The List Festival Week 2

FESTIVAL

BOOKS | COMEDY MEDY Y | D DANCE ANCE | KIDS | MUSIC | THEATRE | ART

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DANIEL KITSON ALEX HORNE FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT BAILEY’S STARDUST FUNZ AND GAMEZ TOOZ A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING 4X4 EPHEMERAL ARCHITECTURES CLOSE UP ALI SMITH COLIN CURRIE THE PARADISE PROJECT

150+ SHOWS REVIEWED

+ HITLIST REC OMMENDATIO

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BALLETRONIC CUBA’S BALLET REVOLUCIÓN STEPS UP THE PACE

13–20 AUG 2015 | WEEK 2 LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL

TICKET OFFERS

INSIDE

SINFINI MUSIC BEHIND THE SCENES AT EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL Listen to Festival Soundbites and discover the stories and personalities behind the music.

Cutting Through Classical

SINFINIMUSIC.COM

Festival

CONTENTS

FRONT Mailbox Top 20 Offers

FEATURES

FOOD & DRINK

26

DANCE

KIDS

PHOTO © ANNA BRUCE

THEATRE

PHOTO © STEVEN ULLATHORNE

Think it’s easy touting your talents on the Free Fringe?

Rebecca Monks tells us about her experience getting a space for a free show at the festival.

59 59 61 62 62

65

The Hunting of the Snark Funz and Gamez Tooz The Falcon’s Malteser Anatomy of the Piano (for Beginners)

Colin Currie Shit Girlfriend Rudolph Buchbinder The Marriage of Figaro Dive

THE FREE FRINGE

37 39 42 45 48 53

Ballett Am Rhein – Seven Close Up 4x4 Ephemeral Architectures Smother

MUSIC

23

37

Tommy Tiernan Alex Horne James Acaster Daphne Mike Wozniak Zoe Coombs Marr

Cuban dance company behind international smash Ballet Revolución present a brand new show showcasing their aptitude for fusion: there’s classical, contemporary and electronica (oh my) as ten Cuban dancers are led by cutting edge grooves from a resident DJ. This isn’t your ordinary ballet – sure there’s the usual lithe creatures, but they’re throwing themselves about to Avicii, Daft Punk and Paloma Faith.

See feature, page 14. 14.

COVER IMAGE © SVEN CREUTZMANN

26

COMEDY

BALLETRONIC The

We have a word with founders, Phil Nichol and Maggie Inchley, about ten years mixing up humour with drama.

14 18 20

Pop-ups

COVER STORY

COMEDIANS THEATRE COMPANY

14

Balletronic Pace Comedians Theatre Company

FESTIVAL 2015 | ISSUE 2 | LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL

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2 4 6

GREAT OFFERS Win tickets to Museum After Hours

6

Win tickets to Art Late South

6

2-for-1 Gin Distillery tour tickets

7

Win tickets to see Glenn Wool

7

Win a pair of tickets to Gobsmacked!

7

Win tickets to see Lanark at the Citz

7

Win tickets to Balletronic

One Day When We Were Young Paul Bright’s Confessions Polyphony Fake It ‘Til You Make It A Girl is a Half-formed Thing Lemons, Lemons, Lemons...

VISUAL ART Bailey’s Stardust Summerhall Bernat Klein

EVENTS Art Late

65 67 68 68

71 71 73 73 74 74

77 77 79 82 85 86 88

95 95 97 101

102 102

INDEX

103

ARCHIVE

104

Ed Byrne

7

THIS WEEK ON LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL More of the same reviews, previews, interviews and features covering all your Edinburgh Festivals needs, no matter if you’re a comedy aficionado or classical’s more your bag. Our mailbox is still open to Big Fat Fringe Bribes, too: see page 4 for more info on buttering us up. p.

104

Festival

MAILBOX

CONTRIBUTORS Publisher & General Editor Robin Hodge Director Simon Dessain

Below are a section of reviews and comments from our website and Twitter – add your own opinion at list.co.uk/festival or @thelistmagazine

EDITORIAL Editor Yasmin Sulaiman Senior Writer & Content Editor Scott Henderson Research Manager Kirstyn Smith Senior Researcher Murray Robertson Research Alex Johnston, Rowena McIntosh, Rebecca Monks, Henry Northmore Subeditors Paul McLean Editorial Assistants Claire Flynn, Carolina Morais

Secret Edinburgh Festival escapes Chuffed to be in @thelistmagazine for our @edfringe Secret Shows! Who fancies cycling with us?

Comment posted by @HandleBards Fringe Preview: Theatre tackling religion and spirituality Brilliant article! Thank you! Peace 4real x Comment posted by @homecut [Testament] Love and Money Some challenging scenes and thought provoking dialogue, along with flashes of dark humour, make for an intense performance which you should not miss.

Comment posted by Jane Mitchell What’s it like to be a disabled performer at the Edinburgh Fringe?

As artistic director of a Diversity company visiting the Fringe I have to say that accessible Accommodation more than performing space has been our biggest trial. True that disabled people don’t get the same amount of choice but theSpaceUK offered us five fully accessible venues, of which we are presenting the Marvellous

BRIBE

The HandleBards Mechanical Mesmerist at the Symposium Hall venue 43.

Comment posted by Jonathan Chas Interview: Puddles Pity Party Let’s go get a chip butty, buddy!

Comment posted by Puddles Les Misérables (Schools Edition) This was an excellent performance, apart from 3 hours sitting on very uncomfortable chairs Comment posted by David Liddell.

The Man From the review here, this show clearly is not for everyone, but I have been lucky enough to see it a couple of times and I LOVED IT! I’d even be daring enough to say that it’s one of the most thrilling shows

EK E W E OF TH

I’ve ever witnessed in eight years of going to the fringe. There are few comedians or crazed court jesters tackling the sort of subjects touched upon by ‘the man’ (almost like a cross between Bill Hicks and an alien) and if you want to see an hour of free thinking brilliance - a masterwork of social-political comedy theatre, you won’t steer far wrong with this.’

Comment posted by SeanB 20 Best Shows to see at the Edinburgh Festivals @thelistmagazine recommended me in July, offer good for August!

Comment posted by @PennyArcadeNYC In Cahoots: Two White Guys YES BOYS. YES Comment posted by @thisisdavid

POST-PARTY PITY

It’s the morning after the night before. What’s the best way to endear yourself to an office full of writers who may have had a massive, balls-out, Fringecelebratory party last night? An enormous gift basket packed to the brim with hangover cures, that’s what. Edinburgh Dungeon sent us a big fat bribe that had everything: Irn Bru, liver repair tea, electrolyte powder, cooling mist, paracetamol, sunglasses, crisps and sweets. For this, we can only say you should definitely go to see Where’s Jack?, their August-long show about Jack the Ripper.

Q Where’s Jack?, Edinburgh Dungeon, 0871 423 2250, until 31 Aug, times & prices vary.

If you’re not above exchanging presents for Fringe performance exposure, send some of your best swag to Big Fat Festival Bribe, The List, 14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE. 2 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

SALES & MARKETING Media Sales Manager Chris Knox Senior Media Sales Executive Debbie Thomson Media Sales Executive Jade Regulski Sales Support Executive Jessica Rodgers Digital Business Development Director Brendan Miles Partnership Director Sheri Friers PRODUCTION Production Director Simon Armin Senior Designer Lucy Munro Designer Jen Devonshire DIGITAL Senior Developer Andy Carmichael Senior Designer Bruce Combe Software Developer Iain McCusker Senior DBA Andy Bowles Newsletter Editor Hamish Brown ADMINISTRATION Accounts Manager Sarah Reddie Events and Administration Assistant Claire Cooke SECTION EDITORS Books Yasmin Sulaiman Comedy Brian Donaldson Dance / Kids Kelly Apter Food & Drink Donald Reid Front / Music Kirstyn Smith News Rebecca Monks Theatre Gareth K Vile Visual Art Rachael Cloughton

Published by The List Ltd HEAD OFFICE: 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE Tel: 0131 550 3050, Fax: 0131 557 8500, list.co.uk, email editor@list.co.uk GLASGOW OFFICE: at the CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD Tel: 0141 332 9929, glasgow@list.co.uk ISSN: 0959 - 1915 ©2015 The List Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without the written permission of the publishers. The List does not accept responsibility for unsolicited material.

The List provides this content in good faith but no guarantee or representation is given that the content is accurate, complete or up-to-date.

Use of magazine content is at your own risk.

Printed by Acorn Web Offset Ltd, W.Yorkshire.

Arriving with an open mind, then leaving close close to te tears…

Find out who’s performing this year 07-31 August 2015

edfringe.com

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 3

Festival

TOP 20

The number of acts performing at this year’s Festival might seem a trifle overwhelming, so here’s a round-up of 20 unmissable shows

PHOTO © SARAH WOOD

BOOKS

VISUAL ART

Ali Smith Stuart Kelly chairs

Charles Avery: The People and Things of Onomatopoeia

this event with Ali Smith who’s talking about her latest work, multiaward winning How to be Both. See preview, page 33. Charlotte Square Gardens, 16 Aug.

Major exhibition from Avery, exploring his imaginary archipelago of islands. See review, page 101.

Ingleby Gallery, until 26 Sep.

PHOTO © TOMMY GA-KEN WAN

COMEDY

THEATRE

Daphne Do Edinburgh Phil Wang, Jason Forbes and George

Paul Bright’s Confessions Polyphony This masterclass monologue by Daniel Kitson may of a Justified Sinner An

Fouracres make up Daphne, arguably the top sketch trio in town, impressing everyone with their slightly demented and often devilish skits about kids characters, TV chefs and massive cups of coffee. This debut hour is packed with big hitters. See review, page 45. Traverse Pleasance Courtyard, until 31 Aug (not 17).

THEATRE

attempt to adapt James Hogg’s novel spawns a story of obsession, ambition and love. See feature, page 79. The Queen’s Hall, 19-22 Aug.

be sold out, but it’s definitely worth checking for returns every day. See review, page 82. Roundabout @ Summerhall, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25).

PHOTO © CHLOE COURTNEY

MUSIC

THEATRE

COMEDY

Independence Ensemble Thing take on the

The Encounter In award-winning actor,

Tim Key: Work-in-Slutgress The man

ongoing Independence debate as they perform John De Simone’s new work, a look at cultural identity in Scotland from the POV of an Englishborn Scottish-Italian. See preview, page 74.

Summerhall, 18, 20, 22 & 23 Aug.

writer and director Simon McBurney’s first International Festival appearance, he reveals the secrets of time and sound in a spectacular retelling of an Amazon journey. See feature and review at list.co.uk/festival EICC, until 23 Aug (not 13, 18).

whose works-in-progress are generally way better than most acts’ carefully considered and complete oeuvres. Fringe babe Tim Key mixes poetry, stand-up, musings, fun times and more. Pleasance Courtyard, 15-31 Aug (not 17).

4 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

PHOTO © ANNA BRUCE

PHOTO © ANDI SAPEY

BOOKS

COMEDY

THEATRE

KIDS

Tim Clare & Colin MacIntyre Poet Tim Clare talks

Zoe Coombs Marr: Dave

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing Aoife Duffin shines playing

The Hunting of the Snark

Coombs Marr’s sharply observed drag parody that holds a mirror up to the Aussie male psyche. See review, page 53. Traverse Underbelly Cowgate, until 30 Aug (not 18).

with Mull Historical Society’s Colin MacIntyre about their respective debut books. See interview, page 31.

Charlotte Square Gardens, 16 Aug.

every character in this adaptation of Eimear McBride’s powerful novel.

See review, page 86. Traverse, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24).

Musical romp based on Lewis Caroll’s nonsense poem that entrertains grown-ups as much as wee ones.

See review, page 65. Pleasance Courtyard, until 31 Aug (not 17).

PHOTO © ARNAUD STEPHENSON

THEATRE

4x4 Ephemeral Architectures

Four jugglers and four ballet dancers create a show that blends playful fun with the deconstruction of seriousness in art. See review page 62. Assembly George Square, until 30 Aug (not 18, 15).

PHOTO © STEWART ARMITT

COMEDY

MUSIC

Bernat Klein: A Life in Colour Retrospective highlighting

Tommy Tiernan: Alive in Edinburgh The edgy Irish stand-

Shit Girlfriend She Makes War, aka Laura Kidd, lays bare the reasons

the Borders-based, Serbian-born textile designer’s vibrant paintings.

See review, page 101. Dovecot Gallery, until 26 Sep.

up in a show that’s entirely free-form and improvised. See interview, page 37. Gilded Balloon, 16-30 Aug (even days only).

behind why dating a musician isn’t the best of ideas. In her Fringe debut, Kidd sets herself the task of working out why she seems so ‘undateable’, the result of which is a charming hour of biographical storytelling and music. She may not be a comedian, but make no mistake: Laura Kidd is funny. See review, page 73. Fingers Piano Bar, until 21 Aug (not 17).

COMEDY

MUSIC

THEATRE

The Horne Section’s Questions Sessions Taking

Colin Currie & Friends

Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Balletronic A new show Lemons, Lemons The problems from exciting Cuban company

PHOTO © ANNA BRUCE

VISUAL ART

on a new role as question masters, The Horne Section present a battle of wits with some of the fest’s finest comedic talent. See feature, page 39. Gilded Balloon, until 29 Aug.

Two percussionists (Currie and Sam Walton) join forces with two pianists (Simon Crawford-Phillips and Philip Moore) to treat your ears.

See preview, page 71. The Queen’s Hall, 21 Aug.

of communication are more than just the lack of words in this philosophical story of future love, language and legislation. See review, page 88. ZOO Southside, until 22 Aug.

DANCE

Ballet Revolución blends ballet, contemporary dance, classical music and electronica. See feature, page 14. Pleasance Courtyard, until 31 Aug (not 18).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 5

READER OFFERS 2 FOR 1 GIN DISTILLERY TOUR TICKETS

Get 2 for the price of 1 tour tickets for Summerhall Distillery when you quote ‘LIST241’ upon booking.

Summerhall Distillery is the first distillery to open in Edinburgh for 150 years and the home of the multi award winning Pickering’s Gin. See how hand crafted, small batch gin is made and enjoy a perfectly poured Pickering’s & Tonic. Whilst you are here, explore the labyrinth of exhibitions and events within Summerhall Pickering’s Gin are delighted to host guided tours and tastings for List readers by appointment Mon – Fri, from 12pm to 4pm. Saturday tours are also available between Easter time and the autumn. Tours last around 45-50 minutes. See list.co.uk/offers for further details.

Summerhall Distillery 1 Summerhall Edinburgh, EH9 1PL 1 Sep - 31 Dec. Subject to availability Tickets £10 Email or call to book your tour now: 0131 290 2901 | tours@pickeringsgin.com

pickeringsgin.com TERMS AND CONDITIONS: OFFER ENDS 31 OCTOBER. TOURS MUST BE BOOKED BEFORE 31ST OF DECEMBER 2015. TOURS ARE AVAILABLE BETWEEN 12PM AND 4PM MONDAY TO SATURDAY UNTIL 31 OCTOBER, AND 12PM AND 4PM MONDAY TO FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER TO 31 DECEMBER 2015. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY. UNDER 18S WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO SAMPLE ALCOHOL. MUST SHOW VOUCHER TO REDEEM.

WIN TICKETS TO MUSEUM AFTER HOURS: FRIDAY FRINGE TAKEOVER

Enjoy a unique flavour of the Fringe and explore the National Museum of Scotland after hours across three exhilarating nights. Guest-programmed by the festival gurus at The List, each night of this extravaganza will offer a different and tantalizing taste of the Fringe, with hand-picked performers, music, comedy, bars and entry to the fascinating summer exhibition, Photography: A Victorian Sensation.

The List are giving away a pair of tickets plus a meal for two with bottle of wine at the Museum Brasserie for the second night of Museum After Hours on Fri 21 Aug. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

What is the name of the summer exhibition?

Museum After Hours: Friday Fringe Takeover National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street 7.30pm - 10.30pm 21 & 28 Aug £16, £14 Members and Concessions, age 18+, includes admission to Photography: A Victorian Sensation

nms.ac.uk/afterhours TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES 19 AUG 2015. ENTRANTS MUST BE OVER 18 YEARS OF AGE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

WIN TICKETS TO EDINBURGH ART FESTIVAL’S ART LATE SOUTH

50p off a bottle of 500ml Deuchars IPA in Tesco stores To celebrate Deuchars IPA’s sponsorship of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, you can claim 50p off a bottle of 500ml Deuchars IPA in Tesco stores!

To claim your offer, simply cut out this voucher and present it to the cashier upon payment.

TO THE CUSTOMER Terms and conditions: Hand this coupon to the checkout operator along with your Tesco Clubcard to receive the benefits as above. Customers must be 18 years or over to purchase or receive alcohol. This coupon has no cash redemption value and can be redeemed only once and by the person to whom it was issued. Valid in the UK and IOM only. Not redeemable through Tesco.com. Offer is subject to availability. Copied, damaged and defaced coupons will not be accepted. This coupon is, and shall remain, the property of Tesco Stores Ltd and is not for resale or publication. Offer is not valid in conjunction with any other offer or discount.

Valid from 26.08.15 – 15.09.15

6 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Art Late is a series of specially programmed late openings and events, taking in exciting live music, performances, artist talks and tours. Each year the festival commissions new work by leading and emerging Scottish artists. This year’s commissions programme is titled The Improbable City.

The tour begins at the Talbot Rice Gallery, featuring Dovecot, Stills and closing at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery with live music from the band Miaoux Miaoux. Almost three years since the debut long player by Miaoux Miaoux, Chemikal Underground is proud to announce the release of its exceptional follow-up, School of Velocity.

The List are giving away a pair of tickets to Art Late South supported by Blue Moon on Thu 20 Aug, 6pm.To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/ offers and tell us

What is the theme of this year’s Commissions Programme?

Art Late South Talbot Rice Gallery University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL 20 Aug, 6pm

edinburghartfestival.com @EdArtFest TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES 17 AUG 2015.

ENTRANTS MUST BE OVER 18 YEARS OF AGE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

READER OFFERS WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO GOBSMACKED! WITH UNDERBELLY

From the producers of The Magnets and Soweto Gospel Choir comes Gobsmacked! the next-generation a cappella show. The multitalented cast of singers and beatboxers weave an urban story using both classic and contemporary songs that embrace all forms of a cappella, from traditional street corner harmonies to cutting edge multi-track live looping.

This astounding show smashes all vocal boundaries. Forget everything you’ve ever known about the human voice and prepare to be Gobsmacked.

Presented by Nic Doodson, Andrew Kay, TCB Group and Underbelly Productions.

WIN TICKETS TO SEE LANARK AT THE CITIZENS THEATRE The Citizens Theatre and Edinburgh International Festival’s new stage adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s Lanark is one of the hottest tickets this August.

Part Kafkaesque reimagining of Glasgow, part autobiography, the fantastical Lanark and its questions about the role of artists, leaders and workers in modern day Scotland have inspired generations of writer, artists and musicians since the novel was published in 1981.

Lanark has been adapted by David Greig (Glasgow Girls, Dunsinane, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and directed

by Graham Eatough, who previously worked together as Suspect Culture, one of the UK’s most experimental theatre companies.

The List are giving away a pair of tickets to Gobsmacked! with Underbelly. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

The List are giving away six pair of tickets to see Lanark at the Citizens Theatre on Tue 8 Sep at 7pm. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

Where is Underbelly’s new Circus Hub?

What year was Lanark first published?

Gobsmacked!

Underbelly, George Square, Edinburgh 6 - 31 Aug 2015, 4.30pm

Lanark: A Life in Three Acts Citizens Theatre 119 Gorbals St, Glasgow G5 9DS 13–19 Sept 2015, 7pm

underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/ whats-on/gobsmacked

citz.co.uk

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES 19 AUG 2015. WINNERS CAN CHOOSE A SHOW OF THEIR CHOICE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES 2 SEP. NO CASH ALTERNATIVE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

WIN TICKETS TO SEE GLENN WOOL: CREATOR, I AM BUT A PAWN

WIN TICKETS TO BALLETRONIC AT THE PLEASANCE Direct from Havana, unmistakably the world’s most exotic city, standby for the world premiere of this new, innovative and dynamic production, Balletronic.

Is Glenn alone in his escapades around the world or is there an unseen companion travelling with him during these adventures? Is it an inner monologue or a heckling demigod? Wool’s new show is a masterpiece of comedy, which has the audience helpless with laughter.

Glenn is a regular TV face having made appearances on The World Stands Up, Comedy Blue and Edinburgh and Beyond for Comedy Central, and Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

“Edgy, imaginative, funny and original, Canadian born Wool sets the standards at the fringe” Daily Telegraph The List has five pairs of tickets to see Glenn Wool: Creator, I am but a Pawn on Tue 25 Aug, 9.20pm. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

What nationality is Glenn Wool?

Glenn Wool: Creator, I am but a Pawn Assembly George Square Studios (Venue 17) 10 - 30 Aug 2015, 9.20pm (not 17, 24)

edfringe.com

A dec onstructed and unique fusion of classical and contemporary music driven by a DJ and 12 of Cuba’s finest musicians and singers.

Witness the sheer power, skill and effortless grace of 11 of Cuba’s finest classical and contemporary dancers, as they elegantly groove, pointe and pivot to super cool DJ loops, soundscapes and electronica ensuring a sizzlingly hotblooded evening of ferocious sensuality and athletic skill.

With music by Avicii, Daft Punk, Afrojack, Sam Smith, Paloma Faith . . . and a little Chopin!

The List are giving away five pairs of tickets to see Balletronic in the Pleasance Grand at 9.30pm this August. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

What is the capital of Cuba?

Balletronic Pleasance Grand Pleasance, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ 6 - 31 Aug (not 12, 18 or 24), 9.30pm

pleasance.co.uk TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES THU 20 AUG. NO CASH ALTERNATIVE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES 19 AUGUST 2015. WINNERS CAN CHOOSE A PERFORMANCE OF THEIR CHOICE SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 7

FESTIVAL PARTY What a great night, eh? The annual List Festival Party was an unforgettable evening of Fringe fun, food and drinks, and we’ve got way too many people to thank. Our sponsors, Blue Moon and Pickering’s Gin, kept the drinks flowing, while Rost and Big Blu eased our hunger pangs with some amazing food and Graham’s The Family Dairy made us feel like kids again with samples of their delicious ice cream.

Thanks also to the team at YOURgb EVENTS who helped make the party run like clockwork, and to Jonathan Abensur for these awesome photographs (there’s more on our Facebook page too – facebook.com/thelistmagazine). We couldn’t have done it without stage managers Michael Heasman, Chloe Smithson Wisdom and Laura Hawkins. And of course, huge thanks to the wonderful Summerhall – an amazing venue with an indispensable tech team and front of house staff.

More thank yous go to the Bygone Photobooth, especially Joseph and Steph McAree who ran the booth all night; our amazing volunteers Alanna Shanks, Carolina Morias, Claire Flynn, Joey Mak, Katrine Flensborg and Robyn-Nikki Smith; the karaoke room boys, Alex Swan and Rory Simpson; Claire Cooke, for her guest list skills; and to Amy Russell, for coming up with such a great programme.

Finally thanks to our excellent comperes Robert Hofmann, Tiff Stevenson and Fern Wallingford, and to the fabulous DJ Trendy Wendy too. See you next year!

PERFORMERS: A Storm in a D Cup | Butt Kapinski | Colin Cloud | Dark Side of the Mime | Discoteque Machine | Fills Monkey: Incredible Drum Show | Gobsmacked! | Hey, I’m Alive! | Jenny Bede | Juan Vesuvius | Kevin McMahon | Liberi Di | Massive Dad 2.0 | Miss Behave | Nina Simone Black Diva Power | PanicLab R.I.O.T | Puddles Pity Party | Sons of Pitches | Sweet Dreams | The Bevvy Sisters | The Outsider | Titania: A Solo Cabaret | Trendy Wendy | Vagabond | Vegas Nocturne | Vive La Variété Photos: Jonathan Abensur

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

FRONTLINES DIARY

• And, it’s a go-er! The Fringe, International Festival and Tattoo are all already in full swing, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival is ready for lift off this Saturday (15 Aug). This year’s theme is Around the World, so follow your literary compass to Charlotte Square Gardens if you fancy getting your book on. • The Sick Of The Fringe may sound a fancier term for fringe flu, that dastardly life-ruining cold approximately everybody gets mid-festival, but in actuality, it’s a new movement funded by the Wellcome Trust, which brings together scientists, doctors and performers to explore the vulnerabilities of festival participants. In essence, it looks at how stressful the festival can be, and will offer some practical support for performers under pressure. Let’s face it, less stress is always best. • Another Fringe first has been cracked, as Italian duo David Labanca and Gianmarco Pozzoli joined together to make the ‘world’s first human disco ball’.

FESTIVAL NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

RESIDENT TOURIST

The morph suit-clad performers created the effect by stepping inside a giant kaleidoscope at Camera Obscura in order to promote their show, Discoteque Machine at Zoo Southside.

That’s one for the record books, or at the very least, their Twitter bio.

In conversation with playwright and Fringe veteran Jonathan Maitland, who’s bringing An Audience With Jimmy Savile to the festival this year

Pleasance. Guests will include Mike McShane, Felicity Ward and Bryony Kimmings & Tim Grayburn.

• It’s 2015, and the smartphone is king, which means that there’s a strong chance this is the most text you’ve read all day that doesn’t include an emoji. Comedian Adam Kay is embracing the emoji spirit (and we don’t mean the little ghost emoticon), by putting on the world’s first show written entirely in emojis. Let’s see, how can we explain it further? Winky face, shocked face, monkey covering eyes. • The Waverley Care Gala takes place at the Edinburgh Playhouse this Sunday (16 Aug), and is being hosted

by Adam Hills and Marcus Brigstocke. Elsewhere, A Gala for Mental Health takes place this weekend (15 Aug) at the

#WTFRINGE The F word is all over Twitter, as Edinburgh embraces the Fringe @isyourmindsafe: A dog in a pushchair.

Welcome to #EdFringe. #WTFringe @RKWelsh: Starting off @edfringe properly with Haggis Pie and Irn Bru at Auld Jocks. #WTFringe @msamyburge: Ah, the Edinburgh Fringe.

Reliably making your daily coffee more expensive than it was yesterday since 1947 #WTFringe @ThePrepidemic: Literally running across Edinburgh with ticket printers on my back to install. #WTFringe @LilaWhelan: Hasn’t eaten this much food while not gaining any weight since doing a 3 week trek in Nepal ten yrs ago #RoyalMile #WTFringe #Edinburgh

10 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

NEWS AND GOSSIP FROM ACROSS THE FESTIVALS

• Dicing with Dr. Death – a play on the subject of euthanasia – saw officials storm the stage at a performance last week, following safety concerns surrounding the ‘Destiny euthanasia machine’, which Dr Philip Nitschke was planning to ask an audience member to inhale non-lethal gases from. Officials went in to check the gas canisters were empty before the show was allowed to go ahead. • Approximately 19,500 people turned up to watch the Harmonium Project open the Edinburgh International Festival last week. The free outdoor event celebrated 50 years of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, and featured a series of projected art works set to John Adams’ choral work, Harmonium. The music was recorded by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, conducted by Peter Oundjian.

WHAT A SELL OUT Tickets don’t last forever, y’know. Here’s what’s selling fast at the fest, and what’s already sold out* (12–18 Aug).

GOING, GOING...

Aisling Bea: Plan Bea • Alan Davies: Work in Progress • An Audience With Jimmy Savile • David O’Doherty: We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking at David O’Doherty • Flight • Gruffalos, Ladybirds and Other Beasts • James Acaster: Represent  • Jason Byrne: 20 Years A Clown • Reginald D Hunter: Bitchproof • Rob Beckett • Tommy Tiernan Alive in Edinburgh

GONE Avenue Q • Bridget Christie: A Book For Her • Katherine Ryan: Kathbum  • Nina Conti: In Your Face • Oh Hello! • Paul Foot (limited availability 15, 16, 18) • The Colour Ham – One. Last. Time.

Alistair McGowan in An Audience With Jimmy Savile

Describe the Fringe in four words.

Frenzied, unpredictable, annoying and surprising.

Why are you bringing the play to the festival this year? Because I think I’ve been coming to the Fringe on and off for 35 years and there’s no other arts festival like it. It’s got way too big and it’s kind of a crazy out of control monster, like Glastonbury actually, but it builds an incredible explosion of creativity and cutting-edge comedy and drama and God knows what else.

What was your most surreal festival experience? I think it was back in the mid90’s when I was a reporter, there was a guy called Jim something, and his speciality was nailing genitals to a cross, something like hanging off a wall with his testicles nailed to it in a big wooden crucifix.

What’s the best thing reviewers have written about your work? I think they’ve been very kind. One person said it’s the best doc drama he’s ever seen on the stage, which is extraordinary and that’s great.

And the worst? Totally lacking in drama, which is quite surprising because we’ve had people fainting and vomit and burst out crying during and after the performance. So I’m not sure if they’re in the same room.

Why do you think acts return to Edinburgh year-on-year? I think it’s like a drug, it’s one of those relationships where there’s a lot of bad but there’s a whole lot of good, and no matter how bad it gets the good always exceeds the bad.

Q An Audience With Jimmy Savile, Assembly George Square Studios, until 22 Aug, 7.55pm, £15–£16.

Pic of the

WEEK

A ROGUES GALLERY

Comedian and artist Markus Birdman was kind enough to draw some portraits of funny Fringe people exclusively for The List. Just look at Phill Jupitus there, in all his purple splendour. To see more of Mr Birdman’s work, including sketches of Tony Law and James Acaster, head to list.co.uk/festival Markus Birdman: Grimm Realities, Canons’ Gait, 556 4481, until Aug 30 (not 17), 3.40pm, free.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 11

FESTIVAL FEATURES | Balletronic

VIVA LA

REVOLUCIÓN

Lucy Ribchester feels the heat in Havana, as Ballet Revolución’s new Fringe show takes shape

‘T

his is Bikram ballet,’ choreographer Aaron Cash laughs.

We’re on the second floor of the Television Ballet building in downtown Havana, here to watch one of Ballet Revolución’s daily technique classes, and it is sweltering. Rivulets of human steam are dripping down the turquoise walls, the ceiling fans are static; even Cash – an Australian – has nicknamed the room ‘the sweat box’.

And yet, despite an atmosphere that could wilt a cactus, the dancers are slicing the air with crisp turns and neat fouettés, immaculately keeping formation to ballet mistress Isis Schery Ramirez’s instructions. As they switch and swap groupings, Cash points out various members of the company. Some of the women are en pointe, such as ballerina Barbara Patterson Sánchez. But here also is Lianett Rodriguez Gonzalez, a contemporary dancer and trained gymnast; there is Yasset Roldan Garciarena, classically trained but also a masterful body popper.

It might be the ballet stars that are shining in this particular class but the tables will turn another day when it’s time for contemporary, hip 14 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

hop or folkloric practice. The company – whose previous show, simply titled Ballet Revolución, toured globally – prides itself on recruiting dancers from a variety of disciplines; not only to showcase different talents but to stretch every dancer’s movement vocabulary. All the cast must take classes in everything, including tai chi and yoga, keeping them – apologies – on their toes. It’s this fusion of styles combined with Cuban classical discipline that the company is hoping will set audiences alight when it brings new show Balletronic to the Pleasance in Edinburgh this Fringe.

‘In Balletronic you learn from everybody in the company,’ says Patterson Sánchez. ‘Every day you learn something new and that’s a challenge for us.’ Classically trained at Havana’s Escuela Nacional de Ballet (part of the Escuela Nacional de Arte or ENA), Sánchez completed a two-year stint in the Ballet Nacional de Cuba before hearing about auditions for Ballet Revolución. ‘Whether classical or contemporary, everyone has their own style of movement. In this show I have to dance contemporary and neo-classical – different to what I’m used to.’

Classical fusion may not seem like a revolutionary idea to some audiences, but in Cuba, Sánchez asserts it is not par for the course.

Here tradition rules and the training is fierce. Children as young as eight who show prodigious promise are plucked from the provinces to come to the prestigious ENA and take one of two routes; either contemporary or classical. Those taking the latter path may hope to end up in Cuba’s

Balletronic | FESTIVAL FEATURES

list.co.uk/festival REHERSAL PHOTOS© ALEJANDRO ERNESTO

PHOTO LEFT & BELO

W © ANNA BRUCE

national ballet, a company with a sterling reputation for its dancers’ technique, but also one in which tradition is rooted in iron, having been headed by the same director, Alicia Alonso, since 1959. Now 93, Alonso holds a formidable name as a grande dame of dance and in 2010 told The Guardian ‘I’ll still be running this company in a hundred years’ time.’

Contemporary dancer Lianett Rodriguez Gonzalez says that when Ballet Revolución performed their original show in Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba it was ‘an incidente total’ – a real event. ‘It was an inspiration for the dancers who came to see it because it was something new. For me, the interesting thing has been the ability to change styles, to go wherever they want you to go. To not be a linear dancer. I like the transformation.’

For Balletronic – as with Ballet Revolución – Cuban choreographer Roclan Gonzalez Chavez is teaming up with Cash, whose eclectic background leads him to happily call himself a ‘mongrel’ of dance. Cash trained classically but is equally proud of his commercial success, having worked with Twyla Tharp, Cher and LA Ballet, as well as being one of the original Tap Dogs.

‘I love coming here because the dancers are so creative,’ says Cash.

‘Their individuality, their passion, it’s that laid-back Caribbean thing. I mean you’ve hung out with these guys, you can see it.’ It’s true that in almost every conversation I’ve had since arriving the theme has been the proliferation of dance and music in Cuban culture. Right now, the dancers are chilling out at a barbecue by the seaside but on the way here, onboard a battered off-duty school bus, following a gruelling morning’s rehearsal in ‘the sweat box’, some of them took to the aisles to groove to the bus 13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 15

FESTIVAL FEATURES | Balletronic

PHOTO © ANNA BRUC

E

‘We lose all our frustration when we dance’ RO ERNESTO PHOTO © ALEJAND

radio’s reggaeton, ignoring the pothole thumps coming hard and fast through the bus floor. The musicians, too, tell me that they jam together, sometimes for hours after each rehearsal.

‘If you have an idea and they are all into it, it goes even further than you thought it could because everyone gets on board and you can feel it.

It’s a very open environment – they are incredibly generous with what they can do,’ says Cash.

He talks with passion about the individuality of each dancer and remembers with vivid precision their auditions; you sense spending time with the group that there is an immense amount of camaraderie here. But Roclan Gonzalez Chavez has a different opinion on why they work so well in the studio. ‘Cuban dancers can give you what you’re asking for. The ENA provides very good dancers, not only for Ballet Revolución, but for every show in Cuba – every single style.

Ballet Revolución is not the only show in Cuba.’ He says it with a smile but it’s hard to blame him for being pointed. The notion of Cuban dance carries its own cultural baggage, broadly divided into perceptions of the rigid Soviet-style discipline of the Ballet Nacional or, more commonly – including in Balletronic’s own press release – descriptions like ‘sizzling’, ‘raw’ and ‘hot-blooded’.

Chavez is keen to show a rounded but no less popular side. ‘Our dancers can do whatever you want. I think that’s the case if you’re born into a world full of music and full of dance. We lose all our frustration when we dance and when we listen to music – it’s food for us. It provides good energy.’

Earlier, back in the studio, he showed us a segment he had been 16 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

working on for Balletronic. Elegant with clean-lined duets and shifting formations, the piece also played around with narratives of relationships, and the kind of mixture of literal and figurative movement usually found in classical ballet.

But there were other, more specifically Cuban influences at work, too. The kaleidoscopic way large groups of dancers on stage are managed is typical, co-producer Jon Lee explains, of the classic 1950s Cuban Cabaret style. Meanwhile, Chavez says some of the piece’s folkloric moves are associated with the Yoruba gods of Cuba’s Santería religion.

‘Though rather than folkloric I’d really like to say Afro-Cuban,’ he says. ‘I think the Africans have a very strong culture and every single place in the world they brought something from their own lives and put it into that area.’ There are some 360 African rhythms, Chavez says, the result being that Cuban dancers are ‘like a drum – they take the rhythm very fast, they can separate the torso from the leg from the arm from the head.’

Chavez – who earlier admitted one of his childhood stabs at choreography was recreating the moves from Dirty Dancing – doesn’t separate these influences out when he choreographs, but just allows his ideas to go where they go. So what is he hoping Edinburgh audiences will make of this? ‘They are going to be able to see our country in a proper way. That’s what I’m looking forward to.’

Balletronic, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 18, 24), 9.30pm, £12.50–£16.50 (£10–£14).

Key Change | FESTIVAL FEATURES

list.co.uk/festival

HOLDING THE KEY

Open Clasp Theatre’s latest play, Key Change, draws inspiration from the life experiences of women prisoners. Rebecca Monks caught up with its director, Laura Lindow

‘Y

piece reflects how they have dealt with different situations and different circumstances, which is with humour, with resilience, compassion, and optimism.’

After working closely with the women, writer Catrina McHugh then went away and translated the essence of the workshops into a piece of devised theatre, the result of which is described as ‘a raw and illuminating portrayal of women in prison’. It is clear speaking to Lindow that this piece belongs as much to the women as it does to Open Clasp, and this is rooted in the respect that the company has for them.

As she says, the initial impact of entering the prison was dispersed instantly upon meeting the ‘brilliant group’ they were to work with.

‘It gives you a fright when the door closes and you hear the key, and you see the razor wire and you receive the impact of all of that. But once that’s behind you, it’s just people working with people.’

Working on such an intimate piece of theatre requires a strong bond between the participants, and Lindow says this was clear from the outset. ‘It’s like they are in such close communication with one another . . .

I suppose we knew that we wanted to honour that

sense of togetherness, but also, we understood what a position of trust we were in.’

This level of trust was continued between the company and the women, even after the workshops were over and the piece was being developed. Before it was to be shown to an audience, it needed the stamp of approval from the most important critics of all: the women themselves.

‘They’ve obviously seen it when it was in the prison, and given it their thumbs up,’ she says, ‘but we had to earn that, we had to earn their approval. We had to take it back to them and say, you performed it, this is what we’ve done with it.’

Inevitably, there were some tweaks to be made, but now that the final piece is established, the company are excited to share it with the world.

‘For these women to be represented on such an international stage, when these voices are so seldom heard, feels important. The women we worked with, as they say, are survivors rather than victims. I think the story and the play reflects that.’

Key Change, Northern Stage at Summerhall, 560 1581, 10–30 Aug (not 12, 19, 26), 12.30pm, £12 (£10). Previews 8 & 9 Aug, £10.

PHOTO © KEITH PATTISON

ou have to have courage to visit those places,’ says director Laura Lindow, as she discusses her latest project, Key Change: a piece that was developed in collaboration with a group of women in Low Newton prison. But when Lindow talks about ‘places’, she isn’t referring to the prison itself.

