the story of the transformative power of fatherhood, everyday acts of courage and how even the invincible aren’t immune to tragedy.

between an American GI and the young Vietnamese woman who is sold to him for a night. See review, page 87.

Also touring, see list.co.uk/theatre for details.

TANGUERA Edinburgh Playhouse, Tue 6–Sat 10 Feb, atgtickets.com Tango show from Argentina, with a cast of over 30 dancers and singers which tells a story of unrequited love in early 20th-century Buenos Aires. Also touring, see list. co.uk/dance for details.

THE MATCHBOX Traverse Theatre, Tue 13 Feb, firebrandtheatre.co.uk Firebrand present the Scottish premiere of a breathtaking new monologue by one of Ireland’s greatest dramatists, Frank McGuinness. See preview, page 84.

Also touring, see list.co.uk/theatre for details THE BELLE’S STRATAGEM Royal Lyceum Theatre, Thu 15 Feb–Sat 10 Mar, lyceum.org.uk A witty riposte to Farquhar’s The Beaux Stratagem, Hannah Cowley’s rediscovered gem turns the tables on the farcical goings-on and has the women coming out on top. See preview, page 84.

EDINBURGH MISS SAIGON Edinburgh Festival Theatre, until Sat 17 Feb, miss-saigon. com Set during the final days of the American occupation of Saigon, this tragic musical follows the relationship

WOLVES The Studio at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat 17 Feb, edtheatres.com Featuring performers aged 6–69, and with live music from Mairi Campbell, dance company Barrowland Ballet’s dynamic show

CIRQUE BERSERK Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 20–Sat 24 Feb, cirqueberserk.co.uk A large-scale family circus show with jugglers, acrobats, aerialists, dancers, musicians, stuntmen and the legendary motorcycle ‘Globe of Death’. Also touring, see list.co.uk/theatre for details.

JAMES & OLA: UNCENSORED Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 20 Mar, edtheatres.com Live show from husband and wife choreographers and dancers James and Ola Jordan, best known for their work on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. Also touring, see list.co.uk/dance for details.

NORTHERN BALLET: THE LITTLE MERMAID Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 22–Sat 24 Mar, edtheatres.com A gorgeous new narrative ballet based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, choreographed by David Nixon with an original score by Sally Beamish. See preview, page 88.

THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Mon 26–Sat 31 Mar, edtheatres.com Adaptation of Edgar Wallace’s best selling thriller, starring Coronation Street’s Gray O’Brien as as Chief Superintendent Tanner. Also touring, see list.co.uk/theatre for details.

OUT OF TOWN SCOTTISH DANCE THEATRE: TUTUMUCKY / RITUALIA Dundee Rep, Fri 9–Sat 10 Feb, dundeerep.co.uk Double-bill from Scottish Dance Theatre which pairs TuTuMucky by Botis Seva alongside RITUALIA by Colette Sadler. See preview, page 88. Also touring, see list.co.uk/dance for details.

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Detail © David Lloyd National Museums Scotland Scottish Charity, No. SC 011130

Until 29 April 2018 Book now Venue supported by

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VISUAL ART

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /visualar t

A NEW ERA: SCOTTISH MODERN ART 1900–1950

JOHN DUNCAN FERGUSSON, ETUDE DE RHYTHM (1910) / © THE FERGUSSON GALLERY, PERTH & KINROSS COUNCIL

The untold story of Scottish Modernism A New Era presents surprise after surprise. In both lesser known works by well-known artists – such as JD Fergusson’s cheeky semi-abstract ‘Etude de Rhythm’ (pictured) – and artists the viewer may be unfamiliar with, it’s clear Scots were rubbing shoulders with modernism from its earliest days.

Curator Alice Strang traces the movement chronologically, from radical pre-war experiments to the 1950s abstracts of Alan Davie, William Gear and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. She has also brought back some of the ladies from Modern Scottish Women: futurism by Agnes Miller Parker, surrealism by sisters Doris and Anna Zinkeisen and a charming little known work by Cecile Walton.

With no more than a couple of works on show by most of the artists, it is not always clear whether their engagement with modernism was a commitment or a brief dalliance. William Johnstone was clearly committed: his dark, beautiful abstract ‘A Point in Time’ is one of the stars of the show, as was William Crosbie, who trained with Leger.

