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FESTIVAL Guide LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL
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H G R U B N I D E ! S K C RO ON ENOMEN H P Y D E COM ESTIVAL F E GLOBAL H T M TTE STOR AIRNADE
PAUL MORLEY ON FRANK ZAPPA BIDISHA ON MAN RAY ALAN BISSETT ON 80S POP STEWART LEE ON BACONFACE
2 SHO50 + THE WS
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list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 1
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F R I N G E F E S T I VA L 2 01 3
THE VOODOO ROOMS AND BLOND AMBITION PRESENTS
02 - 25 AUGUST* 20:00 {1HR}
NORMAN LOVETT
OLD AND NEW 02 - 25 AUGUST* 21:15 {1HR}
FRANK SANAZI’S
DAS VEGAS NIGHT II
02 - 11 AUGUST* 22:30 {1HR}
MR PHIL KAY AND THEE CAMERON ST. CL AIR
ARE , $ - 4 3 # 02 - 25 AUG (THU-SUN) 24:00 {1HR 30} T
H
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DISTRACTION "+4!
13 - 25 AUGUST* 22:30 {1HR}
MR B T H E
G E N T L E M A N
R H Y M E R
’ CAN ’T STOP, SHAN ’T STOP’
PLUS THE FREE FRINGE - 34 SHOWS IN 3 SPACES venue
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TICKETS £10 THU -SUN/£8 TUE-WED
(*NO SHOWS MONDAYS) OVER 18’S ONLY OPEN DAILY NOON - LATE DURING FRINGE TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM THE VOODOO ROOMS, THE FRINGE BOX OFFICE (TEL: 0 1 3 1 -2 2 6 - 0 0 0 0) WWW.EDFRINGE.COM OR WWW.TICKETWEB.CO.UK
19 A W E S T R E G I S T E R S T R E E T, E D I N B U R G H
W W W.T H E VO OD O ORO OM S .C OM OV E R
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2 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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EDINBURGH FESTIVAL GUIDE 2013
CONTENTS ‘WE WANT THE CULTURE OF POP MUSIC TO CHANGEGS’
BRYONY KIMMIN (PAGE 90)
FRONTLINES & FEATURES 9
Front Birthdays, Bowie, bad puns and bribes
12
News in Brief
16
Other Festivals
Pipes, Pike, Patricio Pron and PMs What’s on at Mela, Turing and Fringe By The Sea
20 Festival World Map A league of nations descends upon Edinburgh
ART 24 Man Ray Bidisha casts an eye over the original celebrity snapper
29 Fiona Banner Why words mean so much to this YBA
BOOKS 32 80s pop Alan Bissett picks apart a divisive decade
36 Graphic novels There’s more to comics than the superhero
FRINGE 44 Comedy Alexei Sayle, Tig Notaro, Stewart Lee, Airnadette
67 Dance James Cousins, Smashed, The Lock In
71
Kids Showstoppers, Cerrie Burnell, Tall Stories
74 Music Martha Reeves, Wellington Ukulele Orchestra
80 Theatre Badac, Kate Tempest, BLAM!, Bryony Kimmings
INTERNATIONAL 98 Frank Zappa Paul Morley dissects a difficult genius
102 American Lulu Why Angel Blue can’t stand her latest opera
104 Dance Odysseys Édouard Lock on collaborating with Scottish Ballet
JAZZ 111
Tia Fuller Beyoncé’s sax player steps out of her shadow
POLITICS 114 World Press Photo Sidestepping the gore and grief with sport
TATTOO
FOR CO FEST MPLETE LISTI IVAL LIS NGS SEE
T. FESTCO.UK/ IVAL
118 The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo An A-Z from Auld Lang Syne to Zero
CITY GUIDE 123 Old Town 130 New Town & Stockbridge 139 Southside 144 West End 149 Leith & Broughton Street
Published in July 2013 by The List Ltd Head Office: 14 High Street Edinburgh EH1 1TE Tel: 0131 550 3050 Fax: 0131 557 8500, list.co.uk
© 2013 The List Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of The List Ltd. ISSN: 1744-3903
Extensive efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication; however the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain.
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154 Clubs 155 LGBT
INDEX 160 Festival A–Z
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OKING FESTIVAL BIOON INFORMAT
EDINBURGH ART FESTIVAL AL 1 Aug–1 Sep edinburghartfestival.com all Telephone booking: Please call ts are individual venues. Many events free but ticketed
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL NAL BOOK FESTIVAL 10–26 Aug edbookfest.co.uk Telephone booking: 0845 373 5888 In person: The Hub, Castlehill, and the box office in Charlotte Square Gardens
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2–26 Aug edfringe.com Telephone booking: 0131 226 0000 In person: Fringe Box Office, 180 High Street; Queen Street Station, Glasgow
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 9 Aug–1 Sep eif.co.uk Telephone booking: 0131 473 2000 In person: The Hub, Castlehill
WELCOME TO THE FESTIVAL It might be 2013 but only good fortune awaits the swathes of visitors descending upon Edinburgh this August. And as luck would have it, there just so happens to be a magazine that will guide you through the highs and lows in order to help your festival experience run to perfection Your starting point is this Edinburgh Festival Guide with a City Guide featuring all the top bars, shops, clubs and restaurants. We follow it up with four magazines in August and a website featuring all the latest news, reviews and interviews. Our expertise isn’t a fluke: we’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years. Over the following pages, we’ve enlisted the help of star writers to bring some festival events alive. Bidisha is both evocative and penetrating about Man Ray, Alan Bissett expertly dissects the decade that taste forgot (now that’s what we call the 80s), Stewart Lee vividly recalls seeing cult Canadian stand-up Baconface for the very first time and Paul Morley checks into the complex mind of musical provocateur Frank Zappa. Elsewhere, we talk to Alexei Sayle in an Italian café about his return to stand-up, hang out with Grid Iron, journey to Iceland to meet the Danish gang bringing Die Hard into The Office, and try with very little success to get Martha Reeves off the phone. We also interview electronica legends The Orb, saxophone maestro Tia Fuller and choreography icon Édouard Lock. And what can you say about our cover stars Airnadette? The French troupe’s frenetic mix of comedy, music, theatre and film simply has to be seen to be believed. The Edinburgh Festival can be a bewildering prospect at first glance, but it’s both a challenge and fun to discover the best in arts and culture. Bonne chance!
Brian Donaldson EDINBURGH FESTIVAL GUIDE EDITOR
EDINBURGH JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL 19–28 Jul edinburghjazzfestival.com Telephone booking: 0131 473 2000 In person: The Hub, Castlehill
CONTRIBUTORS Festival Guide Editor Brian Donaldson City Guide Editor Charlotte Runcie Editorial Assistants Edward Dudgeon, Katy Spry Words Kelly Apter, Bidisha, Alan Bissett, Niki Boyle, Hamish Brown, Brian Donaldson, Edward Dudgeon, Miles Fielder, Mark Fisher, Julian Hall, Malcolm Jack, Stewart Lee, Kirsty Logan, Anna Millar, Paul Morley, Henry Northmore, David Pollock, Lucy
Ribchester, Jay Richardson, Murray Robertson, Claire Sawers, Kirstyn Smith, Stewart Smith, Yasmin Sulaiman, Rhona Taylor, Gail Tolley, Gareth K Vile PRODUCTION Design & Art Direction Lucy Munro Production Manager Simon Armin Subeditors Anna Millar, Claire Ritchie ADVERTISING & SPONSORSHIP Nicky Carter, Sheri Friers, Chris Knox, Jude Moir, Debbie Thomson
DIGITAL Andy Bowles, Niki Boyle, Hamish Brown, Andy Carmichael, Bruce Combe, Robin Ford-Coron, Iain McCusker, Brendan Miles THE LIST Publisher Robin Hodge Editor Gail Tolley Digital Director Simon Dessain Accounts Sarah Reddie
FESTIVAL OF POLITICS 23–25 Aug festivalofpolitics.org.uk Telephone booking: 0131 348 5200 In person: Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Road
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list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 5
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TOP
20
We’ve scanned the thousands of shows, exhibitions and events across the festival in late July, August and early September, and highlight the ones that simply cannot be missed
ART
FRINGE
MELA
BOOKS
MAN RAY
WHATEVER GETS YOU THROUGH THE NIGHT Cora
THE ORB
MARGARET ATWOOD The 2000 Booker winner is here for a series of events including a look at the dark side of Scottish literature. See page 40. Charlotte Square Gardens, 24–26 Aug.
Bissett’s show fuses theatre and music for a multimedia extravaganza. See page 78. Queen’s Hall, 20–25 Aug.
The duo who have helped shape modern electronica play a show which will feature some of their glorious crowd-pleasing hits. See page 16. Leith Links, 1 Sep.
JOHN JOHNSTON
See classic shots from a landmark 20th century photographer who had a serious handle on the celebrity game. See page 24. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, until 22 Sep.
INTERNATIONAL
ART
FRINGE
DANCE ODYSSEYS
FIONA BANNER
ULYSSES
Eight shows curated by Scottish Ballet focus on blurring the divides between dance forms. Featuring world premieres, historical genrechangers, celluloid classics and some of the form’s newest and most exciting dance voices, this series explores dance in a brand new way. See page 104. Festival Theatre, 16–19 Aug.
The Vanity Press from this popular YBA is an art exhibition that focuses on the power of words. See page 29. Summerhall, 2 Aug–27 Sep.
Proving that James Joyce’s unstageable novel can work in theatre, the Tron company deliver the goods. See page 94. Paterson’s Land, 9–26 Aug.
BOOKS
FRINGE
INTERNATIONAL
STRIPPED
ALEXEI SAYLE
AMERICAN LULU Angel Blue pulls off a stunning performance in the tale of a harsh woman from Alban Berg’s unfinished 1934 opera. Radically reworked for the 21st century, and set against the backdrop of the US civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s, the opera transports audiences to the smoky jazz clubs of the Deep South. See page 102. King’s Theatre, 30 & 31 Aug.
The Book Festival gets serious about graphic novels with a strand on the literary side of comics. See page 36. Charlotte Square Gardens, 10–26 Aug.
His wife may be worried about his legacy but it’s perfectly safe as the Alternative Comedy icon returns. See page 44. The Stand, 13–25 Aug.
6 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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TOP 20 FRONTLINES
FRINGE
JAZZ
FRINGE
SHOWSTOPPERS
TIA FULLER
AIRNADETTE
The fabulous musical improv group do it for the kids with their spontaneous and hilarious Family Hour. See page 71. Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2–13 Aug.
Beyoncé’s sax player steps into the limelight with the keynote gig of this year’s Jazz Festival. Fuller grew up listening to John Coltrane and Charlie Parker in her parents’ basement before cutting her teeth on the New York scene, and now she brings a swinging, bop-based band to Edinburgh for a much-anticipated festival debut. See page 111. Queen’s Hall, 19 Jul.
The innovative French comedy/theatre/music troupe hilariously tell their story to a backdrop of mimed songs and reconstructed film clips. See page 58. Underbelly, 31 Jul–26 Aug.
INTERNATIONAL
FRINGE
POLITICS
THE WOOSTER GROUP
JAMES COUSINS
FESTIVAL OF POLITICS
The innovative New York theatre team do Hamlet as you’ve never seen it before. By remixing film footage of a legendary 1964 John Gielgud production starring Richard Burton, The Wooster Group attempt to reconstruct a challenging, hypothetical theatre piece for a live audience. See page 97. Lyceum Theatre, 10–13 Aug.
One of the true rising stars in dance brings his own company to the Fringe for a show based on Murakami’s novel Norwegian Wood. See page 67. Zoo Southside, 19–26 Aug.
FRINGE
FRINGE
TATTOO
FRINGE
KATE TEMPEST
BADAC THEATRE
THE ROYAL EDINBURGH MILITARY TATTOO This August’s
BOBBY MAIR
Brand New Ancients has poet and rapper Tempest whipping up, yes you guessed it, a storm. See page 84. Traverse Theatre, 20–25 Aug.
Another stirring bit of site-specific theatre from the people behind The Factory as they explore the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. See page 80. Summerhall, 2–25 Aug.
Tattoo celebrates the Year of Natural Scotland. See page 118. Edinburgh Castle, 2–24 Aug.
Organisers have shifted the FoP focus to make more use of the parliament building. See page 113. Scottish Parliament, 23–25 Aug.
The young Canadian has supported Jerry Sadowitz and Doug Stanhope, which gives you a sense of his brand of stand-up. See page 51. The Tron, 1–25 Aug.
list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 7
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Destination:
FASHION
Indulge in a spot of retail therapy at Livingston Designer Outlet
If you’re visiting Edinburgh for the festivals, don’t miss your chance to shop your favourite brands at Livingston Designer Outlet for up to 60% less than the RRP. We’re just 30 minutes away from Edinburgh, making us the perfect shopping destination.
Phase Eight: RRP £179.00 Outlet £94.00
Don ’t go home without... Must-have fashion finds from Kurt Geiger, Ted Baker, Karen Millen and more.
Getting here is easy By car: exit the M8 motorway at Junction 3 and follow the signs to Livingston Town Centre. By train: hop on one of the regular services from Edinburgh to Livingston North station or from Glasgow to Livingston South station.
M&S Outlet: RRP £32.50 Outlet £23.00
French Connection: RRP £110.00 Outlet £66.00
Daniel Footwear: RRP £84.99 Outlet £54.99
LivingstonDesignerOutlet.com All product available and prices correct at time of going to print. 8 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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FRONT LINES NEWS | GOSSIP | OPINION
afterwards as I always have with the annual exchange of drinks. This has always occurred on the 16th and is when the Air Force and Army send a retired or retiring representative and we exchange drinks (me representing all those at sea following my bath tub world record-setting row). Each of us choose a drink and the other two must toast my official birthday: it normally gets bad as each one tries to poison the other two with their choice. JOEY PAGE (OFFBEAT COMIC) 29 ON THE 1ST I will get on the rum the night before and then spend the day lying in the Meadows waiting for passers-by to shower me with cake and brooches.
MANY HAPPY RETURNS August is a time for jollity, what with Edinburgh being so thoroughly festive. For some Fringe performers and directors, there’s an extra reason to celebrate as they grow a year older during that month. We ask some birthday girls and boys about their plans for the big day PAUL ZERDIN (PUPPET MAN) 39 ON THE 21ST I plan to spend it having dinner with my girlfriend at The Witchery which is my favourite restaurant in Edinburgh. But I may have to take in a show as well that night just so my girlfriend can watch something other than puppets and a man talking to himself for an hour. NISH KUMAR (RISING COMIC) 28 ON THE 26TH As my birthday falls at the end of Edinburgh, it is normally a good opportunity for everyone to gather together and celebrate/commiserate the end of the Fringe by getting as drunk as humanly possible. We’ll almost certainly end up in Brass Monkey, a great pub that has pictures
of Jimi Hendrix on the walls and has beds. Actual beds. They also serve a delightful White Russian. Beds, Hendrix and a milk-based drink is all I have ever wanted from a bar or from my birthday. PRINCESS PUMPALOT (THE FARTING PRINCESS) 16 ON THE 13TH I will be defending my realm against low-flying gnomes with an assortment of whiffy tricks. TIM FITZHIGHAM (ECCENTRIC STAND-UP) 36 ON THE 16TH The main focus of the day will be my show in an inflatable venue at the Pleasance but I will celebrate
BOB GOLDING (DIRECTOR OF NO DIRECTION) 43 ON THE 15TH I shall be starting with a picnic in Queen Street Gardens before going to watch the play Robert Golding, for a theatrically narcissistic fix. Then a few outdoor libations on George Square followed by a spritely jaunt down to Thistle Street for dinner at Fishers restaurant and probably do something really sporadic like find a live salsa band and some blues to lament becoming 43. Then sing the entire album of Bowie’s Hunky Dory in an overtly loud and drunken manner until 3.14am when I fall asleep fully clothed LLOYD LANGFORD (LACONIC COMIC) 30 ON THE 6TH I plan to spend it having a joint 30th with Russell Kane, the Benjamin Button of the comedy world. SARAH REGAN (PERFORMER & MUSICAL DIRECTOR OF CHAMPAGNE CABARET) 26 ON THE 11TH I’ll be performing in Champagne Cabaret at 4pm and then most likely celebrating with my troupe with any leftover champagne from the show. We have the next day off so it’s guaranteed to be a big one! PAUL PIRIE (SCOTS WAG) 39 ON THE 19TH My family live in Dundee so they will more than likely come through to my show on that day and have a meal somewhere nice. I would also like to spend the day creating world piece and learning how to spell. ■ Visit list.co.uk/festival for show details and more August birthday celebrants
ALL ROADS LEAD TO DAVID BOWIE He may not be here in the flesh at this year’s festival, but there are plenty musicians, artists, comedians and choreographers in town with a connection to the Thin White Duke • Douglas Gordon painted Self Portrait of You + Me (David Bowie) (ART) • Philip Glass utilised Low and Heroes for symphonies in the 90s (INTERNATIONAL) • John Otway covered ‘Space Oddity’ with accompaniment from the Netteswell Youth Band (FRINGE) • Frank Cottrell Boyce chose ‘Golden Years’ for his Desert Island Discs (BOOKS) • Édouard Lock’s La La La Human Steps dance crew performed live with him in 1988 (INTERNATIONAL) • Alexei Sayle humorously mocked his acting skills in The Young Ones (FRINGE) • Johnnie Walker presented a tribute to him during Radio 2’s Sounds of the 70s series earlier this year (FRINGE) • Absolute Elvis Show is about the King of Rock’n’Roll with whom he shared a birthday (FRINGE) • Melvin Burgess wrote Sara’s Face which featured a rock star who undertook excessive surgery in order to look like his hero (BOOKS) • Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’ was covered on the Earthling tour (INTERNATIONAL) • Cambridge Footlights alumnus Graham Chapman shared his birthday (FRINGE) • Barb Jungr covered ‘All the Young Dudes’ on tribute album Darkness and Disgrace (FRINGE) • Brian Eno was the key collaborator on his epic 1970s Berlin Trilogy (INTERNATIONAL)
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FRONTLINES NEWS | GOSSIP | OPINION
DOING THE SPLITS BAN THIS FILTH! He’s taken on a female stage personae before but Alan Bissett cranks it up several notches by portraying anti-porn campaigner Andrea Dworkin
NATASHA YAPP This Edinburghbased comic gets properly stuck into identity politics as well as graduate life and family stuff in the hopefully not prophetic Offal Comedienne
A FEW FRINGE TYPES HAVE GOT THINGS TO SAY ABOUT IDENTITY OR ARE JUST PRETTY IMAGINATIVE WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR PUBLICITY POSTER
15 MINUTES Andy Warhol has a lot to answer for, eh? Surgical enhancement and celebrity obsession are the order of the day in this play by rising playwright Laura Neal
GOOD MOURNING! VOSTBIL A downcast Swiss actress called Florence Minder taps into her American side in order to poke around issues of grief
MARATHON SESSIONS Performance artist Vicki Weitz is all set to run 26 marathons in 26 days, traversing the Royal Mile repeatedly from 7am daily until she reaches her target. Using highly dubious mathematics, we’ve calculated that her total running time will roughly equate to 9360 minutes, or 156 hours, or six and a half days. Niki Boyle estimates 26 other things you could do while Weitz completes her full Fringe run Get yourself psyched up by listening to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ 2283 times Watch Andy Warhol’s Empire 19 times
SHAGGY DOGGEREL Comedic duo Mellor and Steele deliver some tasty yarns. I’m afraid they do threaten to give us some paws for thought. It’s barking and so on . . . . .
DAN WILLIS One of Willis’ two shows this year features much talk in a pub basement about zombies. The Walking Dead might just help you survive the impending apocalypse
KEARSE AND MARRESE There’s not especially much going on here about identity, it’s just two stand-ups doing a double bill and squishing their heads together on a poster
Watch 0.00007% of all videos on YouTube
PUNNY GAMES
Do ‘The Time Warp’ again and again and again and again (x 2836)
10 SILLY FRINGE SHOW TITLES Much A Shoo Be Doo About Nothing
Watch 127 Hours 104 times Count to 561,600
Brigadoom
Listen to John Cage’s ‘4.33’ 2057 times
Bulletproof Jest
Boil 1872 eggs
The Full Bronte
The Lie-In King
Cheese and Crack Whores
Watch the current entirety of Game of Thrones five times, then spend another four hours discussing it online
Relationshit Muffragette
Recreate six of Mark Watson’s seven marathon shows (you’d have to leave out 2005 Years in 2005 Minutes)
Alternatively, read the first four (out of seven) books in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, on which the TV series is based
If Joe Lycett Then You Should’ve Put a Ring on It
Listen to Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’ 1755 more times
very few of the meals are ready on time
A Midwife Crisis
Walk the West Highland Way Listen to Take That’s ‘It Only Takes a Minute’ 2441 times
Watch 18,720 Harlem Shake videos Watch the special edition box set of The Lord of the Rings, including all the special features, four times Cook 26 large turkeys Read War and Peace two and a half times Tell a really epic version of The Aristocrats joke
YES, WE CAN BE BOUGHT! Every year, The List dedicates a small part of its weekly festival coverage to promoting one happy-golucky show in exchange for nothing more than some
big, fat payola. Here’s a selection of the best bribes that have been left on our doorstep over the years. Show: Aaaand Now for Something Completely Improvised Bribe: A seriously impressive oil painting of a performer reading The List. And some crab paste.
Create the world (and have half a day off)
Drive from Edinburgh to Nairobi Walk 500 miles, but probably not 500 more Watch all six seasons of Mad Men two and a half times Cook every single recipe from Jamie Oliver’s 15-Minute Meals and 30-Minute Meals. This only adds up to two-and-a-bit days, but we gather that
Show: Paul Harry Allen’s Stuff and Nonsense Bribe: Assorted tat, including vinyl coasters, creepy drinks stirrers and a box decorated with a puppy calendar. Show: Twonkey’s Castle Bribe: A squeezy snail, a bottle of goo and some glitter. A bizarre mess.
Embark upon a John-and-Yoko-style Bed-In (but give up 12 hours before the end) Research the number of things you could do in the time it would take you to complete 26 consecutive marathons ■ Twenty-Six Marathons in Twenty-Six Days, Palace of Holyroodhouse gates, 0131 226 0000, 1—26 Aug, 7am, free.
Show: Clinton the Musical Bribe: A tray of cakes painstakingly decorated to closely resemble mble the show’s flyer. And pants. nts. Show: The Life and Times of Albert Lymes es Bribe: A coconut with h make-up on..
ATTENTION FRINGE PERFORMERS! If you think you can top those ingenuity or for tastiness, ingenui bizarrity, sheer bizarrity swag to send your sw Festival Big Fat Fest Bribe, c/o Niki Boyle, The List, Street, 14 High S Edinburgh, Edinbur 1TE. EH1 1TE
10 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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20% off Edinburgh Youth Hostels in July & August With two Youth Hostels in Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital, we offer high quality, affordable accommodation during the Edinburgh Festival period
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Edinburgh Central: 5 star Youth Hostel with 296 beds all en-suite, private rooms available.
Edinburgh Metro: 200 beds in single rooms, situated only minutes from the Royal Mile & Grassmarket. 20% off when you book accommodation in either Youth Hostel in July & August. Promotional code is valid until 31st August.
Book online at www.hostellingscotland.com quoting TL20 Terms & Conditions: Offer is available during July & August for bed & room bookings in Edinburgh Central and Edinburgh Metro Youth Hostels only. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. Promotional code applies to new bookings only. SYHA NATIONAL OFFICE: 7 Glebe Crescent, Stirling, FK8 2JA T: 01786 891400 Scottish Youth Hostels Association (also known as SYHA or Hostelling Scotland) is a registered Scottish charity No.SC013138 and a company limited by guarantee, registered in Scotland, No. SC310841. Registered Office 7 Glebe Crescent, Stirling, FK8 2JA.
Beauty and the Beast Film by Jean Cocteau (1946) Music by Philip Glass
Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 August 8.00pm Supported by Ewan and Christine Brown
Book tickets now at eif.co.uk/labelle or call 0131 473 2000
Charity No SC004694 Image: Courtesy of Janus Films
Philip Glass Ensemble Conducted by Michael Riesman
list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 11
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FRONTLINES NEWS | GOSSIP | OPINION
NEWS IN BRIEF SNIPPETS OF STUFF FROM ACROSS THE FESTIVAL Artist’s impression of a pop-up town
CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE A pop-up town for up to 8000 people will appear for the first time in Britain during this year’s Fringe. Situated at the Royal Highland Showground near Edinburgh Airport, Carnival Camp will have four tiers of accommodation from 12-bed dorms to en-suite double rooms. Prices per night start at £30. See hostivalonline.com for more details.
PARLEY VIEW The Edinburgh Art Festival marks its tenth year with Parley, an ambitious programme of ten new publicly sited commissions by established and emerging artists. Among the highlights are Christine Borland’s collaboration with Brody Condon, Sarah Kenchington’s Wind Pipes for Edinburgh (pictured) and Katri Walker’s film An Equilibrium Not of This World.
SEX TALK
MRP
Do you think you have it in you to bash out the next 50 Shades of Greyy or Story of O? Why not come along to a breathless threehour Erotic Writing Masterclass on 8 August at the wonderfully titled Hendrick’s Carnival of Knowledge. Ex-boss of The Erotic Review w Rowan Pelling will be keeping a tight rein on proceedings.
BEEB BEEB BROWNED OFF
FACE OFF
He may have felt that he was born to occupy Number 10, but did Gordon Brown turn out to be the most ineffective Prime Minister in living memory? That’s the tough question at the heart of The Confessions of Gordon Brown, written by Kevin Toolis and starring Ian Grieve as the thorny Scot.
Is the internet making us smarter? Just one of the questions being posed during the EIF’s Interfaces discussion series. The likes of neuroscientist Susan Greenfield (pictured) and social psychologist Aleks Krotoski will feature in talks about language, free will and the mind.
The BBC are cranking up their coverage of the festival this year, with highlights including cluding the Comedy Gala at the Playhouse hosted ted by Kevin Bridges and Adam Hills, three hree special Culture Show broadcasts adcasts and a swathe of radio including uding MacAulay and Co, Richard d Bacon’s afternoon show and nd The Unbelievable Truth.
12 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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buy your tickets from: edfringe.com or tel: 0131 226 0000 facebook.com/edfringe or the official app for iPhone and Android Fringe Box Office, 180 High Street, Edinburgh Virgin Money Half Price Hut, Mound Precinct (07-26 Aug) Glasgow Box Office at ScotRail’s Queen Street Station (26 July-26 Aug).
collect your tickets from: Fringe Box Office, 180 High Street, Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh Visitor Centre, 2 Charles Street, EH8 9AD Glasgow Box Office at ScotRail’s Queen Street Station (26 July-26 Aug) Virgin Money Half Price Hut, Mound Precinct (02-26 Aug) 22 Fringe venues across the City. See edfringe.com/boxoffice for full information, including detailed opening hours and a list of collection venues.
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FRONTLINES NEWS | GOSSIP | OPINION
NEWS IN BRIEF
BANKS OF SCOTLAND
LUNA MIGUEL
The final Sunday of the Book Festival will be a day of mixed emotions as warm tributes are paid to the late Iain Banks. His coauthors and friends Val McDermid, Ken MacLeod and Ian Rankin will reflect on his legacy as a writer and qualities as a man.
FIRST WRITES PAY DOWN Heroes @ Bob’s Bookshop will operate a ‘recession-friendly’ ticketing model with Pay What You Like. Bob Slayer’s venue on South College Street will host an impressively versatile lineup including Phil Kay, Miss Behave (pictured) and hospital DJ of ill-repute, Ivan Brackenbury.
A total of 42 writers are in the running for the First Book Award to be decided by public vote via the Edinburgh Book Festival website. Among the nominees are journalist Kevin Maher, Patricio Pron (pictured), Pippa Goldschmidt and former List critic Damien Love. The winner will be announced in October.
NOT SUCH A STUPID BOY HOME GROWN Now in its fifth year, the Made in Scotland showcase continues to promote the diverse nature of culture in this country. The multi-genre umbrella for 2013 features the likes of Herald Angel winners Junction 25 with Anoesis, folk balladeers Blueflint (pictured) and Orcadian eight-piece The Chair.
An intriguing festival debut comes from former Dad’s Army star Ian Lavender (he was the put-upon Pike) who will play ‘Brooksie’ in The Shawshank Redemption. He joins Omid Djalili, Owen O’Neill and Kyle Homicide Secor in this adaptation of the Stephen King classic.
ANGER MANAGEMENT Star of Downton Abbey Elizabeth McGovern proves there’s another string to her creative bow as she fronts Sadie and The Hot Heads. Her folk-country fusion band make their Fringe debut with a week-long stint at the New Town Theatre.
14 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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3d/2dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s West End Fair 2013 Free admission event
Sat 3 to Sun 25 August 100s of makers, artists and designers. Open 11am to 6pm. Find us in the grounds of St Johns, corner of Lothian Rd and Princes St, Edinburgh.
More information: www.westendfair.co.uk 0131 661 6600 www.3d2d.co.uk
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S L A V I T S E F R E OTH
JANIO EDWARDS
‘IT’S MUCH EASIER TO HEAR IN MY HEAD THAN TO TALK ABOUT’
16 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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OTHER FESTIVALS: MELA
AMBIENCE CHASER To kick off our coverage of the other hot festivals around town, Malcolm Jack chats with Alex Paterson from electronica legends The Orb, as they prepare to headline the Mela
G
iven the somewhat challenging task of describing the anticipated sound of a collaboration which remains entirely untested at the time of speaking, The Orb’s Alex Paterson does an impressively evocative job. ‘It’s going to be very, very heavy,’ he muses, the week before he’s due to first meet and play with Ghanian master drummers Kakatsitsi. ‘It’s going to be like dark matter, with this very surreal glint of starlight on the horizon of Africa, which will be us with these little melodies over the top. There’ll be this feeling of different African rhythms and I’ll then bring in different modern rhythms within their ones. And so we then feed off each other. I can hear it now.’ He laughs. ‘It’s much easier to hear in my head than to talk about.’ Plans had been afoot for Paterson – sole constant member of the British ambient electronica act who celebrate their 25th anniversary this year – to travel to Ghana’s capital city Accra for some warm-up shows with Kakatsitsi, but everything fell through at the last minute. Instead, he was left waiting for the drummers, dancers and singers who are well-respected in the Ghanaian music business for their work with various popular hiplife, highlife and gospel artists. At the point when they touched down in the UK, they could all get to work on an Afro-British partnership arranged via The Orb’s manager Ross March and Steve Peake of Indigenous People, a Brighton-based non-profit cultural education organisation. After just three days of rehearsals, they’ll make their live debut together with a low-key show in Brighton, before exclusive performances at Glastonbury and the Edinburgh Mela. Two festivals not often mentioned in the same breath, it just goes to show what a big booking this was for Edinburgh’s annual multi-cultural extravaganza (where Kakatsitsi appeared last year to a rapturous reception). It signals the ambition which director Chris Purnell has for the event, which he hopes will eventually grow into something akin to a Scottish WOMAD. ‘It’s a coup for the Mela to get a band of The Orb’s stature,’ says Purnell. ‘And it’s great that they are thinking along the same lines as myself about how to move forward with the event. It’s very much more world-music based, and collaborative work is the zeitgeist.’ Not someone who is naturally drawn towards collaborations, Paterson has of late worked separately with a couple of stellar names in their respective genres. Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour featured heavily on The Orb’s 2010 LP, Metallic Spheres. More recently, Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann – his ‘Swiss-German partner-in-crime’, as Paterson calls The Orb’s only other full member – travelled to Germany for highly productive sessions with seminal Jamaican dub-reggae producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. The fruits of those labours have been two albums, with More Tales from the Orbservatory set to follow-up last year’s The Orbserver in the Star House. A more contrasting pair of musicians than Gilmour and Perry you could hardly imagine: ‘one’s your mate, the other one’s a schoolmaster,’ as Paterson puts it. ‘Can you guess which one’s which?’ But if there’s an experience he regards as having unlocked the possibility of this coming-together with the master drummers, it
was DJing around the world in 1999–2000. Then, Paterson worked alongside eclectic London ensemble Juno Reactor in a landmark collaboration with South African percussion collective Amampondo, a not-dissimilar fusion of world music and western electronica to that which The Orb and Kakatsitsi will undertake. Which rather explains why Paterson is so relaxed about the prospect of hitting the stage with the Ghanaians just a few days after first meeting them. ‘I got a good feel for all that kind of thing,’ he says, referring to the Juno Reactor/Amampondo shows. ‘I can’t see it being a million miles away. It’s all about creating energy.’ Re-conditioned staples of The Orb catalogue will provide the basis for their Mela set-list: ‘Blue Room’, ‘Perpetual Dawn’ and, of course, chill-out classic ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ are to be included. ‘Unfortunately for us, that’s what everyone wants to hear,’ says Paterson, a little wearily. He’d rather be performing new material, forward-motion at all times being vital to the ever-prolific Orb. But, by necessity, their quarter-century is being marked with some backwardsglancing events intended to test the water for an eight-CD retrospective boxed-set (slated for release in October) and supporting world tour. So, in April they graced Brixton with a special performance of their first two albums, 1991’s The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and 1992’s U.F.Orb. Somewhere between all that activity, Paterson remains hopeful of fitting in a Ghanaian trip to collect field recordings – ‘some ambience, the ocean, the jungles, the plains’ – towards an album which he hopes will be the ultimate outcome of the Kakatsitsi collaboration. ‘If it goes well,’ Paterson adds casually, sounding entirely like he expects it will, ‘there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be an end-product from all the work we’re putting in. That would hopefully be really, really cool.’ The Orb, Leith Links, 1 Sep.
OTHER MELA HIGHLIGHTS STAR CROSSED A brand-new commission by Mallorcabased dance company Pasodos, it’s Romeo and Juliet meets West Side Story, played out through the dance mediums of capoeira and tango.
THERMAL AND A QUARTER Indian rockers who sing in English but hail from Bangalore, better known by the acronym TAAQ. We love the name, but no, we have no idea what it means either.
MELA KIDZONE Youngsters are invited to ‘Go Wild’ this year in the environment-themed children’s area, which sees the Mela partnered with Scottish Natural Heritage and The Forestry Commission.
GLOBAL FOOD VILLAGE Over 20 outlets will serve the best in world cuisine, from Indian to African and Polish delicacies. For the first time, the Mela goes completely green: polystyrene is banned and it’s compostables only.
■ Edinburgh Mela, Leith Links, 31 Aug & 1 Sep; edinburgh-mela.co.uk. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 17
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ALS V I T S R FE E H T O BEST OF THE REST OF THE FEST Niki Boyle finds some other events keeping Edinburgh in the spotlight EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FASHION FESTIVAL 19–28 JUL edinburghinternational fashionfestival.com Zipping in and out before August has arrived, the Fashion Festival aims to build on a cracking 2012 debut. Among the names and organisations featured are Clements Ribeiro, Amanda Harlech, Bella Freud, National Museum of Scotland and Harvey Nichols.
TECH IT EASY DISHING UP Hamish Brown discovers the innovations afoot at this year’s Turing Festival
Claire Sawers samples some coastal delights at Fringe By The Sea
apping into the ‘Art and Digital’ theme of this year’s International Festival, the third outing of Turing is a more tightly focused affair than in previous years. Talks and events are taking place within the intimate surroundings of some of the city’s most elegant and historic venues such as Surgeons’ Hall, Old College and The Signet Library. This year, Turing is split into a series of Fringe events and a conference element which brings together speakers from some of the most relevant technology firms today, and also includes meet-ups, investor events and an open Tech Jobs Scotland fair showcasing the country’s vibrant and flourishing tech community. What better place than the biggest arts festival in the world for a reminder of the science, technology and engineering innovations that form so much of the city’s identity? Among the guests is American composer and music technologist Tod Machover (pictured), whose new ‘massively collaborative’ piece Festival City is premiered at the EIF. This ‘sonic portrait’ of Edinburgh will feature recorded contributions from the public (submit yours at eif.co.uk/festival-city) and is sure to reflect the composer’s firm footing in the tech camp: he’s based at MIT rather than a conventional music department, after all. With an array of instrument inventions to his name (hyperviolin, hyperbow, hyperpiano: you get the picture) he’s about as far from the three-chordsand-the-truth school of composition as you can get. Although, interestingly, he also helped develop the technology behind global smash Guitar Hero.
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turingfestival.com
fringebythesea.com
he ice-cream cones on the front cover of Fringe By The Sea’s programme are the first hint at this year’s strong food theme. Besides the always-tempting option of braving the gallus seagulls of East Lothian, going al fresco and taking fish and chips down onto North Berwick beach, there will be a mini food court at the harbour this August. The Belhaven Spiegeltent and the Baby Spiegeltent will feature Moroccan cuisine, spit-roast hog, a mobile espresso van, cakes and a specially created Fringe By The Sea Lager from along the road at Belhaven Brewery. Friday’s programme goes heavy on the cookery events too, with talks and demos throughout the afternoon. Neil Forbes (pictued), chef/ director at Edinburgh’s Café St Honoré, will be talking through some of the dishes he serves at the Parisian-style bistro, focusing especially on Scottish produce including Isle of Mull scallops, heritage potatoes and locally grown berries. He favours simple dishes where possible, so his recipes will apparently provide inspiration to ‘even the most timorous of home cooks’. As a Highland boy who grew up amongst a family of chefs in Pitlochry, Forbes is a champion of seasonal produce, ideally sourced right on Scotland’s doorstep. A card-carrying member of Slow Food UK, Forbes runs an allotment at a local university to teach students about food production, so he will no doubt be mixing up his cookery class with tips on eating ‘good, clean and fair’ food.
OTHER TURING HIGHLIGHTS
OTHER FBTS HIGHLIGHTS
Other speakers include Matt Mason of BitTorrent, the powerful protocol which boasts ‘the world’s most efficient way to move media’, acclaimed game developer Jesse Schell, Mike Hearn of peer-to-peer electronic cash system Bitcoin talking about the future of money, Brian Doll of developer tool and code-centric social network GitHub, Vitaly Friedman of web design resource Smashing Magazine, and Edinburgh-based app developer Matt Gemmell. ■ Turing Festival, various venues, 23 & 24 Aug.
Other highlights include comedy-mime-hero The Boy With Tape on His Face who will be bringing his oddball physical jokes to North Berwick, as part of a mini-comedy strand which also includes Lucy Porter and Jenny Éclair. Bookworms will find a string of ‘Author Conversations’ from writers including journalist-turned-novelist Christopher Brookmyre, Scots Makar Liz Lochhead and wildlife cameraman/adventure chronicler Doug Allan. ■ Fringe By The Sea, various venues, North Berwick, 5–11 Aug.
JUST FESTIVAL 2–26 AUG justjust.org Formerly the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, Just boasts over 400 activities and events in its programme dedicated to ‘encouraging community by exploring diversity’, with speakers, performances, film, food, exhibitions, family activities, workshops, art, culture and more packed into the schedule.
EDINBURGH BOOK FRINGE 9–23 AUG word-power.co.uk A more locally minded alternative to the large-scale global event across town, the Book Fringe is put together by independent and radical bookshop Word Power. James Robertson, Dervla Murphy, Raja Shehadeh and Jay Griffiths will be among those appearing.
FOREST FRINGE 16–25 AUG forestfringe.co.uk Forest Fringe is venturing into new territory this year, with its regular programme of radical, avant-garde and politically minded theatre and assorted arts events now relocated to Out of the Blue Drill Hall. If you prefer volunteerdriven, grassrootsy culture to the cutthroat world of Fringe marketeering, this is your best bet.
GUARDIAN EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION FESTIVAL 22–24 AUG geitf.co.uk This annual TV get-together is heavily industry-orientated, but they’ve had some screenings open to the public in years past so it’s worth keeping an eye out. Delegates can look forward to a keynote speech by Kevin Spacey, a live edition of The Great British Bake Off and a presentation on The Evolution of Puppetry by Brian Henson (chairman of the Jim Henson Company).
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FESTIVAL FUN AT THE SEASIDE NORTH BERWICK | 5-11 AUGUST 2013
www.fringebythesea.com The Boy With Tape On His Face Phil Cunningham & Aly Bain The New Rope String Band Elaine C Smith Dougie MacLean Ian Rankin The Blues Band Cafe Jacques Lucy Porter
Jenny Eclair Maggie O’Farrell Larkin Poe Bombskare Orkestra Del Sol and plenty more! Visit our website for full programme and to book tickets.
AN EVENING WITH
DAVID SEDARIS N E W
SEE THE MUSEUM IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT Escape the daytime crowds and experience the spectacular Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland as you’ve never done before. Enjoy entry to our fascinating Mary, Queen of Scots exhibition, drinks at the bar, live performances, music and a lively evening of entertainment. Museum After Hours promises to be an unmissable part of the Edinburgh Festival. In association with C venues.
Museum After Hours: Sat 17 and 24 August 19.00 till 22.30 | Tickets £15/£12 Over 18s only. Book now on 0300 123 6789 or nms.ac.uk/afterhours
Y O R K
T I M E S
B E S T
S E L L I N G
A U T H O R
17-24 AUGUST - 18:30 SHOW VENUE 150 LENNOX SUITE @EICC EDINBURGH 0844 871 8803 kililive.com 0844 847 1639 venue150.com “He has a Bennett-like way with a pause, and pitch perfect comedy timing…” SCOTSMAN OUT NOW
Media Partner
A KILIMANJARO PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH SHOW AND TELL
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26 NORTHERN IRELAND Costa winner Maggie O’Farrell has lived everywhere in the UK but was born in Coleraine (Books)
25 NORWAY Haftor Medbøe is now a mainstay in the Scottish jazz scene (Jazz)
12 GHANA Kakatsitsi play with The Orb at Leith Links (Mela)
13 GREECE Despina Nissiriou’s work is part of Staple Matter at Patriothall Gallery (Art)
24 NEW ZEALAND Eleanor Catton launches her second novel, The Luminaries (Books)
■ For full details of all these people and shows, visit list.co.uk/festival
39 ZIMBABWE Bawren Tavaziva dances about one of the seven deadly sins in Greed (Fringe)
38 WALES Former Catatonia songstress Cerys Matthews believes everyone has a song in their heart (Books)
37 USA Larkin Poe are a folk-rock band fronted by the Lovell Sisters (Fringe By The Sea)
36 UKRAINE Andrey Kurkov has written time-travelling novel The Gardener from Ochakov (Books)
22 MONGOLIA Musicians from their armed forces make a debut trip (Tattoo) 23 NETHERLANDS Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra perform Mahler’s Symphony No 9 (International)
35 SWITZERLAND Inspired by the words of James Kelman and Irvine Welsh, Pedro Lenz won the Berne Literature Prize for Not Much of a Talker (Books)
34 SWEDEN Maj Sjöwall kickstarted the Nordic noir phenomenon in the 60s (Books)
33 SPAIN Flamenco Global take their dancing worldwide (Fringe)
home (Books)
32 SOUTH AFRICA Deon Meyer is a bestselling crime writer back
31 SOMALIA Nadifa Mohamed wrote The Orchard of Lost Souls (Books)
30 SCOTLAND Daniel Sloss, the half-Fifer, half-Viking rising comedy legend (Fringe)
29 RUSSIA Russian National Orchestra do Rachmaninov, Glazunov and Scriabin (International)
28 PORTUGAL Ângela Ferreira’s Political Cameras is at Stills (Art)
27 PERU Mario Testino’s work is part of Coming into Fashion (Art)
21 SOUTH KOREA Hyung Su Kim explores new artistic expressions in public spaces with Media Skins (International)
properly Rock Out! (Fringe)
20 JAPAN Physical comedic duo Gamarjobat prepare to
19 ISRAEL Eyal Weizman is a stern critic of his country’s occupation policy (Books)
18 IRAQ Abbas Khider has debuted with The Village Indian (Books)
17 ITALY Niccolò Ammaniti’s new novel features human-eating hippos and Satanic cults (Books)
16 IRELAND Rubberbandits are big back home and massive on the internet (Fringe)
15 INDIA Mukesh Kapila fought against genocide in Darfur (Books)
14 HAITI Dany Laferrière fled his homeland at the age of 23 (Books)
11 FRANCE Soprano Véronique Gens sings Fauré, Duparc, Debussy, Chausson and Hahn (International)
10 FINLAND Antti Tuomainen has given Helsinki a new twist with his award-winning crime novels (Books)
9 ESTONIA Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir sing Rachmaninov, Kreek, Schnittke and Pärt (International)
8 ENGLAND Former Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Russell Kane is an Essex boy made good (Fringe)
7 CYPRUS Hussein Chalayan is two-time British Designer of the Year (Fashion)
6 CHILE Teatrocinema’s Histoire d’amour is a chilling tale of obsessive love (International)
5 CHINA Beijing People’s Art Theatre’s The Tragedy of Coriolanus has live support from two of the country’s top heavy metal bands (International)
4 CANADA Stand-up Tom Stade is now permanently ensconced in the city of Edinburgh (Fringe)
3 BELARUS Vitaly Friedman co-founded Smashing Magazine (Turing)
2 AUSTRALIA David Quirk is a deadpan leftfield comic (Fringe)
1 ARGENTINA Rodrigo Abd is a World Press Photo prizewinner (Politics)
Each summer, Edinburgh becomes a temporary home to artists, actors, dancers, comedians, writers and musicians from all around the world. It’s no exaggeration to say that the city becomes a cultural global village between the end of July and beginning of September. Here’s our handy visual guide to the spread of nations represented across all of this year’s festivals. From Peruvian photographers to Scottish stand-ups and Welsh writers to Mongolian military bands, raise a glass to our festival league of nations
FESTIVAL WORLD MAP
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1 August â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1 September 2013
Presenting the best contemporary, modern and historic artists, the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest annual visual art festival includes over 50 exhibitions, ten new public artworks across the city and a month of free events, tours and performances. Pick up your free artist designed map from participating galleries. www.edinburghartfestival.com @EdArtFest
22 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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EDINB URG ART H FESTIV AL 1 AUG –1 SEP
FROM DEATH TO DEATH The private collection of D Daskalopoulos is laid open to the public revealing a series of stunning modern and contemporary works. Among the pieces on show are Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (pictured), René Magritte’s La Gacheuse and Sarah Lucas’ Bunny Gets Snookered. One early review described From Death to Death as ‘radical’, ‘persuasive’ and ‘thought-provoking’. It would be extremely difficult to disagree. ■ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Belford Road, 0131 624 6200, until 8 Sep, Mon–Sun, 10am–5pm (Jul, Sep), 10am–6pm (Aug), free.