She is alluding to the emotional places brought to life by the women she worked with, as they told their stories and shared their personal journeys with Lindow and the rest of the team at Open Clasp Theatre. ‘You have to have the courage to take it out there,’ she explains, and that is exactly what the company plan to do at the Fringe.

Before the play was created, Open Clasp spent time with the female offenders in a series of workshops designed to help them explore their voices. ‘We didn’t go in with any answers,’ says Lindow. ‘We went in with an openness and drama strategies in our pockets to help the group to unlock and tell the stories that they wanted to tell.’

This meant asking the women to create fictional characters based on an element of truth, an exercise which proved interesting in terms of the issues being raised. ‘There were a lot of commonalities in what they brought, the experiences that these fictional characters had – experiences of poverty, of abuse. The

6–13 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 15

Edinburgh Art Festival Detours 7, 12, 21 & 26 August 2015 Acts include: – – –

Phill Jupitus at Inverleith House Carol Ann Duffy at Talbot Rice Gallery Man of Moon at Collective

Tickets £4 edinburghartfestival.com

10-16 AUGUST

2015

This year’s programme includes:

10TH

PHILIP CONTINI LIGHTS OUT BY NINE

11TH

THE NEW ROPE STRING BAND LINDSAY LOU & THE FLATBELLYS

12TH

EDDI READER DUO LENSKY

13TH

14TH

OPERA EAST LOTHIAN ALI AFLECK & DICK LEE QUARTET

15TH

BOMBSKARE ELAINE C SMITH

16TH

THE BLUES BAND FAYNE & THE CRUISERS

NEWTONGRANGE SILVER BAND MAINSTREET BLUES

www.fringebythesea.com 13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 17

FESTIVAL FEATURES | Gayfield Creative Spaces

We find out more about Pace, the latest venture from Gayfield Creative Spaces

L

aunched by former GP John Ennis, Gayfield Creative Spaces is interested in where art and design meet health and well-being.

This summer, the space has launched a programme focused on walking; ‘Pace’ is designed to track routes around central Edinburgh that locals and visitors can explore on foot. The walks take from 20 minutes to an hour and there are opportunities to join guided sessions throughout the festival (see details below).

Pace has been co-curated by urban historian Anna Feintuck and Ennis, with support from Chris Fleet from the National Library of Scotland. The routes have been placed in a social and historical context, drawing upon the curator’s expert insights into the city’s mapping traditions.

Here, Anna and John outline one of Gayfeld’s routes around the city, starting from Gayfield Square Gardens and linking the green and creative spaces of East Edinburgh (see map, right).

GAYFIELD SQUARE GARDEN Gayfield Creative Spaces

Georgian squares in Edinburgh’s New Town are most often the property and in the care of those owning the surrounding buildings. In the case of Gayfield Square, Edinburgh Corporation assumed custody and management of the ground in 1886 under the powers of the Edinburgh Municipal Police Act of 1879, making it a public space.

Our route starts at home in Gayfield Creative Spaces, just north of Gayfield Square Garden, at the eastern edge of the New Town, just by the top of Leith Walk. Check out the programme of local and international design collaborations including our annual Making Well commissions, exploring where art and design meet health and well-being. This year Making Well includes a lunchtime walk retracing pathways in Gayfield Square Garden visible on the Ordnance Survey map of 1876, as well as longer loops. You can find the garden walk and the loops south and west at gayfield.co.uk

18 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

list.co.uk/festival

Gayfield Creative Spaces | FESTIVAL FEATURES

CALTON HILL

HOLYROOD PARK

Climb the gentle slope of Calton Hill from Regent Terrace and take in one of Edinburgh’s most inspiring views, familiar to overseas visitors as the base for many international news teams during the September 2014 Scottish Referendum, and included in the city’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Visit the Collective Gallery, a new cultural initiative in an historic setting and check out the Artists Walks that respond to these exceptional surroundings.

Holyrood Park is a Royal Park (former hunting ground) managed

by Historic Scotland, with a team particularly active in monitoring, protecting and re-introducing rare or threatened plants identified in the Edinburgh Biodiversity Action Plan, including spring sandwort, sticky catchfly and rock whitebeam.

The Education Centre, by Malcolm Fraser Architects, is a beguiling contemporary pavilion building acting as a threshold to the extraordinary landscape before it. It is home to the Royal Park Rangers, who act as ‘doormen’ and education officers, and to flexible public education facilities. Head onwards through Croft-An-Righ, crossing and up the steps to Abbey Mount.

Collective Gallery

REGENT ROAD PARK

Stones of Scotland sculpture Contour round the south of Calton Hill along to Regent Road Park, with views to Holyrood Palace, the Scottish Parliament, Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags.

Within the park is the engaging Stones of Scotland sculpture, a circle of 32 stone slabs, one from each of Scotland’s local authorities. Turn down through the park to Abbey Hill. Further along, have a look along the angular elements of the Parliament building and the east boundary wall inscriptions.

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT GROUNDS Landscaped forms and planting design

Head across the front of the Scottish Parliament to the public landscaped grounds.

Architect of the whole scheme, Catalan Enric Miralles, planned use of indigenous Scottish wildflowers, trees, shrubs and wild grasses. Oak and lime trees mirror those of Holyrood Palace and the planting of rowan trees echoes the Scottish Highlands association with centres of mythic power.

Education Centre

LONDON ROAD GARDENS (LOWER NORTHERLY SLICE OF REGENT TERRACE GARDENS) Process Studios London Road Gardens provide a green processional edge to this broad avenue into Edinburgh centre, designed in 1819 by William Playfair, one of the premier architects of the period.

Just at the head of this parkland sits Techbase and the newly developed Process Studios, formerly Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts. This hothouse of creative talent offers workshops and open days across an impressive range of maker skills.

Pace Exhibition, Gayfield Creative Spaces, until 31 Aug, 11am– 6pm, free; Garden Walks in Gayfield Square Garden, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays until 27 Aug, 12.30–1.30pm; Walks by Design in and around central Edinburgh, guided on Sundays 16, 23 & 30 Aug, 2pm–3pm, from Gayfield Square.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 19

FESTIVAL FEATURES | Comedians Theatre Company PHOTO © STEVEN ULLATHORNE

enes Jo Romero Sc l ua ns Se a of Nature

Tom Stade, Phil Nichol and Lewis Schaffer in Giant Leap

20 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Comedians Theatre Company | FESTIVAL FEATURES

list.co.uk/festival

BLURRED LINES Celebrating ten years of challenging the boundaries between comedy and drama, Comedians Theatre Company founders Phil Nichol and Maggie Inchley talk to Gareth K Vile about their vision

S

ince its foundation in 2006, the Comedians Theatre Company has become a Fringe institution. Phil Nichol and Maggie Inchley, not content to rest on their past successes – which include collaborations with Stewart Lee, Jack Whitehall and even Lionel Blair – are celebrating by bringing seven shows to Edinburgh, ranging from a cabaret evening with a live Nashville band to an adaptation of a classic Russian tale.

The vision of the company runs to supporting new work in diverse ways. Inchley says she is ‘very excited: with all the shows we have a different involvement.’ But she is most proud of the cultivation of new scripts for new audiences. ‘I run a new writing event, Itch Scratch, and some of these shows have come out of that project,’ she explains. ‘We have done all kinds of shows – some are big and glamorous! But the work developing new performers is beginning to start a community among comedians that isn’t just about stand-up.’ And many of the company’s shows have their roots in this community. ‘In particular, Jo Romero did her Polish masseur character and she built it up into her first play, Scenes of a Sensual Nature.’

Beyond this shared origin, the company’s work is claiming a distinct identity. ‘The reviews of the new material have picked up on a certain flavour – a blackness or darkness to the comedy,’ Inchley continues. ‘It’s not deliberate but when comedians write plays, there is a flavour to it… and the lovely thing about working with comedians is there is always humour. We don’t do writing that is terribly worthy. It has a twist to it.’

Co-founder Phil Nichol is irrepressibly enthusiastic about his own return to the Fringe. ‘Really looking forward to it; it is going to be a wicked one for me. I had last year off, so I am geared up. I’m doing a lot of projects, and all of my shows are coming together. I’m in four, I’m helping and producing seven theatre shows, I am directing two stand-up shows.’ His energy seems boundless.

Nichol might be all the more dynamic thanks to a recent break. ‘I took a year out – well, I spent about eight weeks in Thailand getting my head together and came back with a real plan, and accepted performance is what I do.’ The relaxation gave him a new vision, which reflects the diversity of his company’s programme in 2015. ‘My output is going to be wide, and to facilitate other people doing that: not in an artsy way.’

He is quick to follow his comments with a laugh, sending up his own enthusiasm. ‘I am lucky to have a lifestyle that I love and can make a living from it.’

‘To celebrate our anniversary, we thought we’d try to help out as many shows as possible,’ he says. ‘We’ve got a couple of plays on the free fringe, which is a new thing for us. We’ve got two main productions: one called Marriage, an adaptation of Gogol by Tom Parry from Pappy’s, with an all-star sketch show cast.’ The other play sees Nichol team up with self-described ‘failed Jewish comedian’ Lewis Schaffer in Giant Leap, which imagines a faked moon-landing and promises more swearing than Glengarry Glen Ross.

Yet Nichol is far from the fast-talking trickster he plays in Giant Leap; he is sincere, dynamic and excited by both the Fringe and his life as a performer. The range of his shows at the Fringe, which also

includes a monologue that is ‘the third of a trilogy about mental health and the character is a Scottish-Spanish angel’, suggest an artist who is comfortable balancing the serious and the comedic.

This balance is key to the success of the company. Inchley calls Nichol ‘an inspiring figure, people want to work with him. He makes things happen’ but the company’s evolution reflects an integrity that translates into strong productions.

Inchley continues: ‘I do feel our company has been organic – performers and comedians want to get together and do something a little out of the box…the community feel has been an influence. It’s not a producer casting comedians: the ideas come through from the comedians themselves. And so, people don’t know what to expect – it is a little bit unpredictable.’

This has led to the Comedians Theatre Company attracting audiences that cross between genres. Inchley admits the categorisation of the Fringe brochure is awkward.

‘I think a lot of people find the marketing aspect difficult: having to choose where to put your show, sometimes you do cross genres. All comedians have actor training. And a lot of one-person shows are comedy, but other bits have dramatic form in them. You’d have to have more categories in the brochure.’

Yet she is positive about the value of her productions. ‘I hear people say that our shows have attracted people to a more theatrical style. They wouldn’t have chosen a theatre show. We are getting new audiences who would usually only go to see comedy.’ And it is in this crossover that Inchley and Nicol have forged themselves a niche at the Fringe, challenging boundaries, finding new collaborations and allowing performers to push their talents in new directions.

10x10x10, Pleasance Courtyard, 650 4199, until 30 Aug, 4.30pm, £9–£12 (£7–£10).

Angel in the Abattoir, Gilded Baloon, 622 6555, until 31 Aug (not 18), noon, £10–£12.

Giant Leap, Pleasance Courtyard, 650 4199, until 31 Aug (not 18), 1.50pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9).

Jo Romero Scenes of a Sensual Nature, Cowgatehead, until 29 Aug, noon, free.

Marriage, Assembly George Square Studios, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 19), 2pm, £12–£13 (£11–£11.50).

Phil Nichol’s Cray Cray Cabaret, Assembly Rooms, 220 4348, until 30 Aug (not 18 & 19), 11.10pm, £12.50.

The Double Life of Malcolm Drinkwater, Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 667 7533, until 30 Aug (not 17, 23), 1.30pm, free.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 21

#birramoretti

list.co.uk/festival

Free Festivals | FESTIVAL FEATURES

F R E E FO R A L L From PBH to the Laughing Horse Free Festival, The List’s Rebecca Monks explores everything you need to know about free shows at the Fringe

I

f you’re based in Edinburgh during August, you’ll know that it’s basically impossible to avoid using the F Word. It is prompted by pushy flyerers, passing tourists and is muttered late at night in beer gardens all over the city: yes, ‘Fringe’ truly is the word on everybody’s lips. But, as I found out when attempting to include my own show in this year’s programme, there’s another loaded F Bomb that crops up when talking about the festival: ‘Free’ (plus a third I dare not mention).

Back in January, I set about researching the free festival, only to find that it wasn’t a single festival strand at all. In fact, there are two prominent organisations working within the non-pay-to-play model: the PBH Free Fringe and the Laughing Horse Free Festival, which have different policies, work with different venues and are run in different ways. After some research, I filled in the application form for the latter, and the rest was history.

Except it wasn’t. I waited every day for news on my show, be it a confirmation or a rejection. For three months I emailed, called and tweeted, but, as they say, a watched inbox never boils over with provisional show offers. Months passed, and by the time April rolled around, bringing with it the deadline to register for the Fringe programme, I had received a handful of group emails about applying for alternative venues, while my outbox contained a lot of unanswered requests.

Just when I had given up hope, that same afternoon something exciting happened: I got an email offering me a slot at a newly available venue.

The problem was, by agreeing to perform, I would also be agreeing to pay the £393.60 fee to appear in the Fringe programme, and with the 5pm same-day deadline looming, I was left with approximately three hours and 23 minutes to find the money. Though we knew about the fee from the beginning, without a previous solid show offer, we had no funds and no time to raise them. Suddenly the Free Festival wasn’t feeling so free. I sent what was to be my final email on the matter: turning my dream slot down. In case you were wondering, that was when I used the third F Word.

As it happens, my show (Scour, Clouds & Soil, until 29 Aug, 2.15pm, free, shameless self promotion) eventually found a happy home as part of the PBH Free Fringe, where Fringe Society programme entry is not compulsory. But this testing application process was a learning curve, and highlighted some interesting aspects of the free strands, both in terms of organisation and creative decision making.

If I was frustrated with the delay in hearing back, it is perhaps because the Free Fringe and the Free Festival are just as carefully curated as the rest of the Fringe, despite the popular myth that just about anybody can fill a slot in the lineup. As you can imagine, careful programming takes time.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 23

FESTIVAL FEATURES | Free Festivals

PHOTO © MARK DAW SON

FREE FRINGE FACTS: ABOUT PBH’S FREE FRINGE

Austentatious (top) and Luisa Omielan (bottom) first saw Edinburgh success with free shows; Mike Wozniak (right) performed at the Stand in 2013 but is at the Free Sisters this year (see review, page 48).

PHOTO

© RACH

EL KING

Comedian Janey Godley, who has actively taken her show from paid venues to free ones, says on the matter: ‘It’s not that the Free Festival is open to one man and his dog with no show . . . you just can’t turn up being Betty the Fucking Bottlewasher then suddenly go “I’ve got a show I’ll put it on at the Free Fringe” because nobody cares and nobody checks the quality. That’s not true. There’s great quality control within the Free Festival, there’s just more artistic leeway.’

It’s that artistic leeway which inspires artists such as Godley to choose the free route, or even to supplement their paid shows with free performances, as comedy troupe Clever Peter did last year.

They say they do so because it’s a ‘great platform to perform, which feels free, open and inclusive for all’.

In fact, it’s the notion of collective accessibility for performers and audiences alike that prompted Peter Buckley Hill to found the Free Fringe in 1996. His primary motivation, he says, was ‘so that artists had a choice, which was not a pay-to-play choice. So that people with something to say could pass the scrutiny, and if they did, come to Edinburgh and lose less money.’ His second was to connect more closely with the citizens of Edinburgh, and by offering free shows for all across the city, many residents would argue that this mission is somewhat accomplished.

For Laughing Horse’s Alex Petty meanwhile, two of the greatest strengths of the Free Festival are its ‘accessibility of the arts to audiences’ and its ‘creative freedom’. It has also, it could be argued, changed the very face of the festival. As he says: ‘We have, along with other free show promoters, changed a lot about the Fringe. Indeed, the density of free shows has become a major selling point for the Fringe itself.’

My experience taught me to look more closely at the word free, for every organisation has different costs. That being said, it did buy me an insight into the complex inner workings of the festival, and as it turns out, that was a pretty good deal.

24 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

The Free Fringe was established in 1996 by comedian Peter Buckley Hill with a single show – his own. Last year, the PBH programme featured 440 shows and 7800 performances, so to say the festival has grown would be an understatement.

Every year, the organisation publishes the Wee Blue Book – a detailed programme which lists performance details for Free Fringe shows throughout August. It is distributed by performers as part of the organisation’s community-centric ethos: to help each other out. Nobody gets paid, including Peter: PBH is run on a volunteer basis. In this spirit, performers are asked to help out in anyway they can, be it assisting with front of house duties for a show in the same venue, or by offering up skills such as graphic design.

There is no fee for participating in the festival, and Fringe Society programme entry is not mandatory. Performers may make a voluntary contribution to the Free Fringe if they wish.

ABOUT THE LAUGHING HORSE FREE FESTIVAL The Free Festival was set up in 2004 by Laughing Horse comedy promoters Alex Petty and Kevin McCarron.

Eleven years on, the Free Festival works with 19 venues featring 30 performance spaces, and has grown in scale significantly.

When agreeing to perform with the Free Festival, performers also agree to pay an advertising and equipment contribution, which is £80 for runs of two nights or longer and £40 for single performance shows.

Performers also agree to pay to be part of the Fringe programme, of which the costs are determined by the Fringe Society. In 2015, this was £393.60, with a discount available for early entry.

03 July - 31 August

PLUS Spine-chilling new Jack the Ripper Don’t miss show on for a limited time only our Deadly catch him while you can!

Dungeon Murder thedungeons.com/edinburgh Mystery at the Fringe!

877 EX MACHINA

Written, directed and performed by

ROBERT LEPAGE Thu 13 – Sat 22 August Edinburgh International Conference Centre

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13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 25

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FOOD & DRINK

POPPING UP T

David Pollock discovers some of the best new food pop-ups at this year’s festival

VITTORIA ON THE BRIDGE EDINBURGH

Award-winning Vittoria on the Bridge is part of the renowned Vittoria Group and one of Edinburgh’s most popular eateries, offering delicious, fresh authentic dishes and fabulous Italian hospitality. vittoriagroup.co.uk 26 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

TOP 5: LATE NIGHT DINING

RECOMMENDS . . .

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OX184 Steaks, burgers and more cooked on a woodfired grill in this Cowgate megabar from the Holyrood 9A team. Serving until 4.30am during August. 184 Cowgate

KEBAB MAHAL This wonderful wee place has a kebab shop-meetsgreasy spoon vibe.

Yet the curries are authentic, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s open until the wee hours. 7 Nicolson Square

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VITTORIA The spacious city centre outpost of Leithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s much-loved and long-serving Italian restaurant has a midnight licence during the festival. 19 George IV Bridge

POMEGRANATE The very lovely and affordable Middle Eastern menu here at the top of Leith Walk is available until midnight or later on busy nights. 1 Antigua Street

CIVERINOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ITALIAN STREET FOOD AND PIZZA SLICE BAR The name should tell you all you need to know, right? Open and serving until well after midnight.

5 Hunter Square

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REAL FOODS | 37 Broughton Street | EH1 3JU & 8 Brougham Street | Tollcross | EH3 9JH | www.realfoods.co.uk 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 27

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MATT HAIG

PHOTO © CLIVE DOYLE

The Reasons to Stay Alive author examine issues around mental health ‘One in five people will have a major depressive episode in their life,’ says author Matt Haig, ‘so it’s really time for the stigma to be totally erased about depression.’ This stigma is one of the topics addressed in his non-fiction work Reasons To Stay Alive, a frank account of his experiences with depression and anxiety.

‘Compared to any other physical illness, depression comes with a judgement. It’s seen as a personality failing or a flaw.’

Mental health is an increasingly crucial concern in the UK, with male suicide rates higher than at anytime since 2001 and Britain having one of the highest self-harm rates in Europe. As part of the Book Festival’s Staying Well strand, Haig is joined by author and illustrator Debi Gliori, psychologist Rory O’Connor and writer-broadcaster Richard

Holloway in the chair to consider the issues surrounding mental health including providing better support. ‘There’s serious charity work to be done, serious research to be done but I think the single most important thing is talking about it,’ he says.

Haig is also delivering this year’s Siobhan Dowd Trust Memorial Lecture, which is held in honour of the late author who bequeathed her royalties to a trust which aims to bring the joy of reading to disadvantaged children and young adults. (Rowena McIntosh) Q Stories That Connect Us: Siobhan Dowd Trust Memorial Lecture, 16 Aug, 2.15pm, £7 (£5); Stepping Away From The Edge: The Road To Better Mental Health, 18 Aug, 7.30pm, £10 (£8).

Both events at Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 29

FESTIVAL BOOKS | Hitlist

BOOKS HITLIST Yasmin Sulaiman picks some of the best books and spoken word events across the festivals LOUD POETS Spoken word artists and poets from Scotland and further afield gather in the Storytelling Centre every night of the Fringe. The lineup’s different each time, and there’s live music too.

Scottish Storytelling Centre, 556 9579, until 31 Aug, 9pm, £10 (£8).

LUKE WRIGHT: STAY AT HOME DANDY The performance poet’s back with a new show on how to balance suburban life as a father of two with looking fabulous. Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 18), 6.20pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).

MARK THOMAS The comedian and activist kicks off the 2015 Edinburgh Book Fringe with a chat about his book 100 Minor Acts of Dissent (which was also a Fringe show in 2013). See preview, page 33. Word Power Books, 662 9112, 14 Aug, 7.30pm, free.

MARILYNNE ROBINSON Pulitzer Prize-winner Robinson doesn’t

Kate Tempest

publish often, but it’s always worth the wait: her latest novel Lila is a triumph.

A highly anticipated event marking the first morning of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 15 Aug, 11.45am, £10 (£8).

ALI SMITH The author of Hotel World, The Accidental and, most recently, the excellent How to Be Both is appearing in two Book Festival events this year. The second dubs her ‘one of Scotland’s finest writers’. We concur.

See preview, page 33. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 15 Aug, 2.15pm, £10 (£8); 16 Aug, 11.45am, £10 (£8).

events at this year’s Book Festival. See preview, page 29. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 16 Aug, 2.15pm, £7 (£5); 18 Aug, 7.30pm, £10 (£8).

KIRSTIN INNES The Glasgow-based writer talks about her excellent debut, Fishnet: a novel about sex workers that was inspired by research she undertook for an article she wrote in this very magazine. See feature, page 32. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 15 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£5).

TIM CLARE The performance poet became a novelist this year, with the release of his first book The Honours. Here he appears with Mull Historical Society’s Colin MacIntyre to talk about their respective debuts. See feature, page 31. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 16 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£5).

MATT HAIG The author of The Humans and Reasons to Stay Alive appears at two

KATE TEMPEST Since being shortlisted for a Mercury Prize last year, poet / rapper Kate

Tempest’s profile has skyrocketed.

This month, she visits the Book Festival to talk to Don Paterson and to perform in two separate events.

Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 18 Aug, 8.15pm, £10 (£8); 19 Aug, 8.15pm, £10 (£8).

UNBOUND: HEAD NORTH, MY FRIEND! The Book Festival’s free nightly salon starts up on Sunday; there’s something to enjoy every night but this is our pick for this week, in which Ryan van Winkle hosts writers from Shetland, Finland and Iceland. See preview, page 33.

Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 19 Aug, 9pm, free. Unbound starts on 16 Aug.

800 authors from 55 countries in 750 events.

Join the adventure in Charlotte Square Gardens!

Book tickets: 0845 373 5888/ www.edbookfest.co.uk Tickets still available for: Chris Brookmyre, A L Kennedy, S J Watson, Ben Okri, Julian Clary, Kate Mosse, Edwyn Collins, Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart David, A C Grayling, Helen Lederer, Steve Bell, Kate Tempest, George the Poet, Pat Barker, Tracey Thorn, Michel Faber and many more.

30 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Tim Clare | FESTIVAL BOOKS

list.co.uk/festival

HONOU R BOUND Autho r and th Tim Clare t a e with R ‘dark perio lks fantasy fi ebecc a Mon d’ of the 193 ction 0s ks

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book, the blurb begins “1935, Norfolk”, which is a terribly unpromising setting for an adventure,’ he laughs, although of course, he manages to make it otherwise. In fact, it’s clear speaking to him that he doesn’t agree at all with the misconception that the period was uneventful.

‘I think it’s a really interesting, rich, fascinating and funny period to talk about . . . there was a sense of great paranoia, and the fear of war breaking out all over the world in different Commonwealth areas. There was terror in Britain of the crumbling empire,’ he says, and when it came to writing about the period, ‘it was actually just squeezing my book around it . . . I could go on about it for ages’.

And so he did. Over the phone, Clare tells me in detail how the Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of the most important fantasy series of the 20th century, was written in the 1930s, how comics bloomed in the period, and about the confusion and fear in the country with regards to fascists and Bolshevik revolutions. All this he learned while researching the novel: beforehand, he insists, he knew ‘precisely shit’ about the period.

The more fantastical elements of the story, however, came a little more organically. ‘I’m so interested in fantasy,’ he says, ‘in the genre, in people’s reaction to it – this kind of slightly purepanic fear of things being unreal’.

When Clare appears at the book festival, alongside fellow debut novelist Colin Macintyre, he plans to discuss all these things in just as much depth, and if he sounds enthusiastic now, just wait until he’s plunged back into the festival atmosphere. ‘I want to be in it,’ he says, ‘it’s like a story, it’s interesting.’

If there’s one thing Tim Clare knows, it’s an interesting story.

PHOTO © ANDI SAPEY

y first time coming up to the Fringe, I had just been dumped,’ performance-poet-turned-author Tim Clare says. ‘I had just left a relationship, I was miserable and I came up to the festival just to have something to do. I had never felt more lost.’

This was ten years ago, back in 2005, when he was a member of poetry boy band Aisle16 (think Westlife, with fewer key changes and more on-point poetic verse). ‘I had never done performance poetry up to that date and I had no particular interest in it,’ he says, but that soon changed when he joined his fellow boy band members. ‘That was actually the start of it, at the Fringe. It kind of changed my life really.’

Considering Clare’s enormous success as a performance poet since, this feels like an understatement. He has made a name for himself performing all over the country, most recently with stints at Glastonbury, Latitude and other big festivals. This year, however, his way with words reached another level, with the release of his debut novel, The Honours. It’s that which is bringing Clare back to Edinburgh, only this time it’s not the Fringe he’s conquering – it’s the International Book Festival.

The novel itself is an impressive work of fantasy, released to great critical acclaim in April. It is set in the 1930s, and follows 13-yearold Delphine to a countryside estate in Norfolk, as she battles monsters (both literally and figuratively). Speaking to Clare, it is clear that both the genre and the culture of the period interest him greatly because, as he rightly says, the interwar years are not commonly explored in literature, since ‘no one really heard about the 1930s except that it’s a dark period before the Second World War.’ That, however, didn’t stop him writing about it. ‘On the back of my

Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 16 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£5).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31

FESTIVAL BOOKS | First Book Award

FIRST RITES

Tim Clare and over 50 other authors are up for the EIBF’s First Book Award this year. Yasmin Sulaiman picks eight more of our favourite debuts, whose authors are appearing at the festival

ANNA SMAIL THE CHIMES (SCEPTRE) When it came out in February, we called The Chimes ‘a distinctive and impressive debut, one that dares to create its own music’. Just last month, it was included on the Booker longlist.

It’s a dystopian thriller set in a world where people are unable to create their own memories. With Sean Michaels, 22 Aug, 7pm, £7 (£5).

CHIGOZIE OBIOMA THE FISHERMEN (ONE) Also on the Man Booker longlist is this thrilling debut from Obioma, the story of nine-year-old Benjamin’s childhood in Nigeria. It’s garnered praise from critics and audiences alike, putting Obioma on the map as one of the new generation of storytellers from Africa. With Simon Sylvester, 26 Aug, 5pm, £7 (£5).

LUCY RIBCHESTER THE HOURGLASS FACTORY (SIMON & SCHUSTER) We’ll be honest: Lucy writes about dance for us, so we already know how great she is. Her debut is an entertaining romp through the streets of Edwardian London, featuring a trapeze artist, corset fetishists and Suffragettes. With Care Santos, 26 Aug, 2pm, £7 (£5).

SEAN MICHAELS US CONDUCTORS (BLOOMSBURY) Michaels’ debut is based on the tale of Lev Terman, a scientist and Russian spy sent to New York. It’s beautifully written, and recently won the Canadian Man Booker equivalent, the Giller Prize (previous winners include Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood). With Anna Smail, 22 Aug, 7pm, £7 (£5).

KIRSTIN INNES FISHNET (FREIGHT)

AMY MASON THE OTHER IDA (CARGO)

Another List connection: Kirstin’s a former staff member and she got the idea for Fishnet after an article she wrote for us in 2009. Years later, it’s become this fantastic novel, in which Fiona stumbles into an unfamiliar world when she goes looking for her missing sister. With Melinda Nadj Abonji, 15 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£5).

Amy Mason asks if women can escape their mothers’ shadow in her debut, which won the Dundee International Book Prize in 2014. When Ida returns home after her mother’s death, she and her sister confront some hard truths and discover who their mother really was. With Esther Gerritsen, 20 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£5).

JESSE ARMSTRONG, LOVE, SEX AND OTHER FOREIGN POLICY GOALS (JONATHAN CAPE) This comic novel set in the former Yugoslavia in 1994 is one of the year’s funniest books. Armstrong might be a debut novelist but he’s also one of the writers behind Peep Show, The Thick of It and In the Loop. With Tom Drury, 28 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£5).

SIMON SYLVESTER THE VISITORS (QUERCUS) To call Sylvester’s first novel a mystery about a missing person would be reductive; it’s just as much a celebration of the Scottish storytelling tradition, and a beautiful evocation of a remote island. Part folk-tale, part thriller, it’s a fascinating debut with a strong Scottish identity. With Chigozie Obioma, 26 Aug, 5pm, £7 (£5).

ALL EVENTS AT CHARLOTTE SQUARE GARDENS, 0845 373 5888.

VOTE FOR THE FIRST BOOK AWARD AT EDBOOKFEST.CO.UK BY MIDNIGHT ON 16 OCT 2015.

32 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Previews | FESTIVAL BOOKS

list.co.uk/festival

PHOTO © KEVIN LOW

PHOTO © CHRIS SCOTT

JURA UNBOUND: HEAD NORTH, MY FRIEND!

EDINBURGH BOOK FRINGE

AL KENNEDY Versatile author on festivals and Doctor Who

Words and music from the ‘High North’

Word Power Books’ annual festival features Mark Thomas and Janice Galloway

In explaining this showcase of the works of Arctic communities – from the ‘High North’, as he puts it – organiser and host Ryan Van Winkle elaborates upon why this particular period in time is so important for the region. ‘Right now, the ice caps are melting at a shocking rate and international companies are keen to exploit the wealth of resources which are accessible for the first time ever,’ he says. ‘So in the news you’re seeing ships heading north and that’s going to bring a lot of attention and tension to the region. We feel it best to invite artists over to give them the space to speak in their own words and we hope you’ll join us. It’s an important time in the history of the Arctic and these voices are more vital than ever.’

There will be words, music and stories from Sami poet and musician Niillas Holmberg, Icelandic crime writer Ragnar Jonasson and the Inuit poet and live artist Jessie Kleemann, while Shetland poets Christine De Luca and Rachel McCrum (pictured) will read newly commissioned translations and DJ Aikio will play contemporary music from the area.

(David Pollock) Q Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 19 Aug, 9pm, free.

Even for a city with a good smattering of independent bookshops like Edinburgh, Word Power is a particular gem. This staunchly left-wing book shop hosts events throughout the year – including the Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair in autumn – but in August runs the Edinburgh Book Fringe, as a free alternative to the Book Festival at Charlotte Square.

This year’s Book Fringe will kick off with an event

by Word Power-fan Mark Thomas (pictured, 14 Aug). Elsewhere, comedian Kate Smurthwaite hosts an event to mark the publication of The What The Frock! Book of Funny Women (15 Aug); the excellent poets Harry Giles, Marion McCready and Jennifer Williams read from anthology, Our Real Red Selves (22 Aug); and Janice Galloway chats about her work and reads from her latest, Jellyfish: A Short Book of Short Stories (28 Aug).

Also appearing are poet Bashabi Fraser (18 Aug), official Yes Scotland artist Stewart Bremner (26 Aug) and Orwell Prize-winning Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh, among others. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Q All events at Word Power Books, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, 662 9112, 14–28 Aug, various times, free.

Discussing her hugely successful career, two-time Granta Best Young British Novelist AL Kennedy will be a big draw at the Book Festival, particularly given her recent commission to write Doctor Who novels – another feather in a cap that includes lecturing and stand-up comedy as well as book writing.

Kennedy finds the Edinburgh audience one that really cares about books. ‘A few festivals are courting TV and heavy corporate investment,’ she says. ‘As a result, they’re full of fake debates, artificially induced shouting and people who can’t walk about in public without a PA standing next to them.’ Describing Edinburgh as a ‘real’ festival, she says it is ‘still a place where people who think can go and be with other people who think, who are interested in the world, who want to learn and who like people – all the good stuff you don’t get from the mass media.’

The big question, of course, is how she’s been getting on with the Who novel. ‘It was slightly more fun and far more nostalgic than most of my writing – and I don’t usually work with existing characters,’ she says. ‘But otherwise, much the same.’

(Kevin Scott) Q Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 18 Aug, 1.30pm, £10 (£8).

ALI SMITH Critic Stuart Kelly considers Smith’s place in the literary pantheon The plaudits and prizes just keep on rolling in for Ali Smith.

Her most recent novel, the dual perspective How to Be Both, was shortlisted for the Booker and won the Goldsmiths Prize, a Costa Award and, most recently, the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. And she only went and got herself a CBE in the New Year Honours list. It’s quite a delicious thought that a copy of Hotel World might lurk on HRH’s bedside table.

As she prepares for two EIBF appearances, Stuart Kelly, literary critic and chair of her event on 16 August, has been pondering just what makes her writing so special. ‘Ali Smith is a mercurial writer, and I mean that in all the aspects of the Roman god,’ he states. ‘She’s about messages, gain and loss, trickery and the passage of souls to the beyond. Over her career, I think the most significant change is a kind of emerging elegiac and a decline of whimsy: some of her early work was thrillingly “look what I can do”; now it seems more like “observe what I must say”.’

While Smith has excelled in her novels, she is also the acclaimed creator of deeply memorable short story collections, her work helping give that much-maligned form more respect.

‘Comparing short stories and novels is like comparing kettles and coconuts: the novel is about change, the short story about realisation. She does both pretty well to my mind.’ says Kelly.

Now a published writer for 20 years, Smith clearly has plenty more books in the tank yet. But how does Kelly see her legacy being shaped? ‘I’ll let posterity decide that, but what I would say is that in the present, she has already forged a formidable oeuvre, which has gladdened and saddened and maddened me in equal measure.’ (Brian Donaldson) Q Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 16 Aug, 11.45am, £10 (£8); Smith also delivers the PEN / HG Wells Lecture, 15 Aug, 2.15pm, £10 (£8).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 33

FESTIVAL BOOKS | Week Planner

WEEK PLANNER Claire Flynn and Yasmin Sulaiman pick their highlights from the Edinburgh International Book Festival programme.

SATURDAY 15 Marilynne Robinson with Lennie Goodings Having won the Orange-

prize, Pulitzer-prize and National Books Critics Circle award, this American writer is finally making her debut appearance at Charlotte Square, introduced by publisher Lennie Goodings. Her literary repertoire, including Housekeeping, Gilead, Home and Lila, has garnered her a reputation as one of America’s greatest living writers. 11.45am, £10 (£8).

Ali Smith The second annual H G Wells Lecture will be hosted by experimental Scottish author Ali Smith.

Last month she won the Baileys Prize for fiction for How to be Both, her latest novel, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. See preview, page 33. 2.15pm, £10 (£8).

SJ Watson His debut novel Before I Go To Sleep gained him fans in Lionel Shriver and Dennis Lehane, and was made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth. Now the Midlands-born crime novelist present psychological thriller Second Lies.

6.45pm, £10 (£8).

Kirstin Innes & Melinda Nadj Abonji These two writers have written

novels that take on the issues of work and family. Innes’ Fishnet delves into the world of sex workers, while Abonji’s Fly Away, Pigeon features families torn between new beginnings abroad and missing home. 8.45pm £7 (£5).

SUNDAY 16

DAVID MITCHELL The author of Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet talks about his works, in an event chaired by Stuart Kelly. His most recent tome, The Bone Clocks, was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker (though cruelly passed up for the shortlist) and was labelled by horror novelist Stephen King as one of the best books of last year. In October, he’ll be releasing Slade House, a new novel that he originally began on Twitter in 2014.

Q Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 15 Aug, 8.15pm, £10 (£8).

Matt Haig 2015’s Siobhan Dowd

Memorial Lecture will be delivered by the author behind The Humans and Reasons to Stay Alive. Chaired by Tony Bradman. See preview, page 29.

2.15pm, £7 (£5).

Louis de Bernieres The writer behind the beloved romance novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin returns to the Edinburgh Book Festival to discuss his latest book The Dust that Falls From Dreams, set in England just before the beginning of World War One. 3.15pm, £10 (£8).

Amit Chaudhuri This acclaimed Indian writer will be discussing his latest novel with Man Booker shortlisted author Neel Mukherjee. In Odysseus Abroad, a would-be poet leaves India for London, and is trying to make sense of the new city. 4pm, £10 (£8).

Ben Okri Winner of the Man Booker prize for The Famished Road and accomplished poet, Okri has written his first book in eight years. The Nigerian author’s latest work, entitled The Age of Magic, follows a group of travellers heading for a mysterious Swiss mountain village, in search of the meaning of life. 6.45pm, £10 (£8).

John Burnside Burnside, a writer who has used his own experiences with alcoholism and mental illness as inspiration for his books, will be talking about his new memoir I Put a Spell on You, and this month’s re-release of his debut novel The Dumb House, first released in 1997. 7.15pm, £10 (£8).

Jura Unbound: Trading Stories

2015’s series of Jura Unbound events will be launched with an evening of enticing international short stories.

Authors Dorthe Nors, Mary Costello, Molly Antopol, David Gate and Adriana Diaz will be performing readings from their works, and James Yorkston will be on hand to provide some folksy guitar tunes. 9pm, free drop-in.

34 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

MONDAY 17 Paul Merton Popular comic and TV panellist Merton has had his fair share of tragedy. His experiences of the death of his second wife and his own manic episode, which left him hospitalised, are documented in his memoir Only When I Laugh. 11.45am, £10 (£8).

Jane Gardam and Penelope Lively with Lennie Goodings These two award-winning writers will discuss their favourite elderly heroines from their own books, including Lively’s Moon Tiger and Gardam’s Old Filth trilogy, with publisher Lennie Goodings. 5pm, £10 (£8).

