Jonathan Trew: Werner Herzog once cooked and ate his own shoe

WITH the possible exception of “audience participation”, few words are likely to scare away a crowd faster than the thought of work that is “challenging”. Yet presenting challenging work is pretty much the manifesto of the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival currently running at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.

Actually, at least one of today’s shows looks fairly approachable. The Great Puppet Horn is putting on a satirical shadow puppet show which is billed as South Park meets Newsnight. Potentially harder to decipher is Luvos, a dance piece by Austrian choreographer Editta Braun. Genetic modification is the subject of the work, so it’s possibly best not to expect too many laugh-out-loud moments.

Still, however challenging Braun’s work may be, it still sounds more inviting than Goodbye Mr Christie, the Phil Mulloy film screened last night at the festival. According to the Ottowa International Animation Festival, “If Disney is animation’s heart, then ... Phil Mulloy is its bowels”. I think that is supposed to be a compliment.

Moving to another artist who is often seen as provocative in the extreme (he once cooked and ate one of his own shoes), Werner Herzog’s film Encounters at the End of the World is being shown at the Glasgow Film Theatre tomorrow. It is part of the cinema’s Frozen Landscapes strand and features Herzog interviewing inhabitants of the McMurdo Research Station in the South Pole. Some of it is beautiful although, depending on how you read it, the conclusion could be thought bleak.

Jazz also has a reputation for sometimes being dauntingly cerebral. That is not the case with the Fife Jazz Festival, which focuses on letting the good times roll. There are more than a dozen gigs and films on this weekend. For hair-down fun, try Fat Sams Band tomorrow at Keavil House Hotel, Crossford. For something a little cooler, try Kyle Eastwood’s gig at the Byre Theatre tonight. Clint Eastwood’s son, he plays a mean double bass.

www.manipulatefestival.org; www.glasgowfilm.org; www.fifejazzfestival.com