Other works, such as James Cowie’s strange, mesmerising ‘Evening Star’, appear in a fresh light in this context. Whether the show reveals a complete untold story, or simply fragments of one, is not clear, but it leaves the viewer hungry to know more. (Susan Mansfield) ■ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two), Edinburgh, until Sun 10 Jun ●●●●●

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VISUAL ART | Previews & Reviews PHOTO: CSG CIC GLASGOW MUSEUMS

MIXED MEDIA

AARON ANGELL

Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sun 18 Mar ●●●●● When London-based artist Aaron Angell dived into the Glasgow Museums collection to make a show for Glasgow International in 2016, there was one object which intrigued him above all the others. Now painstakingly restored, the 19th-century Wardian case is the centrepiece around which his new show at GoMA is built.

Used to transport delicate plants back from the colonies, Wardian cases became increasingly ornate as amateur plant collectors sought to outdo one another with the elegance of their specimens. Now repopulated with ferns and mosses, the case is both beautiful and problematic: a relic from a tricky, colonial past.

The case references the time when this building was the private home of a tobacco lord and slave trader. Angell continues the domestic theme with sculptures and installations placed around the space: he compares them to 'islands' of furniture in an openplan loft apartment.

Each domestic component is a cluster of playful allusions.

There’s the central heating system, a replica of a Roman hypocaust inside a transparent inflatable bed; the lighting, a gaslight attached to a concrete sculpture (made following the Roman recipe, using pig’s blood); the garden, a giant cabbage sourced from a recordbreaking grower in South Wales.

There are ceramic urns, made by Angell, a keen potter, referencing those given as wedding gifts in Roman times and intended to eventually house the happy couple’s ashes, and a glass painting of purgatory, but with frogs and toads instead of people.

A difficult space to work with, the gallery has nonetheless given Angell a chance to play with his ideas on a larger-than-usual scale. The results are quirky and rich, splicing and dicing crafts and hobbies, traditions and references, and creating their own oblique, idiosyncratic argument with the building and its history.

(Susan Mansfield)

PHOTO: COURTESY GLASGOW LIFE

PHOTO: GREG MOODIE

PHOTO: © HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2017

ROYAL COLLECTION

FESTIVAL

ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION

SPLENDOURS OF THE SUBCONTINENT: A PRINCE’S TOUR OF INDIA, 1875-6

BURNS UNBROKE

Summerhall, Edinburgh, until Sat 10 Mar

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH: MAKING THE GLASGOW STYLE

If Robert Burns was an early sighting of a working class auto-didact, it befits a multimedia arts festival to reimagine Burns’ questing poetic spirit for the 21st century. This is the aim of the Summerhallhosted Burns Unbroke festival, which over its six-week duration will feature an array of music, performance and visual art inspired by the bard.

The visual art strand includes work by more than 30 artists spread out over 11 gallery spaces. This includes pieces by Graham Fagen, Bridget Collins, Douglas Gordon and the Chapman Brothers, as well as former Frankie Goes to Hollywood vocalist, Holly Johnson.

Four new commissions will also feature: a mural

by Ciara Veronica Dunne, a film-based installation

by Ross Fleming, a mixed media piece by Derrick Guild, and a map by Robert Powell pinpointing all the places in Edinburgh relevant to Burns.

Presented in a collaboration between Summerhall and the Artruist organisation, the title of the festival is drawn from the epigraph printed at the front of Burns’ first poetry collection, published in 1786, which spoke of ‘The Simple Bard, unbroke by rules of art.’ As the assorted rule-breakers of Burns Unbroke show, Burns’ spirit is very much alive.

(Neil Cooper)

2018 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of legendary Scottish architect, designer and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh. An entire year of events and exhibitions have been programmed to celebrate, including the re-opening of Glasgow's iconic Willow Tea Rooms in June (following a £10m restoration project) and a Scotland-wide festival in October. The most eagerly anticipated event though has to be Kelvingrove’s major new exhibition, Making the Glasgow Style.

The ‘Glasgow Style’ was the only art nouveau movement to emerge from Britain in the early 20th century. Kelvingrove promises to show the very best works from the movement taken from Glasgow’s civic collections. As you’d expect, there’s plenty by Mackintosh, with two extremely fragile watercolours made towards the end of the 19th century, ‘Pinks’ and ‘Part Seen’, set to be among the highlights.