Helle Helle Martin Aitken has translated this critically acclaimed Danish author’s novels into English for the first time. She will be discussing her work This Should Be Written in the Present Tense, a story about the mistakes of early adulthood. 7pm, £7 (£5).

To Read or Not to Read Novelists Frank Cottrell Boyce and Keith Gray join publisher Mairi Kidd to discuss how the way we work or write can be altered to support young people on an enjoyable path to reading. A Dyslexia Clinic with Barrington Stoke and Dyslexia Scotland will be held after the event. 7.30pm, £7 (£5).

Iain Macwhirter Having emerged as a leading voice during the Scottish independence debate, the journalist will take the stage at Charlotte Square to discuss his new book Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland and the landscape of British politics post-General Election. 8.15pm, £10 (£8).

Jura Unbound: There was a Crazy Guy The singer, song-writer and multi-

instrumentalist Colin MacIntyre teams up with author and musician John Darnielle

and writer Etgar Keret for a lively evening of music and storytelling. 9pm, free drop-in.

TUESDAY 18 Kirsty Logan & Jón Kalman Stefánsson The List’s former

Books Editor and rapid rising literary star will present her debut novel The Gracekeepers, set in a northern archipelago on a flooded earth. Icelandic author Stefánsson’s The Heart of Man, which has now been translated into English, is similarly set in the wild north.

10.15am, £10 (£8).

AL Kennedy Acclaimed for novels like Paradise, named a Granta Best Young British novelist twice and recently commissioned to write Doctor Who books, this versatile author will be chatting to Stuart Kelly about her diverse career. See preview, page 33. 1.30pm, £10 (£8).

Ziauddin Sardar The renowned Islam expert has retraced the history of Mecca, from a desert valley to one of the world’s most significant cities, and examines what the future holds for the place that means so much to different cultures.

2.15pm, £10 (£8).

Tom Holland After being shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Rubicon, which charted the end of the Roman Empire, Holland present his new work on the first dynasty of Rome’s emperors.

3.45pm, £10 (£8).

Antonia Fraser She’s spent her career studying the histories of figures like Mary Queen of Scots, Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV, but now she’s decided to document her own past in My History: A Memoir of Growing Up. 5pm, £10 (£8).

Jura Unbound: Born to be Wide

Wyndham Wallace, whose first book

Lee, Myself and I focuses on musician Lee Hazlewood’s comeback in 1999, is joined by TV and radio journalist Stuart Cosgrove, author of Detroit 67. 9pm, free drop-in.

WEDNESDAY 19 Stuart McHardy The historian will

present his latest work Scotland’s Future History, a radical reimagining of Scotland’s past, which asks if the indigenous populations were much more sophisticated than we were led to believe.

10.30am, £7 (£5).

Colm Tóibín Nora Webster, the novel set in his home town took the Irish author over a decade to write, and he will be discussing the process of creating it with writer and biographer Hermione Lee. 1.30pm, £10 (£8).

Shami Chakrabarti Chaired by Kate Mosse, this event will see ‘the most dangerous woman in Britain’ discuss her book On Liberty, which argues that human rights should never be violated in the name of national security. 3.15pm, £10 (£8).

Will Gompertz The BBC Arts Editor’s Think Like an Artist argues that there’s a link between creativity and entrepreneurialism, citing the likes of Picasso and Warhol as examples. 6.45pm, £10 (£8).

Kate Tempest After rocketing into the limelight when she was shortlisted for a Mercury prize last year, the rapper and spoken word artist has now produced a full-length poetry collection, Hold Your Own. 8.15pm, £10 (£8).

All the above events are at Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 15–31 Aug, edbookfest.co.uk

Festival

DANCE COMEDY

& PHYSICAL THEATRE

For m info gootroe

LIST.CO.UK /FESTIVAL

TOMMY TIERNAN The 90s Perrier winner tells us how he took a leap into the improv dark This improv show started from the knowledge that the best moments from any show are off-the-cuff ones, both for audience and performer. A comedian puts together a 90-minute show and people leave saying ‘that bit when he was talking to the woman in the front row was amazing’, so it sprung from an awareness of being fully creatively alive in the moment.

I loved the idea of composing in front of a crowd and I started doing that in Galway as a lunchtime experiment. It was a little bit like being taken from the zoo and being abandoned in the Amazon: very difficult, very thrilling, very pressurised, but soon I developed a rhythm and a way of doing it. It’s not game-based, it’s

not suggestion-based, it’s a conjuring of some sort. At any moment in time, there is something that you want to talk about and it’s about finding that.

When a performer is pushed beyond themselves and out of their comfort zone, they rely on instinct and panic. I can’t demand when inspiration will turn up but I can ferociously dig for it. (As told to Brian Donaldson) Q Tommy Tiernan Alive in Edinburgh, Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 Aug, 7.30pm, £15–£16 (£14–£15); Tiernan also appears at the Gilded Balloon 30th Anniversary Gala at the Playhouse, 622 6552 / 0844 871 3014, 15 Aug, 8pm, £20 (£18). For a longer version of this interview, see list.co.uk/festival

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 37

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Hitlist

COMEDY HITLIST Brian Donaldson highlights some of the best comedy in week two of the Fringe TIM KEY The man whose works-in-progress are generally way better than most actsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; carefully considered and complete oeuvres. What has he got up his sleeve this time, eh? Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 19â&#x20AC;&#x201C;31 Aug, 9.45pm, ÂŁ10.

ZOE COOMBS MARR As â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Daveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the rather awful Australian stand-up, Marr is dissecting both misogynistic attitudes and the idea that bad comedy should be allowed to exist. See review, page 53. Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 18), 9.20pm, ÂŁ9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ11 (ÂŁ8â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ10).

ALEX HORNE Another chance to see his awardnominated Monsieur Butterfly, a typically ambitious and prop-heavy jape. See feature, page 39. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 15â&#x20AC;&#x201C;29 Aug, 7pm, ÂŁ12 (ÂŁ11).

NISH KUMAR This stridently intelligent and very

funny stand-up returns with another strong set, as he takes on the notion that stand-up comedy has to be one almighty left-leaning echo chamber.

See review, page 52. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 7.15pm, ÂŁ9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ12 (ÂŁ8â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ10.50).

TOMMY TIERNAN The Irish comedy master is going all improv, but he wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be taking any of your suggestions: itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all just going to come out of his head. See interview, page 37. Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 Aug, 7.30pm, ÂŁ15â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ16 (ÂŁ14â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ15).

DAPHNE Arguably the top sketch trio in town and impressing everyone with their slightly demented and often devilish skits about TV chefs and massive cups of coffee. See review, page 45.

Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 3.15pm, ÂŁ8.50â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ10.50 (ÂŁ7â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ9).

JAMES ACASTER Going for a four in a row (The Big Award nominations, that is) and he should be well on the way as Represent marks another small step upwards for the Kettering comic.

17:30

05 - 31 AUG (NOT 17, 24)

38 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20 Aug 2015

Tim Key

See review, page 42. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 8.30pm, ÂŁ9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ12 (ÂŁ8â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ10.50).

KYLE KINANE US comic debuts with a set which has a truly spectacular bit about spiders and crabs. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re really two a penny, arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t they? See review, page 49. Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 18), 10.10pm,

ÂŁ10â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ12 (ÂŁ9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ11).

JOSEPH MORPURGO Odessa was a Fringe highlight last year but Morpurgo has surpassed himself with the fabulous Soothing Sounds for Baby, a raucous music-based trip into memory and mayhem. See review, list. co.uk/festival Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 8â&#x20AC;&#x201C;30 Aug (not 18), 8.15pm, ÂŁ8.50â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ10.50 (ÂŁ7â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ9).

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Punning Comedians

PUN DIRECTION Quick quips and intricate wordplay is an often under-rated stand-up skill. Brian Donaldson hears from a number of acts who are continually looking to reach their punchlines in the shortest time possible

PHOTO © STEVE ULLATHORNE

W

hile the Fringe has long been renowned for comedians doing storytelling shows with a big theme or grand concept, there’s a bijou set of stand-ups who are walking a different laughter path. The raw and pure form of comedy that is pun-making may not be to everyone’s taste, but when done well, it can provide as memorable a night as listening to someone talk about a recently deceased relative or how they travelled the world to meet a bunch of namesakes.

While an undisputed pioneer of the one-liner may be absent this year (Tim Vine, a two-time winner of Dave’s Joke of the Fringe Award), there’s a talented plethora of punners and a host of one-line quipsters in town.

In 2011, Australian comic Bec Hill launched a night entitled Pun Run (which gets a one-off airing this Fringe) as a means of purging herself of the many jokes she was accumulating in her brain. ‘The response from comedians and the audience was so overwhelming, it ended up turning into a regularly sold-out night,’ she recalls. ‘I think it would be torture for anyone who hated puns. Norman Lovett was a guest at our first night and he admitted his loathing for wordplay. I think we all took great pleasure in watching him squirm through every act.’

Among those appearing at Pun Run is the 2014 UK Pun Championships victor, Darren Walsh. Telling puns appears to have chosen him rather than the other way round. ‘I’d love to be able to do stories and longer jokes but that’s just not me. I don’t think you can pick what type of comedian to be,

38 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015

it just happens. I guess an hour of puns is quite hard going so I try and break it up with videos and drawings as much as possible.’

Current UK Pun Championships title-holder Leo Kearse is a passionate defender of this comedic style in the face of a festival rammed with longform storytelling. ‘People who hate puns are basically stupid idiots. I love all puns and the more stupid or contrived the better. Puns totally kick ass on some wet-lipped posh kid waffling on about “literally” the “craziest” thing that “genuinely” happened (it never happened). Puns are proper jokes, they have a twist and you have to engage your brain to enjoy them.’

Long-term joke-writer Jem Brookes (his credits have included topical shows such as Radio 2’s The News Huddlines and Radio 4’s Week Ending) insists that puns work best when they come right out of the blue. ‘It often happens when I’m out and about or when people say a phrase or saying, and then that may start a chain of thought. If I’m working on a particular show, sometimes you just have to sit down with a piece of paper or on Twitter and start forcing yourself to come out with stuff. Usually the best ones hit you when you’re not expecting it, though often you get into a subconscious higher state of mind where you don’t even realise you’re turning stuff over constantly in the back of your mind.’

Richard Pulsford recalls a particular landmark moment in his life when that stuff turned over in his mind when perhaps it shouldn’t have done.

‘My partner was giving birth and there was something both sublime and

Alex Edelman | FESTIVAL COMEDY

list.co.uk/festival Clockwise, from top left: Bec Hill, Darren Walsh, Milton Jones, Leo Kearse, Richard Pulsford, Stewart Francis

‘People who hat e puns are basical ly stupid idiots’

ridiculous about me sitting dressed-up in an operating theatre, like a spare part, which fired the creative juices.’ He also demurs at the suggestion that a pun-based show is, by its very nature, either a good or a bad thing. ‘If you said “come and see people performing puns for two hours”, my immediate reaction would probably be negative. But if you said “come and see Milton Jones or Stewart Francis”, I would jump at the chance. So I think it’s all about expectations.’

While all the above acts are on various steps of the contemporary comedy ladder, the trajectory of Fringe superstars Milton Jones and Stewart Francis shows that you can become hugely successful acts with a national profile on the basis of little wordplays. So, here’s a sample of the kind of thing that those two minds created for this feature. First, Milton Jones on his favourite punning shop-name: ‘someone mentioned to me the other day about a butcher’s shop called “Halal: Is it Meat You’re Looking For?”.’ And Stewart Francis lets rip on the best pun he’s ever witnessed on a sea-faring vehicle: ‘recently, whilst my wife was out on a day pass, we saw a great pun on the back of a yacht. The yacht was called “Anchor Management”. BOOM: that’s what I’m talking aboat.’ With craic like that kicking about the Fringe, you can keep your storytellers.

See full event details plus pun-laden Q&As with each comic at list.co.uk/festival

SLIGHT RETURN PHOTO © WILL BREMRIDGE

Kirstyn Smith talks to 2014’s Best Newcomer Alex Edelman about winning, influences and being neurotic Alex Edelman is just happy he’s allowed to come back. ‘The thing that was great about the award is that it gave me the chance to maybe come and do a second show. I’m thrilled that people came last year and that people might come again this year.’

Last year’s show, Millennial, earned Edelman the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. This year, however, he might feel some pressure to bring it just as hard with his new hour, Everything Handed to You. He’s smart enough to stick to a winning formula. ‘Every show is going to be about young people until I’m not a young person,’ he says. ‘But it’s also about travel and family and what it’s like to be a person who does an unusual job for a living.’

Far from resting on his laurels, it’s clear Edelman is keen to hone his craft. Opening for Eddie Izzard was ‘very special’, and he’s no slouch when it comes to learning from the best: ‘You get to see the same show again and again and you get to see the way that they change it and work it.’

Also influenced by Simon Amstell (who he regularly tours with) and Louis CK, Edelman is working the neurotic young person corner, with self-deprecation and worldly bewilderment very much in his arsenal. It makes perfect sense to him: ‘a neurotic person is quite conducive to stand-up comedy and stand-up comedy is a good outlet for a neurotic person. Being selfaware is a really important key to comedy.’

Q Alex Edelman: Everything Handed to You, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 8–30 Aug, 8.30pm, £9–£12 (£8–£10.50). Previews 5–7 Aug, £6.

6–13 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 39

HIGH G N I Y L F Alex Horne | FESTIVAL COMEDY

list.co.uk/festival

In town with his own award-nominated hour as well as mucking about with his Horne Section pals, Alex Horne tells Marissa Burgess about the tricky tasks behind his convoluted solo show

A

lex Horne was probably the last person to expect the return of Monsieur Butterfly after its Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination last year. ‘I didn’t think I was going to tour it because it was too, er, bulky,’ he confesses.

Nevertheless it’s been on tour and now it’s made its way back to the Fringe. For those who missed out, the show consisted of Horne telling stories while building a massive squirrel trap out of all sorts of random bits and pieces: think Heath Robinson meets the board game Mouse Trap.

The result was mesmerising, tense and surprisingly poignant. You need a big van to cart it about in, don’t you? ‘I know. But I’ve got this tour manager and he persuaded me that he could lift things for me. So yeah, I’ve been touring it this year and it’s just grown gradually. The difficult thing is how to grow it without it taking longer than an hour. The show is not massively different, but it is substantially different.’

The motivation for Monsieur Butterfly wasn’t really that Horne needed to catch a naughty squirrel, as he claims in the show. Or that he’d had a new screwdriver for Christmas and wanted to test it out. ‘I’ve got children and I wanted to impress them and show them what I do for a living, do something that they understand and enjoy.’

Meanwhile, the specific inspiration for his convoluted creation came from a small section in another Edinburgh show he saw a couple of years ago called Slightly Fat Features. ‘It was circusy, really old-fashioned and there was one moment in it where someone set up a 13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 39

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Alex Horne

WHAT THE HORNE SECTION THINK OF ALEX ‘If you have kids, getting rid of a beard is bad’

tiny little machine where a roll of tape rolled down a homemade ramp, made a hammer fall and an elephant tip into a hat. It lasted about 20 seconds but there was this real tension beforehand and we all wanted to see if he would do it.’

Having won their permission to use the seed of that idea, Horne set about creating a much bigger version involving, among other things, ladders, a loo seat and some risky balloons. ‘I did a run at the Soho Theatre recently, and I had to get new confetti for my balloon because I’d used all the confetti up but it turns out I’d bought sharp confetti. I’d spent a day stuffing balloons with confetti but if I blew them up even a tiny bit they’d just pop. I went through about 30 balloons. It made the show about 20 minutes longer and it turns out people are afraid of balloons. Everyday something goes wrong and it’s always a different thing. It’s so unpredictable.’

Of course that’s one of the charms of the show. Have you been tempted to tweak it to make it work better over the last year? ‘It definitely doesn’t work any better,’ states Horne with a resigned sigh. ‘The success rate is far lower now. It involves more people [audience volunteers], which will always mean that it works less well.’

Still at least he doesn’t get bored, especially when he deliberately tries something new. ‘Last week I climbed one of the ladders and realised I’d never been up it before.

The whole thing collapsed. But it didn’t really matter because people thought it was part of the show.’

Horne’s other project at the Fringe this year is his latest Horne Section show. His friends Ben and Joe, plus a collection of other musicians, have been supplying an irreverent musical accompaniment to the comedian’s words for six years now. The concept has resulted in many successful shows and their own Radio 4 series.

‘This year we’re just doing a quiz. Normally the acts come on and perform with the band but we feel like we’ve got to the end of that. Everyone we wanted to do it has now done it. It’s still Shooting Stars-ish in that the people in it are just pawns; they don’t do an awful lot of performing but they’re funny people. It’s just an excuse to muck about and quietly lose the format.’

And one final, rather pressing question: there’s a rumour that the hipster beard – of which Horne’s was the pioneering one surely – is no longer cool. Is Horne likely to crack open a pack of disposable razors and lose it? ‘Mine is slightly ginger and patchy so it’s not really a hipster beard. I’ve had it for maybe ten years but I’m going to sit it out; it’ll come back in again. I have children so I couldn’t shave it off; my dad shaved his beard off once and we all disowned him. My wife’s dad shaved his off and they freaked out. I think if you have kids, getting rid of a beard is bad.’ The beard, like Monsieur Butterfly, lives to fight another day.

Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 15–29 Aug, 7pm, £12 (£11).

The Horne Section’s Questions Sessions, Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, 15–29 Aug, 10.40pm, £13–£15 (£12–£14).

40 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

We’ve heard a lot from Alex there, W Section cohorts? We but what wh hat of his Horne H asked them to tell us exactly what they think of their beloved leader. This is what they came back with . . .

JOE AUCKLAND Alex Horne is without doubt the greatest band leader I’ve ever worked under. He has a unique quality that sets him aside from all others. Mistakes are often viewed by such people as a negative thing. To Alex, a mistake is nothing more than a gift; it’s free comedic material which cannot be planned or written. The bigger the mistake, the greater the potential for laughs, making it impossible to fail under Alex’s musical leadership, other than with a note-perfect performance.

Also, he can almost clap in time.

WILL COLLIER Alex Horne? Alex? Horne? Sorry. Not ringing any bells.

Who’s that? I’ve been coming to Edinburgh for six years now and I’m afraid I’ve not come across that name. Should I have heard of him? I’ll tell you what: I love his name. It’s perfect for comedy, and has a real ring to it. I’ll check him out. I won’t write it down as it’s such a memorable name.

Are you sure you don’t mean the bloke from Horne and Corden?

ED SHELDRAKE Back when I was playing melodica in the navy, we had a bandleader / conductor who used to make us all laugh as we were playing. He would pull funny faces during symphonies, tickle the string section as they were tuning up and whisper over-elaborate puns in the brass player’s ears during cadenze. Recently I found out that he wasn’t actually a musician, rather, a fugitive clown who’d stumbled onto our ship mistakenly thinking it was a ferry to Cherbourg. Alex, however, doesn’t make us laugh.

BEN REYNOLDS As a drummer, being conducted in the section by Alex Horne is the most fun you can have with your trousers off. That is, if you exclude the national indoor model railway exhibition 2012, and the incident at Michaelwood services (M5 southbound).

That aside, hand on heart, Alex is one of the most all-round satisfactory conductors I’ve ever worked with. Bloody ideal.

Passionate about Seafood

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www.mussel-inn.com 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 41

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews

JAMES ACASTER: REPRESENT Absurdist trip into law, justice and tasty religious treats OOOOO

JIM LEE

BEN MCMILLAN

Minutes before James Acaster takes to the stage, Supertramp’s ‘Logical Song’ is belting out. Was there ever a more appropriate warm-up tune? While from the outside the Kettering comic’s scripted universe might comprise a litany of arrant nonsense and absurdist grandstanding, it makes its own perfect sense. It’s also unlikely that a show in 2010 would have made more of the trapped Chilean miners than Acaster does so hilariously here as he steadily crawls towards the essential beef of his show.

Last year, he claimed he was actually a private detective working deep undercover as a stand-up comic; this time around he’s staying on the right side of the law as a member of a murder-trial jury. His willingness to be one of the 12 disciples of justice seems ever more remarkable when you consider his torrid past in a less than notorious south-west London gang.

Despite the inherent meaninglessness of his musings, nothing happens in an Acaster show for no good reason. So, when he makes a meal of getting his mic stand and stool in the precise ergonomic spot before he begins the show properly, they become the Chekhovian firearms that will emerge later when his world threatens to rip apart at the seams of his slacks.

There may well be something deeper going on in Represent about truth and justice and faith (his religious upbringing also gets an airing of sorts, leading to an impressive reconstruction of a food-based ritual at the show’s finale), but it’s better to just surf the wave of Acaster’s over-active imagination. Having already appeared on three Edinburgh Comedy Award shortlists in a row, it seems almost inconceivable that this tremendously vital hour won’t earn him another nomination. A different kind of judge will then consider his fate. (Brian Donaldson) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 8.30pm, £9–£12 (£8–£10.50).

FEMINAZI

THE MAN

RONNY CHIENG: CHIENG REACTION

Sorting out the world, one misogynist at a time

Raging against obvious modern ills OOOOO

Hour-long rant from the most angry human ever born OOOOO

OOOOO

The story of Aussie comedian Kirsty Mac’s heroics forms the culmination of this, her first solo show.

For those who don’t recognise her name, she was instrumental in getting the ‘pick-up artist’ Julien Blanc kicked out of Australia, who then had his visa revoked in several other countries including the UK. Blanc had been plying his distinctly rapey tactics in ‘seminars’ on how to cop off with women.

She claims her campaign was the result of PTSD and too much whisky. Not that we’d like to wish such trauma on her but we’re glad it produced such a fearless campaign, related here with as much wit as it has defiance.

The stand-up that precedes her tale has an equal amount of sass and straight-talking about her lack of desire to have a baby (so stop asking) and her love of the penis: preferably attached to a fella. Mac has a confident demeanour with which she reclaims and lampoons the ‘feminazi’ of the title from the idiot that called her it. The show is a little on the short side and she leaves us wanting more. Can we send her to sort out Donald Trump now, please?

(Marissa Burgess) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug, 11.15pm, £10–£12.

42 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

A promising voiceover sets the scene, transporting the audience to Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park’s famous free-speech spot. Then onto the stage bounds The Man, face painted into a yellow happy acid grin, wearing a black rubber suit with yellow braces and Doc Marten boots. He’s here to soapbox about stuff that’s really pissing him off and a bilious hour follows. His rants revolve around modern ills – corruption in the Catholic church, needless wars, First versus Third World problems.

The Man’s delivery is deliberately unhinged, but the extreme zaniness quickly begins to grate.

Although he has a pop at the sanctimonious and self-righteous, it’s hard not to feel a bit preached down to, especially when he launches into incandescent tirades against WMDs and bad primetime telly, seemingly assuming the audience won’t have already clocked the obvious evils of such things or even be on his side.

Maybe there just aren’t enough new thoughts provoked here to make it good spoken word, or enough laughs to make it good comedy. Paying a tenner for such (un)free speech could rapidly feel like a shocking First World injustice. (Claire Sawers) Q Assembly Rooms, 0844 693 3008, until 30 Aug (not 17), 10.30pm, £10 (£9).

Ronny Chieng is an angry young man. Once the crazed introductory light show ceases, reminding us we’re not about to witness a Vegas boxing match, Chieng takes to the stage with barely a hello, launching immediately into an attack upon the idiocy of Facebook users and their concerns over personal data. The overly suspicious employees of an Apple shop also get it square in the neck, as do the marketing scams of Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve. And if you happen to be under the age of 25: don’t even try to engage Chieng in conversation.

There’s nothing to criticise with Chieng’s technical ability as a live comic, but a little more warmth somewhere along the line wouldn’t go amiss.

He prowls his stage, one hand jammed into his jean pocket, the other gripping onto his mic for dear life. Were he to set his hands free, you worry that he might start tearing up things with incandescent fury. ‘I always take things too seriously,’ he admits at one point during another virulent rant. There’s not a person in the room who would dare question that statement. (Brian Donaldson) Q Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 17), 7.20pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11).

Reviews | FESTIVAL COMEDY

PHOTO ©MARK DAWSON

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LOUISE REAY: IT’S ONLY WORDS

TOM PARRY: YELLOW T-SHIRT

ALFIE BROWN: – ISM

A skilled clowning set about language that sadly over-stretches its hour OOOOO

Curated chaos from the Pappy’s man in a show about fancy dress OOOOO

An eventfully disruptive backdrop to politics, pro-life and Thomas the Tank Engine OOOOO

Only 7% of communication is verbal, Louise Reay informs the audience (on placards). You’ll probably understand 93% of Reay’s show, then, since it’s performed entirely in Chinese ‘for people who don’t speak Chinese’. Reay is known for her skilled clown work and through frantic physicality and exaggerated expression, she gives everything a clear yet comical meaning, be it an extract from Romeo and Juliet or a seminal moment from Rocky.

Reay manages to drive home the message that you don’t need words to understand situations, no matter how absurd, such as dressing a fullygrown man up as a baby and offering to feed him with a mounted rubber breast. Talking to an English-speaking fella in Chinese and having him understand is interesting; having him nod along in a knitted baby bonnet is all the better.

Reay’s point is quickly proved, however, and halfway through, the mimicked actions and surreal situations grow tired. If communication is key, she would do well to keep this act short, and let her clowning speak for itself. (Rebecca Monks) Q Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 0330 220 1212, until 30 Aug (not 18), 4.15pm, £5 (or Pay What You Want).

Tom Parry, one third of acclaimed sketch group Pappy’s, presents his debut solo show in which he promises that he can prove the importance of fancy dress. Over the course of 60 minutes he does many things, ranging from the odd to the bewildering, but his fulfilment of this vow is the strangest.

From the way he introduces the show to the regular injection of jokes and things to think on, the joy is in watching it unfold with no idea where it’s going next. As such, it’s difficult to describe the list of gags and skits without dispelling the magic.

Appearing to be a shambolic fizz-bomb of barely corralled japery, the unbridled enthusiasm Parry presents belies a carefully constructed show with no hint of laziness. No lengths are too far to go in search of a laugh and no punchline is obvious from the set-up.

Parry presides over a curated chaos, staging the appearance of anarchy through diligently applying the rules of comedy. In essence, it’s a sweaty man shouting at a room full of people to much merriment. To look for the wizard behind the curtain would be to miss the point. (Suzanne Black) Q Just the Tonic at The Tron, 0330 220 1212, until 30 Aug (not 18), 6.20pm, £5 (or PWYW).

Alfie Brown really needs to focus. From the moment he takes the stage, he seems uncertain and on edge, gradually loosening up before delivering a delightful early gag about being pro-life. But as latecomers arrive he’s visibly irritated and it can be jarring to watch.

When he’s on a roll, Brown has some cracking material. He’s very candid about his sex life, sometimes eliciting groans when he pushes his audience a little too far; but it’s politics that really brings out the passion. Brown delivers a wonderful diatribe against the far-right tyranny he believes is espoused by Thomas the Tank Engine.

Towards the end, an audience member has to leave as she’s feeling unwell. Unwisely, Brown delays her escape to check that she’s not having him on (she’s clearly not), and his rhythm’s shot yet again. The worst is yet to come: as he builds to a vehement crescendo, the door opens just at the point of him delivering his final line. It looks like he’s about to storm off. But to his credit, a sympathetic audience rallies to the cause and Brown just about turns it around. (Murray Robertson) Q Assembly George Square Theatre, 623 3030, until 31 Aug, 7.20pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).

NATASHA NOMAN: NOMAN’S LAND Employing a sardonic wit to a tale of tough life in Karachi OOOOO Natasha Noman’s one-woman play is a story of contrasts. This tale evocatively recreates her experience working as a journalist for The Friday Times in Karachi, having moved there from Manhattan. The paper’s open criticism of the Taliban led to death threats and raids, and after one such event, in an attempt to reinstate some normalcy in her life, she agrees to a Tinder date: as a lesbian in Karachi, she was dealing with a dearth of action.

The political is inextricable from the personal in this captivating tale as Noman explores the illicit underground pleasures of lesbian Tinder, speakeasys and illegal Scotch while travelling to work a different route each day to foil kidnappers, in an armoured car accompanied by a guard with a Kalashnikov resting between his knees. Meanwhile, in the office, her male colleagues struggle to respond to her as a professional, intellectual woman.

Noman employs her sardonic, dry wit to good effect; the differences between two cultures are nicely illustrated by a description of the bus services in Manhattan where the driver won’t let any more people on if it’s full, whereas in Karachi they simply make do with sitting in someone’s lap or on the roof. But Noman delves deeper too, going on to make the more serious and pertinent point of how lives are valued differently by the west. She compares the difference in news coverage of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists’ deaths and the 2000 massacred in Nigeria by Boko Haram on the same day and how the western media obsessed over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann whereas, ‘it’s news in Pakistan if someone you know doesn’t get kidnapped’. An enjoyable and fascinating show. (Marissa Burgess) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 15 Aug, 7.45pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8.50–£9.50).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 43

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Sam Simmons

STOP MAKING SENSE L STEMPLER

PHOTO © YEA

Neil Cooper talks to Australian absurdist scamp and self-styled professional idiot Sam Simmons, who insists it’s time once again to unleash his inner dickhead

I

f things had worked out differently, Sam Simmons might have ended up becoming a zookeeper. As it is, the thirtysomething Australian has spent the last decade or so travelling the world as a self-styled professional idiot, brandishing an off-kilter brand of comedy that has confused and confounded many, even as it has reeled in critical acclaim and ever-larger audiences.

With his 2014 show, Death of a Sails-Man, being nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award following a previous shortlisting in 2011, Simmons returns this year with Spaghetti for Breakfast. This latest one-man extravaganza – which has already scooped the Underbelly Adelaide Award and the highly prestigious Barry Award in Melbourne – may take a nod at the inner world of its creator’s psyche, but it still allows full vent for his inner dickhead to explode into primary-coloured life.

‘There’s some very dark stuff,’ Simmons admits. ‘And it gets to the reason why I’m an idiot, which is to escape childhood stuff, but there’s nothing saccharine there. There’s nothing worse than seeing a show that’s saccharine. It has to be funny. It also came about from some quite weird experiences playing all the club rooms in London, where I got a lot of negativity from owners. They’d say, “oh, the stuff you do, it’s weird, it makes no sense”. It makes total sense for me, and this is why I do absurd comedy. Don’t get me wrong, I love stand-up but I don’t want to do it.

Live comedy doesn’t just have to be about one thing.’

Simmons first started to develop his stage persona when he appeared at a benefit show put on by himself and some friends after another friend lost a handbag. ‘I got up and started being an idiot,’ he says. ‘But it wasn’t stand-up. It sounds vain, but I didn’t have this great ambition to 42 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015

get onstage and start telling all these jokes or anything like that.’

Simmons presented on Australian radio station Triple J and interviewed bands on its small-screen offshoot before featuring in an anthropological mockumentary series (The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote) and a sketch-based show (Problems). While a sense of Simmons’ world beyond the stage can be gleaned in Wallstud, a three-episode series of miniatures for Channel 4’s Comedy Blaps strand, the roots of his oeuvre date right back to a misspent youth watching endless re-runs of a cult 1970s British TV show.

‘The Goodies was on every night when I was a kid,’ Simmons reflects.

‘They showed them all the time. It would probably surprise a lot of people in the UK to learn that I think Monty Python was too weird for me, but I think I connected with The Goodies, and felt all three of them were in my body. If you could condense Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie into one body it would probably look a bit like me.’

The spirit of The Goodies is certainly evident in Simmons’ stage act, a manic potpourri of absurdist antics, fourth-wall breaking routines and sheer out-and-out puerility. Then there are the shared concerns with Bill Oddie, the ornithologist and nature documentary presenter. ‘I was training to be a zookeeper for years and then I left to do this,’ says Simmons. ‘But what I really want to do is make Attenborough documentaries. That’s the dream.’

‘I felt all three of The Goodies were in my body’

Sam Simmons: Spaghetti for Breakfast, Underbelly Potterrow, 0844 545 8252, 8–30 Aug (not 17, 24), 9pm, £12.50–£14 (£11.50– £12.50). Previews 5–7 Aug, £7.50.

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FESTIVAL COMEDY | Sarah Callaghan

THE MINIMUM RAGE While people all around her seem to be settling for less, Sarah Callaghan is an ambitious comic who is clearly going places.

Murray Robertson hears how she plans to escape

A

t just 23 years of age, Londoner Sarah Callaghan has already had a wealth of accolades bestowed upon her. A Funny Woman finalist four years ago, an Up the Creek One to Watch winner in 2013 and a member of Time Out’s Class of 2014, she recently earned a nomination for Best Show at this year’s Brighton Fringe.

Forthright and confident, it’s clear that Callaghan’s star is very much in the ascendant. When asked to describe her first full Fringe show, Elephant, Callaghan speaks at a hundred miles an hour. ‘It’s a show about how our worlds are quite small and we just get comfortable and scared to change so we unconsciously give up on our dreams but if we just escaped the comfort zone and broke out of that small world we could achieve a lot more.’ After finally pausing for breath she adds, ‘it sounds quite deep but there are loads of jokes in it as well!’

Callaghan still lives with her mum in a council estate in Uxbridge, west London, and her experiences there form the basis of her material. ‘I certainly feel trapped,’ she says. ‘Everyone in my area is quite small-minded, in a way: they just want the baby, the council house, to have the same job forever. And I know a lot of talented people but they never expand on that: they just settle for the bare minimum.’

Indeed, so desperate is Callaghan to escape from her home town that she’ll do anything to get out. When she was 18 she ran off to Madrid to teach English.

‘I was really lost,’ she remembers. ‘I’d come out of school and got all the right grades but there was nothing I really wanted to do. I went to college but dropped out. There’s a lot of drug culture around here and I didn’t want to go down that road. I just thought, “fuck it, I’m going”.’

The adventure itself didn’t work out the way Callaghan had envisioned, but it was an experience which had a profound effect on her future. ‘I blagged it on the sheet. I said that I could speak fluent Spanish and I got put with this family out there. I’d done a TEFL certificate but I couldn’t communicate, and it was so hard to not have any friends and family around.’

44 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015

And so Callaghan set about making the most of her situation. ‘It was really difficult ’cos I’m quite an outgoing person. I didn’t have anyone to talk to or have a laugh with. It was the first time I’d ever been away from home like that. So I started writing jokes, just stupid little bits and bobs. I thought, “oh, I might give this a go when I get back”.’

When Callaghan returned home she embarked on a six-week course at the Comedy School in Camden.

It was while performing her final showcase that she thought she might have what it takes. ‘Everyone was proper laughing so I was like, “ah! This is quite good, innit. This is all right! I’ll give it a go.” And I just started doing it and started learning more. The comedy circuit is quite addictive, I think.’

Success at the Brighton Fringe boosted her confidence enormously. ‘I thought, “I’m on the right track”. People from young to old were enjoying it and relating to me on the basis of, you know, everyone has dreams that don’t quite come to anything, or they’re scared to make that leap. And it’s lovely to be able to connect to an eight-year-old and an 18-year-old,’ she says, somewhat truncating her demographic.

Already a veteran of the Fringe (this is her sixth visit), Callaghan performed her first solo (but not quite full-length) show last year, Don’t Tell Anyone About Sarah Callaghan. ‘It went really well,’ she recalls. ‘I sold out almost every day, I got some good reviews.

I learned a lot. When I got back I was like, “right, I’m ready for my hour now”. I’ve written a completely new show which I’m really proud of. I think this one is really something special so I’m excited to do it.’

Everything is a learning experience for Callaghan.

And she’s well aware of the opportunity ahead of her at the Fringe. ‘I try not to drink too much ’cos I wanna be focused. I remember the first time I went up there in 2010 and . . . ’ she trails off in thought. ‘Yeah, I used to drink quite a lot and it wasn’t good. I’m taking it a lot more seriously now.’

Sarah Callaghan: Elephant, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 8–30 Aug (not 17), 5.50pm, £10–£12 (£8–£10). Previews 5–7 Aug, £6.

Sarah Callaghan | FESTIVAL COMEDY

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Top 5

‘The comedy circuit is quite addictive’

FRESH STARTS Brian Donaldson picks six of the best debutants seeking to make audiences literally wet themselves in August PHIL JERROD John Lennon, Jesus, British murderers and Bake Off were all topics when Jerrod performed his Neanderthal show last October prior to it scooping a debutant award at the Leicester Comedy Festival.

The guy is going places, for sure. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 8–30 Aug (not 17), 7pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9). Previews 5–7 Aug, £6.

JENNY BEDE As one half of last year’s Bren & Jenny, Bede started the ball rolling on making a fine old name for herself. She’s here with a solo debut of pop culture-inspired songs and stand-up. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 7–30 Aug (not 8, 24), 3.30pm, £9–£11 (£7–£9). Preview 6 Aug, £6.

FUNMBI OMOTAYO

PHOTO © STEVE ULLATHORNE

With his roots in Nigeria and comedy voice carved in Hackney, Omotayo has plenty source material to call upon and his claiming of several awards already (Leicester Square New Act for one) shows that he’s using it productively. Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, 8–30 Aug, 9pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7.50–£8.50).

Previews 6 & 7 Aug, £5.

NICK CODY Self-proclaimed ‘stand-up, actor and idiot’, Australia’s latest comedy export has supported Bill Burr and Jim Jefferies on tour, which gives you a fair indication of the kind of no-nonsense material this guy might have to offer. Assembly George Square Studios, 623 3030, 8–30 Aug (not 17), 9.40pm, £10–£12.50 (£9–£11.50). Previews 5–7 Aug, £6.

LOLLY Having admitted that creating characters was a way of conquering her stage fright, Lolly Adefope comes to town with a whole host of them. Will she put the ‘LOL’ into ‘Lolly’? (Yes, we’re not the first and won’t be the last to attempt that one). Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 8–31 Aug (not 17), 4.30pm, £7–£9.50 (£6.50–£9). Previews 5–7 Aug, £6.

JONNY PELHAM PHOTO © STEVE ULLATHORNE

Shades of Kitson, we’re told, in this chap who has been in a bunch of finals for new comedians. The fact that he won none of them will help if he’s going for the outsider status vibe of St Daniel. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 8–31 Aug, 6.45pm, £7–£9.50 (£6.50–£9). Previews 5–7 Aug, £6.

6–13 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 45

Reviews | FESTIVAL COMEDY

PHOTO © ED MOORE

list.co.uk/festival

TOM BALLARD: TAXIS & RAINBOWS & HATRED

SOME LIKE IT THEA-SKOT Madcap characters and endearing improv skills

HEIDI O’LOUGHLIN: A WOMAN TALKING

An equality-pushing set from an act who has mastered his stage OOOOO

OOOOO

Charm and steel in New Zealander’s solo debut

Tom Ballard is gay, a self-proclaimed member of the ‘no pussy party’. Originally from small-town Australia, he’s come up against homophobia, in particular from taxi drivers, and these incidents provide a neat framework for a tightly written show that finds a wealth of humour in people’s attitudes towards gay men.

