Scotsman critics’ choice: Five must-see shows on this week
CLASSICAL: SCO: Steven Isserlis
Star cellist Steven Isserlis, right, teams up with conductor Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a Central European musical feast, from Dvořák and Mendelssohn to Schumann’s storm-tossed Cello Concerto. SCO principal viola Jane Atkins is also on show in György Kurtág’s short, Bartok-inspired Movement for Viola and Orchestra. Ken Walton
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Hide AdYounger Hall, St Andrews, 25 November, 01334 475000; Queen’sHall, Edinburgh, 26 November, 0131-668 2019; City Halls, Glasgow, 27 November, 0141-353 8000
THEATRE: The Course Of True Love
The panto season is almost here; but there’s still time to revel in one last new lunchtime play from A Play, A Pie And A Pint and Aberdeen Performing Arts, who have worked together on three shows this season. This time, it’s a new play by the brilliant David Leddy of Fire Exit about a charity boss and her male employee pursuing – or fleeing from – an odd kind of romance at a work-related conference. Louise Ludgate and Mark Prendergast star, and Joe Douglas directs, fresh from his recent smash-hit production of The Cheviot, The Stag, And The Black, Black Oil, at Dundee Rep. Joyce McMillan
Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, today, 01224 641122; Oran Mor, Glasgow, 23-28 November, 0141-357 6200
POP: The Prodigy/Public Enemy
Once at the vanguard of the rocking electronica movement of the 1990s, the reputation of The Prodigy for ferocious live shows has not dimmed with the passing of the years, though it is not difficult to argue that they owe much to the band they are bringing out on tour with them. The Prodigy may be popular but Public Enemy are legendary – The Beatles of hip-hop, who wrote the rulebook on the interface between rhythm and channelled aggression. Don’t miss these truly special guests. Fiona Shepherd
AECC, Aberdeen, tomorrow; Hydro, Glasgow, 23 November, 0844 844 0444
ART: Hardeep Pandhal: Hobson–Jobson
Irreverent, funny and also deeply serious, Glasgow School of Art alumnus Hardeep Pandhal works in drawing, photography, sculpture and, with the help of his mum, knitting. Finding his way through the knotty problems of post-colonial relationships and the dilemmas of everyday life as an “emerging” artist, Pandhal’s show is entitled Hobson–Jobson after a Victorian glossary of Anglo-Indian vocabulary. Moira Jeffrey
Collective, Edinburgh, until 17 January, www.collectivegallery.net
FILM: True Romance
Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by the late Tony Scott, True Romance flopped upon release in 1993, its title confusing a public not yet versed in its creator’s violent twist on genre filmmaking. To be fair, Reservoir Dogs was still just a cult film and Pulp Fiction was almost a year away, but as anyone who saw it then or has seen it since will testify, it’s a deliriously entertaining, eye-wateringly violent, but also very sweet love story. Reissued to coincide with the BFI’s nationwide “Love” season, the film features some of Tarantino’s best dialogue (the Christopher Walken/Dennis Hopper tête-à-tête is a classic), a great star-making turn from Patricia Arquette (co-starring alongside Christian Slater), and a mind-boggling array of brilliantly twisted characters, from Gary Oldman’s dreadlocked drug dealer to Brad Pitt’s stoner, James Gandolfini’s hitman and, of course, Val Kilmer as an imaginary Elvis who incites Slater’s character to commit murder. Alistair Harkness
Cinemas nationwide. www.bfi.org/love