Critics choice: The Salon Project | Planet Bowie

Our roundup of the best theatre, film, art and music events in Scotland

Theatre

The Salon Project

Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, 15-23 March

His recent Citizens’ production of The Maids was pretty remarkable; but for one of the theatrical events of a lifetime, don’t miss this short pre-London Citizens’ run of Stewart Laing’s astonishing Salon Project, first seen at the Traverse in 2011. Every evening, the entire audience of 60 people is given a total 19th-century makeover – frills, bustles, tailcoats – and then turned loose for 90 minutes into a strange, white, timeless onstage salon where laptops and mobile phones meet crinolines, and strange thoughts about aristocracy and civilisation are entertained. Beautiful, chilling, unforgettable.

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Film

Planet Bowie

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Until 4 April

Coinciding with the release of David Bowie’s first album in a decade, The Filmhouse’s season of movies celebrating the Thin White Duke’s diverse acting career gets fully underway with this week with the vampire erotica of Tony Scott’s The Hunger today and Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth on Sunday. Other films include DA Pennebaker’s remarkable Ziggy Stardust documentary, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (in which he played Nikola Telsla), Martin Scorse’s The Last Temptation of Christ (which cast him as Pontius Pilate) and Jim Henson’s Labyrinth in which he delivers the greatest of his performances – as Jareth the Goblin King.

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Visual Art

Cairo To Constantinople: Early Photographs Of The Middle East

Queen’s Gallery, Edinburgh, Until 21 July

Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East is a photographic documentary of a remarkable journey made in 1862 by the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. It was an adventure really, a journey across the Middle East, much of it on horseback, and almost as dangerous then as now. The photographer Francis Bedford accompanied the prince and the pictures he took are a remarkable record of all the places along the way, many of which have since changed beyond recognition.

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Classical

Sco: Das Lied Von Der Erde

City Halls, Glasgow, Tomorrow; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 16 March

the Chinese-inspired passion of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde is presented here by the SCO in the highly-acclaimed 2006 chamber orchestra version by Glen Cortese. At the helm is Robin Ticciati, who links up with the supreme Scots mezzo soprano Karen Cargill and English tenor Toby Spence. As an aperitif to the Mahler, Ticciati puts his lively mind to Haydn’s madcap Symphony No 60 – Il Distratto.

• Tel: [phone] (Glasgow); 0131-668 2019 (Edinburgh)

Pop

James Yorkston, The Pictish Trail & Seamus Fogarty

The Tolbooth, Stirling, 16 March; Eden Court, Inverness, 19 March; Universal Hall, Findhorn, 20 March; Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 21 March; Birnam Arts, Dunkeld, 22 March

Three gentlemen from the Fence Collective join forces for an intimate evening of minstrelsy, collaboration and possible self-deprecation. James Yorkston has been a mainstay of the Fife collective from the start, beguiling with his spectral but often witty folk songs, while The Pictish Trail, purveyor of lo-fi eclectic pop, is otherwise known as Johnny Lynch, Fence label manager. Fogarty, from the West of Ireland, is a more recent addition to the clan. Other Fence gentlemen are available, they’re just not available under the one roof on this particular occasion.

• Tel: [phone] (Stirling), 01463 234 234 (Inverness), 01309 691 170 (Findhorn), 01224 641 122 (Aberdeen), 01350 727 674 (Dunkeld)