Even when the subject matter gets serious, addressing homosexuality in Russia and Uganda, he pulls big laughs playing out the imagined fear of the homophobes. Aussie insults, the negative effects of MDMA on pulling technique and the nearfatal attention-seeking of the youngest Von Trapp sibling also hit the mark. Beneath the mocking, however, is a powerful exposure of the ‘otherness’ experienced by those who aren’t heterosexual and a genuine message of equality.

Ballard effortlelssly commands the stage and his assured presence would see him at home in a much bigger venue. As he acknowledges himself, ‘what other comedian would use “anal swab” as a punchline?’ (Rowena McIntosh) Q Assembly George Square Studios, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), 9.15pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10).

OOOOO

In an exhilarating show, Alison Thea-Skot flies by the seat of her pants as she races breathlessly through a series of mad characters. Some are vaguely familiar such as the Celine Dion who wears a draped sheet and fright wig and the Liza Minnelliinspired Hollywood star whose famous role was playing a woman with feet for hands.

Others are entirely creations of Thea-Skot’s warped mind such as the lipstick-smeared dumped woman and a superhero from Rhyl. A great deal of her show’s success relies upon picking the correct audience member with which Thea-Skot can impose her improv skills and tonight Eric was the willing stooge, making for a joyous spectacle.

When things go slightly wrong – early in the run there are a fair few sound cues slightly out of time plus there’s some unfortunate timing regarding the inclusion of a dead celebrity making a beyondthe-grave appearance – frankly, it’s endearing.

Thea-Skot deals with it with corpsing charm and it only serves to add to the delicious sense of anarchy in the room. Some Like it Thea-Skot and we all certainly do. (Marissa Burgess) Q Cowgatehead, 226 0000, until 29 Aug (not 19), 8.45pm, free.

For her first solo Fringe hour, Heidi O’Loughlin tries out a variety of topics. The New Zealander’s Tahitian heritage is up first in a spot of family history, as she recounts the inception of French Polynesia into her genealogy. One of the most interesting sections covers her struggle as a female comedian between staying true to her principles and earning a living.

But two set-pieces stand out, for different reasons. O’Loughlin has previously found success with the ensemble show Fanfiction Comedy in which the members take turns reading out stories they have written based on existing characters. She recites one of the best stories, giving this year’s more wide-ranging show a highlight. The second piece revolves around her very strong feelings about Simon and Garfunkel and, though initially inspired, goes on too long.

With a casual, digressive style and a surface sweetness that masks the steeliness she displays when putting down hecklers, O’Loughlin has a lot to her credit and, with a more cohesive show, would be a delight to watch. (Suzanne Black) Q Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 18), 7.40pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9).

DAPHNE DO EDINBURGH Wild and original sketches from a three-man team clearly going places OOOOO The theme tune to iconic 1950s-set American sitcom Happy Days plays out as the three members of Daphne bid us their slightly sinister farewells. If they keep up the form shown in these 60 exhilarating minutes, then plenty good times are just around the corner for Phil Wang, Jason Forbes and George Fouracres.

All three have various qualities (though a certain creepiness underpins a lot of what they get up to) and their number means that the pace never lets up with different combinations of the trio in front of us at all times. They also never have to rely on voiceovers to keep the momentum flowing, while their strippedback approach allows a foregoing of clunky costume changes.

All they need to worry about is producing excellent sketches, and they’re threatening to be the hottest gang in town on that front. It’s hard to think of a single weak routine during the hour and when they hit their stride, the laughter which fills this Pleasance cabin is often ringing out for more than one reason at a time. There are songs, a recurring hospital-based scenario and a bit of passive-aggressive banter with their tech: all standard sketch team tropes which they cunningly forge into their very own thing. There’s a deliriously warped Postman Pat and Peter Pan bit and the reason why Wang keeps banging on about his unfeasibly large coffee is finally revealed with a wild slapstick moment that will hopefully not result in an injury to Forbes before August is out.

Having scooped this year’s SketchFest (a crown previously taken by Gein’s Family Giftshop and The Pin), Wang, Forbes and Fouracres have joyfully delivered on the promise that such credentials suggest. These days are Daphne’s. (Brian Donaldson) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 3.15pm, £8.50–£10.50 (£7–£9).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 45

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FESTIVAL COMEDY | Joanna Neary

PHOTO © STE

VEN ULLATH

ORNE

FACE VALUE

Joanna Neary is the accidental comedian who once earned a Perrier nomination.

Henry Northmore wonders why this Cornwall actress is dressing like a repressed 1940s housewife to hang out with a heavy metaller

G

rowing up in a cultural vacuum can have its advantages. Removed from standard influences and regurgitated clichés, you can develop a unique style all your own. Joanna Neary was born and raised in Cornwall, hundreds of miles from the comedy hubs of London and Edinburgh. ‘There was no stand-up really, just Jethro,’ laughs Neary, namechecking the West Country’s hirsute joker. ‘The only comedy I knew about was Joyce Grenfell and I loved all the Ealing comedies, Hancock, Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, Patricia Hayes and Alastair Sim.’ So Neary drifted into comedy almost by accident. ‘I did performing arts at college and you had to do a show at the end of each term. I wanted people to cry and laugh but I made people laugh more than anything,’ explains Neary. ‘I was 16 when I first put on a show to all my tutors, and I was so nervous that I spoke in a northern accent through the whole thing. My pyjamas caught fire because I was smoking a cigarette while I was giving a monologue in a haze of fear. And that northern accent thing was just because I had watched so much Victoria Wood.’

Having developed a character-led theatre show, she decided on a whim to put it in the comedy 46 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015

section of the Fringe brochure. ‘Suddenly I was selling out, with almost the exact same stuff I was doing in theatre.’ This small shift of focus instantly connected with audiences, earning her a Perrier Best Newcomer nomination in 2004.

Since then she’s made regular appearances on TV and radio, popping up in Miranda, Armando Iannucci’s Time Trumpet, Ideal with Johnny Vegas, Skins and That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Other Fringe shows have featured a cavalcade of offbeat characters but this year’s affair is a first for Neary as she has built an entire hour around a single character. ‘Celia Jesson is based on Laura Jesson in Brief Encounter: it’s not based on [actress] Celia Johnson but on her character.’

She’s a woman out of time who somehow finds herself on stage in Edinburgh. ‘She’s not a natural entertainer, more of an ordinary woman, a repressed housewife from the 1940s. It’s been fun writing a show about a very limited person while making it as funny as possible.’

After filming an unaired pilot for the BBC as Celia, Neary has worked out a full backstory for her comedic creation. ‘She’s my favourite character and I’ve got an incredible amount of material for her that has never seen the light of

day. Not much of it ended up in the show but it was nice to have a starting point. Because I’ve done a pilot, her whole world has been fleshed out – her friends, her husband – and I got a chance to interview celebrities in character. This is the first time that I’ll be interacting with the audience, so it’s quite a departure.’

As the show’s title – Faceful of Issues – suggests, Celia will be tackling some of the modern world’s biggest dilemmas including technology, Britpop, burlesque, coach trips, BuzzFeed, Facebook, post offices, bankers and the demise of jumble sales. Don’t worry if you think it all sounds a bit cosy as Neary has a trick up her sleeve. ‘There’s someone else in the show. Martin is a heavy metaller who plays all the jingles. He’s the only other person in the village who’s agreed to do the show,’ adds Neary. ‘Everything I’ve mentioned is very twee but I really love very dark, very rude humour, and having this other character means I can get a bit of bite into the show. I didn’t want an hour of sweetness.’

Joanna Neary: Faceful of Issues, Assembly Rooms, 0844 693 3008, 7–30 Aug (not 17), 7.45pm, £10 (£9). Preview 5 Aug, £9 (£8).

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews

MIKE WOZNIAK: ONE MAN DAD CAT BAND A fevered tale of feline smuggling and middle-class catastrophes OOOOO

PHOTO © DREW FORSYTH

If Torquay’s Basil Fawlty had been a stand-up comedian rather than a classic 70s sitcom creation, he could have been embodied in the impotent rage of Exeter-based Mike Wozniak. It’s nothing to do with the moustache. OK, it’s partly the moustache, but mainly it's the sense that no matter what he does, an appalling middle-class calamity is just around the corner.

Two years ago, Wozniak received a thoroughly-deserved Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination for Take the Hit, his hour which focused on the strained relationship he was enduring with his in-laws after they had moved into the marital home.

In One Man Dad Cat Band, he’s ‘banging on’ about a literally unbelievable atrocity that befell him when he returned home from that Fringe run: he had inexplicably left Edinburgh with a previously undetected furry stowaway in his car boot.

Proving that he’s an ‘ethical guy’, Wozniak attempts to track down the owners of this increasingly annoyed kitty but, naturally, he comes up against one stumbling block after another. All the while, the hair-tousling bafflement heightens as events are cranked up to fevered levels of hilarity.

There are two things you can always rely upon with a Wozniak show: an undiluted adoration of the English language and some stirring imagery. A third element is a host of great gags, usually heavily indebted to those first two ingredients. As an added extra for this hour, he has attempted to ‘cleanse the palate’ of this torrid tale with some interesting facts, questions chosen from categories which the comic offers us. You’ll surely leave with a better appreciation of fish erotica, military bands and Mike Wozniak’s take on personal horror. (Brian Donaldson) Q Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 622 6801, until 30 Aug (not 17), 1.15pm, free.

GEIN’S FAMILY GIFTSHOP: VOLUME 2 Tales of terror and scatological sketches fail to grip OOOOO The PE kit-wearing 2014 SketchFest winners jogged into Edinburgh last year to deliver a largely well-received debut hour with its gallery of monsters, microscopic detailing of life’s more repulsive moments and smattering of penile exposure. Suffering from typical second-album syndrome, Gein’s Family Giftshop can only offer a paler imitation of their brighter, Best Newcomernominated first volume, even if their radar for offcolour humour is still off the scale.

The stage trio of Ed, Kath and Jim (you can almost picture Kiri, the unseen fourth member, in a smoky lab somewhere, rubbing her hands and cackling in glee) once again dish the dirt with tasteworrying routines about stoning children, attempted suicide, medical abuse and sexually active fleas.

As with the Late Night Gimp Fight boys, this selfimposed pigeonholing into the darker recesses of sketch comedy has become an albatross (probably a massacred one) around their collective neck.

Sadly, Gein’s Family Giftshop already feels a little like an idea whose time has been and gone.

(Brian Donaldson) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17), 10.45pm, £7.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£8.50).

48 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

VIV GROSKOP: SAY SORRY TO THE LADY

IMAGINE THERE’S NO BEN TARGET (IT’S EASY IF YOU TRY)

A lightly entertaining trawl through the art of apology OOOOO

A bizarre team-building exercise meets oddly liberating live show OOOOO

Since the age of five, Viv Groskop has felt the need to apologise. Now she feels the world spends way too much time doing just that and is determined to never say sorry again, she explains apologetically.

It’s easy to imagine Groskop being the heart and soul of a dinner party or holding court at the tennis club but almost impossible to see her in front of a Friday-night crowd on the comedy circuit.

Still, she manages to get great laughs with some accessible stories about her life. Excessive preambles felt unnecessary as the jokes were there waiting the whole time but the effort involved in getting to them came across as laborious.

Groskop leads the way in an audience participation parlour game where everyone is invited to apologise or demand an apology from their neighbour or from the world in general. All great fun but somewhat dependent on everyone getting behind it; thankfully she is so good-natured and affable, who could refuse? She earns the biggest laughs here in a show that is more light entertainment than stand-up. (Graeme Connelly) Q The Stand 4, 558 7272, until 30 Aug (not 17), 8.20pm, £8 (£7).

Even before Ben Target glides onto the stage in a white suit wearing a bicycle helmet and lights under his ears, you know it’s going to be an unusual performance. There’s a big suitcase up front labelled ‘This is Not Ben Target’ while the programme requested that audiences wear sensible shoes.

For the show to work he needs us to trust each other. Trust isn’t a trait usually associated with comedy audiences but he’s patient. Beginning with closing our eyes so he can swap the suit for an 80s gym instructor get-up, soon we’re in an open space high-tenning people and doing star jumps. We become the willing puppets in Target’s surreal world, patiently awaiting instructions to the extent that when he opens the suitcase to reveal a cluster of coloured sponges he only has to murmur ‘sponge fight’ and everyone starts pelting strangers.

The show plays out like a bizarre team-building exercise. We’ve captains, we’ve tasks, we play Chinese whispers. At the world’s largest arts festival, Ben Target’s show is truly unique and oddly liberating. (Rowena McIntosh) Q Heroes @ The Hive, 226 0000, until 30 Aug (not 18), 3pm, £5 (or PWYW).

Reviews | FESTIVAL COMEDY

PHOTO © ALLISON ORENSTEIN

list.co.uk/festival

ADRIENNE TRUSCOTT’S A ONETRICK PONY A disappointingly incoherent hour with false starts and worthy targets OOOOO As the self-declared pre-eminent ‘gimmicky nopants rape lady’, Adrienne Truscott is still taking down rape jokes and rape culture, as well as gleefully making men in the front row uncomfortable with her lack of underwear. But for all she’s playing up to her role as stand-up ingénue (most of her experience is as a dancer and cabaret artist), she really does seem genuinely nervous around the stand-up bit of the act (the nudity, not so much).

Praised for being excitingly confrontational in her 2013 solo debut, Asking for It, here she is hesitant, seeking reassurance that the audience has got the references. The first half is lost to a couple of momentum-killing false starts, but the second is stronger and the finale uproarious, though largely wordless. It all makes for an incoherent whole.

Her targets, including Donald Trump and 'ironic racism', are worthy of skewering, but what they get is more of a prodding. It’s not that this show doesn’t have substance, or that it isn’t at times very funny, but more that the substance and the funny don’t meet up as often as they should. (Laura Ennor) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 17 Aug, 8.15pm, £12 (£10).

PHIL JERROD: NEANDERTHAL

TATTERDEMALION

A likeable, enjoyable romp through the notion of ambition OOOOO

A meandering, gentle stroll through a mime’s soft musings OOOOO

Rural life isn’t as dull or bad (or rammed with racists) as some city people make out. So claims Phil Jerrod in his Neanderthal show which has arrived in Edinburgh on the back of plenty acclaim already.

His open manner, occasionally theatrical delivery and thoughtful material suggests a massive talent of the future and this hour is a very fine starting point.

Ostensibly a show about whether you should really bother to harbour high-end ambition or just settle for the lower rungs on everything, Jerrod couches some of his evidence in his own fabulous facial fuzz. Considering its cultivation and maintenance as one of his few personal victories, even that tiny triumph has been stolen from him given that such beardage is two a penny in communities across the land, irrespective of concentrated hipster numbers in an area.

Jerrod gives off the air of someone who is pretty contented with his lot, even while he’s having a grouch at middle-class woes. As likeable a comic as you’ll encounter this month, even the person whose name he kept forgetting will bear Phil Jerrod no ill will. (Brian Donaldson) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17), 7pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9).

As you might hear on one of those bombastic cinema trailers, Tatterdemalion comes from the people who brought you Boris & Sergey. That said, bombastic is perhaps the last word you’d use to describe this mild mime affair in which Henry Maynard unleashes (well, no, not exactly) the contents of Prof Walrus’ Forbidden Trunk of Arcane Mystery.

Loaded up on audience participation throughout (starting when he punches tickets at the door before charmingly shoving one of his reviewers into the venue), the show’s highlight is an underground train scene with a packed stage of willing crowdmembers. There’s a real community-bonding feel to proceedings, though a poignant funeral scene is too much for some to stomach as they flee for the exit.

Tatterdemalion is more of a gentle back-rub rather than the full-on body assaults perpetrated by other acts in this broad field, such as Doctor Brown and Red Bastard. While Tatterdemalion lacks the clenching peril of any encounter with those two clowns, its timid nature also means that a true spark is missing and few magical memories from this hour will linger in the mind too long. (Brian Donaldson) Q Assembly Roxy, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 19), 5.45pm, £10–£12.

KYLE KINANE: GHOST PIZZA PARTY A tough and occasionally stomach-churning show eventually reaps full rewards OOOOO There may be a story connected to his Fringe debut show title but acclaimed US comic Kyle Kinane opted not to reveal anything about it on this particular night. Perhaps he should replace it with Spiders vs Crabs or One Netflix Documentary Away from Vegetarianism as they adequately cover two of the most memorable and successful segments in an enjoyably conflicted hour.

You know there’s something special about a comedian when they have a crowd laughing along to their airing of opinions or high-fiving of scenarios that are so obviously wrong. The bulk of Kinane’s early section concerns an ironic intention to get his dirty secrets laid out for the public at this point of his career so there’s nothing to be dug up when he becomes hugely famous.

So, what has Kinane done so far that he wouldn’t want some social media investigator to discover? Without giving too much away, they involve sex, dogs and gritter salt. Happily, these were all separate incidents, but each is funny enough to remove attention away from the thundering noise bleeding in from a busy bar through the wall (someone at Underbelly needs to plug whatever hole has emerged in a venue that hasn’t experienced such pollution problems before).

As he scrambles towards his not-for-everyone seafish / creepy crawly-based finale, Kinane takes a pop at the people who insist they suffer depression (one of the contentious segments right there, folks), while becoming the poster boy for processed foods (ditto). After all this grime, he delivers a humble message at the luck he feels in doing stand-up for a living. Turns out his audiences are the real winners in that game. (Brian Donaldson) Q Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 18), 10.10pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 49

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews

ANDREW WATTS: HOW TO BUILD A CHAP Far from another ‘dead dad’ show by this contentedly niche comic OOOOO

PHOTO © BOB HAKINS

Someone once heckled Andrew Watts with the word ‘niche’, which he took as an unintentional compliment, and rightly so.

His unique crossbreed of humour (economics and parenting, roughly) is a specific one indeed, but if you can get on-board with his strange analyses, and stay tuned through his cricket jokes, his free show is a well-crafted delight.

A middle-aged, ex ‘high powered lawyer’ from north London who jacked it in to do something that made him happy, Watts explains toddlers, sleep deprivation and modern dating rituals using chaos theory and freakonomics. At one point he compares the devaluing of the kiss at the end of emails to the hyperinflation and devaluing of the Deutschmark in the early 20th century. He’s no expert on how to be a dad, he points out; in fact, he wrote the show by neglecting his child and buggering off to New Zealand for a stand-up tour.

He likens the Gina Ford school of child-rearing to a sinister pagan ritual where the baby is a malevolent deity to be appeased, while he fears that his son won’t make it into the right gang later in life, what with catchment-area restrictions and strict faith-based criteria for such membership. Watching his son grow up, it’s also dawning on him that ‘sons want to overthrow their parents, but equally, parents want to be overthrown’.

Although he’s adamant this isn’t another ‘dead dad’ show, by the time he does slip in references to his own father, who died six years ago, it makes a meatier chunk in an otherwise light-hearted soup. His 2015 show is one for those bored of heteronormative gender stereotypes in stand-up and seeking fun, smart and dorky whimsy instead. (Claire Sawers) Q Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 667 7533, until 30 Aug (not 17), 8.45pm, free.

ROB BECKETT: MOUTH OF THE SOUTH

WILL DURST: BOOMERAGING FROM LSD TO OMG

LUKE TOULSON: GRANDPA, HITLER AND ME

Populist fun from dependable telly comic OOOOO

A tribute to the unstoppable act of ageing OOOOO

A fine set that doesn’t quite know whether it’s a history lesson or stand-up show OOOOO

Rob Beckett is living proof of the Fringe’s power. A few years ago he was doing a free show in a pub basement and now he’s a TV regular selling out the Pleasance Dome. There are tons of good, reliable comedians on the circuit who regularly fill the panel on Mock the Week and do a solid 20 minutes on Live at the Apollo. That’s not a criticism. What’s wrong with being popular? Or populist?

Beckett is a guaranteed banker. Even with a liberal smattering of cuss words, you could happily take your mum or little brother. Beckett even acknowledges he’s not edgy and happily admits to loving big brands and staying on the beaten path.

Dependable and consistently amusing, he offers no crescendos, big revelations or intricate pay-offs.

Instead, Beckett deals in cheeky-chappy observational comedy including five minutes on Kit Kats and a routine about spending Christmas with the in-laws. Proving how much of a nice guy he is, there’s even an apology offered after gently ribbing an audience member. Rob Beckett is very good at easily digestible crowd-pleasing gags and if that’s your bag, you’ll have a ball. (Henry Northmore) Q Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17), 8pm, £10–£13 (£8.50–£12).

Few Fringe comics in town have the pedigree of Milwaukee’s Will Durst. At the age of 63 he has seen it all, with his Edinburgh CV noting that he was the first American comic to be nominated for the Perrier, way back in the mists of 1989. You can barely blame him for the choice of subject he brings to this year’s comedy table (the differences between modern society and the era he grew up in), but it does occasionally offer some less than original insights, albeit delivered with professional aplomb.

Yes, everyone knows that once upon a time there were only a handful of TV channels and that public toilets have definitely become more complicated places to negotiate. In more compelling passages, he shakes a metaphorical head at those who will come to regret their multiple tattoos, while the health and safety culture of seatbelts, bicycle helmets and bottled water gets a clip round the ear.

Thankfully, Durst has a veteran’s nous that an hour about the ‘good old days’ won’t quite wash here, so instead of being a verbal attack on everything that’s wrong with millennials, he focuses movingly on celebrating his own age-group. (Brian Donaldson) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug (not 18), 5.30pm, £10.50–£12.50 (£9.50–£11.50).

50 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Luke Toulson truly hit the jackpot in the Fringe show-material lottery: 200 letters written by his grandfather Stanley to his grandmother Kate during WW2 and unread since. Aided by a slideshow, he conveys the daily life of a conscripted soldier with a wife and young family at home. A lot of the humour comes from the incongruities: Stanley’s preoccupation with gardening and his drunken adventures seem all the more meaningful when set against the continual threat of death.

This disconnection informs the whole show.

Toulson seems to think he has written a comedy show with a historical theme when it feels like a history show that happens to be funny. Chastising the audience for not laughing enough, he explains his separation of true facts followed by jokes.

Counter-productively, the success of the history bits has the audience so wrapped up in the story that it’s difficult to adjust to the interjection of a gag.

But Toulson gets his money’s worth from those wartime letters, with quality storytelling winning out over hilarity. (Suzanne Black) Q The Stand 5, 558 7272, until 30 Aug (not 17), 3.45pm, £8 (£7).

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Joseph Morpurgo

Austenta

tious

VINYL COUNTDOWN

Completing a loose trilogy, found-footage comedian Joseph Morpurgo delivers another captivatingly Lynchian Fringe hour. Yasmin Sulaiman hears how he built up a curious record collection for our listening pleasure

T

wo years ago, part of his act involved launching bits of chewedup apple on nervously giggling audience members. And last year, he pretended to be a large blob of static (before his costume was accidentally and mysteriously ditched on the penultimate day of the festival). So if you’ve not seen Joseph Morpurgo’s solo work before, this might give you a tiny flavour of what to expect from Soothing Sounds for Baby, the Oxford Imps grad and Austentatious member’s third independent outing.

This year’s Fringe affair emulates the format of Desert Island Discs, Radio 4’s long-running music-based interview show currently hosted

by Kirsty Young. And preparing for his show has given Morpurgo a newfound respect for the veteran broadcaster. ‘I mean, you’re doing a superb job,’ he tells me, laughing, midway through our interview. ‘But she has to really probe a wide range of people.’

As in 2013’s Truthmouth and 2014’s Odessa, Morpurgo will transform himself into a similarly wide cast of characters in Soothing Sounds, each a different Desert Island Discs castaway. And as with those two previous Fringe sets, he’s turned to ‘found’ material as a vehicle to drive his comedy: this time it’s vinyl, with Morpurgo spending the last year looking for the oddest records he could find. ‘I looked all over the place,’ he says. ‘Car boot sales, bargain bins, charity shops, pub vendors, attics.

There’s a recording of a Spitfire engine from a collection of engine sounds. I’ve got some whispered religious poetry self-released by this dude in America. Instructional magic circle LPs. ‘The most horrendous one is this old Disney recording of “It’s a Small World (After All)”. It’s a 30-minute audio safari featuring the same song over and over again.

The music changes from being a western American instrumentation to balalaikas and people singing in Russian, and very dubious Chinese voices.

It’s quite nightmarish. A lot of the records I’ve found straddle that line between innocent and nightmarish: a nice line to straddle.’

Thanks to the ‘found’ component they have in common (Truthmouth’s characters were prompted by stock images found online; Odessa’s by a short segment of grainy VHS

footage), Morpurgo sees Soothing Sounds as completing a sort-of loose trilogy. But the show also comes from his long-held passion for music.

‘I was a music journalist for a couple of years and I’m a big music nut,’ he explains. ‘I guess in a sense [using vinyl] came from wanting to be a crate digger, one of those people who devotes their life to scanning out old stuff, but not having the means nor the courage to get properly involved in that lifestyle. This seemed like a fun compromise. What if I spend a year being a crate digger? Not to DJ or to do radio shows, but to build this audio show.’

Odessa’s darkly chaotic tone invited very welcome comparisons with David Lynch. ‘More of that, please,’ Morpurgo chuckles. ‘I am a really big David Lynch fan, Twin Peaks is phenomenal, and I can see how it bled into that show completely.’ And although he promises that Soothing Sounds is brighter and more colourful than Odessa, the tone is a marked contrast to his work with Jane Austen-inspired improv group Austentatious, who graduate to the big time this year, playing the 400-capacity Underbelly in George Square.

But it’s also thanks to improv that Morpurgo’s solo hours have taken on the form they have. ‘In improv you are given something that’s essentially arbitrary, and the nature of the performance is what you then do with that.

I’m not the sort of comic that has a finessed world-view. Joseph Morpurgo doesn’t have a huge amount of pointed and important things to say about the world,’ he laughs. ‘Whereas if you outsource that responsibility and say “I’ve chosen this thing and the show is about this thing”, the fun of the performance is watching what I’ve done with that constraint.

That’s the way I like to work at the moment.’

‘A lot of the records straddle between innocent and nightmarish’

48 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015

Joseph Morpurgo: Soothing Sounds for Baby, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 8–31 Aug (not 18), 8.15pm, £8.50–£10.50 (£7–£9). Previews 5–7 Aug, £6.

Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, Underbelly George Square, 0844 545 8252, 8–31 Aug (not 18), 1.15pm, £11.50– £12.50 (£10.50–£11.50). Previews 6 & 7 Aug, £7.

ALFIE MOORE 5-31 AUG

Assembly George Square 5.30pm

BEARDYMAN 13-17 AUG

Pleasance Courtyard 11.15pm

BRETT GOLDSTEIN 5-31 AUG Pleasance Courtyard 9.30pm

CHRIS KENT 5-31 AUG

Assembly George Square 6.35pm

MAX and IVAN 5-30 AUG

PATRICK KIELTY 24-30 AUG Assembly George Square 8pm

SARAH KENDALL 5-31 AUG

TATS NKONZO 5-31 AUG

Pleasance Dome 8.20pm

Assembly George Square 6.45pm

Pleasance Courtyard 9.30pm

0131 226 0000 edfringe.com 0131 556 6550 pleasance.co.uk

PAUL MERTON’S IMPRO CHUMS 13-22AUG Pleasance Courtyard 4pm

TOMMY TIERNAN 16-30 AUG Gilded Balloon 7.30pm

REGINALD D HUNTER 5-30 AUG Pleasance Courtyard 8pm

TREVOR NOAH 28-30 AUG Assembly Hall 10.30pm

gildedballoon.co.uk 0131 622 6552 assemblyfestival.com 0131 623 3030

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews

NISH KUMAR: LONG WORD…LONG WORD… BLAH BLAH BLAH…I’M SO CLEVER Another accomplished and thoughtful set from a Fringe nearstalwart OOOOO

PHOTO © STEVE ULLATHORNE

Although Nish Kumar claims to flounder when asked to describe his style of comedy, it’s safe to say he’s politically engaged, passionate and playful. Politics is the loose thread running through this show, from Kumar’s love of ‘right-wing’ action films (he speculates their ‘left-wing’ counterparts would be seriously dull) to more obvious subjects such as gender and race. He assigns partisan politics to various creations, including a smart routine on Monopoly, and details how its conception as a left-leaning educational tool was ironically hijacked for unscrupulous ends.

Stand-up comedy is a predominantly liberal / left pursuit, and that’s a notion Kumar touches upon in his show. While it’s likely that he’s performing in an echo chamber filled with approving laughter, every once in a while he’ll challenge the way a gag is received by an individual. The result is a slight frisson and the suspicion that he’s keen for a worthy challenger.

On the subject of race, Kumar neatly dissects the apoplexy that numerous internet commenters spewed in response to rumours that a black actor (Idris Elba) is frontrunner to play the next James Bond. He presents a well-argued riposte which nimbly segues into a sequence where he gleefully deconstructs the series’ theme songs while passionately belting out one of his own.

There’s a nice rhythm to Kumar’s show and while he often ventures into dark waters, his tight writing keeps everything bobbing along amiably. On the cusp of hitting 30, Kumar is also celebrating his tenth year in comedy. Despite his relative youth, he’s a confident and mature performer. He says tonight is his first ever sell-out show. It won’t be his last. (Murray Robertson) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 7.15pm, £9–£12 (£8–£10.50).

CALYPSO NIGHTS: JUAN, TWO?

ADAM HESS: SALMON

LUCIE POHL: CRY ME A LIVER

Irresistible Latin charm with music, madness and malaprops galore OOOOO

A human livewire sprints through a hugely enjoyable hour of half-truths OOOOO

Often obvious series of NYC characters brought to excessive life by an undoubted talent OOOOO

For much of Calypso Nights’ opening, its host, Venezuelan DJ Juan Vesuvius, only uses two words: ‘Edinborg’ and ‘beautiful’. As he applies them to various objects around the room and repeats them ad infinitum, it quickly becomes apparent that those words don’t mean what he thinks they mean.

This delightfully silly show is a surreal medley of music and comedy, although music isn’t quite as integral as its title would suggest. Juan’s apparent speciality is to mix together two wildly contrasting songs to create something new and beautiful. But when he’s colliding Snoop Dogg with Phil Collins, the results are predictably messy.

Juan also has a weakness for chutney which sends him into an hallucinatory trip. And it’s during this glorious sequence that an initially uncertain audience properly embrace the stupidity. Whether he’s educating us on the tribulations of baby rhinos or confusing incense with incest, there’s an infectious childishness to proceedings and the show finishes with a flourish that has everyone wanting to join in.

Juan is a delightfully bonkers host and it’s impossible to resist his Latin charm. (Murray Robertson) Q Assembly Roxy, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 17), 9.30pm, £9–£10.

It’s not only Adam Hess who needs a long lie down after one of his shows: an audience would welcome a breather, too. His hour of Salmon feels like it zips by in half the time, manically delivered by the host and enthusiastically welcomed by its attendees.

Channelling the wildfire energies of Mark Watson and Rik Mayall (while his voice was surely separated at birth from Josh Howie’s), Hess rips through a torrent of subjects and incidents, taking pot-shots at former girlfriends, getting huffy at being born on December 25th and recalling his propensity for having a nose bleed at the most inconvenient moments.

Still, given that he admits stand-up comedy is essentially one long fib, it’s hard to know quite what is and isn’t true here. You will desperately want to believe his tale of being a paid scarecrow and there’s clearly no denying his assertion that he was something of a dweeb at school. A rather gauche antipodean (surely the only one in Edinburgh this month?) makes very little of his moment in the spotlight but it only serves to drive Hess on to hysterically over-compensate in the enthusiasm stakes. (Brian Donaldson) Q Heroes @ The Hives, 226 0000, until 31 Aug, 5.20pm, free (or PWYW).

Having made her Fringe debut last year with a deeply personal show entitled Hi Hitler, this American comic-actor with a German heritage is back. Lucie Pohl’s one-woman sketch affair features a diverse bunch of ill-fitting, contradictory and occasionally delusional New Yorkers. Indisputably talented, she has quality to burn on a series of oddballs including. most intriguingly, one of Putin’s sperm.

Pohl is able to wholly transform herself with a stoop, a swagger or by merest dint of a new shape to her mouth. The best moments lie in the darkest recesses, such as the English migrant attempting to tell her mother over the phone that her new life in the Big Apple is a total triumph (it’s not) or a dim-witted and massively gummed murderer.

Least successful are the more predictable, déjà vu types such as the over-demanding mother punishing her small son while her German motivational expert inflicted by a form of non-cursing Tourette’s is perhaps a little bit too Dr Strangelove. And do we really need another young airhead wittering almost exclusively in hashtags and OMGs? (Brian Donaldson) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug, 4pm, £8–£9 (£7–£8).

52 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Reviews | FESTIVAL COMEDY

PHOTO © IDIL SUKAN

PHOTO © CALLUM TEGGIN

list.co.uk/festival

BRETT GOLDSTEIN: BURNING MAN Finding purpose in the flawed and absurd: with glow-sticks OOOOO When Brett Goldstein enters, throwing shapes and wearing glow-sticks, you could be forgiven for getting the wrong idea about Burning Man. The explanation – ‘I don’t know how to start a comedy show’ – encapsulates the beautiful and purposeful absurdity of a show with an uncommon desire to navigate all the ridiculousness life can throw at you with clear thinking, an open mind and an absolutely winning generosity. Alongside painfully funny and brilliantly creative material, Burning Man has more thought and nuance in one hour than some comics’ entire careers.

In some ways, the show is a single completed thought, dragged through a startling sequence of narrative turns that include psychoactive drugs, sexual overshare, pre-adolescent existentialism and the desert festival of the title.

For all its strange and surprising meanders, Burning Man manages to make perfect sense.

Goldstein is an immaculate performer, a generous, warm and self-critical comic with a talent for finding sense and purpose in the flawed and the absurd.

(Dave Coates) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 9.30pm, £9.50–£11 (£8–£10).

TOBIAS PERSSON AND THE DRIVEL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

PIPPA EVANS: THERE ARE NO GUILTY PLEASURES

Strong punchlines in a show about our increasingly trivial civilisation OOOOO

Songs and banter about the things we love but really shouldn’t OOOOO

‘It’s very hard to change the world on your own,’ muses Sweden’s Tobias Persson as he tackles society’s growing fight for ‘drivel rights’. This obsession with everyday trivialities over the bigger picture ‘reduces human struggle to soundbites and world events to hashtags’. Man, these Scandinavians really do speak better English than we do.

With an amiable demeanour, Persson delivers strong punchlines and impressive off-the-cuff punning (outside his native language: cap doffed) to satirise our dissatisfaction with the more-thansatisfactory and our so-called right to be offended at everything and everyone.

He jokes that as he wouldn’t be much of an opponent in a physical fight, his weapon instead is words. But the mic can be mightier than the sword.

One audience member leaves after ten minutes, complaining of being ‘a bit bored’, but it’s a foolish decision. While not every joke lands, hanging out in the company of this comedian seems like a sensible move. (Emma Newlands) Q The Stand 6, 558 7272, until 30 Aug (not 17), 12.20pm, £10 (£8).

To many comedy fans, Pippa Evans is best known as Loretta Maine, the mascara-streaked, Courtney Love-esque rock-country chanteuse with a song in her heart and bitterness embedded deep in her soul. She doesn’t quite bound on stage proclaiming ‘and this is me!’ but Evans is keen to show Fringe audiences another side to her many talents.

Many of her top moments come from bawdy chitchat to the males among her gathering, whether they are young actors or hair-thinning gents, and she bravely ploughs on against the distracting presence of Amelia, an audience member with the most over-the-top laugh in showbusiness history.

She unleashes scorn upon modern go-to targets such as Katie Hopkins and beany-hatted singersongwriters, while tunes dissect the structure of country songs and the perils of being on a TV panel show. We could probably live without the centuriesold idea that the Welsh accent is perilously close to something a little more Asian but the unsheathed joy which Evans brings to a room allows you to forgive her almost anything. (Brian Donaldson) Q Bannermans, 226 0000, until 29 Aug (not 17, 24), 1.45pm, free.

ZOE COOMBS MARR: DAVE A highly accomplished hour which potently attacks misogyny and bad comedy OOOOO With her hair tied back in a ponytail and a drawn-on monobrow and beard, Zoe Coombs Marr somehow passes uncannily for the character she inhabits for the whole show. Dave is every liberal audience’s worst nightmare: a beer-swilling misogynistic Australian with six minutes of material at best and no self-awareness. A larger than life stereotype of the kind of comedy dinosaur that we associate with the 1970s but whose descendants currently litter TV panel shows.

The cognitive dissonance arising from simultaneously watching Dave fumble through a bigoted gag and Zoe expertly portray a character who is ironically telling that gag is interesting. Dave’s jokes are patently unfunny. The distance created by Zoe telling that joke does not make it funny, even as a guilty pleasure.

Rather, Dave himself is the target of ridicule, his lack of selfawareness reinforced by Marr’s in her knowing portrayal of Dave’s ilk and as a woman on stage delivering lads-only banter.

Not content with her excoriating depiction of a woman-hating Aussie comic, her lampooning takes in the wider target of all bad stand-ups. She takes to task those staples like banter with the audience and local humour. And there’s a moment of genius with microphone stands.

By setting up Dave to fail on his own terms Marr is able to tackle feminist issues in comedy as well as the depiction and treatment of women in the world at large without once mentioning the word feminism. Very talented and extremely clever, Zoe Combs Marr offers a political show that avoids didacticism, in the end sacrificing trite conclusions and neat parallels for comedy. (Suzanne Black) Q Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 18), 9.20pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 53

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews

MICHAEL CHE: SIX STARS An unstructured calamity ruins some early promise OOOOO

ALLY HOUSTON: SHANDY A wrong turn or two undermines a decent debut where the young Scot clowns around OOOOO It’s difficult to know exactly what’s going on with Ally Houston’s Fringe debut. The young Scottish comic gives us Shandy, the possibly semi-true tale of his obsession with an imaginary (maybe) pet clown (but is it?) who he desperately wants to shake off in order to live a happier life: but does he really want shot of his nemesis / alter ego?

It all kicks off well enough as Houston delivers some jokes which either hit the mark full-on or seem deliberately bad. Not for nothing has he been mentioned in passing as a younger, more alive Chic Murray. Houston has a tech sidekick who says nothing but pops on stage from time to time to tidy up or get everything in order for Houston’s next bit.

Most memorably, he drags a massive refuse bin up on to the stage for the show’s finest segment of health and safety-worrying daftness, while vaguely disturbing clown-based video footage is beamed into our increasingly baffled eyeballs.