The show will also give prominence to other contributors to the Style – ‘The Seasons’, a series of paintings made in 1897 by sisters Francis and Margaret Macdonald (members of the informal GSA collective ‘The Four’ along with Mackintosh and Francis’ husband James Herbert McNair), should be an extraordinary sight for visitors. (Rachael Cloughton)

Queen’s Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 22 April ●●●●●

In 1875, Prince Albert Edward (the future Edward VII) embarked on a four-month tour of India, during which he was entertained by over 90 local rulers, most of whom showered him with gifts. These were then exhibited on his return to Britain and seen by some 2.5 million people on a nationwide tour.

Now on show again for the first time in 130 years, they continue to dazzle with their ornateness and exquisite craftsmanship. There’s an enamelled inkwell from Benares in the shape of a barge, inlaid with gold, diamonds and sapphires; peacock feather fans from Jaipur, in which the feathers are set with gemstones; a crown from Lucknow, adorned with symbols of royalty from both countries, festooned with pearls.

These objects are museum pieces now, speaking of a past which is distant in both countries. But there are other stories here that the exhibition touches on without fully exploring: Indian entrepreneurs who sensed the potential of western markets, British designers hungry for new ideas. From potteries in Staffordshire to rug-makers in Paisley, Britain would experience a lasting impact from the prince’s Indian treasure trove. (Susan Mansfield)

Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow, Fri 30 Mar–Tue 14 Aug

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Highlights | VISUAL ART

HITLIST

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH: MAKING THE GLASGOW STYLE Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow, Fri 30 Mar–Tue 14 Aug, glasgowlife.org See preview, page 92.

BURNS UNBROKE: CONTEMPORARY ARTS INSPIRED BY

RACHEL MACLEAN: SPITE YOUR FACE Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 24 Feb– Sat 5 May Maclean’s 2017 Venice Biennale work returns for its UK premiere.

ROBERT BURNS Summerhall, Edinburgh, until Sat 10 Mar, summerhall.co.uk See preview, page 92.

LEE LOZANO The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 10 Mar– Sun 3 Jun, fruitmarket.

co.uk A look at the work of the rigorous New York artist who began as a maker of expressive drawings and paintings, then pioneered conceptual art.

NOW: JENNY SAVILLE, SARA BARKER, CHRISTINE BORLAND, ROBIN RHODE, MARKUS SCHINWALD,

CATHERINE STREET AND OTHERS Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art (Modern One), Edinburgh, Sat 24 Mar–Sun 16 Sep, nationalgalleries.org A major survey of the work of Jenny Saville, spanning nearly 25 years, as well as rooms of work by five further artists.

VISUAL ART HIGHLIGHTS PHOTO: © THOMAS EHRETSMANN

Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

GLASGOW HELEN DE MAIN: YOU KNOW, THINGS LIKE THAT Platform, until Sun 11 Feb, platformonline.co.uk Prints made by the artist after a series of meetings in the gallery with local women who shared thoughts on work / housework and the experiences of being daughters, sisters, wives, mothers and grandmothers.

ARTISTS BOOKMARKET The Fruitmarket Gallery, Sat 17 & Sun 18 Feb, fruitmarket.co.uk Stalls laden with artist’s books, in this market organised jointly with Stills photography gallery.

STEVEN CAMPBELL: LOVE Tramway, until Sun 25 Mar, tramway.org Large-scale multi-media collages made between 1988 and 1991 by one of Glasgow’s most respected artists.

MARCELO BRODSKY: 1968–THE FIRE OF IDEAS Street Level Photoworks, Sat 10 Feb–Sat 7 Apr, streetlevelphotoworks.org Images of student and worker demonstrations from around the world in 1968, annotated by the artist’s hand to give context and background.

REHANA ZAMAN: SPEAKING NEARBY CCA, Sat 10 Feb–Sun 25 Mar, ccaglasgow.com Debut solo exhibition in Scotland by English artist who works mostly with the moving image.

MARGARET SALMON: CIRCLE Tramway, Fri 16 Feb–Sun 18 Mar, tramway.org Work by New York-born, Glasgow-based artist, which weaves together poetry and ethnography.