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ART MAN RAY Man’s women (clockwise from main pic): Ava Gardner in Costume for Albert Lewin’s Pandora and the Flying Dutchman; Solarised Portrait of Lee Miller; Catherine Deneuve
‘HE OBVIOUSLY LIKED TALENTED, COMPLEX, ADULT WOMEN’
24 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival ival
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MAN RAY ART
MAN ALIVE Was Man Ray an innovative, mercurial photographer or a shallow, celebrity-obsessed snapper? Bidisha ponders this complex conundrum at the centre of his work
M
an Ray was the perfect chronicler in a new age of cinema images, magazine scoops and celebrity culture. But was he a great artist himself, or a three-hit wonder? The Man Ray images most people know best are the 1929 solarised profile of his colleague, friend and lover, Lee Miller; Noire et Blanche, the image of a strikingly pale model posing eyes down with a black carved mask; and Le Violon d’Ingres, from 1924, which shows a lover’s back with the image of two f-holes from a violin superimposed on it. In all three images, the women’s faces are blank, looking away, down or to the side, the trio’s flesh and shape used only for their physical beauty and not personality. In two of the three images, the women are overtly likened to objects: a mask and a violin. They have the easy, pleasant slickness of magazine editorials. They all look great on postcards, posters and tea towels. But does it go any deeper than that? A major exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery aims to fill in this blankness and add substance to the style. Displaying more than 150 new prints drawn from collections all over the world and covering a great sweep of time from 1916 to 1968, it’s a classy glide through a now-vanished world where the rich, the famous, the talented and the ambitious gathered to collaborate and converse. Man Ray worked in New York, Paris and Hollywood and published internationally, but he made his name during the Parisian inter-war years and his freshest work dates from then, before he had ‘made it’. Dancers, authors, artists and performers flocked to him, and he responded to them as a peer rather than an acolyte, producing some iconic, defining portraits. The images are memorable due to the friendly, clubby, equal relationship between photographer and subject, and because many of the subjects had not yet reached the height of their fame. They have a freshness which is remarkably free of ego given that his sitters included Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway. Later images, of young Catherine Deneuve to give the most famous example, advertised all the surface beauty and impeccable starriness which Hollywood expected from its photographers. Indeed, by the end of his career, Man Ray was working for Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar, and his work, though still original, integrated perfectly into their world of ease, elegance and glamour. Working in crisp and strong black and white, intriguingly composed and sleekly produced, Man Ray’s photographs don’t just reflect the confidence of a new creative elite: they also demonstrate his own technical curiosity and inventiveness. Man Ray trained as an artist, was involved with the Dadaists as a young man in New York, and in 1925 exhibited alongside Jean Arp, Miró and Picasso at the now-famous first Surrealist exhibition in Paris. As a result, he saw himself as an innovator, a creator and an experimenter. Alongside Lee Miller he invented solarisation, a developing process which turned monochrome prints into glittering
charcoal and shimmering silvery white. But he also experimented with many other techniques for capturing, developing and printing work, and even in his later years, working with fashion magazines, he pioneered the art of the dramatic crop, honing in on lips or other details, balancing sensuality against severity. Part of the pleasure with Man Ray’s work is the feeling of participation and wishing to be in his well-connected and creative milieu. But then something always brings me up short, and it’s the question of gender and female dignity. Man Ray was clearly enormously inclusive and popular, and it’s all to his credit that he obviously liked talented, complex, adult women. There are some storming portraits of genius women: Virginia Woolf looking half ethereal and half annoyed, as if she’s working out an important sentence in her head; Coco Chanel, as self-possessed, strong and chic as always; Elsa Schiaparelli, grand yet obviously rather excellent fun. The women who survived this coterie all had a strong sense of their own artistic identity, destiny and ambition. But there are also countless empty-eyed nudes, unmuscled female bodies lying about the place, odd dancers and models and other hangerson whose names mean nothing because they had no opportunity to achieve anything, were erased from history or were looked at, taken, used (sexually and artistically) and then thrown away. What happened to dancer Helen Tamiris, whose wild black hair and fierce gaze are so striking in her picture? What happened to Kiki the dancer once Man Ray got tired of her naked body? It’s a classic schism that haunts the viewer through the exhibition: the women who are naked, unsporty and beautiful look like there isn’t a thought in their heads; the men who are clothed, urgent, and plain look like they’re thinking interesting things. It is a good piece of feminist irony that while the most beautiful of Man Ray’s lovers/subjects was Lee Miller, she went on to demonstrate, powerfully and independently, that her beauty was the least interesting thing about her. Her own politicised and intelligent work as an international photojournalist strikes Man Ray’s lack of gravity into sharp contrast. It is depressing to look at Ray’s early images of Millerthe-young-model and see them being presented as definitive and used to sell this exhibition. Man Ray’s Paris images betray none of the international political turmoil and uncertainty of the years leading up to the Second World War, which Miller documented. But perhaps, in a year where The Great Gatsby is back in cinemas with a blingy new adaptation, and curiosity with celebrity culture reaches ever more extreme heights, shallowness is what we want because shallow is what we are. This Man Ray show is a must-see not despite but because of its troubling, unimportant, beautiful hollowness. Man Ray Portraits, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Queen Street, 0131 624 6200, until 22 Sep, Mon—Sun, 10am–5pm (Jul, Sep); Mon–Wed, Fri–Sun, 10am–6pm (Aug), Thu, 10am– 7pm (Aug), £7 (£5). list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 25
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3 August â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 3 November 2013
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ART THE COMPLAINTS CHOIR
FINE WHINE The Complaints Choir is preparing for a right old moan in Edinburgh. After speaking to one of the concept’s pioneers, Niki Boyle clears his throat and vents some fury of his own
I want my money back My job’s like a cul-de-sac And the bus is too infrequent at 6.30 Why don’t they pay me more? Life was good before And I am thirsty . . .
S
o goes the chorus of ‘I Want My Money Back’, the debut song from the Complaints Choir of Birmingham. It was uploaded to YouTube in 2006 where – following its selection as one of the site’s recommended videos – it went viral. That was all the encouragement creators Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen needed: they set up complaintschoir. org and let the phenomenon grow. ‘We co-produced and facilitated nine choirs, then we consulted about 50, and another 60 or so are done independently,’ says Kochta-Kalleinen. Choirs have been established all over the world, from Melbourne to Jerusalem and Seoul to Chicago, and there’ll be one in Scotland soon, as the Complaints Choir visits the Edinburgh Art Festival. Inspired by the Finnish phrase ‘valituskuoro’ (the closest English equivalent is ‘a chorus of complaints’), the Complaints Choir was set up to allow the general populace of any given city to vent their grievances about daily life. Once enough people sign up, the group is partnered with local musicians (in Edinburgh’s case, Daniel Padden and Peter Nicholson of The One
Ensemble) to decide on lyrics and consider how it’s all going to sound. Then it’s a case of assembling the troops and staging some guerrilla performances. A great singing voice is optional. ‘In a choir you just find a place beside a good singer and try to do the same,’ says Kochta-Kalleinen. ‘I was traumatised by my music education in East Germany: we had to sing workers’ songs in front of the class alone and everybody was laughing at me. I never wanted to sing in public, but then the Complaints Choir of Birmingham was so much fun.’ Common gripes highlighted on complaintschoir. org include issues about self-perception (‘I am fat and lazy and half-old’), other people (‘my neighbour makes weird animal sounds’) and the proliferation of advertising, from oversized billboards to spam emails. Some of the weirder complaints include: ‘my neighbour organises Hungarian folk dance classes above my bedroom’ and ‘my grandmother is racist’. ‘I complain about my wife,’ admits KochtaKalleinen. ‘She leaves everything open: cupboards, drawers, jars, pens, doors, toothpaste, bags . . . ’ He can no doubt look forward to hearing some voluble muttering about trams in the near future. The Complaints Choir of Edinburgh, various venues, 0131 226 6558, 1 Aug–1 Sep, free. To take part, visit edinburghartfestival.com/ commissions/complaintschoir
A HYPOTHETICAL EDINBURGH COMPLAINT SONG It’s meant to be summer, so why am I soaked? That mouldy wee venue just gave me the boak This pint cost four quid and it’s already flat The wind just took off with my waterproof hat I’m getting snowed under with too many flyers Those five-star reviews are all written by liars There’s too many tourists, the High Street is mobbed I wish all these jugglers would just get a job [Chorus] I’m tired and hungover, my overdraft’s looking distressed But it’s only for August, so let’s give a cheer for the Fest (Lyrics: N Boyle)
28 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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FIONA BANNER ART
ART OF DARKNESS Fiona Banner has worked with Samantha Morton and explored war, pornography and failure. The Turner nominee tells David Pollock that words are her muse
A
lthough this exhibition by Fiona Banner is subtitled The Vanity Press, its content will be a departure from the most familiar work she’s made through this self-published imprint. Among other artefacts, Banner has produced The Nam (a 1000-page plot summary of six Vietnam war movies), All the World’s Fighter Planes (a series of images displaying exactly that) and avant-garde newspaper The Bastard Word. At the point of our email interview, she’s still figuring out the exact dynamics of her new show, but she does think her text works will be represented in some way. ‘All the works are portraits of a sort,’ says one of the original YBA crew. ‘There is an element of self-presentation that made me think The Vanity Press is a good foil for the idea of publication, not just as a process of production and dissemination but also as a mirror. From the very start, I saw the films as publications too.’ These films will form the exhibition’s core. ‘I’m showing Intermission, a film I began when I was at college and have just completed,’ she says. ‘Chinook is a meditation on that helicopter, tracing a Chinook performing an aerial ballet, a choreography of contradiction. Jane’s is a film built around the legacy of Fred T Jane, who in 1909 started the global Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft manual, still a key publication for the aeronautical industry. It’s about trophyism, the passions and perversions of collecting. And with the actress Samantha Morton, I made Mirror, a kind of striptease in words.’ Although Banner works in a variety of media, words are key; in Performance Nude, she sets up a life drawing scenario and then writes a description of the subject instead of sketching them. Her 2002 Turner Prize nomination piece was called Arsewoman in Wonderland, a controversial billboard-sized text description of a porn film. ‘The first performance nude was a sort of joke, but also deadly serious,’ she says. ‘I’m interested in life drawing and, by extension, film as a form of life drawing. Each nude performance has triggered a different voyeuristic circuit: they are always really tense. For instance, when Samantha posed for me she performed the description I read of her without seeing the text; it was hard for her to act it, and that’s what made it interesting. The piece is really a reflection on the struggle for control over language and image.’ Popular cinema is also intertwined with her work. This gives her a chance to comment on ‘the skewed politics of the films . . . without subscribing to the image’, such as her engagement of actor Brian Cox to dictate the entire unproduced script of Orson Welles’ Heart of Darkness. ‘At the time, Welles’ script wasn’t made because it was too close to the rise of fascism in Europe, and today it parodies trade
and greed in our society. The entire thing is a study of failure: our failure as a society, Welles’ failure, the failure of Hollywood. And yet, like Conrad’s text – which is more like a painting than a book – it’s a kind of celebration of that. I asked Brian because he has a very deep sense of justice and he is a very political guy; but he’s complex, there’s an internal struggle there. As in the Morton work, there’s an unwieldy struggle with the ego.’
‘IT’S ABOUT THE STRUGGLE FOR CONTROL’
Fiona Banner: The Vanity Press, Summerhall, 0131 560 1590, 2 Aug–27 Sep, Mon–Sun, 11am–9pm, free.
list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 29
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ART OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
TOP 5 PAINTERS
• Sam Durant This powerful installation invites visitors to clamber up and explore a vast wooden structure. Jupiter Artland, 3 Aug–15 Sep. • Franz West Participation is at the heart of this collaborative exhibition by Austrian sculptor and installation artist West. Inverleith House, 13 Jul–22 Sep. • Gregor Schneider Summerhall’s basement is transformed into a series of contrasting light and dark rooms and corridors. Summerhall, 2–31 Aug.
• Gabriel Orozco Taking The Eye of Go as a starting point, this show focuses on the circular motif right across Orozco’s work. Fruitmarket Gallery, 1 Aug–18 Oct. • Dressed to Kill A showcase of fashion, costume and dress includ work by John Bellany and Moyna Flannigan. City Art Centre, until 29 Sep.
• PRODUCT Kate Owens, Andrew Gannon and the Modern Edinburgh Film School present a range of work. Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, 3–17 Aug.
FILM & PERFORMANCE
• Peter Doig A major exhibition places the emphasis on recurring motifs and imagery. Scottish National Gallery, 3 Aug–3 Nov. • Follow the Thread This collection of three exhibitions celebrates the work of artists and designers who work with yarn and textiles. Dovecot Studios, 2 Aug–14 Sep.
MICHAEL NYMAN: MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA This installation of ten movie remakes by the composer, filmmaker and photographer Michael Nyman is the first exhibition of his work ever to be held in Scotland. Based on the 1929 documentary Man With a Movie Camera, these ten works (all sharing a Nyman soundtrack) will be shown simultaneously in Summerhall’s Upper Church Gallery alongside the iconic original by Dziga Vertov and his wife and editor, Yelizaveta Svilova. Visitors will be able to walk around the screens and monitors to see all ten of the remakes with Vertov’s original, or to watch them from a single viewpoint. Man With a Movie Camera was Vertov’s first full-length film, in which he documents urban life in the Soviet Union using all the cinematic techniques available to him – dissolves, split-screen, slow motion and freeze-frames – to create a work that was extraordinary in its inventiveness at the time. Nyman’s remakes mirror Vertov’s original documentary through reconstructed scenes, keeping true to the original documentary values while still creating very different work. Nyman says that his own work echoes the principles of Vertov’s in shooting life caught unawares, but as his own footage has been captured all over the world, there is less of a continuous narrative: that sense is mirrored in Nyman’s music as he samples and mixes pieces by other composers. As a nod to other work that inspires Nyman, Summerhall will also be exhibiting a small selection of his collected Mexican and South American art alongside the films. (Rhona Taylor) ■ Summerhall, 2–31 Aug.
• Alberto Morrocco Works spanning Morrocco’s career from early drawings to paintings created shortly before he died in 1998. Open Eye Gallery, 12 Aug–4 Sep.
• Rachel Maclean This solo exhibition creates a surreal vision of nationality and identity, showing a new film and series of screenprints. Edinburgh Printmakers, 2 Aug–7 Sep.
SCULPTURE / INSTALLATION
• Katri Walker Walker’s five-minute film draws on themes of hill running to explore our connection to the land. Edinburgh College of Art, 1 Aug–1 Sep. • Robert Montgomery A sculptural fire poem references the rituals that have long been a feature of the Scottish landscape. The Mound, 1 Aug–1 Sep. • Sarah Kenchington This artist, musician and inventor has created an instrument from decommissioned organ pipes, assembled from salvage yards and eBay. Trinity Apse, 1 Aug–1 Sep.
• Krijn de Koning For his first UK exhibition, de Koning will make some of the college’s familiar casts disappear from view through a series of platforms. Edinburgh College of Art, 1 Aug–1 Sep.
• Nam June Paik Fifty years on from Paik’s first solo show, he remains an influence on those using technology in art. Talbot Rice Gallery, 9 Aug–19 Oct.
30 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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BOOKS LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL/BOOKS
EDI
INTERNBURGH NA BOOTIONAL
FEST K I 10–2 VAL 6A UG
ARNE DAHL The Nordic noir phenomenon continues apace and Arne Dahl (AKA author and critic Jan Arnald) is leading the way with a series of novels which were recently adapted and shown on BBC Four. On stage to discuss his Intercrime series, he is joined by Scottish scribe Alex Gray with the latest in her Glasgow-set Detective Lorimer series. The title of this new novel? Why, The Swedish Girl, of course. ■ Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 19 Aug, 6.45pm, £10 (£8).
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‘NO DECADE COULD DO SHALLOW AS SEDUCTIVELY AS THE 1980S’
Are you an RBS customer? Come down to the RBS Family Zone for a day of fun filled activity in Charlotte Square on the 17th & 25th August 2013.
32 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide ide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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80s POP BOOKS
DON’T YOU WANT ME, BABY? Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn and Duran Duran’s John Taylor represent two very different sides of 1980s British pop. As they descend on Charlotte Square Gardens, Alan Bissett wonders whether the world will ever recover from the ideological and musical battles of that fateful decade
W
here the case is more clear for other decades of British pop glory – leaping with Beatles, Bolans and Blurs – the jury’s still very much out on the 80s. When American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman dismisses Peter Gabriel’s Genesis (‘too artsy’) in favour of the Phil Collins outfit, he draws a neat line between the relentless experimentation of the 1970s and the surface-obsessed 1980s. This symbolism exists in the album which closed the 70s, Pink Floyd’s The Wall. With Led Zeppelin already down, The Wall was the last hurrah for the rock behemoth and the ‘concept album’. Floyd’s magnum opus might not prefigure the 80s pop cheeriness but it certainly anticipates Thatcherism, with all its social alienation and ‘thought control’. By the middle of the decade, however, few artists would be thinking so deeply about these things. UK music kicked off terrifically in the 1980s, drawing inspiration from three key 70s co-ordinates: David Bowie, Kraftwerk and punk. The Sex Pistols, having scoured the landscape of rock dinosaurs, cleared the way for an energetic New Wave. Lyrical wit and edgy textures were crushed into pop gems by Joy Division, Elvis Costello, Gary Numan, The Police, Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow and Toyah Willcox. Ska groups like Madness, The Specials, UB40 and The Beat inherited a social commentary from the likes of The Clash. Meanwhile, the New Romantics took their visual cue from Bowie’s sartorial flamboyance, and their musical one from his ‘white soul’ era, with a coke-dusting of the Berlin period. If there’s a clear sonic distinction between the 70s and 80s, it’s that drums and guitar, emblematic of a rock‘n’roll spirit since the 1950s, were junked for washes of synth, Casio percussion and billowing saxophones to signify emotion.
That said, the demise of rock benefited Scotland disproportionately: the lair of hair-monsters Nazareth became the minor coup of Postcard Records, Orange Juice, Altered Images, The Fire Engines, Josef K, and The Pastels. Glasgow’s still-thriving indie scene remains thankful. After the anarchist youth revolt of punk, British music soon lost its way politically. Where New Wave and Ska still represented something of a challenge to the emerging Thatcherite creed, the New Romantics embraced it. Bands like Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, ABC, Ultravox, The Thompson Twins, Kajagoogoo, Heaven 17 and, especially, Duran Duran truly defined 80s glitz. Bowie threw his lot in with them early on with 1980’s Scary Monsters, before setting a course for the heart of pop three years later with Let’s Dance. The New Romantics trounced punk. Think of this period and you see Simon Le Bon pleasure-boating in the video for ‘Rio’ and Martin Fry’s gold lamé suit. Image has never been an irrelevance to pop, but thanks to the MTV explosion, the decade frontloaded visuals at the expense of music like never before. By the mid-80s, the blow-dried, perma-tanned puppetry of Wham! and Bananarama were the biggest things in the country. It would be tempting to remember the 80s as a time of fun abandon, when the solemn profundity of post-Sgt Pepper rock was finally jettisoned for the endorphin rush of pop singles. But this was the terrain, let’s not forget, on which a civil war was being fought. The Miners’ Strike – the last stand of the British working class against Thatcher’s onslaught – happened at the same time as pop music was turning towards empty capitalist slogans about following your dream and being all you can be. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 33
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BOOKS 80s POP
Acceptable in the 80s? (clockwise from top): Ultravox, Kate Bush, Altered Images, Everything But The Girl, Billy Bragg, Bros, Duran Duran, Wham!, Madness (below)
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Even Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ and the Live Aid concert at Wembley, while certainly well-intentioned, fatally decontextualised the issue of poverty and meant that charity was to replace protest in the national consciousness. Queen raised an apolitical fist at the centre of the decade to stadiumsized cheers, leaving Red Wedge – the socialist pop collective of Billy Bragg, Paul Weller, The Communards’ Jimmy Somerville and Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn – as the sole musical resistance to Thatcher. Still, no other decade could do shallow quite as seductively as the 1980s. The likes of Pet Shop Boys and Eurythmics became influential not for what they had to say but for their icy Kraftwerkian aesthetic, offering an electronically raised eyebrow at all the permed moppets. The point of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ isn’t what it means, but the possibilities for new genres in its squelchy keyboard lines and glitchy, processed beats (hello, Kid A). Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s turbo-charged, gay-sex drama ‘Relax’ shocked the mainstream to the extent that Radio 1 issued a ban. Bonnie Tyler’s soaring ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ remains the glorious zenith of the power ballad. Acid house brought ecstatic, dancefloor vistas into pop clothing c/o S’Express and The KLF. And forget The Streets: it was Neneh Cherry – a punchy, what-isshe-like, urban tyke – who first gave British hip hop credibility. Perhaps because our country was taking an economic hammering, Scotland retained emotional layers to its pop. The Blue Nile were one of the few to combine the synth and Linn drum-track with a deep, yearning melancholy, while Cocteau Twins oozed a shimmering beauty. Their fellow Scots rejected electronica entirely for a more organic sound: Hue and Cry, Deacon Blue, Lloyd Cole and The Commotions and (on their first album, at least) Wet Wet Wet remain fantastically underrated bands whose lyrical nous was matched by a passionate soul-pop delivery that’s only embarrassing if you want it to be. Certain artists thrived from challenging the prevailing fashions. Kate Bush’s proggy
Hounds of Love is the crowning achievement of the British album in the 1980s. The Smiths created a minirevolution out of rejection and The Cure spun an entire sub-genre – goth – from threads of twisted, blackened pop. Any teenager who didn’t fit into the branded new Pepsiworld which British town centres had become could still find heroes in the Top 40. This music of outsiders has proven to be enduring. Now that all the Five Stars and Simply Reds have fallen away, statues of Morrissey and Marr, Robert Smith and Kate Bush remain. Belated reinforcements arrived late in the decade, via the shoulder-swinging shape of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, whose E’d-up Madchester anthems would spawn the 90s knees-up of Britpop and rave. But the complex ideological battleground of the 80s produced another, somewhat more depressing result. In 1987, Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s Hit Factory moved onto the block and, using refugees from the improbably successful Aussie soap opera Neighbours, created the sort of sugary, production-line pop that could appeal only to children under ten. Where Toyah Willcox, at the start of the decade, had wanted to ‘turn suburbia upside down’, the Hit Factory wanted everyone to move there. It spelled out British pop’s long-term doom. Just as Thatcher’s policies created an eventual economic collapse, so too has our musical currency gone into stagflation. Simon Cowell, a protégé of Pete Waterman, brought the Hit Factory business plan into our X Factored present, clogging up not only radio playlists but television schedules with a nightmarish supply of pop mannequins. For One Direction read Bros. For JLS read Big Fun. For Olly Murs read Rick Astley. The 60s and 70s might have ended, but the 80s, with its permanent future of serotonined product, never did. It’s almost enough to make you build a wall. Tracey Thorn, 18 Aug, 8pm, £10 (£8); John Taylor, 17 Aug, 9.30pm, £10 (£8); Alan Bissett on Trainspotting, 14 Aug, 1pm, £15 (£12). All events at Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888. Alan Bissett: Ban This Filth!, Scottish Storytelling Centre, High Street, 0131 556 9579, 2–11 Aug, 9pm, £12 (£10). Preview 1 Aug, £8.
34 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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BOOKS GRAPHIC NOVELS
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RBS Customers can relax in the RBS Family Zone. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll keep the kids entertained in Charlotte Square on the 17th & 25th August 2013, while you enjoy a cuppa.
36 THE LIST | Edinburgh rgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk list.co.uk/festival
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GRAPHIC NOVELS BOOKS
APOCALYPSE NAO
Those who think that comics are just for teenage boys in their darkened bedrooms getting overexcited about superheroes should probably have another think. Henry Northmore chats to Glyn Dillon, one of the literary breed blazing a new trail for graphic novels
T
he Nao of Brown is a gorgeous, big, chunky, stunning graphic novel. It’s also a deep and evocative portrayal of a young girl’s battle with OCD as she fights against her own fears, damping down the vicious and violent urges that bubble up within her mind from time to time. Capturing a stumbling romance in all its mundane glory, it even touches on aspects of Japanese culture,, myth and Buddhism. Beautifully drawn and painted by its writer/artist Glyn Dillon, Nao is a very different kind of comic book. ‘It’s a slice-of-life type story about a troubled girl coming to terms with herself. It’s serious but also funny and at times a bit weird,’ adds Dillon. ‘The original idea was about Gregory and the “ichi” universe but it transformed into Nao’s story, when she upgraded herself from Gregory’s love interest, to main protagonist.’ Like so many comic-book artists before him, Dillon had his first mainstream work published within the pages of 2000 AD. The sci-fi weekly has been the training ground for so many talented British writers and artists, and Dillon joined their ranks illustrating Judge Dredd and Future Shocks in the late 80s as well as working on Crisis and cuttingedge underground comic/magazine Deadline (the home of Tank Girl). ‘My brother, nine years my senior, was already a really successful
comic artist when I started trying to break through,’ explains Dillon. ‘He was determined that there would be no nepotism, for which I’m grateful, but when I think back to how I was badgering the editors at 2000 AD, they’d have been well within their rights if they’d told me to go practise a bit more. So, had I not been Steve Dillon’s little brother, I suspect it might have taken a bit longer. But I was very persistent.’ Of course, comics aficionados will be well aware of that older brother’s work. Steve Dillon is a fan favourite, particularly for his many collaborations with writer Garth Ennis on Preacher, The Punisher and Hellblazer. ‘Steve was my complete hero,’ says Dillon. ‘I struggled with black and white in those early days, I was much more comfortable working in colour. But he had a natural, I’d say extreme talent for black and white, so we’ve always differed in style one way or another. But, of course, I llooked up to him and he was the main influence on my eearly artistic endeavours.’ While Steve favours heavy, crisp lines, Glyn has a softer organic style. This led to work at DC’s adult-orientated imprint Vertigo on titles such as Peter Milligan’s Shade, the Changing Man and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. However, after 1995’s mini-series Egypt (also with Milligan), Glyn moved away from the genre. ‘I wasn’t as list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 37
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BOOKS GRAPHIC NOVELS
one-track minded as my brother with regards to comics. I had ambitions to work in the film industry from an early age, so after about seven years of drawing comics I managed to switch career paths and got into storyboarding and concept design, which at the time satisfied my need to be more collaborative.’ Dillon has now returned to the graphic medium and The Nao of Brown is the first project he has written and illustrated. Given its assured pace, intelligence and style, it might come as a surprise to some of his long-term readers. Such an intimate story wouldn’t have been an easy fit with any of the big comics companies, so Dillon published via a London-based independent, SelfMadeHero. ‘If I can cheekily borrow a quote from Dave McKean: “DC aren’t a publisher, they’re a brand management company”. SelfMadeHero are a wonderful publisher, small but growing very fast. I have nothing but good things to say about them; they indulged all my wishes with the design and look of the book, which for me was as important as the interior content.’ It was a wise decision as the book is a wonderful object in and of itself, with lovely touches such as the embossed cover and a double-sided dust jacket, while Dillon’s watercolours have been perfectly reproduced. But the hard work came at a cost.
‘COMICS HAVE BEEN A SUBCULTURE IN THIS COUNTRY FOR SO LONG’
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‘I did get RSI and I also had a spell in hospital with my back when I finished the book. I’m still not quite right but it could have been much, much worse.’ However, all that stress and strain was worth the effort and Dillon is proud to be working in comics again, a world which he so obviously loves. ‘It’s a unique medium, sharing elements of visual storytelling, like illustration or film, as well as literary prose,’ explains Dillon. ‘But with the basic elements of words and pictures combined, it can deliver something completely different. Unlike film, the reader is by and large in control of the pace that they digest the work.’ Dillon notes that we’re living through an exciting time for comics. ‘But I suspect there’s a lot more to come. It’s been a subculture in this country for so long, and some people might like to keep it that way. But I’d love to see it become more mainstream.’ Dillon is also pleased to be involved with the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s efforts in helping to push comics and graphic novels towards a wider audience through its Stripped strand. ‘This way, it might start creeping into mainstream culture. There are young people out there who aren’t limited in thinking that comics are only for kids – not that I’ve anything against kids’ comics. This new generation of artists, writers and readers will hopefully help create the cultural shift.’ Glyn Dillon, Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 26 Aug, 7pm, £10 (£8).
STRIP SEARCH Henry Northmore finds a few other authors and illustrators worth catching in August HANNAH BERRY Writer/artist Berry’s first graphic novel, Britten and Brülightly, was a dark whodunit which she followed up with Adamtime, a horror tale packed with mystery. Her stark style is complemented by black and white art for a grim, noir world populated by enigmatic characters. She’s currently working on a sequel, Britten and Brülightly 2: Total Time-Wipe. 24 Aug, 8.30pm, £7 (£5). STEPHEN COLLINS Many readers will know Collins from The Guardian’s Saturday edition in which his musings are presented in strip form every week. His wonderfully titled The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil is his first graphic novel, a blackly comic tale of a man’s facial hair that grows and grows and grows. Raymond Briggs is a fan. 24 Aug, 12.30pm, £10 (£8). POSY SIMMONDS Another newspaper favourite, Simmonds has written several strips for The Guardian. Perhaps most famous are her takes on middle England in Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe (which was adapted for the cinema with Gemma Arterton taking the lead role in 2010). She’ll be in town to discuss Mrs Weber’s Omnibus, a compendium of her early work. 24 Aug, 4.30pm, £10 (£8). GARETH BROOKES The Black Project really is something different, the weird tale of a boy’s secret project to create a girl. However, it’s Brookes’ methodology that really makes his comic stand out: told entirely via lino-cut and embroidery, it’s a complex and idiosyncratic project that earned him First Fictions’ First Graphic Novel award in 2012. 24 Aug, 8.30pm, £7 (£5). RUTU MODAN Exit Wounds was the first graphic novel to be published in Britain by Israeli artist/writer Modan. The central story is informed by issues troubling modern Israel as our protagonist discovers his father was killed in a suicide bombing. It won the 2008 Eisner Award. 26 Aug, 2pm, £7 (£5). EDWARD ROSS The List has been tracking Edinburgh comics artist Ross’ work for some time now. He produced a series of lovely illustrated guides to film theory and followed this up with 100 Tiny Moments from My Past, Present & Future, a semi-real, semifictional biography told in his cute graphical style. 23 Aug, 3.30pm, £7 (£5). ■ All events at Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888.
38 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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JAMES LASDUN BOOKS
CAUGHT IN THE WEB For years, a respected author and academic has been the target of an internet stalker. Brian Donaldson hears how James Lasdun fought back
‘MANY HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS KIND OF STALKING’
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or most of the last ten years, James Lasdun has logged on to his computer with emotions alternating between hesitation and fear. The object of an internet stalker who has variously attempted to ruin his reputation by publicising false rumours, spread malicious accusations and, at worst, threatened to kill him and his family, Lasdun still manages to have a reasoned attitude towards technology. ‘Like any huge phenomenon, the internet has the potential for positive and negative and I got this searing glimpse into the negative,’ calmly states the US-based English author, poet and academic. ‘It perhaps created a new category of stalker who asserted themselves into other people’s lives with almost no effort or risk. There’s a certain kind of personality which finds that irresistible and since publishing the book, I’ve heard anecdotally of many people who have experienced this kind of stalking.’ That book is Give Me Everything You Have, named after a direct quote from one of the many emails directed at Lasdun from a former student on the creative writing course he taught in New York from 2003. For Lasdun, ‘Nasreen’ began as a talented, quiet student who subsequently sought advice on how to get published. After rebutting some mild advances, he would later be accused of everything from stealing her ideas to sexual assault. From here, things somehow managed to get steadily worse. ‘The book is not an attack on her,’ Lasdun insists. ‘It began as an attempt to write this defensive document but it turned into something completely different. I was fully expecting the publicity around the book to stir up more trouble, but she does go quiet for longish periods.’ Although he has not heard
from her directly for almost a year, he has acquaintances who are still on the receiving end of her cyber-assaults. While the majority of the book is about his own personal story, it touches on reputation, honour, culture and politics, tapping into the echoes of his own family history. His late father Denys Lasdun was the award-winning architect who received hate mail (the traditional posted kind) after being commissioned to design the new Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem, the site of much controversy in the region. One of the less obvious but equally devastating effects of the stalking upon Lasdun has been his inability to focus on much else. ‘I was not so much blocked as monopolised,’ he says. ‘It has been very hard to think about other things, so what I have written has been coloured by it. I’ve been trying to write other fictions but they kept surreptitiously turning back into this real story, and that was partly why I thought, what the hell, I’ll just tell the story straight. Now I’ve told it, I don’t feel so much in its grip.’ Though he is charming and chipper during a transatlantic phone interview, anyone not affected by such a seemingly endless torment can only guess at the psychological pain James Lasdun has endured. ‘I don’t think I could, with a straight face, describe myself as a completely positive person, but I’m not overly negative either. On the whole, most writers think plots through to their consequences and it’s not always a sunny place. I have an occupational temperament for anxiety.’ James Lasdun, Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 14 Aug, 7pm, £7 (£5). list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 39
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BOOKS OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
TOP 5 PROVOCATEURS
• John Gray Whether discussing capitalism, animal nature or religion, the radical philosopher is always fascinating. 23 Aug.
HEAVYWEIGHTS • Salman Rushdie One of the original Best of Young British Novelists reflects on a golden career marred by that fatwa. 10 Aug.
• Laurie Penny Describing herself as ‘young, angry and progressive’, Penny has ruffled some feathers. But can 67,000 Twitter followers be wrong? 20 Aug. • Shereen el Feki While researching Sex and the Citadel, el Feki travelled from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and Tunisia to Qatar, investigating attitudes to sex and sexuality. 16 Aug.
• Margaret Atwood We’re spoilt for choice by the Canadian this year as she chats variously about The Blind Assassin, Scottish horror and storytelling while she also shares a stage with Neil Gaiman. 24–26 Aug. • Jonathan Coe Dubbed by its author as ‘John le Carré meets Evelyn Waugh’, Expo 58 looks at the state of Europe way back then. 15 Aug. Salman Rushdie
• George Monbiot Feral advocates the controversial practice of rewilding to improve Britain’s wildlife. 11 Aug. • Carol Ann Duffy Popular in schools for her clear and accessible language, Duffy’s poems address issues of oppression, gender and violence. 10 & 11 Aug.
• Alexander McCall Smith The hugely popular author is in town for various matters, including a Precious Ramotswe kids book and an event marking 15 years of his Botswana detective. 10, 13 & 14, 16 Aug. • Roddy Doyle Over a quarter of a century on from The Commitments, the Irish author returns to those characters once again with The Guts. 10 Aug.
KIDS EVENTS • Malorie Blackman (pictured) Recently appointed Children’s Laureate, Blackman writes novels that consider social and ethical issues for children of all ages. If that wasn’t enough, she’s also written episodes of Byker Grove and been name-checked in a Tinie Tempah song. 24 Aug.
• Neil Gaiman Whether turning his storytelling skills to comics or novels or picture books, Gaiman never disappoints. 24 Aug. • Barroux At the French Illustratorin-Residence’s Big Draw, creative kids can flex their sketching muscles. 22–24 Aug. • Michelle Paver Ready for an adventure? Paver’s stories span centuries, continents and even species. 10 Aug. • Louise Rennison Adults and almost-adults can identify with the cringe-inducing confessions in Rennison’s quirkily titled books. Just don’t get knocked out by your nunganungas . . . 21 Aug.
ALL EVENTS AT CHARLOTTE SQUARE GARDENS
CAITLIN MORAN Judging by the speed at which Caitlin Moran’s event at last year’s EIBF sold out, there’s no doubting her popularity. The journalist and commentator’s 2011 memoir-slash-essay collection-slashmanifesto of inclusion for all females, How to Be a Woman, boasts one of the healthiest spread of stars in Amazon reviews, with a good wodge in both the five-star and one-star categories. It seems that the more people love you, the more other people love to hate you. This year’s event will focus on her latest book, Moranthology, a collection of essays on topics ranging from Twitter to caravans, Ghostbusters to big hair, and sexy tax to the gay moon landings (though you’ll have to read the book to find out precisely what they are). Whether you agree or disagree with Moran’s politics – or her controversial Twitter comments about the cultural diversity in TV programme Girls – this is one event where you’re guaranteed a laugh. Moran is charming and honest, and her confessions about childbirth (particularly its effect on the mother’s body) are both hilarious and wince-inducing. Perhaps the most appealing thing about Moran is her philosophy, outlined in How to Be a Woman, that feminism should be welcoming to all women. As she says: ‘[Feminism is] simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy and smug they might be.’ Whether or not you admit to being any of those things, Moran welcomes you. (Kirsty Logan) ■ Charlotte Square Gardens, 25 Aug.
40 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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08.2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival
17 days of events for adults and children featuring 800 authors including: Neil Gaiman, Joe Sacco, Margaret Atwood, Cerys Matthews, Peter Hook, Tracey Thorn, Edna Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien, Salman Rushdie, Arne Dahl, Chris Ware, Tim Burgess, Caitlin Moran, Rupert Everett and many moreâ&#x20AC;Ś Celebrating 30 years Buy tickets: 0845 373 5888 www.edbookfest.co.uk
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FRINGE LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL/FRINGE
RGH EDINBUIVAL FEST E FRING UG 2–26 A
DIE ROTEN PUNKTE Debate still rages over whether their parents were killed by lions or a train, but sibling German rockers Astrid and Otto Rot are definitely returning to the Fringe after a four-year hiatus. Back in 2009, we described them as ‘unashamedly fun’. So, if your Fringe fix requires a cabaret act akin to White Stripes meets Nena meets Flight of the Conchords meets Spinal Tap (sortof, kinda), then Die Roten Punkte and their songs about dinosaurs, bananas and being really safe when you go about your daily business should be right up your strasse. Assembly George Square, 0131 623 3030, 3–25 Aug (not 12, 19), 8.55pm, £9.50–£12 (£8–£10.50). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £5.
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ALEXEI SAYLE COMEDY:FRINGE
‘I’M NOT DOING THIS TO GET ON A PANEL SHOW’ After being away from the stand-up stage for almost two decades, Alexei Sayle is back, bolder, brasher and bolshier than ever before. The alternative comedy pioneer tells Brian Donaldson he’s happier now that he can just be himself
F
or a man who was famous for singing about a car (‘Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?’) and who surprised everyone when he became motoring correspondent for a right-wing broadsheet (The Torygraph, as it would have politely been called by his far-left parents), it’s enjoyable to see Alexei Sayle end our interview by cycling off into the sunset. Doing things his way and not how anyone expects has been a big part of the Liverpudlian’s showbusiness career. He quit comedy when it could have made him world-famous and instead went off to write a series of acclaimed short-story collections, novels and a memoir (Stalin Ate My Homework) while also doing the odd bit of acting in such diverse curios as Miss Marple and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. And now, when everyone least expected it, he’s back doing month-long stand-up runs in London, a couple of weeks at the Fringe and possibly even going on tour in the autumn. Linda, his wife and, to all intents and purposes, the director of Sayle’s stage work, was less than enamoured by that decision to return. She was worried possibly about his health but definitely concerned about ‘diluting the legacy’ as he called it during warm-up shows in Scotland last October. ‘I don’t think I was ever in love with comedy,’ he softly tells me in an Italian café in central London. ‘I was always too wound up about
it. It’s a complex relationship that we comedians have with our art; people like Stewart [Lee] and Robin [Ince] have that love for it, but it just made me crazy. I was angry with anybody who did better than me and also I was trapped by a character who became a persona.’ He has a name for this constricting presence. ‘Coco was very negative. I used to say comedy is black or white and you couldn’t do subtle stuff, but it turned out that was just me talking through this character. Now there’s more of a coherence to the narrative. I’m talking about myself as myself. It is clearer for both the critics and for myself.’ When Stewart Lee approached him to take part in a celebration of 1981 at the Royal Festival Hall, he may have had more than a second thought about dragging himself back in front of a comedy crowd. But he was heartened and inspired by how well it went. ‘I remember walking out and I knew the lines would work because I’d done them at book readings, but there seemed to be this reverence from the audience. For all they knew, I’d been in cryogenic suspension for 17 years, but everything worked. It was like dying: all your friends are there and there was this bright light. I felt serene.’ But not everything went quite so smoothly on his comeback. A long run doing his high-energy show at the Soho Theatre left him drained while on the press night he was so nervous that he lost his voice. When list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 45
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FRINGE:COMEDY ALEXEI SAYLE
‘I DON’T THINK I WAS EVER IN LOVE WITH COMEDY’
RETURN OF THE MIC As the man responsible for alternative comedy makes a very long-awaited comeback to the fold, we find a few more acts being lured to the August madness for the first time in a while JENNY ÉCLAIR Still revered as the only female stand-up to win the Perrier (and all its guises subsequently), her appearance this year marks Éclair’s first solo hour since 2001’s Middle Aged Bimbo. She may have grown older but that bite is still as strong. Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552, 2–17 Aug, 7.30pm, £13.50–£14.50 (£12.50–£13).
NILS JORGENSEN \ REX FEATURES
DAVID BADDIEL In 1998, Baddiel (alongside buddies like Frank Skinner) was riding the wave of laddism as Loaded sold by the bucketload. Times have changed since then and the comic is back with his first solo show since that year and plenty of stories to fill the gaps. Assembly George Square, 0131 623 3030, 1–11 Aug, 7.30pm, £15–£17.50. Preview 31 Jul, £7.50.
