Critics’ choice

THE Scotsman’s team of art critics pick out their recommendations over the next week.

THEATRE

five minute theatre

Across the nation and online at www.fiveminutetheatre.com, 
14 July, 1pm until 7pm.

IF YOU want to experience it live, you can go to the Glue Factory in Glasgow, or the Kingdom Shopping Centre in Glenrothes; or you can just stay at home and watch online, as the National Theatre of Scotland rolls out the third editon of its award-winning Five Mnute Theatre, dozens of miniature pieces of theatre performed in front of live audiences across the nation and beyond, and streamed live to NTS-watchers worldwide. This time the theme is Youth, and participants hail from Ghana and New Jersey, as well as from towns, cities and villages all over Scotland.

• www.fiveminutetheatre.com

JOYCE MCMILLAN

FILM

CHARIOTS OF FIRE

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, 13-19 July, Glasgow Film Theatre, 23-34 July

Having received a big premiere earlier this week at Edinburgh Festival Theatre, the 30-year-old “British are coming” Oscar triumphalism of Chariots of Fire continues over the next couple of weeks, just in time to capitalise on mounting Olympic fever. Though the film felt old-fashioned even in 1981 (well, aside from the very modern Vangelis score), it remains a rousing piece of cinema, with worthy things to say about competition, religion and being true to one’s self.

• Tel: [phone] / 
0141-332 6535

ALISTAIR HARKNESS

VISUAL ART

expanding horizons: giovanni Battista lusieri and the panoramic landscape

scottish national gallery, edinburgh

IT is very unusual for an artist much celebrated in his time to vanish from sight completely for 200 years, but that is what happened to the Italian painter Giovanni Battista Lusieri. However, he has now been rescued from oblivion. He painted almost exclusively in watercolour, working on the spot, out-of-doors, but that didn’t limit the size of his big, panoramic landscapes.

• Tel: [phone]

DUNCAN MACMILLAN

CLASSICAL

Kronos Quartet: Terry Riley’s Sun Rings

KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY AND Museum, Glasgow, 15 July

Deep-space images from NASA provide a colourful backdrop to a late-night performance by the Kronos Quartet and the National Chamber Choir of Ireland of Terry Riley’s Sun Rings. This live performance – note change of venue, the ongoing inclement weather having ruled out the original plan to perform it outside the city’s Riverside Museum – is part of the London 2012 Festival celebrations. The American performance of Riley’s ten “spacescapes” was described by the Los Angeles Times as “a triumphant meeting” of art and science.

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KENNETH WALTON

POP

Sharon Van Etten

ORAN MOR, GLASGOW, TONIGHT

Fans of St Vincent and Anna Calvi might want to check out this Brooklyn singer/guitarist as another strong musical auteur who ploughs her own musical furrow. Van Etten is broadly influenced by folk music from both sides of the Atlantic in as much as her music is tough, confessional and cathartic. Current album Tramp features collaborations with the Dessner brothers from The National and Beirut frontman Zach Condon.

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FIONA SHEPHERD