Culture
Festival Review: Phaedra/Minotaur
Madeleine Sutton reviews Phaedra/Minotaur at the Edinburgh International Festival. IN THIS production of Phaedra/Minotaur – which pairs Benjamin Britten’s final poignant cantata Phaedra, with the moving new dance piece Minotaur – opera and theatre director Deborah Warner and choreographer Kim Brandstrup take us through themes of passion, female desire, and devastation. Phaedra, based on Robert…
Read MoreBiggest search for Nessie – from home
THIS weekend will mark the largest search for the Loch Ness Monster – with Nessie hunters taking part from their homes around the world. The search on 26 and 27 August is billed as the largest for more than 50 years. A global audience is taking part thanks to video cameras set up along the…
Read MoreFringe Review: Trash Test Dummies
Alister Tenneb reviews Trash Test Dummies at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. THIS acrobatic/circus/slapstick performance essentially revolves around three wheelie bins – doesn’t fill you with delight? The show is geared towards kids ten years and under and judging by the near constant shouts, shrieks, squeals of laughter from their younger attendees they certainly know their…
Read MoreArt news round-up: Great Tapestry of Scotland, chainsaws, and more
THE tenth anniversary of the unveiling of the Great Tapestry of Scotland will be marked on 1-3 September at the community arts project’s purpose-built visitors’ centre in Galashiels. King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the tapestry last month. Sandy Maxwell-Forbes, the centre’s director, said: “As well as placing our new royal panel in its permanent…
Read MoreFilm Review: Isla
Jeremy Welch reviews a new short film called Isla. IT IS without doubt one of the most difficult disciplines in cinema to create a short. A short is defined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as “an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all…
Read MoreFringe Review: Frank Skinner: 30 Years of Dirt
Alister Tenneb reviews Frank Skinner: 30 Years of Dirt at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I FIRST saw Frank Skinner more than 30 years ago, performing in one of the smallest rooms in the Pleasance Courtyard, a couple of years before he won The Perrier Award. I think there were about five people in the crowd.…
Read MoreFringe Review: Paul Foot: Dissolve
Alister Tenneb reviews Paul Foot: Dissolve at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. PAUL FOOT enters the room and immediately is right up shouting into people’s faces in a pretty full-on manner – possibly it’s his way of laying down the rules for audience engagement. I’m glad not to be on the receiving end of it. He…
Read MoreFringe Review: Alexander Bennett: I Can’t Stand the Man, Myself
Alister Tenneb reviews Alexander Bennett: I Can’t Stand the Man, Myself at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. HAVING arrived just in time for the performance, I was dreading sitting at the front and where the only empty seat was in this sell out production – I was very relieved that Alexander Bennett made a point of…
Read MoreFringe Review: Il Wol Dang
Megan Amato reviews Il Wol Dang at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. BEFORE interviewing Il Wol Dang, I had been intrigued by their beautifully simplistic poster with their slogan “Come and Take a Dreamy Nap”. Further research led me to their Spotify account with a setlist that combines traditional Korean and western instruments in a captivating…
Read MoreFringe Review: Fall and Flow
Megan Amato reviews Fall and Flow at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. AS I slipped into the performance, I was not clear on what kind of show I had walked into to as it was wholly different from what I had expected nor anything like what I had seen at the Edinburgh Fringe so far. However,…
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