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he takes to The Stand stage in Edinburgh, he’s hoping to be more relaxed. There’s certainly not the pressure on him that younger comics will be feeling during August: this is hardly make-or-break time for Sayle’s career. ‘I hope that I’ll be able to kick back a little,’ he notes. ‘It’ll still be a high-energy show because I can’t really do any other, but I’ll be trying to do bigger chunks of new stuff every night. But, you know, I’m not doing this to get on a panel show.’ That, of course, is the career path that many comics take these days, ideally on their way to playing the O2 in front of thousands of people who can just about make you out as a tiny dot with a tinier microphone somewhere in the distance. It’s difficult not to chat to Sayle about the ‘old days’ of alternative comedy taking its first baby steps into the smoky bearpits of The Comedy Store and how it compares to this period of stadium-friendly stand-ups. The two eras are quite simply planets apart. ‘Back then, you could just shout “Thatcher’s a bastard” for 20 minutes and get huge rounds of applause. You have to be more complex now and it’s certainly a bit of a challenge to do political stuff. Audiences now are fine if you want to tell jokes about masturbation, but if you start on politics, they get a bit antsy. There seemed to be a clarity in the 80s: Thatcher was this monster, but now party politics is all this mushy centre ground.’ When Sayle was starting out, there were generally two types of stand-up comedy: the racism, homophobia and misogyny perpetrated by ITV’s The Comedians and the funny folk singers such as Billy Connolly and Mike Harding. Like punk with punchlines, alternative comedy attempted to sweep all those dinosaurs away and offer something different. If Sayle and his early 80s cohorts, Rik ‘n’ Ade, Dawn ‘n’ Jen, Peter Richardson and Ben Elton (whose more recent work seems like a deliberate attempt at making everyone forget he was instrumental in some of the finest sitcoms of that era) have any kind of legacy, it’s that in most major British cities you can go out on any night of the week and see a wide variety of comedy styles. ‘There’s still a dividing line although it is a bit more bendy. You’ve got your John Bishops and Michael McIntyres, and then there’s your Stewarts and Robins and Josie Longs and Kitsons, so there’s still a dichotomy. The John Bishops are obviously infinitely less offensive than those fuckers from before, all those bastards. But I think you still choose your side.’ Alexei Sayle, The Stand III & IV, York Place, 0131 558 7272, 13–25 Aug (not 19), 6pm, £12.
JEM ROLLS A pioneer of poetry cabaret nights when they were about as popular as ebola, Rolls returns to the festival for the first time since 2002 (or 2004, depending on how you look at it) with a show he describes as 70% comedy and featuring a really big joke about gunpowder. Banshee Labyrinth, Niddry Street, 0131 226 0000, 3–24 Aug (not 20), 8.40pm, free. RORY MCGRATH AND PHILIP POPE The year 1994 was the last time McGrath and Pope did Edinburgh together. In the year 2013 they will be traversing a Bridge Over Troubled Lager with songs and chat which should have ‘something to offend everybody’. Assembly George Square, 0131 623 3030, 3–26 Aug (not 10–15), 10.10pm, £12–£13 (£10.50– £11.50). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £8. JOHN LLOYD The greatgrandfather of all Fringe returns comes from the man known now for Spitting Image and QI but who last appeared here in 1976. Yes, you read that right: nineteen seventy six. In a show entitled The Unpleasantness, he performed with One Foot in the Grave writer David Renwick and Hitchhiker Douglas Adams. Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, 3–24 Aug (not 13), 4.40pm, £11–£13 (£10–£12). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7.
46 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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TIG NOTARO COMEDY:FRINGE
THE BIG SEE After a dramatic and scary 2012, Tig Notaro is hoping for a relatively calm Edinburgh debut. Murray Robertson talks to the comic who inadvertently sparked an online storm
O
ver four short months last year, Tig Notaro was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy, caught pneumonia and contracted the potentially fatal bug Clostridium difficile. As if that wasn’t enough, a long-term relationship ended and her mother died in a freak accident. While most of us would quite reasonably hide under the covers and sob, Notaro came out fighting. Two days after her cancer diagnosis, she performed a now-legendary set at the West Hollywood club Largo where she announced to a stunned audience: ‘Good evening, ave cancer, how are you?’ you? hello! I have ght it would be an awkward evening ‘I thought and I wass worried the audience might not get it,’ rs Notaro. ‘There were certainly awkward remembers moments but the audience was fully with me and it ng like what I had anticipated. I knew that was nothing I had to do that show just because it was in me to ember standing on stage and thinking that it do. I remember y special moment in time. I certainly didn’t was a very think it was going to be released as a CD or change my life orr career.’ ndipity, two things came together By serendipity, t. Her friend Louis CK was that night. backstagee and witnessed the drama unfold. He later tweeted: ‘In 27 years s, I’ve only seen a handful doing this, of truly great, masterful stand-upp sets. One was Tig Notaro last night.’ ore, the venue had recorded Furthermore, nd a few months later Louis the gig and CK sold copies of the recording on his or $5 a pop on behalf website for end. With over of his friend. opies sold, it’s 75,000 copies fair to sayy the response nned Notaro. has stunned ‘There were a handful ds and family of friends ld but it was I had told certainly the gigantic ment that I announcement ean to happen,’ didn’t mean she says. ‘But it ended up being OK. Because I’m witter, I didn’t think not on Twitter, about thee possibility of the different comedians and audience members tweeting about it or blogging, so it really surprised ay it caught fire on the me the way internet.’ hat fateful night, Since that Notaro has dialled back gging schedule on her gigging but whenn she does take the stage she tries not to let her ominate the illness dominate set. ‘I’ve just been doing whatever
feels right. I understand people might know me now because of that show and might want to hear more, but then once I start, I realise that I just have to have faith that they’re going to like me, regardless of what I talk about. I’ve touched on cancer in the show but I’m also the comedian I’ve always been and I don’t think that’s going to change.’ As an Edinburgh Fringe virgin, Notaro is excited about visiting and performing: ‘It’s going to be a mix of ridiculous things and some jokes and stories about what’s been going on in my life.’ Although Notaro says she’s she s slowed down somewhat to get her life and health back in order, a cavalcade of projects looks set to dominate her time. As well as a podcast, national tour and a long-gestating book, she has a documentary crew following her around. After her annus horribilis, 2013 is shaping up nicely. ‘It’s been remarkably better than 2012. There are still tough times but I can’t complain at all.’
‘IT CAUGHT FIRE ON THE INTERNET’
Tig Notaro: Boyish-Girl Interrupted, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552, 16–25 A , 6.45pm, £14–£15 Aug Aug, (£13–£14).
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FRINGE:COMEDY FEMALE MALE ALE LE E MU MUSICAL USIC SICAL AL CO COME COM COMEDY ED EDY
Dirty dames (clockwise from main pic): Carly Smallman, Vikki Stone, Katie Goodman, EastEnd Cabaret
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FEMALE MUSICAL COMEDY COMEDY:FRINGE
C NOTES AND F WORDS
This Fringe features a healthy rash of female musical comedians. But why are so many of them just downright rude? Claire Sawers braces herself for some filth and fury
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rudes be warned. A deluge of filthy comedians is about to flood Edinburgh, armed with cuss words, smutty singalongs and a healthy disregard for good taste. They care not a jot for decorum or politeness, they unashamedly perform bawdy songs as part of their show and, perhaps most shocking of all, these foul-mouthed comics are all women. If someone was to make a compilation CD of the 2013 Fringe’s femalemusical-comedy highlights, then this year’s Greatest Hits might include ‘The Phillip Schofield Song’, a lusty plea from Vikki Stone for the silver-haired TV presenter to ‘wear her like a glove puppet’ and ‘rest his balls upon her chin’. Then there’s Carly Smallman’s ‘Made for Each Other’, a heartfelt ballad to the olive-skinned object of her desire, who just happens to be her brother. ‘Danger Wank’ is a crowd favourite in EastEnd Cabaret’s show, about furtive bursts of self-love in the cinema, while Katie Goodman’s ‘My Vagina is a Feminist’ sits comfortably alongside her signature song, ‘Fuck This Shit’. ‘Best not to come to my show if you find sexual language offensive,’ suggests Vikki Stone, who has also written comedy jingles about ‘horsey’ sports presenter Clare Balding as well as the ‘cold, callous twat’ who became a CCTV sensation when she flung a cat in a wheelie bin. ‘I’m never seeking to offend,’ Stone is at pains to point out ahead of her third full Fringe show. ‘My style is more cheeky and naughty. Yeah, sometimes my material gets a bit full-on, but I always do it with a wink.’ While Stone’s schtick involves a lot of double entendre and casual mentions of her desire for celebrity scientist Brian Cox to give her ‘wormhole a right good batter’, fellow British comic Carly Smallman delivers her lines with a bubbly, giggly effervescence, her own personal key to getting away with murder. Smiling sweetly from behind blonde curls, 27-year-old Smallman – whose Twitter profile says she likes ‘nail art and feminism’ – is well aware of the secret weapon her femininity adds to the show. She disarms with ditsy, little-girl airs, then in a 30-second song she wrote to dietendorsing Daily Mail writer Samantha Brick, sweetly calls her ‘a prick’. ‘Whether you like it or not, certain things sound a lot more shocking coming from a woman,’ says Smallman. ‘If a man does a wank joke, no one bats an eyelid. If a woman does a wank joke, the crowd reaction is totally different. It’s considered much less acceptable for women to talk about things like that in public.’ Bernadette Byrne, who together with the cross-dressing, halfmoustachioed Victor Victoria, makes up the saucy, double-act EastEnd Cabaret, puts it another way. ‘When a man does a wanking joke, it’s a funny thing,’ says Byrne, who claims she starts her day with a session of naked yoga followed by a stiff gin. ‘When a woman does a wanking joke, people start thinking sexy thoughts. There’s definitely a very different reaction. And it’s usually a more shocked one.’ That’s the part that’s really shocking out of all of this, points out Katie
Goodman, a New Yorker who describes her comedy as ‘feisty, American, liberal, a little bit Jewish, and feminist’. She chooses to drop that particular ‘F’ word from UK publicity material, though, as she worries it still carries man-hating connotations here. For Goodman, what’s much more shocking than females getting on stage and discussing such frownmaking topics as knicker-peeing, tampon-forgetting, self-touching and brother-loving, is that there should still be such taboos. ‘I grew up watching Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin,’ says Goodman. ‘Those were funny, funny women, who were not afraid to say outrageous things. It’s not new for women to say what they think, or be funny. And they’ve always had to take shitty comments for it.’ Another of the comic’s early inspirations was her own mother, Ellen Goodman, a liberal, feminist columnist who has written for The Boston Globe and The Washington Post since the 70s. She taught her daughter not to take criticism to heart. ‘There are people who post really obnoxious comments underneath my YouTube videos, calling me ugly, fat, disgusting, even a cunt. For my song about homophobia, “Probably Gay”, someone wrote that I’m going to hell.’ Goodman, who co-writes material with her husband Soren Kisiel, and last performed at the Fringe in 2010 as part of the female-foursome Broad Comedy, considers her solo stand-up and musical comedy to be a bit like ‘a feminist column, but onstage’. Having coined her own comedy catchphrase (‘unfuck it up’), which summarises Goodman’s vague attempts to rally against what she considers to be a number of social injustices (gender inequality, homophobia, pro-life campaigns, men who consider themselves ‘too big for a condom’), she likes the idea that her off-colour jokes can be seen as a version of political activism. ‘We’re used to seeing people like Tina Fey [30 Rock], Wanda Sykes [Curb Your Enthusiasm] and Melissa McCarthy [Bridesmaids]. Young comedians forget how much easier it’s got, compared to a few decades ago. We were always catching up, fighting for our right to be funny.’ While all four shows threaten to crinkle shocked brows and tickle funny bones in equal measure, perhaps their filthy female patter will prove that, a bit like music, when you take gender out of the equation, there are still only two types of jokes: good ones and bad ones.
‘IF A MAN DOES A WANK JOKE, NO ONE BATS AN EYELID’
The Appalling Carly Smallman, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552, 3–25 Aug (not 13), 7.30pm, £8–£10 (£6–£8). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £5; EastEnd Cabaret: Dirty Talk, Underbelly, Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, 3–25 Aug (not 13), 9.10pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £6; Katie Goodman: I Didn’t Fuck it Up, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 662 6552, 3–25 Aug (not 12), 4.30pm, £9–£10 (£7–£8). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £5; Vikki Stone: Definitely, Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, 3–25 Aug (not 14), 7.20pm, £11–£12 (£10–£11). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 49
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ARDAL O’HANLON ++++ LIVE 2o13
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BOBBY MAIR COMEDY:FRINGE
Having left his Canadian home to seek comedy fame and fortune, the risk is now paying off for Bobby Mair. He tells Brian Donaldson that his time as a medical experiment is well behind him now
DARK MATTER W
hen you learn that Bobby Mair has been a support act for Jerry Sadowitz and Doug Stanhope, you get a fair sense of the dark terrain which this young Canadian’s material might cross. From where he’s standing, any offence caused would be a fuss over very little. ‘I’m very unaware, but I don’t think I’m as dark as those comedians,’ insists Mair. ‘I just love their kind of jokes but I don’t class myself as a dark comedian. I’m sure other people might, but to me it’s just the normal thing. In one joke, I take revenge on a woman who I bumped into and she got angry, screaming “excuse me!” So in my fantasy, I toss
myself in front of a train and die and have my tombstone dumped on her front lawn. It says “Bobby Mair: 1986–2013. Excuse Me!!”’ So, that’s the suicide and vengeance boxes ticked. If you’ve seen any of his routines in the flesh or on YouTube, you’ll know that other ticks go beside terrorism, single-parenthood, murder, child abduction and animals suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. But while in the hands of Sadowitz or, to a lesser extent, Stanhope, that kind of material can appear witheringly cruel and delivered with a little too much venomous zeal, there is a wide-eyed playfulness about Mair that is instantly appealing. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 51
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FRINGE:COMEDY BOBBY MAIR
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His personal story in which he harboured ambitions of being a comic is familiar to that of many Canadian comics (Glenn Wool, Stewart Francis, Tom Stade and Craig Campbell for four): they all moved away in order to progress. ‘The only stand-up there was TV repeats of old Just for Laughs clips,’ Mair recalls. ‘When I was 14, I wrote an entire act of observations on Y2K and being 14. Since then I have destroyed all that so I don’t have to read them ever again and no one can find them.’ Still, the bug for writing and performing had clearly taken hold, so he took the only route that seemed available at that point to further his experience. ‘I moved to Toronto and went to comedy college. In the brochure they said only one in nine people who apply get in and you turn up and they clearly took four grand from anyone who offered it. And the teachers are like, “all of you are going to be famous”. Really? All 100 of us? And then you see all these dreams slowly crumbling.’ Mair dropped out after eight months and promptly got the best comedy education there is by doing open mic spots wherever and whenever he could. So far so hauntingly familiar. But the story now gets somewhat atypical with Mair revealing that when he was 19 he supplemented the low income he was earning through stand-up by becoming a medical experiment. ‘I was a lab rat,’ he summarises. ‘I went in about two weekends a month and got 1200 Canadian dollars. While you’re in the clinic, you don’t have a name, you just have this number on your chest: “would number 33 please come and give blood”. The most dangerous time was when I went to test methadone, the synthetic heroin. I was so excited about it. I got there, they took my heart rate and it was just too low which is a horribly depressing way to find out that I’m not healthy enough to take fake heroin.’ By this point, Mair had decided that he needed to head for the UK to make any impression on the comedy world and alongside the cash he was raising from his weekend stints as a lab rat, he earned more by delivering meals to children’s nurseries. The company was less than trustworthy and eventually went out of business. ‘They said food was halal or kosher when it wasn’t and organic just meant way past its use-by date.
I quit there the day they poisoned a child. I was ready to move.’ His funds (and confidence) were also boosted by a $10,000 win in a comedy competition just before he left Canada, giving him a cushion to arrive in Britain with, allowing him to take a bit of time to get himself noticed as a comic. He knew instantly that he had made the right move. ‘There’s a culture in Britain where people leave their houses and go out for live entertainment. And the fact that the Edinburgh Festival exists where millions of people are specifically watching live comedy is insane. I read a study that 40% of the population here regularly go out to watch live entertainment. In Canada it has to be less than 1%. It’s not that they don’t like it when they’re there, it’s just not in the front of their minds as something to do. And Canada is like the population of Tokyo spread across the size of Russia, so it’s an eight-hour drive to go out anywhere. Here, everyone is on a tiny miserable island and so will do anything to smile.’ And smile at Mair they surely will. Powering his borderline yet affable routines is a bouncy stage energy which, from a distance, reminds you of his fellow countryman Jim Carrey for its gangly restlessness and frenetic focus. Although Obviously Adopted will be his debut hour, he was in Edinburgh last summer to test the waters. Just prior to the Fringe, he had scooped up the Laughing Horse New Act gong (‘I felt guilty as I’d been in comedy for seven years at that point’) and he left Edinburgh with the experience of having faced tough crowds (one bill he played in a bar was loudly interrupted every evening by the same regular drinkers) and extra knowledge of Scottish geography. ‘I’ve been to the Glasgow bus station many times. You meet a lot of great people at eight in the morning there. I took a 12-hour coach ride to Aberdeen and 12 hours back for a gig there for 200 pounds. So really, I’m doing the gig for free and being paid five pounds an hour to sit on a bus.’ Soon, he will be able to sit and wait while crowds start going to him.
‘I QUIT THE DAY THEY POISONED A CHILD’
Bobby Mair: Obviously Adopted, Tron, Hunter Square, 0131 556 5375, 3–25 Aug (not 13), 7.40pm, £8.50–£10. Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £5.
52 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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FRINGE:COMEDY BACONFACE
FRY WIT Cult Canadian comic Baconface is set to sizzle at the Fringe. Stewart Lee recalls seeing this stand-up giant in 1986 and pays tribute to a man he robbed
A
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great grizzly bear of a man glows in the hovering smoke of a hotel comedy club on a crisp Rocky Mountain evening, way back before mobile phones and the internet. His Rush t-shirt is too big and his shorts are too tight. He stumbles towards the mic, abusing the Seventh-day Adventists. He is Canadian. He iss drunk. And his blistered face is covered in strips anadian bacon. He is Baconface, and he is the of Canadian test stand-up comedian you never heard of. Yet. greatest As I became better known as a stand-up and easingly arrogant and paranoid, I bullied increasingly nger stand-ups for appropriating my own younger osed innovations and scorned big-name supposed l-screen funny-folk for subcontracting small-screen their supposedly distinct voices to phalanxes o-writers with spurious TV job titles. of co-writers But perhaps the sins that annoy us most are the ones we have committed ourselves. In September 1986, between school and university, I rode the highways he Canadian Rockies with my of the e, a regional rep for a ride-on uncle, wer company, making silent mower tal plans. Despite a lack of mental live outlets outside London, native alternative comedy was ishing. I’d only seen flourishing. two stand-ups in the flesh, the proto-meta comedian Ted Chippington, and Phill tus’ early Porky the Jupitus’ Poet incarnation, both ning for bands opening in Birmingham ng the postduring punkk smorgasbord. But I was arrogant and ignorant enough hink stand-up was to think ething I would something one day do. I know what I ned from Ted: indolence, learned fference, indifference, a punk-rock espect of form, and a studied disrespect lence. But now, I belatedly insolence. eciate what I simply stole appreciate m Baconface. from rb’s Ha Ha Hut, Kelowna, Herb’s sh British Columbia had resses enforcing the twowaitresses drinkk minimum and punters far more diverse than the leaning social workers left-leaning uming our nascent standconsuming up scene. Herb Dixon, the necked host, endeared bull-necked self to his rural audience himself with material about ing and forestry, and farming the uncanny ability to ersonate the sounds impersonate hainsaws and tractors. of chainsaws
And when I, a teenage PC zealot, asked him why no women ever played his club, he answered, entirely unselfconsciously and without apparent malice: ‘women are not funny. They’re too concerned with periods’. The girls at college wore earrings depicting men being castrated. But we were not in Kansas anymore. We were in Kelowna. Then Baconface came through the curtains for f his 45-minute headline and melted my mind. What Wha were Anarchi He his politics? Reactionary? Liberal? Anarchist? leavene any switched focus unpredictably, but leavened del preaching with surreal silliness, delivered from behind his primitive bacon mask as if it Baco were of the utmost importance. Baconface every seemed to hate everyone and everything, but it became clear he was not a ccraven cynic, but a defeated idealist. And three years later, I now realise, I made my mark unconsc with an open-spot set unconsciously Seven adapted from his legendary Seventh-day Adventists bit. stumbl As Baconface stumbled to gr the parking lot, I grabbed elbow told him by the elbow, him I wanted to be a comedian, and a asked his advice. yoursel he ‘Be yourself,’ ‘The said. ‘There is no one so low d they deserve con your contempt, anyo so nor anyone high you must bow down to them.’ th he And then drove off, leaving me maxi I’ve a maxim t live failed to Tw up to. Twentylat I’m seven years later A bankrolling his August run, inviting him to be ass a programme associate on the third series of my V BBC Comedy Vehicle m show, and making amends. Baconface: It’s All Bacon!, The Sta Stand II, North St And Andrew Street, 0131 55 558 7272, 3–25 Aug ((not 12), 1.20pm, £5; Stewa Stewart Lee: Much A-Stew Abou About Nothing, The Stand III & IIV, York Place, 0131 558 727 7272, 3–25 Aug (not 12), 4.25pm 4.25pm, £10.
54 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 3 | list.co.uk/festival
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FRINGE:COMEDY AIRNADETTE
AIR APPARENT Through their wildly acted-out dubscapes, French music-comedy-theatre-film hybrid Airnadette are either criticising or celebrating popular culture. A bewildered Julian Hall still isn’t sure where the truth actually lies
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AIRNADETTE COMEDY:FRINGE
‘T
his is happening!’ That exaltation, a favourite of abrasive standup Nick Helm, was very much on my mind as I visited the Udderbelly’s Purple Cow in London earlier this year. The cow is the sign that the Fringe is looming, and it turns out that, once inside the venue, this incredulous and affirmative phrase is also totally apt for the antics of French airband phenomenon, Airnadette. For the first ten minutes, whatever this is that is happening feels hard to grasp. The audience are bemused as they are assaulted by a cacophony of short refrains from well-known rock, pop and rap songs and by classic lines from cult movies. All of which are either danced and/or mimed to by the six-strong troupe, each one the living embodiment of a certain type of music. In short, it’s a bewildering dubscape. ‘The first ten minutes of the show are weird for everyone,’ admits M-Rodz in conversation with me afterwards. M-Rodz is the raploving cool chick of the group that also comprises Freddie Mercuryalike Gunther Love, power balladeer Jean-Françoise, Britney-loving pixie Scotch Brit, 70s rocker Château Brutal and alt-rocker Moche Pitt. Also chucked into this very busy mix is the only actual speaking part, producer/MC, scene-setter and costume-change cover, Johnny O’Right, a vibrant amalgam of Tony Montana, Alan Cumming and Robert Downey Jr.
Though a simple internet search will spoil the illusion, I’ve been asked not to use the troupe’s real names; mercifully, I am allowed to talk to a selection of them in their offstage personas. It’s admirable that the mystique of this outfit is guarded, and it is understandable because Airnadette are, on the face of it, anathema to identity and personality: everything that makes them who they are is promiscuously borrowed. Their simple tale of a band’s rise, fall and rise again works for several reasons: infectious enthusiasm, the sextet’s distinct physical types and moves, and the onslaught of subculture reaching a point where all these elements are of the same pitch. It’s no mean feat. ‘The first thing we had to do was find our character,’ explains Jean-Françoise, the lithe, doll-like and depressive beauty of the group. ‘They were all part of us.’ ‘Yes, they are an extension of our personalities,’ agrees the equally striking M-Rodz, appearing radically different in her offstage mode, as if morphing from a Vanilla Ice tribute act to an elegant chanteuse. ‘Each of us is an ambassador for a certain type of music,’ she continues. ‘And each one is really different and complementary,’ adds Jean-Françoise. Finishing each other’s sentences must be an occupational hazard for a group who started out as friends (the girls) having a laugh in Paris cabaret clubs, and drawing in acquaintances (the boys, also actors and musicians, and frequenters of air guitar competitions). They have now been together for five years focused almost exclusively on Airnadette. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 59
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FRINGE:COMEDY AIRNADETTE
The work involved in bringing a cabaret act into a full narrative (one that involves, in truth, a minimum of air guitar, and more air drumming if anything) has been intensive. Little wonder, as their characters are pieced together almost as if they were suspects for a crime, taking on identities and sources as diverse as Blackadder and Bobby De Niro, and Little Britain to Apocalypse Now. ‘We knew what we were looking for,’ says M-Rodz, but to make our characters whole we had to go through a big box of cult lines. Some fit perfectly. Some of the ones that did not were more cult, and that gave us a difficult choice.’ Trading dialogue doesn’t just stop at individuals either. Jean-Françoise and M-Rodz believe that any given number of the troupe could swap lines and still be coherent characters. Not unlike how music and lyrics dictate the order of which come first, Jean-Françoise admits that sometimes the line led the story and vice versa. The character of Moche Pitt, for example, was cheated on by Scotch Brit in the original French version, but in the English version he cheats on her. ‘There were no rules,’ adds Jean-Françoise, ‘but we had a basic story that we wanted to tell.’ That simple story is, they say, pretty much their own story: ‘a series of happy accidents’ which have so far taken the group from goofing around in cabaret bars, to supporting Camille in celebrated Parisian venue La Cigale, touring the US for a Canal+ documentary, meeting the popular singer M in LA (‘you take things to another level because you don’t have instruments’, he told them) and supporting him for his concerts at Paris mega-venue Bercy. They are the only airband to have an album out (EMI France seemed up for a laugh by releasing a double album of the full-length version of the songs that are used for about 15 seconds each in their show), and they have supported Garbage, thrash veterans Suicidal Tendencies and LMFAO (who seem like the ideal fit for Airnadette in terms of loopy spirit). The group are about to make a film with a French production company and, as well as their Edinburgh run, they have a Paris residency later this year. A London theatre wants them for a long run too and Las Vegas has also knocked on their door.
‘People think of working with Airnadette as playtime,’ says Jean-Françoise, explaining their allure. ‘Every good idea we have had has come from a joke,’ adds M-Rodz. ‘We are going with the flow.’ There is no doubt that the frivolous French outfit have enjoyed the luxury of choice so far. They don’t even venture a Gallic shrug about the future: they are unconcerned about it, without being over confident. Indeed, why should they be worried about the fickle nature of fame? After all, they’re more than aware that Airnadette are trading on the flotsam and jetsam of popular culture. To me they are the embodiment of the Pet Shop Boys song ‘DJ Culture’, and they nod when I bring it up. ‘We are living in a time of zapping,’ acknowledges M-Rodz. ‘We consume the culture this way: we have internet on our phones and we eat culture in a quick way. Whatever we want, we have, and the best of it: we put it all together and make the perfect sandwich. Airnadette is an homage about today’s way of consuming; it’s a celebration and a critique at the same time.’ The mass appeal of their cultural mélange is obvious from the response of this midweek London crowd of which I am part. An air of uncertainty dissipates as the audience become more convinced they should submit. This bodes well for Edinburgh during the Fringe where every night is Friday night. Meanwhile, if the fans and band members for Suicidal Tendencies can sing along to their medleys, then perhaps there is no obstacle they cannot leap over with such charm-assisted frolics. ‘On tour in France we often had people say that if they knew what it had been like they would have brought more people along,’ JeanFrançoise says, sympathising with the initial hesitancy audiences have. ‘We are hard to explain on paper. We are not mime and mime has never been rock’n’roll. Air guitar doesn’t cover it. It’s comedy, yes, but also it’s a new form of acting.’
‘WE ARE LIVING IN A TIME OF ZAPPING’
Airnadette, Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, 3–26 Aug (not 7, 13, 19), 8.50pm, £15.50–£16.50 (£14.50–£15.50). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £10.
60 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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SEE FRESH COMEDY TALENT HERE BEFORE YOU SEE THEM ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE.
Catch -15th August August and and Catch the the Heats Heats on on 5-7th 4-6th and and 12 11-14th the Final Final on on 22nd 23rd August the August at at the the Gilded Gilded Balloon Balloon www.soyouthinkyourfunny.co.uk
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03/07/2012 02/07/2013 09:45 21:10 21:11
FRINGE:COMEDY Y MEE MEET T THE THE HOG HOGGARTS GGAR GARTS TS S
MEET THE HOGGARTS
Simon is dad to Amy. Amy is a character comedian, Simon is a political columnist. Simon writes for The Guardian. Amy writes comedy things in her own room before eventually performing them in front of strangers. Both are appearing at the Fringe this August. Here, they get the chance to ask each other a bunch of questions about their work
SIMON TO AMY SH: Everyone says you must be very brave to do stand-up. Is it bravery? AH: Yes, bravery. Bravery and a lack of self-respect. SH: It’s easy for me to do a speech. The audience are probably Guardian readers and so have a vested interest in enjoying the talk. How do you cope with not having the faintest idea whether they are going to be receptive, hostile, mellow or pissed? AH It’s really hard not knowing what to expect. Also I’m quite bad at
guessing, so if I think it will go one way, it usually goes another. If you’re a naturally anxious person who likes to control everything (I’m not saying I am, a friend of mine is), then you have to learn to get used to it. Eventually you find your twitch fades a bit and your rashes barely flare. SH: How do you cope with hecklers? AH: I’ve never been heckled. I think because I look too small and
vulnerable. Sometimes I look out into the audience and see pity in their eyes, so I guess those people may be the ones who would shout something out if they didn’t feel so sorry for me. Once I thought I was being heckled though. It was quite a rowdy crowd of pissed students and this guy kept shouting something I couldn’t catch. I assumed he was being a dick so I said back: ‘I really can’t hear you, I think it’s because I’m the one with the mic and you’re not’. This got a huge drunken cheer and all his friends started laughing at him. He went bright red and embarrassed and it turned out he was trying to say they couldn’t see some of the slides from the back. I felt really awful, plus it totally set the wrong tone for the show. If you like quick put-downs and aggressive interactions with the audience, you will probably not enjoy the rambles of an unusual character act making jokes about cats for an hour. SH: What’s the buzz like when a show goes down really, really well? Does it last for days? Or do you just think: ‘that was OK, but tomorrow might be shit’? AH: I don’t think I really get that buzz. I normally feel relief that I didn’t
die onstage or forget all my lines. Then I start remembering that I have to do it again sometime and it’ll probably not go as well. 62 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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MEET THE HOGGARTS COMEDY:FRINGE
SH Wh SH: What’s t’ th the best b t thi thing about b tb being i iin comedy? d ? AH: Probably the other people who work in comedy, as they’re mostly
creative and funny. Also I just really like making myself laugh on my own in my bedroom while I’m writing, and the fact that this is (sort of) acceptable. SH: What was the best gig you ever did, and why? What was the worst gig you ever did, and what went wrong? AH: The best gig was at Hull University a few months ago, just because
everyone there was really lovely, and I enjoyed myself onstage for the first time ever. The worst was about three years ago during one of my first gigs with Sarah Campbell [as part of their Christmas for Two double act]. There was a horrendous stag do and they were all wearing comedy hats. They hated our stuff and just laughed at us while I did my lines to the floor out of embarrassment and then rushed off immediately after we finished. I’d just started dating a new guy who had come along, and ended up seriously embarrassed by me. He just said: ‘do you want to leave then?’, but I couldn’t find my bag, so we ended up having to stay till the end. I stood at the back and cried really quietly. Afterwards, I didn’t fancy going out, and he did, so I travelled back home on the train alone and called you and mum but you were at a party yourselves so couldn’t talk and I just felt like the biggest loser in the world. SH: I think people vaguely imagine that all you do is wander on stage and say funny things. Then have a drink and go home. But surely it’s much more hard work than that? AH: Um. Maybe not if you’re the type of experienced comic who can
just adlib and be brilliant off the cuff. I’m more the type who writes for hours, edits, highlights, memorises and then delivers the whole thing like it’s an exam. By and large, I think that comics work seriously hard. Many have other jobs as well, plus you never really switch off so you’re always working. There is a lot of drinking, though.
AMY TO SIMON AH: Have you ever been tempted to try comedy? SH: No, I’d be scared. I talk about politicians mainly, and they provide
my best material. AH: Have you ever been heckled onstage during a talk?
SH: Yes. SH Y A story t I tell t ll involves i l a very bad b d word, d but b t I always l warn
people before hand. It went down well at the tennis club in Frintonon-Sea which is ground zero for British gentility. But in Cheltenham someone walked out in a rage. AH: Do any politicians seriously hate you? SH: No, being abused in the press comes with the job. And I make
friends with some of my favourite victims, such as Michael Fabricant and Sir Peter Tapsell. AH: Do you worry about causing offence? SH: Yes. You’d never joke about someone’s family or disability. But
personal appearance is a different matter. Look at Eric Pickles. AH: When you’re in parliament, do you care more about the issue being discussed, or how you can get a joke out of it? SH: The jokes. I have several brilliant colleagues who do the serious
stuff. AH: Have your views changed much in the 40 years you’ve been writing about politics? SH: I decided on day one I never wanted to be an MP and I’ve never
wavered. I’ve got more cynical about the political game but find myself more tolerant of politicians as people. AH: What’s the craziest thing that’s happened in the house? SH: The time Michael Heseltine got so enraged by Labour MPs singing
‘The Red Flag’ that he picked up the ceremonial mace and waved it round like Hercules killing the lion. Comedy gold. AH: Do you ever find that your jokes don’t work well in print because readers can’t tell tone? SH: There ought to be a typeface called ‘Ironic Bold’. Some people just
don’t get irony. They’re quick to take offence. AH: Could I have another (small) financial loan, please? SH: No. Talk to your agent. Amy Hoggart as Pattie Brewster: Just a Normal Girl Doing a Cool Show, Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, 3–26 Aug (not 12), 4.20pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £6; Simon Hoggart: House of Fun – Twenty Glorious Years in Parliament, Assembly Rooms, George Street, 0844 693 3008, 9 Aug, 12.30pm, £10. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 63
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FRINGE:COMEDY OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
TOP 5
in comedy’s past. Pleasance Dome, 19–25 Aug.
SKETCH SHOWS
• I Am Bev In the middle of Sheffield, a woman in a velour leopard-print jumpsuit prepares to take on the world. Pleasance Courtyard, 31 Jul–26 Aug. • Ivan Brackenbury The hospital DJ makes a welcome return. Unless you’re a patient having to listen to his inappropriate banter. The Hive, 1–25 Aug.
• Birthday Girls: 2053 Three members of Lady Garden go their own way to offer up a sketch show of the future. 2053 to be exact. Pleasance Courtyard, 31 Jul–26 Aug. • How Do I Get Up There? Our locally heroic threesome attempt to storm the Fringe after consolidating their success in the clubs. Assembly Rooms, 31 Jul–25 Aug.
• Barry from Watford An eightysomething nursing a new hip spouts forth with some pretty sharp satire. Pleasance Courtyard, 12–25 Aug. • Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolfe III Religious fervour has never been quite this profane. Gilded Balloon Teviot, 31 Jul–26 Aug.
COMICS CALLED CHRIS
• BEASTS We suggested their debut last year was ‘slick’ and also ‘impressive’, so they better not let us down this time around. Pleasance Courtyard, 31 Jul–26 Aug. • Lead Pencil A combination of Saved by the Bell and Art Attack, if you can imagine such a thing. Underbelly, 31 Jul–26 Aug. • Thrice Superb sibling duo Toby team up with absurdist Nathan Dean Williams for some off-kilter fun. Underbelly, 1–25 Aug.
MARK THOMAS At last year’s Fringe, Mark Thomas wrote his most personal show to date, when he gave us the sublime and moving Bravo Figaro. To the intrigue of plenty, he housed the piece (about arranging an opera performance in his dad’s living room) at the Traverse Theatre, perhaps signalling an intention to attract a different kind of crowd as well as letting his longstanding comedy fans see the inside of a venue they might normally ignore during August. For 2013, he is back on more solid comedy ground at The Stand, with a new show harking back to the more mischievous work he undertook in his Mark Thomas Comedy Product Channel 4 days. With 100 Acts of Minor Dissent, he is planning a year of committing (mainly) legal bits of bad behaviour, such as photographing a police officer every day (except at weekends) just to see how they react. So far, some have taken it in a decent spirit, others have covered their faces, the odd one has claimed Thomas is causing harassment. He insists that the show’s aim is to try and make us more aware of how things have developed to our detriment and to incite an intervention on behalf of people’s civil rights. The plan to offer a taxi service for bankers by dropping them off at the nearest airport is the kind of thing he’s proposing. The show might not move audiences to tears, but it will certainly shift the way we think about the world around us. (Brian Donaldson) ■ The Stand III & IV, 3–25 Aug.
CHARACTERS • Chris Coltrane For those pining for a good solid political comedian, this guy could be your saviour. Globe, 3–24 Aug. • Chris Ramsey Just the three dates for this rising star as he revisits his hour about luck. Underbelly, 23–25 Aug. • Chris Stokes After an impressive 2012 debut appearance, the young comic delivers a show on the perils of honesty. Pleasance Courtyard, 31 Jul–25 Aug. • Chris Fitchew Formerly one half of Lick & Chew, Jack of All Trades is his debut solo affair. Gilded Balloon Teviot, 31 Jul–26 Aug.
• Mr Winchester All hail some non-surrealist Classic Entertainment! with ‘proper jokes’ from a man stuck
• Chris Mayo Russell Kane is a fan of this bright comic who this year is exploring his own identity crisis. The Caves, 1–25 Aug.
64 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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4pm 31st July – 26th Aug @TheNickHelm www.nickhelm.co.uk www.gloriousmanagement.com
Not 7th, 14th Previews: 31st July, 1st & 2nd Aug
0131 556 6550 / pleasance.co.uk 0131 226 0000 / edfringe.com
www.boundandgaggedcomedy.com
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EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 2013
Box Office Enquiries: 0845 874 3001 General Enquiries: 0845 874 3000 Email: info@summerhall.co.uk
VENUE
80 SHOWS 20 EXHIBITIONS For more information visit
1 Summerhall Edinburgh EH9 1PL
www.summerhall.co.uk
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FRING E : DA NCE
MOVING UP James Cousins has been hailed as a future star of British dance. Kelly Apter chats to the man who is plying his trade on both International and Fringe stages in August
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hen the most successful British dance maker in history gives you the nod of approval, you must be doing something right. Launched by Matthew Bourne and his company in 2011, the New Adventures Choreographer Award was set up to support emerging talent in the dance world. Bourne was, he said, looking for somebody with a ‘passion to communicate and entertain through movement’. Step forward James Cousins, the inaugural winner of this new prize, and a young man destined to play a large part in the future of British dance. Despite only graduating from London Contemporary Dance School in 2010, Cousins has already won the aforementioned award, started his own company and received a number of notable commissions. When I speak to him, Cousins is busy making a new piece for the National Ballet of Chile, and when he returns to the UK, his work will be performed at both the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. In short, Cousins is on quite the trajectory. ‘Yes, I often feel like I’m on a very fast track, but I love the challenge of it,’ says the 24-year-old. ‘It’s so exciting and fulfilling, but also rather terrifying at times. I’ve never felt like I’m way out of my depth, though, because I have so many people to go to for help and advice.’ Not least Bourne himself, whose mentorship formed part of the award. In the EIF, Cousins will choreograph two works for Scottish Ballet’s epic Dance Odysseys programme, in the ‘New Voices’ and ‘Duets’ sections. And at the Fringe, he’ll present There We Have Been, a duet inspired by Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s 1987 novel Norwegian Wood. Set in 1960s Tokyo, the story opens with three close friends, two
of whom are left shattered by the third’s suicide, until they eventually start to find comfort in each other. ‘I decided to focus on the first four chapters of the novel, where the relationship between the two main characters develops from acquaintances into lovers,’ explains Cousins. ‘What fascinated me in the book was this constant pull in both characters between their feelings for each other and for the third character – the girl’s ex-boyfriend and the guy’s best friend – who has taken his own life.’ Exploring ideas of emotional support, Cousins took the bold step of using an unusual choreographic device for the entire duet: at no point does the female dancer touch the floor. ‘I wanted the female dancer to really emphasise her vulnerability and dependence on him,’ explains Cousins. ‘I thought maybe we’d manage ten minutes of that, then have a second section of something else. But I realised it was too strong an idea to follow with anything else, so we had to keep pushing it. Obviously that caused quite a challenge, as there are only so many things two people can do without touching the floor and it’s easy to get stuck in a loop. But I was fortunate enough to have time to really explore and push the vocabulary; I can still see it developing every time they perform it, which is really exciting.’ James Cousins Company: There We Have Been, Zoo Southside, Nicolson Street, 0131 662 6892, 19–26 Aug, 10.30am, £8; Scottish Ballet: Dance Odysseys, Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street, 0131 473 2000, 16 Aug, noon; 17 Aug, 5pm; 18 Aug, noon, 5pm; 19 Aug, 5pm, £12. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 67
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2 – 17 Aug (times vary) All tickets £8 (First look: 2, 3, 4 Aug £6) Rosie Kay / Guilherme Miotto / Louis Price Sluts of Possession Room 2 Manoeuvre Squish Avatâra Ayuso, Giorgia Nardin, and Aoife McAtamney / DISH Dance Unholy Trinity Maria Nilsson Waller and Fabrizio Favale Last Land and Il gioco del gregge di capre Mad Dogs Dance Theatre and Simona Bertozzi Missing and Bird’s Eye View Ramona Nagabczynski New (Dis)Order Emma Jayne Park and Jackin’ the Box Status Anxiety and Piece of Mind CollettivO CineticO XD
19 – 25 Aug (times vary) Coreo Cymru / URRL The Dance Dome Elena Molinaro In-be-tween Dan Canham/Still House/MAYK/Bristol/Ferment/Escalator East to Edinburgh Ours was the Fen Country Tom Dale Company Refugees of the Septic Heart Billy Cowie Stereoscopic Trilogy 2 And more… Heads Up showcase Daily classes Workshops for everyone Cinema Paradiso Exhibition: Yosifu
14 –16 Grassmarket Edinburgh EH1 2JU
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FRINGE:DANCE SMASHED
LUDOVIC DES COGNETS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
JUGGLE FEVER As Lucy Ribchester discovers, Smashed is a fruity mix of maths, movement and mayhem
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nspiration can be found in unexpected places when you’re a juggling troupe. In the case of Gandini Juggling, it was the ideas of both Isaac Newton and the celebrated late choreographer Pina Bausch that came together for their show Smashed. ‘Pina’s been kind of a hovering figure for pretty much everybody in visual theatre,’ explains Sean Gandini, one half of the show’s directing team. ‘The year that we made Smashed, Pina had just died and so we thought we’d do a tribute to her. Somebody else had wanted us to do a tribute to Isaac Newton, so the idea of apples was still in our heads, and we put the two together.’ Playing games with Newton’s theory of gravity, the company juggle around 80 apples at each performance (apparently Royal Gala make the best juggling balls but Red Delicious look better onstage). Gandini feels more kinship with the language of contemporary dance than with traditional showy circus skills, and has worked to create a piece where mathematical patterns cascade from arm to arm, performers challenge one another’s personal space and the show’s title makes its presence noisily felt in a crockery-fuelled climax. ‘I think maybe we’re obsessed with breaking stuff,’ Gandini says. ‘Perhaps it’s a primal thing that links to the act of dropping. Our very first piece that we brought to Edinburgh 20 years ago finished with an act where I would juggle five clay balls for two or three minutes, then just let them smash. It’s been our obsession ever since.’ Gandini estimates the company break between £10 and £50 of crockery each night, depending on where they are performing and the bargains they can find in local charity shops. ‘At some point,’ he admits, ‘we probably have broken something very valuable by mistake.’ Gandini Juggling: Smashed, Assembly Hall, Mound Place, 0131 623 3030, 3–26 Aug (not 13), 6.05pm, £12–£14 (£11–£13).