There’s a pleasant enough amateur sheen to all this, but most off-putting are Houston's songs, some of them so gag-free that they seem to belong to an entirely parallel show. (Brian Donaldson) Q Just the Tonic @ The Mash House, 226 0000, until 30 Aug (not 18), 9.20pm, £4 (£3).

54 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

LINDA NYLIND

STEPHEN CRUICKSHANK

It’s never a pleasant sight to witness a fine comedian hijacking their own show. Michael Che is now a big name Stateside and it would be awful to reach the conclusion that he’s over here with so little to fight for that the foot has come right off the gas. But there has to be some rationale behind him virtually giving up on his show to indulge in laugh-free side-tracks, tangents and offshoots that wind up nowhere.

Over the course of an hour this would be difficult enough to stomach. But having mildly chastised his tech guy for not giving him the lighting signal that his ‘set’ was coming to an end, he proceeded to hang around for a further 30 minutes, inadvisably climaxing the whole farrago by indulging in one of the worst moves a comic can make: ceaselessly berating an audience member for not howling with laughter at everything they’ve said.

While someone in that row came to her defence, requesting that Che backed off (he opted to ignore this sage advice), others joined in the barracking of a woman who had dared to defend herself against unreasonable attention from someone with a microphone. Perhaps Che revels in taking things to the edge, but it doesn’t do much for his comedy status or for engendering good feelings in a room which everyone entered with a common cause.

The saddest thing is that Che had an excellent 20 minutes that he could have built upon, but chose not to. His proDonald Trump material and analysis of taboo words suggested something better. But none of that will stay in the mind long than his unstructured ramblings and ungenerous acts. ‘Crowd work is hard work’ he bemoans at one point. The solution to that problem is staring him right in the face. (Brian Donaldson) Q The Stand 3, 558 7272, until 20 Aug (not 17), 7.40pm, £12.

MASSIVE DAD 2.0: STEP UP 2 MASSIVE DAD

FAYE TREACY WORRIES

Quickfire hour of multi-layered sketch fun OOOOO

Debuting in Edinburgh with her slightly fretful one-woman horn section OOOOO

There’s always room for old formats done very well, and Massive Dad provide just that: tight, energetic sketches where not a moment is wasted. At one point, tongues firmly in cheeks, they discuss the po-faced dramatic and pyrotechnical ambitions embodied in the show’s title. But for all that joking, they really have stepped up to the challenge of following up a successful debut.

The material is many-layered but fun: three posh twits who’ve formed a production company funded by the bank of mum and dad pitch a 70s cop show with a feminist twist; three women in a job interview become increasingly distracted from the matter at hand, a fact revealed by their interior monologues.

With knowing cracks at everything from twee Scandinavian folk bands to the NSA, this hour feels of-the-moment without being heavy-handedly so, and the whole spectrum from slapstick to wordiness is well utilised. Attention to detail may not be the most glamorous comedic quality, but it really makes a difference. Combined with Massive Dad’s boundless, relaxed energy, it helps make this hour fly by. (Laura Ennor) Q Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 18), 6.50pm, £7.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£8.50).

Dipping her toe into Edinburgh’s waters after taking advice given to her by the dole office guy about not giving up on your dreams, Faye Treacy is doing a short but sweet 30 minutes of idiosyncratic trombone comedy. Having taken up the classical instrument and joining a youth orchestra (the only way to rebel against a punk-lovin’ dad), Treacy went on to attend the BRIT School at the same time as Adele and Jesse J. Though this very early preview is beset with techy problems, Treacy’s charm and endearing performance soon wins us round. She’s naturally wide-eyed with a perpetually worried look which she brandishes to her advantage as she lists her concerns (with musical accompaniment, of course).

But she needn’t fret too much as her one-liners are expertly crafted and sharp.

The simple analogy of comparing a trombone to a baby throws up some nicely daft and slightly risqué gags, whle a popular classical piece played with the aid of a vegetable makes for a delightfully ludicrous and surreal finale that deserves to be seen.

(Marissa Burgess) Q Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 477 7007, until 30 Aug, 1.15pm, free.

Reviews at a Glance | FESTIVAL COMEDY

list.co.uk/festival

For full length versions of these reviews see list.co.uk/festival Abigoliah Schamaun: Post-Coital Confessions OOOOO The show title

implies X-rated tales of Schamaun’s sexploits delivered with a wink and a nudge. But the confessions she’s referring to are the non-sequiturs, revelations and truth-bombs that are blurted while languishing in a post-orgasmic afterglow.

Though some of what she presents as shocking is anything but, it’s Schamaun’s warmth and sincerity about the topic that allows her to cross the finish line victorious, taking the audience along for a thoroughly enjoyable ride. (Suzanne Black) Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug (not 19), 5.15pm, £8.50–£10 (£7.50–£8.50).

Angela Barnes: Come As You Are OOOOO The self-deprecating Barnes discusses her perception of herself with her appearance casting a long shadow (to massively understate the case), leading her battling to find an identity ‘and what I meant to the world’. At times an unexpectedly sad look at struggling for self-acceptance, it’s also a lesson that proves to be deeper and more rewarding than expected. (Emma Newlands) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17), 8.15pm, £8.50–£11 (£7.50–£10).

Bafflesmash OOOOO These Bafflesmash guys are current Footlights members and a decent education shows through the sketches with plenty of literary references to derive gags from such as the Trojan horse of Greek mythology to Dickens and his ‘Tale of Two Urban Settlements’. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of popular culture too including a wonderfully silly Wallace and Gromit theme and skits are sharply written and honed with attention to detail and actual punchlines. (Marissa Burgess) Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 477 7007, until 30 Aug (not 17), 9.15pm, free.

In Cahoots: Two White Guys

BEASTS: Live DVD OOOOO Gay pirates, disgruntled ducks, and too many baguettes to count. BEASTS are on a mission to make a DVD of their live show in a bid to impress movie makers across the pond. But there’s confusion between Moby Dick and Free Willy, and a pitch for a new show (Naked Chef) that doesn’t quite make it off the ground but certainly lets the audience see more than they bargained for. (Jen Bowden) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 18), 4.45pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9).

Charmian Hughes: When Comedy Was Alternative (The Laughs and Loves of a She-Comic) OOOOO

Having been brought up in what she describes as a right-wing, middle-class family, Hughes always felt like an outsider. As a result, she rebelled and immersed herself in an adoptive fraternity of alternative comedians. Hughes is an endearingly scatty performer whose stories have a habit of wandering in search of punchlines that never come, but she has some delightful one-liners up her sleeve. (Murray Robertson) Banshee Labyrinth, 226 0000, until 30 Aug (not 17), 3.10pm, free.

Chris Stokes: Altruism in Birds OOOOO An introspective and thoughtful comedian who looks about 12 but has wisdom far beyond his years, Stokes has been divorced, suffered a mental breakdown and is a strict vegan.

He retells his more traumatic anecdotes in a conversational style that really puts everyone at ease. His self-effacing insight and emotional candour make for an authentic connection that is so welcoming it softens the audience up for some fantastic, well thought-out jokes. (Graeme Connolly) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 10.45pm, £7.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£8.50).

Corey White: The Cane Toad Effect OOOOO Having grown up in

care while his heroin addict mother spent time in jail, White has some rather unique material. White warns us that it will get

even darker and it certainly does. As he moves onto a recent break-up, the show feels more like a therapy session. White’s total honesty and resilience to adversity is admirable but there’s tension in the room.

(Rowena McIntosh) Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 17), 8.20pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9).

Damien Slash: Übermen OOOOO

Proving that multi-character comedy is not an easy form to get right, Slash handpicks a set of creation that are wilfully obscure rather than especially amusing. There’s a motivational speaker who gets everything wrong and an online war-games leader with terrible social skills; even the decent ideas (such as the arch critic of mineral water) fall flat from overstaying their welcome. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17), 5.45pm, £7.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£8.50).

David Callaghan: No Momentum OOOOO Callaghan can leave Edinburgh

saying he sold out his venue. Which is true, but given that his room was slightly bigger than a kids TV broom cupboard, it’s not a huge claim. But with a bit of luck and sharper editing (the finale goes on a bit), he should go places with his affable wit and occasionally borderline gags. (Brian Donaldson) Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 622 6801, until 30 Aug (not 24), 11.15am, free.

Dead Funny OOOOO Harry Garrison has been treading the Scottish circuit for a while now and has gathered the experience to handle some salty Saturday night audience members: he just blanks them, pretty much. Instead of indulging in banter, Garrison ploughs on with his jet-black comedy songs featuring abduction, paedophilia, age intolerance, abduction, rape, public defecation and, well, abduction. Deliciously dark stuff.

(Brian Donaldson) Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 07768 048 165, until 30 Aug (not 17 & 18, 24 & 25), 10.25pm, free.

Diane Spencer: Power Tool OOOOO

Spencer has a pretty excellent anecdote about the time she sold her soul to pay for radiators in her newly bought flat by penning a one-woman play for Nancy Dell’Olio. But out of that disastrous flop, the comic has found a quality show of her own with Spencer’s impersonations of the PVC-loving lawyer and Sven GöranEriksson particularly good, especially when she adds them to ridiculous glove puppets for the show’s climax. (Claire Sawers) Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug (not 12), 6.45pm, £9–£9.50 (£8–£8.50).

Felicity Ward: What If There Is No Toilet? OOOOO This show is not just a knockabout hour of lavatorial humour, as her own convenience-related issues (chronic IBS) are a symptom of wider mental health issues. If it all sounds rather heavy, well, that’s because some of it is, but the state of boundless perkiness which Ward can switch on in front of a crowd means that the horror is often undercut with silliness. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 9pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11).

Previews until 7 Aug, £6.

Foolball OOOOO You don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy Foolball, a one-man show that charts the rise and fall of the fictional Redstar Belgravia.

Rapid costume changes take place before the crowd’s eyes and watching a grown man struggle to get into a pair of trousers is always guaranteed a chuckle. But the boundless enthusiasm is let down by a serious repetition of jokes. (Graeme Connolly) Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug (not 19), 1.40pm, £8–£9 (£7–£8).

Get Ready! Get Set! Ahh F*%k It OOOOO There’s a certain irony in the fact that Angus Brown came all the way from Australia to do a show about how he never gets round to doing anything.

His routine explores why he has very little follow-through but a lot of big ideas.

Luckily, Brown had the brainwave, got ready, got set and decided not to fuck

it, with the result being a solid hour of stand-up. (Rebecca Monks) C south, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug, 10.15pm, £7.50–£9.50 (£5.50–£7.50).

Goose: Kablamo OOOOO Adam Drake’s not joking when he describes his show as ‘a sweaty one-man cartoon’. The perspiration flies off him like some kind of crazed garden sprinkler as he spins and spasms through this hyper caper of James Bond parody and machine-gun fire puns. Clearly it’s just too manic for some baffled faces in the crowd, his studentfriendly material goes down well with the rest. (Claire Sawers) Assembly George Square Theatre, 623 3030, until 30 Aug, 3.20pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9).

Howard Read: Man (Work in Progress) OOOOO ‘Is it possible to be a man without being a dick?’ ponders Read. He’s a self-described ‘work in progress’, a man navigating his way through fatherhood, marriage, monogamy and, here, a front row of boozy Scottish grannies. His observations about the differences between men and women won’t be anything the Fringe hasn’t heard before, but his ever-warm, dark yet at-ease manner helps him carry it off.

(Claire Sawers) Banshee Labyrinth, 226 0000, until 22 Aug, 4.20pm, free.

In Cahoots: Two White Guys OOOOO It’s rare these days to see a

sketch show that’s just a bunch of broken bits of comedy thrown together simply for the hell of making people laugh. It’s heartening to report that In Cahoots have managed to dream up a show (Two White Guys: 50% accuracy there) with mounds of innovation and originality, tailed by a finale which is extremely clever without sticking its high intelligence too firmly in our faces. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug, 7.15pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8.50–£9.50).

Jeff Green: Happiness OOOOO

Back from his adopted Australia to mark the Gilded Balloon’s anniversary, Green has much nostalgia to wallow in as well as reflecting on the fact that he’s no longer a young man. But where does he (or anyone else) find happiness these days? A consummate comic who still has an eye for a silly situation and a strong punchline. (Brian Donaldson) Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 16 Aug, 8.45pm, £10–£12 (£8–£10).

Jo Coffey: Curiously Caffeinated OOOOO Deciding not to do the whole

show as herself, instead the 4ft something Coffey brings on a range of other, ‘small special guests’. Punctuating the stand-up with a range of off-the-wall characters proves a good way of breaking up the material in this debut. The stand-out section is a running gag featuring a European tribute to Amy Winehouse with a dog in a wig. (Marissa Burgess) Ciao Roma, 557 3777, until 31 Aug (not 18), 1pm, free.

Joel Dommett: Conquer OOOOO

Dommett’s Counting House space is standing-room only and he’s pretty relaxed about the whole affair, already onstage and bopping to music as the would-be audience members fight over seats. Dommett sets up the premise – his new attitude and how it has led to love – before embarking on a series of digressions with a sad bit, a musical bit and some visual aids that somehow all converge in an epiphany-laden finale.

(Suzanne Black) Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 667 7533, until 29 Aug (not 28), 9pm, free.

John-Luke Roberts: Stdad-up OOOOO According to John-Luke Roberts when a comedian’s father dies, they have to do a show about it. In an elaborate physical routine, he dresses as his dad but after this the show starts to falter and he loses the well-crafted atmosphere of expectation. Some of his by-now trademark insults he delivers from cards are deliciously cutting. There’s some excellent lines and strong delivery but the later parts feel as though they’re still being devised. (Rowena McIntosh) Voodoo Rooms, 226 0000, until 30 Aug, 6.55pm, free.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 55

FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews at a Glance Kevin Day: Hairline OOOOO Kevin Day’s recent hair loss forms the basis of a meandering tour through some events from the past year, in his own life and the world at large. His Irish heritage, socialist politics and hatred of Prince Andrew are covered – along with a lot of knob jokes – as he wends his way towards a point.

Day’s style is relaxed and unhurried, allowing him to come across as affable even when he’s being vitriolic. (Suzanne Black) Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 30 Aug (not 19), 6.15pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).

Laughing Stock OOOOO In a succession of recurring and singleserving skits, the troupe take turns aggravating each other to either just past the bounds of propriety or sometimes further. The repetition of meetings between two childhood friends who reunite in a pub leads to diminishing returns, while a duel between two buskers sets up a riff that allows the team to show off their musical talents and delivers a nice pay-off. (Suzanne Black) Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug, 2.40pm, £9.50–£10 (£8.50–£9).

Lily Bevan: Pheasant Plucker OOOOO Bevan’s show is framed by the amusingly tenuous conceit of a falconer, aptly named Harriet, whose loss of a bird (Jester) inspires her to find herself instead. Harriet’s personal voyage enables Bevan to reel out a range of perfectly executed and totally bats characters.

She’s crammed in so many that if one is just a touch under par the next gem will be along in a few minutes. (Marissa Burgess) Underbelly Med Quad, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug (not 17), 3pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).

Love Sick OOOOO What is love? Two wacky aliens have come to Earth to find out, and their faulty methodology yields some hilarious, if not entirely helpful results. Dressed in lycra leotards and terrible wigs, a male and female (though this is not made entirely clear) bumble their way through our planet’s baffling mating customs and dating rituals.

The ad-libbing is great, the audience participation is gross, and the show is essentially a very silly look at what makes us tick ‘down there’. (Carmody Wilson) Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 17), 7pm, £8.50–£9.50.

Mark Forward presents Mark Forward OOOOO Forward knows that

everyone has a trigger and he wants to pull yours. Not that this hour is a barrage of shock tactics, his show is far subtler and cleverer than that. Occasionally he approaches the edge and peers over into the darkness below but Forward is more interested in the idea of taste, constantly reminding us they’re just words and it’s all make-believe. (Henry Northmore) Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug (not 27), 9.30pm, £10–£12 (£8–£10).

Mark Stephenson: Amsterdam OOOOO When your view of a comedian is distractingly overshadowed by an illuminated waving skeleton looming large in the background, who is strong enough not to use it as a metaphor?

Mortality is certainly one of the points covered in Stephenson’s set, as he takes us on a tale through the pain of a troubled upbringing and beyond. Stephenson certainly has skill, with a confident, compelling stage presence, working through the theme of identity, from dysfunctional upbringing to marriage.

(Emma Newlands) Banshee Labyrinth, 226 0000, until 30 Aug (not 17), 2.20pm, free.

Matt Forde: Get the Political Party Started OOOOO It’s never been a better time to be a political comedian and Matt Forde knows it. In this new hour, Forde has plenty of fun with 2015’s post-electoral political landscape, digging into party leaders old, new and in-the-wings. And although he’s a committed Labour Party member and unapologetic Blairite, his party gets as much of a kicking as everyone else in an hour of amusing political observations and spot-on impressions, but surprisingly 56 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Lily Bevan: Pheasant Plucker

including a ditsy Essex girl and an enthusiastic regional sportswoman. So far, so satire-by-numbers, while she never misses the chance to prove she can belt out a tune, something the ‘real’ Sooz is only too happy to highlight during one of the very-meta mid-act links. (Emma Newlands) Just the Tonic @ The Mash House, 226 0000, until 30 Aug (not 18), 6.20pm, free.

Spencer Jones Presents: The Herbert in Proper Job OOOOO

Jones’ joyous extravaganza of prop-led bonkersness is all too brief. Finding the words to describe it is a struggle, finding it amusing was definitely not. Performing in character as ‘The Herbert’, who straddles childish glee and the confusion of adulthood, it’s mime but with songs and children’s toys that can talk.

Delivered with an often-maniacal grin, The Herbert’s adventures show flashes of early ‘90s Vic ’n’ Bob and Mr Bean.

(Emma Newlands) Heroes @ The Hive, 226 0000, until 31 Aug (not 18, 25), 9pm, £5 (or Pay What You Want).

Stuart Black: Lemsip & Cigarettes

few punchlines. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 3.50pm, £8.50–£10 (£7–£9).

Nathan Caton: Straight Outta Middlesex OOOOO By the tenth

minute, Caton had winsomely explored the life and times of about eight punters and set the tone for a warm and charming hour of comedy. Caton’s strongest material centres on his home life, where his brother, mother and stepfather are given close and considered attention.

They’re the beating heart of his set, fully rounded characters that give the whole performance an emotional grounding and something of a moral compass. (Dave Coates) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17), 8pm, £8.50–£11 (£7.50–£10).

Nick Hall: Dodekahedron OOOOO

Hall presents a cavalcade of characters in this furiously paced one-man show which starts strongly with a nice puncture of party conference speeches as his pretend PM exposes the pontifications, platitudes and political bullshit that typify such occasions. After a neat skewering of consumer affairs TV shows, Hall breaks into a succession of quick-fire commercials. Those skits aren’t especially funny, and Hall dashes between them so quickly that we’re unsure if he’s expecting applause.

(Murray Robertson) Underbelly George Square, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug (not 19), 5.30pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9).

Normally Abnormal OOOOO They say it’s not what you say but how you say it and Dave Chawner is the embodiment of this truism. His stand-up is unabashedly formed around his ongoing relationship with anorexia. As an ambassador for various eating disorder and mental health charities, it would be easy for his show to come across as a thinly veiled after-school special. Happily, Chawner offers eye-opening insight into an under-reported issue. (Suzanne Black) Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 667 7533, until 30 Aug, 7pm, free.

Omid Singh: My Favourite Words in the English Language OOOOO

Mining his half-Indian, half-Iranian heritage for some killer gags, Singh can happily mock three cultures without fear of repercussions and joyfully play with stereotypes. Singh’s material is great but he has a tendency to veer off on tangents to chat with the audience. Sometimes it will pay off for some of the biggest laughs of the night and he certainly lucks out with a Greek in the audience: #greekingit. (Henry Northmore) Just the Tonic at The Tron, 220 1212, until 30 Aug (not 18), 7.30pm, £7–£8.50 (£6–£7; family ticket £20).

Papa CJ: Naked OOOOO Papa CJ wants sympathy for putting his first love on a major pedestal, deciding marriage after eight years won’t do, asking for a break, then being devastated when she (understandably) moves on. There’s also an unoriginal gynaecology joke

and drink-driving japes described as ‘epic’. Throughout, Papa CJ removes his clothes, clumsily demonstrating how he’s shedding his emotional layers by opening up to the audience, something he doesn’t need to spend so much time explaining: the formulaic emotional manipulation makes that clear. (Kirstyn Smith) Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 477 7007, until 23 Aug, 7.45pm, free.

Return of the Danish Bagpipe ComedianOOOOO Claus Reiss

certainly has one of the top props among this August’s comedy fraternity, but his show is a rather lukewarm delve into finding surprise humour in an instrument that already starts off pretty amusingly.

Reiss is amiable company but his generic gags often strike a bum note.

(Brian Donaldson) Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 477 7007, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), 12.15pm, free.

Sam Brady: Kindness OOOOO

Anyone order an hour of comedy as catharsis with extra Buddhism? If so then Brady may fit the bill with this look at his personal battles through divorce, fatherhood and beyond as he fights a constant battle to lead whatever the good life entails. His message that an act of kindness is never wasted is also a refreshing one, but seems to have come at the expense of the comedy itself. (Emma Newlands) Assembly Rooms, 0844 693 3008, until 16 Aug, 5.15pm, £10 (£9).

Scott Redmond: Jokes About Things OOOOO At 18, Redmond is

something of a precocious talent, having already clocked up a couple of years on the circuit. He’s run into scrapes and a near kidnapping, as well as experiencing personal losses including a dog, grandfather and girlfriends. Redmond combines a teen’s sense of fun with a well-tapped vein of intellect infused by a worldly wisdom way beyond his years, and it makes for an intriguing combination. (Marissa Burgess) Laughing Horse @ Moriarty’s, 228 5558, until 30 Aug, 10.30pm, free.

Sleeping Trees: Mafia? & Western?

OOOOO Sleeping Trees is a trio of physical comedians and, in a stroke of bums-on-seats genius, they’re performing two similarly appealing but different shows on alternate days: one day they’ll parody a western, the next a mafia flick.

Both involve the considerable musical talents of the Physics House Band, better known for playing jazzy math rock but here providing a highly versatile and atmospheric backdrop to the action. Fans of BLAM! will enjoy this. (Laura Ennor) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 22 Aug, 5pm, £7–£10 (£6–£9).

Sooz Kempner: Character Activist OOOOO Like tightrope walking and bomb disposal, character comedy requires precision to achieve its ideal goal: to subvert! After focusing in last year’s show on her failed audition for Wicked, this time Kempner presents herself as four different characters,

OOOOO Angry, dishevelled comedians

used to be a cliché, but now Black is one of a dying breed. He has lived the life and brought the t-shirt. By way of introduction he explains this is his tenth Fringe but his first without Prozac. This is a story of redemption and cleaning up his act, as Black stacks up various roots to happiness before knocking them down.

Pitch black but spectacularly smart.

(Henry Northmore) Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 622 6801, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), 10.15pm, free.

The Sunny Side Show OOOOO

Liverpool comic Keith Carter is Peter, an amusing, nice-but-dim posho parody. It’s likeable enough stuff, but uneven, and the character isn’t strong enough to carry a whole hour of comedy. Having fallen on hard times, Peter has ended up at the Sunny Side Hostel, and for part of the show he talks about the various colourful characters that he’s met there, giving the distinct impression it might have been more fun to meet them than just hear about them. (Laura Ennor) Just the Tonic @ The Mash House, 226 0000, until 30 Aug (not 18), 3pm, £5–£6 (£3.50–£4.50; family ticket £14–£18).

Thünderbards OOOOO Sketch duo Glenn Moore and Matt Stevens return with their third consecutive instalment of Thünderbards. This year, they’re trying to save an Edinburgh library from demolition, using books plucked from the shelves as the starting point for skits.

The early routines use well-trodden comic material eg. self-service checkouts, signing cards for unknown colleagues.

Once the duo have found their stride the references back to earlier jokes build a show with depth and their chemistry shines. (Rowena McIntosh) Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug, 5pm, £8.50–£10 (£7–£9).

Tiff Stevenson: Mad ManOOOOO

It’s not in Stevenson’s nature to do things by halves, so she’s decided to tackle the big four all in one show. Sexism, racism, sexuality and body image are jammed into Mad Man to try and understand exactly what makes a person. Confidence is her strong point and when she does self-deprecation the humour isn’t lost in wallowing. Going down so many different avenues means the hour is disjointed, but her intelligent call-backs and continuing threads keep everything together. (Kirstyn Smith) The Stand 6, 558 7272, until 29 Aug (not 17), 4.05pm, £10 (£8).

Twins: Pret a Comedy OOOOO

Annie McGrath and Jack Barry might not look like twins, but they absolutely are: promise. Tragedy has unfolded though, as one of them is about to die (in exactly one hour, incredibly) and so they tick off the items on their bucket list. Cue a pleasantly daft affair featuring the northern lights, superheroism and a really mean bandit. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17 & 18, 24), midnight, free.

Sylvie Guillem | FESTIVAL DANCE

list.co.uk/festival

THE LAST DANCE Choreographer Akram Khan tells Kelly Apter about working with French dance star Sylvie Guillem on her final project

S

ylvie Guillem is no stranger to the creative process. A professional dancer at Paris Opera Ballet since the age of 16, followed by an illustrious career with companies around the world, she’s met her fair share of choreographers.

But, having turned 50 in February this year, Guillem’s dancing career is finally coming to an end. Which means somebody had to be the last person to create work for her – and that somebody just happened to be acclaimed UK choreographer Akram Khan.

‘I was a little bit burdened by the weight of this being the last creation she would ever do in her career,’ he says. Then he pauses, reflects, and re-phrases. ‘No, not a burden, it was an honour. It was an interesting burden, but I was very aware that this was the last time.’

At 40, Khan feels he too is facing the end of his dancing career, but claims he ‘definitely won’t continue’ as long as Guillem. A childhood gymnast before switching to ballet, Guillem has always been known for her remarkable flexibility – but staying at that level comes at a price, physically.

‘People say they love to dance, but with Sylvie you see the reality and proof of it,’ says Khan. ‘Who else would be willing to dance with such constant pain? After 35, everything takes longer to recover, and she’s still dancing at 50. That’s an incredible amount of commitment and stubbornness – because you have to be stubborn to say “no” to your body when it wants to stop. What that reveals is her absolute love for dance, for the stage and for performing.’

Alongside works by Russell Maliphant, Mats Ek and William Forsythe, Guillem’s Edinburgh International Festival show will feature Khan’s Techné. It’s not the first piece he has choreographed for her – the duo worked on Sacred Monsters together in 2006 – but this time, things felt a little different.

‘When I first worked with her, there was a sense of “oh wow, I’m working with Sylvie Guillem, what a wonderful opportunity”,’ recalls Khan. ‘And when you work with somebody in the beginning, there’s so much formality, which sometimes gets in the way. But this time it was very different, because we know each other so well, so it was much more direct.’

Another major difference for Khan, was the move from duet to solo. Both Khan and Guillem performed Sacred Monsters together – Guillem dances Techné alone.

‘My body comes with its own ego, so when you take that out, I can then just focus on Sylvie,’ explains Khan. ‘So Techné was all about Sylvie and her interests, in particular her connection with nature and her being an ecology activist.’

All those who watch Guillem on stage agree – she’s one of a kind, the foremost ballerina of her generation, a trailblazer for female dance. But what about those, like Khan, who have worked with her, who have seen that amazing body up-close, heard Guillem talk about her craft. What do they attribute to her success?

‘The first thing is her incredible physical facility – that’s a gift,’ says Khan. ‘And I think gymnastics when she was younger helped her a lot, on a mental level, because she applies the same rigour as athletes do.

‘But facility alone isn’t enough. Sylvie is an athlete – but she’s not just an athlete, she’s a storyteller. And the combination of the two makes her very unique.’

‘People say they love to dance, but with Sylvie you see the reality and proof of it’

PHOTO © BILL COOPER

Sylvie Guillem – Life in Progress, Festival Theatre, 473 2000, 8–10 Aug, 7.30pm, £14–£50.

6–13 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 55

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SEVEN

PHOTO © GEIT WEIGELT

Ballett Am Rhein tells little stories, set to Mahler Unless you’re watching a narrative ballet, with all its gestures and mimes, what you make of a dance work is usually up to you. But sometimes, in among the abstract movement, there are glimmers of a tale wanting to be told.

Seven is one such ballet. A powerful work set to Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 and filled with ‘little stories’, as choreographer Martin Schläpfer calls them. Just don’t expect to be handed the narrative on a plate.

‘I don’t like to go to the theatre and know how one gets from A–Z,’ says Schläpfer. ‘I like mystery, I like secrets – I like that sometimes it doesn’t make sense.’

Schläpfer was heavily influenced by the Holocaust, and human struggle in general, when creating Seven. Switching between pointe shoes, heavy boots with overcoats, and bare feet, he sometimes lets the costumes do the talking.

‘It matters what you wear,’ says Schläpfer.

‘A change of shoe work is good, and then of course the coats and boots give it a slightly hard, almost backward, conservative manner – but that fits the Mahler, or my view of it anyway.’ (Kelly Apter) Q Playhouse, 473 2000, 20–22 Aug, 8pm, £10–£32 (£5–£16).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 59

FESTIVAL DANCE | Hitlist

Kelly Apter highlights some of the best dance, circus and physical theatre in week two of the Fringe BALLETT AM RHEIN – SEVEN This large-scale work by Dusseldorf’s Ballett Am Rhein mixes drama, pathos and some interesting shoe choices.

See preview, page 59. Playhouse, 473 2000, 20–22 Aug, 8pm, £10–£32 (£5–£16).

LO REAL / LE REEL / THE REAL Groundbreaking flamenco choreographer and dancer Israel Galván gives voice to the half million Roma and Sinti people killed during the Holocaust. Festival Theatre, 473 2000, 19–21 Aug, 7.30pm, £12–£30 (£6–£15).

CLOSE UP A closer, more intimate offering from Australian circus heroes, Circa.

Prepare to fear for their safety and marvel at their art (pictured). See review, page 61. Underbelly George Square, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug (not 18, 25), 8pm, £17–£18 (£16–£17).

360 ALLSTARS Get whipped into an excitable frenzy, as two breakdancers, a basketball

60 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

supremo, cyr wheel expert, BMX champ, incredible beatboxer and fierce drummer deliver the goods.

Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 17), 4.15pm, £15–£16 (£13–£14).

TAO DANCE THEATRE A double-bill of works by one of China’s most acclaimed choreographers, Tao Ye, featuring music by Steve Reich. Lyceum, 473 2000, 17–18 Aug, 8pm, £10–£32 (£5–£16).

4X4 EPHEMERAL ARCHITECTURES A five-star offering from Gandini Juggling, when four ballet dancers and four jugglers come together to provide quick-fire beauty. See review, page 62. Assembly George Square Theatre, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 5.30pm, £14–£16 (£12–£14).

NIJINSKY’S LAST JUMP Step inside the mind of one of the 20th century’s most revered dancers, in Company Chordelia’s sensitive and insightful look at Vaslav Nijinsky. See review, page 61. Dance Base, 225 5525, until 23 Aug (not 17), 2pm, £10 (£8).

YERMA Amina Khayyam Dance Company fuse Indian Kathak dance and live music to portray Federico Garcia Lorca’s

emotionally charged 1934 play, Yerma.

See review, page 62. New Town Theatre, 220 0143, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 2pm, £10 (£8).

PHOTO © DYLAN EVANS

DANCE HITLIST

Close Up

Reviews | FESTIVAL DANCE

PHOTO © SUSAN HAY

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NIJINSKY’S LAST JUMP

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BRUIT DE COULOIR

DA-DA-DARLING

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Engaging meditation on the mysteries of creativity and madness

Juggling and dance combine in this eloquent meditation on life

A Fringe premiere from Kally Lloyd-Jones, the Scottish choreographer and director of Company Chordelia, this is an engaging meditation on the mysteries of creativity and madness. Both conditions were apparent in Vaslav Nijinsky, played here as an old and young man by, respectively, James Bryce and Darren Brownlie – an excellent double-act. Set by the designer Janis Hart in what could be construed as either a flower-filled dressing room and / or an asylum, and featuring an artful text

by Michael Daviot, the piece presents an entirely humanising portrait of a 20th-century dance legend.

The intriguing central notion of a meeting (as well as the love and loss) of one’s self is realised with uncommon sensitivity and intelligence. En route there are, additionally, clever insights into an iconic career. Old Nijinsky acts as his own coach and critic, adjusting Young Nijinsky’s limbs in a few phrases from L’après-midi d’un faune. This somewhat episodic and repetitive show needs better transitions between scenes, plus a slight trim as it’s maybe a tad too in love with itself. But then I rather loved it too. So might you. (Donald Hutera) Q Dance Base, 225 5525, until 23 Aug (not 17), 2pm, £10 (£8).

It’s not unusual to find dancers and circus performers drawing on their skills to tackle disturbing issues. But in Bruit de Couloir – ‘rumour’ in English – Clément Dazin doesn’t just utilise juggling to add colour to his piece, he makes it the essential heartbeat.

This bears out in ways more literal than you might expect. In Dazin’s response to the trauma of a near-death experience, the neat white juggling balls take on a rhythm that brings to mind the beeps of a heart monitor; tiny repetitions, at first reassuring and cyclical, then later fragile enough to break into erratic patterns that come shattering to a halt.

Dazin also plays with the concept of time, slowing down the motion of the balls until at one point he is passing them at underwater speed around his body, or allowing them to orbit him as he moves across the floor.

But it’s in the piece’s final moments – a catharsis so simple it is luminous – that Bruit de Couloir shows its true eloquence. Precise and sincere, Dazin has created a moving and quietly original meditation on the elusive thing that keeps us all in motion.

(Lucy Ribchester) Q Institut français d’Ecosse, 225 5366, until 23 Aug (not 13, 17, 20), 3pm, £10 (£8).

CLOSE UP

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Throwback avant-garde modernism At times in this experimental, and occasionally quite camp, late-night fever dream by Bristol’s Impermanence Dance Theatre, it seems as if they’ve been wholly struck by a batty and possibly unholy rapture. The seven Rambert-trained performers are trying to take us to places – let’s call it throwback avant-garde modernism – which most other companies can’t, or maybe wouldn’t want, to go. But for it to work you have to want to go there too. Sometimes I did.

Impermanence’s source of inspiration is a 1930 ‘collage-novel’ by German painter, poet and Dada movement pioneer, Max Ernst, called A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil. This highly selfconscious, hallucinatory production was collectively devised, each performer taking responsibility for a minute or so of choreography, with all the pieces then stitched together. An episodic, oddball patchwork straddling the crossroads of kitsch and high art, it’s either brave, or foolhardy, or both.

Riddled with sexual and religious symbolism, it features big music (and movement) and lots of costume changes. But what I liked, and what might stick, is the sense of heroic havoc. (Donald Hutera) Q ZOO, 662 6892, until 31 Aug (not 17), 10.15pm, £9–£10 (£7–£8).

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Awe-inspiring acrobatics at their most raw and honest A warning: sit in the front row of this show and you’ll be overcome with the urge to shout, ‘Be careful!’ like some crazed mother hen. A collection of Ikea chairs has never looked so frightening. When the acrobats of Circa call their show Close Up they’re not mucking about.

Following smart, sexy Wunderkammer and weird, wonderful Beyond, Australian company Circa takes an abrupt turn in this four-person show to somewhere much more pared-back. Now circus’ magical qualities and mute superhumans are taking off at the Fringe, it seems the logical way to go is back to basics: honest and raw.

In Close Up, the performers shout the building blocks of acrobatics to each other – ‘stand’, ‘roll’, ‘jump’ – while doing each of those things and tossing the microphone in between.

Chinese Pole wizard Todd Kilby tells us it’s necessary to wear protective layers in his act, before leaping to it; the explanation makes his balances and drops feel more, not less, of a feat.

Similarly, Lauren Herley’s beautiful rope aerials are made more awe-inspiring by the contrast of her liquid movements and the burning red patches you can see beginning to bloom on her legs.

Here, no one is plying the illusion that things are effortless.

Close Up isn’t the only show to deconstruct its craft this Fringe; 4x4 Ephemeral Architectures goes down a similar route. Nor is it the first to showcase the wobbles and sweat of up-close circus; Casus’ Knee Deep went there in 2013. But there’s a sauciness and a mischief distinct to the company that has you rooting for them as they challenge themselves harder and harder. Commit yourself to Circa for an hour and you know it’s going to be a damn good one. (Lucy Ribchester) Q Underbelly George Square, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug (not 18, 25), 8pm, £17–£18 (£16–£17).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 61

FESTIVAL DANCE | Reviews

4X4 EPHEMERAL ARCHITECTURES

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An alchemy of impish fun and perfect beauty

PHOTO © ARNAUD STEPHENSON

It’s not the first time ballet and juggling have been paired at the Fringe – 2013’s Tangram saw the disciplines turned into a tender duet by a husband and wife.

But director Sean Gandini and choreographer Ludovic Ondiviela know the value of numbers when creating spectacle, and here the virtuoso cast of eight (four jugglers, four ballet dancers) creates a human kaleidoscope of quick-moving beauty, all set to Nimrod Borenstein’s original score.

It would be enough to see the electrons of juggling patterns fizzing against the dancers’ clean lines, or even to gape at the timing that allows the ballet to weave in and around flying hoops, skittles and balls. But this is Gandini Juggling, of smash-hit Smashed, here, and the same puckish spirit of that teacup-worrying Pina Bausch-inspired show is embedded firmly in 4x4.

In interludes between meditative, lyrical movements – playing with ideas of codes and equations – we have good-cop-bad-cop dancers who try to distract a solo juggler, then golf clap him when he gets it right, and ballerinas who cackle like monkeys when you least expect it.

Randomness always tickles against the order imposed by the company’s immaculate choreography. There is no reason for the word ‘whee’ to be funny, but when it escapes a ballerina’s mouth mid-lift, it just is.

In a way it’s hard to know how to take 4x4. It lies ambiguously between seriously finessed execution and sending up seriousness in art. But that is also perhaps at the heart of its beauty. Or perhaps it’s best not to think too hard about it. Playfully, the cast deconstructs the piece towards the end, even offering up some suggestions for finales with handy pre-made reviews. ‘Wonderful’ says Owen Reynolds of his high-concept plans.

‘Marvellous.’

We laugh, but actually it’s a fair way to describe this show.

(Lucy Ribchester) Q Assembly George Square Theatre, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 12, 18, 25), 5.30pm, £14–£16 (£12–£14).

PHOTO © CODY CHOI

YERMA

OOOOO

ONE FINE DAY

OOOOO

SMOTHER

OOOOO

Powerful, kathak dance take on a Spanish classic

Fine double-bill of dance from Korea's EDx2

Same-sex couples filtered through hip hop lens

Set in rural patriarchal Spain, Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1934 play Yerma is about the tragic consequences of being a woman locked in a childless marriage. The classical Indian dancerchoreographer Amina Khayyam has universalised the source material to take on board female oppression in a broader sense. The result is sharply stylised, exceptionally economical and relevant dance-theatre with the petite, big-eyed Khayyam herself fragile and fierce in the title role.