EDINBURGH BP PORTRAIT AWARD 2017 Scottish National Portrait Gallery, until Sun 11 Mar, nationalgalleries. org/visit/scottish-national-portraitgallery The best in contemporary portrait painting, selected from 2580

COLLECTED SHADOWS: THE ARCHIVE OF MODERN CONFLICT Stills, Sat 3 Feb–Sun 8 Apr, stills. org A selection from the Archive of Modern Conflict, which was established to collect vernacular photography and ephemera relating to the First and Second World Wars but which has expanded to over eight million images, not all relating to conflict.

DAVID CLAERBOUT Talbot Rice Gallery, Sat 24 Feb– Sat 5 May, ed.ac.uk/talbot-rice Work by the acclaimed Belgian video artist, whose works include The Pure Necessity, a reimagining of Disney’s The Jungle Book in which the animals lose all their human characteristics.

OUT OF TOWN

BP Portrait Award 2017

entries by artists from 87 countries around the world.

SPLENDOURS OF THE SUBCONTINENT: A PRINCE’S TOUR OF INDIA 1875–6 The Queen’s Gallery, until Sun 22 Apr, royalcollection.org.uk/visit/ the-queens-gallery-palace-ofholyroodhouse An exhibition of some of the finest Indian treasures from the Royal Collection that tell the story of the grand tour of the subcontinent made by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) at the end of the 19th century through watercolours, photographs and 74 exquisite works of art presented to the Prince as part of the traditional exchange of gifts. See review, page 92.

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR National Museum Of Scotland, until Sun 29 Apr, nms.ac.uk/national-

museum-of-scotland The largest and most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world comes to Scotland.

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG: PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHILDHOOD FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND Scottish National Portrait Gallery, until Sun 13 May, nationalgalleries. org/visit/scottish-national-portraitgallery Images of childhood to coincide with Scotland’s Year of the Young Person 2018, looking at how the experience of childhood has changed over the years but also how its portrayal has changed.

GARRY FABIAN MILLER: VOYAGE Dovecot Studios, Fri 2 Feb–Mon 7 May, dovecotstudios.com A new tapestry created in collaboration with the tapestry studio.

NORMAN GILBERT: PASSION, VISION AND SPIRIT Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay, until Sat 17 Feb, tathagallery.com Colourful, highly structured figurative paintings by veteran Glasgow-based artist now in his 92nd year.

HERE WAS ELSEWHERE: ››FFWD Cooper Gallery, Duncan Of Jordanstone College Of Art And Design, until Sat 17 Feb, dundee. ac.uk/cooper-gallery/aboutus/ cooper-gallery Moving images by gallery artists. The selection is supported by Modern Edinburgh Film School.

KATE V ROBERTSON: THIS MESS IS KEPT AFLOAT Dundee Contemporary Arts, until Sun 25 Feb, dca.org.uk New sculptural work in the first solo exhibition in a UK institution by the artist.

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TV

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /tv

REQUIEM Spooky mystery packed with ghastly visions, haunted memories and shocking suicide Requiem bills itself with the nicely ambiguous catch-all term ‘psychological thriller’ but the ghastly visions and suicide that haunt the first five minutes pretty conclusively mark it out as a supernatural spooker. It sets the tone for this kooky otherworldly series that comes as a nice change of pace in BBC One’s Friday night comedy slot.

Matilda Gray (Lydia Wilson) is an elfin classical cellist on the brink of moving to New York for her big break when her mother slits her own throat in front of her. An act so disturbing, unexpected and out of character, unsurprisingly it throws Matilda’s life into chaos and confusion. What she finds among her mother’s belongings opens up an even bigger mystery, leading Matilda (and her best friend Hal, played by Joel Fry) to a missing girl and the small Welsh village of Penllynith. Here, they meet Nick (James Frecheville), who has just inherited a huge creepy, creaky mansion from his dead uncle.

With her pale skin, wide eyes and shock of white hair, Wilson is an enigmatic lead, nicely balancing ethereal and assertive qualities in Matilda. Fry is a much-needed humanising presence helping to ground the wilder elements in the real world.