• The Lock In Dubbed ‘the UK’s number one folk and hip hop extravaganza’, it seems a fairly safe bet this is the only folk and hip hop show doing the rounds. Two seemingly disparate worlds come together in this critically acclaimed breakdance/Morris dance shindig, set in a local pub. Zoo Southside, 3–16 Aug. • Cambuyón From the Canary Islands to the Edinburgh Fringe, this high-energy percussion show has feelgood written all over it. Blending hip hop and tap dance, and using wooden crates, boards and their own bodies and voices to create sound, the performers explore the history of rhythm. Assembly Roxy, 31 Jul–26 Aug. • Booking Dance Festival Showcase Now in its fifth year, this ‘festival within a festival’ brings us a diverse line-up of dance from the United States. Enjoy bite-size chunks at the daily showcase, or delve a little deeper at the weekend double bill. Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 14–18 Aug. • Ménage à Trois Performer Claire Cunningham takes us into her world in this humorous, touching show about love, longing and her 20-year relationship with crutches. Produced by the National Theatre of Scotland, with video artist Gail Sneddon providing the striking, perfectly integrated visuals. Paterson’s Land, 9–25 Aug. • Greed Born in rural Zimbabwe, but based in London since 1998, choreographer Bawren Tavaziva explores the differences between African and western culture, and looks at money, power and religion in this fast-paced work inspired by the seven deadly sins. Zoo Southside, 19–26 Aug.
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BOOKS | COMEDY | DANCE | KIDS | MUSIC | THEATRE | ART | CLUBS 70 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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FRING E : KID S
SOUND OF THE CROWD We’ve had comedy for kids, but how about improv based on children’s suggestions? Kelly Apter finds that the Showstoppers crew are more than game for this daunting challenge
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s a parent tired of putting your and in your pocket, the prospect hand of paying £10 for a show that hasn’t een created yet may not appeal. even been But it’ss worth bearing d exactly what in mind you’re getting when y a ticket for The you buy oppers’ Family Showstoppers’ Hour: essentially a ot of talent. whole lot Most well-trained musicall theatre actors can ber a script, learn the remember nts of a dance routine and rudiments ut a serviceable harmony. turn out g up all three on the spot, Making r, requires a whole however, nt skillset that few can different master. Especially if you want your words to rhyme, your legs to kick in sync with the person next to you, and your nies to be in key. harmonies ome to the life of a Welcome opper, where the only Showstopper, ee you have about the guarantee ou’re about to perform is show you’re that it will bear no resemblance ne you did the day before. to the one hing the Showstoppers Everything sing, dance or say is based dience suggestions, so on audience a new crowd equals a new show. Seemingly the only ty between each similarity musicall they turn out is that it’s as good (sometimes better) than a show people ent months writing have spent hearsing. From the and rehearsing. outside looking in, neral audience the general responsee is ‘how is that e?’ possible?’ stoppers coShowstoppers r, Dylan Emery, founder, simplest terms, you has the answer. ‘In the listen and you copy,’ he explains. ‘You’re watching awk, so if someone lifts their leg on stage, you lift like a hawk, g at the same time. Or as somebody is singing, you look at your leg outh and sing the same words a fraction of a second behind their mouth them. The basic rule is, if somebody starts something, you do the ing. But it requires a lot of practice and is hard to do well.’ same thing.
London-based Emery Eme and his team have been craftin crafting improvised musicals since 2 2008, and after five successful years at the Edinburgh Fr Fringe, they’re shaking thing things up a little. According to Emery, some of the most in inventive shows they’ve creat created have had contributions from children in the audience. audie So this year, for the firs rst time, they’re supplementing their evening show with The Showstoppers’ Family Hour. ‘Children are brilliant to perform to, as long as you don’t try to g give them the show that you want to give them,’ says Emery. ‘You have to give tthem the show that they w want: that’s very important important.’ With that in mind mind, Emery and his fell fellow-performers will be taking a more relaxed approach to storytelling and letting the young young, untethered imaginations in the audience work their m magic. ‘When we do the regular Showstoppe Showstoppers, we try and make it loo look slick, to tie everything up and not lose any narra narrative threads,’ says Emery Emery. ‘But I suspect we’re goin going to have to let a lot of that go in the Family Hour and just have fu fun instead. If a kid says, “and then they all go to spa space”, it doesn’t matter that the story up til then has been set in a Viennese caf café: they’re all going to space. We’ll hav have to let go of the niceties of neat storytelling, and mak make sure we have funny, bold characters, lots of scene chan changes and loads of props.’ The Showstoppers’ Family Hour, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552, 3–13 Aug, 2pm, £10. Preview 2 Aug, £7.50. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2 2013 | THE LIST 71
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FRINGE:KIDS CERRIE BURNELL
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
• My Brother the Robot From The Gruffalo to Mr Benn, each Fringe Tall Stories brings with it a cast-iron guarantee of fine acting, interesting stories and catchy tunes. Back for another year, the company’s latest tale features a lonely little girl whose father builds her a brother to play with. Pleasance Courtyard, 31 Jul–25 Aug.
TOY STORY Yasmin Sulaiman hears from Cerrie Burnell about the loose memoir she’s bringing to the Fringe
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he’s most famous as a presenter on CBeebies, but Cerrie Burnell also has an extensive acting background. Burnell – whose visible disability attracted ludicrous complaints from some parents when she joined the BBC’s flagship early-years channel in 2009 – began her acting career aged ten in London’s acclaimed Unicorn Theatre, before studying drama and working with the Graeae Theatre Company, eventually landing parts in The Bill, EastEnders and Holby City. The Magical Playroom is her first Fringe play since joining CBeebies. Written and performed by Burnell, it’s about Libby, a little girl who loves dancing but rejects the prosthetic arm she’s forced to wear at her ballet lessons and seeks comfort in an enchanted toy room. ‘Libby’s story is loosely based on my own childhood,’ Burnell explains. ‘I was advised to wear a prosthetic arm by doctors. My parents followed that advice and that was really difficult for me. My disability was in fact the prosthetic hand, rather than it just being a missing hand. The play also makes reference to more universal themes, like disobeying your parents, having to make decisions on your own, the importance of giving children as much choice as you can and listening to them, especially when they’re in vulnerable situations.’ The Magical Playroom is directed by Hal Chambers, whose company Tucked In brought The Golden Cowpat to the Fringe last year. And Burnell’s hoping it will all come together in a great show aimed at audiences aged three and up. ‘What I want is for it to be as enchanting for the adults as it is for the children,’ she says. ‘Hopefully with the wonderful set, the beautiful music, the direction and the powerful storyline – and the performance, fingers crossed – we’ll manage to pull off something very special.’ Cerrie Burnell: The Magical Playroom, Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance, 0131 556 6550, 3–18 Aug (not 14), 11am, £9.50. Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7.50.
• Crying Out Loud presents l’Après-midi d’un Foehn You’ll never look at a carrier bag in the same way again, after experiencing this unique show from France’s Company Non Nova. Whether you’re four or forty, prepare to be charmed by colourful plastic figures ‘dancing’ on currents of air to Debussy’s beautiful score. Summerhall, 2–25 Aug. • Aliens Love Underpants The mischievous, underwear-obsessed extra-terrestrials from Claire Freedman and Ben Cort’s popular picture book are beamed down from page to stage in this musical romp for 2 to 8 yearolds. Pleasance Courtyard, 7–22 Aug. • Innocence A gentle yet engaging introduction to contemporary dance, and the work of poet and visual artist William Blake, for ages 0–7. Performed in the round with a real sense of playfulness by Scottish Dance Theatre, this piece takes little ones into the heart of the action. Summerhall, 13–25 Aug. • Titus Finding a theatre piece to engage older children can be a challenge, but Titus has captured the imagination of young people across Europe. Aimed at ages ten and over, this powerful show starts with a disillusioned boy standing on the roof of his school, taking the audience on a journey that’s both witty and moving. Summerhall, 2–25 Aug.
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C I S U M : E G FRIN
‘Trials and tribulations only strengthen us’ She started off answering phones at Motown before becoming one of their most lauded recording artists. Despite some hard times, Martha Reeves tells Malcolm Jack that she bears no grudges
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t’s 10.05am in Detroit, and over a transatlantic phone line Martha Reeves is extolling the virtues of 1960s Motown’s in-house band The Funk Brothers. ‘Listening to the radio today, there’s a lot of music that is not made by musicians,’ she grumbles. ‘There’s maybe one guy who’s on a synthesiser or a beatbox that has the same beat as the last record you heard on the radio. You get none of their personality. The Funk Brothers were vital to Motown’s success.’ Then, not for the last time during our nearly hour-long conversation (I’d requested half that amount of time), the 72-year-old’s memory is tripped and she launches into what typically will be a well-practised but nevertheless enthralling anecdote from the good old days when Motown possessed arguably the greatest stable of pop musicians ever assembled. Reeves regales me with remarkable reminiscences, such as the first day an 11-year-old Stevland Hardaway Morris walked into Motown’s Hitsville USA building and proceeded to play everything in the office, right down to a wastepaper bin, immediately earning himself the alias ‘Little Stevie Wonder’. And then there was the moment a hitherto shy session drummer called Marvin Gaye slipped off his ever-present hat and shades to reveal just how damn handsome he was. But Reeves gets promptly interrupted. ‘Sorry, that’s my phone,’ she apologises, as an instantly identifiable amalgam of soaring brass, rolling drum pick-ups and full-blooded, velveteen singing begins to blare in the background through a tinny mobile: ‘Calling out around the world/are you ready for a brand new beat?’ She laughs. ‘My son put that on there! Even my ringtone has The Funk Brothers playing on it!’ As the lead singer of Martha and The Vandellas (her surname was added in 1967), Reeves – born third in an Alabaman family of 11 children – gave Motown over a dozen hits. Her career there began at 21 with a business card from A&R man William Stevenson following a club show. Naively not realising that auditions were only held on particular days, she wandered into Hitsville the next morning only for
an overworked Stevenson to leave her answering phones. Proving so adept at it, she was instead hired as a secretary. When I innocently ask after this oft-repeated quirk of her bio, Reeves quickly reveals a more combative side of her generally good-natured temperament: one that hints at why she had a crack at politics as a Detroit council member from 2005 to 2009. ‘I did not go there to be a secretary,’ she snaps. ‘That’s the first thing people want to call me: a secretary!’ Such fighting spirit saw Reeves quickly graduate from secretary to recording artist in her own right, scoring her first hit in 1963 with ‘Come and Get These Memories’. Timeless classics followed, from ‘(Your Love is Like A) Heat Wave’ to ‘Jimmy Mack’, ‘Nowhere to Run’ and, of course, ‘Dancing in the Street’. Rattled off in just two takes, as Reeves recalls, the latter song is regarded today as the Motown anthem, and has been covered by everyone from David Bowie and Mick Jagger to Van Halen. ‘There’s nothing like the original,’ she swaggers. After a few rough years, Reeves became a born-again Christian in 1977 and for a long time concentrated on gospel music. Her faith throws up some barriers when it comes to discussing less happy events: her drug problems, her side-lining at Motown in favour of Diana Ross and The Supremes and a breakdown in relations with the label following its relocation to LA in 1972, leading eventually to her suing Motown for unpaid royalties in 1983. When I ask whether she carries any grudges or regrets, I’m politely stonewalled on grounds of ‘divine order’. ‘There were times when you were hot, and there were times when you were not,’ she elucidates. ‘Trials and tribulations only strengthen us. I wouldn’t have done anything different and life is perfect.’ It’s hard not to be swept up in her devout optimism, the same joyful fervour which makes her gigs such life-affirming experiences. Reeves’ voice is far from the powerful instrument it once was, but driven by sheer force of personality, her live performances are remarkable celebrations of the Motown spirit – romance, inclusivity, exuberance – as much as the music itself.
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MARTHA REEVES MUSIC:FRINGE
A lot of international artists claim to love Scotland, but with Reeves it’s indisputably true. She first came here in 1965 supporting Georgie Fame on the debut UK Motown Review tour, and has returned countless times since (‘Jimmy Mack’ is often mistaken for a Scotsman, she notes). Reeves has ‘a multitude of great friends’ in Scotland, in particular two super-fans called James and Harry. After her last Scottish gig at Glasgow’s Òran Mór in December, she celebrated Christmas with them in the village of Sorn, between the local church and pub. ‘My relationship grows more and more for Scotland. I find it a very beautiful place: the hills and the green grass all year round are amazing.’ I had planned on asking Reeves whether, after 50 years of performing the likes of ‘Heat Wave’ and ‘Dancing in the Street’, she hasn’t wearied of them. But her ringtone has already answered that. ‘The only time I’ve felt a little embarrassed by it was in church. The phone went off and everybody looked around. I had to keep myself from getting up and dancing.’ And then suddenly she’s off with another anecdote, gradually winding her way towards a typically verbose but heart-warming conclusion. ‘When we hear the music,’ she says thoughtfully, as if beginning a sermon, ‘there’s a happiness and a youth there: it inspires me and I’ve been told it inspires a multitude of people who have purchased the Motown sound and can identify with the good times that it represents. So I can feel as young as I felt when I recorded it. Every song I ever sang on Motown is one I delighted in and one that I am proud of. Proud of my performance, proud of the combination of musicians and singers, the producers and the writers and everyone who collected together to record these masterpieces that we hold title to and are privileged to have.’ Amen to that. Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Assembly Rooms, George Street, 0844 693 3008, 6 & 7 Aug, 9.30pm, £20. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 75
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FRINGE:MUSIC NGE:MUSIC WIUO
GET PLUCKY Shunning any suggestion that they are a novelty act, the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra move with ease from rock anthems to Kiwi folk songs. Kirstyn Smith finds a band attempting to inject heart and soul back into music
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ike all good things in life, the formation of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra was organic. ‘It happened without any of us knowing what was going on,’ says Age Pryor, who founded the orchestra back in 2005 alongside Bret ‘Flight of the Conchords’ McKenzie. From unassuming beginnings – originally a group of friends who’d meet in a local café to play together before work each morning – the group’s reputation for peddling relaxed, feelgood ukulele sounds saw them rise from these lo-fi gatherings to selling out theatres across the globe. It’s easy to see how the no-frills, relaxed atmosphere of the WIUO has slotted nicely with the increasing popularity of this instrument in recent years. With 12 members plucking away at ukuleles and one double bass (shaped, of course, like a uke), there’s no front man, no egos, just a group of mates providing original, delightful and often mischievous musical treats. ‘Music has gone a long way from the 60s and 70s where heart and soul was absolutely dripping out of it,’ Pryor reckons, citing the 80s and 90s as being all about ‘production and jeans. The ukulele might be a way to get back this heart and soul.’ Indeed, the group’s game plan is simply to provide audiences with music they love,
played by people who love it just as much. This ‘anything goes’ motto means that in a typical show, the orchestra will stroll through traditional New Zealand folk tunes, irreverent versions of pop songs and some unadulterated crowd-pleasers. Pryor admits that Toto’s ‘Africa’ is one of his favourites to perform, but stops short at considering their gigs as being in any way tarred by the novelty brush. ‘For me there’s always been two levels to the band:
‘WE DON’T WANT TO SCARE OUR AUDIENCES’ there’s the entertainment factor and there’s the musical content. When those two things both happen at the same time, that’s my favourite moment.’ WIUO’s live shows are suffused in improvisation and wit, but while the group does have a direct foundation in comedy – that Flight of the Conchords connection – a lot of their humour is far from pre-planned. Instead,
it flows naturally from the dozen vibrant personalities interacting together on stage and from the different reactions of each brand-new audience. ‘It seems risky calling ourselves comedic because we don’t have any set jokes ready to go. But the players are so funny with each other and the way the audience gets involved ends up being funny, so it just ends up being a funny show. We don’t want to intimidate or scare our audiences at all, so our aim on stage is to be as genuine as possible and to invite audience members to participate to the degree that they wish.’ This spontaneity is tailor made for the Edinburgh Fringe aesthetic, and Pryor admits that the show’s unpretentious vibe ought to go down well. He promises ‘a good time with a few laughs and a good, heavy buzz by the end of it. That’s one thing I’m really looking forward to: seeing how the conversations go between band and audience in Edinburgh. I’m hoping we actually understand each other.’ Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552, 3–26 Aug (not 12, 19), 6pm, £12.50–£13.50 (£11.50– £12.50). Previews 31 Jul, 2 Aug, £7.
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CRITICS’ CHOICE
‘AWESOME’
‘JOYOUS’
‘AMAZING’
TIME OUT
THE SCOTSMAN
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘HILARIOUS’
‘GENIUS’
‘BRILLIANT’
‘WONDERFUL’
WHATSONSTAGE
EVENING NEWS
BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE
HUFFINGTON POST
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BEST MUSIC/VARIETY - CHORTLE AWARDS NOMINEE SPIRIT OF THE FRINGE - AWARD WINNER
Festival Highlights.com
GILDED BALLOON TEVIOT, Bristo Sq - Fringe Venue 14 2-25 Aug (not 22) 10.30PM www.theshowstoppers.org DON’T MISS OUR NEW FAMILY HOUR : 2-13 Aug 2PM Tickets 0131 622 6552 www.gildedballoon.co.uk list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 77 EFG13 template 2.indd 77
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FRINGE:MUSIC OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
TOP 5
The YouTube-famous duo cut and paste pop songs with video wizardry. Pleasance Dome, 2–25 Aug.
TRIBUTES • Adam Page Vocal gymnastics, with the help of loop pedals and a didgeridoo. Underbelly, 1–25 Aug. • Digi-Bhang Live Bhangra collides with electronic music in this AsianScottish fusion night. Assembly Rooms, 16 Aug. • Sonica Presents Robbie Thomson’s Ecstatic Arc A beautiful musical/theatrical installation involving masks and sculptures, recording devices and a sparky Tesla coil. Summerhall, 2–25 Aug.
• In Vogue: Songs by Madonna Shoehorning in a Madge pun, one reviewer called Aussie singer Michael Griffiths’ cabaret ‘a borderline religious experience’. The Boards, 8–17 Aug. • Movin’ Melvin Brown: The Ray Charles Experience The Texan tap star sings, dances and ‘clogs’ his way through Ray Charles’ life story. C, 31 Jul–26 Aug.
• Benny Davis: The Human Jukebox Solo show from the Axis of Awesome star, aided by keyboards, loop pedals and audience requests. Gilded Balloon Teviot, 31 Jul–25 Aug.
MOVIE-INSPIRED SHOWS
• Cat Stevens Reconstructed Edinburgh-based New Yorker Jess Abrams pays tribute to the 1970s singer-songwriter behind ‘Father and Son’. Jazz Bar, 6–20 Aug. • Christine Bovill’s Piaf The little sparrow is celebrated on the 50th anniversary of Edith’s death. Famous Spiegeltent, 2–25 Aug. • Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells ‘For Two’ A pair of musicians use keyboards, guitars, glockenspiel, loop pedals and tubular bells to recreate the classic folk-rock album. Underbelly, 31 Jul–26 Aug.
TECH-BASED SHOWS • Cassetteboy vs DJ Rubbish
WHATEVER GETS YOU THROUGH THE NIGHT • Song Noir Dark, loungey musical duo Pumajaw rework songs from Twin Peaks, Night of the Hunter and Kiss Me Deadly. Moody stuff. Summerhall, 2–25 Aug. • Nosferatu The creepy black and white silent movie gets a folky guitar and cello soundtrack. Jazz Bar, 22 & 23 Aug. • Footloose Musical theatre version of Kevin Bacon’s spaghetti-legged teen-dance flick. Surgeons’ Hall, 5–9 Aug. • Marilyn Monroe: A Celebration in Song Songs from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot and Let’s Make Love are revisited by Pam Lawson. Sweet Grassmarket, 12–18 Aug. • Snakes! The Musical Quite Nice Theatre take their inspiration from Snakes on a Plane, the Samuel L Jackson action-blockbuster. The Caves, 1–25 Aug.
What’s on your mind between midnight and 4am? Sleeping? Soul searching? Eating? Night walking? This award-winning show from artistic powerhouse The Arches asked the question and got back a batch of different answers from 20 writers, musicians and artists from across Scotland. The evening takes in a poignant goodbye on the shores of Loch Lomond, a Skype affair, a stoner in meltdown, and a clubber on the walk home, desperately seeking chips and cheese. Described as ‘a snapshot of an entire nation at its most vulnerable and revealing’, the production was dreamed up by Cora Bissett (director of the National Theatre of Scotland’s musical Glasgow Girls) in collaboration with Edinburgh cerebral electro-poppers Swimmer One and acclaimed playwright David Greig. First performed last autumn at The Arches, it was followed up by an album and film, boosted by glorious electronic tracks from the likes of Errors, Conquering Animal Sound, and talkingmakesnosense. For the Edinburgh run, the show (dubbed ‘part theatre, part gig’) is transported to the Queen’s Hall, featuring nightly performances from a cast of nine musicians, including fingerpicking solo guitarist RM Hubbert (who recently won the Scottish Album of the Year award for Thirteen Lost & Found). Plus, there’s experimental folk-riddler Wounded Knee and Edinburgh’s answer to Daniel Johnston, Withered Hand. Surprise drop-ins can also be expected from Scottish musicians, including Deacon Blue frontman turned soloist and broadcaster, Ricky Ross. (Claire Sawers) ■ Queen’s Hall, 20–25 Aug.
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THHEE MA TH THE M MARTYN AARTYN AR RRT RTY TYN TYN TY YN BEN BE BBENN BENNETT ENN EN ENN NNNETT NNEEETTT TT PR PRIZE PPRIZ R ZE RIZ ZE for traditional music composition
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Named in honour of the acclaimed composer/ multi instrumentalist Martyn Bennett, this new competition is open to all Scottish-based musicians to create a new 5 - 10 minute long composition that shows its roots in traditional music. The winner will receive ÂŁ2000, the runner up ÂŁ1000 and all the finalistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work will be performed at The Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hall on Sat 14 September. Full information and application forms are available on the website.
book online or call
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- Pick up and drop off point only steps from the terminal - Meet and Greet facility available - City Cabs iphone app booker available to download
Fringe 2013 at The Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hall
For festival gigs
VOLTS
Sat 3 Aug
THEM BEATLES
Sun 4 Aug
BAGS OF ROCK
Thu 8 Aug
STANLEY ODD Fri 2 August KING CREOSOTE Sat 3 August DECAGRAM Sun 4 August ORKESTRA DEL SOL Thu 8 August RACHEL SERMANNI Fri 9 August WITHERED HAND Sat 10 August BATTLEFIELD BAND Sun 11 August ADMIRAL FALLOW Tue 13 August RED HOT CHILLI PIPERS Wed 14 August
MACFLOYD
Fri 23 Aug
BELLA HARDY & THE MIDNIGHT WATCH Thu 15 August
DODGY
Thu 22 Aug
HUDSON TAYLOR
Thu 15 Aug
THOMAS J SPEIGHT
Sat 24 Aug
ELJAM & FEAST RECORDS SHOWCASE
Sun 25 Aug
03 - 25 August 2013 Tickets: 0131 665 2240 www.thebrunton.co.uk www.edinburghfringe.com The Brunton, Ladywell Way, Musselburgh. EH21 6AA
THE CHAIR Fri 16 August KARINE POLWART Sat 17 August SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA Sun 18 August
BARB JUNGR Wed 21 August
THE QUEEN'S HALL, CLERK STREET, EDINBURGH, EH8 9JG TICKETS AND INFORMATION Ĺ&#x2020;Ĺ&#x2021;Ĺ&#x2030;Ĺ&#x2021; Ĺ&#x152;Ĺ&#x152;Ĺ&#x17D; Ĺ&#x2C6;Ĺ&#x2020;Ĺ&#x2021;Ĺ? Ĺ&#x153; Ĺ° Ĺ° TWITTER ŧ Ĺł Ĺ&#x153; FACEBOOK QUEENSHALL
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E R T A E H T : E G N I FR
Women of substance: Marnie Baxter as Anna Politkovskaya and (below, left) Ines Wurth as Yulia Tymoshenko
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WURTH & BADAC THEATRE:FRINGE
STAGE OF EMERGENCY Yulia Tymoshenko and Anna Politkovskaya both stood up to Eastern European male power and paid a heavy price. Mark Fisher hears from the Fringe companies bringing their stories to Edinburgh
E
very year, Amnesty International gives an award to a play on the Fringe that presses the right artistic buttons and spreads the word about human rights. When the judges come to consider this year’s Freedom of Expression Award, two shows in particular will leap to their attention. Both of them focus on recent examples of political abuse against prominent women in Eastern Europe. At Assembly Roxy, Ines Wurth is presenting Who Wants to Kill Yulia Tymoshenko?, a two-hander about the former Ukrainian prime minister imprisoned for an alleged abuse of office. Over at Summerhall, Badac Theatre Company’s Anna dramatises the case of Anna Politkovskaya, the campaigning journalist who was shot dead in the lift of her Moscow apartment in 2006: an unsolved murder featuring all the hallmarks of a contract killing. With her long braided blonde hair, Yulia Tymoshenko does not fit the typical image of a political prisoner. This leader of 2004’s Orange Revolution is both uncommonly beautiful and, being president of a
major Ukrainian gas company, uncommonly rich. Neither of those details justifies the indefinite pre-trial detention in 2011 which the European Court of Human Rights recently called ‘arbitrary and unlawful’. The court is still considering whether the Ukraine authorities were right to prosecute her for signing a ten-year contract for the supply of Russian gas, allegedly without proper cabinet approval. It is true that opinion is divided over Tymoshenko. Some think she is a profiteering businesswoman who brought her country to its knees for her own financial gain. Others see her as a victim of a vengeful political adversary in the form of the president Viktor Yanukovych. Either side, of course, could be right. ‘The big issue is that nobody really knows yet,’ says Ines Wurth, who portrays Tymoshenko. The point made forcibly by Tymoshenko’s supporters, however, is that her imprisonment is politically motivated. In 2011, Amnesty’s John Dalhuisen said: ‘The charges against her are not internationally recognisable offences, they are attempts to criminalise decisions that list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 81
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FRINGE:THEATRE WURTH & BADAC
she made in the course of her work. Poor political decisions of this kind – if that is what they were – should be punished by voters, not through courts.’ Having watched footage, Wurth believes the hearing was ‘extremely manipulated’. In a hot and overcrowded courtroom, the prosecution appeared to make things unreasonably difficult for Tymoshenko’s defence attorney. ‘He was supposed to read a 500-page document and prepare for the court hearing in two days,’ she says. ‘Yulia wasn’t allowed to be in the hearing, which is also something you don’t do.’ Who Wants to Kill Yulia Tymoshenko? grew from a documentary made by director Jakov Sedlar before Tymoshenko was imprisoned. A USCroatian co-production, the play imagines the politician not in solitary confinement but finding common ground with a fictional cellmate imprisoned for prostitution. Rather than take sides about the Tymoshenko case, Hrvoje Hitrec’s new play raises questions about human rights, particularly the treatment of women. ‘These kind of mafia cronies came from the Communist regime and it’s just a big boys’ club,’ says Wurth who grew up in Croatia and has witnessed male chauvinism first hand. ‘She’s a very attractive woman who’s very refined; she’s not a peasant. That’s why she’s really fascinating.’ Giving the play its world premiere at the Fringe is a way of reminding audiences how close to home all this is. ‘How can it be in the 21st century that people can treat each other this way and within Europe?’ Wurth says. ‘People talk about “Eastern Europe”, but Ukraine is a developed European country and this sort of stuff should not be happening.’ Badac’s Steve Lambert has similar ambitions by raising awareness of the murdered Anna Politkovskaya and campaigning reporters like her. It may be unfashionable to stick up for journalists in this post-Leveson era, but Lambert is full of praise for the job so many of them do. ‘What Politkovskaya did was just incredible,’ he says. ‘She went backwards and forwards to Chechnya, knowing all the dangers, but thinking these people needed to be helped and their stories needed to be told. There are some
‘POLITICAL DECISIONS SHOULD BE PUNISHED BY VOTERS, NOT COURTS’ things that happen in the world that we must be informed about and these people put themselves in positions of great danger. There are journalists all over the world who every day are doing this sort of thing; and really, do we listen to them?’ His company, which caused a major stir at the 2008 Fringe with uncompromising Holocaust drama The Factory, is committed to exploring what ‘human rights abuses mean to the individual’. For the audience, that means not just watching but taking action. ‘Politkovskaya was angry that, although the stories of Chechnya and Russia were there, people weren’t doing anything,’ says Lambert, who has met the journalist’s sister and colleagues. ‘It’s not just about someone putting themselves in danger, there’s a responsibility on behalf of the public to listen and do something.’ As a human rights campaigner, the US-born Politkovskaya was a vocal opponent of Russia’s invasion of Chechnya in 1999 and a stern critic of Vladimir Putin. Brought up in Russia, she wrote books and articles that highlighted what she saw as ‘the death of Russian parliamentary democracy’. Having been subject to repeated death threats and surviving an apparent poisoning attempt, she was shot four times by an unknown assailant. Playing Politkovskaya is the Shetland-born Marnie Baxter, who cut her teeth at Edinburgh’s Theatre Workshop. She has been closely involved in the script development and takes seriously the responsibility of portraying such a sensitive true-life case. ‘The more I read about her, the more in awe I am of her,’ Baxter says. ‘She was killed because she was so determined to tell the truth and determined beyond all reason to carry on with her work. She wouldn’t calm down and she wouldn’t back off and that’s why she’s not with us now.’ Anna, Summerhall, 0845 874 3001, 2–25 Aug (not 12), 8.30pm, £10 (£8); Who Wants to Kill Yulia Tymoshenko?, Assembly Roxy, Roxburgh Place, 0131 623 3030, 3–25 Aug, 11am, £10–£12 (£8– £10). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £8.
THE EURO ZONE Brian Donaldson maps out some more Fringe dramas from across our continent
TRASH CUISINE Belarus Free Theatre’s first show entirely in English is, unsurprisingly, banned back home for its attack on human rights violations under the rule of Alexander Lukashenko. Partly taking the form of a grotesque cookery show, it takes in state atrocities committed in Britain and the US. Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance, 0131 556 6550, 19–26 Aug, 3.30pm, £12–£15 (£10–£13). BAD BOY EDDIE Written by Anna Krogerus, this Finnish production is translated into English for a Scottish cast, taking in the story of a young boy’s struggle to find his place both in the world and within his own family. From his point-ofview, we uncover a painful life of solitude. C aquila, Johnston Terrace, 0845 260 1234, 1–26 Aug (not 13), 2.05pm, £10.50– £12.50 (£6.50–£10.50). WONDERS OF MAGIC Georgian group Akhmeteli Theatre was founded back in 1981 and arrive on the Edinburgh Fringe with a 90-minute play taken from the writings of early 20th century Japanese author Ryunoske Akutagawa, best known for Rashomon. The Merchants’ Hall, Hanover Street, 0131 220 5911, 13–16 Aug, 7.40pm, £12 (£10). HIGGS Since the mid 1990s, Dutch ‘explorer extraordinaire’ Jan van der Berg has been making films and plays about crucial developments and discoveries in the world of science, and here he analyses the hunt for ‘the God particle’ AKA ‘the Holy Grail of physics’. For believers and non-believers alike. Summerhall, 0845 874 3001, 2–17 Aug (not 5, 12), 8.20pm, £10 (£8). THE SURRENDER Spain’s Centro Dramático Nacional tell the true story of Toni Bentley, a ballerina initiated by a complete stranger into ultimate sexual submission and the joy she finally finds flirting with social conventions. Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552, 3–26 Aug, 1.30pm, £12–£14 (£10–£12). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £6.
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by arrangement with ELAINE MURPHY ASSOCIATES present
THE ARCHES & REGULAR MUSIC in association with RICHARD JORDAN PRODUCTIONS:
WINNIE McGOOGAN W H AT E V E R FROM MRS BROWN’S BOYS GT HE TR SO UY GO HU
THE NIGHT Created by CORA BISSETT with SWIMMER ONE & DAVID GREIG
++++
‘A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT’LIST
Featuring new music & text by:
RM HUBBERT . RACHEL SERMANNI WITHERED HAND . RICKY ROSS E R R O R S . B I G G TA J . M E U R S A U LT EMMA POLLOCK . ANNIE GRIFFIN ISABEL WRIGHT . WOUNDED KNEE STEF SMITH . ALAN BISSETT ALAN SPENCE . KIERAN HURLEY CONQUERING ANIMAL SOUND E U G E N E K E L LY . K I R S T I N I N N E S TA L K I N G M A K E S N O S E N S E
20th-25th AUGUST . QUEEN’S HALL “Eilish’s mantra of ‘Live Love Laugh’ not only highlights her attitude to life but describes the spirit of the show itself”
“Heartwarming, funny and thought provoking. Eilish O’Carroll is a tour de force”
The Corkman
Cork Echo
2.45
PM
31 July - 24 Aug (except 14)
0131 556 6550 www.pleasance.com 0131 226 0000 www.edfringe.com eilishocarroll
eilish.ocarroll
Previews: 31 July, 1 & 2 Aug WWW.BOUNDANDGAGGEDCOMEDY.COM
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FRINGE:THEATRE KATE TEMPEST
KICKING UP A STORM Kate Tempest started performing at London rap battles aged 16. Ten years later she’s bringing her second play to the Traverse. Gail Tolley speaks to the performance poet about making the jump to theatre
‘YOU HAVE TO HONOUR YOUR CONVICTION’
K
ate Tempest doesn’t like to stay in her comfort zone. At only 26, she has already found success as a rapper, performance poet and playwright, gaining acclaim for her politically infused, impassioned writing coupled with a likeable, unpretentious stage presence. She started performing in rap battles at 16 before becoming a regular on London’s performance poetry scene, has supported Scroobius Pip and John Cooper Clarke and has twice been a slam winner at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Manhattan. Her writing hasn’t stopped there. In 2011, she was commissioned by Paines Plough to write her first play, Wasted, and this March she won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry with her second play, which is now heading to the Traverse. Brand New Ancients is described as an ‘everyday epic’ which finds heroism in the ordinary people all around us. Told in verse over a live score with tuba, cello, violin, drums and electronics, a work-in-progress version was performed last year at Edinburgh’s Summerhall. Since then it had a full run at Battersea Arts Centre, where it delighted critics.
Writing plays hasn’t always been on the cards for Tempest though, and it wasn’t until her first commission that she began to visit theatres regularly. While some performances left her cold, others inspired her. ‘Jerusalem [Jez Butterworth’s 2009 Royal Court production] blew me away. I didn’t realise I could feel like that sitting in a room and watching a story unfold. I didn’t realise it could make me feel like being at a gig, or being engaged with music and poetry; the way it goes straight for your gut.’ Having performed at so many gigs where the atmosphere is more intimate and the feel of the room so important, Tempest has been keen to keep a sense of this for her theatrical endeavours. ‘You know it’s almost as if everybody [in theatre] is part of this game that we’re all playing; that the audience isn’t really there and I don’t actually like that. I want the audience to feel like if they weren’t there then this thing wouldn’t be happening.’ From a distance, Tempest’s move into plays has looked effortless, a natural step for this talented writer, but her achievements haven’t come without some challenges, a steep learning
curve and a few leaps into the unknown. ‘I think it’s really natural to be like, “oh no, what the fuck am I doing?”’ she says. ‘But it’s also quite natural to have a real hunger and compulsion to try and get better, or try and do new things. I never thought I could write a play, I never thought I’d write a book or write a poem, but I knew desperately that I wanted to write. You have just got to start with that feeling, just honour the conviction that you have and not think too much about how wrong it could all go.’ While the process might have led Tempest through unchartered territory, there does seem to be one place where she always feels very comfortable, and that’s on stage. ‘Sometimes it’s the safest place for me. When I get on stage suddenly everything makes sense again. It allows you the space to receive your work. It can be quite spiritual.’ Brand New Ancients, Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, 0131 228 1404, 20, 22–25 Aug, 11.15pm; 21 Aug, 11.30pm, £18–£20 (£6–£15).
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BIANCO turning savage
2 - 26 August
0333 222 9000 www.nofitstate.org
Ne
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NO
Venue 194 Fountainbridge Brewery, EH3 9RU
To Ve wn 12 nue The :4 7 at 5 re
£18 adult £16 concession
OD also pr LE esen S ts
Wed – Mon 8pm Sat 2:30 & 8pm Wed 2:30 & 8pm
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FRINGE:THEATRE BLAM!
‘THESE TINY IMPERSONAL CUBICLES ARE OUR LIFE’
OFFICE ROUTINE A Scandinavian physical theatre group transforms the workplace into a blizzard of movie-based anarchy. Anna Millar asks Neander’s leader whether BLAM! is set to be a game-changer
A
n elevator pings. Throaty laughter drifts round the corner and four beaming faces appear. ‘Coffee. We need coffee, please.’ Twelve hours ago, these caffeine-craving cohorts enjoyed a rowdy standing ovation in Reykjavik’s main theatre. Six hours ago, they finally crawled into bed after a ‘few’ after-show drinks. ‘We don’t really do low energy,’ laughs Iceland native Kristján Ingimarsson, settling in with a wide smile. He’s not wrong. As artistic director of Denmark-based physical theatre company Neander, Ingimarsson’s latest project BLAM! is as boisterous as it is bonkers. That it’s been heavily backed by the original co-producers of mega-hit STOMP should give some hint at its potential global appeal. Dubbed ‘Die Hard meets The Office’, BLAM! taps into an audience’s desire to escape the everyday. As three bored office workers kill time by ‘blamming’ – for any non-blammers out there, it means re-enacting favourite movies – a creepy, sadistic boss lurks in the background. Without giving too much away, water coolers morph into ET, a stack of pencils transforms one character into Wolverine, while Bruce Willis, Rambo, Quentin Tarantino and Batman all get a look-in. Neander’s unique and stellar cast commits to each and every role, as an identikit open-plan office reconfigures itself into a makeshift battle zone. The result is a physical theatre show with both an edgy allure and a decent lick of mainstream charm. Ingimarsson is leader of the pack alongside Lars Gregersen, Didier Oberlé and Joen Højerslev, with each one bringing his own effervescent slant to proceedings, whether it’s classic slapstick, physical feats or daredevil back-flips from the top of filing cabinets. ‘I’ve been experimenting for years with different styles,’ explains Ingimarsson. ‘I wanted to do something that was fun but had a good theme and I’ve always wanted to take movies into the theatre. They have their own body language and their own rules, so they’re easy to twist. It’s fun to
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BLAM! THEATRE:FRINGE
play with people’s expectations; I wanted to find the opposite of what we see in movies, so I struck on the “boring” office idea.’ Hours of exchanges and workshops have finally arrived at the spectacle you’ll see this August, when they take over the Pleasance Courtyard’s biggest space. If their enthusiasm alone could get bums on seats, they should be in pretty rude health for the run. But they know it’ll be a challenge. ‘All the characters from the movies are there: the nerd, the muscleman, the asshole, the good-looking hero. That’s obviously my part,’ laughs Ingimarsson. ‘Each of us brought something different from our own passions. One of us loved Jackie Chan, so we thought, “OK, how can we get Chan in there?” Then in another scene, “OK, maybe some Pulp Fiction here”. It became a process of getting from one place to another while having as much fun as possible.’ Certainly, the set helps ground the show, giving it a humour and reality amidst the madness, with almost every office gadget and appliance you can think of – pencils, phones, staple guns, filing cabinets, lamps and chairs – being used to recreate some of cinema’s most iconic characters and moments. ‘As the show goes on, scenes are built, while characters and movie styles are taken on,’ explains Ingimarsson. ‘In workshops, we were trying to make weapons out of this and that, while staying true to the office environment. The set is organic. It’s physical. It’s playing us as much as we are playing the set. The audience wants to find out the possibilities and we want to show them, and surprise them where we can.’ While moments in everything from Rambo to Reservoir Dogs, and Iron Man to The Hulk are referenced, BLAM! is more than just a fanboy’s playground. And though the narrative thread is loose, there’s an emotional range to be found as the story unfolds, with basic human emotions coming to the fore. The underdog is king here and while
it’s an all-male, testosterone-fuelled frenzy, man, woman and child should equally relate to Ingimarsson’s bigger message about what we demand of our heroes. Like the best superhero and action stars, BLAM!’s characters are searching for something while dealing with their own flaws. Ingimarsson nods: ‘It’s fun and silly but it’s also about having the ability to fight back and to have the bravery and skill to say “enough!” There needed to be a humanity and vulnerability in there.’ That fragility, of course, has much to do with the repressed office setting. And beyond all the costume tomfoolery and circus trickery, Ingimarsson hopes that BLAM! will strike a chord. ‘The workplace today is more skewed than ever. We have come to accept that these tiny impersonal cubicles are our life. People don’t question it. These characters have hopes, dreams and fears and by putting them into these fantastical worlds, we show what we can learn there. Hopefully, that’s universal and everyone that comes can relate to that.’ It’s almost time to finish up. Water and coffee have been supped, an hour’s animated to-and-fro comes to a close and the reality of what this show might mean for Neander kicks in. At the age of 44, Ingimarsson hopes that ‘this is the one’. He’s enjoyed acclaim and triumphs before, but BLAM!, he feels, is ‘something special’. If it replicates its Danish and Icelandic success in Scotland, their next step is to go on tour. Ingimarsson stares out of the window, Reykjavik’s ethereal landscape staring back. ‘We’ve been working in this business for many years. It can happen or it cannot happen, even if you have a great show. So many things have to fall into place, but I think we’ve never been closer to it. We just want to show people what’s possible.’ BLAM!, Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance, 0131 556 6550, 3–26 Aug (not 7, 13, 20), 5.55pm, £10–£15 (£8.50–£13.50). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £8. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 87
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Productions
LONDON ROAD, SEA POINT
THE THREE LITTLE PIGS
CLOWN FOR HIRE
1-26 Aug, 13:50
1-26 Aug, 17:45
1-26 Aug, 14:00
SOLOMON AND MARION
TUMI MORAKE
THE SOIL
1-26 Aug, 14:30
1-26 Aug, 21:00
1-26 Aug, 19:10
UNDONE
VOICES MADE NIGHT
1-26 Aug, 16:10
1-26 Aug, 16:10
ALAN COMMITTIE 5-26 Aug, 21:20
CHAMP
THE EPICENE BUTCHER 1-26 Aug, 14:30
1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;26 Aug, 19:20
Join us for a pre-Fringe drink from July 19! We are open for Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, July 19-28 at Assembly Checkpoint, 3 Bristo Place and Assembly George Square Gardens We look forward to seeing you at all of our Assembly venues from July 31 for Assembly Festival at Edinburgh Festival Fringe!
See www.assemblyfestival.com for full programme, festival news and daily deals.
