Critics choice: Imaginate Festival | The Legend Of Casper Hauser

YOU may think it’s only for kids, but Edinburgh’s booming annual festival of performing arts for children and young people now offers Scotland’s richest programme of international stage events outside the Edinburgh Festival.

Theatre

Imaginate Festival

Various Venues, Edinburgh, 6-13 May

So for starters, treat yourself to a ticket to one of the great Scottish shows being revived for this Festival - Paddy Cunneen’s magnificent short knife-crime play Fleeto, at the Traverse (7-9 May), for example; and then sample a few other shows from a great week-long programme of theatre and dance from Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the USA, as well as Scotland and England.

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JOYCE MCMILLAN

Film

The Legend Of Casper Hauser

Glasgow Film Theatre, 5 May

Not to be confused with Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, this even more bizarre take on the mysterious story of the titular 19th century Bavarian “wild boy”, re-imagines him as an androgynous raver who washes up on a sparsely-populated Mediterranean island. There he runs into Vincent Gallo, cast here in two roles: as a disco-loving sheriff and a white-clad Italian drug pusher. Shot in black-and-white and featuring a full-on techno score from Vitalic, it looks unlike anything else around at the moment and will either be marvellous or maddening (or perhaps a bit of both).

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ALISTAIR HARKNESS

Visual Art

Gary Fabian Miller: The Middle Place

Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Until 13 July

In 1976, Gary Fabian Miller started taking photographs of the Severn Estuary from the roof of his home in Clevedon, near Bristol. He always used the same film and the same exposure, so the only things that changed from one picture to the next were light conditions, sea state and cloud formations. Alongside 40 of these Sea Horizon images, the Ingleby is also showing a group of new, large format camera-less works collectively entitled The Middle Place.

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DUNCAN MACMILLAN

Classical

Bbc Sso: Beethoven’s Emperor

City Halls, Glasgow, Tonight; Music Hall, Aberdeen, Tomorrow

Two giants of the repertoire dominate the BBC SSO’s programme this week. Associate guest conductor Andrew Manze continues his voyage through Vaughan Williams’ symphonies with a performance of the powerful Symphony No 9; while pianist Stephen Osborne brings his intelligent pianism to Beethoven’s great Emperor Concerto. The concert opens with Wagner’s heart-warming overture to Lohengrin.

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KEN WALTON

Pop

Electric Guest

The Art School, Glasgow, 5 May

This LA-based electro indie duo are a vehicle for the songs of frontman Asa Taccone who, along with the likes of MGMT, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, John Grant and Beck, displays a natural talent for assimilating a variety of pop influences from the 70s and 80s without creating a pastiche sound. Brian Burton, aka ace producer Danger Mouse, has given him the seal of approval, mentoring Taccone on Electric Guest’s debut album, Mondo, which is being re-released to coincide with the current tour.

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FIONA SHEPHERD