Requiem deals in creeping dread and unease. Haunted by the dead, patterns start to emerge as dreams, while visions and repressed memories blur. It prefers to take its time and lets the narrative play out at its own pace rather than going for cheap shock tactics, though the big revelation that closes the first episode is a genuine gasp-out-loud moment. Hopefully it can sustain the momentum over six episodes (the Beeb’s last big ghost story, The Living and The Dead, would have made a great three-parter but struggled to fill a full series) as we eagerly await more surprises as the horror unfolds. (Henry Northmore) ■ Requiem starts on BBC One, Fri 2 Feb, 9pm ●●●●●

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list.co.uk/tv

Previews | TV

HIGHLIGHTS ALTERED CARBON Netflix, Fri 2 Feb Big-budget, highconcept sci-fi about a future where human consciousness can be transferred to new bodies (at a price). See list.co.uk for review.

REQUIEM BBC One, Fri 2 Feb, 9pm Ghostly mystery.

See review, page 94.

BASKETS – SEASON 3 FOX (UK), Sun 4 Feb, 1am Zach Galifianakis plays a failed clown (as well as his uptight twin brother) in this gloriously downbeat comedy featuring a star turn from Louie Anderson as Mrs Baskets. It's been shunted to the 1am Sunday shift but don't let this kooky comic gem pass you by.

JAMESTOWN – SEASON 2 Sky One, Fri 9 Feb, 9pm The residents of Jamestown start to adjust to the arrival of women in this British settlement in America in 1619.

THE OWLMAN COMETH

STARGATE ORIGINS Stargatecommand.co, Thu 15 Feb The strangely resilient sci-fi franchise returns with an origin story (adding nefarious nasty Nazis to the mix) as an online exclusive.

Scottish director Lawrie Brewster discusses his latest film The Black Gloves with Henry Northmore and reveals big plans for Fife-based Hex Studios

H

orror loves iconic imagery. Jason's hockey mask, Freddy's striped sweater and razor-clawed glove, and Leatherface's mask of human skin and revving chainsaw are instantly recognisable symbols of fear. Writer Sarah Daly and director Lawrie Brewster are attempting to create something with a deeper, more cerebral impact with the Owlman, an amalgam of history, myth and pop culture, taking inspiration from ancient gods Moloch and Minerva mixed with elements of the Tall Man from Phantasm and internet horror meme Slender Man. A mysterious figure dressed in a Victorian tail suit with viciously sharp claws and an inscrutable strigine face, the Owlman made his film debut in 2013's Lord of Tears and returns in Hex Studio's The Black Gloves, aka The Owlman: Chapter 2.

Taking inspiration from 1940s, 50s and 60s films like Sunset Boulevard, The Innocents and Rebecca, Brewster describes The Black Gloves as a film noir psychological thriller with supernatural elements.

'It concerns a psychologist trying to overcome his guilt about a patient he couldn't save and a new patient who has an obsession with this entity known as the Owlman,' says Brewster. 'During the course of the story, who is rescuing who and who is a hero or villain, changes a lot. It's a metaphor for gender identity and the politics surrounding that. Not that it's preachy but it provides a perverse commentary.'

Brewster is a passionate advocate of horror, a genre that is often overlooked or dismissed. 'The benefit of horror is that it is a means, at least in my opinion, of expressing ideas in their most adult, uninhibited form. It can talk about any issue but without the boundaries or restrictions that would be in place in drama, for example, in the form of realism. In a nightmare, there are no boundaries.'

Hex is a truly independent studio based in Kirkcaldy. Brewster admits fundraising is the biggest hurdle for film in Scotland, which means reaching out to investors in places like the US and the United Arab Emirates. Crowdfunding is another important resource, and Hex's most recent round for The Black Gloves was the most successful horror Kickstarter in Britain, giving Brewster the opportunity to shoot new scenes with Nicholas Vince (Hellraiser).

Hex have big plans. Inspired by Hammer Horror, they want to establish a new studio in Scotland specialising in horror, increasing production to three films per year. 'I realised that if you want to make horror films that are a bit different you need the infrastructure to make them and distribute them,' explained Brewster. 'Hex Studios will see us financing, making and distributing films independently.

We want to create ambitious stories that are a bit different, focused around creating strong intellectual properties, characters and concepts.'

At the same time, Brewster hopes to break down the barriers between fans and filmmakers.