/assemblyfestival
@assemblyfest
/assemblyfest
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An Actorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lament
group
16-26 Aug, 21:00
BY STEVEN BERKOFF
1-26 Aug, 12:55
1-20 Aug, 14:30
1-26 Aug, 19:50
1-26 Aug, 16:00
2-25 Aug, 23:59
31 Jul-26 Aug, 21:00
THATHA 1-26 Aug, 16:25
DRUM ! K STRUC 2-26 Aug, 10:50
Genesis/ Golgotha
1-26 Aug, 12:30
2-26 Aug, 22:30
2-25 Aug, 13:20
1-26 Aug, 18:00
31 Jul-26 Aug, 20:50
1-26 Aug, 12:40
Leo 1-25 Aug, 18:00
assemblyfest.tumblr.com
/assemblyfest
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FRINGE:THEATRE BRYONY KIMMINGS
‘Boys are bombarded with images of submissive women’ Bryony Kimmings has previously explored sex and alcohol in Fringe shows. The performance artist tells David Pollock how she created a new kind of pop idol, with the aid of her nine-year-old niece
C
atherine Bennett is a young pop star with a purpose. ‘CB’ doesn’t wear skimpy clothes and lots of make-up or sing about boys and sex and dancing in nightclubs, or anything else you might hear being bandied around in the charts. Instead, she works in a museum during the day and keeps her famous endeavours separate as a hobby for evenings and weekends, while her songs are all about interesting things like animals, the future, imagination and politics. CB also sounds like Lily Allen singing songs by The B-52s as produced by Gorillaz. In a pop arena dominated largely by lascivious boy bands and young women who conform to a bland and objectified identikit stereotype, Catherine Bennett sounds just too good to be true. And sadly she is. CB has been dreamed up by performance artist Bryony Kimmings, whose short but critically acclaimed repertoire of Edinburgh Fringe successes includes Sex Idiot, about the quest to contact her past sexual partners and tell them she had an STI, and 7 Day Drunk, in which she imbibed solidly over the course of a week and had her intensive creative output during this period later evaluated by audiences. For the purposes of this very real exercise to shape a different type of pop star (the Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model of the show’s title) Kimmings is Catherine Bennett, although she’s not the person solely responsible for this creation. That job also fell to Kimmings’ nine-year-old niece Taylor, her creative partner throughout the project and who will appear onstage for the Edinburgh run. ‘We were just chatting one day and she was showing me all the videos that she liked on YouTube,’ recalls Kimmings. ‘We started having this long conversation about who was the best role model, and she said she quite liked Katy Perry. I felt a bit disillusioned, really. So I met up with Taylor every week and chatted to her about what she felt would make a super role model, with the idea that I’d maybe save her from this objectified version of women. I’d make something that a nine-year-old would like rather than people in big offices with big budgets and big brands deciding for them.’ The character’s creation and an explanation of Kimmings and Taylor’s ‘journey’ – in best X Factor tradition – is only part of the story. Kimmings will also attempt to make CB actually famous, which, she says with a nervous laugh, ‘seems like a really crazy idea now’. Working from Taylor’s ideas, Kimmings has engaged Girls Aloud’s make-up artist, stylists from i-D magazine, producers who have worked with Sugababes and PR company DawBell, whose clients include The BRIT Awards and Take That. ‘They’re doing it for next to nothing,’ says Kimmings. ‘I think they’re just interested in the ethics of it; a lot of people are disillusioned by where the pop industry has got to, especially in terms of the narrow representation of females. I guess if you’ve spent your time working with Sugababes you might feel exactly the same; so, when we told them we had this different idea, they said, “we want in”.’
With a summer offensive of school visits and YouTube videos planned, Kimmings says the idea isn’t to tear down the existing pop institution, but merely to offer an alternative. In fact, she reckons the current pop landscape offers a few positive examples. ‘What kids want is an image of a best friend,’ she says, remembering those initial conversations with Taylor. ‘Some pop stars definitely have that: Little Mix do it nicely, although I’m not sure whether putting on shitloads of make-up has the same message as their music. Jessie J does it really well: she’s got attitude, she’s covered up, she sings about getting through hardships. Adele, too.’ Kimmings believes that her niece really wanted songs that weren’t about sex, because that’s what everything seems to be about. ‘She wants something with more of a fun vibe to it. They all love Psy, because he does a weird pony dance and the music’s something they haven’t heard before. I think that some of the images Taylor sees on YouTube frighten her, and in turn these are creating her version of what the world is like, particularly in terms of healthy sexual relationships.’ All this research has told Kimmings that kids are really after something a little bit more celebratory and more friendly, seeking out music and images that capture their imagination more. ‘But of course, they buy Katy Perry and everything else as well, because they’re swamped with imagery which tells them to.’ There are deeper issues here, and Kimmings touches upon some darker areas attributable to unhealthy media representations: the rise of anorexia in teenage girls, narcissistic personality disorders, violent behaviour in young people and the Macho Paradox. ‘That basically makes boys lose it in their teenage years when they see women having power, because they’ve already been bombarded with images of submissive women.’ She’ll discuss all this in the show with Taylor putting on a blindfold and earmuffs. But this is primarily a show about pop, and pop is meant to be fun. ‘Taylor and I have agreed that our intention is to get famous,’ says Kimmings. ‘We just don’t know if it’s going to happen. We’ve written an album, of which we’re only releasing three tracks as part of this project. But we’ve always said that if it goes really well, then we should make that album and then end the project, finish the theatre show and the documentary that’s being made. Perhaps all this will give Kimmings a taste for genuine pop stardom? ‘I don’t think I’d want to be Catherine Bennett forever. The intention of the project isn’t a long-term pop career for me; it’s that the culture of pop might change. We want to offer an alternative, for a few pop stars to represent smart, covered-up girls out there.’ Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model, Pleasance Dome, Bristo Square, 0131 556 6550, 3–25 Aug (not 5, 12, 19), 5.45pm, £10–£13 (£8.50–£11.50). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £7.
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BRYONY KIMMINGS THEATRE:FRINGE
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FRINGE:THEATRE BIG DADDY
LORDS OF THE RING Once upon a time, wrestling was the sport of choice for Britain’s working class. As a play celebrating two legendary fighters lands in Edinburgh, Neil Cooper reflects on the golden age of grappling
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hen British professional wrestling legend Mick McManus passed away in May at the age of 93, it was the end of an era that this cauliflower-eared villain helped to define. Two other icons of the original sports entertainment no longer with us are Shirley Crabtree and Martin Ruane, better known as larger-than-life kings of the ring, Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. When 25-stone Big Daddy (named by his promoter brother Max Crabtree from Tennessee Williams’ thundering patriarch in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and 33-stone Giant Haystacks clashed in the ring, the earth moved, even as the white-trash Greek tragedy they played out became a microcosm of a little Britain that was itself being killed off. This rise and fall is poignantly captured in Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks, a new play by comedy writing duo Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon. This is just the latest example in a resurgence of interest for a spectacle still mocked by many, even as it gave way to the far glitzier fare propagated by WWF (now WWE). Yet before ITV’s head of sport, Greg Dyke, removed UK wrestling from our TV screens in 1988, it was essential viewing for millions of fans. It was too low-rent, claimed Dyke, ignoring an audience that existed beyond the chattering classes. In this respect, Dyke was making as much of a political statement as Daddy and Haystacks themselves. ‘There’s really a much bigger story to tell,’ insists Mitchell. ‘Essentially, the play is the story of Britain, and those very significant years between 1976 and 1988, when the shift in power between north and south became more prevalent. In that way, Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks came to symbolise aspects of the British character. There was something going on there about the war of the roses, and the image of the working-class Tory, as Big Daddy, with his Union Jack top hat, effectively became John Bull. So, it’s a play about people who set themselves up to be their own symbols.’ The revival of interest in such old-school spit-and-sawdust entertainment began with the 1996 publication of Simon Garfield’s seminal oral history, The Wrestling. Since then, Turner Prizewinning artist Jeremy Deller has made a film about Adrian Street, the Welsh miner’s son whose feather-boaed image disguised a brutal expertise in the ring, and a website, Wrestling Heritage, provides an exhaustive look back at some of the sport’s unsung greats. While Garfield’s book was dramatised in 1998, WWE icon Mick Foley has turned into a stand-up, and writer/performer Rob Drummond trained himself for a show that culminated in him taking part in a fully fledged bout of drop-kicks and flying buttresses. Also at this year’s Fringe is the return of The Wrestling, a show produced by comedy duo, Max and Ivan. As for the wrestling itself, it’s still there if you look hard enough in shows promoted on the summer holiday camp circuit by Crabtree’s arch-rival, Brian Dixon. ‘It’s not a huge revival,’ Mitchell observes, ‘but people have noticed that it hasn’t gone away, which is a good thing. I approve of a country that allowed the wrestling to exist more than the one that didn’t.’
‘THE PLAY IS THE STORY OF BRITAIN’
Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks, Assembly George Square, 0131 623 3030, 3–26 Aug (not 13, 20), 12.15pm, £10–£12. Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £7. 92 THE LIST | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | list.co.uk/festival
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LIST MAGAZINE’S BEST THEATRE PRODUCTION 2012 ★★★★ THE TIMES ★★★★ THE SCOTSMAN
ulysses TRON THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS
JAMES JOYCE’S
Written by Penny Jackson. Directed and developed by Joan Kane.
DIRECTED BY
ANDY ARNOLD
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN JOHNSTON
New York City. Two troubled teenage girls. An older man. Is anyone safe? 2-24 Aug 0131 226 0000
BY DERMOT BOLGER
www.safetheater.com
9 -26 AUGUST 2013 FRINGE VENUE 247, PATERSON’S LAND, 37 HOLYROOD RD, EDINBURGH EH8 8AQ TICKETS: 0131 226 0000 www.edfringe.com
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FRINGE:THEATRE OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
TOP 5 WAR PLAYS
• The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning A soldier leaks secrets in an act of conscience. Pleasance at St Thomas, 6–25 Aug.
• The Trench Les Enfants Terrible revive their award-winning show: puppetry, physical theatre and live music evokes World War I’s muddy brutality. Pleasance Courtyard, 31 Jul–26 Aug. • Afghan Days Babylon Nights Voices of the modern theatre of war, adapted from Paul Finegan’s poetry. The Royal Scots Club, 6–17 Aug. • Our Friends, The Enemy Christmas 1914 in the trenches, retold. Surgeons’ Hall, 2–24 Aug.
CABARETS
JOHN JOHNSTON
• Grounded A former fighter pilot struggles with a work/life balance of controlling drones by day, mothering by night. Traverse Theatre, 1–25 Aug.
ULYSSES Andy Arnold’s decision to direct Dermot Bolger’s 1994 version of Ulysses is clearly an act of love. Joyce’s novel had never been put on any stage before, because his family never allowed it, but Arnold took the bull by its horns, even taking the adaptation to the iconic author’s hometown of Dublin. Surprisingly, given the scope of Joyce’s notoriously difficult tale, Bolger’s script captures its essential tragedy: a relationship broken by a child’s death and the nagging frustrations of domestic insecurity. Bolger is sensitive to Joyce’s subtle switches of style and mood, while the production’s strength lies in the ensemble cast’s ability. The stunning set presents Ulysses’ Dublin as a landscape of the emotions, with the marital bed front and centre. The Fringe is not always the easiest place to present such ambitious theatre, but Arnold was convinced that he should take the plunge by audience reaction to the play in Glasgow last October. Performed in Edinburgh at Paterson’s Land (a new venue which the Tron company share with the NTS and Scottish Opera), this production will consolidate Ulysses as a serious piece of theatre, albeit one not without a stamp of humour. More than just a startlingly bold adaptation, it clearly fits into Arnold’s vision for the Tron. Having championed artists like Samuel Beckett, Brian Friel and Flann O’Brien in his programming to date, Arnold believes that Joyce’s novel has an existentialist, absurdist style which compares strongly with that trio’s work. In condensing one of the 20th century’s most important novels, Bolger and Arnold have discovered its emotional heart and theatrical potential. (Gareth K Vile) ■ Paterson’s Land, 9–26 Aug.
• ’33 (a kabarett) Opera-trained Bremner Duthie sings the decline of a Weimar nightclub. Hill Street Theatre, 1–25 Aug.
BODY DRAMAS
• If These Spasms Could Speak Robert Softley confronts stereotypes about disablement in this inspiring, witty solo. Pleasance Courtyard, 31 Jul–26 Aug.
• Worst of Scottee Having upset the cabaret scene, Scottee promises to distress theatre in his debut solo show. Assembly George Square, 1–24 Aug. • Je ne sais quoi The life of Yvette Guilbert, Freud’s friend and Parisian cabaret royalty in the 1890s. Institut français d’Ecosse, 8–26 Aug. • OMEGA Only a Russian company (blackSKYwhite) would offer such apocalyptic cabaret pleasures. Dark, unsettling and stunning. Assembly Rooms, 31 Jul–25 Aug.
• Midnight at the Rue Morgue Based on Poe’s horror shorts, a promenade vaudeville tale of debauchery and death. SpaceCabaret, 2–24 Aug.
examines those bits of the self that always seem to be embarrassing. Venue 45, 12–23 Aug.
• Mucus Factory A one-off fivehour part reflection on illness, part physiotherapy session, and all-live art confrontation. Pleasance Hunt and Darton Cafe, 12 Aug. • How Hard Do You Hum When You Cum? Rousingly titled show that
• Melodic Dystrophy Puppetry becomes the perfect medium to discover what happens when the body and soul are breaking apart. Venue 45, 13–24 Aug. • Theatre Uncut: Dalgety and Fragile David Greig’s script considers how one campaigner might encourage a new shamelessness. Paterson’s Land, 20–24 Aug.
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C theFestival Table9
Denver School of the Arts Theatre
A H Dance Company
Tower Theatre Company
Bent
Before Wonderland
Habitat
Entertaining Mr Orton
11 – 17 Aug 10.05pm C too
1 – 13 Aug 2.15pm C
31 Jul – 13 Aug 1.50pm C
11 – 17 Aug 8.25pm C
Denver School of the Arts Theatre
PMC Productions
English Cabaret & C
Mustard Seed Productions
A Glee Inspired: Romeo and Juliet
Music Show – Wedding!
Albion Forlorn
Cherry On Top
1 – 13 Aug 11.00am C
31 Jul – 26 Aug 7.55pm C
1 – 26 Aug 6.20pm C aquila
31 Jul – 10 Aug 8.25pm C
Ship of the Ryukyu
Théâtre Sans Frontières
Bearded Theatre Company
Ship of the Ryukyu
The Ryukyu – Classic
Canary Gold
The State vs John Hayes
The Ryukyu – Contemporary
21 – 26 Aug 2.30pm C
14 – 26 Aug 12.10pm C
31 Jul – 26 Aug 9.50pm C nova
14 – 20 Aug 2.30pm C
With more than 200 shows and events across our venues in the heart of Edinburgh, we celebrate our 22nd Fringe with an inspiring international programme of cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, musicals, theatre and family shows. See it all with C venues.
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INTER NATIONAL LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL/INTERNATIONAL
H BURGNAL N I D E NATIO INTER STIVAL FE EP G–1 S 9 AU
THE WOOSTER GROUP New York’s experimental theatre crew The Wooster Group embark on yet another challenging proposition, as they rework Hamlet for the 21st century. Nothing new in that, you might think, except they’re using footage of the legendary 1964 Broadway production starring Richard Burton to create a very different film/theatre experience. An added delight is that some choice works from Wooster’s stirring back catalogue are being shown on video at noon on each performance day, ranging from 1977’s Rumstick Road to 2002’s To You, The Birdie! ■ Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay Street, 0131 473 2000, 10–13 Aug, 7.30pm, £10–£30.
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SUPPORTED BY
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Frank Zappa was eccentric, defiant and complex. As the EIF prepares its tribute to this musical pioneer, Paul Morley wades through the history of a true sonic visionary and wonders just where on earth he fits in
THE
PETER BROOKER \ REX FEATURES
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FRANK ZAPPA INTERNATIONAL
A
nd then, finally, Z for Zappa. I sometimes think that Frank Zappa only existed in all his hyper Zappa-ness as musician, cultural critic, technician, self-publicist, libertarian social commentator, arranger, satirist, stunt guitarist whose solos were spontaneous compositions, paranoid historian, educator, genre mutilator, inventor of the pop album that wasn’t just a collection of singles, because he becomes the best possible Z there can be in any definitive A to Z of pop and rock. Sure, there is the Zombies, and there is the label I created in the early 80s that nodded to Zappa (as well as the ZE label) by being Zang Tuum Tumb. But Zappa takes care of whatever there hasn’t been in the A to Y that precedes him, and sets up a whole new universe to come, that goes beyond Z, and beyond the alphabet of reason. Zappa was always the fire-in-his-eyes leader of a cultinspiring proto-geek loyalty, but at the turn of the 70s, when American rock went mad with influences, the cult was more on the inside of (counter) culture than it is now. His name alone was glamorous, something to be instantly curious about, and when I first started paying attention to Zappa with the zany hair and the zanier facial hair in the early 70s, the albums you immediately wanted to buy had gonzo excitement and ambition written all over their covers and in their titles. Musically, from big-headed, big-minded Freak Out! in 1966, and then Absolutely Free, We’re Only In It for the Money, Uncle Meat, Hot Rats (a top ten UK album) and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, the records seemed as packed with pun, texture, self-reference, connective tissue and buried, seething meaning as a Joyce novel. The song titles and an overall spirit had a literary dimension, as well as far-out, far-fetched suggestions that here was a logic-challenging surrealist as much as a composer; an offensive, deeply black comedian as much as a very white, guitar-neurotic rock star. Some of this music sounded more or less exactly like you would imagine from someone inspired by Varèse, Webern, serialism and Stravinsky from a 20th-century classical world as well as breezy, smooth-tipped doowop, freedom-seeking free jazz and (as a guitarist teaching himself) the haywire blues. Zappa was drawn to avant-garde classical music through a review he read of Varèse’s percussion-propelled ‘Ionisation’ that promised a ‘weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds’. He never lost that love of the weird and aggravating, whatever music he invented, insulted, honoured, parodied, regenerated, seriously composed through the 50, 60 albums he made before his death in 1993 at the age of 53. And in the same way Varèse was not so much influenced by other composers as he was by natural objects and physical phenomenon, Zappa’s music was influenced by the random noise and oddball energy of American television, the complexity of thought, a loathing of bigotry, and the filthy, emancipating might of smut. Where do you begin making some kind of way through the knotty, never ending music of Zappa? What albums should you try? Well, sometimes I think it’s best to take them one by one as they came, as if they were in order, progressing as they go along, which they sort of do, if sometimes sideways with flashbacks, like the episodes in some epic Wire-like television series. Ignore compilations and swim through the mass, mania and mire from the conceptually demented Mothers of Invention (1965–1970); the weirdo jazz-rock Hot Rats hinge in 1970; to the Flo and Eddie post-Turtles period where the catalogue gets scatological on Fillmore East: June 1971. And then with 200 Motels, where psychedelic ambition imploded and/or exploded into deranged mock opera because as Frank says, ‘touring makes you crazy’; leading to the stewed, drop-out big band of 1972 including The Grand Wazoo; the most mainstream he more or less got, with Apostrophe (‘) and Over-Nite Sensation between 1973 and 1975. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 99
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INTERNATIONAL FRANK ZAPPA
There was the Bongo Fury reunion with sidekick Beefheart, six years after they mapped out the skin of the universe with Trout Mask Replica, both playing straight man and funny man; the fertile solo work to the end of the 70s including Sheik Yerbouti and the naturally cryptic and complex triple album psychorock opera Joe’s Garage, peaking with one of his greatest guitar performances, ‘Watermelon in Easter Hay’. The 80s were as tricky for Zappa as they were for Dylan, starting with the pure exploratory guitar of Shut Up ’n Play Yer Guitar, leading to the Synclavier synthesiser that brought out the uncontrollable control freak in Zappa, fiddling while America dumbs down. And then I just haven’t got the time and space to explain how by his death he was closer musically to Pierre Boulez than The Fugs, to composing music for chamber ensemble and orchestra rather than rock band. You want ten Zappa songs to sample from the murky, moving mountain? That’s as tough as learning Latin in a day, but for the sake of this list, I’m choosing ones where the titles open doors to Zappa’s mentality: ‘Stinkfoot’, ‘Who Are the Brain Police?’, ‘Duke of Prunes’, ‘Eat That Question’, ‘The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution’, ‘Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?’, ‘Call Any Vegetable’, ‘The Torture Never Stops’, ‘You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here’ and ‘Cosmik Debris’ (‘what kind of a guru are you anyway?’) But as the whole point of Zappa’s music was how the mind changes, and to change minds, in a minute I’ll change my mind. Actually, don’t listen to Zappa at all, if you are not in the mood for the apparently unlistenable: it will only lead to confusion. Just track down his writing/interviews/political rants that inspired playwright, dissident and eventual last president of Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, and place Zappa as philosopher-performer between Antonin Artaud and Slavoj Žižek. He lived in his own world, and followed his own agenda, and was uncomfortable outside it. In that sense he is the missing link between Ornette Coleman and who cares? It’s why whenever a Zappa festival is mooted or achieved, and it comes to imagining bands
directly or indirectly influenced d b by Z Zappa, it’s very perhaps as a sort-of sort of difficult to think of any: Phish, perhaps, tribute act; The Mars Volta maybe and contemporary composers like Philip Cashian who orchestrates his guitar solos as though they were blueprints for radiant concertos. You can list musicians and groups who admire or even adore his attitude, his subversive smartness, his playing and savage playfulness, his sarcasm, how prolific he was (from the recently late Kevin Ayers, Hawkwind and Faust to Panda Bear, John Zorn and Tenacious D), but you will not come up with anyone making sound as ecstatically eccentric, defiantly difficult and structurally adventurous that links deadon with Zappa’s. Unless you could reform the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band with Harrison Birtwistle, Henry Cowell, David Foster Wallace, Yoko Ono, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Louis CK. I once asked Brian Eno about Zappa, who seemed to share some craving to create an experimental collage of influences from pop culture and the avant-garde, and he said, well, he was a big influence, but in reverse: ‘he’d showed me exactly what I should not be doing. He fused together all the wrong things.’ In the wide-open early 1970s, Zappa the extremist was a perfect fit – whilst having sonic, (a)moral and narcissistic blips – amongst all of the crazy, cavorting, counter-culture greats (Hendrix, the Velvets, Lennon and co). But perhaps in some eventual history of 20th-century culture, he will fit into a story that also includes the Italian futurists, Cage, Stockhausen, Duchamp and Joseph Beuys more than the Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan. Or perhaps he’ll be squeezed in, a little lonely, between Groucho, Lenny Bruce and Olivier Messiaen where the A is for aware, ardent, absurd, astonishing, analytical, alarming, atonal, apeshit, and the Z is still (but never still) for Zappa.
‘HIS NAME ALONE WAS SOMETHING TO BE INSTANTLY CURIOUS ABOUT’
Ensemble musikFabrik: A Tribute to Frank Zappa, Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 0131 473 2000, 28 Aug, 8pm, £12–£34; Paul Morley’s The North (And Almost Everything In It) is published by Bloomsbury on 5 Sep.
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INTERNATIONAL AMERICAN LULU
‘PEOPLE ARE DYING AND SHE DOESN’T CARE’
Angel Blue is the former pageant queen who yearns to be a rock chick. Claire Sawers talks to this talented opera singer who wouldn’t want to hang out with her new character
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hen American soprano Angel Blue isn’t performing or rehearsing operas, there are two places she would rather be. First is in her Toyota Avalon, cruising about her hometown of Los Angeles. ‘I miss my car so much when I’m here working in the UK,’ she admits. ‘I love to be on the road.’ The second place is in the 1990s, listening to a soundtrack of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Bush and Tool. ‘I was born in the 80s, but I am totally stuck in the 90s. You want to know how I unwind? I put on Metallica or System of a Down. And I turn it up. I am a rock girl when I’m not being an opera girl.’ Blue is part of what she calls ‘the made in the 80s’ new wave of young opera singers, helping to challenge some of the more outdated stereotypes about their chosen field. Viking helmets and Victorian bustles are nowhere to be seen in Blue’s wardrobe this summer. She’s just come to the end of her run in La Bohème with English National Opera, set in 1930s Paris, and inspired by the photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Blue was playing glamorous tart-with-a-heart Musetta, complete with finger-waved hair and strings of pearls, with reviewers raving about her powerful soprano vocal in a charismatic, classy ENO debut. For Blue’s two-night appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival, she will perform the lead in American Lulu, wielding a combination of very un-
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AMERICAN LULU INTERNATIONAL
matronly Josephine Baker-esque slinky slips and Jackie O-style shift dresses. In three acts, the action sweeps over the 1950s, 60s and 70s, all against the background of the Civil Rights movement in New Orleans. ‘I hope this production will enlighten people to the idea that opera doesn’t just mean Puccini, or Wagner or Mozart,’ says Blue. ‘This is modern music, atonal music, but my vocal technique never changes; I try and bring the same spirit and fire and energy into whatever I’m singing.’ The opera joins Lulu in her mid-twenties and follows the character into her early forties. American Lulu is a modern reworking of an unfinished opera (Lulu), abandoned by Alban Berg in 1934, and more recently picked up by Olga Neuwirth. The Austrian composer has shifted its action to the sleazy Vegas-style jazz bars in America’s Deep South. Blue describes the storyline as ‘basically a love triangle, in a soap opera kind of style’. And when it comes to the character she’ll be playing, Blue does not mince her words: ‘I hate to say it, but I’m almost positive Lulu and I would not be friends.’ Blue found some of the early rehearsals difficult, as she struggled to find any likeable sides to her character. ‘Lulu is a very selfish woman. She’s been used, and she’s used a lot of people. I read the script and saw this callous, narcissistic person: people around her are dying and she really doesn’t care.’ Luckily, Blue could turn to her LA acting coach for advice, who told her to stay detached from the character, saying she’d learn much more from the role if she wasn’t judging her. ‘I do my best not to judge Lulu, but it’s very hard. I like to be a nice person, I try and be kind, that’s my thing. I get excited when I can hold the door open for someone. Lulu and I are very different.’ The hardest scene for Blue comes in the first ten minutes of the opera. Someone is dying and Lulu makes
fun of them. ‘She’s basically like, “it sucks to be you!”,’ laughs Blue. ‘I’d be frantic, or at least calling the police, checking their pulse or something! You can see Lulu weaving her web from act one, lying to her husband. In the States, we’d say he’s “sprung on her”; he’s completely head over heels, and you watch him, knowing he’s totally going to get hurt.’ One scene that Blue particularly enjoys performing is with singer Jacqui Dankworth, a regular at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. Dankworth plays a jazz singer named Eleanor, who falls out with Lulu. ‘She’s really letting me have it,’ says Blue, ‘and I sing back at her. But I sing in a jazzy tone, mocking her. Getting to jazz it up in that part is really fun.’ Blue likes to play around with her voice, and reveals she’d love to explore what lies beyond the world of opera one day. ‘This is going to sound insane, but my dream musical collaboration would be with someone like David Guetta or the guys from Justice.’ As someone who spent six years taking part in beauty pageants before getting into opera, Blue is no stranger to a drastic career change. ‘I was Miss Hollywood, and I competed in the Miss America organisation for years to help pay for school. But I knew I wanted to be an opera singer, and I worked very hard to achieve that.’ If the dream crossover to dance music comes as a bit of a curveball, Blue is also interested in making movies. ‘It just comes with the territory when you live in LA. Most of my friends are actors, and you can’t help meeting people involved in the industry. I’d love to work with someone like Quentin Tarantino one day: I think making an action movie would be so much fun. I guess I just like seeing what’s out there, and not feeling limited.’ American Lulu, King’s Theatre, Leven Street, 0131 473 2000, 30 & 31 Aug, 7.15pm, £15–£35.
‘MAKING AN ACTION MOVIE WOULD BE SO MUCH FUN’
Heavenly pursuits: Angel Blue in her recent run of La Bohème with English National Opera
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INTERNATIONAL ÉDOUARD LOCK
As Scottish Ballet’s ambitious festival project prepares for lift-off, Kelly Apter hears from Édouard Lock, the influential choreographer who is aiming to build some bridges
T
STEP UP
here’s nothing like having the words ‘David Bowie’ and ‘Frank Zappa’ on your CV to add kudos to your career. Not that Édouard Lock needs it. His credentials as a choreographer and artistic director are pretty cast iron as it is. Since he founded La La La Human Steps in 1980, the Canadian choreographer has produced a raft of exciting, cutting edge work, only compounded by his art director role on Bowie’s 1990 Sound + Vision tour, and performing on stage while Zappa recorded his live album, The Yellow Shark. Which is why, although there’s lots to look forward to in Scottish Ballet’s weekend-long Dance Odysseys programme, there’s something just that extra bit special about having an Édouard Lock world premiere in there. Lock choreographed his first dance work in 1974,, at the age of 20. Almost 40 years later, he has amassed an enormous wealth of ew experience. Yet the desire to explore new ck territory remains undiminished. As Lock n, says: ‘creation, as opposed to recreation, w is the aim; to try new ideas and new se partnerships in order to achieve those ideas.’ Over the years, those partnerships havee taken him into the rehearsal studioss of Europe’s finest dance companies.. Commissions for new works have comee from, amongst others, Paris Operaa Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater. What does Lock look for in a host company? ‘I think goodwill and a desire to share ideas,’ he says. ‘And all of those organisations are comprised of talented individuals, who contribute their expertise to the shifting requirements each visiting choreographer brings to their company. That said, the main partners in the process are the dancers: they are the ones I have the closest contact to. Again, each of those organisations offers creative vistas to their dancers by having them interact with a wide range of choreographic points of view, which in turn leads to an openness and a responsive working relationship.’ Having only spent a brief period of time with them earlier this year, Lock already feels Scottish Ballet has the same to offer. A couple of days in the studio, auditioning dancers for his as-yet untitled world premiere in August, left him keen on returning to the company’s base in Glasgow to make the work this summer.
‘My impressions were very positive,’ says Lock. ‘The dancers are responsive, have great training, a neutral technique, and easy smiles.’ That final point may not seem as important as the other three but, as Lock says, ‘the work process should be disciplined but also pleasant.’ Lock’s choreography is known for its speed, athleticism and interesting use of pointe work. But running alongside that is a powerful emotional intent which, according to Lock, has much to do with the way a dancer connects with the audience. ‘A performer makes a choice between presenting charismatic theatre or empathic theatre,’ he explains. ‘The former relies on the admiration of the audience, but in the same breath it actually excludes the audience. p Empathic theatre,, on the other hand, creates a bridge between the audience and the dancer by emphasising the vulnerability inherent i both groups.’ in For Lock, the process of making a n work is inextricably linked with the new p people who will be performing it. ‘The c choreographer writes the text and the d dancer humanises it,’ he says. ‘The point is to arrive at something greater than the su of the participants, and that takes sum tru and effort.’ trust L Lock’s world premiere is one of eight liv shows in the Dance Odysseys linelive up complemented by two films and eight up, dis discussions. Curated by Scottish Ballet’s arti artistic director, Christopher Hampson, much of the weekend explores and celebrates movement that blurs the boundaries between classical ballet and contemporary dance. For Lock, who has used fiercely strong ballet technique in the most modern of ways throughout his career, it’s a venture worth joining. ‘I think Chris has undertaken an outstanding initiative,’ says Lock. ‘It reflects well on him and on Scottish Ballet. Any arts organisation should have, as part of its mandate, the development of the art form they represent, and this project presents a variety of work in a visible and inclusive manner. I’m very happy to be part of it.’ Édouard Lock: World Premiere, Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street, 0131 473 2000, 16 Aug, 8pm, £10–£18.
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DANCE ODYSSEYS INTERNATIONAL
‘THE PROCESS SHOULD BE DISCIPLINED BUT PLEASANT’
LET’S DANCE Kelly Apter picks five other highlights of Scottish Ballet’s curated programme THE RITE OF SPRING Scottish Ballet’s artistic director Christopher Hampson curated the Dance Odysseys programme, so it’s only right that his own work should get a moment in the spotlight. Set to Stravinsky’s epic score, this explores themes
of domination but leaves just enough ambiguity to let you fill in the gaps. 18 Aug, 8pm, £10–£18. NEW VOICES Five choreographers who are all making their mark on the international dance scene create world premieres especially for the Dance Odysseys programme. Performed by Scottish Ballet and Scottish Dance Theatre, the show features the work of James Cousins, Martin Lawrance, Kristen McNally, Henri Oguike and Helen Pickett. 16 Aug, noon; 18 & 19 Aug, 5pm, £12.
IM (GOLDENEN) SCHNITT I The captivating Cesc Gelabert recreates German dance theatre pioneer Gerhard Bohner’s solo, in which movement, visual art and music all share the space equally. 19 Aug, 8pm, £10–£18. PIERROT LUNAIRE Created by American choreographer Glen Tetley in 1962, and inspired by Schoenberg’s score, Pierrot Lunaire is widely regarded as one of the first bridges between classical ballet and contemporary dance. 17 Aug, 8pm, £10–£18.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS Classic works from a trio of true dance giants: namely, Christopher Bruce, Jirí Kylián and Twyla Tharp. Hailing from the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and America respectively, they have each put their own permanent stamp on the classical/modern fusion and will undoubtedly lift the Dance Odysseys programme to exciting heights. 16 Aug, 5pm; 17, 19 Aug, noon, £12. ■ All shows at Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street, 0131 473 2000.
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INTERNATIONAL GRID IRON
Lewis Hetherington and Catrin Evans are taking Grid Iron to a new level
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GRID IRON INTERNATIONAL
FANTASTIC VOYAGE Moving from Fringe theatre to the EIF is one giant leap for Edinburgh’s Grid Iron. Yasmin Sulaiman meets the creative minds behind a journey into the unknown for both cast and audience
‘I
t was the merging of Battlestar Galactica and George Monbiot,’ laughs director Catrin Evans about the inspiration behind Leaving Planet Earth. In 2010, Evans’ mother sent her a clipping of an article about consumerism by The Guardian’s environmental writer, which sparked the idea for Grid Iron’s new intergalactic promenade piece. ‘The article was about the chaos of buying ourselves out of problems,’ she explains. ‘At some point, Monbiot used the image of the Earth as the ultimate disposal item and to me that was the hook. If you take consumer society, the way in which we exist now, to its extreme point, then the Earth is certainly going to be the ultimate disposal item.’ At the time, Evans – who set up the acclaimed A Moment’s Peace theatre company which produced Petrified Paradise and The Chronicles of Irania – was working as an assistant director with Grid Iron, Edinburgh’s doyens of sitespecific theatre, and took the idea to its co-artistic director Judith Doherty. ‘Originally, I envisioned it as one man in an attic with an audience of 20,’ says Evans. ‘I thought that was a realistic thing to pitch.’ Fast-forward three years and Leaving Planet Earth, co-written and directed by Evans and Lewis Hetherington, and produced by Grid Iron, will enjoy a sold-out world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival, playing to 150 people every night for 13 days. Lucky ticketholders will be transported from the city centre to the cavernous Edinburgh International Climbing Arena in Ratho: this is ‘New Earth’, and the audience members its most recent arrivals. Hetherington – who has won Fringe awards with theatre group Analogue (Beachy Head, 2401 Objects) – was instantly attracted to the idea of New Earth when approached by Evans. ‘I naturally have quite green politics,’ he explains. ‘And the notion of buying our way out of trouble really fascinated me. But I love sci-fi as well. One of the reasons we don’t see much sci-fi on stage is because so much of it is epic and people are flying through space, but we wanted to focus on its human side. In the theatre, that’s really exciting because the audience watch the actors up close and you don’t get that in a film or on TV.’ This human dimension is the cornerstone of Leaving Planet Earth. The play orbits around Vela, the architect of the new society, and her team who have helped establish New Earth. Even the show’s exciting technological elements
– secretive devices being developed by the University of Edinburgh Centre for Design Informatics and an interactive website created by Napier University’s Design and Digital Arts department – will be strongly tied to the emotions of its characters and the audience. For this foray into the EIF, Evans and Hetherington have drawn on diverse inspiration: Caryl Churchill’s plays A Number and Far Away; the novels of Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Atwood, Arthur C Clarke and Philip K Dick. On screen, Battlestar Galactica, 2001: A Space Odyssey and District 9 all get nods. But the world of Leaving Planet Earth won’t be entirely alien to its audience: it’s set in 2013. ‘It’s still today,’ Hetherington explains. ‘We talk about events like World War III that are mentioned as a throwaway line, and it lets people realise that it’s a different world to the one we’re in. But there’s no armageddon or asteroid strike. People are choosing to leave.’ But will International Festival audiences, used to more traditional forms of theatre, choose to participate in the world of New Earth? ‘It isn’t necessarily the average thing you’d see at the EIF,’ admits Evans. ‘But I think that’s a really good thing. I hope that we’ve been clear enough so that audience members will come knowing that this is an invitation to play, to use your imagination and be provoked and challenged. We want the audience to enjoy themselves.’ Nor are they overly daunted by making their first leap from the Fringe to the EIF. ‘There’s no doubt, it’s something to really celebrate,’ Hetherington says. ‘But community and teaching work is also a big part of what we do. On one hand, it’s great to have your theatre peers be impressed by the EIF, but then you go to teach a group of teenagers and they don’t know who you are at all so you really have to prove yourself.’ Ultimately, Evans and Hetherington want their audience to consider the idea that living on another planet may actually be in our future. ‘When you start to probe a little deeper, people like Stephen Hawking think that this is a reality,’ Hetherington notes. But their own reluctance to participate in such a voyage suggests that their New Earth will be no utopia. ‘I feel quite rooted to this planet,’ Evans concedes. ‘I’m not sure that we deserve another one yet.’ Grid Iron: Leaving Planet Earth, EICC, Morrison Street, 0131 473 2000, 10–24 Aug (not 13, 20), 8pm, £25 (£12.50).
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION Brian Donaldson finds other site-specific performances on the Grid Iron CV Ever since they arrived in the mid 90s, Grid Iron have been determined to throw something new upon the Scottish theatre landscape through a series of wildly imaginative venueorientated productions. In 1997, they started the ball rolling with The Bloody Chamber, scaring the bejesus out of Fringe audiences down in the Royal Mile’s spooky vaults. Three years later, they swung into action with Decky Does a Bronco in the Scotland Yard Playground. In 2003, they had to relocate Those Eyes, That Mouth at short notice to a New Town address while the passenger lounge at Edinburgh International Airport was the daring venue for 2006’s Roam (pictured), a co-production with the recently founded National Theatre of Scotland. 2008’s Yarn took place within a former jute mill in Dundee while the following year, the Bukowskiadapted Barflies was staged in the Barony Bar on Edinburgh’s Broughton Street.
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INTERNATIONAL METAMORPHOSIS
‘TECHNOLOGY PLAYS THE SUBCONSCIOUS’
ALTERED STATES Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is creeping towards its centenary. As this landmark tale is unleashed on the EIF, Taiwanese actor Wu Hsing-kuo talks to Mark Fisher about movement, multimedia and mothers
W
u Hsing-kuo knows all about transformation. In the Edinburgh International Festival of 2011, he morphed himself into all the key characters of King Lear. In his idiosyncratic one-man interpretation of Shakespeare’s play, Wu tackled each part in turn, drawing on the techniques of Peking opera and employing balletic kicks, athletic tumbles, operatic wails and the most delicate of eye movements. When it comes to transformation, there is no greater novella than Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, with its story of Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman who wakes to find himself inexplicably turned into a beetle. It is to this strange European allegory, published in 1915, that Wu has now turned as he heads back to Edinburgh with Taiwan’s Contemporary Legend Theatre. ‘Kafka is a thinker as well as an author,’ he says. ‘His philosophy has had a great impact in the East.’ In our late-capitalist high-pressure world, the image of someone changing from a metaphorical worker insect into the genuine article has particular resonance. The main reason people notice Gregor Samsa’s absence is because he’s late for work. ‘People of our generation tend to be slaves of economic society,’ says the actor-director. ‘In Kafka’s story, he speaks out for helpless young people and reveals their inner voice. He also asks, “what is existence for?” I feel my predicament is not unlike that of Gregor Samsa, attending to his family duties.’ As with King Lear, Wu takes a directly personal approach to the original. In Kafka’s fraught family relationships, he hears echoes of the sometimes humiliating father-son relationship he had with his acting teacher. It also makes him reflect on his late mother. ‘Because she passed away due to lung failure soon after my graduation, I deliberately arrange a pretty mother in my play to stand for youth and a woman that I love.’
The influence of Peking opera remains, although it is less easy to apply it to a European existentialist novel than a play by Shakespeare. In this school of performance, equal weight is carried by language, literature, dancing, fighting and singing. Wu also draws on his experience as a modern dancer and movie actor. ‘I still employ techniques of Peking opera which are my mother tongue. This work, however, has much space which enables me to bring creative ideas of dancing and visual images into full play.’ In keeping with the theme of this year’s EIF, Metamorphosis is Wu’s first attempt to make use of interactive technology. He has been collaborating with multimedia programmer YS Wang, and with the Quanta Institute of Technology which has provided him with options for recording, digitalisation and interactive performance. ‘I hope to stage technology with a humane aspect,’ he says. ‘In Eastern theatre, conveying philosophical ideas carries a lot of weight. Application of technology should be regarded as secondary. After all, The Metamorphosis deals with humans and actors are still the focus of our work. Technology, on the other hand, plays the roles of the dream world or subconscious.’ As an artist who routinely combines several disciplines, Wu sees technology as a great artistic opportunity. ‘It excites me tremendously. New and old theatrical languages integrate as they confront each other. I have to be extremely sensitive and alert in the creative process and it enables me to be closer to Kafka in spirit. It is a suffering that I enjoy.’ Contemporary Legend Theatre: Metamorphosis, King’s Theatre, Leven Street, 0131 473 2000, 10 & 11 Aug, 8pm; 12 Aug, 3pm, £12–£30.
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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS INTERNATIONAL
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
TOP 5 PREMIERES
• To Dream Again This laboratoryonline fusion of contemporary music from cellist Peter Gregson is ‘a matter of life and data’. New Media Scotland, 19 & 20, 22–24 Aug. • Media Skins Photographer Hyung Su Kim uses a swathe of LED imagery in public spaces to make you look at the world anew. Outside Usher Hall, Festival Theatre, 9 Aug–1 Sep.
TALKS
• Nam June Paik Resounds A gathering of curators muse upon the legacy of this counter-culture techartist. Talbot Rice Gallery, 10 Aug. • Brian Eno Another sonic guru reflects on where recorded music is going next. National Museum of Scotland, 23 Aug. • Beckett on Film This project’s co-producer Michael Colgan talks about the particular challenges in collecting up 19 features and short films. The Hub, 30 Aug.
• Madame Freedom From YMAP comes this merger of dance, film and digital technology. King’s Theatre, 20 & 21 Aug.
• Bang on a Can All-Stars The Brooklyn contemporary music outfit chat about field recordings. The Hub, 23 Aug.
• Histoire d’amour A chilling multimedia tale from Teatrocinema about obsession and alienation. King’s Theatre, 15, 17 Aug.
PIANISTS
• On Behalf of Nature Following up 2010’s Songs of Ascension, American composer, performer, director, filmmaker and choreographer Meredith Monk, brings us a lyrical mediation on the environment. Lyceum Theatre, 16–18 Aug.
• Philip Glass & Patti Smith These two US creative legends discuss another, Allen Ginsberg. The Hub, 13 Aug.
• Pierre-Laurent Aimard The French keyboard master gives us some Debussy, Ligeti and Stockhausen. The Hub, 18, 21 Aug; Queen’s Hall, 23 Aug.
• Mitsuko Uchida (pictured) Bach, Schoenberg and Schumann are on the agenda for this ‘poet of the piano’. Usher Hall, 13 Aug.
• Nikolai Lugansky This talented son of Moscow delivers a recital heavy on Rachmaninov with a delicate touch of Liszt and Janácek thrown in for excellent measure. Queen’s Hall, 15 Aug.
• Lars Vogt With Ian Bostridge on tenor duty, Germany’s Vogt plays Ives, Brahms and Schumann as the pair explore love and nostalgia. Usher Hall, 22 Aug.
• Andreas Haefliger Find out just why this Swiss player has been afforded such acclaim as he takes on sonatas by Schubert and Beethoven. Queen’s Hall, 17 Aug.
OPER FRANKFURT If the people of Oper Frankfurt appear to have a spring in their step during their Edinburgh run this August, there may well be a perfectly valid reason. At the recent International Opera Awards ceremony at London’s Hilton Park Lane Hotel, they received the Opera Company of the Year prize. For this year’s International Festival showing, they are performing a double bill of one-act works separated by a couple of centuries but tied together in theme. Henry Purcell made his operatic debut in the 1680s with Dido and Aeneas. Derived from the masque tradition, it tells the story of the Queen of Carthage’s love for a Trojan warrior which turns to pitiful despair when he is misled by malevolent forces into abandoning her. Not for nothing is ‘Dido’s Lament’ the most famous aria in the score. Meanwhile, Bluebeard’s Castle was Béla Bartók’s only opera, the Hungarian penning it in 1911 (though a new ending was added six years later). Based on Charles Perrault’s fairytale, it tells of the dark goings-on behind heavily-closed doors in the titular building as Judith begins life with her new husband only to discover some terrible secrets and hidden horrors. The sumptuously colourful production of Dido and Aeneas is in stark contrast to the black and white of Bluebeard’s Castle as the central characters meet their fates in diverse but equally shocking ways. A weekend of true delights for fans of doom-laden opera. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Festival Theatre, 24 & 25 Aug.
