Scotsman critics’ choice: Five must-see shows on this week

Talbot Rice Gallery's Impulses Towards Life exhibition

POP: C Duncan

Talent will out. Glasgow-based musician C Duncan recorded his debut album, Architect, in his bedroom for the princely cost of £50. The beautiful, bewitching, budget baroque results were released earlier this year and he was bestowed with a Mercury Music Prize nomination for his DIY troubles. This shy performer has developed his band and his show over the course of the year. At the very least, it will be curious to hear how those overdubbed harmonies play out live. At the very best, this could be rapturous. Fiona Shepherd

Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 3 December; Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, 4 December; Art School, Glasgow, 5 December, www.c-duncan.co.uk

CLASSICAL: RSNO: St Andrew’s Party with Phil and Aly

It’s the annual Phil and Aly St Andrew’s Party, when the charismatic fiddle and accordion twosome lure the RSNO into their own world of toe-tapping jigs and reels. Eddie Reader adds a vocal dimension, and the whole evening is conducted by former RSNO horn player John Logan. Ken Walton

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, today, 0141-353 8000

ART: Impulses Towards Life

Over the years, Edinburgh College of Art has collected work by its students and by others too and a selection of this collection, much of it not seen in public for a long time, is brought together in Impulses Towards Life at the Talbot Rice Gallery. The title reflects the importance of life drawing in art education until not so long ago and life drawings are indeed an important part of the show, some dating back to Robert Scott Lauder’s pupils in the mid-19th century. It also includes other things however, not only by Edinburgh students and teachers like SJ Peploe, Elizabeth Blackadder, Anne Redpath and John Bellany, but also by artists from elsewhere like Barbara Hepworth and Augustus John. Duncan Macmillan

Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until 19 December, 0131-650 2210

FILM: Under the Skin + Q&A with Michel Faber

Amidst all the press for Jonathan Glazer’s remarkable adaptation of Michel Faber’s Under the Skin, very little was heard from the author himself. As part of Book Week Scotland, however, this special screening at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse will be followed by a Q&A with Faber, who will discuss the experience of having his Highlands-set sci-fi novel turned into a radical and radically different movie. Alistair Harkness

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow, 0131-228 2688; www.bookweekscotland.com

THEATRE: Rapunzel

If you feel like letting your hair down this Christmas – and trying something different from the usual seasonal round – head to the Citizens’, where Lu Kemp directs a post-punk version of the story of Rapunzel, featuring an adventurous heroine determined to carve her own path in life. Fresh from a triumphant leading performance in Lanark at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, award-winning Jessica Hardwick plays Rapunzel; and with music and songs by Michael John McCarthy, and a cast that also includes Cat Myers, drummer with the cult Glasgow duo Honeyblood, audiences can expect some feisty midwinter fun, for anyone over six. Joyce McMillan

Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, today until 3 January, 0141-429 0022