Tim Cornwell's diary - Carlisle becomes part of Scotland in artistic Anschluss

Published on Thursday 25 September 2008 19:40

ALERT motorists heading north on the M6 this week might be surprised to see a large "Welcome to Scotland" sign at Carlisle.

An artists' collective attempting to reclaim the city for Scotland has placed the sign, complete with a VisitScotland thistle, close by the city's castle, and it is clearly visible from the motorway.

They will also sell bags with a newly-designed five-hued Carlisle tartan with tourist maps placing the city on the northern side of the border.

"We just think that it would improve the quality of our lives if we were Scottish," declares artist Jennifer Brooks, originally from Manchester.

"They seem to have a lot more fun and they have kilts and things."

The five artists are part of the FRED outdoor art exhibition in Cumbria, which claims to be Europe's largest, and are exploring the theme "Disputed Lands".

With a similar claim to that of the folk of Berwick, who voted 60 per cent in a television poll to rejoin Scotland, on the grounds its public services are better funded, the artists say Scotland spends more on the arts than England.

Black Watch in Ireland

The Scottish take-over of the world continues in Ireland, where the Dublin Theatre Festival, founded in 1957, kicks off this week.

The Dublin event blends festival buzz and partying with consistently high-calibre premieres.

The bill of fare this year includes Gatz, set in a grubby office where an employee starts reading The Great Gatsby and launches a seven-hour marathon staging of the novel.

Brand-new Irish stage premieres run from Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan to a new version of Hedda Gabler by Brian Friel.

However it is our own Black Watch, more than two years on from its Edinburgh premiere, that appears on the programme's opening page.

"It has been described as the centrepiece of the programme," says director Loughlin Deegan. The play is sold out across seven performances.

When the box-office opened for sales, with seven-hour queues down the street, the only ticket as hot was The Year of Magical Thinking, from the National Theatre starring Vanessa Redgrave.

Deegan saw Black Watch on the second night of its first Edinburgh run and immediately set his sights on bringing it to Dublin. "We lost it last year because it went to New York and Los Angeles," he said.

The Dublin Theatre Festival, with a 3.5 million turnover, is a resolutely specialist festival in a city with a rich theatrical tradition, and separate from the September Dublin Fringe. The Culture Ireland agency has helped fund growing two-way traffic with Edinburgh, particularly through the Traverse Theatre.

Deegan also brought over 1927's Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, a multi award-winning Edinburgh show, and Tim Crouch's England.

Wanted: book lover

The Wigtown Book Festival, sponsored by Stena Line, is looking to appoint its first full-time paid director. Finn McCreath, director of the festival in the Galloway town since 2003, a role he has combined with running an organic dairy farm, is stepping down to spend more time with his expanding family.

"I can thoroughly recommend the job to anyone who loves books, beautiful countryside and has bucketloads of energy and enthusiasm," he says.