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H RG U INB Z ED JAZUES L L & BSTIVAUL FE9–28 J 1
REVEREND PEYTON Along with his Big Damn Band, Indiana’s Josh ‘Reverend’ Peyton will be storming a barn or two in Edinburgh with tracks from his trio’s most recent album, Between the Ditches. This ‘pre-war country-style blues’ man has fully recovered from a two-year hiatus when he was unable to play guitar due to cysts on his hand caused by constant playing. Praise be that this fingerpicking genius is back among his flock. ■ Palazzo Spiegeltent, George Square Gardens, 0131 473 2000, 26 Jul, 9.15pm, £15.
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TIA FULLER JAZZ
ANGEL HEART Tia Fuller has gone from learning saxophone in her attic to der chats sharing the world stage with Beyoncé. Miles Fielder e right to this jazz warrior about getting the balance
O
n the opening night of the 35th Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Tia Fuller aims rcles for touring to blow the roof off the Queen’s Hall. Best known outside jazz circles as made a name the world with Beyoncé Knowles’ troupe, the young American has layer, composer, for herself inside the jazz world as a turbo-charged, bop-based sax player, bandleader and educator. For this Scottish debut, Fuller’s band will be showcasing compositions from her latest album, Angelic Warrior. ays Fuller, who’s ‘I’ll be performing it with the core rhythm section from the album,’ says lancing just finished a photo call for the festival. ‘Angelic Warrior is about balancing eant my my life. With the Beyoncé thing and making my own music, it all meant ative and blood pressure was going up. I realised I had to embrace the meditative peaceful angel, as well as the warrior, which is how I usually function.’.’ Born in Aurora, Colorado, to jazz musicians Fred and Elthopia, Tiaa Fuller grew hile she greedily up listening to her father’s bass playing and her mother’s singing while derley and John consumed their record collection of Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley Coltrane. Inspired by her older sister, Shamie, Fuller began playing classical piano at the age gh school. Later of three, moved on to flute and finally picked up the saxophone at high ned her talent in studying the horn at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, Fuller honed jazz clubs where she got to play with the state’s most famous son, Rayy Charles. rents rehearsing ‘When I was eight or nine, I used to sit in bed listening to my parents nected me to the in the basement and singing along,’ says Fuller. ‘That was what connected saxophone: singing and blowing are very similar. My grandfather gavee me a horn and I tried it up in the attic. It resonated throughout the house and my bodyy and I thought, “this is it!”’ Two days before the events of September 11, 2001, Fuller moved to New Jersey with ommunity being the aim of making it on New York’s jazz scene. Despite the jazz community ller still secured pessimistic about the availability of work in the aftermath of 9/11, Fuller her first gig, at a South Jersey fish fry. ‘Humble beginnings keep youu grounded,’ she insists. ries and by 2007 From there she swiftly made a big impression on East Coast luminaries Fuller had established herself as a young turk on the Big Apple’s jazz scene. Securing w level, the 100 a place with Beyoncé’s band, however, took her career to a whole new al recognition in date-plus world tours over the last five years bringing her international the world of pop, soul and R&B. ous,’ Fuller says. ‘The perception of me playing with an artist like that is just enormous,’ ‘It really heightened my visibility. I learned that it’s important to maintain a good ork ethic. People image and reputation. I saw the extremely high level of Beyoncé’s work want to hear the struggle and the passion: that’s something she has. And in fact, all ys with a laugh, great artists, both jazz and non-jazz, have it. I also learned,’ Fuller says ‘how to dance in heels.’
‘HUMBLE BEGINNINGS KEEP YOU GROUNDED’
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JAZZ GHOSTPOET
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
• Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert Described as Ellington’s attempt to bring the Cotton Club into a church setting, he produced three Sacred Concerts between 1965 and 1973. The pianist-composer himself said this was ‘the most important thing I have ever done’ and here, Ellington devotee Stan Tracey revives the Duke’s spirit with a jazz/classical/choral performance. Dunfermline Abbey, 23 Jul; Queen’s Hall, 24 Jul.
STREET SPIRIT Stewart Smith profiles the grimy and eclectic Ghostpoet
‘A
lad with a lisp with some stories to tell,’ is how Obaro ‘Ghostpoet’ Ejimiwe describes himself. With his sleepy, half-sung, half-spoken delivery, Ejimiwe has emerged as one of the most distinctive voices in British music this decade. Starting out as a grime MC, he has expanded his musical horizons to create an eclectic mix of post-dubstep beats and experimental indie. His 2011 debut album, Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam, released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, while the tongue-twisting Some Say I So I Say Light followed earlier this year. Working with co-producer Richard Formby – whose credits run from electronic duo Darkstar to cosmic drone rockers Spectrum – Ejimiwe has pushed his sound forward. The grimy echo and moody subterranean atmosphere remain, but the melodies are stronger, while the beats and electronics are sharper. Furthermore, elements of Afrobeat, jazz and art-rock have been added to the mix, with legendary Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen and Charles Hayward of post-punk sound scientists This Heat among the contributors. Ejimiwe’s lyrical reflections and observations help unify a varied selection of tunes, which range from the nocturnal two-step of ‘Cold Win’, through the ectoplasmic rave visions of ‘Burial’, on to the clanking industrial beats of ‘MSI musmiD’, via the rolling grooves and nagging Nigerian guitar licks of ‘Plastic Bag Brain’. The Ghostpoet concert experience sees Ejimiwe backed by a full band, mixing live instruments with electronics. If he seems an unusual booking for the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, then consider the echoes of Gil Scott-Heron and In a Silent Way-era Miles Davis in Ghostpoet’s music, not to mention his love of John Coltrane, Art Blakey and Eric Dolphy. It all adds up to a 21st-century kind of blue. Ghostpoet, Liquid Room, Victoria Street, 0131 473 2000, 27 Jul, 7pm, £12.
• Hidden Orchestra The acclaimed Edinburgh quartet led by Joe Acheson certainly pack it in with their jazz, rock, classical, electronica hybrid to produce lush and layered soundscapes. Their 2010 debut, Night Walks, is a great place to start for anyone looking to uncover the Hidden Orchestra’s beautiful depths. Liquid Room, 20 Jul. • Snarky Puppy Not so much an instrumental band as a jazz fusion collective, this rotational act has almost 30 members with a core team led by award-winning bassist and composer Michael League. Rising from the grassroots and becoming a genuine force for musical good, their community outreach projects are a way of giving something back. Queen’s Hall, 22 Jul. • Malene Mortensen The true test of a person is how you cope with adversity, and it doesn’t get much more adverse than coming last in the Eurovision Song Contest. That was 11 years ago, and it merely drove Mortensen on to become a massive jazz success in her Danish homeland. She now makes her Scottish debut alongside guitarist Carl Mörner Ringström. Palazzo Spiegeltent, 25 Jul. • Pharoah Sanders & Phil Bancroft Two heavyweight tenor sax players lead their quartets in a US/ Scotland double bill with Bancroft unleashing his new band on us. Sanders first came to attention in the 60s alongside Coltrane and recently threatened to quit live performance due to the proliferation of illegal recordings at his gigs. 3 Bristo Place, 28 Jul.
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POLITICS LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL/POLITICS
VAL FESTI ITICS L OF PO UG 5A 23–2
GARDEN LOBBY Since 2005, the Festival of Politics has emerged as a platform for debating the past, present and future of Scottish, British and world politics, through talks, debates and exhibitions. This year, organisers are keen to take the festival up a level, focusing not just on events, but on the parliament building itself, with the Main Hall and Garden Lobby being transformed into a festival centre so that even those not attending debates can drop in and soak up the atmosphere. The idea is to allow festival-goers the chance to engage fully with what’s going on, either by physically attending or through the digital media at their fingertips. Situated at the parliament’s heart, and connecting the debating chamber and committee rooms with the MSP building, the Garden Lobby will be a space to eat, drink and enjoy the exhibitions, as well as engage with likeminded FoP fans. ■ Festival of Politics, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Road, 0131 348 5200, 23–25 Aug.
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POLITICS WORLD PRESS PHOTO The game’s up (clockwise): Wei Seng Chen, Joy at the End of the Run; Roman Vondrous, Cross Country Steeplechase; Sergei Ilnitsky, The Golden Touch
THIS SPORTING LIFE Jay Richardson sidesteps the gore and the grief by exploring a different side to this year’s World Press Photo exhibition
F
ounded in 1955, the annual World Press Photo contest has showcased some of the most striking, shocking and memorable pictures in photographic history. But as visitors will discover when the exhibition of winning entries returns to Edinburgh, the world’s largest and most prestigious photojournalism competition has adapted to reflect our shifting values as media consumers, with a growing number of images devoted to sport. Last year’s Olympic Games in London offered constant drama for photographers and it is hoped that Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games will supply more of the same for talented Scottish snappers. ‘We’re constantly looking at what this contest reflects,’ explains World Press Photo’s managing director Michiel Munneke, speaking from the organisation’s headquarters in Amsterdam. ‘And it was our impression that if you look at the media nowadays, there’s much more focus on portraiture and sport. If the competition was to stay relevant, we felt we needed to embrace that and put extra emphasis on those categories. Our competition is still very much perceived as a platform for hardcore photojournalism, and about people in conflict zones. But we try to encourage the telling of these different stories because they’re also very important: a great conceptual story can be told just around the corner. You don’t always need to go to conflict areas.’ Capturing these intense moments of sporting triumph and despair certainly throws up its own challenges. A Moscow-based staff photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency, Sergei Ilnitsky’s
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WORLD PRESS PHOTO POLITICS
‘EVERYTHING HAPPENS IN A SPLITSECOND AND THERE’S NO CHANCE OF A RE-SHOOT’
series of 12 black and white pictures of fencers competing in the Olympics, beginning with the ecstatic moment of South Korea’s Jiyeon Kim kissing her gold medal during the ceremony for women’s individual sabre, earned him the silver in the Sports Action stories category. ‘Sports photography works to the same rules as other photography,’ he observes. ‘It has decisive moments, a golden ratio, a combination of light and shadows, and obeys rules of movement and rhythm. But during sporting events, you don’t have the opportunity to converse with the people you’re shooting. Normally, to speak to them before or after is very important for me to understand their situation.’ Taking at least a day to study a sport’s rules, he spends a further two analysing how athletes might react in different situations in competition, so that he can respond instantly and instinctively when there’s any kind of change to usual practice. Roman Vondrous of the Czech Photo Agency agrees that appreciating the intricacies of the sport you’re shooting is indispensable. But he also points to the relatively mundane matters of access and accreditation as crucial too, in order to get right into the centre of what’s really happening. He did just that with his winning Sports Action stories series, chronicling the Czech Republic’s gruelling Velká Pardubická cross country steeplechase through grimly rendered mud, sweat and tears. The event satisfied his desire for a story’s dramatic drive, but he viewed it through a different lens. ‘Although I prefer colour shooting,
in this series my subconscious was working right from the beginning with black and white. I admire these tough, devoted jockeys for their desire to win but also that they have no fear of injury. A jockey is a winner, then in the next race he is amongst the beaten. I was very satisfied with my story, beginning with their concentration in the weighing room, through the ceremonial parade, following the race itself and at the end, the personal disappointment of the jockey who fell with his horse on the fence.’ One of the exhibition’s most arresting images is Wei Seng Chen’s ‘Joy at the End of the Run’, which shows a rider crossing the finishing line in the bull race of Batu Sangkar, West Sumatra. In this 400-year-old tradition, competitors yoke themselves barefoot to two bulls using a wooden harness and drive the animals by gripping their tails. Dirt, spray and elation fly forth from the picture, ‘like a 3D image with a very art-like feel,’ the Malaysian photographer proudly proclaims. ‘There’s also all that relief: it’s a very dangerous sport.’ A photographer with 35 years’ experience, Chen humbly took first prize in the single image Sports Action category. ‘I wouldn’t say that I’m the most skilful or have talents that set me apart from my peers; I was just in the right place at the right time to capture that shot. In sports, everything happens in a split-second and there’s no chance of a re-shoot.’ World Press Photo, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Road, 0131 348 5200, 30 Jul–25 Aug, Mon–Sat, 10am–8pm, free. list.co.uk/festival | Edinburgh Festival Guide 2013 | THE LIST 115
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POLITICS THE KENNEDYS
Yet more Camelot: Katie Holmes and Greg Kinnear in BBC’s The Kennedys
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
• Frank Boyle His cartoons have been running in the Edinburgh Evening News since 1999 with Boyle being named Cartoonist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards twice. Several exhibitions of his work have been shown in places as diverse as Glasgow’s Scottish Football Museum and Kirkintilloch’s Auld Kirk Museum. 23–25 Aug. • Culture and Broadcasting Magnus Linklater chairs an event which will focus on the impact of constitutional change on the culture of Scotland. Will our nation’s artistic, literary and cultural contribution be enhanced with independence or does separation put a vibrant and distinct identity at risk? 24 Aug.
FAMILY PLOT Brian Donaldson explores America’s legendary and possibly cursed clan
W
hile the Gandhis and Bhuttos may lay claim to being among the most notable political dynasties in the world, there really is no one like the Kennedys. They had it all: intrigue, glamour, triumph and tragedy, and the fascination with their clan continues to this day. On television, episodes of 1960s advertising drama Mad Men have featured reactions to the assassinations of both president John in ’63 and ex-attorney general Bobby in ’68. And in 2011, a controversial BBC mini-series entitled simply The Kennedys starred Greg Kinnear as JFK, Katie Holmes as Jackie, and Tom Wilkinson as Joseph P Kennedy Snr. The father of the murdered president is the focus of this FoP event, with US historian David Nasaw in town to introduce his biography, The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P Kennedy. Something of a ‘colourful character’, Kennedy flew to Scotland in an attempt to secure whisky deals for Americans in the aftermath of Prohibition, and was US ambassador to the UK until being forced to resign
after making comments in 1940 about democracy being finished in the west. His ambition to become the first Catholic US president disintegrated, but he outlived the son who attained that honour, finally dying in 1969 eight years after suffering a major stroke. In fiction, though, Joe Kennedy’s dreams reached some kind of strange fulfilment. Robert Harris’ alternative history drama Fatherland features him in 1964 as the US leader meeting with a very-much-alive Hitler, the Greater Germany Reich führer. Nasaw deals a bit more in the real world, and received high praise from Christopher Hitchens for his 2006 biography of Andrew Carnegie, while Ted Kennedy approached him to write this memoir of his father. The result is a hefty tome which dissects the good, bad and ugly elements of this patriarch’s life and work. The Kennedys, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Road, 0131 348 5200, 25 Aug, 2pm, £5 (£3.50).
• Identity and Community This event features a screening of Happy Lands, a powerful film that maps the events which laid the foundation of Scotland’s identification with socialism and internationalism, raising some questions pertinent to the Yes/No campaigns. The film’s director Robert Rae and actor George Wallace will then explore the issues in a postscreening debate. 24 Aug. • The Power of Social Media Both the Obama presidential campaign and the Arab Spring showed the strength of social media in bringing people together for a shared cause. This session will ask whether social media has the power to increase the influence of small independent nations on world affairs or will their messages be lost amid the chatter? 25 Aug. • Scottish Youth Theatre What does independence mean to Scotland’s youngsters? As part of the National Youth Theatre of Scotland summer course, young people will be writing and performing a play inspired by the title ‘independence’. 24 Aug.
ALL EVENTS AT SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
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AUGUST 23 - 25
2013 HAVE EUROPE
YOUR
SAY
AND
ECONOMICS
BIG HUMAN RIGHTS
NDENCE
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE AND BROADCASTING
Scotland’s Place in the World From culture and economy to identity and independence, the big topics will be discussed, debated and shared. It’s all happening at the Scottish Parliament from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 August. www.festivalofpolitics.org.uk facebook.com/festivalofpolitics
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@FOP2013 #FOP2013
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TATTOO LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL/TATTOO
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TATTOO
TAKE A LETTER
Still going strong after all these years, the Tattoo remains a colourful and dramatic addition to the city’s festival scene. Edward Dudgeon and Brian Donaldson compile an A-Z of facts and figures The ever-popular Represented for only the The official magazine of the ATattoo Burns anthem is sung at the end of each K second time ever at the Tattoo and the first S Tattoo. so make sure your arm-linking skills are appearance since 2003. If you want to attend in true up to par. The first Lone Piper was T head-turning style, you can have an outfit The Tattoo L Pipe Major George Stoddart. He played in designed in your own specific tartan. From a Btaking producer has been in his present role since every performance for the first 11 years. His kilted skirt for her and high-waist Highland over for the 2011 event. He is only the son, Major Gavin Stoddart, has followed in his trews for him, the Tattoo shop just about has is for Auld Lang Syne
is for Korea
is for Salute
is for Tartan
is for Lone Piper
is for Brigadier David Allfrey
seventh producer in the Tattoo’s history.
father’s footsteps.
it all.
The Tattoo is set up and run The Aguiluchos Marching The Water of Life C£5mfortocharitable purposes and has gifted some M Band from Puebla will make their debut U (whisky to you and me) was celebrated last organisations of both a service and this year. Folk dancers will get jigging to the year with the Tattoo Highland Dancers and the is for Charity
is for Mexico
civilian persuasion down the years.
is for Uisge Beatha
100-strong group’s Mariachi vibe.
Canadian Celtic Association telling the story of Scotland’s most successful export.
Last year, a unique Leigh Dintobrandproceedings Around 217,000 people of cartoonish mayhem was injected N Martin, the musical director of the NPBB in with the appearances of New Zealand, will be bringing his sousaphone V will witness the spectacular event across its Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx. to the Tattoo this year. It will be only his second three-week period. is for DC Thomson
is for New Plymouth Brass Band
is for Visitors
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At the last official count, visitors to the Tattoo contributed an estimated £88m to the Scottish economy. is
for
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Tattoo made its debut in F 1950 with justThe eight items in the programme. The story of the Gbe told notorious 13th-century Mongol warrior will this year through music, song and dance is for First
is for Genghis Khan
featuring some traditional throat singers.
trip to the event and the first alongside his 22-year-old cornet-playing son Raynor. As well as warmly welcoming OlinksNewwithZealanders, the Tattoo has strong Australia. Last year, Tap Dogs and is for Oz
the OzScot dance troupe performed and the Tattoo has made trips to the Antipodes: in 2010 a performance took place in Sydney’s football stadium. A Pictish warrior opened the Pin 2012 Tattoo with a scene from ancient times which the warrior was witnessed ‘seizing is for Pict
Tinseltown film producer HTaylor) Mike Todd (the fourth husband of Elizabeth made a documentary on the Tattoo in
upon a shiny pebble and taking the audience to the start of a magical journey across the ages’.
1950.
In 2010, the Queen Qwithawarded The Edinburgh Military Tattoo a ‘Royal’ title, recognising its six decades
is for Hollywood
The youth motorcycle team will Iexpertise be back once again with its usual display of and bravery. is for Imps
is for the Queen
of service to culture and entertainment. In 2012, the 60th anniversary of HM’s accession to the throne was the Tattoo’s main theme.
Jbrooch, This is the neat line in jewellery including a bagpipes R Edinburgh location for all rehearsals. Celtic pendant and thistle earrings. is for Jewellery The Tattoo shop houses a
is for Redford Barracks
Other than a spectacular W visual experience, the only other thing that can be guaranteed is that at some point during is for Weather
the month it will rain. Please ensure you have a suitable poncho and/or massive umbrella to hand. From the Greek word Xa hospitable for ‘strangers’, the Tattoo is nothing if not event for outsiders, opening its is for Xenodochial
arms wide to those from outside these shores. Approximately 70% of each audience is from outside Scotland. This Yextraordinary year’s Tattoo will showcase Scotland’s landscape, flora and fauna. is for Year of Natural Scotland
a single performance of the Z Tattoo has everNotbeen cancelled. is for Zero
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh Castle, 0131 225 1188, 2–24 Aug, Mon–Fri, 9pm, £24–£58; Sat, 7.30pm, 10.30pm, £26–£60.
WIN TICKETS TO THE ROYAL EDINBURGH MILITARY TATTOO Edinburgh will once again host one of the world’s most spectacular entertainment events as The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo celebrates the Year of Natural Scotland. The Royal Bank of Scotland is the main sponsor of the 64th extravaganza to be staged at the Scottish capital’s ancient castle. With innovative production, heart-stopping sound, imaginative graphics, state-of-the-art lighting and specially commissioned fireworks, the 90-minute show is set to captivate. The line-up of nearly 1000 performers includes hundreds of musicians, Massed Pipes and Drums, Massed Military Bands, Display Teams, Dancers and the haunting lament of the Lone Piper set against the magnificent backcloth of Edinburgh Castle. To enter, just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:
Who is the main sponsor of the The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo ? Competition closes 16 Aug 2013. Usual List rules apply
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Deuchars IPA and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, two of the best acts in town, both showing at venues throughout Edinburgh.
caledonianbeer.com
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CITY GUIDE
WHERE TO EAT DRINK SHOP AND PARTY IN THE CAPTIAL LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL/CITYGUIDE
WELCOME TO EDINBURGH There’s so much more to this city than Fringe shows and street performers. Over the next 30 pages you’ll find what you need to know about your host for the festival season. This guide introduces you to Edinburgh’s Old Town, the New Town & Stockbridge, Southside, the West End and Leith & Broughton Street. In each section you’ll find maps and details of where to shop, eat and drink. The eating and drinking listings for each area are divided into great places to stop for a meal whether it’s morning, noon or night (and the best spots for a cocktail afterwards), so you’ll know exactly where to head for a full Scottish brunch – or even something a lot fancier. At the back you’ll find a run-down of Edinburgh’s lively clubbing and LGBT scenes. Scattered throughout are suggestions for essential sights to see, off-the-beaten-track wonders, how to get from A to B, cultural highlights, and plenty more ideas for making the most of Scotland’s capital. You might just find out for yourself why Robert Louis Stevenson described Edinburgh as ‘what Paris ought to be’.
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SUPPORTED BY
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LUGG “The Swedish alternative to the Edinburgh Fringe!” Sun 28th July 7pm - Juliette Burton’s Extract from her show “ When I grow up” in Joseph Pearce’s
AUGUST ONWARDS: Thurs 1st, 6pm - Wendy Helliwell Exhibition “SINthetic” Launch Party in Hemma Thurs 1st -31st - Open Art Exhibition in Victoria. Fri 2nd, 6pm – Sonic Love Army Dj in Hemma. Every Friday in August. Sat 3rd, 9pm - ‘Think’ Dj’s in Victoria - A mix of Folk, pop and techno Mon 5th, 7.30pm - Cult Movie Mondays in Sofi’s- free Screening – Every Monday. Tues 6th – We Make Maps in Joseph Pearces with Paul Mills &Co Wed 7th, 7-8pm - Juliette Burton’s Extract Show in Joseph Pearce’s & BossaNova BBQ with Music from Sergio Praceres Thurs 8th, All day - VINYL PARTY in Sofi’s! Share, swap and spin on our open turntable. All day, all night, until 1am! Fri 9th, 9pm - Albharoma in Victoria - evening of music and dance, flamenco funk and Balkan beats, with Maria del pozo and Damian aka dj shogun
Fri 16th, 9pm DAVA Live DJ set in Victoria Sat 17th, 7-9pm Afro Jazz playing Live in Hemma Sat 17th, 7-9pm Musical Comedy in Sofi’s. Stand up hero Jay Bharaj and friends gives us a night of hilarious musical comedy. Not to be missed! Mon, Tuesday 19th, 20th, 26th Crayfish party 7pm in Joseph Pearce’s. Tickets £25 Wed 21st, 7-9pm SPOKEN - Live poetry in Sofi’s. Edinburgh’s finest in spoken word. include Michael Pederson and Jenny Lindsay. Wed 21st Royal Tenenbaums Party in Hemma Thurs 22nd, 7pm - 8pm. Cocktail Tea Party in Sofi’s with Tea Cocktail Masterclass £5. Thurs 22nd DJ VIC GALLOWAY the TOP 20 HITS from the 50’ies in Joseph Pearce’s Sat 24th, 3pm –Tom Waits Day & Night in Sofi’s. Sun 25th, 2-7pm Pop Up Fair in Sofi’s! The spirit of Camden comes to Sofi’s. Sun 25th, 8pm-1am – Blue Roll in Hemma – blue moon and tequila for the trade Thurs 29th DJ VIC GALLOWAY the TOP 20 HITS from the 60’ies in Joseph Pearce’s
Sat 10th, 9pm-1am Crisp Wrappers in Hemma – Rap and crisps night!
Mon 30th - Sun 6th September -Artist Collaboration project in Victoria
Sun 11th, 3-5pm - Ice Cream Sundae in Sofi’s - Ice Cream Tasting from St. Luca’s freezer!
Sat 31st, 9pm- DJ Hendo’s in Victoria
Wed 14th 24th 9.30pm - Meeting point for ‘Vision Mechanic’s’ festival production of ‘DARK MATTER’ in Victoria. Wed 14th and 28th, 9pm - Three’s a Crowd in Boda Bar – a chatty, fun live music session
Sun 1st September 9pm Brazilian night with Sergio Praceres at Joseph Pearce’s
www.bodabar.com
Boda - 229 Leith Walk Victoria - 265 Leith Walk Hemma - Tunbuilding, 75 Holyrood Road
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OLD TOWN CITY GUIDE
you squeeze through the crowds). It’s a great way to sample all the quirky, smaller performances that your eye might have skipped over in the Fringe programme. It’s also the location of the Fringe Box Office (next to the Fringe Shop at 180 High Street, EH1 1QS), the place to collect tickets booked online, pick up a spare Fringe programme and invest in some Fringe merchandise. Other shopping opportunities towards the top of the Mile are largely of the tartan-and-shortbread tourist variety and won’t offer great value for money, but venture just
OLD TOWN Key venues: (1) Assembly Hall (2) The Hub (3) C aquila (4) Dance Base – National Centre for Dance (5) Scottish Storytelling Centre (6) Underbelly, Cowgate (7) Fringe Office (8) C Venues (9) National Museum of Scotland (10) Festival Theatre Edinburgh’s centrepiece during festival season is, undoubtedly, the Royal Mile. Also known to locals as the High
Street and the Canongate, the Mile is the ancient road stretching from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill all the way down to Holyrood Palace at the bottom, spanning the Old Town as it does so. At least once, you’ll want to head to the middle of the hill to see the famous Fringe street performers giving live tasters of their shows (and thrusting hundreds of flyers at you as
slightly downhill and you’ll find more interesting diversions in the form of local produce shops and cheery pubs. Near the bottom of the cobbled road is Our Dynamic Earth, an energetic interactive science museum detailing the entire history of the planet. High culture can be found in the everfascinating art exhibitions at The Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Immerse yourself fully in the history of the Old Town by ducking into the beautiful and historic St Giles’ Cathedral further up, or down one of the many closes and wynds that snake away from the bustling Mile towards Princes Street on the north side and Cowgate to the south. There are plenty of big attractions in the area, too, not least the famous castle (with sell-out performances of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo each night). You’ll also find plenty to enjoy in spooky tours of Edinburgh’s bricked-up underworld at Mary King’s Close, a charming history of toys at the Museum of Childhood and events and family fun at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Venture south and leave the Mile behind you to head deeper into the Old Town. Walk down South Bridge or George IV Bridge to get to the Southside and Bristo Square, the HQ of big Fringe venues the Gilded Balloon and Udderbelly’s Pasture. But before you get there, turn right on George IV Bridge and head down the picturesque curve of Victoria Street towards the busy Grassmarket, where you’ll find a range of vintage clothes shops, secondhand book emporia, outdoor markets and independent cafes and bars, as well as the maze-like structure of the main Underbelly venues. (Charlotte Runcie)
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CITY GUIDE OLD TOWN
SHOPPING A Ha Ha Ha 99 West Bow, EH1 2JP, novelty.org, 0131 220 5252.
Long-running joke shop that has become something of a local landmark thanks to the gigantic funny nose and specs suspended over the Victoria Street shop front.
Analogue 39 Candlemaker Row, EH1 2QB, analoguebooks. co.uk, 0131 220 0601.
So much more than just another art bookshop. Analogue is a design, fashion, photography and illustration hub, gallery, and one of the best places to find out about the new movement of local artists such as Lindstrom Effect and Matthew Swan. If there was such a thing as a bible of street culture, you’d be able to find it here.
Armchair Books 72–74 West Port, EH1 2LE, armchairbooks.co.uk, 0131 229 5927.
Divided over two premises, Armchair Books has been a favourite stop for bibliophiles for more than 15 years. The shop owners say their regulars appreciate the way the shop combines an eclectic stock with a sterling regard for the health and safety of its customers, which we find rather admirable, really. Number 72 West Port has an impressive stock of alphabetically arranged fiction, science fiction, poetry, myth, philosophy and Scottish interest. Number 74 contains mostly factual books, a strong selection of antiquarian tomes and a dizzying array of energy-efficient light bulbs.
Armstrongs 83 Grassmarket, EH1 2HJ, armstrongsvintage. co.uk, 0131 220 5557.
Established in 1840 and locally known as Armstrong’s, its two branches (the other is at 64 Clerk Street) combine to make a huge
emporium of vintage, retro and traditional clothing. Starting with chic items from the 30s, the range advances through the years to incorporate even those 80s trends that you thought were best forgotten. Dresses, suits, jackets, accessories, bags and shoes – there’s simply no telling what you might find nestling within the shelves, but the whiff of authenticity is strong. The smaller outlet on 64–66 Clerk Street (0131 667 3056) has an impressive selection of leather coats and formal dresses.
Old Town Bookshop
The Black Box Boutique 98 West Bow, Grassmarket, EH1 2HH, blackboxboutique.co.uk, 0131 225 5006.
Independent design boutique offering jewellery, textiles, ceramics, illustration and plenty more.
The Black Mausoleum 19 Candlemaker Row, EH1 2QG, 0131 225 9044.
The Black Mausoleum sells all sorts of creepy stuff. In this dark dungeon on the site of the old Witchcraft shop in Candlemaker Row (part of an area reputed to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter) you will find obscure hand crafted presents, discount tickets for the City of the Dead Graveyard and underground tours and a huge selection of Greyfriars Bobby souvenirs.
The Cigar Box 361 High Street, EH1 1PW, rumandcigars.co.uk, 0131 225 3534.
Oh come on, what do you think it sells? Finest, hand-rolled Havana stogies, plus a plentiful supply of pipes and rum from the same people who run Royal Mile Whiskies, so you know they’ll take their expertise seriously. Perfect for the Papa Hemingway in your life, and we’ve all got one of those. creations (at equivalent prices) for boys and girls from the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, Katherine Hamnett, and Comme des Garçons.
Clarksons Edinburgh 87 West Bow, Grassmarket, EH1 2JP, clarksonsedinburgh.co.uk, 0131 225 8141.
A good old-fashioned, family-run jewellers, Clarksons has been going for over 50 years. Their current specialisms include Celticinfluenced pieces, and they also create bespoke pieces. Prices start at £100 for in-store items.
Cranachan and Crowdie 263 Canongate, EH8 8BQ, cranachanandcrowdie.com, 0131 556 7194.
Bringing some welcome authenticity to the Royal Mile – albeit with a generous selection of shortbread for visitors – is, ironically, American Beth Edberg. Her deli’s smart pine shelves show off the knowledge of the food scene she’s picked up over 13 years of Scottish living. She and Fiona McEwan are working to stock the best of edible Scotland, from smoked salmon to craft beer, not forgetting Puffin Poo (chocolate, marshmallow and crisped rice, rolled in coconut, from the Shetland Fudge Company – another one for the tourists). A recent opening, they’re working to find the line between a heart-of-tartan location and their genuine desire to stock good, artisan food not easily found in Edinburgh.
Coda Music 12 Bank Street, On the Mound, EH1 2LN, codamusic.co.uk, 0131 622 7246.
Handily situated right in the middle of tourist heaven on the crest of the Mound, this tiny store lays claim to the biggest selection of folk and traditional music in Scotland. Hoots!
Cookie 29 Cockburn Street, EH1 1BP, facebook.com/ cookie.edinburgh, 0131 622 7260.
Pretty cotton print frocks, patterned smocks and T-shirts from the likes of Eucalpytus, Yamama, Ruby Walk and Sugarhill. Certainly at the top end of the Cockburn Street price range, but still somewhere to find a dress for under £50. If you’re feeling floral, top up your summer wardrobe here.
The Creepy Wee Shop in the Graveyard 26B Candlemaker Row, EH1 2QG, 0131 225 9044
The creepiest wee place in Edinburgh in the graveyard of a former funeral bothy, famous for being haunted. Greyfriars Graveyard hosts this wacky emporium of ghostly souvenirs.
Corniche 2 Jeffrey Street, EH1 1DT, corniche.org.uk, 0131 556 3707
Designer label boutique offering outrageous
Equally formidable as its sister store The Black Mausoleum.
Edinburgh Books 45–147 West Port, EH3 9DP, edinburghbooks. net, 0131 229 4431.
Bewilderingly labyrinthine selection of antiquarian books over two levels. Formerly West Port Books, and now a leading member of the West Port Books collective, Edinburgh Books’ staff have a similarly dry sense of humour to their fellow collective members, and keep an in-house water buffalo called Clarence handy at all times. See, we told you. They also stock Isle of Man stamps. We don’t know why.
Fabhatrix 13 Cowgatehead, Edinburgh, EH1 1JY, fabhatrix. com, 0131 225 9222.
Where did you get that hat, old bean? Well, Fabhatrix, actually. Top hats, clôches, trilbies, Scottish felt hats, vintage style, silk wedding hats, red hats, bowlers, straw hats, quirky tweed deerstalkers and feather fascinators… Fabhatrix sells nothing but top-of-the-range, utterly individual headgear for the dandiest fops.
Focus 70 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8AA, focuspocus. co.uk, 0131 629 9196.
Skate and street wear for the boys, with labels like Stussy, Nike SB, The Quiet Life and Vans, Skullcandy headphones and Nixon watches; also stocks an excellent range of DVDs and locally published North Skate magazine and is, like, the only place to get a new deck for your wheels. Right?
The Frayed Hem 45 Cockburn Street, EH1 1BS, thefrayedhem. com, 0131 225 9831.
A vintage shop for men and women with a well-picked range of clothing, shoes, jewellery and collectables.
Fruitmarket Gallery 45 Market Street, EH1 1DF, fruitmarket.co.uk, 0131 225 2383.
RETAILER
7
OF THE YEAR
2003
379 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1PW
Located behind Waverley train station, this world-class gallery showcases work by many of the leading names in contemporary art. The shop stocks greetings cards by local artists, plus magazines and books on illustration, photography, design, fashion and more.
Godiva 9 West Port, EH1 2JA, godivaboutique.co.uk, 0131 221 9212.
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OLD TOWN CITY GUIDE
Opened ten years ago by an Edinburgh College of Art graduate, with a big front room stuffed full of exciting local design talent and a back room of vintage that’s particularly good for boys. Recycled rara skirts and lovely frocks by local designers – almost everything’s a one-off.
Golden Hare
brother’ of the West Port bookshops. Established in 1978, this ageing Aladdin’s cave provides a gentle introduction to the world of antiquarian books, stocking everything from early 1650s theology and literature to the modern crime fiction of Ian Rankin. It also has a substantial collection of Scottish prints and maps dating from the 1620s to the 1880s.
102 West Bow, EH1 2HH, goldenharebooks.com, 0131 629 1396.
Owl & Lion
A boutique selection of new and classic books, with a focus on beautifully designed and illustrated editions. You’ll find a good mix of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels and a magical little children’s section at the back, accompanied by a gallery space with ever-changing exhibition programme and a smattering of storytelling and poetry events.
Hannah Zakari 43 Candlemaker Row, EH1 2QB, hannahzakari. co.uk, 0131 516 3264.
Bags, prints, homewares and jewellery from up-and-coming designers including some Edinburgh-based talent, with a few diversions into cute ornaments and stationery.
Helios Fountain 7 Grassmarket, EH1 2HY, helios-fountain.co.uk, 0131 229 7884.
Wholesome shop stuffed with beads, handmade toys, candles, crystals and more books than you could shake an incense stick at, including magically illustrated children’s books and a selection of complementary therapy reads.
Herman Brown 151 West Port, Edinburgh, EH3 9DP, hermanbrown.co.uk, 0131 228 2589.
A seriously gorgeous selection of top-end vintage accessories and shoes hangs alongside a carefully selected, colour-coded range of 1950s–1990s fashions. The very best place to lay hands on retro sunglasses, diamante hat pins and patent stilettos, with a capsule collection of more recent, trashier, 90s and later styles.
Moleta Munro 4 Jeffrey Street, EH1 1DT, moletamunro.com, 0131 557 4800.
Stylish homewares, with a good range of Scandinavian design, Scottish digitally printed textiles and wool rugs.
Mr Wood’s Fossils 5 Cowgatehead, Grassmarket, EH1 1JY, mrwoodsfossils.co.uk, 0131 220 1344.
Anyone for fossilised shrimp? Grab yourself a tiny bit of history with a fossil or two from Edinburgh’s only purveyor of (you guessed it) fossils, and minerals, established in 1987 by the world-famous fossil hunter Stan Wood. A huge selection of crystals, meteorites, dinosaur teeth, and er, fossil-themed jewellery if you’re looking for a gift for that special Neolithic enthusiast in your life. They’re also great on geological books, and the interior displays are really quite something.
Old Town Bookshop 8 Victoria Street, EH1 2HG, oldtownbookshop. com, 0131 225 9237.
Old Town describes itself as the ‘spiritual
66 West Port, EH1 2LD, owlandliongallery.com, 0131 221 0818.
Bookbinding establishment owned by Florence-trained bookbinder Isabelle Ting, with interesting ranges of hand-bound books and a variety of cards, books and prints available to buy.
Present 18 St Mary’s Street, EH1 1SU, presentboutique. co.uk, 0131 556 5050.
Quirky homewares, one-off jewellery items, camp and kitsch artwork, and presents for pets.
Ragamuffin 278 Canongate, EH8 8AA, ragamuffinonline. co.uk, 0131 557 6007.
Gorgeous, tactile knitwear for wool enthusiasts; stock includes several hard-to-find Scottish and European designers, and there’s a quirky in-house label too.
The Record Shak 69 Clerk Street, EH8 9JG, 0131 667 7144.
Simple, basic and excellent wee record shop with absolutely no attitude, selling a great selection of blues, rock, folk, reggae and jazz, mostly second hand. Will occasionally buy records too.
Red Dog Music 1 Grassmarket, EH1 2HY, reddogmusic.co.uk, 0131 229 8211.
One of the largest general music stores in the city, with over 5000 square feet of electric guitars, bass guitars, acoustic guitars, keyboards, studio recording gear, computer music, lighting, PA equipment, percussion and loads more. All of the big brands (and loads of the small ones) are present and correct, and they’ve even got private demo rooms with mirrors for practising embarrassing guitar moves, analog synths wired up and ready to squeal, murals on the walls, loads of funky lights and an extremely comfortable sofa if you get bored of all the musical equipment and just want to sit down.
ANGELS WITH BAGPIPES IS A STUNNING RESTAURANT ON EDINBURGH'S HISTORIC ROYAL MILE
Red Door Gallery 42 Victoria Street, EH1 2JW, edinburghart.com, 0131 477 3255.
The best place to pick up artisan jewellery, prints, paintings, sculpture and completely individual greetings cards, all by local artists. Regularly changing exhibitions, lovely, friendly staff and a great selection of funky old lomo cameras if you’re feeling a bit lo-tech.
Royal Mile Whiskies 379 High Street, EH1 1PW, royalmilewhiskies. com, 0131 622 6255.
If you like a wee nip, specialist malt whisky retailers Royal Mile Whiskies should have
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you spoiled for choice. The diminutive shop, established in 1991 and joined by a London branch in 2002, can lay claim to having over 1000 malt whiskies and bourbons in stock. ‘Sherry monsters’ and ‘peaty beasties’ from distilleries in Scotland and Ireland are supplemented by more than a few surprises from the likes of Japan, while knowledgeable staff can guide customers round the delights of a collection that include rare bottles going for as much as a hefty £900. Don’t despair – a large selection is available at more manageable prices around the £20–£30 mark.
Swish 22–24 Victoria Street, EH1 2JW, swishlife.co.uk, 0131 225 7180.
GETTING AROUND
Edinburgh’s not tricky to navigate. Hop on a bus, take a cab or use your own two feet to take yourself between all those shows, concerts and exhibitions So, how do you get from the West End to the Gilded Balloon? Don’t go thinking you can just jump on a tram because, despite years of divisive and expensive construction works through the city centre, the vehicles themselves have yet to materialise. It’s a slight bone of contention around here. Worry not, though, because Edinburgh still has plenty of ways to make sure you can get from dinner to a show without much bother. First, think about using your legs. The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remarkable for their ‘outstanding urban landscape’. So don’t waste your time staring at the inside of a bus or taxi for your whole stay: get out and live it. Edinburgh isn’t huge (there’s no subway or overground train network) and you really can get almost everywhere by walking. Use the maps in this guide and don’t be afraid to ask for directions. Tired feet are a festival inevitability, however. Thankfully, taxis are plentiful. Hail a black cab in the street, wait at one of the central ranks (they’re on Market Street, Lothian Road, inside Waverley station, on the Royal Mile and outside the Omni Centre) or book in advance by phone: Central Taxis 0131 229 2468; City Cabs 0131 228 1211; Festival City Cars 0131 552 1777. Stay safe: never take an unbooked minicab and always make sure your driver has a visible ID card. Our primary bus network, run by Lothian Buses, is mostly efficient and easy to use. Some services have names as well as numbers – you could find yourself taking the Morningside Maisie (number 5), the Stock Brig (29) or the Queen of Scots (49) to your destination. Check lothianbuses.com for a complete route map to plan your journey. If you have an iPhone it’s well worth downloading the free EdinBus app, which finds your
location and gives real-time updates on when the next buses are and where they go. The Edinburgh-specific mybustracker. co.uk site will also give you live arrival information that’ll keep you from running to the bus stop in a flap. A single ticket to any destination is £1.50 (children 70p), so just hop on and say ‘single, please’ to the driver, drop your money into the box and wait for your ticket. The drivers can’t give change, so make sure you have exact money ready. There are no return tickets available, but ask for a ‘day ticket’ at £3.50 (children £2) to give you unlimited travel for that day. To save faff, you can pick up a booklet of 20 single tickets in advance from one of the travel shops on Waverley Bridge, Hanover Street or Shandwick Place. After midnight your day ticket will be void, as that’s when night buses start (and they run until 4.15am), serving most city centre routes. Ask for a ‘night ticket’ when you board between these times: £3 will give you unlimited travel for that night. No single or return tickets are available on night buses. Dedicated ‘Airlink 100’ services run from Edinburgh Waverley rail station to the airport, stopping along the way, and several city centre open-top bus tours are run by a variety of providers. They can be expensive, but there’s no more relaxing way to have a sit down and recover from the night before while still getting plenty of sightseeing done. With buses so frequent and walking so easy, there shouldn’t be too much need to resort to pricey rickshaws, bike hire (though if you’re tempted to tackle the city’s seven hills, try BikeTrax at biketrax.co.uk or Edinburgh Cycle Hire at cyclescotland.co.uk), or attempts to invent teleportation. Leave that kind of performance to the Fringe acts. (Charlotte Runcie)
Street-edge fashion for big and little kids over two floors and two shopfronts. Ladieswear labels include Gsus, Religion and Putsch, and they’re great for retro handbags and manbags, as well as skate-cool trainers and gifts. Cheap it ain’t, but you pay for your street cred.
Totty Rocks 40 Victoria Street, EH1 2JW, tottyrocks.com, 0131 226 3232.
Totty Rocks is the main outlet of the clothing label of the same name, set up by two lecturers from the Edinburgh College of Art’s fashion course. Young, fresh and seriously gorgeous girl-fashion at prices that’ll make you think twice before drinking your wages away. They also stock other Scottish labels such as Bebaroque hoisery.
Transreal Fiction 46 Candlemaker Row, EH1 2QE, transreal.co.uk, 0131 226 6266.
Quirky bookshop specialising in science fiction, speculative fiction, sci-fi and fantasy titles.
Underground Solu’shn 9 Cockburn Street, EH1 1BP, undergroundsolushn.com, 0131 226 2242.