This impressive piece is presented as a moody, fine-cut ritual graced with a pulse-quickening live score. The dancers Lucy Teed and Jane Chan, their faces painted half white and half brown, neatly embody male and female subsidiary characters comprising the social order into which the increasingly desperate Yerma does not fit. All of kathak’s hallmarks – whirlwind spins punctuated by little jumps, twists of the torso, stamping feet, eloquent gestures and facial expression – are present and accounted for, but put to the service of subtle yet strong storytelling without a trace of sentimentality. Dramatically alert, thematically rich and ultimately moving. (Donald Hutera) Q New Town Theatre, 220 0143, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 2pm, £10 (£8).

Sometimes titles can be either deceptive or lost in translation. The bland signal sent out by One Fine Day doesn’t do justice to this accomplished doublebill from acclaimed Korean dance company EDx2.

Modern Feeling sees two men test the boundaries of physical companionship through intimacy, combat and those tiny little taps and prods that form so much of everyday interaction. In-soo Lee and Kyum Ahn are at their best when in quickfire mode – the show-stealer here is a mercurial passage of mind-bending precision, the men locked to each other through the arms like a metal puzzle, and moving so fluidly the eyes can barely keep up.

Ensemble piece What We’ve Lost shifts into more whimsical territory. As the dancers enter, they search and pat themselves, looking for that elusive titular object. It’s never revealed what that is, but it can be whisked or heaved between the company, its weight and substance taking on different significance as it arrives at each player. The dance is brought off with dizzying energy and guts, but some segments resonate more than others, and a series of false endings suggests that perhaps the piece might in parts, be a little lost itself. (Lucy Ribchester) Q Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 17, 24), noon, £12–£14 (£11–£13).

The seven switched-on members of contemporary hip hop company 201 Dance bring plenty of kinetic attack to this slick and slender, yet sincere hour of mainly swift, occasionally tender semi-narrative dance. The piece charts the developments of two same-sex relationships. This is irregular emotional terrain for mainstream hip hop culture to be exploring, so credit to choreographer Andrea Walker for giving it some consideration.

Dramatic intention sits fairly well upon the shoulders of a young cast, including Walker, who appear to be ardent about the somewhat hedonistic rhythms of desire. They start out as coke-snorting party animals who look like they’d be most at home in a pop video. Gradually boy meets boy, with one being especially drug-oriented, and girl meets girl, only in a softer matter. The latter duo doesn’t follow much of a dramatic arc, but their behaviour is more recognisably human and even ordinary than their rather hard-driven male counterparts.

If ultimately it feels as if there simply isn’t enough of the incisive emotional pay-off this production is meant to generate, Walker nonetheless evidences a facility for fashioning ensemble movement.

(Donald Hutera) Q ZOO, 662 6892, until 22 Aug, 6.40pm, £11 (£10).

62 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

7–30 August Dance Base I Venue 22 14 – 16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2JU Box office 0131 225 5525 dancebase.co.uk/Festival15

FESTIVAL

2015

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 63

JOIN US THIS AUGUST AT SUMMERHALL FOR A FEAST OF INTERNATIONAL THEATRE, PERFORMANCE, VISUAL ART, DANCE, SPOKEN WORD AND MUSIC FOR AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES.

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SMOKE & MIRRORS COLLABORATIVE

DNA PUPPETRY & VISUAL THEATRE

LUKE WRIGHT

TESSA BIDE

NDEBELE FUNERAL

WHAT I LEARNED FROM JOHNNY BEVAN

CHICKEN LICKEN AND THE LITTLE RED HEN THE TAP DANCING MERMAID

GREYSCALE

WILL PICKVANCE

AND MANY MORE

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GODS ARE FALLEN AND ALL SAFETY GONE

DIVE AND SUMMERHALL PRESENT

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ALIEN LULLABIES SOULSVILLE AND NOTHING EVER HAPPENS HERE PRESENT...

RHYTHM MACHINE 15 AUG FREE AND MANY MORE

GODS ARE FALLEN AND ALL SAFETY GONE

ANATOMY OF THE PIANO (FOR BEGINNERS)

THE PLACE PRESENTS

IDIOT-SYNCRASY T-DANCE PARADISE LOST (LIES UNOPENED BESIDE ME) SPITFIRE PRODUCTIONS AND AURORA NOVA

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VISUAL ARTS

ISLANDS

AND MANY MORE

TEN EXHIBITIONS INCLUDING

HERMANN NITSCH: DAS ORGIEN MYSTERIEN THEATER DERRICK GUILD: AFTER A.D.

ORTONANDON: THREE GO ADVENTURING AGAIN 10AM – 7PM, 5TH – 31ST AUGUST, EXHIBITIONS ARE FREE

ORTONANDON

‘You could spend the whole three weeks at Summerhall and never be bored for a second’ Lyn Gardner Guardian 2015.

64 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

0131 560 1581

www.summerhall.co.uk

Festival

MUSIC KIDS

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This endlessly adaptation Lewis Busdande quefun voluptu reperisofinihit Carroll’s ‘nonsense poem’ is just that sam – aborporrum ium quis es aut pra net, restia nonsense, in que the best way. nis A young volore, sum, etur possible sitio molores untio boy, est keen for adventure to secure the con omnissi modita and veliquis aut offi ciur ad love of his cash-obsessed father, stows away on a ship to find the mysterious ‘Snark’.

Shipwrecked, he discovers an island populated with a fashion-crazy chicken, ravenous butcher, and memory-stealing Bandersnatch among others.

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endae. Ut quia parchit, venis quae maion est aperit acesto excesciatque voluptatet, iusci con porectem ex et que volesse quiamus, sunt fuga. Im imil mod que pore, tet debis audis velecat dolescipiet fugit, simusandi doloratur, seque dende inum quamus exerum, Laughs come thick and qui fastsiasarchil thesemo larger velesequas voloreperum te than life characters inum race to themil prize, doluptatur?Evenda sitis eic with tem. live guitar punctuating theiretpursuit.

The cutest Pudignis dolo consed autas seque estissi beaver in town and aearuptasita darn fine knitter ommolor ectio.–Orest volesto boot –necerum joins them foroffi the ride,et, much to everyone’s fugit ctem omnim dia doluptat delight faccum(young eat. and old).

With fantastic singing, silly (‘I’met, the Temos ex et harum quid et songs re, sequo Bandersnatch’ buzz aroundate your head for sequae peliquawill eriamusapedi volumquis months), this enjoyably daft tale is filled with eosRorrorent ut que esequos quassitate ridiculous characters played by six hugely parumquam illiciant acesequam rem reperume talented performers. Transported to a bigger space, with a full set, The Hunting of the Snark would be a five star show. Enjoy it on its way up.

(Kelly Apter) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 11am, £7.50–£8.50 (£6.50–£7.50). OOOOO

THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK

PHOTO © ANNA BRUCE

Musical romp that entertains all ages

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 65

FESTIVAL KIDS | Hitlist

KIDS HITLIST Kelly Apter highlights some of the best kids shows in week two of the Fringe THE TAP DANCING MERMAID A young girl makes friends with an ocean dweller while tap dancing by the seashore, in this charming original show. See review, page 68.

Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 11.05am, £8 (£6).

THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem is fleshed out into a musical comedy that hits the spot with both adults and children. See review, page 65. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 11am, £7.50–£8.50 (£6.50–£7.50).

THE FALCON’S MALTESER The first of Anthony Horowitz’s Diamond Brothers series is brought to the stage in fine style, with an inept detective, clever brother and lots of bad ‘uns. See review, page 68.

Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17, 24), 2pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10).

THE LAST OF THE DRAGONS This lively romp, adapted from

Edith Nesbit’s 1925 story, turns the damsel in distress story right on its head. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 16), noon, £7.50–£10 (£6–£8).

GRUFFALOS, LADYBIRDS AND OTHER BEASTS – WITH JULIA DONALDSON The woman who created them brings The Gruffalo, What the Ladybird Heard and other favourites to life, with help from some of her friends. Underbelly George Square, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug (not 19), 11.30am, £10–£11 (£9–£10).

COLORS Watch paint pots come alive and help an artist achieve his vision, in this imaginative show from Russia’s Theatre Courage. See review, page 67. Spotlites, 220 5911, until 22 Aug (not 17), 4.05pm, £6 (£4).

FUNZ AND GAMEZ TOO A joyfully daft follow-up to last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show, as Phil and the gang cook up more adult-friendly japes. See review, page 67. Assembly George Square Gardens, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 25), 3.20pm, £9 (£7.50).

THE MAGIC PORRIDGE POT AND OTHER TASTY TALES Another hit from Theatre of Widdershins, in which all manner of objects transform into something

else during three fun-packed tales (pictured). See review, page 67.

Scottish Storytelling Centre, 556 9579, until 30 Aug, 1pm, £9 (£7); family ticket £28.

Theatre Fideri Fidera

Edinburgh’s favourite kitten is back!

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“Wide-eyed and constantly smiling Natasha Granger cleverly turns the space into a warm inviting space” The Stage “Highly recommended. 45 minutes of pure magic” Fringe Review “A heart-warming show” The Scotsman

10.15am t 5 – 23 Aug t Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square

BOOK NOW

www.gildedballoon.co.uk 0131 622 6552 66 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Reviews | FESTIVAL KIDS

PHOTO © MATTHEW HARGRAVES

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MR TIGER GOES WILD

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Jolly tale of friendship told through slapstick and a rock band ‘In the city we always follow the rules,’ declares Mr Deer proudly. He’s a scrupulously well turned-out gent in a morning suit and top hat, adorned with antlers and fluffy tail.

It’s clear he likes things done properly, and he expects the same of his best friend Mr Tiger. But Mr Tiger’s wild, and he likes nothing more than to leave the city, scoff the cake he’s been told to leave alone, and get out of the monkey suit and into his tiger onesie for some growling practice.

This fun and cheerful two-hander from Goblin Theatre, adapted from the internationally acclaimed children’s book of the same name, is delightfully well thought-out, with likeable performances. Silly slapstick, jolly songs, and a message about not forgetting your friends despite their differences and inability to always do what you want, are delivered in a manner perhaps best suited to smaller kids.

It’s a nice show, perhaps not entirely bearing the force of personality such a concept deserves, but the characters are cute and the set – which breaks in two to reveal Mr Tiger’s rock band stage – is an excellent piece of design work. (David Pollock) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550 until 31 Aug, 11.10am, £8–£10 (£7–£9).

COLORS

FUNZ AND GAMEZ TOOZ

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Imaginative show brings the art of painting alive

Traditional kids show with jokes for grown-ups

’Do you want to see a miracle?’ asks the painterly man at the easel. What a lovely way to describe the concept of art to children, and to further elaborate on it with a wonderfully designed show which anthropomorphises the blots of paint on that easel in inventively dramatic form. The curtain pulls back and the easel is there, scaled to such a large size that women wearing sheer, sequinned bodysuits in each of the colours represented can dance in waist deep pots of paint, teasing each other about which of them is the best and most important.

The moral of the story being, of course, that it takes all sorts to create the rainbow of colours and personalities we see around us. The text of Theatre Courage’s piece is quite wordy and perhaps best for older kids, but all ages appear suitably enthralled by some great, colour-themed song and dance sequences which make the cast appear even larger than it is. Green frogs and leaves leap around, yellow sunbeams lead a simple singalong and blue waves wash delicately under billowing fabric. These, and the animated painting sequence at the end, are a visual feast which keep attentions rapt for the whole hour. (David Pollock) Q Spotlites, 220 5911, until 22 Aug (not 17), 4.05pm, £6 (£4).

The sleeper kids-comedy hit from 2014 continues its irreverent ways with Funz and Gamez creator Phil Ellis once more walking a tightrope which permanently threatens to snap under him. Alongside his often not-so-merry men Bonzo the Dog (always ready with barbs and scowls), Jim the Elf (a doeeyed naïf who often appears to be in the wrong show) and Uncle Rick who has replaced his late identical twin Mick (his ashes are tastefully brought up on stage), Ellis throws together the elements of traditional children’s entertainment but underpins them with cheeky wit and sardonic asides.

Comments about ‘the spectrum’, ISAs, Grand Theft Auto and the late Keith Harris have adults sniggering into their sleeves, while Bonzo frequently courts a theatre producer in the audience as a means of escaping his nightmarish fate.

If all this sounds like you should be steering your little one well clear of this show, don’t fret: there are sweetie showers, songs, and games to keep them amused. Even if Phil (dubbed ‘north Manchester’s most reliable comedian’) does cheat at them all. ‘It’s not high art, is it?’ bemoans Bonzo. Maybe not, but it’s a charm riot for all the family. (Brian Donaldson) Q Assembly George Square Gardens, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 25), 3.20pm, £9 (£7.50).

THE MAGIC PORRIDGE POT AND OTHER TASTY TALES Tales told through a set filled with surprise and delight OOOOO If there’s one thing you quickly learn at a Theatre of Widdershins show, it’s that nothing is as it seems. If you see a pile of stones sitting in a basket, a box of porridge in a shopping trolley or an empty brass pot on a stove – chances are, there’s more to them than meets the eye.

That’s one of the chief delights about watching this show – wondering what storytelling Andy Lawrence will transform next.

With three full tales packed into this lively hour, there’s a lot of scope for building, re-shaping and creating people and places before our eyes. All the more impressive when you know that Lawrence hand-crafts all the set and props himself.

First up is the well-loved Magic Porridge Pot, but – as with all Widdershins shows – the tale has been modified to give it a new slant. Now, it’s an elderly lady and her over-sized dog (who thinks he’s a butterfly) that are given the pot. The usual mayhem ensues, requiring the audience to join in the magic spell. As ever, Lawrence has found a funny and charming solution to producing an abundance of porridge on-stage.

Then it’s on to the next tale – Stone Soup, a lesser-known traditional folk story, in which a hungry stranger fools the townspeople into feeding him. Only here, the people are replaced by the charmingly named (and cleverly constructed) head chef, ‘Waffle Sweat’. Once more, Lawrence involves the audience, asking us to throw things into the pot.

The food theme draws to a close with The Gingerbread Man, again with a witty twist and fun opportunities to join in.

All the tales go down well with both young and not-so-young – and why wouldn’t they? There’s no age restriction on finding wonderment in transformation. (Kelly Apter) Q Scottish Storytelling Centre, 556 9579, until 30 Aug, 1pm, £9 (£7).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 67

FESTIVAL KIDS | Reviews

THE TAP DANCING MERMAID Puppetry and storytelling by the seashore OOOOO

PHOTO © JULIAN FOXON PHOTOGRAPHY

If you drew up a checklist of all the things a good children’s show should contain, The Tap Dancing Mermaid would tick every box. A colourful set, an engaging story told simply and clearly, characters worthy of emotional investment, and just the right amount of audience participation.

Delivering all this is solo performer Tessa Bide, whose warm, friendly style leads us gently but confidently through the tale.

Banned from tap dancing at home by her increasingly unpleasant aunt (ingeniously made from an old lampshade and kitchen utensils), Marina Skippett takes her talented footwork to the local jetty. There, she meets Leo the merman, who teaches Marina about his underwater world, its stories and songs (one of which we join in on, with ukulele accompaniment).

Meanwhile, the moon – our trusty narrator via a recorded voiceover – watches over Marina and us, not only ensuring we never lose track of the story, but providing a magical ending.

This is Bide’s first time to strike out on her own, and it’s an auspicious start. A fine puppeteer, and competent tap dancer, she also has a knack for encouraging audience involvement in a funny, natural way. Sometimes Bide plays Marina herself, then switches the character to an identically dressed puppet once things become sea-bound.

Manipulating both our tap dancing heroine, and Leo her merman pal, simultaneously with skill and precision, Bide never lets the pace drop. While the jetty itself, with its hard wooden floor, is the perfect platform for Marina to don her tap shoes and get hoofing.

A mixed audience of boys and girls, both equally engaged by the tale, proved that while the show’s title may hint at Disneyesque tweeness, this is a show for all to enjoy. (Kelly Apter) Q Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 11.05am, £8 (£6).

THE FALCON’S MALTESER BY ANTHONY HOROWITZ

ANATOMY OF THE PIANO (FOR BEGINNERS) OOOOO

Fun adaptation of popular detective tale OOOOO

Fascinating and fun voyage inside the piano

Anthony Horowitz has no shortage of fans, particularly of his six Diamond Brothers books.

Which, on the plus side, means New Old Friends theatre company has a ready-made audience – but equally piles on the pressure to live up to the original.

Happily, this humorous adaptation takes all the best bits from Horowitz’s novel, then adds to it.

Alongside the odd minor narrative tweak, there are a few good songs, and an awful lot of doors opening and closing. A cast of four fine actors busy themselves playing 20 different roles, taking us to a dizzying amount of different locations.

For those unfamiliar with the plot – well, you’ll just have to go and see the show, because it’s far too complicated to go into here. Suffice to say, in a fast-paced hour you’ll encounter a very inept private detective, his far cleverer 13-year-old brother, a cast of international criminals, and a box of chocolatecovered honeycomb treats. Plus two dead bodies and some missing diamonds.

The Falcon’s Malteser is everything the title suggests – light, fun and very silly. (Kelly Apter) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17, 24), 2pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10).

Will Pickvance knows his way around the piano.

Literally. Not only is he a seriously talented player, he also carries an impressive knowledge of the instrument’s history and physical make up. All of which he imparts during this sometimes silly, often engaging, but always interesting hour.

From Bach to Beethoven to Fats Waller, Pickvance charts the progression from Klavier to modern-day piano. Using (intentionally) bad cartoons and famous compositions to illustrate his point, he describes the evolutionary process that got us where we are today.

There’s much here for young piano-players, and their supportive (but perhaps not knowledgeable) grown-ups, to learn – and Pickvance’s superb, and incredibly fast playing is inspirational in itself.

Especially when he opens the piano up (or takes off its ‘skin’ as he says) and lets us see the frantic inner workings as he pounds the keys.

At times it feels as though Pickvance’s physicality, and his vocal delivery, could use a shot of exuberance to lift the energy in the room, but there’s always enough to hold our attention. (Kelly Apter) Q Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), 10am, £10 (£8).

68 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

EEJITS AND HISSY FITS

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Cheeky fairy stories with a strong Scottish lilt ’Do you know what an eejit is?’ asks Fiona Herbert, an air of gentle welcome in her voice. ‘Do you know of any eejits?’ All the kids with a bit of local slang knowledge giggle and point at their parents, and Herbert has gained their confidence. A storyteller by trade, she holds the attention of young and old alike with a trio of fantastical and slightly cheeky fairy stories, delivered with a buzzing Scottish accent.

She tells the famous story of Finn MacCool, a giant (or an eejit, as she calls them) who once walked these lands, and his fear of the only giant in the land bigger than him. His wife Oona is the hero of this tale, Finn disguising himself as a baby while she sets bold and clever traps for the giant. The next eejit up is princess Muriel, a selfish and spoiled brat until she’s captured by the evil witch Washadish and made to get her hands dirty cleaning a pile of dishes, calling on those she’s wronged at the end to help her in a gentle moral lesson. Finally, and possibly the weakest of the three stories, is a re-telling of The Princess and the Pea, but there’s a certain hint of disdain in there for the normal gender dynamic of fairytales which is suitably pleasing.

(David Pollock) Q Scottish Storytelling Centre, 556 9579, until 23 Aug (not 17), 11.15am, £6.50 (£4.50).

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13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 69

Catching a show you’ve never even heard of, but it’s the best bes thing you’ve ou’v ever seen…

Find out who’s performing this year 07-31 August 2015

70 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

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COLIN CURRIE

PHOTO © MARCO BORGGREVE

Percussionist makes EIF debut in MacMillan & Sibelius and Colin Currie & Friends When Fergus Linehan announced his debut Edinburgh Festival music programme back in February, he commented that Colin Currie’s performance of James MacMillan’s Percussion Concerto No 2 would amazingly be his first Festival appearance. It certainly does seem incredible that a musician of Currie’s prowess hasn’t been part of EIF’s concerts in the past, even leaving aside that he was born and brought up in the city. Currie is thrilled.

‘It’s very emotional for me to be playing with the RSNO at the Usher Hall,’ he says, ‘especially as I used to hear the orchestra there every weekend as a teenager and learned so much music from listening to them.’ At age 15, one of the pieces Currie heard was MacMillan’s

Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, the percussion concerto he wrote for Evelyn Glennie. Number two has been written for Currie and, as he says, ‘To come back with my concerto and play at the Usher Hall is amazing.’

It premiered last December at the Southbank in London and it is, says Currie, ‘very festive, very upbeat and also very lyrical. It’s perfect for the occasion.’ Currie also performs with his own ensemble at the Queen’s Hall, along with some of his favourite musical friends.

(Carol Main) Q MacMillan & Sibelius, Usher Hall, 228 1155, 14 Aug, 7.30pm £12–£44 (£6–£22); Colin Currie & Friends, Queen’s Hall, 668 2019, 21 Aug, 11am, £8.50–£30 (£4.25-£15).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 71

FESTIVAL MUSIC | Hitlist

MUSIC HITLIST TRANSFORMER Jonny Woo and band evoke the spirit of the 1970s NYC underground scene in this Lou Reed gig. There’s also appearances from Warhol, Bowie and Candy Darling. The Voodoo Rooms, 556 7060, until 16 Aug, 8.45pm, (£8–£10).

THE BEVVY SISTERS The richly-seasoned harmonies of the Bevvy Sisters provide an alternative take on folk and swing songs.

Summerhall, 560 1581, 13, 20 & 27 Aug, 9pm, £15.

FROM SCOTLAND WITH LOVE: KING CREOSOTE Indie folk troubadour King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson) provides the soundtrack to Virginia Heather’s retro and raw documentary about Scotland.

The Hub, 473 2000, 14 & 15 Aug, times vary, £25.

DIVE: C U NEXT TUESDAY CABARET DIY cabaret types trying to ‘blow a bit of glitter up the arse of the

cabaret scene’ present an LGBT+ pick of the Fringe for an evening of decadence. See preview, page 74.

Summerhall, 560 1581, 14, 18 & 25 Aug, times vary, £6–£8 (£8–£10).

THE REALLY TERRIBLE ORCHESTRA The RTO continues its ‘unique’ interpretations of music, running on the basis that musical training is not a pre-requisite for live performances.

St Cuthbert’s Church, 226 0000, 15 Aug, 3.30pm, £10 (£5–£8).

KOREAN BREATH SE:UM bring traditional Korean music into the 21st century with a unique fusion that takes in jazz, folk and freeform styles. C, 0845 260 1234, 16–22 Aug, 12.55pm, £9.50–£11.50 (£8.50–£10.50).

LATE NIGHT PHANTASMAGORIA WITH JACK LUKEMAN A gig inspired by Lew Carroll’s Phantasmagoria from Jack Lukeman, who channels Brel, Cave and Waits in a night of dark and light music.

The Famous Spiegeltent, 0844 693 3008, 18–21 Aug (not 23 & 30), 11pm, £15 (£13).

ROGER DECKKER

Kirstyn Smith picks out some musical highlights from across the festivals

Anna Calvi and Heritage Orchestra

ANNA CALVI AND HERITAGE ORCHESTRA Calvi teams up with Heritage Orchestra, who add a classical

bent to her theatrical dark and romantic alt.rock. The Hub, 473 2000, 18–20 Aug, 10.30pm, £25.

Edinburgh Art Festival Art Late 13 & 20 August 2015 6 – 10.30pm Join us for two specially programmed late openings, taking in taking in live music, performances, artist talks and tours.

WHITE The Biscuit Factory Thu 13 Aug 2015

Sponsored by Blue Moon

Miaoux Miaoux Scottish National Portrait Gallery Thu 20 Aug 2015 Tickets £5 edinburghartfestival.com

72 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Reviews | FESTIVAL MUSIC

MARCO BORGGREVE

list.co.uk/festival

RUDOLF BUCHBINDER: BEETHOVEN – THE PIANO SONATAS

THE CHURCH OF MALCOLM

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GUITAR MULTIVERSE

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Earnest show from uncharismatic performer

Nerdy guitar show touts skilful acoustic sounds

Malcolm Doherty sets out to recreate world religion in his own image, but commits the gravest festival sin of all: thou shalt not take yourself too seriously.

Doherty bills an hour of original pop songs and rudderless philosophical musing as an attempt to blend the best aspects of Christianity’s separate doctrines together, using his own X Factor tearjerker tale as a sort of empathetic epoxy glue. However, fortune-cookie mysticism and misunderstood metaphysics are the least of his failures when cast alongside such bland spiritual chorus hooks as ‘say a prayer, save the world’ and our self-appointed prophet’s glaring lack of charisma, which was exposed with a tragic and hastily abandoned request for an audience singalong of ‘Hey Jude’.

Despite his missionary spiel, Doherty’s sermon appeared to be largely directed at himself and his bandmate-cum-disciples . Furthermore, an overreliance on backing tracks and dodgy lightshow projections took away from any power that his earnest songwriting might have had.

There’s nothing less funny than a zealot who’s come to believe in their own myth, and, left waiting for a punchline that never came, I remain unconverted. (Sam Bradley).

Q Assembly George Square, 623 3030, until 23 Aug, 8pm, £8–£10.

Declan Zapala looks around the cavernous sometime church hall as if he can’t quite figure out what he’s doing here. After all, his solo classical guitar sound is large, but it isn’t quite this grand.

As the young player fiddles with his own sound equipment and fills the dead air between songs, his skilful playing is somewhat offset by the sense that hosting a gig on his own is a rather new experience.

‘Growing up I was quite nerdy,’ he says, ‘and it was always my dream to play a guitar show and call it something really nerdy.’ He’s unsure of the title, but he likes the tangential fact that multiverses are theoretically created by a quantum event like a single cancer cell emerging, and that somewhere in another reality his hero Eric Roche – whose ‘Spin’ and ‘Roundabout’ he plays – didn’t die of the disease a decade ago and is playing here instead.

Zapala’s playing is crisp, formal and very capable; he performs his own music (lullabyish, and written for infant relatives), a version of Bach's 'Prelude in C' from The Well-Tempered Clavier, and Benjamin Verdery’s hypnotic ‘Keane, HI’. ‘Radio 3 said I play “the acoustic guitar you hear in your dreams”,’ he beams proudly, ‘”although it’s actually classical guitar.”’ He did say he was a nerd. (David Pollock) Q C too, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug (not 22, 23), 5.45pm, £8.50–£10.50 (£6.50–£8.50).

OOOOO

Intimate concerts bring Beethoven to life Bringing the Playfair Library into the EIF’s roster of music venues was an inspired idea. Not only is the date of its foundation stone contemporaneous with Beethoven’s early days as a composer, but acoustically it allows his complete cycle of piano sonatas to be heard with impressive clarity over the course of nine concerts running until 26 Aug. Viennese pianist Rudolf Buchbinder is a wellpractised master at the art of performing all 32 of the sonatas in a concentrated series, having done so across the world. He is meticulous in his delivery; in Concert 2, nothing was overtly emotional, but veered more towards unfussy objectivity with the direction taken all about letting Beethoven’s genius speak for itself rather than imposing a new layer of sentiment. Gripping the capacity audience in rapt, intimate attention, Buchbinder was particularly true to the composer in the G major Sonata, Op 79, with the even better known Op 27 No 2, ‘Moonlight’ being heard in a new, reflective light in his faultlessly assured interpretation of it, although it was only in its last movement that sparks began to fly. (Carol Main) Q Playfair Library Hall, 473 2000, until 26 Aug, 5pm, £25.

SHIT GIRLFRIEND

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Music and storytelling exploring the concept of being ‘undateable’ Performing and touring under the moniker She Makes War for a number of years, Laura Kidd is, first and foremost, a musician, and a very good one at that. Her Fringe debut Shit Girlfriend, however, is completely different to anything she’s done before.

After a series of bad break ups, Kidd set herself the task of working out why she seems so ‘undateable’, the result of which is a charming hour of biographical storytelling and music.

Like all first-time Fringe performers, her nerves are evident, but only when Kidd is speaking. With her music, she’s a natural, creating enchanting and often haunting ‘gloom-pop’ songs armed with nothing more than a ukulele, a loop machine and her voice. No technical glitches, no hideous feedback, just perfectly executed acoustic gems with layers of hypnotic vocal harmonies.

After fumbling through a brief synopsis of how the show came to be, her opening song establishes her obvious talent. Listing reasons not to date musicians, from their unglamorous lifestyle choice and egotistical nature, to their obsession with music and lack of motivation to do housework, Kidd soars through the main narrative at a rather speedy pace, using her songs as reference points. There is plenty of room for her to take things at her own leisure and, after the initial nerves have faded, this is something she’s sure to discover over the course of her residency.

She may not be a comedian but, make no mistake, Kidd is funny. Although it’s sometimes apparent she’s keeping herself right by sticking to a rough script, her natural, conversational humour shines through as she ad-libs her amusing anecdotes.

As she further exercises her newfound comedy muscles, she’s sure to become as confident a storyteller as she is a musician.

(Nina Glencross) Q Fingers Piano Bar, 225 3026, until 21 Aug (not 17), 4pm, free.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 73

FESTIVAL MUSIC | Previews

Five Reasons to go to

DIVE

The double Annabels of DIVE in their own words

C U NEXT TUESDAY ANNABEL C: We’ve cherry picked the queerest of the Fringe. So there’s a lot of artists in there that we’ve never had on the stage before, just because they’re in town: Desiree Burch, Diane Torr, Eilidh MacAskill, Sarah Franken, Johnny Woo and many more.

FILM ANNABEL B: With Pout Fest at the Filmhouse, we’re putting on Dressed as a Girl, a frockumentary about the East End drag scene which took five years to make. We’ve got Jonny Woo performing, a wonderful London comedian called David Mills and hopefully Laurie Brown.

SCOTTISH LGBT AWARDS AC: We put the ‘dive’ in ‘diversity’.

AB: It’s wonderful to be recognised for what we’ve been doing, which started as us thinking: ‘we don’t like the party scene up here, let’s have a nice party that we like.’

And it’s grown into the wonderful beast that DIVE is.

AC: We’re thinking of going a bit Jarvis Cocker at the Brit Awards.

AB: I think we should just stick you in leather chaps, just constantly moon them. No need to pull anything down.

DRAG AB: I think DIVE has helped in making the Edinburgh drag scene happen. Since we’ve come along, suddenly there are three or four drag nights happening.

AC: So many times I’ve heard someone say ‘I’ve never done this before, but I’m going to try it here because I feel safe to do it. It’s fucking amazing.

DIY AC: I think DIVE comes from a very real, honest foundation. We made it cos we wanted it for ourselves.

AB: During my time on the East London cabaret scene, that was instilled in me: DIY, do something you really love and people will come.

Q C U Next Tuesday Cabaret, Summerhall, 560 1581, 11, 14, 18 & 25 Aug, 8pm / 11pm, £8–£10 (£6–£8). (Kirstyn Smith)

74 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

INDEPENDENCE Classical work explores cultural significance of independence referendum On September 18 2014, the world turned its eye on Scotland, as the Independence Referendum took place. For people all over the nation, the vote itself was monumental, but for composer John de Simone it held an extra significance. His grandfather, John MacCormick, was instrumental in founding the SNP, his uncles were heavily involved in Scottish politics, ‘and yet here I am with my English accent, born and raised in England’, he says, as he considers why felt the need to write a piece of classical music about the issue.

‘I’ve lived in Scotland for 12 years and I really love the place. I thought nationality has always been very important’, he explains, and since so much of classical music is rooted in ideas of nationality, he rightly decided that that was the time to explore Scottish culture and identity through his own classical work.

‘I was a Yes voter, but for me, it’s more of a social democratic thing’, he explains. ‘The intoxicating thing about the whole of last year for me was the upsurge of community engagement in politics that have a knock-on-effect for us as well. I feel that classical music mostly where I come from didn’t really engage with that so much.’ That is something he is keen to change with this work, which is being performed at the Fringe by Ensemble Thing.

Though the piece may have a clear remit when it comes to challenging the boundaries of classical music, politically it is about engagement with the referendum itself, not about voting Yes or No. ‘My piece doesn’t beat people down with the Vote Yes ticket . . . it’s much more an examination of what it meant for me, and hopefully people will identify with some of those issues.’ (Rebecca Monks).

Q Summerhall, 560 1580, 18–23 Aug (not 19 & 21), 11.20am, £10 (£8).

MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Scottish-born Marie McLaughlin stars in Iván Fischer’s take on Mozart’s classic opera Iván Fischer’s operatic model is not so much a cut-price compromise, but a new way of presenting opera altogether. For The Marriage of Figaro, with Fischer’s own Budapest Festival Orchestra, audiences can expect some fresh light to be shed on Mozart’s all-time favourite.

‘I don’t know how much I can give away,’ says Scottish-born soprano Marie McLaughlin, who plays Marcellina. She goes on to reveal that the cast sing in the middle of the orchestra (which is on stage), that there are costumes, wigs, full lighting, a couple of podiums to raise the singers and bridal attire landing on their heads from somewhere up above.

McLaughlin is no newcomer to Figaro having started her career at the Royal Opera House singing Barbarina, then Susanna, a role she has now performed hundreds of times, and Cherubino, before currently enjoying great success as Marcellina. Her EIF visit is a rare Scottish appearance. (Carol Main) Q The Festival Theatre, 529 6000, 13–16 Aug (not 14), 7pm, £16–£68 (£8–£34).

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13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 75

76 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

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Thisiusci lends the aperit acesto voluptatet, play a rare depth, subconscious con porectem ex et and que reflects volesse the quiamus, desires havemod shaped the characters, sunt fuga.that Im imil que pore, tet debis making this an examination of long term love rather than audis velecat dolescipiet fugit, simusandi a series of melodramatic episodes. doloratur, seque dende inum quamus exerum, ‘It’s suchvoloreperum a beautiful, moving examination velesequas qui si archil mo te of how age changes inum us, how up armour doluptatur?Evenda sitiswe milbuild eic tem. and howdolo it’s consed strippedetaway byseque the relentlessness Pudignis autas estissi of time,’ectio.

CurryOrest concludes.

‘As a producer,’ says ommolor earuptasita voles Underwood, ‘sharing and Leonard’s story necerum fugit offi ctem Violet et, omnim dia doluptat at the Edinburgh Fringe, amongst the thousands faccum eat. of artists stories, feels Temos exworking et harumhard quidtoettell re,their sequo et, apropos – because everyoneate hasvolumquis a story worth sequae peliqua eriamusapedi telling.’ (Gareth K Vile) eosRorrorent ut que esequos quassitate Q Assemblyilliciant Georgeacesequam Square, 623rem 3030, until 31 Aug parumquam reperume (not 17, 24), 1 .45pm, £10 (£8).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 77

FESTIVAL THEATRE | Hitlist

THEATRE HITLIST Gareth K Vile rounds up some theatrical highlights from across the festivals LEMONS, LEMONS, LEMONS, LEMONS, LEMONS A sparkling new play that looks to a future when even language is put onto an austerity footing. See review, page 88. ZOO Southside, 662 6892, until 22 Aug, 4pm, ÂŁ9 (ÂŁ7).

THE ENCOUNTER Psychedelic in content and impact, the artistic director of Complicite â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and sometime star of TV sit-com Rev â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Simon McBurney learns about time and teaches about sound in this stunning solo show that goes back to the source of being. EICC, 473 2000, until 23 Aug (not 13, 18), 7.30pm & 2.30pm (14, 15, 20, 23), ÂŁ32 (ÂŁ16).

POLYPHONY Daniel Kitson pushes further into experimental theatre with an astonishing monologue that sets him against 15 recorded voices from his past, revealing him as the Samuel Beckett of post-modern comic theatre.

See reveiw, page 82. Roundabout @ Summerhall, 560 1581, until 29 Aug (not 18, 25), 12.15pm, ÂŁ12.

A Girl is a Half-formed Thing

FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT Bryony Kimmings drags her partner into the witty live art action, making a tough issue palatable and playful. See review, page 85. Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, ÂŁ18 (ÂŁ13).

HOW TO KEEP AN ALIEN Less an interstellar adventure than a love story that describes the way that legislation and knee jerk xenophobia can challenge even the most loving and creative relationships. See review, page 86. Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, ÂŁ18 (ÂŁ13).

A GAMBLERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GUIDE TO DYING Fringe favourite Gary McNair takes a trip into the real life adventures of an old man and his grandson, testing their luck and celebrating the biggest gamble of all. See review, page 92.

Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, ÂŁ18 (ÂŁ13).

ABACUS The lecture format is ripe for parody, but Paul Abacus takes it too far, until his future vision becomes a nightmarish world of information which only he can deconstruct. See review,

page 85. Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 6.10pm, ÂŁ15 (ÂŁ10).

A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING Eimear McBrideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Baileyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Prizewinning novel gets a theatrical treatment, in this stunning production starring Aoife Duffin and directed by Annie Ryan. See review, page 86.

Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, ÂŁ20 (ÂŁ15).

CLEANSED Sarah Kane is no easy author to direct,

despite her popularity at the Fringe.

This production gets to grips with her violent imagination and finds the traces of hope in the midst of bloody fury and excessive violence. See review, page 87. C nova, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug (not 17, 24), 1pm, ÂŁ8.50â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ10.50 (ÂŁ6.50â&#x20AC;&#x201C;ÂŁ8.50).

PAUL BRIGHTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CONFESSIONS The magical remembering of one of Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest failures, the attempt to update the classic novel for the stage of the late 1980s. See feature, page 79. The Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hall, 668 2019, 19-22 Aug, 8pm, ÂŁ20 (ÂŁ10).

ASSEMBLY HALL 78 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20 Aug 2015

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Paul Bright | FESTIVAL THEATRE

PHOTO © TOMMY GA-KEN WAN

CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED PLAYWRIGHT Lorna Irvine talks to Pamela Carter about provocation, visual art and the revival of one of 2013’s best plays at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival

U

ntitled Projects’ play Paul Bright’s Confessions Of A Justified Sinner was a bold attempt to repair the fragments of a mythical adaptation of the celebrated novel: part installation, part monologue, it followed Bright’s adventures as he staged various episodes at different locations, until the production – and the man himself – imploded at the final event, a rave-cum-performance at a rural manor.

Pamela Carter, tasked with putting together the lost documentation and writing the script, worked closely with director Stewart Laing to create one of the most highly praised Scottish productions of the past decade.

Now, like Bright himself, the production has been revived.

Loosely based on James Hogg’s 1824 satirical novel, Paul Bright’s Confessions is set to dazzle new audiences with its playful provocation on the nature of identity. Carter’s script, which follows Bright’s audacious path and his tendency to operate in self-destruct mode, however, is as influenced by visual as much as theatrical art.