'Traditionally there's always been a big divide between the audience and creators. We want it to be your studio too and with our YouTube channel, Kickstarter and even Facebook, we're accessible, we're trying to have this new openness so fans feel like they are part of the studio.'

The Black Gloves is available to pre-order now from hexmedia.tv and will be distributed in Feb (date tbc).

TRAUMA ITV, Feb, date tbc John Simm and Adrian Lester star in this three-part thriller as two father's lives become entwined when a boy dies on the operating table.

THE BLACK GLOVES DVD/Blu-ray, Feb, date tbc Grassroots Scottish horror. See feature, left.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM – SEASON 9 DVD/Blu-ray, Mon 5 Mar Larry David is as curmudgeonly and awkward as usual, especially after receiving a fatwa for his ill-fated Salman Rushdie musical.

JESSICA JONES – SEASON 2 Netflix, Thu 8 Mar Krysten Ritter is back as laconic super ‘hero’ Jessica Jones. No word yet on who will be the main villain in season two, but all 13 episodes will be directed by women.

LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS – SEASON 2 Netflix, Thu 30 Mar Offbeat adventure story, ostensibly for kids but so goofy and weird (particularly an on-point Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf) that people any age can enjoy its quirky charms.

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BACK PAGE FIRST&LAST ZINNIE HARRIS The Edinburgh-based playwright’s version of the Ionesco classic Rhinoceros returns to the capital after a successful outing at last year’s International Festival.

Here she discusses worrying less, walking more and Winona Ryder First record you ever bought

‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’.

Last extravagant purchase

Two tickets to Berlin.

First film that really moved you

Pete’s Dragon, aged six.

Last lie you told

That everything would be OK. First date movie

Scandal.

Last time you cried

With laughter: last weekend.

First thing you do when you’ve got time off work

First thing you’d do if you ran the country

Make lying to the electorate illegal and punishable with a long prison sentence. And then deportation.

Last time someone criticised your work

Last great meal you cooked

First three words your friends would use to describe you

First crush

Gandalf: the name of my aunt’s dog.

Last crime you committed

I stole a strawberry.

What time off work? I suppose something outdoors. Preferably with my kids. Drag them around Blackford Hill. Have fight about how soon we can go home. Go home. Put TV on. Think about how I should probably be working . . .

Christmas dinner for ten. Took all day. Never again.

First word you spoke

Everyone criticises it: friends, relations, critics, neighbours, bods on buses. Luckily most people forget your worst moments in time, except, of course, family.

Never home. Full on. Bit eccentric.

Which my kids have edited to: Absent. Demanding. Nuts.

Brian Cant in Play Away.

Last book you read

Last time you made an impulse buy and regretted it

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré.

Anytime I have been to IKEA.

First great piece of advice you were given

First job

1 APR

First book you read for a second time

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan.

Last song at your funeral

Dunno. Something cheery to send them home humming. ‘In the Mood’?

First person you’d thank in an award acceptance speech

Always thank the actors first. If I’m getting an award for something it’s probably because they have been brilliant.

Last thing you think of before you go to sleep

Worked in the box office at Theatre Workshop in Stockbridge. Never got the hang of the VISA machine.

All the things I forgot to do.

Last person you fantasised about

All the things I have to remember.

Last time you were starstruck

Often around other writers.

Both Jez Butterworth and Caryl Churchill have rendered me mute.

Not sure but I had a really weird dream about Winona Ryder after my Stranger Things binge watch recently.

Rhinoceros, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 23 Mar–Sat 7 Apr. See more of this Q&A at list.co.uk.

To worry less. This was from my grandad, the greatest worrier on earth.

NEXT ISSUE

First thing you think of when you wake up in the morning

After a one-year break, we welcome back Glasgow International, the innovative arts fiesta in the west. This year, the likes of Stephen Sutcliffe, Kapwani Kiwanga, the iQhiya Collective and Corin Sworn will be there. In Edinburgh, we’ll be checking behind the Hidden Door for a further instalment of their multi-disciplinary extravaganza which this year takes place at Leith Theatre and the old State Cinema.

Plus, there’s a preview of our annual Eating & Drinking Guide, which will assuredly whet your appetites ahead of its publication on 18 Apr. Mmmmm......

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whenever, wherever edinburgh lothian road | st andrew square | ocean terminal | livingston glasgow george street | glasgow fort | silverburn

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