Keeping Cockburn Street’s bass a-thumping, this hip wee store peddles electronic, techno, disco and more to most of the city’s serious DJs. Also great on audio and DJing equipment and off-beat gifts. For DJs. That’s okay. DJs need gifts too.
Unknown Pleasures 110 Canongate, EH8 8DD, facebook.com/ vinylnetuk, 0131 652 3537.
Unknown Pleasures has stacks of sensibly priced musical stock from a commendable array of genres, and surely few emotions match the buzz of leafing through tidy files of 45s only to be ushered over to examine some under-the-counter northern soul.
EATING Opening times can change during the festival. For more great ideas on where to eat and drink, visit food.list.co.uk or pick up a copy of The List Eating and Drinking Guide 2013.
MORNING Brew Lab CAFÉS/COFFEE BARS 8 South College Street, EH8 9AA, 0131 662 8963, brewlabcoffee.co.uk | Mon–Fri 8am–6pm; Sat/Sun 9am–6pm. £8 (lunch)
With its polished, urban-decay styling this is a favoured hangout for MacBook-wielding hipsters and getting a seat can at times seem nigh-on impossible. Very good coffee is made with beans from some of the UK’s top roasters and using a variety of brewing techniques. Quality sourcing continues with Lovecrumbs cakes and hot chocolate from Edinburgh chocolatiers Edward & Irwyn. Lunchtime features a short, changing list of sandwiches based around excellent French bread and a couple of well-made soups from Union of Genius.
City Art Centre Café CAFÉS/FESTIVAL VENUES City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, EH1 1DE, 0131 226 4965, edinburghmuseums.org.uk | Mon–Fri 8.30am–3.30pm; Sat 9.30am–3.30pm; Sun noon–3.30pm. £10 (lunch)
Catering to a varied crowd of gallery visitors, regulars and passing trade – after all, it
is handily placed opposite an entrance to Waverley Station – the breakfast menu here tempts with bacon rolls and veggie baps. Lunch offers tasty salads changing on a daily basis while portions of the tart of the day are generous and feature such pleasing combinations as salmon with cherry tomato, spring onion, capers, fennel and anchovy. The café has a spacious dining area and is very accommodating to those with wee ones.
Edinburgh Larder Café CAFÉS 5 Blackfriars Street, EH1 1NB, 0131 556 6922, edinburghlarder.co.uk | Mon–Sun 8am–4pm. £6.50 (set lunch)
Featuring a veritable Who’s Who of top-quality Scottish producers including meat from Peelham, salad and vegetables from Phantassie and bread from Au Gourmand, the simple dishes on offer here can rely on the quality of ingredients to ensure their success. A small selection of well-made cakes complements the soups, sandwiches and platters, as well as loose-leaf teas. The open-plan kitchen and bright lighting help open up the small space, which is tightly packed with tables and frequently busy.
Hotel du Vin BISTROS & BRASSERIES 1 Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ, 0131 247 4900, hotelduvin.com | Mon–Fri 7–10am, noon–2.30pm, 5.30–10.30pm; Sat 8–11am, noon–2.30pm, 5.30– 10.30pm; Sun 8–11am, 12.30–3pm, 5.30–10.30pm. £24 (lunch) / £24 (dinner)
Leave the hectic churn of Bristo Place and move though the unexpected courtyard calm – prepped for outdoor diners when the weather is kind – and you’ll find HdV’s dining spaces, wooden and airy with rough stone walls, feel immediately relaxing, if slightly orchestrated. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the menu and wine list are substantial but not overwhelming, featuring tender devilled kidneys, delicate Sole Veronique draped in classic creamy grape sauce, and tender apple tarte tartin.
Hula Juice Bar and Gallery CAFÉS 103–105 West Bow, EH1 2JP, 0131 220 1121, hulajuicebar.co.uk | Mon–Sun 8am–10pm. £5.50 (set lunch)
Skilfully combining healthy with tasty, it is unsurprising that this juice bar is frequently packed out. Soups, wraps and salads taste good, with classic combinations such as pesto and sundried tomato, and vibrant flavours. Juices, smoothies and frozen-yoghurt-based milkshakes feel deliciously virtuous even when being drunk to undo the damage from the night before. There are gluten- and dairy-free options among the cakes, and well-trained baristas serving Artisan Roast coffee.
Locanda Marina ITALIAN 1 Cockburn Street, EH1 1BS, 0131 622 7447, facebook.com/locandamarina | Mon–Sat 8am–10pm; Sun 9.30am–10pm. £9 (lunch) / £12 (dinner)
The refurbished and reinvented version of Café Marina, a wee venue of integrity and above-average food that’s fondly held by many who live, work and frequent the tourist-filled streets around the Royal Mile. The new look is clean and contemporary, while the menu has expanded to reflect the extended opening times, with good coffee, pastries and lunchtime panini now joined by a wider array of nibbles, snacks and mains including spezzatino (Italian stew), well-judged salads and a daily pasta special.
St Giles’ Cathedral Café CAFÉS/ARTS VENUES & ATTRACTIONS St Giles’ Cathedral, High Street, EH1 1RE, 0131 225 5147, glenfinlas.com | Mon–Sat 9am–4pm; Sun 11am–5pm. £9 (lunch)
Even when it’s busy, this café situated below the cathedral can feel like a tranquil escape from the Royal Mile with its small, keyhole-like windows and serene atmosphere. The menu offers breakfast rolls, soups, hot dishes, platters, deli sandwiches and the café’s signature stovies. One trusty option is the ploughman’s sandwich on toasted bread with honeyed ham, melted cheese and crisp slices of apple. Sweet options include scones, fruit tarts, shortbread and various tray bakes.
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NOON The Baked Potato Shop VEGETARIAN TAKEAWAY 6 Cockburn Street, EH1 1PB, 0131 225 7572 | Mon–Sun 9am–8pm. £7 (lunch/dinner)
The straightforward but successful formula here is crispy-skinned, fluffy-centred tatties plus a cabinet of fresh, multi-coloured salads. Servings come in small, medium or large, but the small will satisfy all but the dangerously famished. It’s then a choice between the likes of spicy veg curry, Macsween’s haggis, curried wild rice with mango chutney or homemade hummus. Entirely veggie and vegan, tiffin and cakes are made on site, including a warming, seedpacked carrot cake, and they’re known for their excellent veggie samosas.
Beirut MIDDLE EAST 4 Nicolson Square, EH8 9BU, 0131 667 9919, beirutrestaurant.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–11pm. £6.50 (set lunch) / £15 (dinner)
Edinburgh’s original Lebanese restaurant, Beirut’s keen pricing and BYOB make it an attractive option at lunchtime or evening. Starters might include hummus, tabbouleh or homemade labneh: a creamy and refreshing strained yoghurt with olive oil and herbs. For mains, there’s marinated sharwarma meats, moussaka or sweetly seasoned lamb kofte. Charismatic owner Ahmed Saadi can often be found working the floor, checking in with diners and presiding over some of the most efficient and charming service in town.
Bonsai Bar Bistro JAPANESE 6 West Richmond Street, EH8 9DZ, 0131 668 3847, bonsaibarbistro.co.uk | Mon–Thu noon–10pm; Fri/Sat noon–10.30pm; Sun noon– 9.30pm. £4.90 (set lunch) / £14 (dinner)
Providing a clear rebuttal to the notion that Japanese cuisine in the UK is expensive and exclusive, Bonsai’s welcoming atmosphere and wide-ranging menu offers something for every taste. Cheap lunch deals and bento boxes ensure a buzz as customers pack in for takoyaki (light octopus dumplings), gaijin zushi (large, inside-out sushi rolls) and tempura prawns. Vegetarians are also well catered for, while non-beer drinkers can opt for a plum wine or a refreshing Japanese cocktail made before your eyes. Also at 14 Broughton Street.
Cafe Hub CAFÉS/FESTIVAL VENUES Castlehill, Royal Mile, EH1 2NE, 0131 473 2067, thehub-edinburgh.com | Mon–Sun 10am–5pm. £6 (set lunch)
Sitting atop the Royal Mile, alongside the International Festival box office, Cafe Hub comes into its own in August with a large outdoor terrace and spacious, cheery and child-friendly interior. Their ‘hub-made’ food has baked potatoes and sandwiches, as well as more interesting specials such as a daily changing pie – pork, sweet potato and cheese is a nice mix between sweet and savoury.
Café Lucia
Howies
CAFÉS/FESTIVAL VENUES Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street, EH8 9FT, 0131 667 2765, festivaltheatre. org.uk | Mon–Fri noon–2.30pm. Sat noon–2pm. Closed Sun. £11 (lunch)
SCOTTISH 10–14 Victoria Street, EH1 2HG, 0131 225 1721, howies.uk.com | Mon–Fri noon–3pm, 5.30–10pm; Sat/Sun noon–10.30pm. £9.95 (set lunch) / £21 (dinner)
Long windows provide ample people-watching opportunities and the cheerful apple-red interior makes it a pleasant spot amid the Festival comings and goings. The menu features options of soups, sandwiches and filled baked potatoes along with omelettes made to order and a quartet of ‘croque’ sandwiches: monsieur, madame, Norwegian and vegetarian. Compared to the range of savoury options, treats and tray bakes seem like an afterthought, but a coffee and walnut cake is full of nutty flavour.
Dovecot Café by Stag Espresso CAFÉS/FESTIVAL VENUES Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, EH1 1LT, StagEspresso.com | Mon–Fri 8am–5pm; Sat 10am–5pm. Closed Sun. £ (lunch)
In 2012 Howies was bought back by the original owners keen to show that the original ideas and standards are back in operation: simple cooking of seasonal produce in a bistro-style interior. Casserole of the day might be beef and Guinness, elevated by the addition of sweet apricots and spicy black pudding, while a honeyed warm chicken salad has crispy pancetta and toasted pine nuts. The informal setting keeps it popular, as do the lunch and dinner deals.
The Mosque Kitchen INDIAN 31–33 Nicolson Square, EH8 9BX, 0131 667 4035, mosquekitchen.com | Mon–Sun 11.30am–10pm (Fri closed 12.50–1.50pm). £7 (lunch/dinner)
The bright, welcoming café within the Dovecot tapestry exhibition space is a happy discovery, well worth seeking out for its concise menu of interesting soups and sandwiches, bolstered by salads of feta, beetroot and edamame beans or falafel with shredded veg. There are always plenty of veggie choices and, with a tempting display of cakes and tray bakes on the counter, this is a great spot to linger with a coffee of an afternoon, but equally a place for a quick bite of lunch, as service is slick and quick.
With its simple philosophy of providing plentiful, rib-sticking dishes at low, low prices, the diverse clientele of students, locals and tourists lend this place a collegiate air. Those prices, though, require some sacrifices to be made, and this is immediately evident in the school canteen set-up and the limited choice of dishes. Of the two chicken curries on offer, the jalfrezi is definitely the winner, out-spicing the milder alternative and packing a satisfyingly sharp punch. Both are studded with large chunks of meat, and joined by a generous accompaniment of rice.
The Fruitmarket Gallery Café
The Outsider
CAFÉS/ARTS VENUES & ATTRACTIONS Fruitmarket Gallery, 45 Market Street, EH1 1DF, 0131 226 1843, fruitmarket.co.uk | Mon–Sat 11am–4.30pm; Sun noon–4.30pm. [Coffee & cakes: Mon–Sat 11am–5.30pm; Sun noon–4pm]. £13 (lunch)
BISTROS & BRASSERIES 15/16 George IV Bridge, EH1 1EE, 0131 226 3131 | Mon–Sun noon–11pm. £12.50 (lunch) / £20 (dinner)
The Fruitmarket Gallery is a well-regarded contemporary art venue incorporating a popular café and a terrific bookshop. The inventive menu in the café caters for all appetites and dietary preferences, while the counter of homemade sweet treats is a beauty. The blackboard of daily specials might include a stunning puff pastry tartlet of field mushrooms with pea and mint purée on carrot and turnip mash, perhaps followed by a huge slice of courgette, cranberry and pistachio cake.
An exercise in sleek, functional mid-century modernism, the Outsider’s combination of whitewashed walls, wood, glass and metal have proven perennially popular with Edinburgh’s trendier denizens. The efforts of the kitchen to craft and adapt dishes to suit the vagaries of
the British food calendar, rather than the other way round, mean that the food on your plate shouldn’t jar too much with what’s going on outside. Service has been known to fray round the edges during busier spells, but a healthy assortment of wines (and the notoriously droll descriptions that accompany them) should ensure any additional wait you might encounter passes largely unnoticed.
Porto & Fi on the Mound BISTROS & BRASSERIES 9 North Bank Street, EH1 2LP, 0131 225 9494, portofi.com | Mon–Sat 10am–9.30pm; Sun 10am–5.30pm. £17 (lunch/dinner)
From this buzzing branch of the original Newhaven café, all of New Town is laid beneath you. A fresh, family-friendly vibe and unpretentious, well-cooked menu has generously sized starters that work well as light lunches: the sticky pork ribs are fantastic, as is wonderfully moist pheasant on creamy cabbage. Just far enough away from the Royal Mile, it has a neighbourhood feel that belies the city-centre location, segueing seamlessly from breakfast to dinner via tea and cake.
Spoon BISTROS & BRASSERIES 6a Nicolson Street, EH8 9DH, 0131 623 1752, spoonedinburgh.co.uk | Mon–Sat 10am–10pm; Sun noon–5pm. £14 (lunch) / £22 (dinner)
Rocking the boho bedsit chic, with elegantly mismatched retro furniture, lampshades and crockery, this is one Spoon that’s unquestionably more loving than greasy. The menu’s packed with wholesome, healthy options: unpretentious food you wish you were cooking at home composed of honest flavours, vibrant colours and quality produce, prepared with enough sense of poise to suggest some real skill resides in the kitchen. Smoked salmon mousse is somehow both rustic and refined, rough around the edges but delicately flavoured. Venison loin with savoy cabbage, parsnip crisps and a blissful carrot puree is simple, straightforward and delightful.
Hemma BARS & PUBS 5 Holyrood Road, EH8 8AE, 0131 629 3327, bodabar.com | Mon–Sun 11am–10pm. £6 (lunch) / £12 (dinner)
Meaning ‘home’ in Swedish, Hemma is the latest of a string of Scandinavian style bars in Edinburgh. And with its soft furnishings and quirky interiors, it does indeed have a laidback, homely atmosphere. Staples such as meatballs and marinated herring are joined by a ‘Sharing is Caring’ platter with chicken, hot chorizo and butter beans accompanied by homemade tzatziki and bread from the nearby Manna House bakery. The cocktail menu is full of fun with some marvellously unusual flavour combinations, such as wild tea, vodka and cranberry.
VOEFS OFX NBOBHNFOU For the finest Indian Curry and Sea Food Cuisine BYOB and Fully licensed bar Ideally located for the festival Takeaway also available Open 7 days 12 noon - 11pm 11 South College Street Edinburgh EH8 9AA 0131 667 1597 www.saffrani.co.uk
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The Storytelling Café CAFÉS/ARTS VENUES & ATTRACTIONS Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43 High Street, EH1 1SR, 0131 556 1229, scottishstorytellingcentre. co.uk | Mon–Sat 10am–5pm. Jul–Sep: Sun noon–5pm. Oct–Jun: Closed Sun. £10 (lunch)
The activity around the multi-genre Storytelling Centre peaks during Festival time, a true test of the robustness of the open-plan café with its sturdy wooden tables and chairs. They’re pretty adept at coping: alongside a kids’ menu and a changing daily special, the menu features mainly cold dishes such as salads, deli sandwiches and a few mezze platters. On-premises baking means a wide selection of tarts, brownies and biscuits complemented by a strong Americano.
10 to 10 In Delhi INDIAN CAFÉ 67 Nicolson Street, EH8 9BZ, 07536 757770, 10to10indelhi.com | Mon–Sun 10am–10pm. £5.95 (set lunch) / £6 (dinner)
Busy with warm decoration and friendly staff, a quick glance at the menu confirms a no-nonsense commitment to good value, with the menu’s most expensive individual dish (a platter featuring samosa, pakora, naan bread, two curries, cous cous and salad) available for less than £6. At lunchtimes, a ‘roti roll’ is served with salad for under £3. Far from cheap and cheerful, the curries are accomplished with fresh herbs and spices well handled by a chef with a keen understanding of flavour combinations. The café also excels in desserts.
Tower Restaurant SCOTTISH National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, EH1 1JF, 0131 225 3003, tower-restaurant.com | Mon–Sun noon–11pm. £15.95 (set lunch) / £32 (dinner)
Drag your eyes away from the view outside of the city in all its stony beauty and there’s a whole landscape of well-sourced Scottish produce on the menu: hand-dived scallops, oysters, lobster, beef, heritage potatoes. Fillet
of sea bass arrives well seared, its crispness contrasted with cauliflower puree and black truffle butter sauce. There’s good news if you like your sticky toffee pudding modishly ‘deconstructed’, whereas dense chocolate and cherry delice, topped with soft meringue, is a less flashy option (unlike the £300 Cristal champagne on the wine list).
Union of Genius CAFÉS: WEE PLACES 8 Forrest Road, EH1 2QN, 0131 226 4436, unionofgenius.com | Mon–Fri 9am–4pm. Closed Sat/Sun. £4.20 (lunch)
Despite its tiny size, revolutionary soup café Union of Genius is a big presence on Edinburgh’s food scene. Their fast-food approach to soups is perfectly customer friendly, with a choice of six daily concoctions (for example a traditional cream of leek and potato or a warming Scots-Mediterranean chorizo, black pudding and white bean broth). Deft local sourcing (for example hot chocolate from Chocolate Tree and Coco and glutenfree cakes from Love Pure) includes fully compostable packaging from Vegware.
Wedgwood the Restaurant SCOTTISH 67 Canongate, EH8 8BQ, 0131 558 8737, wedgwoodtherestaurant.co.uk | Mon–Sat noon–3pm, 6–10pm; Sun 12.30–3pm, 6–10pm. £12 (set lunch) / £29 (dinner)
A beacon on the Royal Mile, Paul Wedgwood’s exciting menu offers unusual twists on seasonal Scottish produce as well as a keenly priced lunch offer. Wild Scottish deer, served pink, has a real depth of flavour and comes with a tasty venison haggis. Foraged leaves and herbs, many found within the city, are a real passion, along with sustainably sourced seafood. Desserts range from the inventive parsnip crème brûlée with thyme ice-cream (it works!) to probably the best sticky toffee pudding in the city.
NIGHT Angels With Bagpipes SCOTTISH 43 High Street, EH1 1PW, 0131 220 1111, angelswithbagpipes.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–10pm. £12.95 (set lunch) / £27 (dinner)
Great brunch, lunch, smörgåsbord platters, dinners and last but not least cakes. A family friendly haven by day and a party place by night. Well chosen draughts on tap and an extensive fun & flirty cocktail list.
In its prime spot opposite St Giles Cathedral, this restaurant has a compact upstairs area with a pretty Edinburgh street view plus extra room on the lower floor to accommodate larger groups, passing tourists and some local diners. Beef tartare is a highlight, as is the perfectly cooked Highland lamb, served with pearl barley, carrots, sweetbread and kale. Chocolate ganache with marzipan ice-cream, popcorn and candied nuts is an explosion of rich textures and sweetness while a deconstructed cranachan – Glenmorangie parfait, raspberry crumble, oatmeal marshmallow and raspberry jelly – is a radical departure from the traditional recipe.
B’est FRENCH 16 Drummond Street, EH8 9TX, 0131 556 4448, best-restaurant.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–2.45pm, 5–10pm. £7.90 (set lunch) / £16 (dinner)
Paintings of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe and stencilled words en Français say ‘this is a French bistro’, although the food falls on the Scottish side of the Auld Alliance, with some tourist favourites thrown in. To start, you could have a routine haggis, neeps and tatties tower or a fish and seafood gratin served retro-style in a scallop shell and minus much seafood. To finish, fill up on a chocolate crêpe or cleanse the palate with simple sorbet. During the Festival, B’est hosts the ‘Fawlty Towers Experience’: make your booking carefully.
Blackfriars
Open: Sun-Thurs 11am-12pm & Fri-Sat 11am -1am Tunbuilding, 75 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh hemma@bodabar.com 0131 629 33 27
BISTROS & BRASSERIES 57–61 Blackfriars Street, EH1 1NB, 0131 558 8684, blackfriarsedinburgh.co.uk | Wed–Sun 6–10pm (Bar: Tue–Fri 4–10pm; Sat noon–10pm; Sun 12.30–10pm). Closed Mon. £12 (lunch) / £23 (dinner)
Chef Andrew Macdonald is an example of a notable movement in Edinburgh’s food and drink scene. With experience in progressive establishments around town, including a spell as sous chef to Martin Wishart, he’s now setting up in his own place determined to
make a good standard of food and cooking available in simpler, more casual environments. Stripped-back to old-school simplicity, it’s clear that some of the arty hipness of the former Black Bo’s bar and restaurant remains. As for the food, gone are the veggie-only Black Bo’s days with ribeye, chips and proper bearnaise sauce on Blackfriars’ menu alongside roast pork and fish. Most engaging of all is the cultured bar menu featuring spiced beef roll, sprouting broccoli with goat’s curd, sardines and homemade pork pies.
Cucina ITALIAN Hotel Missoni, 1 George IV Bridge, EH1 1AD, 0131 240 1666, hotelmissoni.com | Mon–Thu 6.30– 10am, 12.30–3pm, 6–10.30pm; Fri 6.30–10am, 12.30–3pm, 6–11pm; Sat 7–11am, 12.30–3pm, 6–11pm; Sun 7–11am, 12.30–3pm, 6–10.30pm. £14.95 (set lunch) / £28 (dinner)
From the moment you pass through the chic bar en route to the restaurant upstairs, your senses will be assailed by a riot of colour, rich flavours and music shared with the rest of the building. Trendily clad waiters buzz around, theatrically explaining the provenance of the olive oil, topping up wine glasses with a flourish, and delivering imaginative dishes. Pasta and risotto dishes join mains including tender duck breast with pearl barley and a rich jus, or monkfish with a hint of mustard in the accompanying sauce.
David Bann VEGETARIAN 56–58 St Mary’s Street, EH1 1SX, 0131 556 5888, davidbann.com | Mon–Thu noon–10pm; Fri noon–10.30pm; Sat 11am–10.30pm; Sun 11am–10pm. £18 (lunch/dinner)
As relaxing as its romantic aubergine tones and colour-blocked walls are, diners could be excused for finding a meal at David Bann a tad confusing: imaginative and elegant starters and desserts bookend more sustaining, traditional mains on the menu. Prices are an unexpected treat if you assume they’ll match the fine-dining décor vibe: mains hover just above a tenner. The menu makes inventive use of worldwide flavours alongside European classics: best of the mains is a fluffy, vibrant pink Dunsyre Blue cheese and beetroot pudding.
La Garrigue FRENCH 31 Jeffrey Street, EH1 1DH, 0131 557 3032, lagarrigue.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–2.30pm, 6.30–9.30pm. £12.50 (set lunch) / £25 (dinner)
While the setting is straightforward and unfussy, Jean Michel Gauffre’s proud paean to the cuisine of his native Languedoc poses selection problems. You can’t have it all, so plump for an as-it-should-be fish soup or a blue cheese soufflé which will be forever impossible to recreate at home. Then beef cheek in a reduction oh-so rich, served with parsnip puree and signed off with a scallop-esque marrowbone croquette. Or try roast rabbit enrobing a liver and walnut stuffing like the richest of pâté, served with crunchy salsify. Finish, in quite some style, with the hot sweet soufflé of the day.
The Grain Store SCOTTISH 30 Victoria Street, EH1 2JW, 0131 225 7635, grainstore-restaurant.co.uk | Mon–Thu noon–2pm, 6–10pm; Fri noon–2pm, 6–11pm; Sat noon–3pm, 6–11pm; Sun noon–3pm, 6–10pm. £12.50 (set lunch) / £32 (dinner)
Given its location at the heart of the cobbled Old Town, the Grain Store could be forgiven for just catering to jolly groups, first-time visitors and couples more interested in romance than cuisine. That they do this, but also care enough to interest Edinburgh’s increasingly discerning gastronomes, says a lot about this assured old timer. Aberdeen Angus ribeye comes not as a single cut, but as perfectly cooked hulks spiked up by ox tongue in a sumptuously rich stew. The dessert highlight is a decadent bakewell tart served with a hearty dollop of clotted cream.
Hanam’s KURDISH 3 Johnston Terrace, EH1 2PW, 0131 225 1329, hanams.com | Mon–Sun noon–11pm. £9.95 (set lunch) / £19 (dinner)
Warm and inviting with just enough tapestries, lanterns and Kurdish knick-knacks to set the right tone, the menu here is packed full of Middle Eastern promise, with traditional mix and match mezze plates supporting a number of standout mains such as lamb tashreeb drenched in aubergine and pepper shilla sauce, or shish kebabs with a pleasing barbecue char and a tongue-tingling chilli sauce. Lunch and banquet deals are good value, there’s no-charge BYOB, and when the weather obliges there’s a sunny aspect terrace ideal for a sociable shisha pipe or a cup of cardamom tea.
Michael Neave Kitchen & Whisky Bar SCOTTISH 21 Old Fishmarket Close, EH1 1RW, 0131 226 4747, michaelneave.com | Tue–Fri noon–2.30pm, 5.30– 10pm. Sat noon–3.30pm, 5.30–10pm. Closed Sun/Mon. £11.95 (set lunch) / £22 (dinner)
Young chef Michael Neave boldly opened his eponymous restaurant just off the Royal Mile in 2012, showing off cooking skills: smoked salmon mousse comes with beetroot coulis, served like an elegant toasted club sandwich, and Perthshire roe deer arrives laced with carrot and lavender puree with an Auchentoshan whisky sauce. There is a whisky bar upstairs complete with some rare single malt expressions, and the mixologist does a decent cocktail – Islay’s smooth Botanist gin is the star when infused with lemon and blackberry liqueur.
Monteiths BISTROS & BRASSERIES 57–61 High Street, EH1 1SR, 0131 557 0330, monteithsrestaurant.co.uk | Mon–Fri 5–10.30pm; Sat/Sun noon–10.30pm. £27 (lunch) / £32 (dinner)
Step under the twinkling canopy of the narrow close and the small, charming details set Monteiths apart. It embraces its historic setting, where the rough stone walls are subtly lit and gentle tartan softens the room. The menu continues this inviting tone, enjoying Scotland’s larder: light, sizzling whitebait arrives in a small metal pail with mason-jarred, piquant tartare sauce, while sweet pink rack of lamb shelters in the mild nutty coating of its pistachio crust.
Mother India’s Café INDIAN 3–5 Infirmary Street, EH1 1LT, 0131 524 9801, motherindiascafeedinburgh.co.uk | Mon–Wed noon–2pm, 5–10.30pm; Thu noon–10.30pm; Fri/ Sat noon–11pm; Sun noon–10pm. £15 (lunch/ dinner)
Something of a Glasgow stalwart, the Edinburgh branch of Mother India’s Cafe has replicated the popularity of its western sibling. Serving up Indian food in tapas-sized portions ensures the restaurant maintains a buzzing social feel. It is commonplace to mix old favourites (the chicken tikka is richly spiced, served with salad and coriander chutney) with more adventurous choices. Unfortunately, the tapas concept means table sizes – particularly for parties of two – are pushed to their full capacity.
Nanyang Malaysian Cuisine MALAYSIAN Unit 1, 3–5 Lister Square, South Pavilion, Quartermile, EH3 9GL, 0131 629 1797, nanyangrestaurant.com/ £9.45 (set lunch) / £16 (dinner)
Among the great glass towers of the Quartermile, May Lin’s cooking is assured and delicious, showing off all the Malaysian favourites: sambal, rendang, laksa and a good selection of hawker street-market food. From this, the famous Char Kway Teow is a smoky jumble of wok-charred noodles, beansprouts and juicy prawns, while a more genteel Nyonya dish of Capitan chicken is a sophisticated act balancing sweet coconut with sour tamarind.
Ondine FISH 2 George IV Bridge, EH1 1AD, 0131 226 1888, ondinerestaurant.co.uk | Mon–Sat noon–3pm, 5.30–10pm. Closed Sun. £18 (set lunch) / £33 (dinner)
Ondine feels like one of those places where good things happen. It’s glamorous, sparkly and fun. Start with oysters: choose from four varieties, including natives, all super-fresh,
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immaculately sourced and knowledgeably introduced by the staff. Shellfish lovers will find it hard to resist one of two platters, the roast option a mound of crab, langoustines, clams, one fabulous scallop that you never want to stop eating, and spoots – admittedly an acquired taste, but if you don’t acquire it here you won’t ever.
but this is somewhere to come for a good drink rather than to get raucously drunk.
Ecco Vino 19 Cockburn Street, EH1 1BP, 0131 225 1441 | Mon–Thu 8am–11pm; Fri/Sat 8am–midnight; Sun 8am–11pm. £7.50 (set lunch) / £16 (dinner)
There may be an Italian focus to the wine list here but it also features choices from around the world, with 30 or so available by the glass and fair pricing throughout. With a good selection of olives, ham and local cheese, you could also have a go at putting your own impromptu tasting together.
Petit Paris FRENCH 38–40 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU, 0131 226 2442, petitparis-restaurant.co.uk | Sun–Thu noon–3pm, 5.30–10.30pm; Fri/Sat noon–11pm. £11.90 (set lunch) / £20 (dinner)
Rewards abound here for the lover of French classic dishes: fat snails in garlic, herbs and buttery breadcrumbs, or stew, a delicious boeuf bourguignon steeped in red wine with hunks of bacon, potato and carrots. Take advantage of the good-value lunch and pre-theatre deals, or sit at one of the outside tables. Close your eyes, and you could just about be in Paris.
Saffrani INDIAN 11 South College Street, EH8 9AA, 0131 667 1597, saffrani.co.uk/ | Mon–Sun noon–11pm. £5.90 (set lunch) / £16 (dinner)
This small restaurant tucked away off Nicolson Street offers an extensive list of curries from a variety of Indian regions. To start, chicken chat is a substantial dish of spicy marinated chicken pieces with puffed-up puri bread to scoop it up with, and tandoori lamb chops are sufficiently charred but still tender. King prawn makhari is one of the milder options, with a creamy tomato base flavoured with fenugreek, while the lamb rogan josh is rich and heavy with chilli and coriander.
Thai Orchid THAI 5A Johnston Terrace, EH1 2PW, 0131 225 6633, thaiorchid.uk.com | Mon–Sun noon–10.45pm. £8.95 (set lunch) / £19 (dinner)
Aside from its unassuming decor, the laughing Buddhas and bamboo screens that seem rather kitsch, everything else about this operation is as polished as you could ask for. Sue rong hai, or ‘Tiger Cry’, is searingly hot, with thin slices of Scottish sirloin beef marinated in mint, coriander, lime and handfuls of chilli. Flash fried and paired with coconut rice, they are fiery and fantastic. Pad cha pal is similarly spicy, with large hunks of monkfish in fresh ginger and green peppercorn sauce.
DRINKS Barioja 15–19 Jeffrey Street, EH1 1DR, 0131 557 3622, barioja.co.uk | Mon–Sat 11am–1am; Sun noon–1am (food till 10pm). £10 (set lunch) / £17 (dinner)
With its smart interior featuring a well-stocked bar and comfortable leather benches, Barioja, right next door to sister Spanish restaurant Iggs, distinguishes itself from its more mature, refined sibling by offering a wide selection of classic tapas in a laidback atmosphere. Fast approaching its 15th anniversary, Barioja is well established and serves up satisfying appetisers and more substantial dishes, such as a generous platter of Spanish cheeses or crispy patatas bravas in spicy tomato sauce.
The Bow Bar 80 West Bow, Victoria Street, EH1 2HH, 0131 226 7667 | Mon–Sat noon–midnight; Sun noon–11pm.
There is no TV or music here, and only two wines are available: one red and one white. What there is, however, is a selection of over 230 malts, plus eight cask and five keg beers, 40 or so bottled beers from around the world and about 20 different gins. Fresh pies come from Findlays of Portobello and, at lunchtime, soup from the Grain Store restaurant across the road. It might not be fancy, but for a pint and a chat this is one of the city’s finest pubs.
BrewDog Edinburgh 143–145 Cowgate, EH1 1JS, 0131 220 6517, brewdog.com/bars/edinburgh | Mon–Sat noon–1am; Sun 12.30–1am (food till 10pm). £8 (lunch/dinner)
The industrial metal interior is suitably on trend for the Edinburgh outpost of this headline-grabbing brewery. Behind the proud proclamation of ‘no football, shots or Stella’
The Holyrood 9A 9a Holyrood Road, EH8 8AE, 0131 556 5044, fullerthomson.com | Mon–Thu 9am–midnight; Fri/Sat 9am–1am; Sun 9am–midnight. £13 (lunch/dinner)
LOCAL PRODUCE If you’re only staying in Edinburgh for a short while, you’ve got a limited amount of time to sample the local delicacies. Here are some of the best places to acquire a supply of Edinburgh’s flavours (and a box of shortbread for your gran)
BrewDog
0131 556 6922, edinburghlarder.co.uk
Edinburgh Farmers’ Market
Though it’s primarily an eat-in café, foodies looking for something beyond the traditional shortbread and tablet can find a small but impressive selection of gourmet Scottish products on sale around the deli counter, including Hebridean sea salt, Lothian rapeseed oil and Perthshire honey, as well as a range of intriguing bottled drinks from local suppliers. With any luck they’ll have a spot of venison salami in stock, too.
Castle Terrace, West End, 9am–2pm, every Saturday, edinburghfarmersmarket.co.uk
Peckham’s
143–145 Cowgate, Old Town, EH1 1JS, 0131 220 6517, brewdog.com
Here the plucky Aberdonian craft brewery sells a constantly evolving line-up direct from their own bar. Grab a ‘growler’ (a draught-poured two-pint carry out) of the uber-patriotic Dogma, their heather honeyinfused scotch ale, or knock your boots off with a bottle of Tokyo*, their 18.2% stout.
Freshly baked bread, smoked salmon, local meats and cheeses plus seasonal fruit and vegetables are all on offer every week.
Stockbridge Market Square near Saunders Street, Stockbridge, EH3 6TQ, 0131 551 5633, stockbridgemarket. com
If a bit of smoked salmon, handmade shortbread or stinky cheese is the order of the day, the wares of the varied local producers and sellers at this weekly market could be just the ticket. There’s artisan soap, jewellery and other handicrafts on offer, Sundays 10am–5pm (pictured above); stalls rotate so check the website to confirm who’ll be there each weekend.
Edinburgh Larder Café 15 Blackfriars Street, Old Town, EH1 1NB,
are 90 or so different bottled beers and 12 on draught, and not just their own BrewDog beers either: there’s an admirable selection of cult international, and increasingly local, craft beers. A short, regularly changing list of surprisingly good pizzas features quirky toppings such as nachos or pulled pork.
49 South Clerk Street, Southside, EH8 9NZ, 0131 668 3737, peckhams.co.uk
A healthy selection of the local ‘water of life’ (that’d be whisky) lines the shelves, along with a handful of Highland wines and mead. The delicatessen is also a happy home to all the other classic Scottish fare: from rhubarb jam and oatcakes to crowdie and haggis.
Real Foods 37 Broughton Street, EH1 3JU, 0131 557 1911 and 8 Brougham Street, West End, EH3 9JH, 0131 228 1201, realfoods.co.uk
A haven for health-conscious folk, where vegan and superfoods live alongside produce from the Scottish wilds (think blossom honey, local fruit and veg and the always trusty oat) made into delicious things like oat bars and oatcakes. (Jaclyn Arndt)
applies to the drinks, decor and general feel of the place. Kung fu stencilled walls and purple prints are enjoyably diverting rather than distractingly ironic, as is the hip-hop and dub soundtrack. Cocktails are generally imaginative, bold but well balanced. It may be just up the hill from the rowdy Grassmarket
A dark wood interior complete with silver deer heads creates a space on the comfortably stylish side of hipster, although its large size and popularity means it is frequently noisy. Beer and burgers are the main draw: 11 beers are permanently on draught and, combined with another 10 rotational pumps, the bar boasts one of Edinburgh’s best selections of modern craft beers. There is a similarly large selection of meaty burgers, with a choice of 10 different topping combinations served on wooden boards with skinny fries and coleslaw.
Malone’s Irish Bar 14 Forrest Road, EH1 2QN, malonesedinburgh. com | Sat–Mon noon–1am; Sun 12.30pm–1am. £10.50 (lunch/dinner)
Set in the capacious surroundings of the former Oddfellows Hall and decorated with furniture and antiques shipped over from the Emerald Isle, this is a place that does atmosphere, albeit green-tinged. They pack ’em in here on a regular basis, with regular live music, ceilidhs and large HD screens showing sports. A good-value food menu provides hearty portions of traditional pub fare, with a decent range of burgers and sandwiches served on large wooden boards contributing to the fanciful, rustic ambience.
Under the Stairs 3a Merchant Street, EH1 2QD, 0131 466 8550, underthestairs.org | Mon–Sun noon–midnight. £5.95 (set lunch) / £14.50 (dinner)
Nestled in a Merchant Street basement, this quirky venue boasts an eclectic menu of snacks and sharing platters, as well as an impressive selection of cocktails and an attractive wine list, almost all available by the glass.
Whiski Rooms 5, 6 & 7 North Bank Street, EH1 2LP, 0131 225 7224, whiskirooms.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–1am (food till 10pm). £9.95 (set lunch) / £22 (dinner)
A combination of bar, whisky shop and restaurant, the Whiski Rooms dedicates itself to Scotland’s food and drink headliners. Chunky steaks shine amongst the mains (order the hit of the Ardbeg sauce if you are brave), backed up by posh fish and chips or Macsween’s haggis. It’s by no means fine dining, but as honest, earthy and charming as the world-class whiskies that tempt all around.
Divino Enoteca BARS & PUBS 5 Merchant Street, EH1 2QD, 0131 225 1770, divinoedinburgh.com | Mon–Thu 4pm–midnight; Fri 4pm–1am; Sat noon–midnight (food till 11pm). Closed Sun. £20 (lunch/dinner)
Divino can fairly count as one of Edinburgh’s hidden gems. Set among the rather murky shadows off Candlemaker Row and under George IV Bridge, this is a surprisingly sophisticated, enchanting subterranean venue of rough-stone walls, clubby leather seats, tuckedaway spaces and lots – and lots – of top-notch Italian wine. Dozens of these are available from an Enomatic wine dispenser which keeps the wine of opened bottles in optimum condition under inert gas. As in the best Italian enotecas, there’s a selection of fine nibbles and light bites available.
Dragonfly 52 West Port, EH1 2LD, 0131 228 4543, dragonflycocktailbar.com | Mon–Sun 4pm–1am.
Dragonfly is stylishly relaxed with a kick of kitsch providing character – a description that
Specialists in Traditional Tandoori, Curries, Shish Kebab, Chicken Tikka & Biryani
Parties Catered For Q Phone Orders Welcome Edinburgh Evening News Scottish Curry Award 2009
www.kebabmahal.com
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NEW TOWN & STOCKBRIDGE Key venues: (1) Book Festival (2) The Traverse @ St Stephen’s (3) Assembly Rooms (4) Scottish National Gallery (5) Portrait Gallery (6) The Stand The New Town is the Old Town’s slightly more genteel northerly neighbour, with neat rows of grand Georgian buildings stretching along a well-designed grid network. Princes Street is Edinburgh’s main shopping boulevard, with all the big high street chains and department stores on one side and the lush Princes Street Gardens on the other, the castle looming above you all the while. George Street runs parallel and to the north, with a series of high-end stores and restaurants scattered all the way along and finishing up with Harvey Nichols at its eastern end. Turn down Rose Street, in between George Street and Princes Street, to find plenty of pubs nestling alongside an unlikely array of high-end modern and antique jewellery stores. Charlotte Square, at the west end of George Street, annually plays host to the Edinburgh International Book Festival during August. It’s a large and busy but neatly contained hub of all things literary (with a brilliant bookshop on site). More big venues are dotted further across the New Town with the Assembly Rooms just down the road, and The Stand Comedy Club on York Place (that’s on the next street over, to the north). The Stand is a proper comedy club all year round but comes into its own at festival time, with shows spilling out from its basement hub into the neighbouring buildings. It’s a place to
sample all kinds of acts, from relaxed improv groups to stand-up stars you’ll definitely have seen on one of those telly panel shows. The New Town is also where you should head if you’re an arty sort, with the Scottish National Gallery at the foot of the Mound halfway along Princes Street and the recently refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street. Head north and west, down the hill, and you’ll come to Stockbridge, a quiet, village-like area of Edinburgh, increasingly popular with affluent young professional types and families. It has more than its fair share of indie cafes, friendly pubs and independent shops, with a popular farmers’ market on Sundays. The bridge that gives the area its name stretches over the Water of Leith, the river that winds through the city with a green and pretty walkway alongside it, leading down into a valley filled with ancient water mills and the general architectural jumble of Dean Village (pictured right). If you find yourself needing a breather from all the festival craziness, take an afternoon to wander down the path and absorb some of Edinburgh’s hidden history in an oasis of calm. (Charlotte Runcie)
‘A GENTEEL NORTHERLY NEIGHBOUR’
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SHOPPING ALC 61 Thistle Street, EH2 1DY, alceshop.com, 0131 226 2317.
A relative newcomer to the Edinburgh fashion scene, ALC specialises in women’s jeans – but the hand-picked selection of styles also extends to smarter sorts of clothing and accessories. Brands include Hudson, Paige, DL1961, Dr Denim, NYDJ, Bleulab, Joes Jeans, Paul & Joe Sister, Twisted Muse and Rosemunde.
Bliss 5 Raeburn Place, EH4 1HU, facebook.com/ BlissBoutiqueStockbridge, 0131 332 4605
Pretty little shop filled with a range of cute and fun items for kids, including ethical kids’ fashion, and some crafts and homewares too.
Chic and Unique 8 Deanhaugh Street, EH4 1LY, vintagecostumejewellery.co.uk/shop, 0131 332 9889.
An independent fashion boutique situated in Stockbridge. Eden presents an exclusively different selection of designer womenswear, accessories and jewellery from Spain, Italy and beyond. Stockists of: Desigual, Hoss Intropia, Selected Femme, B Young, Anna Scott, Iconoclast, ZenSpirit and IndyWoman by Individual. Plus jewellery and accessories.
Harvey Nichols 30–34 St Andrew’s Square, EH2 2AD, harveynichols.com, 0131 524 8388.
The super-deluxe department store is a fitting addition to the chichi New Town, and there are certainly plenty of high-end fashion options to peruse, but the food hall on the top floor is probably the most fun place to browse. Who doesn’t like posh biscuits? Nobody, that’s who.
Joseph Bonnar 72 Thistle Street, EH2 1EN, josephbonnar.com, 0131 226 2811.
Dick’s Edinburgh
An Edinburgh institution, Joseph Bonnar’s jewellery shop is always worth ducking into: it’s a beautiful little Aladdin’s cave of treasures, and the go-to place for stylish Edinburgh celebrities looking for serious sparkle. There are some truly stunning antique pieces to marvel at, some that cost about as much as a main door flat in the New Town, but a good selection of more manageably priced pretties to tempt you, too.
3 North West Circus Place, EH3 6ST, dicksedinburgh.co.uk, 0131 226 6220.
Kiss the Fish Studios
Delve into Chic and Unique for a fistful of vintage costume jewellery by designers such as Dior and Haskell, dating from the 1820s through to the 1980s. Other vintage treats include handbags, perfume bottles and scarves, as well as colourful Venetian carnival masks.
Opened in October 2012, this small but carefully considered selection of menswear and homewares includes Made in Shetland knitwear, Dutch crockery, Austrian enamelware, chambray shirts from New England and leather brogues by Trickers. Browse the range online or head to their shop towards the Howe Street end of Stockbridge.