Carter’s interest in the visual arts manifests itself in the painterly composition of her plays. As she says: ‘I’m always writing for a space, a dimension. It’s not a literary thing. When I’m writing, it’s about spacial relationships. I try to see the characters in my head. Working with Stewart is great, he’s an incredible visual artist, very generous and we get to talk about what things look like. We both have similar aesthetics; we both are involved in how it will look and be represented. I’m always interested in that, which may annoy some directors – but it’s fun for me.’

Her work on Paul Bright’s Confessions does point to other great

artists. Carter cites Pina Bausch’s masterpiece Cafe Muller as having an indelible effect on her. ‘I saw it in 1992 in Edinburgh at the EIF and had never seen anything like it, didn’t know what it was. It was particularly the repetition, something that begins comic, funny, sweet becomes disturbing, and I think the ability to do that without saying anything is really exciting,’ she says. ‘It’s quite a circuitous route really, there is a moment in [Carter’s recent work with Laing] Slope where Rimbaud is left alone with the audience, and there is reference to Bausch in there. I wanted to put something in the script that was up for grabs in rehearsal – a gift for Stewart Laing, the director.’

The video clips in Confessions, meanwhile, seem to be based on the self-consciously avant-garde late-night TV there used to be in the 80s.

‘Not necessarily. That was made up,’ she laughs. ‘We thought, how do we document the shift in Paul Bright? When we came to the third episode, we wanted a different way of doing it. Hence Super 8 and video, cameos etc. That was interesting to us, and fun to us. There were practical reasons for that, rather than try to stage an episode and film it.’

There is also a forthcoming book of the production. ‘It’s a thing of beauty. 200 pages full of colour, never-before-released photos from the production [and] stills from the film. It’s been a great experience in general putting it all together.’

Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner, The Queen’s Hall, 473 2000, 19–22 Aug, £20.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 79

FESTIVAL THEATRE | SpectreTown

GHOST STORIES

Stoirm Òg’s SpectreTown brings a contemporary exploration of north-eastern Scotland’s Doric culture to the Fringe. Jordan Shaw catches up with the show’s creative team

B

urgeoning Scottish company Stoirm Òg is bringing the songs and stories of Scotland’s north-east to Edinburgh’s Assembly Hall this month. In association with Cumbernauld Theatre, Elspeth Turner’s SpectreTown is a collaboration with Vanishing Point’s acclaimed director Matthew Lenton that promises an intimate look into the tradition, history, and modernity of Doric culture.

SpectreTown takes place during a period of great change for the north-east of Scotland.

‘We have this umbilical cord connecting all these characters across the 20th century,’ says Turner. Spanning over a hundred years, the play traces the region’s history from the rustic farm life of the first half of the century to the modern city life of the urban Aberdonian.

The show takes its inspiration from ‘bothy ballads’, traditional folk songs sung by the region’s itinerant farm labourers. ‘The workers would move on every six months,’ Turner explains, ‘and, of an evening, when they had finished their work, they would gather round a fire in the bothy, singing songs to each other.

80 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

They were quite political, because they passed on tips from one farmworker to another about what this boss or that was like to work for.’

In SpectreTown, Turner takes this musical tradition and plugs it into a modern setting to examine the changing cultural landscape of the north-east over the last century. ‘We’re definitely going to be hearing this kind of music in a context it hasn’t been heard in before. We’re jamming bothy ballads into electronic beats and doing all sorts of interesting things with it live on stage.’

It was the show’s distinctive Doric sound that attracted director Matthew Lenton to the project. ‘I think of my shows as being more like music,’ he says. ‘I don’t really identify with plays or theatre very much. It’s the musicality of something that draws me to it.’

This collaboration with Stoirm Òg marks a slight break from his usual work, he says. ‘It’s a different process from working with Vanishing Point because there’s a text that already exists.

With Vanishing Point, the work tends to come from me personally, so it’s often the inside of

my head trying to come out into an artistic shape or form. With SpectreTown, it’s not the inside of my head, it’s the inside of someone else’s.’

For Lenton, this relationship gives him a sense of objectivity that is valuable to the creative process. ‘This show has a particular life to it which we’re trying to understand and get inside, and I think the thing that changes a little bit is my perspective. It’s easier for me to be more outside the show and make the kind of observations that other people might make of Vanishing Point’s work or of me.’

In SpectreTown, the collaboration between Stoirm Òg and Matthew Lenton creates an exciting exploration of culture that melds Doric traditions with modern life in an authentic and accessible manner. A celebration of the region’s stories, songs and spirit, Turner’s play highlights the region’s unique qualities and those of universal relevance.

SpectreTown, Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 24), 1.30pm, £12–£14.

Reviews | FESTIVAL THEATRE

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THE PARADISE PROJECT Third Angel examine a perfect society OOOOO

CONFESSIONS OF A REDHEADED COFFESHOP GIRL

WOJTEK THE BEAR A compelling tale of love and loss OOOOO

Bright debut with a charming lead performance Tron-like grids festoon the set, while a discomfiting buzz provides a strange undercurrent. But this is no sci-fi feature of twisted automatons looking to overthrow superfluous humans. Instead, this rather sublime meditation on society is that of how to improve, work together and be autonomous.

The trees, a symbol of longevity and strength, are dying and it’s time to create a new Utopia. If only the pigheaded man (Jerry Killick) and stubborn woman (Stacey Sampson) could decide on the terms of engagement – is it ‘rock, paper, scissors’ or ‘scissors, paper, stone’? Best of three?

Philosophical debates underpin the pair’s building of a set and assorted furniture: would a massage by a racist be acceptable? Is killing a clown justified?

Why are butterflies the most perfect of all creatures?

It’s like IKEA with idealism.

The set is built afresh with each show and the rules are constantly shifting in this uncertain future – all that remains is optimism, however misguided.

Killick and Sampson are an endearing and engaging double act, and the effortless writing avoids gender stereotypes, by placing them as equals, both intellectually and emotionally. (Lorna Irvine) Q Northern Stage at Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 12,19, 26), 5.40pm, £12 (£10).

OOOOO

Written and performed by Canadian artist Rebecca Perry, Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl is a week in the life of Joanie Little – Toronto barista, anthropology graduate and Jane Goodall superfan.

The play may be light on ideas, but it’s frivolous fun led by a sparkling central character.

Unable to find a job in her desired vocation, Joanie tests her anthropological skills in the coffeeshop, analysing the quirks of her customers and co-workers.

Perry gives a confident solo performance, playing the effervescent Joanie with an infectious enthusiasm.

Bumbling through awkward cafe small talk and a hapless first date, she is a delight to watch.

Slipping effortlessly in and out of roles, she animates a host of supporting characters. But these personalities, while fun, do little to ameliorate a predictable plot that lacks any real substance. And, while they’re fun to listen to, the show's cabaret-style cover songs often seem out of place.

But if the script is light, Joanie’s sparky personality is more than enough to entertain for an hour.

(Jordan Shaw) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, 5–31 Aug (not 12, 19, 26), 6.30pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9).

Coaxed of out his hiding place by Sue Muir’s haunting violin melody, a man in a simple brown t-shirt crawls cautiously onto the stage, grunting under the strain of his weight. He sniffs the air curiously, slides forward and locks eyes with the audience, establishing a connection between man and beast that forms the backbone of Theatre Objektiv’s compelling new show Wojtek the Bear.

The play tells the story of the eponymous animal, whose role in the war effort brought him worldwide adoration. Rescued by Polish soldier Piotr from his fate as an entertainment attraction, the bear was drafted into the forces, helping to move ammunition during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

James Sutherland is uncanny as Wojtek, skilfully capturing the various aspects of the bear’s anthropomorphism. A heartbreaking scene in the second act encapsulates the close bond between the bear and Piotr: crumbling to the floor, Wojtek lets out an atavistic howl when separated from his ‘mama’, who hunches disconsolately across the stage. Emotional and profound, this is a complex and rewarding production that explores the intricacies of an unbreakable bond. (Jordan Shaw) Q Scottish Storytelling Centre, 226 0000, 6-31 Aug (not 19, 26), 7pm, £10 (£8).

DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON

DAVID BYRNE

Powerful but frustrating exposé of life on the poverty line OOOOO Who’d have thought a show about poverty would be so much fun? London-based PIT and New Diorama Theatre’s pacy production melds together two memoirs by middle-class authors sampling life on the poverty line – George Orwell’s 1933 Down and Out in Paris and London and Polly Toynbee’s Hard Work from 2002 – highlighting unsettling similarities between them, and questioning how far we’ve really come in terms of social inclusivity.

Directors David Byrne (who also wrote the show) and Kate Stanley evoke both periods vividly with deft details – Orwell’s bedbug-ridden Parisian garret and ferocious landlady, for example, or Toynbee’s will-sapping waits in Job Centre queues.

And the show brings telling clarity to lesser-known aspects of a life on low pay: a scene examining extortionate prices charged at a high-street credit lender is particularly powerful.

But Byrne and Stanley’s slick, energetic production sometimes feels far too cheery for its subject matter. We’re told about the stress, monotony and fatigue of eking out a life on a few pounds a week, but they’re seldom shown. Instead, this often exuberant show sometimes seems to whizz from one joke to the next, leaving little time to engage in much depth with the issues it raises – apart from in some eloquent soliloquies from Toynbee (a focused, considered performance from Carole Street).

Richard Delaney’s Orwell is a bluff, well-meaning observer of the hardship around him, but his Parisian associates are little more than amusing caricatures, and it’s hard to feel much empathy for their predicaments. There’s a lot to admire here, but at times it feels frustratingly inconsequential. (David Kettle) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 6.30pm, £9.50–£12.50.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 81

FESTIVAL THEATRE | Reviews

POLYPHONY Structurally perfect yet endearingly chaotic OOOOO

PAUL ZANRE

Daniel Kitson is one of the most important artists working in British theatre. Having successfully negotiated the gap between stand-up comedy and experimental theatre, Kitson’s latest play takes fragments from his previous Edinburgh show and works them into a formally challenging, hilarious and fiercely intelligent work of post-visual theatre in Roundabout (pictured, left).

Using 15 iPods attached to speakers, and slowly working out the story of an old, lonely man and his mysterious discoveries, Kitson sets himself at the centre of both the stage and the action. Somewhere beneath the self-deprecating wit and the plotted arguments with the audience, Kitson discusses isolation, the fear of growing old and the tensions in the nature of live performance: either as a satire on the theatre, or an updating of Samuel Beckett’s musings on mortality, Polyphony is a solo monologue of remarkable density and poetical power.

But as Kitson points out to a heckler, emphasis on the plot is a reductive way of looking at theatre. The pleasure lies in Kitson’s easy way with the audience – he is capable of turning technical failures into triumphs of improvised humour – and the various rambles around the subject. In quick succession, he reveals his pessimistic vision of life (it is hard, everyone dies alone) and romantic love (it’s like kicking a can down the street: a distraction, but it is going to end). These digressions, however, provide a context to his eventual burst of serious storytelling.

Polyphony shows how performance can be built on so little, be dark and doubting yet witty and fun, dismissive of emotions yet compassionate. It can be apparently simple with hidden depths, revealing an obvious ending through a dramatic finale, expressing itself like life itself. (Gareth K Vile) Q Roundabout @ Summerhall, 560 1581, until 29 Aug (not 18, 25), 12.15pm, £12.

THE GIRL WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE MOON

HAPPY GIRL

WE THIS WAY

Quintet of warped morality fables OOOOO

Thought-provoking and funny performance exploring self image in female teens OOOOO

Searching and horribly addictive adventure game, live on stage OOOOO

Following last year’s well-received The Hive, the Human Zoo theatre company return with a touching, if slightly bewildering quintet of quirky, warped morality fables.

With white faces, clownish mannerisms and a witty if sometimes wordy script – delivered with an impeccable, sparky sense of ensemble – they tell tales of a star-obsessed ingénue (a gloriously vacant Fleur Rooth) sucked into the darker side of a make-believe Hollywood, a go-getter (Rosalind Hoy, dogged and strong-willed) who climbs a mountain to meet the sun, and a visit from a mysterious lunar stranger to the incredulous heroine of the show’s title (a sharply etched performance from Florence O’Mahony, who also directs).

Using puppetry, live music from talented multiinstrumentalist Freddie Crossley, movement and plenty of glittery ticker tape, O’Mahony’s production feels breathlessly inventive and thoroughly entertaining. Although at times it feels like the show’s theatrical exuberance has got in the way of much sense of overall meaning, it’s a moving visual and musical delight. (David Kettle) Q Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 2.30pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9).

Happy Girl is set in a secondary school where new girl Irene has recently enrolled following home schooling. Through her eyes we experience how teenagers negotiate the minefield of being female.

There’s plenty of comedy in the girls’ obsession with their appearance but each funny incident – a girl racing on the treadmill in wedge trainers as she fixates on the word calories, a group waxing their legs to ‘dolphin’-like smoothness – hammers home the depressing point that girls are conditioned to equate their worth with their appearance. The teenagers are not in it together, though – ‘friends’ deal in back-handed compliments and other females are seen as ‘competition’.

The shift between scenes is a little clunky at first, but soon we’re on a seamless journey through bedrooms, changing rooms and study areas.

There’s some fun dance numbers and a particularly powerful poem about the fear of walking home alone. Happy Girl is a thought-provoking piece on self image and relationships that transcends the realm of teenage girls and speaks to the wider experience of being female. (Rowena McIntosh) Q theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 510 2384, until 15 Aug, 1.10pm, £6 (£5).

Do you help the old man with his suitcase, or stay on the train? Do you follow the minotaur or turn back to discover what’s following you through his labyrinth? Do you ride the dodgems, go diving in the wetsuit, climb the lighthouse?

Taking its cue directly from text-based computer adventure games of the 1980s and 90s, Seth Kriebel’s compelling game-cum-show manages to be both elegantly simple and searchingly profound.

Sitting at a desk with a microphone, lighting controls and a couple of anglepoise lamps, Kriebel narrates you through an ever-changing journey, allowing you to choose your route at key moments by holding up one of two coloured glowsticks. Democracy rules, and whichever option gets the most audience votes is the one that’s pursued – well, most of the time.

Beware those moments when Kriebel unexpectedly makes your decision for you, or restricts the choices to a select few.

Dealing with questions of democracy, group dynamics, memory and choice, Kriebel’s creation is also just really good fun. It’s simple but spellbinding – and horribly addictive. (David Kettle) Q Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 12.25pm, £8–£10.

82 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

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A show that mixes spectacle and storytelling.

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Reviews | FESTIVAL THEATRE

CALVIN KNIGHT

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WASTED

ABACUS

POLE

Small cast pose big questions about sexual consent OOOOO

Compelling TED-style lecture that’s not so much of a parody as it first seems OOOOO

The clothed truth about exotic dancing OOOOO

Set within a 24-hour time period, Wasted follows the story of Emma and Oli, young adults who meet on a night out, exploring the repercussions of their drunken one-night stand and the nature of consent.

The problem of opening a two-person show with a busy nightclub scene is cleverly conquered by the pair playing bouncers, who gather the audience on the dancefloor (stage) until the club ‘shuts’ and we’re allowed into the roped-off VIP area (the seating). The duo skilfully shift between a multitude of characters. Their gender-swapping portrayal of each others’ best friends are particularly funny.

Staging is minimal, black clothes, no props and only two tables for a set, allowing for the scripts frequent scene changes and flashbacks.

The main characters are highly relatable, as is the formula of a night out – losing each other in the club, drunken voice mails, no-nonsense bouncers.

This familiarity and the decision not to portray Oli as aggressive, calculating or other characteristics associated with a rapist stereotype make for uncomfortable watching as the audience are forced to decide where the capacity to consent stops and sex becomes rape. (Rowena McIntosh) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug (not 18), 12.15pm, £10–£11.

Both visionary and charlatan, public intellectual Paul Abacus is a passionate, hugely charismatic figure.

And in this TED-style presentation, accompanied by groovy digital graphics on giant video screens, he lectures us on everything from dissolving national borders to why there are many more colours than those we normally see, from the evolutionary advantages of altruism to breakfast cereal consumption in the US. But though it pushes credulity to the limit, and at times treads dangerously close to the messianic or the fascistic, the stroke of genius in LA-based Early Morning Opera’s compelling show is just how persuasive it is. Abacus – performed with just the right nonchalant swagger by Sonny Valicenti – is a parody of the cool young intellectual, but a lot of what he says is searingly perceptive. His dissection of how nations are nothing more than artificial constructs of trade and colonialism is fascinating.

EMO have created a provocative satire on hightech multimedia presentations and the allure of big ideas for the future of society. It’s a superb piece of theatre for the mind, but one that also manages to be seductively entertaining. (David Kettle) Q Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 6.10pm, £15.

In the past few years, there have been many performances that explore the world of the erotic dancer: autobiographical, scripted or, in the case of The Illicit Thrill, a recreation of the club atmosphere that implicates the audience. Yet by using a verbatim process, Pole avoids the predictable excesses of some productions, presenting a more honest and varied appreciation.

With characters drawn from outside the club scene – a teacher, a fitness fanatic, alongside an activist and a stripper – the emphasis is on pole dancing as a socially acceptable activity: the dance interludes are more spectacular than sexy, with acrobatic skill replacing titillation. While the script does not flinch from the associations with striptease, the measured pace makes the action a call for acceptance.

The mixture of dance routines and speeches to the audience lend Pole the atmosphere of an illustrated documentary. Questions are posed, the pace is gentle and there is less provocation – either political or sexual – and more cool summary of the positives of keep fit and confidence-boosting activity with a brief look into the more unsavoury aspects. (Gareth K Vile) Q Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 17), midnight, £9–£10 (£8–£9).

FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT Bryony Kimmings’ personal collaboration tackling her partner’s depression OOOOO You never quite know which particular Bryony Kimmings you’re going to get with each show. The hedonistic drunk of yore?

Bawdy singer of songs about her lady parts?

Facets of live artist Kimmings’ true character are stripped back with every show, as raw as a skinned knee – whether vulnerable, cocky or just plain foolhardy – always reining it in when it gets too sentimental. This time, however, she has teamed up with real life partner Tim Grayburn to create a show which scrutinises mental health problems, based on Grayburn’s own struggles with depression, and it’s as though she’s sharing a real-life diary with everyone. In this time of overshare, it would be easy to do that.

But Bryony and Tim do it their way – at times, they are explorers, mapping Tim’s depression, which he only recently came to terms with; at others, a live art Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, all call and response songs and sexy pastiches of R&B dancing.

Beneath the typically Kimmings makeshift masks, which Grayburn wears for most of the show, there are testimonies of Grayburn’s struggle with his extreme lows and Kimmings’ paranoia when he is away. Compounding this is the fact that she is pregnant with their first child. But the pair stand proud, clutching reductive gender symbols – whisk and hammer. The parody of Bob Dylan’s video for ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, with Kimmings holding up placards listing symptoms, is a sharp example of how the duo defy stereotypes with mischief, using humour as a coping mechanism.

The result is melancholic, playful, tentatively hopeful – and you may hug your friends and loved ones that little bit tighter for seeing it. (Lorna Irvine) Q Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £18 (£8–£13).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 85

FESTIVAL THEATRE | Reviews

A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING

OOOOO

Perfectly pieced together play which follows a young girl as she remembers her fragmented life

SAM ATKINS

SIMON DUTSON

Eimear McBride’s novel, A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing is unique, in that it manages to resist cliche while dealing with commonly explored issues: sexual abuse, religion in Ireland and familial tension. It achieves this through highly-stylised language and form, and so translating its essence into a piece of theatre is a risk. Happily, it’s a risk that director Annie Ryan took, and though the issues explored are often visited in theatre, there is nothing commonplace about this play.

Like the novel, the production relies on the uncompromising power of language. The premise of the play is as simple as its staging, in that it tells the story of a young girl’s life from birth to adulthood. Aoife Duffin stands alone on stage, without a set, props, or a supporting cast, and simply speaks.

She plays every character in the play – the titular girl, her sheltered mother, her sexual aggressor – but crucially, they are not mimicked or ventriloquised. She shows us by telling us, her physical and vocal changes subtle yet distinctive, and through Duffin’s transporting performance, the almost empty stage seems full of people with stories to share.

Though many scenes are uncomfortable to watch (one rape scene is particularly brutal) it’s impossible to look away.

The script is dark, but it’s also full of humour and on-point commentary about growing up in Ireland.

This intimate play draws you in, managing to incite the most extreme reactions from its captive audience: one minute the house is laughing, the next it is deadly silent, mesmerised by the sheer power of the performance. As Duffin beautifully pieces together what’s left of a woman’s fractured life, it’s clear that this production is an extremely well-formed thing. (Rebecca Monks) Q Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £20 (£15).

HOW TO KEEP AN ALIEN

THE CHRISTIANS

Autobiographical comedy on tearing down red tape OOOOO

Engaging theological debate from the team behind Grounded

Rom-coms are one of the most maligned forms of entertainment, and rightly so: mawkish, predictable and with a burning after-taste of vomit. Irish writer and actor Sonya Kelly agrees, which is why she skewers them here.

Kelly meets and falls in love with ‘Kate from Queensland’ at just the right time, before ‘the moist pearls of a mid-life crisis’. They are in theatre together, but on-stage drama is as nothing compared to real life, as Kate’s visa is quickly running out, and they have to contend with Home Office bureaucracy, dodgy Skype connections and Kelly’s tendency towards existentialist angst.

Alongside cheeky co-star Justin Murphy, who milks his moment in the spotlight with a searing karaoke version of ‘Bright Eyes’, Kelly is a vivacious presence, with immense charm. Her lyrical storytelling is lucid and hilarious.

Loving the alien is proving a knotty mess, but for once, a heartwarming love story can transcend all cliches – and she does, with heart, smarts and integrity. You can even forgive Bon Jovi in the soundtrack. Almost. (Lorna Irvine) Q Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £18 (£8–£13).

Rather than engage in multiple existential dilemmas, The Christians addresses only one: not Does God Exist? but Do Non-believers go to Hell? It’s a question that vexes many minds among the faithful, and when Pastor Paul – head of a thousands-strong American church – tells his congregation that no, non-believers do not go to hell because hell doesn’t exist, it causes a schism in his flock and a crisis of faith among those that remain.

This new play from the Gate Theatre, and the team behind 2013’s Fringe First-winning Traverse show Grounded, is smart and engaging, with insightful and complex characters played by a talented cast. William Gaminara commands the pulpit as the Pastor with ease, though the highlight is Lucy Ellinson’s turn as a confused congregant.

But while its ideas are never dull, its pace sometimes lags and the bursts of song from the full choir onstage don’t quite do enough to make it feel more urgent. Still, it really does feel like the Gate has brought a church to the heart of the Traverse: when we’re told to bow our heads in prayer, it’s all we can do not to automatically obey. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Q Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £20 (£15).

86 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

OOOOO

EDITH IN THE DARK Children’s author gets ghostly OOOOO Part biographical study of the author Edith Nesbit, and part dramatisation of her early ghost stories, Emmerdale and River City writer Phil Meek’s script reveals the sexual frustrations and morbid fascinations of the author who has charmed generations with The Railway Children.

At a Christmas Eve party, Nesbit, played with a spritely sensuality by Blue Merrick, tries and fails to seduce a mysterious young man. Realising he is more interested in her as an author than a woman, she traps him into listening to her early ghost stories – tales which she finds reflect her mood more than fanciful stories of cheery youngsters.

The ensemble proceed to inhabit her horror tales, reflecting Edith’s own disappointments and cynicism. The conclusion weaves together the imaginary and the biographical, hinting that Edith is either under a curse herself – or more likely insane – without resolving either strand, and the touches of melodrama undermine the naturalistic script and acting. Yet the pleasure in seeing a strong ensemble and a bold approach to a venerated author, make this an intriguing diversion. (Gareth K Vile) Q Momentum Playhouse @ St Stephens, 516 2880, until 30 Aug (not 17), 4.25pm, £9.50–£11.50 (£8.50–£9.50).

Reviews | FESTIVAL THEATRE

AARON WEIGHT

list.co.uk/festival

OF MICE AND MEN

THE LAST LAUGH

BIRTHS, DEATH AND MARRIAGES

Steinbeck’s classic novella is brought to life

Stand-up tragedy with deceptive intelligence

Coming of age dramedy OOOOO

OOOOO

OOOOO

First published in 1937, John Steinbeck’s much loved novella, Of Mice And Men, has graced the stage on many occasions all around the world, tackling major universal themes like friendship, loneliness and powerlessness in an oppressive world. And while this well acted production does shine a light on such themes, it seems to be only skimming the edges of Steinbeck’s novel.

George and Lennie are two migrant ranch workers searching for their place in the world and a better future for the two of them. George is a quick-witted, ambitious man, while Lennie is a large, simple minded, if well-meaning figure, that just wants to look after rabbits. Together they search for their own little piece of paradise, only to discover harshness and tragedy that will ultimately destroy them both.

This two hander is expertly acted by Michael Roy Andrew and Nigel Miles-Thomas, who bring these two iconic characters to life with such apparent ease that it is difficult to see anybody else performing the roles. But the play itself does not have the depth of the novella. The complexities of additional characters are missed out and we are left with something not quite as rich. (Alex Eades) Q Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug (not 17), 1.30pm, £9–£12 (£7.50–£8.50).

Despite a sentimental conclusion and the clear influence of stand-up comedy on the structure, The Last Laugh is a mordant satire that goes beyond the simple parody of comedians that it advertises.

Keir McAllister’s script twists elegantly, moving from a naive examination of how male comedians try to deal with feminism, into a more complex tale of love and deception.

Beginning with a comedian’s attempt to cash in on the fashion for feminist comedy – played with a despairing gusto by the author, the play mocks the egotism of a male artist who, even when he is being cynical, is trapped by his lazy assumptions about women. Larah Bross, his foil, gets the best lines and teaches him a life lesson about confusing sex and love, or sex and weakness.

Alternating between solo routines and witty banter, the script is less amusing when it presents fragments of the stand-ups’ acts, but sparkles when the couple get into complimenting or abusing each other. The Last Laugh makes trenchant comments on the battleground of heterosexual desires and prejudices. (Gareth K Vile) Q Assembly Rooms 0844 693 3008, until 30 Aug (not 17), 1.30pm, £10 (£9).

People You May Know and New Wolsey Theatre Company previously produced a triple award nominated show in the form of Party Piece, garnering much critical and public acclaim. And so, with their new piece, Births, Deaths and Marriages, expectations are high. And while some might find this quirky encounter a perfectly harmless piece of fun, it’s more comfortable than spectacular.

Set over a single night, four young people have some very big decisions to make. One has got his girlfriend pregnant, another is running away and contemplating death, while a couple wrestle over their relationship after an ill-advised proposal. As the night rumbles on, the gravity of their situations begin to weigh ever heavier and the urgency of their choices burn deeper and brighter.

This well performed and cleverly structured show raises more than a few laughs in its hour-long running time, but there are a few misses, such as an overly long gag involving the repetition of lyrics being played through a karaoke machine. However, it is largely an entertaining, inoffensive yarn, if almost instantly forgettable and not quite as profound as it thinks it is. (Alex Eades) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 2pm, £7.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£8.50)

CLEANSED Sarah Kane’s shocking masterpiece OOOOO First performed in 1998 at the Royal Court Downstairs in London, Sarah Kane’s deeply unsettling third play is brought to life to devastating affect by newly established Glasgow-based theatre company, Fear No Colours, whose talented young cast convincingly capture the madness and the horror of her script.

Cleansed follows a gay couple, a brother and sister and a peepshow dancer within a concentration camp overseen by the sadistic Tinker. Tinker is both authoritarian teacher and sexual deviant, and is one of the most unpleasant characters in 20thcentury drama.

As the characters suffer through the shocking hell of the institution, Kane draws the audience deeper and deeper into a world where no light ever shines and the transgressive becomes almost familiar.

As with all of Kane’s work, it feels as if she is punishing the audience and driving her characters towards the very brink of sanity. However, despite this, the repeated confrontations with horror build into an almost redemptive, if brutal resolution. This splendid production by Fear No Colours is a tour de force.

The performances by the entire cast are gut-wrenching in their honesty, offering up energy that captures both Kane’s hate-filled script and a love for her dark poetry. The black-hearted Tinker epitomises the evil that Kane saw in the world – authority figures from fathers through teachers to Nazi scientists are evoked in his behaviour. Erfan Shojanoori lends him an appropriately slimy swagger and provides the foundation of a powerful production.

Not one for the younger or the easily traumatised, this is an emotional, dark journey into the black corners of the human soul. (Alex Eades) Q C nova, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug (not 17, 24), 1pm, £8.50– £10.50 (£6.50–£8.50).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 87

FESTIVAL THEATRE | Reviews

LEMONS, LEMONS, LEMONS, LEMONS, LEMONS Intelligent, confident and beautifully formed piece of theatrical metaphor OOOOO

THURSTAN REDDING

RICHARD DAVENPORT

As Nick Watts explains in his 2007 documentary The Human Footprint, an average person will speak around 123,205,750 words in their lifetime. Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, a new play by Sam Steiner, imagines a world in which legislation will limit people to around 140 words per day.

This Orwellian counteraction to mass-media culture, the ‘hush law’ as it is called, looms large over the still-young relationship of lawyer Bernadette (Beth Holmes) and musician-activist Oliver (Euan Kitson), as they face the prospect of being together under these new and uncertain conditions. Steiner’s script takes an evident pleasure in the miscommunication of its characters.

Playing it for laughs, the language of couples is compared to a cheese grater, while a pre-word limit relationship ‘exorcism’ designed to air any unspoken grievances is emotionally searing.

The strength of Walrus Theatre’s production lies in its characters, both of whom are given excellently observed and suitably understated performances by Holmes and Kitson.

This subtle but effective production directed by Ed Franklin holds its characters in perpetual orbit around each other with a geometrically exact staging.

Steiner deftly weaves themes of anxiety, power, and status throughout the play with devastating effect. Most notably, at the end of each day, Bernadette and Oliver recite how many words they have left for each other, daring it not to sound like a quantified sum of their love for one another.

Lemons . . . is theatrical metaphor worked on to an intricate degree, a love story made beautiful through a contorted paradox of communication: the more we speak, the less we really say.

(Elliot Roberts) Q Zoo Southside, 662 6892, until 22 Aug, 4pm, £9 (£7).

GIRL FROM NOWHERE

THE EULOGY OF TOBY PEACH

OH HELLO!

Powerful and poignant rock drama OOOOO

Cancer survival tale stranded between comedy and drama OOOOO

A Carry On legend remembered in one-man monologue OOOOO

Toby Peach had cancer. Diagnosed aged 20, this is his tale of how he joined the exclusive Cancer Club and what exactly that meant for him. Six years later, he’s delivering his eulogy, using everything from chemotherapy cocktail mixing to facts, figures, relapse and remission to tell his story.

Energetic and interesting, Toby delivers the facts among a barrage of anecdotes, jokes and songs.

It’s easy to forget among the laughter and jollity that underneath is a serious story about one man’s battle with a deadly disease.

It’s difficult to decide whether this is meant to be taken as a drama or a comedy, there are plenty of laughs and the sketches are clearly meant to lighten the seriousness of Toby’s story. But the comedy is hammy and overacted, and melodrama outweighs the real drama, with a couple of beautifully poignant moments lost among the raucousness of the rest.

Hats off to Toby for tackling a tricky topic. His energy does a good job of lifting the spirits, but a little more emphasis on the more reflective moments would have made it far more impressive.

(Jen Bowden) Q Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 17), 2.50pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).

Charles Hawtrey is disgusted, as he’ll tell anyone who will listen. He’s not getting top billing in the forthcoming Carry On film. Nobody’s listening any more. Mother’s gone and erstwhile-friend Kenneth Williams is a sour rival. Something to do with sexual jealousy over a props boy.

Dave Ainsworth’s wise, cyclical script, performed with waspish glee by Jamie Rees, is a small still thing, curdled with resentment, as Rees brings blood to what could have been mere impersonation.

The audience are his confidante, as he gossips and cackles, with only his euphemistic ‘lemonade’ (booze) and memories of a once-stellar career.

He talks of indiscretions with younger men, cackling at repressed co-star Williams, who is getting the work he has turned down. ‘Williams? He runs orf to Morocco whenever he gets an erection’.

Rees is hilarious, whether in arch diva mode, or petulant as a small boy. The many contradictions that were Hawtrey are laid out in the very first scene.

He flounces towards the audience, sits down, and whispers ‘What are we watching?’ Even he doesn’t know. (Lorna Irvine) Q Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 14, 16 & 17, 19, 21, 23, 26, 28, 30), 1.40pm, £9–£11.

A powerful new drama delivered with vigour and energy, Girl from Nowhere hits the ground running and packs a hell of a punch along the way.

Disgraced rock singer Jeannie tells her story alone in a room in her parents’ house. Having escaped from her oppressive family in small-town Texas to follow her dream of being a singer, she finds success as a musician. But a life-changing event finds her returning, disgraced, to her home town.

Juxtaposing the stifling atmosphere of smalltown America that Jeannie was desperate to escape with the exuberant freedom of life on the road, this is an hour-long emotional rollercoaster packed with passion, ambition and shattering revelations.

Jeannie’s story is complex and emotive, but the occasional interludes of music and song are so tightly woven into the drama that it feels more like the rock biopic of a music heroine than a Fringe drama.

Powerful and poignant, this will appeal to music fans and drama lovers alike. Expects some twists and listen out, because this girl has a hell of a voice.

(Jen Bowden) Q Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug, 12.45pm, £9.50–£11 (£8.50–£10).

88 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

OUR LADIES of Perpetual Succour Based on The Sopranos by Alan Warner Adapted by Lee Hall Directed by Vicky Featherstone

Office: Traverse Theatre Box 0131 228 1404 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 30 Aug 2015 traverse.co.uk Touring to Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Kirkcaldy, Musselburgh and Newcastle.

Age recommendation: 16+ Contains swearing, sambuca & singing National Theatre of Scotland is core funded by

@NTSonline #OurLadies

nationaltheatrescotland.com The National Theatre of Scotland reserves the right to alter casts, performances, seating or ticket arrangements and latecomers may not be admitted. National Theatre of Scotland, a company limited by guarantee and registered in Scotland (SC234270) is a registered Scottish charity (SC033377). Photograph of the cast by Simon Murphy.

13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 89

90 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

Reviews | FESTIVAL THEATRE

VALENTIJN DAVID VAN MIEGHEM

list.co.uk/festival

PARDON / IN CUFFS

THE OUTSIDER

GOING VIRAL

Justice served cold in dark vignettes OOOOO

Repetitive comedy on the strangeness of our modern lives OOOOO

Daniel Bye turns his informative performance style to contagious diseases OOOOO

It’s a promising if not especially original set-up.

Finnish magician and actor Janne Raudaskoski’s wide-eyed alien crash-lands on Earth and proceeds to explore the various strange activities that we humans get up to: eating and drinking; shopping and having babies; working and fighting.

Duplicating himself across two person-sized plasma screens, Raudaskoski delights in interacting with his video selves, even jumping into filmed scenarios with a gracefulness that makes his trickery entirely convincing. There’s a bit of sleightof-hand, a bit of audience interaction, a twinkling model airplane. And lots of bubbles.

Kids would no doubt love aspects of Raudaskoski’s gentle, reassuring show – that’s if they can get past the slow pace and the extensive repetition. His interactions with technology are undeniably impressive (as are the countless roles he plays in the filmed snippets), but they’re fairly limited in their scope, and his insights into human life – war is bad; love is a funny thing – are hardly revelatory.

It's full of touching moments but unlikely to be a show that lives long in the memory. (David Kettle) Q New Town Theatre, 220 0143, until 30 Aug (not 18), 5.30pm, £12.

After shows like The Price of Everything (a rumination on kindness) and How to Occupy an Oil Rig (which looked at protesting against fossil fuels), Daniel Bye’s become well-known for his informative, TED talk-influenced performance style.

This new show isn’t about the internet, as its name might lead you to think. Instead, it’s about biological viruses – specifically, epidemics and how contagious they are. The news might have forgotten about Ebola, but Bye clearly hasn’t. The story he tells here is a fictional one (though it often sounds all too real), alternating perspectives between the ‘super-spreader’ of a virus that causes people to weep uncontrollably, a doctor trying to contain the outbreak and a version of himself, giving us a short masterclass on the science of epidemics.

His rigorous research and engaging performance style lend Going Viral a winning charm – in the way that a play about a deadly infectious disease can ever be charming. And although it’s just the right balance of entertaining and terrifying, it feels like it needs a little injection in pace to make it truly unforgettable. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Q Northern Stage at Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 19, 26), 2.10pm, £12 (£10).

These short experimental vignettes, based on Magnum photographer Raymond Depardon’s documentaries, show a disparate group of criminals and the lengths they will go to in trying to prove their innocence.

On a revolving circular stage under a stark light, a trio swap roles, bringing pathos, sexual tension and abrupt mood swings. Clara van den Broek, in evening gown and heels, brings spiked glamour to the role of both the imperious judge and HIVpositive prostitute, interrogating herself.

Korneel Hamers charges the air with menace, a brutish misogynist whose justification for beating his wife is simply that ‘she is a woman’. Valentijn Dhaenens is a vulnerable man from Mali, or providing comic relief as a swindler performing a ‘three-cup shuffle trick.

Their justifications become absurd, heart-rending or melodramatic and the rhythm veers between staccato bursts or languorous interludes.The cast of three are superb, even if the format can feel contrived, rejecting conventional narratives for high drama. Yet the imagery and performances far outweigh such misgivings. (Lorna Irvine) Q Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £18 (£13).

THE FRIDA KAHLO OF PENGE WEST Monobrows and monologues from unlikely comic double act OOOOO From writer and director Chris Larner, Fringe First winner for An Instinct For Kindness, comes a satire on art, theatre and friendship Olivia Scott-Taylor plays timid, virginal Zoe, a sharp contrast to Ruth (Cecily Nash) whom she befriends when she is kicked out by her actor boyfriend. Ruth is a horror, a praying mantis in polyester, who makes Katie Hopkins look refined and Zoe, pushover that she is, lets her stay over at her humble abode in Penge West (‘Penge – a cross between minge and pension,’ Zoe sighs in one of her bittersweet monologues).

The results are a tad predictable: the two women stage an amateurish play about the life of Frida Kahlo, called My Womb is A Paintbrush, which has some genuinely hilarious and un-PC side swipes at Kahlo’s iconography, Leon Trotsky and the po-faced art world, but the dialogue is often a little dated.

Nonetheless, the two women perform with brio, especially Scott-Taylor who brings wit and pathos to Zoe. With a nicely judged twist and sharp observations on the showbusiness establishment – and the hangers-on who want to break into it in spite of limited ability and egos the size of Mexico – this is a charming riff on the pitfalls of pretention from an unlikely but comic double act.

