Features
Preview: Oliver! the Musical
Cameron Mackintosh’s musical production of Oliver! – a perennial favourite in London’s West End – is coming to Scotland on a tour that requires meticulous planning, chaperones, frequent cast rotations – and enough food to feed an army of children. By Kelly Apter
Film review: Moonrise Kingdom (12A)
Here’s another film only Wes Anderson could make, with great, against-type performances by Bruce Willis and Edward Norton
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FIlm reviews: What to Expect When You’re Expecting | Free Men | North Sea Texas | The Source | Men in Black 3
The Scotsman’s film critics cast their eye over the latest cinematic releases
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Interview: Tahar Rahim, actor in A Prophet and Free Men
French-Algerian Tahar Rahim has the acting world at his feet, but, finds Alistair Harkness, he’s in no rush to work in America
Visual art review: Masterpieces from Mount Stuart: The Bute Collection
In bringing Dutch and Flemish art to Scotland, the 3rd Marquis of Bute was reflecting the exchange of art and ideas between Protestant nations that ushered in a new age of empiricism based on experience of the world around us
Interview: Furnace Mountain, Americana band
Furnace Mountain, who tour Scotland next week, have built a loyal following with their Americana and warm, open personalities. By Simon Stephenson
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Theatre reviews: One Day in Spring | The Fashion Floor | 27
David Greig’s collaboration with Arab writers is creating exhilarating results at Oran Mor, while Abi Morgan’s 27 is back – shorter, leaner and magnificently performed
A Glass Apart: Composer Philip Glass on his past
He’s been celebrating his 75th birthday for four months now, but Philip Glass says it’s still “exhilarating” revisiting his past
Folk, jazz etc.: ‘It’s about the way people go away smiling and uplifted’
REVERED Dixieland elders such as W C Handy or Jelly Roll Morton tend not to crop up in the same breath as those Skye folk-fusionists the Peatbog Faeries.
Preview: Scottish Opera’s 50th anniversary celebrations
Scottish Opera is talking up its 50th anniversary programme as a dynamic return to its roots, but there are compromises too
Critics’ choice: The arts events you need to see
The Scotsman’s arts team offer their tips for thes best event in each field of the arts
The Arts Diary: Come to the booths for a cleaner peep
NEW venue at the Edinburgh Fringe this August: a peep show. For the production, PEEP, audience members will sit alone in 12 private booths specially constructed outside the Pleasance Grand theatre, and watch plays about sex through a two-way mirror.
Film reviews: The Raid | 2 Days in New York | Even the Rain | A Gang Story | Iron Sky
ALISTAIR HARKNESS on the rest of the week’s new releases...
The Smarts: Coming to the Fringe this year are... oh, you knew that already?
THE Edinburgh Fringe will launch its 2012 programme at the end of May. But will there be anything left to announce by then?
The arts diary: new fringe shows revealed
LOVE Letters to the Public Transport System is one of 12 shows in the Edinburgh Fringe’s Made in Scotland line-up, unveiled yesterday at Creative Scotland’s HQ on Waverley Gate and is presented by the National Theatre of Scotland.
Film review: The Dictator (15)
ITS jokes are somewhat hit and miss, but when it comes to sheer chutzpah, Sacha Baron Cohen’s new comedy still leads the way.
TV Preview: Hell on Wheels
THE channel that brought us Mad Men, The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad is out to reinvent the Western with new series Hell on Wheels. Andrea Mullaney goes behind the scenes.
Theatre review: Sleeping Beauty Insomnia | Mikey and Addie | Fight Night
While the One Day in Spring season offers another tale of youth betrayed, the Imaginate children’s festival concludes with a hopeful flourish.
Theatre preview: The Last Polar Bear
CHILDREN’S show The Last Polar Bears has a hard-hitting message about climate change – and the cast are helping get it across by cycling for 300 miles to perform it.
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Visual art review: Callum Innes | Matthew Draper | Roland Fraser
A RETURN to the primacy of colour – once so expensive that it was part of what made a painting precious – is reaping some stunning results.
Dance review: Breakin’ Convention 12
THE dance world, like many others, has its fair share of gender stereotypes. If you’re spinning on your toes, chances are you’re female; if you’re spinning on your head, you’re male.
Folk, jazz, etc: Brother’s poignant tribute to tenor sax giant cuts to the very bone
MICHAEL Brecker was regarded by many as the most influential tenor saxophonist of the past quarter century, carving out a stellar reputation in his own right and collecting 13 Grammy awards along the way, in the eclectic company of players as diverse as Herbie Hancock and Aerosmith, Charles Mingus and Eric Clapton. There was also his formidable “heavy metal bebop” partnership with his older, trumpet-playing brother Randy.
Visual art review: Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design
THE first of this year’s annual art school showcases is thoughtful but bursting with life, testament to the health of contemporary art on Tayside.
The Cottier Chamber Project pay tribute to Edinburgh Zoo’s pandas
IN TWO weeks’ time, Glasgow’s Bohemian quarter will be buzzing again as the annual West End Festival gets underway. And once more, one of the most ambitious components of the event is a continuous two-week festival of chamber music at Cottiers, the former Dowanhill Church which is now a thriving combination venue of pub and performance space.