Ronde Bicycle Outfitters
9 Dean Park StreetStockbridge, EH4 1JN, kissthefishstudios.com.
Kiss the Fish is both a gift shop with all manner of crafty trinkets and treats on offer, and an arts and crafts studio holding regular workshops for children and adults alike.
Laurel Gallery 58 St Stephen Street,Stockbridge, EH3 5AL, laurelgallery.co.uk, 0131 226 5022.
Eden 18 North West Circus Place, EH3 6SX, edenretail. co.uk, 0131 225 5222.
Gallery shop with an eclectic selection of original art, crafts and painted furniture.
HARVEY NICHOLS F ORTH FLOOR ENJOY THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY EATING AND DRINKING IN EDINBURGH, WITH UNPARALLELED VIEWS OF THE CITY SKYLINE. The Forth Floor offers the ultimate dining experience, whether you opt for a gourmet dinner at the award-winning Restaurant, a casual lunch at the Brasserie or an evening enjoying cocktails at the Window Bar. For further details or to make a reservation please contact Forth Floor Reservations on 0131 524 8350 or email forthfloor.reservations@harveynichols.com 30–34 St Andrew Square Edinburgh, EH2 2AD
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Ronde Bicycle Outfitters 66–68 Hamilton Place, Stockbridge, EH3 5AZ, rondebike.com, 0131 260 9888.
Ronde is a bicycle shop that is also a fashion outfitter, gallery and café, bringing a touch of Copenhagen (or Hackney Wick) to Edinburgh. The back half of the café bit and the adjoining unit act as showroom for bikes and kit of breathtaking beauty, grace and (if you’re used to getting your bike from Halfords) price. Ronde claims to be ‘a place to meet, a place to think, and a place to share experience’, but whatever it is, it’s certainly a cool place to be seen at the moment.
VoxBox Music 21 St Stephen Street, EH3 5AN, voxboxmusic. co.uk, 0131 629 6775.
Opened in May 2011, this carefully curated record shop aims for a boutique feel, with a selection focused mainly on rock, jazz, blues and indie LPs and singles, almost all pre-owned vinyl, with some CDs and books. They’ve recently started promoting local bands and record labels with in-store performances and Record Store Day events.
ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH
EATING Opening times can change during the festival. For more great ideas on where to eat and drink, visit food.list.co.uk or pick up a copy of The List Eating and Drinking Guide 2013.
You’re hardly likely to be truly at a loss for things to do in Edinburgh during August. But while the city is masquerading as a cultural allyou-can-eat buffet, you may still find yourself all out of shows and at a loose end some Saturday morning. So why not (re)acquaint yourself with some of the big-hitting family-friendly attractions Edinburgh offers all year round?
Edinburgh Zoo Corstorphine Road, EH12 6TS, edinburghzoo.org.uk, 0131 334 9171. £16 (£13.50; under 16s £11.50; under 3s free). Daily 9am–6pm.
Always a good call, but those publicityfriendly, love-shy pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang are worth checking out (you may even get the dubious honour of bearing witness to the creation of a baby panda). Other animals are available, including koalas (pictured). Kids can indulge in a wealth of activities – watching the Penguin Parade with a cheeky ice cream ranks up there as one of the most pleasing ways to spend an afternoon.
Royal Botanic Garden Arboretum Place, EH3 5LR, rbge.org.uk, 0131 248 2909. Free; glasshouse entry £4.50 (£3.50; children £1; family £9). Daily 10am–6pm.
The bountiful gardens, spread over 70 acres, are best visited on those rare occasions when the planets align and Edinburgh is blessed with pleasant weather. They’re one of the world’s richest botanic gardens and leaders in plant science and education, and visitors can explore the exotic riches of the tropical glass houses or check out the John Hope Gateway information centre which offers interactive activities for adults and kids, with a green and eco-friendly focus.
Scottish Parliament Horse Wynd, EH99 1SP, scottish.parliament. uk, 0800 092 7500. Free. Opening times change according to whether parliament is in session; check website for details.
As the fires of the independence debate continue to smoulder, a visit to the Scottish Parliament may be in order to help you bone up on your knowledge of Scottish politics. The building’s innovative, but controversial, design echoes the natural formation of Arthur’s Seat which lies close by, just across Holyrood Park. As well as hourly guided tours most weekdays, you can also buy tickets to visit the debating chamber or attend a committee meeting, or explore the Parliament exhibition to learn more about how the whole thing works.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 5 Belford Road, EH4 3DR, nationalgalleries. org, 0131 624 6200. Free (charges apply for some exhibitions). Daily 10am–5pm.
Echoing Edinburgh’s ‘Athens of the North’ reputation, the gallery’s neoclassical décor is perfectly placed to house an eclectic and consistently interesting collection of modern art. This summer, there’s From Death to Death and Other Small Tales, which includes pieces from the D Daskalopolous collection (including Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte) and Witches and Wicked Bodies, a series of depictions of witchcraft.
Royal Yacht Britannia Second floor, Ocean Terminal, Leith, EH6 6JJ, royalyachtbritannia.co.uk, 0131 555 8800. £12 (£10.50; children £7.50; under 5s free; family £35). Jul–Sep daily 9.30am–4.30pm.
The award-winning attraction was home to the Queen and her family for more than 40 years and now you can follow in the footsteps of royalty and step aboard. The audio tour guides you from the fabulous state apartments and royal bedrooms to the sick bay and laundry rooms below deck, taking in some surprises along the way, including the Rolls Royce Phantom V which used to travel wherever the ship went. Plus, you can indulge a bit longer with afternoon tea in the Royal Deck Tea Room, just like Her Maj used to (probably).
Edinburgh Dungeon 31 Market Street, Old Town, EH1 1QB, thedungeons.com, 0131 240 1001. £10.95– £16.20 (£10.50–£15; children £9.50–£12; family £39–£49.20). Daily 10am–5pm (Sat 20 Jul–Sun 1 Sep 10am–7pm).
Only a little bit creepy and shot through with black humour, the Dungeon offers visitors a chance to navigate the seedier side of Edinburgh’s history, with the most interesting and gory tales told by actors who guide you through the underground warren. Take a boat ride to Sawney Bean’s cannibalistic lair or stand trial for dancing naked on Calton Hill – it’s educational for the kids with plenty of jokes for adults. (Kirstyn Smith)
MORNING Castello Coffee Co CAFÉS/COFFEE BARS 7 Castle Street, EH2 3AH, 0131 225 9780, castellocoffee.co.uk | Mon–Fri 7.30am–6pm; Sat 8.30am–6pm; Sun 10am–6pm. £7 (lunch)
This small establishment just a few paces from Princes Street sets great store by the quality of its Allpress Espresso coffee. And while that is its main selling point, there are also flavoured hot chocolates, bagels with a pizza filling or ‘pan banan’ – a croissant with a filling of sliced banana – from the daily changing menu that offers something a little different from the norm.
Earthy Canonmills BISTROS & BRASSERIES 4–6 Canonmills Bridge, EH3 5LF, 0131 556 9696, earthy.co.uk | Mon–Wed 9am–6pm; Thu–Sat 9am–5.30pm & 6.30–9.45pm; Sun 9am–5.30pm. £13 (lunch) / £21 (dinner)
Earthy: the name itself reeks of honest-togoodness wholesomeness and this charmingly decorated Canonmills restaurant certainly delivers on that promise. The provenance of the food embodies the name, with highquality produce throughout the appealing menu and individual suppliers thanked in person at the end. A deft hand in the kitchen turns all that worthiness into something more refined than your usual groovy café, however, with breakfasts, lunches and evening food standing out for inventiveness and colourful combinations.
Glass & Thompson CAFÉS 2 Dundas Street, EH3 6HZ, 0131 557 0909 | Mon–Sat 8.30am–5.30pm; Sun 10.30am–4.30pm. £5.45 (set lunch)
In the 18 years since Glass & Thompson opened, it has adapted to keep pace with Edinburgh’s evolving café landscape. Those taking time out from events at nearby art galleries or strolling down the hill from George Street to visit a place mentioned in the books of Alexander McCall Smith will find brunch and bacon rolls, a house sandwich of ham, gruyere and salad on sumptuous granary bread, quiches, salads and baguettes with imaginative fillings. Excellent coffee and cakes makes it a pleasant place to linger.
Pep & Fodder CAFÉS 1 1 Waterloo Place, EH1 3BG, 0131 556 5119 | Mon– Sun 7.30am–5pm. £5 (set lunch)
Wood, steel and shiny pistachio tiles frame some smartly presented food including freshly made sandwiches, proper panini, an attractive daily salad, pastries and loose-leaf tea. From 7.30am they run a compact menu of breakfast rolls, granola and porridge, while they
comfortably adopt the Sydney-San Francisco coffee ethic, with beans from Artisan Roast and a geeky approach to milk molecules.
The Scottish Café and Restaurant SCOTTISH/ARTS VENUES & ATTRACTIONS National Gallery of Scotland, The Mound, EH2 2EL, 0131 226 6524, thescottishcafeandrestaurant.com | Mon–Wed, Fri/Sat 9am–5.30pm; Thu 9am–7pm; Sun 10am–5.30pm. £16.95 (set lunch)
Enter the Scottish Café and Restaurant beneath the National Gallery of Scotland and you’re not going to be short of choice. For a start, are you just looking for a coffee, a snack or a lighter bite? If so, ask for the café menu. If you’re after something a bit more substantial, allow the warm, informal staff to guide you to the upper tables with their sweeping views of Princes Street Gardens. Then settle in for some brilliantly sourced and imaginatively prepared cuisine in a restaurant that cares way more than it needs to with produce and ingredients predominantly Scotland-sourced, including traditional Aberdeen butteries topped with Lanark blue cheese or Edinburgh-smoked bacon.
NOON Calistoga NORTH AMERICAN 70 Rose Street North Lane, EH2 3DX, 0131 225 1233, calistoga.co.uk | Mon–Sat noon–2.30pm, 5–10pm; Sun 12.30–2.30pm, 5–10pm. £12 (set lunch) / £22 (dinner)
Calistoga could be Edinburgh’s best restaurant for wine lovers, featuring one of the biggest selections of Californian wines in Europe and a mark-up policy that makes them affordable. Their Congressional Wine Tasting dinner offers excellent value and their menus fuse strong, modern Californian styles with Scottish ingredients to create dishes such as a tomatobased red mullet and mussel broth, braised lamb on a bed of root vegetable puree and redcurrant jus and a smooth cherry panna cotta.
Café Fish FISH 15 North West Circus Place, EH3 6SX, 0131 225 4431, cafefish.net | Tue–Thu noon–3pm, 5–9.30pm; Fri/Sat noon–9.30pm; Closed Sun/ Mon. £14 (lunch) / £25 (dinner)
As a general rule you can expect smoking and curing to feature heavily in the starters, where you’ll find a beautiful plate of rosy-pink trout scattered with fennel and super-sweet blood oranges. Mains always include signature fish and chips – a thick slab of pearly hake, visibly steaming when its light batter wrapper is sliced open. A light curry showcases prawns and monkfish, cleverly balancing flavours. Sourcing is taken seriously here, and it shows – and while not cheap, it’s good value, with quality running through every mouthful.
Café Portrait ARTS VENUES & ATTRACTIONS Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street, EH2 1JD, 0131 624 6200, heritageportfolio.co.uk | Fri–Wed 10am–4.30pm; Thu 10am–6.30pm. £10 (lunch)
Traditional and contemporary visions blend peacefully at the National Portrait Gallery’s ground-level cafe. Large windows and high spotlights illuminate portraits of cultural icons such as Alex Ferguson and John Byrne. Above the food and coffee bar are monitors displaying a rolling menu of soups, salads, sandwiches, main meals and abundant sweet treats, befitting a very pleasant venue where unique aesthetics and quality dishes gladden both the eyes and the stomach.
Centotre ITALIAN 103 George Street, EH2 3ES, 0131 225 1550, centotre.com | Mon–Thu 7.30am–10pm; Fri 7.30am–11pm; Sat 8am–11pm; Sun 9am–9pm. £14.95 (set lunch) / £20 (dinner)
There is a clear focus on the ingredients here: mozzarella, tomatoes and other delicacies are delivered from Italy once a week. Service starts with breakfast at 7.30am, where bacon rolls are a staple, and a good selection of sweet treats are available during the day for those who want to pop in for a good cup of coffee. At lunch and dinner antipasti plates are typical, but mains
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have real character: the contadino orecchiette with fennel-flavoured sausage and creamy mushrooms feels like it should be eaten on a hillside in Tuscany.
The Gardener’s Cottage
Cuckoo’s Bakery CAFÉS 150 Dundas Street, EH3 5DQ, 0131 556 6224, cuckoosbakery.co.uk/ | Tue–Thu 10am–5.30pm; Fri/Sat 10am–6pm; Sun 11am–5pm. Closed Mon. £9 (lunch)
As independent as they come, the quirky Cuckoo’s Bakery is on a roll, now supplying cakes to Waterstones. In the café itself, served on bespoke designer china, huge stuffed sandwiches are made fresh and with a steaming bowl of soup make for a hearty meal. But really this place is about cupcakes – perfect portions of iced design that sit in an antique haberdashery case.
Mussel Inn FISH 61–65 Rose Street, EH2 2NH, 0131 225 5979, mussel-inn.com | Mon–Thu noon–3pm, 5.30–10pm; Fri/Sat noon–10pm; Sun 12.30–10pm. £7.50 (set lunch) / £18 (dinner)
Mussels are the good guys of the fishieson-dishies world, being cheap, plentiful and sustainable as well as fun to eat. The Mussel Inn makes the most of this, with a casual walletand-stomach pleasing experience. Dive straight in with a kilo or half-kilo pot of the blue boys accompanied by one of seven different sauces and as much bread as you can manage. Daily changing specials change things up a bit, while brisk yet friendly service and affordable wine round off an enjoyable experience.
eteaket CAFÉS 41 Frederick Street, EH2 1EP, 0131 226 2982, eteaket.co.uk | Mon–Fri 9am–6pm; Sat 9am–6pm; Sun 11am–6pm. £10 (lunch)
Now supplying tea to leading restaurants in Edinburgh and London, Eteaket is a venue for afternoon tea, cocktail nights and tea-tasting evenings as well as all-day options based around a tea menu that includes the exotic Puerh Mini Tuo Cha and Jasmine Chun Hao, as well as more commonplace Scottish Breakfast and Earl Grey. Food is functional rather than spectacular: a tea and toast special is a popular way to start the day, and lunchtime brings offerings such as soup and a half sandwich or toasted croissants and ciabattas with various fillings.
Forth Floor Brasserie BISTROS & BRASSERIES Harvey Nichols, 30–34 St Andrew Square, EH2 2AD, 0131 524 8350, harveynichols.com | Mon 10am–5pm; Tue–Sat 10am–10pm; Sun 11am–5pm. £17 (lunch) / £20 (dinner)
The bar and bistro arm of department store Harvey Nichols is a predictably chic operation, bristling with shiny surfaces, subtle lighting and designer furniture. What makes the space particularly alluring, though, is one of the best skyline views in Edinburgh. Executive chef Stuart Muir has created modern and informal brasserie menus that work well for the ebb and flow of shoppers and diners arriving throughout the day. Expect an eclectic mix of options such as chicken liver parfait with toast and chutney, Asian pork belly salad or brisket and champ, alongside a seafood bar and tapas menu.
The Gardener’s Cottage SCOTTISH 1 Royal Terrace Gardens, EH7 5DX, 0131 558 1221, thegardenerscottage.co | Thu, Fri, Mon noon–2.30pm, 5–10pm; Sat/Sun 10am–2.30pm, 5–10pm. Closed Tue/Wed. £15 (lunch) / £30 (set dinner)
A venue that picked up The List Eating & Drinking Guide Newcomer Award in 2013, the Gardener’s Cottage transports you out of the city to a cosy cottage, with fairy lights in the bushes, a kitchen garden out front and a blackboard menu. There’s a heavy emphasis
The Pantry
on the daily specials (although dietary requirements are catered for) which feel as rustic as the setting and burst with superseasonal ingredients. Scottish cheeses feature heavily: crowdie is complemented by beetroot and a hazelnut and onion salad, and trendy Blue Monday is served with crumbly beremeal crackers and walnut spice.
The Gateway Restaurant ARTS VENUES & ATTRACTIONS John Hope Gateway Centre, Royal Botanic Garden, Arboretum Place, EH3 5LR, 0131 552 2674, gatewayrestaurant.net | Mon–Sun 10am–5.15pm. £13.95 (set lunch)
There’s a tranquil feel to the Gateway Restaurant located upstairs in the John Hope Gateway Centre, a biodiversity and information centre in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Set in a long, bright room, the lovely interior features leaf-green ceilings, solid wood furnishings and polished floors, complementing the beautiful view of layered trees, uphill walkways and bright flowerbeds. The menu contains staple Scottish favourites over breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, and it’s a picturesque place to linger over coffee after a strenuous walk round the gardens.
Henderson’s Vegetarian Restaurant VEGETARIAN 94 Hanover Street, EH2 1DR, 0131 225 2131, hendersonsofedinburgh.co.uk | Mon–Wed 8am– 9.30pm; Thu–Sat 8am–10pm. Sun 10am–5pm. £9.95 (set lunch) / £15 (dinner)
This subterranean restaurant is the place for the original Henderson’s experience, with a
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THIS LANE Restaurant Calistoga
70 Rose St. Lane North., EH2 3DX 0131 225 1233 www.Calistoga.co.uk
Scotland's Californian Restaurant Just 1/2 block from The Assembly Rooms & The Famous Spiegeltent
Search us out - on foot or on-line www.Calistoga.co.uk 0131 225 1233
empire is artfully divided into clever little nooks and crannies, with bread stations, meat bars, pasta stations and a large pass set around the restaurant, transforming the space into more intimate sections. The menu is similarly large, but with plenty of diversity and flexibility – plates of antipasti whiz around the tables, with thoughtful sourcing evident as long as you don’t mind hearing that everything is ‘Jamie’s favourite’.
70 Rose St. Lane North, Edinburgh EH2 3DX
diverse clientele as loyal as you’d expect for somewhere with fifty years of history behind it. It’s a welcoming and versatile place with an atmosphere that shifts throughout the day, from buzzy canteen for breakfasts and lunches, to a vaguely Middle Eastern accented restaurant in the evening. The food comprises lots of interesting salads, generously filled wraps and regularly changing hot meals such as a veggie haggis-filled filo parcel, croquettes and curries. Famously good cakes and puddings round things off, including vegan and gluten-free choices, with the option of a Scottish cheese board.
CAFÉS 1–2 North West Circus Place, EH3 6ST, 0131 6290 206, thepantryedinburgh.co.uk/ | May– Sep: Mon–Sun 9am–9pm. Nov–Apr Sun–Tue 10am–6pm; Wed–Sat 10am–10pm. £10 (lunch) / £17 (dinner)
Making a stylish job of tapping in on things that are cool just now, the Pantry is quirked up with accents of farmyard wallpaper and jelly mould lightshades, while chatty paper menus strike a laidback note. Lunch is broken down into snacks (haggis Scotch egg, Joan’s corn fritters), ‘not snacks’ (a burger with anise cucumber and ‘all the salad bits’), sandwiches and salads. Though most at home with its extensive breakfast/brunch menu, it’s charming at night with a winning mix of easy-going setting and service but flashes of finesse on the plate.
Henri of Edinburgh
The Turquoise Thistle
CAFÉS 48 Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, EH4 1HL, 0131 332 8963, henrisofedinburgh.co.uk/ | Mon–Thu 9am–7.30pm; Fri 9am–11pm; Sat 9am–7.30pm; Sun 9.30–5.30pm. £9 (lunch/dinner)
SCOTTISH Hotel Indigo, 51–59 York Place, EH1 3JD, 0131 556 5577, hotelindigoedinburgh.co.uk/dining | Mon–Sun noon–9.45pm. £12 (lunch) / £21 (dinner)
While their original Morningside deli (a haven for cheese addicts) has very limited sit-in capacity, the Stockbridge branch is significantly larger, with a smart seating area at the back, and a packed deli counter up front. Excellent French cheeses are prominent on the menu – available as ‘assiettes’, loaded up in sandwiches with pomegranate slaw, or served in tempting combos, such as the baked St Marcellin cheese with black cherry confit, toasted almonds and crostini.
The Honours BISTROS & BRASSERIES 58a North Castle Street, EH2 3LU, 0131 220 2513, thehonours.co.uk | Tue–Thu noon–2.30pm, 6–10pm; Fri/Sat noon–2.30pm, 5.30–10pm. Closed Sun/Mon. £16.50 (set lunch) / £26 (dinner)
Martin Wishart’s second Edinburgh venture is a place where both he and head chef Paul Tamburrini do the ‘honours’ of the table proud, both in terms of its accoutrements and what they then serve upon it. Cuts less favoured (but no less tasty) such as pig’s head, ox cheeks and rabbit leg dominate a menu that adheres to the traditions of French cuisine but remains modern and approachable, complemented by a surprisingly affordable wine list. Two things in particular stand out: technique, and the time taken over each plate. Flavours are subtle and delicate, sauces are glossy and consistent, presentation is elegant and considered. This isn’t fine dining, but it’s not far off.
Jamie’s Italian ITALIAN Assembly Rooms, 54 George Street, EH2 2LR, 0131 202 5452, jamiesitalian.com | Mon–Sat noon–11pm; Sun noon–10.30pm. £19 (lunch/ dinner)
Sitting in the splendidly renovated Assembly Rooms, the Edinburgh branch of Jamie’s
Turquoise Thistle is part of Hotel Indigo’s new direction to place individual restaurants in boutique hotels and allow each chef to create their own menu. Following stints at the Apex Hotel and on MasterChef: the Professionals, here Daniel Mellor and team are serving tasty starters like hot-smoked salmon and caper remoulade with crunchy melba toast or a more hearty duck terrine with walnut sourdough and pomegranate salad. Fish and steaks from the grill are great with their fiery salsa verde, and side dishes such as wild mushroom with garlic and roasted tomato or sautéed baby cabbage with smoked bacon and pine nuts are particularly good.
Urban Angel BISTROS & BRASSERIES • 21 Hanover Street, EH2 1DJ, 0131 225 6215, urban-angel.co.uk | Mon–Sat 9am–10pm; Sun 10am–5pm. • 1 Forth Street, New Town, EH1 3JX, 0131 556 6323, urban-angel.co.uk | Mon–Thu 9am–9pm; Fri/Sat 9am–10pm; Sun 9am–5pm. £15 (lunch) / £18 (dinner)
Over the past few years Urban Angel has established itself as an essential part of the vibrant dining scene around Broughton Street and the New Town. The uncluttered and inviting main room in Forth Street is well run by simultaneously enthusiastic, relaxed and efficient staff. The rotating menu of small and large plates is enhanced by daily specials that embody creativity, comfort and good seasonal choices. The sunlight-brightened front room of Hanover Street makes it easy to forget you’re in basement premises, while the quiet backyard courtyard, off the cosy rear dining room, is a treat. All-day brunch offers a tower of French toast strewn with free-range bacon. Small plates, salads and sandwiches suit lighter appetites, but daily specials are generous and filling.
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FEATURE HEADLINE HERE CITY GUIDE
A MODERN SOCIAL
RENDEZVOUS
CASTLE VIEWS FROM OUTDOOR TERRACE MODERN BRITISH MENU SCOTTISH CRAFT BEERS MOLECULAR COCKTAILS GOOD TIMES SHARED!
OPEN FROM MIDDAY TILL LATE
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NIGHT Bell’s Diner NORTH AMERICAN 7 St Stephen Street, EH3 5AN, 0131 225 8116 | Sun–Fri 6–10pm; Sat noon–10.15pm. £16 (lunch/ dinner)
Now in its forty-first year, Bell’s Diner has an old-school charm and a resolutely lo-fi feel about it. Its red painted walls – hung with prints of Native American scenes – and simple wooden tables and chairs have remained unchanged for years, if not decades. It’s possible to have starters of salads, fried onions or garlic bread, but the real reason for Bell’s longevity is their reliably high-quality steaks and burgers. Burgers come in three sizes (from manageable through to massive) with a choice of toppings and a veggie option available.
Café St Honoré SCOTTISH 4 North West Thistle Street Lane, EH2 1EA, 0131 226 2211, cafesthonore.com | Mon–Fri noon–2pm, 5.15–10pm; Sat/Sun noon–2pm, 6–10pm. £15.50 (set lunch) / £28 (dinner)
Venture down a cobbled New Town lane to find this romantic slice of Paris. With its wood panelling, black and white floor tiles and hazy old mirrors, the atmosphere is classic French brasserie. The food, however, is much more exciting. Under the direction of chef Neil Forbes the menus have evolved to showcase the best of seasonal Scottish produce both farmed and foraged, such as razor clams from the east coast and delicate organic chicken livers from Perthshire. The front of house team exudes enthusiasm for the food coming out of the kitchen, chatting knowledgeably about the produce and its provenance.
Café Marlayne FRENCH 76 Thistle Street, EH2 1EN, 0131 226 2230, cafemarlayne.com | Mon–Thu noon–3pm, 6–10pm. Fri–Sun noon–10pm. £12.50 (lunch) / £20 (dinner)
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While Café Marlayne’s Antigua Street sibling plies the breakfast-through-dinner café-bistro trade, the Thistle Street branch is its ‘proper’ restaurant. It is bijou in both size and character, with tight tables, mirrored mosaics and a living-room feel, evoking a warm, well-to-do, welcoming cordiality. The menu, honed over many years by curator Islay Fraser, deploys Scottish ingredients with French sensibilities: a piled plate of boudin noir, sautéed potatoes and crispy pancetta is a Scottish breakfast in a parallel life.
Chaophraya THAI 33 Castle Street, EH2 3DN, 0131 226 7614, chaophraya.co.uk | Mon–Sat noon–10.30pm; Sun noon–10pm. £16 (lunch) / £24 (dinner)
Taking over the prestigious former premises of Oloroso, up above George Street, high-end Thai chain Chaopraya is a masterclass in studied swankiness. The large space is broken up into intimate booths and softlit corners eyed by solemn Buddhas, with everything designed down to the last detail, from the hallucinogenic carpet to the sculptured taps and ten different types of lighting. Starters feature artfully presented golden baskets, soft steamed dumplings and moreish chicken satay; mains include Weeping Tiger, a magnificent sirloin that arrives spitting and hissing on a hot plate seared with deliciously acidic chilli and tamarind flavours.
The Dining Room SCOTTISH The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, 28 Queen Street, EH2 1JX, 0131 220 2044, thediningroomedinburgh.co.uk | Mon noon–2.30pm; Tue–Sat noon–2.30pm, 5–9.30pm. Closed Sun. £18.50 (set lunch) / £32 (dinner)
The dining room of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, this elegant ground-floor restaurant set within a Georgian townhouse has the atmosphere of a house party filled with characters dreamt up by Alexander McCall Smith. High-quality Scottish ingredients form the backbone of chef James Freeman’s finedining cuisine. There’s a lot of creativity on display here, such as a pairing of duck breast with liquorice, or the buttermilk foam that accompanies a pudding of rhubarb jelly. While there’s an air of quiet formality to the place, the waiters ensure the welcome is as warming as the whisky.
The Dogs BISTROS & BRASSERIES 110 Hanover Street, EH2 1DR, 0131 220 1208, thedogsonline.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–4pm, 5–10pm. £11 (lunch) / £17 (dinner)
While the other spin-offs in what became veteran restaurateur David Ramsden’s miniempire have come and gone, the original has remained, and it is still undeniably a stylish dining experience that’s as easy on the wallet as it is on the eye. Its success lies in offering somewhere central, cool and keenly priced with a menu that takes influence from prevailing food trends, including rustic British cooking and the use of offal and inexpensive cuts. Wines are competitively priced, and usefully a number are offered by 500ml carafe as well as the glass.
Dusit THAI 49a Thistle Street, EH2 1DY, 0131 220 6846, dusit.co.uk | Mon–Sat noon–3pm, 6–11pm; Sun noon–11pm. £12.95 (set lunch) / £20 (dinner)
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A perennial player in the mix of Edinburgh’s top Thai restaurants, Dusit proves that consistency needn’t be dull, dishing up its brand of polished, Thai fine dining set away from the hustle and bustle of the main shopping streets. With most dishes carrying whimsical titles such as ‘Lady in the Garden’ – a beautifully seared scallop tossed in chilli and garlic – it is tempting to choose your dish for names alone, but the less fanciful dishes are no less satisfying.
Fishers in the City FISH 58 Thistle Street, EH2 1EN, 0131 225 5109, fishersrestaurantgroup.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–10.30pm. £13 (set lunch) / £25 (dinner)
Fishers qualifies as one of Edinburgh’s old faithfuls: consistent, competent and classy. The menu here is a game of two halves:
Fishers classics focus on comfort food like fish-cakes, fish and chips and mussels, while the à la carte evolves regularly and aims to showcase seasonal Scottish fish. It’s particularly successful when crossing east with west: Orkney scallops topped with pumpkin, coriander and chilli pesto are a sophisticated sweet and sour fusion.
Forth Floor Restaurant SCOTTISH Harvey Nichols, 30–34 St Andrew Square, EH2 2AD, 0131 524 8350, harveynichols.com | Mon noon–3pm; Tue–Fri noon–3pm, 6–10pm; Sat noon–3pm, 6–10pm; Sun noon–3pm. £25 (set lunch) / £55 (set dinner)
Harvey Nichols houses some of Edinburgh’s most desirable dining tables, peering out over St Andrew Square to the castle and the River Forth. It could seem like an attempt to woo diners with style over substance, but real thought has gone into their sourcing and cooking, with executive chef Stuart Muir equally adept at conjuring up a Cullen skink to please a Moray Firth granny as he is at perking up venison with sour cherries, balsamic beets and walnuts.
Iglu SCOTTISH 2b Jamaica Street, EH3 6HH, 0131 476 5333, theiglu.com | Tue–Thu 5.30–10pm; Fri–Sun noon–3pm, 5.30–10pm. Closed Mon. £12 (set lunch) / £21 (dinner)
The name suggests Arctic chill but inside is a warm, softly lit bar, with exposed brickwork and book-lined shelves. The main restaurant is upstairs but food is served in both areas. Celebrated for being an ecologically sustainable restaurant (they boast three stars from the Sustainable Restaurant Association), produce is ethically sourced and mostly organic, with a short menu focused on seasonal foods. The atmosphere is informal, as groups of casually dressed friends mull over the list of artisan liqueurs, malts and Black Isle beers on tap.
Iris BISTROS & BRASSERIES 47a Thistle Street, EH2 1DY, 0131 220 2111, irisedinburgh.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–10.30pm. £13.95 (set lunch) / £19 (dinner)
For six years Iris has been a draw for good food in stylish but not overly formal city-centre surroundings. Inside, wood panels, mirrors and retro-patterned wallpaper create a cool vibe with staff bustling about calmly. An interesting menu puts little twists on bistro classics – think swordfish with hot pineapple salsa or baked salmon with a creamy leek and pink peppercorn
sauce. Desserts don’t stray far from the familiar, with sticky toffee pudding being a particularly good example of how Iris does favourite dishes really well.
The Magnum Restaurant & Bar SCOTTISH 1 Albany Street, EH1 3PY, 0131 557 4366, themagnum.webeden.co.uk | Mon–Sat noon–2.30pm, 5.30–10pm; Sun 12.30–3.30pm, 6–9pm. £12.95 (set lunch) / £24 (dinner)
Regulars mix here with tourists who have headed in to sample Scottish produce, and there’s an option to mix and match from the à la carte and the bar menu. The former impresses with marinated pigeon breast served with roasted black pudding and an apple and hazelnut salad, or grilled fillet of sea bass with a tasty baby gem lettuce and watercress sauce. From the bar menu, tempura of Peterhead haddock with hand-cut chips, green pea puree and green leaf salad is a clear hit with regular patrons.
Miro’s Cantina Mexicana MEXICAN 184 Rose Street, EH2 4BA, 0131 225 4376, miroscantinamexicana.com | Mon–Sun noon–10.30pm. £11 (lunch) / £18 (dinner)
Miro’s may be tiny but it ain’t shy – if the colourful street frontage doesn’t grab your attention, the big daily specials blackboard on the pavement will. Once inside, the floral tablecloths and general decorative mayhem come together with upbeat Mexican music and friendly staff to give this wee place a real buzz. That specials board is where to look if you want to venture beyond the usual enchiladabased mains and get a taste of the distinctive flavours of regional ‘platos tipicos’. The search for authenticity extends to the wine list where a Mexican Petite Syrah is one of nine offered by the glass.
Purslane SCOTTISH 33a St Stephen Street, EH3 5AH, 0131 226 3500, purslanerestaurant.co.uk/ | Tue–Sat noon–2pm, 6.30–11.30pm. Closed Sun/Mon. £22 (lunch) / £21.95 (set dinner)
The ambition of chef and owner Paul Gunning is to create a fine-dining experience without the formality or the cost, so linen tablecloths are dispensed with but the amuse-bouche is not. His cooking is clever and assured: the heart stopping richness of foie gras roulade is countered by quince chutney and smoked duck, and where simplicity works best – such as in a dressed crab – restraint is shown. The restaurant is stylishly decorated with textured wallpaper
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STOCKBRIDGE ADVERTISING FEATURE CITY GUIDE
STOCKBRIDGE Just ten minutes away from the centre of town, you’ll find Edinburgh’s own little village. You can pick up anything from costume jewellery to baby toys on its charming streets, which is home to a wide array of independent shops, bars and cafés
BELLS DINER
EDEN
7 St Stephen Street, EH3 5AN, 0131 225 8116
18 North West Circus Place, EH3 6SX, 0131 225 5222, edenretail.co.uk
A real contender for the best burgers in Edinburgh, Bell’s Diner has been doing steak and burgers well for over 40 years and there are no sign of things changing. Behind its anonymous exterior, there’s a relaxed, familiar feel to this Stockbridge institution with almost a coffee shop vibe going on.
Independent fashion boutique Eden presents an exclusively different selection of ladies’ fashion clothing, accessories and jewellery. Designers stocked at Eden include Selected Femme, Desigual, Blend, B Young, Anna Scott and Culture, with new deliveries arriving daily. Visit the Stockbridge boutique or shop online.
THE CUMBERLAND BAR
FAR PAVILIONS
1 Cumberland Street, EH3 6RT, 0131 558 3134, cumberlandbar.co.uk
10–12 Craigleith Road, EH4 2DP, 0131 332 3362
The New Town’s finest local, with a spacious beer garden forming a great outside destination. Featured in The Independent’s list of ‘Best Places to go for Sunday Roast’, there’s an emphasis on locally sourced ‘slow food’ and a strong Scottish theme, as well as a great choice of real ales, craft beers and wines including Lomond (SA), Craggy Range (NZ), and Chocolate Box (Aus).
Tucked away on the cusp of Stockbridge, this hidden gem could so easily go unnoticed by the less intrepid festival-goer. The vast array of dishes on offer is impressive, with something on the menu to suit every taste. All the staple dishes are there with some quirkier new additions – the naan-based tandoori pizza alone is worth the ten-minute stroll from town.
CHIC & UNIQUE
THE PANTRY
8 Deanhaugh Street, EH4 1LY, 0131 332 9889, vintagecostumejewellery.co.uk
1-2 North West Circus Place, EH3 6ST, 0131 6290 206, thepantryedinburgh.co.uk
A wide selection of wonderful vintage costume jewellery by famous designers such as Dior and Haskell, dating from the 1820s through to the 1980s. Alongside the jewellery is a selection of vintage handbags, perfume bottles, scarves, beautiful Venetian carnival masks and other bijou items. Pieces can be sent worldwide from the new online boutique.
Bringing the best of local to the New Town’s doorstep, The Pantry is a food lover’s haven. They serve delicious breakfasts and brunches, lunches and dinners with menus reflecting the finest in seasonal ingredients. If you are tight on time, or just fancy a quick snack, they have a variety of light bites as well as freshly-brewed coffees and moreish cakes.
BLISS
PURSLANE
5 Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, EH4 1HU, 0131 331 4605, facebook.com/ BlissBoutiqueStockbridge
33A St Stephen St, Edinburgh EH3 5AH, 0131 226 3500, purslanerestaurant.co.uk
Bliss is the perfect place to pick up a great gift for a new baby or a good friend. Only supplying products from small companies, you’re sure to find something of high quality and originality that’s not on the high street. There’s also a wall dedicated to cards. Popular brands include Jelly Cat, Toby Tiger and Scottish Fine Soap.
Fast becoming a Stockbridge institution, the Purlsane fits in perfectly on beautiful St. Stephens Street. Chef Paul Gunning’s impressive credentials are showcased using the very best of local ingredients to create inspired dishes that reflect his international experience whilst keeping a firm grasp on seasonality.
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CITY GUIDE NEW TOWN & STOCKBRIDGE
The Honours
grub unlike any other pub – or public house with dining – in Scotland.
or New York deli sandwich might represent best value on the food menu.
The Spice Pavilion
Bar Soba
INDIAN 3a1 Dundas Street, EH3 6QG, 0131 467 5506, thespicepavilion.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–2pm, 5–11pm. £8.95 (set lunch) / £19 (dinner)
104 Hanover Street, EH2 1DR, 0131 225 6220, barsoba.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–1am (food till 10am). £9.95 (set lunch) / £17.50 (dinner)
Having navigated the vertiginous steps, the sense here is one of sophistication – which is just as true of the menu, where even wellknown classics reveal previously unexpected depth and complexity. A starter of samosa is far from the usual deep-fried excess, and a much more measured creation of mildly spiced fresh vegetables in crisp pastry, arriving with a selection of chutneys. Bombay chana masala, with its sweet and sour combination of chickpeas and syrupy gingery sauce is almost outshone by a side of sag aloo – an explosion of citrus, spice, salt and dry heat.
The Stand and painted plant motifs, but it’s an intimate space with room for just over 20 diners, so booking is advised.
sauce, roasted peanuts and iced parfait. The market menu promises the same outstanding quality at a very reasonable price.
Restaurant Mark Greenaway
The Scran & Scallie
SCOTTISH 69 North Castle Street, EH2 3LJ, 0131 2261155, markgreenaway.com | Tue–Sat noon–2.30pm; 5.30–10pm. Closed Sun/ Mon. £16.50 (set lunch) / £32 (dinner)
BARS & PUBS 1 Comely Bank Road, EH4 1DT, 0131 332 6281, scranandscallie.com | Mon–Sun 10am–10pm. £23 (lunch/dinner)
Famed for his television appearances on the Great British Menu, in 2012 Mark Greenaway relocated his restaurant to a new city-centre venue. Greenaway’s contemporary style concentrates on employing modern cooking techniques to create exceptional dishes from the best seasonal and locally sourced ingredients. This is perfectly demonstrated by dishes such as sous-vide Goosnargh duck breast and duck leg croquettes, elevated by watermelon and tarragon jus, or peanut caramel cheesecake, a heavenly combination of shortbread, toffee
The joint venture between two of Edinburgh’s Michelin-starred chefs, Tom Kitchin and Dominic Jack, in opening a pub – or ‘public house with dining’ – in Stockbridge has opened a new front in casual eating in the capital. The stripped-back, bare-brick, Perthshire-croftmeets-Victoriana dining room offers a broad choice from down-the-line pub classics, such as haddock and chips, to highlights from the offal revival, such as roasted bone marrow with parsley salad. Expect to encounter highly accomplished preparation and cooking, a slightly forced sense of informality, and pub
FESTIVAL VENUES 5 York Place, EH1 3EB, 0131 558 7272, thestand. co.uk | Thu 7.30–8.30pm; Fri/Sat 7–8.30pm; Sun 12.30–2.30pm. £7 (one course) (lunch/dinner)
The Edinburgh outpost of a successful Glasgow chain, born of the unusual idea that a pan-Asian noodle kitchen might fit nicely in a busy preclub venue. Upstairs is the bar, with graffitied walls, trendy DJs and omnipresent beats, while downstairs is the more subdued restaurant, which is almost gloomy in comparison. Atmosphere is helpfully provided by a multitude of staff, who seem to have a good time whether they’re offering cheerful service or having a quick dance behind the bar.
The Bon Vivant Stockbridge • 4–6 Dean Street, EH4 1LW, 0131 315 3311, bonvivantedinburgh.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–1am (food till 10pm). • 55 Thistle Street, EH2 1DY, 0131 225 3275, bonvivantedinburgh.co.uk | Mon–Sun noon–1am (food till 10pm). £18 (lunch/dinner)
The Stand’s pub grub menu suits its informal surroundings: chilli, burgers and haggis dishes are up for grabs and vegetarians are not forgotten: there’s a chef’s salad and pesto pasta. A well-seasoned chicken fajita wrap is enlivened by fresh tomato salsa and crispy potato wedges on the side. Covered in cheese, sour cream and salsa, the generously portioned nachos plate is ideal for sharing.
Whether it’s a three-course meal you’re after, or just a quick cocktail, the Bon Vivant, with its elegant yet relaxed atmosphere, provides a fitting venue for most occasions. The wine list has 42 wines by the glass and there’s always the option of bringing a bottle from their nextdoor shop, the Bon Vivant Companion. The innovative food menu changes daily, and with bite-sized starters and desserts starting at just £1, as well as full-size mains.
21212
99 Hanover Street
FRENCH 3 Royal Terrace, EH7 5AB, 0845 22 21212 or 0131 523 1030, 21212restaurant.co.uk | Tue–Sat noon–1.45pm, 6.45–9.30pm. Closed Sun/Mon. £28 (set lunch) / £68 (set dinner)
99 Hanover Street, EH2 1DJ, 0131 225 8200, 99hanoverstreet.com | Mon–Thu 4pm–1am; Fri 3pm–1am; Sat noon–1am; Sun 5pm–1am.
The name 21212 derives from its unusual menu concept, offering two choices for starter, main and dessert interspersed with soup and cheese (you can choose to have three, four or five courses). However, what’s truly original is chef Paul Kitching’s style of cooking. Each dish is composed of many carefully mingled elements: a kind of symphony in food. Even simple vegetable soup turns out to be a multi-layered truffly broth with tiny perfect veggies peeking under a leek foam. This artful flair is mirrored in the restaurant’s elegant styling, the Georgian splendour of Royal Terrace enhanced with veiled walls, curving banquettes and statement lighting.
DRINKS Amicus Apple 17 Frederick Street, EH2 2EY, 0131 226 6055, amicusapple.com | Mon–Sun noon–1am (food till 9pm). £16.50 (lunch/dinner)
With an impressive cocktail list, and a hint of designer aloofness at all times, this semisubterranean bar comes into its own as a central pre-club destination at the weekend. Like most bars in the commercial heart of the New Town, however, it has to balance the needs of a varied crowd with a veneer of stylish desirability at all times. At under a tenner the Asian chicken katsu
A place that has gone out of its way to grab the attention in elegant and dignified style amid the often gaudy city-centre bars, the interior – all high ceilings and exposed brickwork – offers an impressive canvas on which to paint some striking dark gothic flourishes, from the ornate light fittings and chandeliers to the DJ booth (there’s a clubby live soundtrack seven nights a week) made out of an old piano. The drinks selection is impressive, featuring 350 spirit lines and 30 cocktails, as well as a wine of the week at a very reasonably priced £10 a bottle.
Stac Polly Brasserie, Wine and Gin Bar 29–33 Dublin Street, EH3 6NL, 0131 556 2231, stacpolly.com | Mon–Sat noon–2pm; Sun brunch 12.30–3pm. Light bites served at other times. £13 (lunch)
The very nature of the original Stac Polly basement restaurant is as a subterranean New Town secret. The main restaurant remains, but now the more visible street level rooms have been developed as a smart if still secluded lunchtime brasserie and afternoon/evening bar serving premium botanical gins in large glasses with classy garnishes. The light-touch lunch menu typically offers a fishcake with leaves, pigeon breasts with black pudding and carrot slaw or a roast vegetable tart, with a couple of puds. For early evening the focus is on drinks and nibbling platters of cured meats or cheeses.
Passionate about Seafood 61-65 Rose Street Edinburgh EH2 2NH Reservations 0131 225 5979 157 Hope Street Glasgow G2 2UQ Reservations 0141 572 1405
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