(Lorna Irvine) Q C nova, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug (not 19), 5.10pm, £9.50–£11.50 (£7.50–£9.50).

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 91

FESTIVAL THEATRE | Reviews at a Glance For full length versions of these reviews see list.co.uk/festival Awakening, Sweet and Sour Sensory Composition OOOOO The

Eating Seals and Seagulls’ Eggs OOOOO ‘Ireland’s most hated woman’ of this show’s Fringe programme description is Peig Sayers. Using a rich, fascinating collage of archive images and digital effects – as well as helterskelter rackfuls of vintage props and memories, Ní Mhurchú and Lewis deliver a compelling hour of moving, challenging theatre. (David Kettle) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), 1.05pm, £7–£10 (£6–£9).

Fiction OOOOO Creators David Rosenberg and Glen Neath certainly know how to sculpt an immersive, dreamy atmosphere with binaural sound technology. But the loose storyline is as rambling and non-sensical as you’d expect an actual dream to be. Perhaps that’s deliberate – but, after the first 15

A Gambler’s Guide to Dying OOOOO Following the success of last

year’s Donald Robertson is Not a Standup Comedian writer / performer Gary McNair and director Gareth Nicholls return with a wry and poignant tribute to the life and passing of McNair’s grandfather, Archie Campbell. (Elliot Roberts) Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £18 (£13).

Garden OOOOO Original, insightful and very funny, this is an hour-long drama that really gets to the heart of what it means to be human. It’s an emotive and considered performance that’s both fun and thought-provoking in equal measure.

(Jen Bowden) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 17), 3.30pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9).

The Glorious Damnation of Eddie Small OOOOO Selling your

soul to the devil almost always ends one way (badly): the ensemble work is accomplished, and with a stronger storyline, this could be an exciting new show. But unfortunately, the devil’s in the detail, and the detail is severely lacking.

(Rebecca Monks) Bedlam Theatre, 629 0430, until Aug 22 (not 12), 6pm, £10 (£8) Jethro Compton presents Sirenia OOOOO Alone in a far-flung

Cornish lighthouse, lighthouse-keeper Isaac receives garbled warnings of an impending violent storm, only to discover a mysterious, half-dead figure washed up on the rocks below his towering home.

It’s a brief show (just 40 mins) for just a dozen or so viewers, but its remarkable intensity, focused acting and direction means it packs a mighty emotional punch. (David Kettle) C nova, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug, 7.25pm & 8.25pm, £11.50–£13.50 (£9.50–£11.50).

Key Change OOOOO Newcastle company Open Clasp’s Key Change scrutinises a life of crime using the real voices of inmates. Yet the detached tone, sometimes jocular, means a certain lack of warmth, meaning that an intimacy with the characters is sacrificed. (Lorna Irvine) Northern Stage at Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 12, 19, 26), 12.30pm, £12 (£10).

Lear’s Daughters OOOOO If ever there was a play about daddy issues, it’s this one. Occasionally the writing My Beautiful Black Dog

Portrait

borders on overly-poetic, but ultimately succeeds in offering a fresh, often funny perspective on a classic play. (Rebecca Monks) C nova, 0845 260 1234, until Aug 14, 8.20pm, £9.50–10.50 (£7.50–£8.50).

Lungs OOOOO Although it’s hard to turn your gaze away from the actors, try to take a moment to look at the crowd’s’ faces as they watch the play. It’s a testament to how well written and well performed Lungs is that each audience member is rapt, with some plot turns drawing audible gasps, and sobs. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Roundabout @ Summerhall, 560 1581, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 23–30 Aug, 3.35pm & 10.30pm (24, 26, 28, 30 Aug), £15–£17 (£10–£12).

My Beautiful Black Dog OOOOO It’s rare to find a piece of theatre that cuts so deeply into a topic such as this and still has the audience shimmying out of the door. You’ll feel like you’ve been through a funked-up group therapy session and come out smiling. (Jen Bowden) Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 16 Aug, 1.55pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8.50–£9.50).

An Oak Tree OOOOO An Oak Tree is far from a cold and clinical experiment.

Against our expectations, we find ourselves drawn into the emotional heart of the story, largely thanks to the strength of Crouch’s writing. And we remain there, invested in it, even as he dismantles the floor we believe we are standing on, one board at a time. (Susan Mansfield) Traverse, 228 1404, until 16 Aug, times vary, £20 (£15).

Phantasmagoria OOOOO Set-up is everything in this brief but potent supernatural shocker from HitchHook Theatre, based on a little-known poem

by Lewis Carroll. Phantasmagoria is diverting enough, but feels like it needs to offer a fair bit more to make it revelatory.

(David Kettle) C nova, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug (not 18), times vary, £4.50–£6.50 (£3.50–£5.50).

The Pie-Eyed Piper of Hamilton

PHOTO © OLIVIER RICHOMME

OOOOO Loosely based on children’s

92 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

PHOTO © TOM MEDWELL

most mystifying thing about Awakening from London-based Nitroglicerina Theatre is just how little actually seems to happen. But each person’s experience of it will necessarily be entirely different: try it, and you never know what you might discover. (David Kettle) Spotlites, 220 5911, until 22 Aug (not 12), 4.40pm, £8.50 (£6.50).

The Bastard Queen! OOOOO The Bastard Queen! is redeemed slightly by a host of strong performances – Phill Bulman, in particular, shines in the comic scenes. But the play’s black humour often misses the mark, and its mix of the mundane and the monstrous offers little in the way of innovation or originality.

(Jordan Shaw) theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall, 510 2384, until 29 Aug (not 16, 23), 8.40pm, £10 (£8).

Can I Start Again Please OOOOO A thoughtful, intelligent, and occasionally harrowing show, Can I Start Again Please poses some fascinating philosophical questions and perfectly captures the feeling of powerlessness experienced by child abuse victims.

(Jordan Shaw) Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 10, 17), 2.50pm, £10 (£8).

CELL OOOOO The production slows down in its third act and seems to struggle to fill the hour, but it’s an inspiring story with an enchantingly human central character. Combining a mix of puppetry forms and an evocative original score with breathtaking technical brilliance, CELL is a visual theatre gem.

(Jordan Shaw) Underbelly Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug, 4.35pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).

Crash OOOOO Emma Callander’s production, centred on a understated performance by Jamie Michie, maintains ambiguity right to the end. It leaves plenty of food for thought, but refuses the satisfaction of any resolution. (Susan Mansfield) Traverse, 228 1404 until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £18 (£13).

minutes, it does put the audience at risk of slipping into a real slumber, and not just a fictional one. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), noon, £11.50–£13.50 (£10.50–£12.50).

Fully Committed OOOOO Becky Mode’s pacey comedy gets a revival, with Marcus Brigstocke as its solo performer. It’s a mile-a-minute role that Brigstocke tackles with aplomb in a slick production – but the play itself is a disappointment, the jokes dated and filled with caricatures. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Underbelly Potterrow, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug (not 17), 2pm, £12–£15 (£10.50–£13).

morality tale The Pied Piper Of Hamelin, a drunk’s eye view of austerity culture.

The storyline may wander off into an incoherent, Buckfast-fuelled frenzy, but what it lacks in narrative discipline, is made up by nice one-liners, naughty puns and obligatory digs at other traditional pantomime venues (and Wee Jimmy Krankie). (Lorna Irvine) Assembly George Square Studios, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 17, 24), 6.40pm, £13–£14.

Portrait OOOOO Although Portrait might be a great showcase for Ofori’s versatile acting talent, her words impress

just as much. It’s an exciting show from a writer / performer we’ll hopefully hear more from soon. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 29 Aug (not 17, 24), 1.20pm, £8.50–£11 (£7.50–£10).

Roughs (for Radio) OOOOO

Monkfish Theatre’s ‘immersive reading’ of two seldom-performed Beckett radio scripts gently leads you blindfolded into the performance space – and that’s about it. Beckett’s two Roughs are undeniably powerful in themselves, but they need a stronger, more searching production than this to bring them convincingly to the stage.

(David Kettle) C nova, until 31 Aug, 0845 260 1234, 8.30pm, £9.50–£11.50 (£7.50–£9.50).

S.E.N OOOOO No Prophet Theatre Company boldly face issues affecting teenagers: racial attacks, underage sex, FGM, drugs and teenage pregnancy the basis of just a few of the insults slung between them. However, the ambitious scope leaves some potentially interesting paths unexplored with Aalia’s character in particular not availed the same level of personal revelation as the others. (Rowena McIntosh) Bedlam Theatre, 629 0430, until 30 Aug (not 18), 9.30pm, £9 (£8).

The Sunset Five OOOOO Billing a show as ‘Hot Fuzz meets Ocean Eleven’ sets high expectations for both comedy and plot twists and DugOut Theatre deliver on both accounts. Like the films it aspires to The Sunset Five is a light hearted romp with a talented cast and laughs a plenty. (Rowena McIntosh) Pleasance Dome, until 31 Aug (not 19), 5.40pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10).

Swallow OOOOO

The three women, beautifully played by Anita Vettesse, Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Emily Wachter, inhabit a hostile world. Yet, the play remains deeply optimistic about the possibilities of connection between individuals, however damaged. (Susan Mansfield) Traverse, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 17, 24), times vary, £20 (£15).

Vagabonds: My Phil Lynott Odyssey OOOOO

There’s a lot going on in this energetic, slightly sprawling show from Leviathan’s Goat. Robert Mountford embodies Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott’s swaggering egocentricity magnificently, lining up the Irish guitar hero alongside his own rebellious older brother David as heros to a wide-eyed 11-year-old – who only later discovers the ultimate price of a life of free-spirited excess. (David Kettle) ZOO, 662 6892, until 31 Aug (not 19), 9.10pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9).

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Friday 14 - Sunday 16 August The Scottish Parliament Media partner:

BOOK ONLINE TODAY For more information and to buy tickets visit www.festivalofpolitics.org.uk

/scottishparliament @FoP2015

Festival

VISUAL ART

For m info gootroe

LIST.CO.UK /FESTIVAL

BAILEY’S STARDUST / MOONGLOW Major retrospective of the landmark fashion photographer’s work When David Bailey became a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine just as 1960s London began to swing, he became as much a face of the era as his subjects, despite being on the other side of the camera. However, it’s the pin-ups of Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, Marianne Faithfull, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and a very sexy Yoko Ono striking assorted poses that initially catch the eye in this major touring retrospective which arrives in town like a retro-chic hot date rubbing shoulders with the great and the good at Edinburgh Art Festival.

Moving with the times, there is pop iconography down the ages, from Jack Nicholson (pictured) to John Lydon, Kate Moss to Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn, bad boys and girls all. An entire section is devoted to the Rolling Stones, while, old softy that Bailey undoubtedly is, a whole room is set aside for portraits of his fourth wife, Catherine Bailey, who he met on a 1980s shoot.

Yet, as with any 1960s chart-topper, there is a more complicated flipside. It was Bailey’s harrowing images of poverty in Sudan, after all, that gave Live Aid a visual identity arguably worth more than the music that soundtracked Bob Geldof’s charity circus. Images of vintage boozers in London’s East End and latter-day hard-men, meanwhile, are as anthropologically evocative as his portraits of eastern holy men.

It is the mixed media assortment of this compendium’s second show, Moonglow, however, that reveals just how far Bailey’s art has come through a series of paintings, screenprints, sculptures and box-like constructions. The glamour is still there in distressed collages of the Kray Twins and others, but, like Bailey, the more weathered they appear, the more depth they acquire beyond the surface of this major archive. (Neil Cooper) Q Scottish National Gallery, 624 6200, until 18 Oct, £11 (£9). OOOOO

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 95

FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Hitlist

ART HITLIST Rachael Cloughton highlights some of the best visual art in week two of the festival ORTONANDON: THREE GO ADVENTURING AGAIN With the figure as a central motif, the three-sister collaboration Ortonandon consider body-form in relation to social politics and how identity can be represented through actions and props. Video installations at Summerhall invite participation from the audience. See feature, page 97.

Summerhall Machine Shop, 560 1580, until 5 Oct, free.

CHARLES AVERY: THE PEOPLE AND THINGS OF ONOMATOPOEIA Major exhibition focusing on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Onomatopeiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the port on Charles Averyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imaginary Island. A new series of drawings alongside furniture,

sculptures and all manner of imported artefacts come together to describe the culture of Onomatopoeiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inhabitants. See review, page 101.

Ingleby Gallery, 556 4441, until 26 Sep, free.

BERNAT KLEIN: A LIFE IN COLOUR Retrospective of works by famous textile designer spanning five decades.

Works include tapestries created in the 1970s with Dovecot and vibrant, textured paintings. See review, page 101. Dovecot Gallery, 550 3660, until 26 Sep, free.

MARVIN GAYE CHETWYND: THE KING MUST DIE New performative installation inspired

by Mary Renaultâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historical novels and fan groups. Makeshift paper assemblages and a menacing soundtrack make for a memorable and surreal visit. See review, page 101. Old Royal High School, until 30 Aug. Performances on 13,15, 22, 29 Aug, free but booking essential.

KEMANG WA LEHULERE: JOIN THE DOTS For his first exhibition in the UK, Wa Lehulere has made a site specific,

PHOTO Š STUART ARMITT

HERMANN NITSCH: DAS ORGIEN MYSTERIEN THEATER Exciting overview of notorious Vienna Actionistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career, including extensive body of expressive paintings as well as relics, robes and surgical implements.

See feature, page 97. Summerhall, War Memorial Library, 560 1580, until 5 Oct, free.

Bernat Klein: A Life in Colour

nine-metre long wall-drawing using chalk on blackboard paint. The work will be present for the duration of the festival and erased on 31 August. See review, page 101. Old Royal High School, until Sun 30 Aug, free.

PACE EXHIBITION Exhibition exploring the marking and

mapping of the Gayfield locality in central Edinburgh, and more widely of Edinburghâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s green spaces and creative initiatives. See feature, page 18. Gayfield Creative Spaces, until 31 Aug, free. Guided walks from Gayfield Square, Tue, Wed & Thu 11â&#x20AC;&#x201C;27 Aug, 12.30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1.30pm; Sun 2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3pm.

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96 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20 Aug 2015

FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Hitlist

Rachael Cloughton highlights some of the best visual art in the festival’s first week

review, page 101. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two, 624 6200, until 27 Sep, £9 (£7).

ARIEL GUZIK: HOLOTURIAN This Mexican artist’s ultimate ambition is to build an undersea capsule to enable humans to communicate with sea life; in the meantime, he’s constructed a submarine musical instrument for the same purpose. See preview, page 101. Trinity Apse, until 30 Aug, free.

HANNE DARBOVEN: ACCEPTING ANYTHING AMONG EVERYTHING Mesmerising lists and tables of numbers are a major feature of one of the first major exhibitions in the UK by this important German conceptualist and composer, a friend and contemporary of Kosuth and Weiner.

Talbot Rice Gallery, 650 2210, until 3 Oct, free.

HANNA TUULIKKI, SING SIGN: A CLOSE DUET A musical and visual work inspired by a 1765 street map, performed by composer / artist Tuulikki and Daniel Padden, and exploring the different ways in which we experience the city.

See preview, page 98. Gladstone’s Land, 226 5856, until 30 Aug, free.

THE AMAZING WORLD OF MC ESCHER Dreamlike, vivid yet always rigorously logical prints and engravings from the highly influential Dutch artist; amazingly, for an artist so embedded in the popular imagination, this is his first major retrospective in the UK. See

JOHN CHAMBERLAIN: SCULPTURES This American artist brought abstract expressionism to sculpture with his intriguing and oddly sensuous works made from parts of trashed cars; also featured are works in metal foil and perspex. See review, page 101.

Inverleith House, 248 2971/2849, until 4 Oct, free.

PHYLLIDA BARLOW: SET Towering sculptures and installations by a veteran artist and tutor enjoying a late-career resurgence after being tutor at the Slade to such distinguished artists as Rachel Whiteread and Martin Creed. Impressive, disturbing and

thought-provoking. See review, page 95. Fruitmarket Gallery, 225 2383, until 18 Oct, free.

KENNARDPHILLIPPS: HERE COMES EVERYBODY Scabrous, uncompromising and sometimes darkly hilarious photomontages from Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps, whose ‘Photo Op’ made Tony Blair look like he was taking a selfie in front of a blazing oilfield. See feature, page 97. Stills Gallery, 622

6200, until 25 Oct, free.

POP AND BOOM: 70 YEARS OF NUCLEAR CULTURE An interactive exploration of our love/ hate relationship (well, more lie-awakein-a-cold-sweat-worrying-about relationship) with nuclear weapons, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. See feature, page 97.

Gayfield Creative Spaces, 6–20 Aug, free.

Rethinking the past Free public lectures to challenge popular beliefs and reassess intriguing events from throughout history. 10–13 August 2015 www.shca.ed.ac.uk/festivallectures

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

96 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015

MICHAEL WOLCHOVER

ART HITLIST

John Chamberlain: Sculptures

Art at Summerhall | FESTIVAL VISUAL ART

list.co.uk/festival PHOTO © ATELIER HERMANN NITSCH

Hermann Nitsch

STATE OF THE ART

Work by Hermann Nitsch, David Sherry and Derrick Guild comes to Summerhall this Fringe. Laura Campbell explores the venue’s visual arts programme

I

David Sherry

n a few short years, Summerhall has asserted itself as the festival venue in Edinburgh. It’s not hard to see why; the multi-arts venue caters fo for both the general festivalgoer and cconnoisseur alike, and provides a unique ssetting for creatives to mingle; a melting ppot of disciplines and styles.

The strength of its annual Fringe programme lies in the careful consideration afforded to every element. No strand suffers as a result of too much attention being given to another; its visual arts programme is equally as ambitious and boisterous as its theatre, dance and music counterparts. Perhaps it is this that allows for meaningful connections to surface across disciplines.

Summerhall’s Festival 2015 is no exception. Exhibitions programmer

Holly Knox Yeoman is credited with pulling together a visual arts programme that is dramatic, curious, funny and disturbing in equal measures. Performance has a strong influence on this year’s manifesto, Allegories and Existence, and visitors are guaranteed a theatrical experience, both in the presence of the artwork and as they wind their way round the labyrinthine halls and chambers of the former Royal Dick Veterinary School.

There are international headliners, intended to uphold Summerhall’s reputation as a place of sensation and excitement. Knox Yeoman is committed to pleasing festival crowds with the spectacle they have come to expect, but she is equally dedicated to showcasing what is special about contemporary art from Scotland, commenting that ‘it’s about recognising the talent close to home and maintaining that balance of the local and international aspects of the programme.’

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 97

FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Art at Summerhall

Ortonandon

Derrick Guild

The most in-your-face of the exhibitions is Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch’s Das Orgien Mysterien Theater, an overview of the artist’s career spanning the last decade. Nitsch (who recently had an exhibition abruptly cancelled in Mexico because of his work’s perceived violence) will present an extensive body of expressive paintings as well as relics, robes and surgical implements. The works will be presented across two areas of Summerhall; the new Sciennes Gallery, and more interestingly, the venue’s converted War Memorial Library.

Counterbalancing the grisly presence of Nitsch’s work with humour and gentle provocation are Scotland-based artists David Sherry and sisters Katie, Sophie and Anna Orton of artist group Ortonandon. Sherry will exhibit and perform in Summerhall’s white cube space, the Corner Gallery, while Ortonandon have installed their video installations in the unusual Basement Machine Shop – previously a metal workshop. Both shows reject a reverential treatment of the artworks: Sherry will allow visitors to wear his work (a light switch and chess piece costumes) and Ortonandon encourage a 98 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

The Thermos Museum

similar engagement with their props.

Elsewhere in the building, an artist, who wishes to be referred to as ‘the Thermos museum curator’ for the purposes of the show, will take visitors on a guided tour of Summerhall while offering a humorously digressive commentary on the history of Thermos flasks. The Thermos Museum will be an insightful, warm and witty experience for anyone looking to spend an interesting 30 minutes. A quote accompanying the exhibition description simply reads: ‘It’s about flasks – Ben, aged 7.’

The exhibitions A Lady’s Not A Gent’s and After A.D delve into art history, disrupting its accepted narrative. The first gives substance to bold claims first made in the 80s that were largely ignored: that the famous ‘Fountain’ – a porcelain urinal – signed R.Mutt by Marcel Duchamp was in fact the first great feminist work of art by Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.

Derrick Guild’s After A.D takes place in Summerhall’s Laboratory Gallery and will undoubtedly be the highlight of the visual arts programme. It pays tribute to Albrecht Durer’s ‘Young Hare’ (1502) and will feature Guild’s

exquisitely crafted sculptures and paintings that reveal a fascination with naturalistic painting. Ideas brought to light by the show will be amplified by accompanying music from musician Marty Hailey who will also perform live in Summerhall’s Anatomy Lecture Theatre.

Hermann Nitsch: Das Orgien Mysterien Theater, until 5 Oct, free.

David Sherry: One Million Years of Laughter, until 5 Oct, free.

Ortonandon: Three Go Adventuring Again, until 5 Oct, free.

The Thermos Museum, until 31 Aug, free.

A Lady’s Not a Gent’s, until 5 Oct, free.

Derrick Guild: After A.D, until 5 Oct, free.

All exhibitions at Summerhall, 560 1580, see list.co.uk/festival for full Summerhall visual arts programme.

The UK’s largest annual festival of visual art 30 July—30 August 2015 edinburghartfestival.com Festival commissions Charles Avery Marvin Gaye Chetwynd Julie Favreau Emma Finn Ariel Guzik Hanna Tuulikki Kemang Wa Lehulere Important historic and modern surveys Lee Miller and Picasso at Scottish National Portrait Gallery, M.C. Escher at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, David Bailey at Scottish National Gallery, John Bellany at Open Eye Gallery, James Morrison at The Scottish Gallery, significant surveys of Scottish art at The Queen’s Gallery and City Art Centre, Victorian photography at National Museum of Scotland

Registered charity no. SC038360 Company registration no. SC314596

Solo presentations Phyllida Barlow at The Fruitmarket Gallery, John Chamberlain at Inverleith House, Kwang Young Chun at Dovecot Gallery, Charles Avery at Ingleby Gallery, Hanne Darboven at Talbot Rice Gallery, Beatrice Gibson at Collective, Tara Donovan at Jupiter Artland, Toby Paterson at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, kennardphillipps at Stills, Derek Michael Besant at Edinburgh Printmakers New generation artists The Number Shop, Rhubaba, Skinny Showcase, Edinburgh College of Art, Platform: 2015, a new festival initiative showcasing early career artists Art Late & Detours Acts include Phill Jupitus at Inverleith House, Carol Ann Duffy at Talbot Rice Gallery, Man of Moon at Collective, Miaoux Miaoux at Scottish National Portrait Gallery, WHITE at The Biscuit Factory

Reviews | FESTIVAL VISUAL ART

TOBY PATERSON

STUART ARMITT

list.co.uk/festival

BERNAT KLEIN: A LIFE IN COLOUR

TOBY PATERSON: THRESHOLDS

Dovecot throws a spotlight on textile designer’s vibrant, textured paintings OOOOO

Subtle, sculptural works created in response to Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres OOOOO

The paintings of a sometime textile designer, who created fabrics for Marks and Spencer in the 1950s and went on to design for Dior, Pierre Cardin, Balenciaga and others in the 1960s, might be expected to bear an element of hobbyism away from his day job. Yet Bernat Klein’s oil works, particularly in later life, gathered as much praise as his striking, minimalist tweed designs. That this exhibition isn’t able to go further on the life and design work of a Serbian-born, Jerusalemeducated, Scottish Borders-based former World War II spy is one of the few minor criticisms of it.

Klein’s paintings are a joy; they explode in cleverly controlled bursts of colour, thickly layered on the surface in geometric globs of oil so thick that some are more like relief works than paintings. Few are presented on canvas or paper; instead, most use polyester and tweed as their base, adding to the wonderfully vivid sense of texture. There is also a small sample of wall-mounted woven textiles, patterned in a manner resembling abstract landscapes, which help create a strong festival programme at Dovecot alongside Kwang Young Chun’s striking pieces next door. (David Pollock) Q Dovecot Gallery, 550 3660, until 26 Sep, free.

The slick new gallery space at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop plays host to a series of similarly refined sculptures by Scottish artist Toby Paterson. Given the scope of the artist’s previous projects there is something underwhelming about these small and unassuming relief objects, which seem to belong in the early 20th century. But given time and understanding they begin to reveal hidden depths.

Paterson created the sculptures, alongside independent curator Judith Winter, in response to Scotland’s seven Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres; founded by and named after the late designer Maggie Keswick Jencks, who died of cancer in 1995. Given the delicacy of the brief and the fact that each sculpture will eventually be located into one of the Maggie’s Centres, it seems fitting that the aluminium sculptures should be as discreet as they are, with subtle, reflective surfaces only revealing panels of colour at certain angles.

Paterson’s sculptures are characteristically minimal, but one can’t help wondering if even some traces of the artist’s hand at work would have brought a greater level of humanity to them. (Rosie Lesso) Q Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, 551 4490, until 29 Aug, free.

MARVIN GAYE CHETWYND AND KEMANG WA LEHULERE Edinburgh Art Festival commissions transform the interiors of the old Royal High School OOOOO Behind the doors of the crumbling old Royal High School building lie witty, experimental projects by two leading international artists.

On the left side is a nine-metre long freestanding blackboard, a fitting choice for an old school, onto which South African artist Kemang Wa Lehulere has created an intricate chalk drawing. Elements of local history sit beside figurative fragments, creating a fragile narrative that will be erased at the end of the festival.

On the right, Scottish-born artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd has created a multi-layered installation in and around the school’s former debating chamber, which has been transformed into a haunting space filled with red spotlights and draped paper. Papier mache petals hang from the ceiling, while large sculptures resembling animals hide within. The strange lighting makes it an uncomfortable space to navigate and Chetwynd challenges visitors to enter and remain in her surreal kingdom long enough to conjure up their own interpretations. (Rosie Lesso) Q Old Royal High School, until 30 Aug, free. Marvin Gaye Chetwynd on-site performances, 13 Aug, 6pm (part of Art Late); 22 Aug, 2pm; 29 Aug, 4pm.

CHARLES AVERY: THE PEOPLE AND THINGS OF ONOMATOPOEIA Stylish furnishings belonging to the inhabitants of Onomatopeia steal the show at Ingleby Gallery OOOOO It’s more than 10 years since Charles Avery annouced that his work, hence forward, would concentrate on The Islanders, an invented world with its own people, culture and topography, part fiction, part forum for philosophical inquiry. His biggest exhibition in Scotland since his show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2008 occupies two floors at Ingleby, and shows that the soil of the Island is as fertile as ever.

In this exhibition, he has set about getting under the skin of ordinary life in the main port, Onomatopoeia. It has always come alive in his drawings, and here are more: lanky youths shooting the breeze; young men catching eels; immigrant workers hanging around the quay.

And now, to his drawings and sculpture, he adds posters, T-shirts, wallpaper and furniture: an elegant three-sided table, a heart-shaped desk, a glass carafe in the shape of a water bird.

If he wanted one, Avery could have a future in furniture design: they are beautiful objects that collectors will adore.

It is easy to admire the complexity and richness of The Islanders project. What this show draws out is Avery’s gift with simplicity, such as the shimmering form of an eel made from blown glass There is also a metal tree, a specimen from Onomatopoeia’s central park, placed in Waverley Station, which shares the same elegant, art nouveau-ish aesthetic as the furniture. As a body of work, it tells us two things: the more time one spends on the Island, the more interesting it becomes; and it won’t be long before a fashionable furniture store has an ‘Islanders’ range.

(Susan Mansfield) Q Ingleby Gallery, 556 4441, until 26 Sep, free.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 101

LIST EVENTS

The List EVENTS

Events

CALENDAR

ART LATE NORTH: WHITE Glasgow band on the rise headline Edinburgh Art Festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tour of late-night performances and talks in the city. See preview, left. The Biscuit Factory, 629 0809, 13 Aug, 9.15pm, ÂŁ5.

MUSEUM AFTER HOURS Explore the National Museum on Chambers Street after dark, with over three hours of Fringe-packed fun on three separate Fridays.

Ticket includes entry to current exhibition, Photography: A Victorian Sensation. National Museum of Scotland, 0300 123 6789, 14, 21 & 28 Aug, 7pm, ÂŁ16 (ÂŁ14).

ART LATE

Tour Edinburghâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art galleries after hours as part of Edinburgh Art Festival

W

hy limit your appreciation of art to daytime hours? This pair of happenings, one in the North and one in the South of the city, offers you the chance to join an evening tour between several Edinburgh art spaces. Along the way there are artist talks, performances and drinks courtesy of Blue Moon, with live music at the final destination.

On Thu 13 Aug, Art Late: North kicks off at Old Royal High School and heads to Ingleby Gallery, Rhubaba, Collective â&#x20AC;&#x201C; where France-Lise McGurn has work exploring identity construction â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and Edinburgh Printmakers, currently exhibiting acclaimed Canadian artist Derek Michael Besant. The evening finishes at The Biscuit Factory with a live performance from White. The stylish Scottish band, who have echoes of LCD Soundsystem and Franz Ferdinand, have recently performed lauded sets at Wickerman Festival and Mumford and Sonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Gentlemen of the Road.

On Thu 20 Aug, Art Late: South starts from Talbot Rice Gallery and visits Dovecot, where you can check out Dazzle:Jewellery; The Fruitmarket Gallery, where Phyllida Barlow has a solo exhibition; and Stills. The tour finishes at Scottish National Portrait Gallery with a performance by Glasgow electronic dance pop artist Miaoux Miaoux (pictured). Recently, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s played the BBC Introducing stage at T in the Park and released his much-anticipated second album School of Velocity on Chemikal Underground. (Rowena McIntosh) Art Late: North, Old Royal High School, 13 Aug, 6pm, ÂŁ5. Art Late: South, Talbot Rice Gallery, 20 Aug, 6pm, ÂŁ5.

102 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20 Aug 2015

ART LATE SOUTH: MIAOUX MIAOUX Scottish producer, musician and songwriter Julian Victor Corrie will close Edinburgh Art Festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second Art Late event. See preview, left. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 624 6200, 20 Aug, 6pm, ÂŁ5.

FESTIVAL DETOURS: CAROL ANN DUFFY WITH JOHN SAMPSON The first female poet laureate teams up with her favourite musician. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Talbot Rice Gallery, 650 2210, 21 Aug, 6pm, ÂŁ4.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL: LIMMY Creator of the BAFTA-winning Limmyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Show, Brian Limond has written his first book, Daft Wee Stories (see preview, page 70). Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 22 Aug, 9.45pm, ÂŁ10 (ÂŁ8).

FESTIVAL DETOURS: MAN OF MOON Bluesy noirish duo on a rapid rise out of obscurity. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival. Collective Gallery, 556 1264, 26 Aug, 7pm, ÂŁ4.

FESTIVAL INDEX

Festival INDEX 10X10X10 20 25 Stories 55 360 Allstars 60 4x4 Ephemeral Architectures 60, 61 A Gambler’s Guide to Dying 78 A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing 78, 86 A Lady’s Not a Gent’s 97 Abacus 78, 85 Abigoliah Schamaun 55 Adam Hess 52 Adrienne Truscott 38, 49 AL Kennedy 33, 34 Alex Edelman 38 Alex Horne 38, 39 Alfie Brown 43 Ali Smith 30, 33, 34 Ally Houston 54 Amit Chaudhuri 34 Amy Mason 32 An Audience with Jimmy Savile 10 An Oak Tree 92 Anatomy of the Piano 68 Andrew Watts 50 Angel in the Abattoir 20 Angela Barnes 55 Anna Calvi 72 Anna Smaill 32 Antonia Fraser 34 Art Late 102 Awakening, Sweet and Sour Sensory Composition 92 Bafflesmash 55 Balletronic 14 Ballett Am Rhein 59, 60 The Bastard Queen!

92 BEARD 38 Beasts 55 Ben Okri 34 Bernat Klein 96, 101 The Bevvy Sisters 72 Births, Deaths, Marriages 87 Brett Goldstein 53 Bruit de Couloir 61 Buchbinder Beethoven 73 Calypso Nights 52 Can I Start Again Please 92 Cell 92 Charles Avery 96, 101 Charmian Hughes 55 Chigozie Obioma 32 Chris Stokes 55 The Christians 86 Church of Malcolm 73 Cleansed 78, 87 Close Up 60, 61 Colin Currie 71 Colin McIntyre 31 Colm Tóibíin 34 Colors 66, 67 Comedian’s Theatre Company 20 Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl 81 Corey White 55 Crash 92 Da-Da-Darling 61 Damien Slash 55 Daphne 38, 45 David Bailey 95

David Callaghan 55 David Mitchell 34 David Sherry 97 Dead Funny 55 Derrick Guild 97 Diane Spencer 55 Dive 72, 74 The Double Life of Malcolm Drinkwater 20 Down and Out in Paris and London 81 Ed Byrne 104 Edinburgh Book Fringe 33 Edith in the Dark 86 Eejits and Hissy Fits 68 The Encounter 78 The Eulogy of Toby Peach 88 Fake it Til You Make It 78, 85 The Falcon’s Malteser 66, 68 Faye Treacy 54 Felicity Ward 38 Feminazi 42 Festival Detours 102 Fiction 92 Foolball 55 Free Festival 23 Frida Kahlo Penge West 91 Fully Committed 92 Funz and Gamez Tooz 66, 67 Garden 92 Gayfield Creative Spaces 18 Gein’s Family Giftshop 48 Get Ready Get Set....

55 Giant Leap 20 Girl from Nowhere 88 The Girl Who Fell in Love with the Moon 82 The Glorious Damnation of Eddie Small 92 Going Viral 91 Goose 55 Guitar Multiverse 73 Happy Girl 82 Heidi O’Loughlin 45 Hermann Nitsch 96, 97 The Horne Section 39 How To Keep An Alien 6.15 78, 86 Howard Read 55 The Hunting of the Snark 65, 66 I, Elizabeth 92 Iain Macwhirter 34 Imagine There’s No Ben Target 48 In Cahoots 55 Independence 74 James Acaster 38, 42 Janice Galloway 34 Jeff Green 55 Jesse Armstrong 32 Jethro Compton presents Sirenia 92 Jo Coffey 55 Jo Romero Scenes of a Sensual Nature 20 Joel Dommett 55 John Burnside 34 John Luke Roberts 55 Jokes About Things 56 Joseph Morpurgo 38 Jura Unbound 33, 34 Kate Tempest 30, 34

Need help navigating your way around our Festival coverage? We’ve made a neat list of all the Festival shows covered in this issue right here. We’ll leave you to add your own highlighter pen notes or Biro scribbles around it, as you wish

Katherine Ryan 38 Kemang Wa Lehulere 96, 101 Kevin Day 55 Key Change 92 King Creosote 72 Kirstin Innes 30, 32, 34 Kirsty Logan 34 Korean Breath 72 Kyle Kinane 38, 49 Laughing Stock 56 The Last Laugh 87 The Last of the Dragons 66 Lear’s Daughters 92 Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons 78, 88 Lennie Goodings 30, 34 Lily Bevan 56 Limmy 102 Loud Poets 30 Louis de Bernieres 34 Louise Reay 43 Love Sick 56 Lucie Pohl 52 Lucy Ribchester 32 Luke Toulson 50 Lungs 92 The Magic Porridge Pot & Other Tasty Tales 66, 67 The Man 42 Marilynne Robinson 30, 34 Mark Forward 56 Mark Stephenson 56 Mark Thomas 30, 33 Markus Birdman 11 Marriage of Figaro 74 Marriage 20 Marvin Gaye Chetwynd 96, 101 Massive Dad 54 Matt Forde 56 Matt Haig 29, 30, 34 Miaox Miaox 102 Michael Che 54 Mike Wozniak 48 Mr Tiger Goes Wild 67 Museum After Hours 102 My Beautiful Black Dog 92 My Favourite Words in the English Language 56 Natasha Noman 43 Nathan Caton 56 Nick Hall 56 Nijinsky’s Last Jump 60, 61 Nish Kumar 38, 52 Normally Abnormal 56 Of Mice And Men 87 Oh Hello 88 One Day When We Were Young 77 One Fine Day 61 ONEymoon 55 Ortonandon 96, 97 Outsider 91 Pace Exhibition 96 Pamela Carter 79 Papa CJ 56 The Paradise Project 81 Pardon/ In Cuffs 91 Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner 78, 79

Paul Merton PBH’s Free Fringe Penelope Lively Phaedra’s Love Phantasmagoria Phil Jerrod Phil Nichol’s Cray Cray Cabaret Pie Eyed Piper Pippa Evans Pole Polyphony Portrait Portraits in Motion The Really Terrible Orchestra Return ofthe Danish Bagpipe Comedian Rob Beckett Ronny Chieng Roughs (for Radio) Ryan van Winkle S.E.N Sam Brady Scour Sean Michaels Shit Girlfriend Simon Sylvester Sleeping Trees Smother Some Like It Thea Skot Sooz Kempner Spectretown Spencer Jones Stuart Black Stuart McHardy The Sunny Side Show The Sunset Five Swallow Tao Dance Theatre The Tap Dancing Mermaid Tatterdemalion The Thermos Museum Thunderbards Tiff Stevenson Tim Clare Tim Key Tobias Persson Toby Paterson Tom Ballard Tom Holland Tom Parry Tommy Tiernan Trainspotting Transformer Twins Unbound Vagabond: Phil Lynott Viv Groskop Wasted We This Way White Wil Greenway - For the Ground that Grew Me Will Collier Will Durst Will Gompertz Wojtek the Bear Yerma Zoe Coombs Marr

34 23 34 92 72 49 20 92 52 85 78, 82 92 92 72 56 50 42 92 33 92 56 23 32 73 32 56 61 45 56 80 56 56 34 56 92 92 60 66, 68 49 97 56 56 30, 31 38 53 101 45 34 43 37, 38 92 72 56 30, 33 92 48 85 82 102 92 40 50 34 81 60, 61 38, 53

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 103

ED BYRNE

From The List

ARCHIVE

We’ve had some questionable hairdos in our time, but none that have accentuated our cheek bones in quite the way Ed Byrne’s does here. We’re not sure how he managed that, but we like it. A staggering 15 years ago we were cheeky enough to begin this feature about him with the line: ‘There are a lot of people out there who can’t stand Ed Byrne.’ Then to add insult to injury, we went with those puns. We wouldn’t subject him to that this year: his show Outside Looking In is more mature, less hirsute, but just as chiselled. Outside Looking In, Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 30 Aug (not 17, 27), 9pm, £15 (£12). It’s selling fast, so be quick.

NEXT ISSUE

WED 19 AUG

This next one will be our last issue of the festival, folks - we know, August is flying by. If you can’t wait until then, head to list. co.uk/festival for the latest reviews and features, and follow us at @thelistmagazine and facebook.com/ thelistmagazine

104 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015

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