Interview: Gareth Evans, director of ‘The Raid’
Gareth Evans tells Alistair Harkness how a lad from the Valleys turned his love of John Woo into an Indonesian action thriller that took the world of martial arts movies by storm
Preview: Danza Contemporánea de Cuba
Danza Contemporánea de Cuba goes deep into Cuban culture and mentality, allowing individuality to shine through the stereotypes. By Kelly Apter
Film review: Dark Shadows (12A)
WHAT a strange film Dark Shadows is. That may seem like an obvious observation to make in reference to a Tim Burton movie, but its oddness has less to do with trademark Burton tropes – kooky weirdos, Gothic settings, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter – as it does the bizarre storytelling choices he makes.
Film reviews: A roundup of the latest films in the cinemas
Jeff, Who Lives At Home (15), Cafe de Flore (15), Beauty (18), Being Elmo (U) and Two Years at Sea (U)
Theatre review: Anne Boleyn, Edinburgh Festival Theatre
SOME political deaths send a shiver down the ages that reaches far beyond the small circle of historical scholarship.
Theatre reviews: Paperbelle | Titus | Traverse | Rumpelstiltskin
THEY say that we human beings are born alone, and that in the end, we die alone.
Interview: Philip Hughes, artist
FOR almost 50 years now, the artist Philip Hughes has walked back and forth through some of the most ancient and iconic landscapes in the British Isles, recording them in his instantly recognisable trademark style: bold blocks of colour enclosed by sharp, precise lines. He has made work all over the world, from Mexico and Peru to Australia and Antarctica, where, from 2001-2, he was artist-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey.
Art reviews: Tony Swain | A Parliament of Lines
Collage is an underappreciated art form, but it has a strong pedigree dating back to the Cubists and beyond, and we don’t need jargon to obfuscate the intentions of an artist who uses it. By Duncan Macmillan
Folk, Jazz etc.: McFall’s is going loopy with busy Four Corners schedule
NEVER a dull moment, it seems, when you play in Mr McFall’s Chamber, the wilfully eclectic ensemble, its core drawn from the ranks of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, who can be found performing everything from James MacMillan to Astor Piazzolla, King Crimson to Looney Tunes cartoon scores.
Interview: Kit Armstrong, concert pianist, composer and mathematician
The nearest Kit Armstrong has ever come to visiting Scotland was the time he boarded the wrong train from Carlisle.
The Arts Diary: Finding inspiration on the farm (and in abstract expressionism)
THE titles of Roland Fraser’s artworks reflect the sources of the wood remnants he uses to make them.
Interview: The Magnetic North, folk band
The Magnetic North tell Aidan Smith how a ghostly visitor inspired a tribute to one of Scotland’s most magical places
Film reviews: The Lucky One | Silent House | Goodbye First Love | American Pie: Reunion
ALISTAIR HARKNESS reviews the rest of this week’s cinema releases
Film review: Safe
RAPIDLY proving himself Britain’s best action star, Jason Statham benefits from a script that stretches him, even if it’s just a little
Theatre preview: Imagine Festival highlights
THE Imaginate festival is back next week with another quirky selection of children’s shows. Director Tony Reekie shares his highlights with Mark Fisher
Marking a decade Distilling essences to create a powerful blend
AUDIENCES at the Tolbooth Arts Centre in Stirling tomorrow night will sample a particularly potent distillate – not a drop of the hard stuff, as such, but the latest products of Distil, an initiative established to enable traditional musicians to learn from and collaborate with practitioners from other genres.
Interview: Stéphane Denève, musical director of RSNO
SEVEN years well spent at the helm of the RSNO comes to an end next week for Stéphane Denève, but why exactly is he going?
The Smarts: In space, no-one can hear you talking about Prometheus
POSTERS for new movies usually include endorsements from critics who have seen it. The latest posters for Ridley Scott’s new sci-fi movie – full-page newspaper ads, a month before the film is released – include quotes from people who haven’t seen Prometheus, talking about how much people are talking about the film.
Theatre reviews: Enquirer | Further Than The Furthest Thing | 5 Minute Theatre
IT wasn’t the greatest show I had ever seen; it offered more emotion than deep insight, more helpless anger than real empowerment.
Under the Radar: Look to the Moon to spot future stars video
Olaf Furniss and Derick Mackinnon report on the underground music scene, and look forward to some of this summer’s forthcoming festivals
Three-way battle of the batons kicks off a busy time for Donald Runnicles
THE BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra devotes this weekend to celebrating maestro Donald Runnicles as Scotland’s “greatest living conductor”.
- Scottish independence: I don’t want ‘separatism’ says Sir Tom Farmer
- Scottish independence: Labour voters ‘will deliver independence’
- Craig Levein insists Scotland will recover from US thrashing
- Rangers administration: End game nears for fallen icon
- Tom English: ‘A mammoth investigation, so vast that it is without parallel in the history of the Scottish game’
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Weather for Edinburgh
Monday 28 May 2012
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